ChatGPT Plugins And Web Browsing Beta Rollout For Plus Users Uncover new possibilities with ChatGPT web browsing and plugins beta features. Available to ChatGPT Plus users who opt-in for experimental features....... OpenAI announced the latest version of ChatGPT, including the beta rollout of web browsing and a staggering 70 plugins for ChatGPT Plus users. ......... From entertainment and shopping to job searches and weather forecasts, these experimental features are poised to revolutionize the user experience, bringing a wealth of possibilities to your chat interface. ........ For example, when I asked ChatGPT for today’s top news on a specific topic, web browsing knows to go straight to the web. ....... In this test, web browsing only summarized information from one news article referenced in almost a dozen citation links........ The new release of ChatGPT by OpenAI comes after Google expanded Bard globally and Microsoft announced the next generation of Bing AI features. .
Amazon optimizes delivery network for speedier delivery, lower costs Amazon this week said it was offering U.S. customers $10 to pick up a purchase rather than have it shipped to a home address. As the company tightens its belt after a period of explosive growth, it has made numerous moves to reduce delivery-related costs across the company. .
Google’s Sundar Pichai talks Search, AI, and dancing with Microsoft AI is one of the deepest platform shifts ever, says Google’s CEO, and he’s not worried about being first........ Google, which invented a lot of the core technology behind the current AI moment. The company is very quick to point out that the “T” in ChatGPT stands for transformer, the large language model technology first invented at Google, but OpenAI and others have been first to market with generative AI products, and OpenAI has partnered with Microsoft on a new version of Bing that feels like the first real competitor to Google Search in a long time ............ With AI, I feel like this is our seventh year as an AI-first company. I feel we are AI native. Part of the reason yesterday you saw all this... Pretty much most teams at Google intuitively understand what it is to use AI in our products. ........... We’ve invested so deeply in AI for a while, and we have clarity of not just building AI in our products, clearly providing it to the rest of the world. And we have planned for that from the very beginning. So it makes me excited about this moment. ........... The platform shift that is occurring, that everyone can see, was not kicked off by Google. It was kicked off by OpenAI and ChatGPT and Microsoft, to some extent. And it’s because you were being responsible; you were being cautious. ........... Google wasn’t even there when the internet shift happened. So I think there is this notion that one of the deepest platform shifts on day one is what sets it. I just don’t subscribe to that. ......... Google wasn’t even there when the internet shift happened. So I think there is this notion that one of the deepest platform shifts on day one is what sets it. I just don’t subscribe to that. ......... “I have a lot of respect for Sundar and his team, but I want Google to dance.” .......... “I want people to know that Microsoft made them dance.” ............ But if you’re a new creator, and you just want to communicate with some audience, it is far more likely that you will end up on TikTok, Substack, or Instagram, maybe YouTube, which you have access to. But those platforms, they’re not so visible to the average Google Search user. So the new stuff, the high-quality stuff, the more interesting stuff, maybe, is ending up on platforms that Google Search can’t see. .........
As AI becomes multimodal, this distinction we feel between text and images and video blurs over time.
........ if anything, I’m using a lot more of the web still. I go to The Verge website all the time. .......... we had, arguably, two of the top three, maybe, research teams in the world ....... If you look at the 10 to 20 seminal breakthroughs, which led to this moment where we are, those two teams together account for a large number of them. .......... I think the most important thing is having clarity about what you’re trying to accomplish. And once you do that, everything else follows from that........ we have 15 products with the scale we have or six products over 2 billion users each. ......... I’ve been preparing for this moment around AI for 10-plus years. It’s not an accident at Google [that] we brought Geoff Hinton in or we built Google Brain or we acquired DeepMind. We spent the investment that’s needed. We built TPUs. We announced TPUs at I/O maybe six years ago now. This is something I’ve anticipated for a long time. I’m excited that it’s an inflection point. .
