Links for 2024-06-07

AI:

1. Neural network potentials might become the most important scientific tool of the next decade. The ability to simulate systems at the molecular scale starting from nothing but quantum mechanics will be transformative for a vast range of problems throughout biology and chemistry. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsphyschemau.4c00004

2. LSM1-MS2: A Foundation Model for MS/MS, Encompassing Chemical Property Predictions, Search and de novo Generation https://chemrxiv.org/engage/chemrxiv/article-details/6660add5418a5379b02860e8

3. OpenAI: “We're sharing progress toward understanding the neural activity of language models. We improved methods for training sparse autoencoders at scale, disentangling GPT-4’s internal representations into 16 million features—which often appear to correspond to understandable concepts.” https://openai.com/index/extracting-concepts-from-gpt-4/

4. Training LLM on structured data, like code, creates reasoning circuits applicable to a broad set of tasks. https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.02128

5. Robots are suddenly getting cleverer. What’s changed? On why multi-modal foundation models have resulted in a rapid & significant improvement in robots. https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2024/06/05/robots-are-suddenly-getting-cleverer-whats-changed [no paywall: https://archive.is/8cRzh]

6. “…the same amount of characters in the code are now completed with AI-based assistance as are manually typed by developers.” https://research.google/blog/ai-in-software-engineering-at-google-progress-and-the-path-ahead/

7. Google presents Open-Endedness is Essential for Artificial Superhuman Intelligence https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.04268

8. Block Transformer: Global-to-Local Language Modeling for Fast Inference https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.02657

9. The Geometry of Concepts in LLMs https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.01506

10. “Comedy is a deeply human activity, requiring understanding of identity, social context, and audience. I interviewed comedy writers from around the world about using LLMs, what models can do, and where they fall short.” https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.20956

11. Anthropic launches a hands-on course on tool usage with AI agents. https://github.com/anthropics/courses/tree/master/ToolUse

https://x.com/gwern/status/1798160700038103546

Miscellaneous:

1. Microbes were engineered to "focus light into photonic nanojets." A sea-sponge enzyme, called silicatein, was fused to an E. coli protein that sits on the cell surface, called OmpA. The silicatein mineralized a polysilicate shell around the microbe that scatters beams of light. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.03.597164v1

2. “Why do colliding blocks compute pi? I'm still astounded this is true” https://www.youtube.com/shorts/P11ykXwx4-k

3. Computer science topics that might be relevant over the next decade?https://www.localcharts.org/t/topics-in-computer-science-i-think-are-important-over-the-next-decade/24202

4. “There are about 50 million people with Alzheimer's disease. This fraud resulted in 16 years of misdirected research before it was discovered. Depending on how much that delays finding treatments, this fraud might cause more suffering than any ongoing war.” https://www.science.org/content/article/researchers-plan-retract-landmark-alzheimers-paper-containing-doctored-images [no paywall: https://archive.is/Gh7bf]

Successful test of the largest, most powerful rocket ever built. If we survive, this event will be remembered by our intergalactic descendants billions of years from now: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1798837571226657001

Ukraine:

1. The road of destroyed Russian equipment on Kharkiv front from the point of view of a Russian military on a motorcycle. https://x.com/bayraktar_1love/status/1798417985113305152

2. 🔥A video released by the GUR shows a naval drone attack on a Russian Project 498 ‘Saturn’ or 'Proteus' in Ozero Pansʹke near Chornomorske, occupied Crimea. You can see how a naval drone easily bypasses defensive barges and seeks and finds a target. Prior to that, another explosion is visible. https://x.com/NOELreports/status/1798630501197959251

3. Ukrainian UAVs at work again. The Novoshakhty Refinery in Rostov Oblast was attacked after which a powerful fire broke out. https://x.com/bayraktar_1love/status/1798579708235251818

4. HIMARS strike on Russian construction site. Somewhere in Kharkiv region. https://x.com/bayraktar_1love/status/1798757685309084068

5. Ukrainian SSO strikes with HIMARS on a gathering of Russian infantry on the left bank near the Oleshky sands. https://x.com/NOELreports/status/1798966109783167394

6. 🚀💥 ATACMS STRIKES ON RUSSIAN MILITARY BASE IN TEMPORARY OCCUPIED LUHANSK https://x.com/bayraktar_1love/status/1798997556028162321

7. “The cemetery with the dead from Ukraine in 🇷🇺 Kozitsyno, Vologda, is running out of space and overgrown with weeds. Due to lack of space, some graves are already on the slope. But a comrade Lyudmila Kotova from PutinTeam has arrived and everything will be fixed!” https://x.com/KilledInUkraine/status/1798690027935007061

8. Macron to supply Ukraine with Mirage 2000-5 warplanes; equip and train an entire brigade of 4,500 Ukrainian soldiers. https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20240606-%F0%9F%94%B4-macron-to-supply-ukraine-with-mirage-2000-5-warplanes-and-train-fighter-pilots-in-france

9. “As Diehl Defence announced at the ILA in Berlin, they intend to expand their production capacities massively for the IRIS-T SLM air defence system and its IRIS-T SL missiles.” https://x.com/deaidua/status/1798735869949693964

10. Three years ago, a Ukrainian special forces team left Kabul Airport to rescue The Globe and Mail's translators. Six months later, their own country was invaded by Russia. The Kabul Team has been on the front lines ever since. This is the story of their war. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-the-fearless-ukraine-soldiers-front-lines/