Links for 2024-10-28

AI:

1. O1 Replication Journey: “…we embark on a transparent, real-time exploration to replicate its capabilities while reimagining the process of conducting and communicating AI research.” https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.18982

2. Google presents Unbounded: A Generative Infinite Game of Character Life Simulation — Presents the concept of a generative infinite game, a video game that transcends the traditional boundaries of finite, hard-coded systems by using generative models. https://generative-infinite-game.github.io/

3. “How can robot policies zero-shot generalize to any new environment and any new object? Introducing our new project: 🚀Data Scaling Laws in Imitation Learning for Robotic Manipulation🚀—bringing us closer to the dream of having robots work as waiters in hot pot restaurants! We discovered fundamental scaling laws: the policy's generalization ability to new objects, environments, or both follows an approximate power law relationship with the number of training objects, environments, or environment-object pairs, respectively.” https://data-scaling-laws.github.io/

4. SkillMimicGen (SkillGen) takes a small number (~10) of human-teleoperated demos and automatically generates more. Unlike prior work (MimicGen), SkillGen isolates and adapts just demo skill segments in order to focus learning. https://skillgen.github.io/

5. A faster, better way to train general-purpose robots https://news.mit.edu/2024/training-general-purpose-robots-faster-better-1028

6. ROCKET-1: Master Open-World Interaction with Visual-Temporal Context Prompting https://craftjarvis.github.io/ROCKET-1/

7. King Frederik of Denmark, in launching Denmark's first AI supercomputer Gefion with Jensen Huang: "I am not the only King in this room. The other one has a leather jacket on." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBRkIrlJDgI

8. Self-modeling in neural networks leads to an intriguing form of self-organization: the networks automatically simplify their architecture to make themselves more predictable. https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/5se67gAcaExEYdCCg/self-prediction-acts-as-an-emergent-regularizer

9. softmax is not enough (for sharp out-of-distribution) https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.01104

10. Rethinking Softmax: Self-Attention with Polynomial Activations https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.18613

11. LongVU: Spatiotemporal Adaptive Compression for Long Video-Language Understanding https://vision-cair.github.io/LongVU/

12. ChunkRAG is a framework to enhance RAG systems by evaluating and filtering retrieved information at the chunk level. https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.19572

13. Claude can now write and run code. New tool helps Claude respond with mathematically precise and reproducible answers. You can then create interactive data visualizations with Artifacts https://www.anthropic.com/news/analysis-tool

14. UCLA researchers developed a new foundation model that analyzes 3D medical imagery like MRIs and CT scans at expert-level speed. https://www.uclahealth.org/news/release/new-ai-model-efficiently-reaches-clinical-expert-level

15. US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan: AI will be the most critical technology for national security in the years ahead. The US must deploy AI models faster or risk squandering the lead. The US needs to build 10s or even 100s of gigawatts of energy infrastructure to power AI data centers or risk falling behind and letting competitors seize leadership. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTyw0jkWN_s

16. The Emerging Age of AI Diplomacy https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/emerging-age-ai-diplomacy [no paywall: https://archive.is/bcB91]

17. An Analysis of AI Political Preferences from a European Perspective — “The base/foundational models generated responses with viewpoints closer to the political center than the conversational models…” https://davidrozado.substack.com/p/an-analysis-of-ai-political-preferences

18. A new benchmark to test model creativity using Minecraft. https://x.com/adonis_singh/status/1849875195550458139

Compute:

1. TSMC has achieved early production yields at its first plant in Arizona that surpass similar factories in Taiwan, a significant breakthrough for a US expansion project initially dogged by delays and worker strife https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-10-24/tsmc-s-arizona-chip-production-yields-surpass-taiwan-s-a-win-for-us-push [no paywall: https://archive.is/RHI3r]

2. Hardware Hedging Against Scaling Regime Shifts — “…whoever has the fast serial chips can train a model and reach market years ahead of any possible competition.” https://www.reddit.com/r/mlscaling/comments/1eyophn/hardware_hedging_against_scaling_regime_shifts/