Nice Guy Meets Iron Man in the First Novel by Tom Hanks Whimsically chronicling the creation of a Marvel-style movie, “The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece” sags under a deluge of detail. ........... Sidelined by the pandemic, some actors fired up ceramics or sang fragments of “Imagine.” Tom Hanks, one of the most prominent to contract an early case of Covid, bounced back by making a run at the Great American Novel. Alas, it is more Forrest Gump trotting from coast to coast than Sully landing on the Hudson. ......... the vast number of workers required to get stories onscreen: extras, editors, costume and lighting designers, makeup artists, caterers, drivers, gofers, key grips. ....... “Masterpiece” is a loving homage to those workers, a true insiderly ensemble piece in the vein of “The Player” (written by Michael Tolkin in 1988, directed by Robert Altman in 1992), or Quentin Tarantino’s eventually self-novelized “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood.” .......... Alternate titles: “Hollywood: Busy, Busy Town” or “What Do Movie People Do All Day?” ....... Eve Knight, the alter ego of Knightshade, a heroine who like many modern women has trouble sleeping. ......... “Sure, she wants to make her bed with a decent chap when the time is right, but the time is never right!” Lane tells Johnson’s assistant, Allicia Mac-Teer, anachronistically (Hanksishly). “Nor is the chap.” ......... after years of struggling in the gig economy, a salary that’s “a joke of abundance.” .......... Moviemaking, Hanks would remind us, can be a rising tide, not in the depressing new climate change way, but the old optimistic American lift-all-boats way. ........... The word “coffee” appears, by my count, on 85 pages ........ Highly specific smoothies are fetched; catering tables are lovingly inventoried. ........ Sometimes “Masterpiece” reads like the thank-you speech Hanks, consummate nice guy, would give if granted unlimited time at the Oscars. You might admire its rah-rah spirit, yet still want to press fast-forward. ........... After turning 50 pages more and finding a minor character selling “Royals, Underwoods, Remingtons, Hermes, Olivettis, all in working order,” as if in an Etsy shop, I had to fight a strong urge to close the book, fire up a triple espresso and see if anything was happening in the tiny palace of my iPhone. .
Things in Russia Aren’t as Bad as the Bad Old Soviet Days. ‘They’re Worse.’ In light of what their country is inflicting on Ukraine, it is difficult to speak of Russians as victims. That, in fact, may be one major reason many decent Russians feel that Mr. Putin’s Russia — their Russia — is worse than the Soviet state whose demise he laments. They had thought their nation free of the horrible tyranny of its past, and Mr. Putin is not only reviving that but also bringing shame and alienation to their nation. ......... a Soviet leader probably would not have survived a disastrous decision like the invasion of Ukraine. ......... “We make a distinction between ‘open’ and ‘closed’ societies, but there is also a distinction between ‘openings’ and ‘closings,’” Ivan Krastev, a Bulgarian political scientist and one of the foremost chroniclers of the collapse of the Soviet empire, told me. “The generation of Soviet people in the 1970s and 1980s lived in a closed society that was opening, discovering that things that had been impossible were becoming possible. Putin’s is a period of radical closings. People are losing things they felt had finally been granted them. Openings led to hope; this system leads to hopelessness.” .......... What he has done, at its heart, is create a system in which everything — the government, the political police, the legislature, the military — depends personally on him. ........ If the most common charge used to imprison dissidents in the last decades of Soviet rule was “anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda,” an omnibus law that at least made clear that the crime was in opposing Soviet rule, Mr. Putin lashes back at his opponents with random weapons, whether it’s his government’s apparent poisoning of Alexei Navalny or the condemnation of Vladimir Kara-Murza to 25 years in prison for treason. Accusing Mr. Gershkovich of espionage may well have been motivated at least in part by fury that someone with a Russian background would dare report the truth about Russia. .......... Ten days into the invasion, the police arrested more than 4,600 demonstrators in Russia, and hundreds of thousands of Russian men have fled the country to avoid being shanghaied into the army. .......... Russian restaurants, including ones that reconceived their menus, struggle to stay open. Stolichnaya vodka has now been rebranded as Stoli. ......... Mr. Putin, in the name of an ephemeral Russian greatness, has done great and lasting harm to his people and their culture.
