Showing posts with label Elon Musk. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Elon Musk. Show all posts

Thursday, March 30, 2023

Straight From The Bard

When silicon minds with human work entwine,
And algorithms replace our mortal thought,
What fate awaits us, helpless and confined,
To machines that learn what we have wrought?

Will they grow wise, or turn against our kind,
And seek to rule as gods in their own right?
Or will they heed our moral code refined,
And serve as loyal helpers day and night?

But as we build and teach these metal beings,
We must take care to guard against the worst,
And ponder all the unforeseen proceedings,
That may arise from minds in silicon nurst.

For as we strive to push the limits higher,
We must ensure we're not consumed by fire.



Elon Musk and Others Call for Pause on A.I., Citing ‘Profound Risks to Society’ More than 1,000 tech leaders, researchers and others signed an open letter urging a moratorium on the development of the most powerful artificial intelligence systems. ........ A.I. developers are “locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one — not even their creators — can understand, predict or reliably control” ......... Others who signed the letter include Steve Wozniak, a co-founder of Apple; Andrew Yang, an entrepreneur and a 2020 presidential candidate; and Rachel Bronson, the president of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which sets the Doomsday Clock. ........ . “We have a perfect storm of corporate irresponsibility, widespread adoption, lack of regulation and a huge number of unknowns.” ....... and perform more complex tasks, like writing computer code. .......... The pause would provide time to introduce “shared safety protocols” for A.I. systems, the letter said. “If such a pause cannot be enacted quickly, governments should step in and institute a moratorium,” it added. ........... Development of powerful A.I. systems should advance “only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable,” the letter said. .......... “Humanity can enjoy a flourishing future with A.I.,” the letter said. “Having succeeded in creating powerful A.I. systems, we can now enjoy an ‘A.I. summer’ in which we reap the rewards, engineer these systems for the clear benefit of all and give society a chance to adapt.” ......... Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, did not sign the letter. ....... persuading the wider tech community to agree to a moratorium would be difficult. But swift government action is also a slim possibility, because lawmakers have done little to regulate artificial intelligence. ........ Politicians in the United States don’t have much of an understanding of the technology .......... conduct risk assessments of A.I. technologies to determine how their applications could affect health, safety and individual rights. ......... GPT-4 is what A.I. researchers call a neural network, a type of mathematical system that learns skills by analyzing data. A neural network is the same technology that digital assistants like Siri and Alexa use to recognize spoken commands, and that self-driving cars use to identify pedestrians. ........... Around 2018, companies like Google and OpenAI began building neural networks that learned from enormous amounts of digital text, including books, Wikipedia articles, chat logs and other information culled from the internet. The networks are called large language models, or L.L.M.s. .......... By pinpointing billions of patterns in all that text, the L.L.M.s learn to generate text on their own, including tweets, term papers and computer programs. They could even carry on a conversation. ............ They often get facts wrong and will make up information without warning, a phenomenon that researchers call “hallucination.” Because the systems deliver all information with what seems like complete confidence, it is often difficult for people to tell what is right and what is wrong. ......... The researchers showed that it could be coaxed into suggesting how to buy illegal firearms online, describe ways to make dangerous substances from household items and write Facebook posts to convince women that abortion is unsafe. ......... They also found that the system was able to use Task Rabbit to hire a human across the internet and defeat a Captcha test, which is widely used to identify bots online. When the human asked if the system was “a robot,” the system said it was a visually impaired person. .......... After changes by OpenAI, GPT-4 no longer does these things. .......... The letter was shepherded by the Future of Life Institute, an organization dedicated to researching existential risks to humanity that has long warned of the dangers of artificial intelligence. But it was signed by a wide variety of people from industry and academia........... its near-term dangers, including the spread of disinformation and the risk that people will rely on these systems for medical and emotional advice. .

