Links for 2024-06-10

AI:

1. Atom Limbs is combining AI and robotics to create a much more advanced form of prosthetics. The startup covers a patient's stump in electrodes and tells a patient to move their 'fingers', essentially training an AI model using their minds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73R6K3VBKE0

2. AI will become mathematicians’ ‘co-pilot’ (Fields Medalist Terence Tao explains how proof checkers and AI programs are dramatically changing mathematics). https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ai-will-become-mathematicians-co-pilot/

3. Microsoft researchers introduced Aurora, a new foundation model trained on over 1M hours of weather and climate data. The 1.3B parameter model can reportedly generate a 5-day global air pollution prediction in under 60 seconds. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/introducing-aurora-the-first-large-scale-foundation-model-of-the-atmosphere/

4. Ilya Sutskever interview. Are transformers enough? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWi-OV-VyXc

5. A conversation with Google DeepMind's Demis Hassabis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-eyJhJXXsE

6. Mixture-of-Agents Enhances Large Language Model Capabilities https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.04692

7. Google figures out how to make hyper-detailed image descriptions https://google.github.io/imageinwords/

8. Google presents Proofread: Fixes All Errors with One Tap https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.04523

9. Zoom founder Eric Yuan has big ambitions in enterprise software, including letting your AI-powered ‘digital twins’ attend meetings for you. https://www.theverge.com/2024/6/3/24168733/zoom-ceo-ai-clones-digital-twins-videoconferencing-decoder-interview

Neuroscience:

1. The unique genes that gave humans their big brains did not evolve from existing ape genes, but randomly emerged 'de novo' from non-coding DNA regions we usually think of as 'junk code' https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-022-01925-6

2. Expanding the Brain. Literally: “I think we can all agree that it is not in our best interest to allow the earth’s mice and rats to become any more intelligent and wily than they are already. I wish that I were joking about that, but I’m not.” https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/expanding-brain-literally

Miscellaneous:

1. There is a revolution taking place in biology before our eyes: how developmental biology might contain the secrets to life, intelligence, and immortality https://www.bitsofwonder.co/p/a-revolution-in-biology

2. “We're getting close to understanding the deep connection between the cross product in 3 dimensions (which they may have taught you in college) and the cross product in 7 dimensions (which they almost certainly did not). It turns out these are not separate things! It seems you can define the latter in terms of the former!” https://mathstodon.xyz/@johncarlosbaez/112558088593236441

Ukraine:

1. The Ukrainian General Staff reports that three Russian air defense system in Russian-occupied Crimea have been struck. One S-400 system in Dzhankoy and two S-300 in Chornomors'ke (Tarkhankut peninsula) and Yevpatoriya were hit. https://x.com/NOELreports/status/1800109096508559836

2. According to new findings from Russia's Wagner Group documents, the mercenary army lost at least 19,547 men killed in action in the Battle of Bakhmut. 17,175 of them were convicts recruited from prisons all across Russia. https://www.bbc.com/russian/articles/cv22vjwj10eo

3. [Here is a reminder that the only way for Russia to win this war is by having elections in Western countries turn in their favor. Their last success, the capture of Avdiivka, was only possible because the Republicans blocked aid. And even that was a Pyrrhic victory.] US says Russia’s advance on Kharkiv is ‘all but over’ https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4710848-white-house-russia-advance-ukraine-kharkiv-region-stalled/