Artificial Intelligence
Self-Improving Language Models Are Becoming Reality With MIT’s Updated SEAL TechniqueCarl Franzen | VentureBeat
“Researchers at [MIT] are gaining renewed attention for developing and open sourcing a method that enables large language models (LLMs)—like those underpinning ChatGPT and most up-to-date AI chatbots—to enhance themselves by generating synthetic data to fine-tune upon.”
Biotechnology
95% of Kids With ‘Bubble Boy’ Disease Cured by One-Time Gene TherapyPaul McClure | Latest Atlas
“The researchers followed these patients for a median of seven.5 years, totaling 474 patient-years. …The study was the most important and longest follow-up of a gene therapy of this type thus far. Importantly, all 62 children survived to the top of the trial. Of the 62 participants, 59 of them—that’s 95%—were successfully treated.”
Computing
Paralyzed Man Can Feel Objects Through One other Person’s HandCarissa Wong | Latest Scientist ($)
“Keith Thomas, a person in his 40s with no sensation or movement in his hands, is in a position to feel and move objects by controlling one other person’s hand via a brain implant. The technique might someday even allow us to experience one other person’s body over long distances.”
Computing
Why Signal’s Post-Quantum Makeover Is an Amazing Engineering AchievementDan Goodin | Ars Technica
“Eleven days ago, the nonprofit entity that develops the protocol, Signal Messenger LLC, published a 5,900-word write-up describing its latest updates that make Signal fully quantum-resistant. The complexity and problem-solving required for making the Signal Protocol quantum protected are as daunting as nearly any in modern-day engineering.”
Tech
AI Economics Are Brutal. Demand Is the Variable to Watch.Steven Rosenbush | The Wall Street Journal ($)
“Even the most definitely eventual winners in AI are losing billions of dollars without delay. It’s hard to predict how this may play out within the financial markets, but here’s a clue. Keep watch over demand for AI, measured in units of information processed. It’s soaring without delay. The whole AI bet may activate how far and fast it ramps from here.”
Future
California Becomes First State to Regulate AI Companion ChatbotsRebecca Bellan | TechCrunch
“The law, SB 243, is designed to guard children and vulnerable users from among the harms related to AI companion chatbot use. It holds corporations—from the large labs like Meta and OpenAI to more focused companion startups like Character AI and Replika—legally accountable if their chatbots fail to fulfill the law’s standards.”
Future
Meet the Man Constructing a Starter Kit for CivilizationTiffany Ng | MIT Technology Review ($)
“[The Global Village Construction Set (GVCS) is] a set of fifty machines—every thing from a tractor to an oven to a circuit maker—which are able to constructing civilization from scratch and could be reconfigured nevertheless you see fit.”
Robotics
Waymo Plans to Launch a Robotaxi Service in London in 2026Kirsten Korosec | TechCrunch
“Waymo will start with human safety drivers behind the wheel before it launches driverless testing and eventually invites the general public to hail its robotaxis, a method that it has utilized in other business markets resembling Phoenix and San Francisco.”
Computing
Nvidia Sells Tiny Latest Computer That Puts Big AI on Your DesktopBenj Edwards | Ars Technica
“On Tuesday, Nvidia announced it can begin taking orders for the DGX Spark, a $4,000 desktop AI computer that wraps one petaflop of computing performance and 128GB of unified memory right into a form factor sufficiently small to take a seat on a desk. Its biggest selling point is probably going its large integrated memory that may run larger AI models than consumer GPUs.”
Artificial Intelligence
The AI Industry’s Scaling Obsession Is Headed for a CliffWill Knight | Wired ($)
“By mapping scaling laws against continued improvements in model efficiency, the researchers found that it could turn out to be harder to wring leaps in performance from giant models whereas efficiency gains could make models running on more modest hardware increasingly capable over the subsequent decade.”
Energy
In Austin, This 100% Geothermal Neighborhood Is Designed to Shrink Utility BillsAdele Peters | Fast Company
“Heat pumps in each house hook up with pipes that loop a whole bunch of feet underground, making use of the earth’s regular temperature for heating and cooling. The homes are also built to make use of as little energy as possible, with features like deep eaves that shade the inside and reduce the necessity for air-conditioning. Solar shingles on the roofs produce enough power to match each home’s expected electricity use.”
Tech
Rise of the Cursor Resistance: Why Some Techies Need to Ignore AI Coding ToolsRocket Drew | The Information ($)
“The technology has indeed turn out to be an inescapable a part of Silicon Valley, but the frenzy to adopt it has brought a backlash amongst programmers. Partly that’s since the AI coding tools have some obvious technical limitations—sometimes producing error-ridden code, amongst other problems—and partly it’s because human coders worry any form of adoption of the tools will hasten their very own obsolescence.”
Artificial Intelligence
Why AI Startups Are Taking Data Into Their Own HandsRussell Brandom | TechCrunch
“Where training sets were once scraped freely from the net or collected from low-paid annotators, corporations are actually paying top dollar for fastidiously curated data. With the raw power of AI already established, corporations wish to proprietary training data as a competitive advantage. And as an alternative of farming out the duty to contractors, they’re often taking over the work themselves.”
Future
From Slop to Sotheby’s? AI Art Enters a Latest PhaseGrace Huckins | MIT Technology Review ($)
“Amid all of the muck, there are people using AI tools with real consideration and intent. A few of them are finding notable success as AI artists: They’re gaining huge online followings, selling their work at auction, and even having it exhibited in galleries and museums.”
Long-Lived Gamma Ray Burst Could Signal a Latest Sort of Cosmic CatastropheDaniel Clery | Science
“Some theorists [are considering] perhaps probably the most unusual scenario of all: a black hole ripping up one other star from inside. This model starts with a stellar-mass black hole and a big star orbiting one another. When the star has burned up all its hydrogen fuel, it’s left with a dense helium core and an outer envelope that swells up. That envelope can drag on the black hole, causing it to spiral in and ultimately fall into the helium core.”