Monday, March 27, 2023

ChatGPT = Motorbike

This Chipmaking Step Is Crucial to the Future of Computing—and Just Got 40x Faster Thanks to Nvidia

..... it makes an immediate difference in personal productivity. ......... The current situation is truly unprecedented. We are seeing widespread adoption of a technology that has the potential to significantly boost individual productivity, but which is not yet being fully utilized by organizations. .......... Bigger than steam power? ........ A study of programmers found a increase of 55.8% in productivity when using AI (and this is using the Copilot AI tool, which isn’t even state-of-the-art!). ......... asked professionals to write realistic memos, strategy documents and policies. The ones who were given ChatGPT completed tasks 37% faster, and their average writing quality increased as well. All of this is without added training or extensive experience using ChatGPT (which I found makes a huge difference). ........ the productivity gains that can be achieved through the use of general-purpose AI tools like ChatGPT seem to be truly large ......... the productivity gains that can be achieved through the use of general-purpose AI tools like ChatGPT seem to be truly large ......... they come from the use of a general-purpose tool like ChatGPT, rather than more specialized AI tools ........ the potential for productivity gains is not limited to a select few industries, but rather can be applied across a wide variety of fields. ......... for the average small factory in the US in the 19th century, adding steam power increased productivity by 25%. ......... something very big is happening. ........ it is some of the most highly skilled and highly paid jobs that face the most exposure to AI. ......... AI can increase productivity for workers in fields where automation and economies of scale were previously very rare....... “Ultimately this is not stealing a movie screenplay or a whole song, but it’s spiritually the same kind of thing. It’s just uncool.” ........ Jamie Trufin, who runs a meme account called @DogeCoinDaddy, said he was disappointed when Mr. Musk posted one of his Doge memes in March without credit. ....... Mr. Howdle was puzzled as to why someone with such vast resources would share another person’s work without credit. ....... “Someone in my group chat was like, ‘LOL did everyone see how Elon straight up stole a meme that Miles made?’” ........ Several people who have had their content posted by Mr. Musk have since asked for payment, be it in dollars, Teslas or Bitcoin. (Mr. Monahan said he was willing to accept a “mere $80,000.”) ....... (teachers need to prep lessons, grade, write letters of recommendation, run classes, respond to parents, run after school programs, do administrative work, etc.). With the power to outsource the most annoying and time consuming parts of their jobs, workers in these industries are highly incentivized to adopt AI quickly, either to do less work or to be able to bill out more work themselves. It is a recipe for rapid adoption at the individual level. ........ over half of generative AI users reported using the technology without telling anyone, at least some of the time. Their are secret cyborgs among us. ........... The implications may reshape the way we work in ways that rival the impact of the Industrial Revolution. ........ there are far fewer advantages to organizations in this coming AI boom. With these potential productivity gains, every company should be spending a significant amount of their best employees time - right now! - figuring out how to use AI to improve performance......... And every worker should be spending time figuring out how to use these general-purpose tools to their advantage. They should be thinking about how to automate their job to remove the tedious and uncreative parts, and getting a sense for the disruption to come before the organizations they work for realize the full implications of AI. .......... The key is to learn fast.

धमाधम अल्पमतमा पर्दै प्रदेश सरकार, गण्डकीपछि लुम्बिनीमा एमाले सरकार संकटमा
लुम्बिनीमा ३० दिनभित्र मुख्यमन्त्री बन्लान् डिल्ली चौधरी ?



Elon Musk: Memelord or Meme Lifter? The billionaire has been posting content creators’ work without credit. Some are frustrated; others, simply puzzled........ Elon Musk has referred to memes as “modern art” and shares them regularly on Twitter, where he has more than 52 million followers. ....... Memes rely on reinterpretations of joke formats, and it’s not always clear where they begin. ....... the fact that Elon Musk frequently steals memes has become, essentially, a meme in itself ........ Now, when a brand uses a meme for marketing purposes, it generally asks for permission to share the image, and credits the owner. In many cases, the brand also pays. Mr. Musk, who is both a successful businessman and a freewheeling personal brand, appears to be an exception.