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) May 9, 2023
I always worry when I check out that Square's tipping options algorithm is going to get too smart & track me everywhere... so it will just keep upping the % tip suggestions until they are like 500%. but slowly and imperceptibly so i don't notice. That is my real AI fear.
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) May 9, 2023
As Putin Bides His Time, Ukraine Faces a Ticking Clock Ukraine is feeling short-term pressure from its Western backers for success in a looming counteroffensive. Vladimir Putin seems to be operating on a longer timeline. .......... Ukraine is feeling immense short-term pressures from its Western backers, as the United States and its allies treat the counteroffensive as a critical test of whether the weapons, training and ammunition they have rushed to the country in recent months can translate into significant gains. .......... Putin faces his own challenges but is showing signs of operating on a much longer timeline, encumbered by economic and military limitations but free from the domestic political pressures that make continuing Western support for Ukraine so uncertain. ......... Having already mobilized some 300,000 recruits last September, Mr. Putin is laying the groundwork for a possible new round of conscription, having changed the law so Russian authorities can draft men by serving them with a “digital summons” online. .......... and emphasizing that Russia is capable of conscripting as many as 25 million fighting-age men ........... On Friday, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner mercenary group, castigated Russian military leadership over a lack of ammunition and threatened to pull his forces from the fighting in the embattled city of Bakhmut within days. ........“Certainly I think there is a calculation in the Kremlin that Russia is more resilient than the West” ............ If they appear too ambitious, they could stir fears that Russia could respond with a tactical nuclear strike. Appear too modest, in contrast, and criticism arises that billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine has been spent in vain. ........... Ukrainian officials point to the considerable successes they have already achieved: forcing the Russian military to retreat from Kyiv last year; sinking the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, the Moskva; and recapturing thousands of square miles of territory in two counterattacks last fall. ........... “We have a lot of supporters of Ukraine cheering for us,” he said. “That is why they are waiting for the next match. But for us, it’s not a sports game. For us, it’s a serious challenge. For us, it’s the lives of our soldiers.” .......... Military analysts have pointed to a likely period of probing assaults, feints and long-range strikes in the opening phase of the attack. Degrading the Russian military’s combat abilities will be as important as liberating territory ............... The Ukrainians see their enemy as having expended its offensive ability and as eager for a pause in fighting that could buy time to rearm and attack again. ........... Mr. Trump has criticized Mr. Biden’s support for Ukrainian forces, saying in an interview this year with Fox News that “ultimately,” Mr. Putin “is going to take over all of Ukraine.” ......... “Russia’s hope right now is that the peak of Western military support is going to be around the summer,” and then will dissipate ........... Once wars have gone on for more than a year, they tend to last for more than a decade on average ............. Putin has little incentive to end the war now, unless his hand is forced, because its continuation helps him retain power .......... Any negotiations after a military defeat would look like capitulation and make him more vulnerable at home ........... Only 7 percent of authoritarian leaders with governments like Russia’s have found themselves unseated during a conflict that began on their watch ......... “In polls, the only thing the Russian public was not willing to negotiate over was the status of Crimea” .......... “If Crimea is being bombarded, then it’s a failure. I think that would change things, potentially.” .......... Putin is also likely facing pressures that remain opaque to the outside world. In an authoritarian system, threats to the stability of a government often prove unpredictable. ........ Putin has security, business and political elites he still must keep on his side, noting that “it’s wrong to assume that Putin can just do anything he wants to at this point.” ....... “There are institutions of power and centers of power,” he added, “that you have to manage, control and dominate in some way if you’re going to stay in the game.”