3. The Future of Compute: NVIDIA's Crown is Slipping https://mohitdagarwal.substack.com/p/from-dominance-to-dilemma-nvidia

4. Cerebras Trains Llama Models To Leap Over GPUs https://www.nextplatform.com/2024/10/25/cerebras-trains-llama-models-to-leap-over-gpus/

5. China struggles to break US chip design ‘chokehold’ https://www.ft.com/content/d3cd1f85-652c-4613-85c6-9cae033d8042 [no paywall: https://archive.is/laeub]

6. Chip War 2.0: The Global Battle for Semiconductor Supremacy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_rJX-OUzEw

Miscellaneous:

1. The hostile telepaths problem https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/5FAnfAStc7birapMx/the-hostile-telepaths-problem

2. “I think solar plus matched desal can get below 10c/m^3, cheap enough that we can put 5 million acre feet into Nevada, terraforming about 1500 miles of valleys and waterways in that state (>90% remains unchanged though) and creating space for tens of millions of people to find wealth and opportunity in the process.” https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/2024/10/26/we-can-terraform-the-american-west/

3. A group of scientists in Canada, Germany, and Taiwan developed a new algorithm for precise robot control using brain chips. https://www.cell.com/neuron/abstract/S0896-6273(24)00688-3

4. New charts today in the Financial Times show how the UN's population projections have been consistently way too high. https://www.ft.com/content/3862923c-f7bd-42a8-a9ea-06ebf754bf14 [no paywall: https://archive.is/m9QoN]

5. Nanoscopic silicon resonators interacting with the anisotropy of a laser beam can passively stabilize objects of any size using just light pressure: It doesn't need high-intensity light to function, so it can be applied to the most delicate objects. https://daedalus.caltech.edu/files/2019/04/s41566-019-0373-y1.pdf

6. Gay Byrne asks STEPHEN FRY what he’d say to God at the 'pearly gates'. https://x.com/TheMonologist/status/1850104585903329480

Ukraine:

1. “Per a South Korean intelligence assessment seen by Bloomberg, North Korea has provided Russia with 8 million rounds of 152mm & 122mm ammunition, and ~100 KN-23 ballistic missiles.” https://x.com/ColbyBadhwar/status/1849886927748764109

2. Nato says North Korean troops deployed to Russia's Kursk region https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cyv737vy376o

3. “There really is no excuse Ukraine has for this failure. You have to point the finger at Zelensky. He is personally responsible for this. It was his job to defend Ukraine. You cannot blame "western partners" for failing to make the most basic defenses in your most critical areas.” https://x.com/AndrewPerpetua/status/1850481889024364872

4. “The war in Ukraine took a turn in June of 2023 when Ukraine launched a counter-offensive south in an attempt to break through toward Tokmak. This decision has influenced every event that has followed, leading to disastrous consequences for Ukraine.” https://x.com/AndrewPerpetua/status/1850793561723195518

5. Russian Lancet loitering munition intercepted by FPV drone of the 93rd Brigade. https://x.com/bayraktar_1love/status/1849759681868190197

6. Compilation of destroyed Russian military equipment in the Kursk region. Video by the 82nd Brigade of Ukraine. https://x.com/bayraktar_1love/status/1849704142593278401

7. Ukrainian Bradley IFVs operating in the Russian Kursk region and clearing tree lines from enemy presence by using the 25mm bushmaster cannon. https://x.com/Tendar/status/1850823623486918920

8. “An ethanol destillation plant in the city of Novokhopyorsk, Voronezh region, in Russia has been struck by UAVs. Explosions are quite impressive as this footage indicates.” https://x.com/Tendar/status/1850650929093046395

9. How Russia’s Invasion Flattened a Ukrainian Border City https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2024/10/28/how-russias-invasion-flattened-a-ukrainian-border-city/