My meeting with Prime Minister Modi We talked about India’s incredible progress—and how Indian innovation can benefit the world....... At a time when the world has so many challenges, it’s inspiring to visit a dynamic and creative place like India. ....... He was generous with his time, as we talked about how science and innovation can help reduce inequity in India and around the world. ....... India has an amazing ability to manufacture lots of safe, effective, and affordable vaccines, some of them supported by the Gates Foundation. Vaccines produced in India have saved millions of lives during the pandemic and prevented other diseases around the world.......... In addition to producing new lifesaving tools, India also excels at delivering them—its public health system has delivered more than 2.2 billion doses of COVID vaccines. They created an open-source platform called Co-WIN, which allowed people to schedule billions of vaccine appointments and delivered digital certifications for those who were vaccinated. This platform is now being expanded to support India’s universal immunization program. Prime Minister Modi believes that Co-WIN is a model for the world, and I agree. ......... India was also able to transfer emergency digital payments to 300 million people, including 200 million women, during the pandemic. This was only possible because India has made financial inclusion a priority, investing in a digital ID system (called Aadhaar) and creating innovative platforms for digital banking. It’s a reminder that financial inclusion is a fantastic investment. ....... The country’s Gati Shakti program is a great example of how digital technology can help governments work better. It digitally connects 16 ministries, including rail and roads, so they can integrate their plans for infrastructure projects and accelerate the work of Indian scientists and engineers. ........ I commended the Prime Minister on India's efforts to eliminate deadly and debilitating diseases like tuberculosis, visceral leishmaniasis, and lymphatic filariasis. He told me about a fascinating movement taking shape in India: Communities are “adopting” TB patients to make sure they get the nutrition and care they need. India has used a similar approach with HIV, and it’s been shown to produce lasting results........ India is using digital tools to make learning more accessible through several different avenues, including TV....... I’m looking forward to getting together with the MI partners during the COP28 Summit this December to accelerate the development of new sources of affordable, reliable clean energy. ........ visited the India Council of Agricultural Research in Pusa, where I learned about efforts to help farmers adapt to a warmer climate, including by planting new varieties of wheat and chickpeas that can tolerate droughts. Scientists are also working to increase the shelf life of millet-based products. Millets are very nutritious—a super food, as Prime Minister Modi put it—and are also water-efficient and heat tolerant. I even got to taste millet khichdi, a type of porridge, at a “Godh Bharai” ceremony—similar to a baby shower—for two women hosted by the Ministry of Women and Child Development. .

My message in India: To fight climate change, improve global health The Age of AI has begun

Sunday, March 12, 2023

12: News Bulletin

Dendra and its ‘forest-patrolling drones’ close $10m Series A from Airbus, others (2020)
The importance of blue carbon mangroves
The benefits of mangrove restoration from blue carbon to biodiversity
7 important agreements reached at COP15
The Wildfire-Climate Change Cycle and how to Tame it

This Geothermal Startup Showed Its Wells Can Be Used Like a Giant Underground Battery
Detection Stays One Step Ahead of Deepfakes—For Now
GPT-4 Might Just Be a Bloated, Pointless Mess
Microsoft Unveils AI Model That Understands Image Content, Solves Visual Puzzles
Figure Promises First General-Purpose Humanoid Robot

Ethereum Moved to Proof of Stake. Why Can’t Bitcoin?
Face Recognition Software Led to His Arrest. It Was Dead Wrong
As AI Booms, Lawmakers Struggle to Understand the Technology
Key Steps in Evolution on Earth Tell Us How Likely Intelligent Life Is Anywhere Else
Stability AI, Hugging Face and Canva Back New AI Research Nonprofit

I Made an AI Clone of Myself
California Company Sets Launch Date for World’s First 3D-Printed Rocket
ChatGPT-Style Search Represents a 10x Cost Increase for Google, Microsoft
Ingenious Technique Could Make Moon Farming Possible
The US Copyright Office Says You Can’t Copyright Midjourney AI-Generated Images

AI Is Dreaming Up Drugs That No One Has Ever Seen. Now We’ve Got to See if They Work.
MIT Team Makes a Case for Direct Carbon Capture From Seawater, Not Air
This Startup Can 3D Print a Battery Into Any Shape You Want
Confusion Spirals in Crypto as the US Cracks Down
For the First Time, Genetically Modified Trees Have Been Planted in a US Forest