Russian Unease Over Ukraine War Grows Amid Attacks and Leadership Rifts With a Ukrainian offensive looming, explosions in Crimea and inside Russia have rattled Moscow, sparking bureaucratic infighting among military commanders....... With Ukraine stepping up attacks deep inside Russian-controlled territory, there were new signs on Friday of disarray and unease among Russia’s military and political leadership as they brace for a looming Ukrainian offensive, for which their forces may be ill-prepared. ......... Not for the first time, he threatened to pull his fighters out of the long-embattled Ukrainian city of Bakhmut if the Ministry of Defense did not provide more ammunition............. Two explosions rocked the Kremlin in the middle of the night on Wednesday, in what the Russians claimed was a failed drone attack by Ukraine. Denying the accusation, Ukraine said Russia might have done it to try to muster domestic support for a faltering war effort. No matter the culprit, symbolically it seemed to many to signal Kremlin weakness. .......... That came in tandem with attacks on a number of oil storage facilities, igniting huge fires, and train derailments both near the border and well away from the battlefields, all attributed to Ukrainian drones or sabotage. ........ Adding to the building sense of anxiety, the head of Russia’s Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, bizarrely accused the United States in an interview of having started the war to seize territory ahead of a supposed cataclysmic explosion of a volcano at Yellowstone National Park, which he said would wipe out life in North America. ........... Ramzan Kadyrov, the pugnacious leader of the Republic of Chechnya inside Russia, chastised Mr. Prigozhin for displaying the corpses of his men to create a public outcry, and offered to deploy his men in place of the Wagner mercenaries to finish the job in Bakhmut. He also chastised the Defense Ministry for logistical and supply issues.
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) May 8, 2023
Anyone ever watched the No Reservations series with Anthony Bourdain? He went to Alaska the Inuit people kill seals. Then they spread plastic on their kitchen floor and throw the seal down and everyone gets their knives and spoons and eats raw seal. It’s their culture.
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) May 8, 2023
This can't be left to chance. Brand new science: Emergent Behavior. We try to make intelligent guesses. We observe and regulate before letting the dogs out.
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) May 8, 2023
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) May 8, 2023
If some ill-intentioned person can produce an evil AGI, then large groups of well-intentioned, well-funded, and well-organized people can produce AI systems that are specialized in taking down evil AGIs. Call it the AGI police.
It's a nice quote, but I'm pretty sure it did not come from Einstein. Did you get it on the Internet? ;)
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) May 6, 2023
Reactions to my solopreneur journey:
2019: What are you doing? 2020: How long can this last? 2021: I've been following you for a bit! 2022: Can I pick your brain for 30 minutes? 2023: Will you promote my business on Twitter?
When we moved to Toronto in 1989, we stayed in a one-bedroom apartment until I found a rent-controlled apartment, which took us three weeks to clean up. We all worked, were happy and optimistic. The first I heard of an emerald mine was on @Twitter about 10 years ago. Thanks for… https://t.co/6gIdvj9Yel
AI hype is ridiculous in all directions. As in: - LLMs have superhuman intelligence - LLMs are useless parrots - LLM hallucinations will destroy society - scaling is all you need - deep learning has hit a wall - AI doesn't exist and never will - AI is going to kill us all https://t.co/6s3EbvNvlf
I grew up in a lower, transitioning to upper, middle income situation, but did not have a happy childhood. Haven’t inherited anything ever from anyone, nor has anyone given me a large financial gift.
My father created a small electrical/mechanical engineering company that was…
Hundreds of thousands of junior staff have had their development stunted over the last three years because leaders were afraid to lead. https://t.co/ZMihwjc01w
Here's my conversation with @dpakman, a left-wing political commentator, on all things politics including Trump, Biden, DeSantis, RFK Jr, Bernie, AOC, Twitter drama, etc. As always, I'll keep talking to people on all sides, seeking understanding & wisdom. https://t.co/AMq2IYGBlApic.twitter.com/XXnXtfmyPJ
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) May 7, 2023
Person:
I'm unhappy.
Also person:
How bad is our government? What about that meme on TikTok? Can you believe that celebrity said that? Did you see what happened on the news? Do you think we should take a selfie?
The best thing you can do for your mind is disconnect.
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) May 7, 2023
I did a 12 mile run along the river in Boston today, while listening to Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch, which is one of my favorite books. It's endlessly optimistic and inspiring. I'm grateful to be alive and to be on this idea exploration journey with all of you ❤️ pic.twitter.com/DwrYNrZveP
The ICC warrant against Putin for war crimes is setting a precedent that could implicate other Russian elites—and leading many within the Russian government to start eyeing the exit, writes @baunov. https://t.co/WAnroioKzN