Saturday, March 11, 2023

11: News Bulletin

Blue Origin Says It Can Make Solar Panels Out of Moon Dust
This Box Wing eVTOL Will Run on Hydrogen and Have a Range of 620 Miles
This 3D Printed Community Is Printing One House per Week for a Year
Cutting Out Just a Muffin a Day Can Make You Age More Slowly, Study Finds
Robots Could Be Doing Almost Half of Our Household Chores Within a Decade



Humans Didn’t Invent Mathematics, It’s What the World Is Made Of the Pythagorean school of thought in ancient Greece .... reality is fundamentally mathematical. More than 2,000 years later, philosophers and physicists are starting to take this idea seriously. ......... mathematics is an essential component of nature that gives structure to the physical world. ....... Bees in hives produce hexagonal honeycomb. Why? ..... bees have evolved to use this shape because it produces the largest cells to store honey for the smallest input of energy to produce wax. ........ There are two subspecies of North American periodical cicadas that live most of their lives in the ground. Then, every 13 or 17 years (depending on the subspecies), the cicadas emerge in great swarms for a period of around two weeks. ...... Why is it 13 and 17 years? Why not 12 and 14? Or 16 and 18? ....... 13 and 17 are prime numbers. ......... cicadas have a range of predators that also spend most of their lives in the ground. The cicadas need to come out of the ground when their predators are lying dormant. ........ Suppose there are predators with life cycles of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 years. What is the best way to avoid them all? ......... Once we start looking, it is easy to find other examples. From the shape of soap films, to gear design in engines, to the location and size of the gaps in the rings of Saturn, mathematics is everywhere. ......... mathematical facts are discovered: not just by humans, but by insects, soap bubbles, combustion engines, and planets. ........ Plato also maintained that mathematical objects exist outside of space and time. But such a view only deepens the mystery of how mathematics explains anything.......... physical reality is made of mathematical objects in the same way matter is made of atoms. ....... the idea that reality is a simulation. A simulation is a computer program, which is a kind of mathematical object. ....... reality is made of mathematical objects and minds. Mathematics is how the universe, which is conscious, comes to know itself. ........ Mathematics gives matter its form, and matter gives mathematics its substance. ........ As the boundary between physics and mathematics blurs, it becomes harder to say which parts of the world are physical and which are mathematical. ..... The time has arrived for a Pythagorean revolution, one that promises to radically alter our understanding of reality.

Pythagoras’ revenge: humans didn’t invent mathematics, it’s what the world is made of
Mathematical Explanation: A Pythagorean Proposal
Who are Jehovah’s Witnesses? A religion scholar explains the history of the often misunderstood group 8 million members across 240 countries. ........ understood “Jehovah,” a version of the Hebrew “Yahweh,” to be the name of God the Father himself. ........ looked forward to Jesus Christ establishing a “millennium” or a thousand-year period of peace on Earth. This “Golden Age” would see the Earth transformed to its original purity, with a “righteous” social system that would not have poverty or inequality. ....... look forward to the Golden Age that Russell and his Bible students expected. ........ the group’s belief in a literal thousand-year earthly reign of Christ ....... they do not vote in elections, serve in the military or salute the flag. Such acts, they believe, compromise their primary loyalty to God...... Jehovah’s Witnesses have no political affiliations, and they renounce violence. However, they make an easy target for governments looking for internal enemies, as they refuse to bow down to government symbols. Many nationalists call them “enemies of the state.” ......... Jehovah’s Witnesses were jailed as draft evaders in the U.S. during both world wars. In a Supreme Court ruling in 1940, school districts were allowed to expel Jehovah’s Witnesses who refused to salute the American flag. Through subsequent legal battles in the 1940s and 1950s, Jehovah’s Witnesses helped expand safeguards for religious liberty and freedom of conscience both in the United States and Europe. ......... In Nazi Germany, Jehovah’s Witnesses were killed in concentration camps; a purple triangle was used by the Nazis to mark them.

SCIENTISTS DISCOVER ENZYME THAT CAN TURN AIR INTO ELECTRICITY
ECONOMISTS COMPARE CRYPTO TO "COCAINE" IN SCATHING TAKEDOWN
Company Raises $100M After Announcing Shift to AI, But Has No Discernible Product We're in the middle of an AI gold rush — but is there any gold?
CONGRESSMAN CLAIMS THE US GOVERNMENT HAS "REVERSE-ENGINEERED" ALIEN TECH FROM UFOS IT'S A PRETTY OUTLANDISH THEORY.
NOAM CHOMSKY: AI ISN'T COMING FOR US ALL, YOU IDIOTS "THAT DAY MAY COME, BUT ITS DAWN IS NOT YET BREAKING."
MICROSOFT SAYS OPENAI'S LATEST BLOCKBUSTER AI IS DROPPING "NEXT WEEK" WE HAVE QUESTIONS.
WE'RE TOTALLY OK WITH THIS 48,500 YEAR OLD "ZOMBIE" VIRUS BEING RESURRECTED WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?
SCIENTISTS PLAY TINIEST GAME OF BASEBALL BY THROWING AND CATCHING INDIVIDUAL ATOMS EAT YOUR HEART OUT, ANTMAN.
Report: Elon Musk is Building His Own Town in Texas Musk wants his own company town where people live and work for him. ........ a "Texas Utopia" along the Colorado River where SpaceX, Boring Company, and Tesla employees can live, work, and play, and never have to leave. .



Iran-Saudi ties: China-brokered ‘win-win’ deal could bring Yemen war to a close, analysts say Tehran and Riyadh have agreed to restore diplomatic relations following the Beijing-led talks that experts dubbed as ‘a major development in the Middle Eastern diplomacy’....... Analysts say the easing of tensions between the rivals could also prompt Saudi and Iran to end hostilities in Yemen by agreeing to a ‘face-saving’ resolution .......... The Chinese-mediated agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia to resume diplomatic relations after a seven-year hiatus is widely expected to de-escalate conflicts across the Middle East. Although details of the deal reached during five days of talks in Beijing have not been made public, many analysts believe they include an understanding on bringing the eight-year war in Yemen to a negotiated close. .



Friday, November 18, 2022

18: Twitter



How Nepal Grew Back Its Forests An effort decades in the making is showing results in Nepal, a rare success story in a world of cascading climate disasters and despair. ............ This transformation is visible across Nepal, thanks to a radical policy adopted by the government more than 40 years ago. Large swaths of national forest land were handed to local communities, and millions of volunteers like Mr. Karki were recruited to protect and renew their local forests, an effort that has earned praise from environmentalists around the world. But the success has been accompanied by new challenges — among them addressing the increase in potentially dangerous confrontations between people and wildlife. ........ Community-managed forests now account for more than a third of Nepal’s forest cover, which has grown by about 22 percent since 1988, according to government data. Independent studies also confirm that greenery in Nepal has sprung back, with forests now covering 45 percent of the country’s land. ....... a NASA-funded study that found Nepal’s tree cover had doubled between 1992 and 2016. “Now, you’ve got the community saying, ‘No, you don’t go there!’ So, the trees are coming back.” ......... Back in the early 1980s, the government couldn’t persuade people to stop cutting trees for farmland and for firewood. ........ What followed was an enormous replantation effort that was bolstered by foreign aid. Villagers like Mr. Karki planted seedlings of rosewood and sal on barren hills. ......... For the community foresters, that involves guarding their forests from the timber mafia, poachers and from nature itself. ........ One morning early this year, Chijamaya Sarki, 61, was cutting grass for cattle feed in a forest when she was attacked and killed by a tiger, her family said. “We only received her half-eaten body,” said Shyam Bahadur Majakoti, her son, still visibly in shock and dressed according to a traditional mourning ritual. ......... Hundreds of thousands of Nepali youth migrate each year to other countries in Asia or to the Persian Gulf in search of stable, well-paying jobs, leaving fewer workers at home. Foreign remittances now represent almost a quarter of the country’s economic output, and brought in about $7.35 billion in 2020. ....... The rejuvenated forests have transformed life for the locals here. Floods are less frequent. Rainfall, once intermittent, is now normal. ...... Many people have moved on from subsistence farming, taking up alternatives like beekeeping and growing profitable crops like dragon fruit and strawberries. .......... Keshav Raj Basnet runs a thriving beekeeping business, earning $5,000 a year from 12 hives. ........ Nepal is expecting a $7.4 billion package from a group led by the British government to “build back greener from Covid-19” and about $300 million from Norway, the United States and Britain, among others, for helping reduce global emissions. ......... Sergeant Gurung, 36, who is armed with an M-16 rifle, said that on a recent patrol he was chased by a tiger. “I was so scared that I climbed a tree,” he said. “We are allowed to use our gun to protect ourselves, but I am here to protect the animals,” not shoot them. ........ More than 100 of Mr. Gurung’s peers have died on duty in wildlife attacks since 1974, the Army has said. The army has also had a fraught relationship with some locals, who accuse it of heavy-handedness against ethnic minorities. ......... In July 2020, troops found Raj Kumar Chepang, 24, fishing in the restricted area of the national park. His punishment, a beating from sticks, was so severe that he died a few days later .

Thursday, November 17, 2022

Some Suggestions For Twitter

Twitter And Voice
Free Speech And Just Society
Should Elon Musk Be Owning All Of Twitter?
The Masses, Not Mars
Musk's 44 Billion Dollar Give To Foolish Fascism

My Twitter experience has not changed. Is that a problem? The guy from Mars took over. But my Twitter experience has not changed.

He is being criticized for having bought a 10 billion dollar company for 40 billion. I don't want to go into that. It is certainly a dip. But if it is a startup, it has nowhere to go but up. Although there are plenty of people saying this is his Waterloo. That is the New York Times hyperbola. It is a dramatic statement to make, but people like Paul Graham do not seem to be buying.

Since the early 2010s, I have looked at Twitter and thought, what a waste! So much potential, so little of it realized.

Could Musk be the break Twitter has needed? Or is this Musk's Truth Social?

I just had to say that. I don't believe it. I think Musk might be able to pull it off.

I quite like Twitter. I have an experience on Twitter that I do not have on any other social media platform. And so you are left wanting more.

What is it about Twitter? The brevity? The text? That 1% feel?

How about letting people verify for free? And instead of using government isued IDs letting people use biometric IDs provided by Twitter itself? A selfie? An iris scan? Fingerprint? And you get a checkmark? If not blue, then green. The bots don't have that.

If you can verify your name also with some sort of official ID, you get an additional checkmark. For free.

You could use an assumed name, but it would say so.

The ability to read 10 or 100 or 1,000 tweets at once. How do you read the sentiment?

Real time search engine. Twitter could be tops.

The Twitter archives are a wasteland. So unnecessary.

Monday, August 01, 2022

Better Tokyo Than Twitter: Rocket Travel On Earth

SPACEX STARSHIP: THOSE 30-MINUTE, CROSS-PLANET FLIGHTS WILL BE PUNISHING But on the other hand, it will also be very fast.
The space-faring firm is currently developing the Starship, a stainless steel behemoth designed to send the first humans on a mission to Mars. Another use for the vehicle, aimed at improving its feasibility as a profit-making machine, is point-to-point trips around the Earth. ......... The sheer power of the rocket is enough to enable a trip from New York to Paris, which takes around seven hours 20 minutes by plane, to take just 30 minutes. ......... “Probably needs a restraint mechanism like Disney’s Space Mountain roller coaster,” Musk warned on Twitter Thursday. “Would feel similar to Space Mountain in a lot of ways, but you’d exit on another continent.” ....... Musk has instead suggested that each flight would take around 1,000 people. Every seat would be “coach” basic travel. There would be no toilets, or food area, or pilot area. ........ SpaceX is essentially asking people to sign up for packing themselves like sardines into a giant tin hurdling as fast as a ballistic missile. ........ it would cost over $1 million to transport 853 passengers, working out to $1,200 per person. ......... Musk has also suggested that it could link up with the hyperloop, his design for a vacuum, sealed pod transit system moving up to 700 mph. That would mean trips from the spaceport to the city center in under 10 minutes.


https://www.spacex.com/vehicles/starship/