Nvidia's new chips ... Musk's Grok-1 ... Microsoft hires DeepMind founder .. GPT-5 ... Gemini on iPhones ... TL;DR 24Mar24

Last update: Sunday 3/24/24 

Welcome to our 24Mar24 podcast + TL;DR summary of the past week's top 5 AI stories on our "Useful AI News" page ... (1) More powerful Nvidia chips, (2) Musk releases his chatbot's code, 3) Microsoft hires DeepMind co-founder, (4) OpenAI's GPT-5 "soon", and (5) Apple might use Google's Gemini for iPhones

TL;DR link ➡ HERE

EU AI regs ... Google blocks Gemini election queries ... more amazing SORA videos ... and is GenAI the new crypto ...TL;DR 18Mar24

Last update: Monday 3/18/24 

Welcome to our 18MAR24 TL;DR summary of the past week's top AI stories on our "Useful AI News" page  ➡ 1) EU approves AII regulations (2) Google blocks Gemini responses to election queries everywhere (3) OpenAI freaks out Wall Street Journal with Sora's videos and (4) Little evidence so far that generative AI really boosts profits

TL;DR link ➡ HERE

Musk sues Altman/OpenAI ... TL;DR 3Mar24

Last update: Monday 3/11/24 

Welcome to our 3Mar24 TL;DR summary of the past week's top AI stories on our "Useful AI News" page. Unfortunately the editor of this blog only had time to produce a TL;DR and podcast for only one top story ➡ Elon Musk Sues OpenAI and Sam Altman ... in two parts.

The first part considers Musk's goal in funding the establishment of OpenAI -- the development of AI via open source code available to everyone; the failure of this strategy; and the likelihood that Musk will lose his lawsuit. The second part briefly sketches a high-powered revision of this strategy that replaces Musk with DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) as the sponsor of a dual use initiative. 

TL;DR link ➡ HERE

Google's Gemma, Intel chips designed by Microsoft, and Gemini's "diverse" hallucinations ... TL;DR 25Feb24

Last update: Sunday 2/25/24 

Welcome to our 25Feb24 TL;DR summary about the past week's top 3 AI stories on our "Useful AI News" page  ➡ 1) Google'e new open source model Gemma, (2) Microsoft's chip partnership with Intel, and (3) Gemini's "woke" hallucinations ... Plus links to other notable new reports.

TL;DR link ➡ HERE

Google's new Gemini 1.5 ... plus OpenAI's disruptions ... TL;DR 18Feb24

Last update: Monday 2/19/24 

Welcome to our 18Feb24 TL;DR summary about the past week's top AI stories on our "Useful AI News" page  ➡ 1) Google's new Gemini 1.5, (2) ChatGPT's personal memory, (3) OpenAI's Sora video generator, and 4) OpenAI's Internet search 

TL;DR link ➡ HERE

 

Google runs Microsoft's playbook very badly; well-intended public policies; and Altman's $trillions ...TL;DR 12Feb24

Last update: Monday 2/12/24 

Welcome to our 12Feb24 TL;DR summary about the past week's top AI stories on our "Useful AI News" page  ➡ (1) US AI Consortium, (2) FCC, (3) Altman , and (4) Google

TL;DR link ➡ HERE

Big Tech's investor conference calls ... TL;DR 5Feb24

Last update: Wednesday 2/7/24 

Welcome to our 5Jan24 TL;DR summary about the past week's top AI stories on our "Useful AI News" page ➡ GenAI related comments by CEOs during investor conference calls about the latest quarterly reports from Google, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft 

TL;DR link ➡ HERE

Microsoft's new “small” AI team ... TL;DR 28Jan24

Last update: Monday 1/31/24 

Welcome to our 28Jan24 TL;DR summary about the past week's top AI story on our "Useful AI News" page ➡ Microsoft creates new team to build “small” AI, 

TL;DR link ➡ HERE

Sam Altman (AI's Oracle at Davos) and AI smartphones ... TL;DR 21Jan24

Last update: Sunday 1/21/24

Welcome to our 21Jan24 TL;DR summary about the past week's top AI stories on our "Useful AI News" page  

1) AI's Oracle at Davos, and (2) Samsung's new AI smartphones

TL;DR link ➡ HERE

Massive copyright violations and a ChatGPT app store ... TL;DR 14Jan24

Last update: Tuesday 1/16/24 

Welcome to our 14Jan24 TL;DR summary about the top two stories that were posted on our "Useful AI News" page during the first two weeks of 2024:

1) The massive copyright violation lawsuit filed by the New York Times against OpenAi and Microsoft, and (2) OpenAI's strategy to convert ChatGPT into a revenue generating platform..

TL;DR link ➡ HERE

Happy New Year!!! Top AI stories of 2023 ... TL;DR 9Jan24

Last update: Friday 1/12/24 

Happy New Year!!! ... And welcome to our TL;DR summary about the top AI stories that were posted on our "Useful AI News" page in 2023. We selected the stories that we thought will prove to be the most useful for predicting what the top AI stories will be in 2024.

Our first top story is OpenAI's movement of ChatGPT to its new GPT-4 model in March 2023, a move that led to ChatGPT's domination of the AI news sector for the rest of the year. Our second top story is about the most significant Big Tech challenges to OpenAI's supremacy in the final weeks of 2023, i.e., challenges from Amazon, Google, and Microsoft ... yes, Microsoft.

These top stories framed our prediction of the top stories for 2024. Spoiler alert, here's our prediction: Whereas large language models (LLMs) dominated AI news throughout 2023, the rapid and widespread proliferation of small language models (SLMs) will be the dominant AI news stories throughout 2024. 

Click the "start" button in the audio control (below) to hear the podcast ...  If audio fails to start, or gets stuck, try reloading the page.

 

TL;DR link ➡ HERE

Dozen Basic AI FAQs

Last update: Friday 1/12/24 

This page contains links to responses by Google's Bard chatbot to 12 questions that should be asked more frequently, but aren't. As consequence, too many readily understood AI terms have become meaningless buzzwords in the media. 

The questions on this page are ordered by increasing specificity, so they should be read in numerical order. Most readers are less likely to understand Bard's answers to later questions if they haven't read its answers to questions that appear earlier in the list.

Read more ➡ HERE

The surprising power of Small Language Models (SLMs) ... TL;DR 21Dec23

Last update: Thursday 12/21/23 

Welcome to our 21Dec23 TL;DR summary about the past week's top AI story on our "Useful AI News" page ➡ Microsoft's newest small language model (SLM) and its benchmarks 

Click the "start" button in the audio control (below) to hear the podcast ...  If audio fails to start, or gets stuck, try reloading the page.

 

TL;DR link ➡ HERE

First came the AI Big Bang; now comes the aftershocks and tremors... TL;DR and podcast 10Dec23

Last update: Sunday 12/10/23 

Welcome to our 12Dec23 TL;DR + podcast about the past week's top 3 AI stories on our "Useful AI News" page 1) The biggest aftershock: Google's Gemini, (2) Tremor: Meta and IBM lead an alliance, and (3) Another tremor: Apple’s new framework 

Demis Hassabis, PhD -- CEO, Google DeepMind

Click the "start" button in the audio control (below) to hear the podcast ...  If audio fails to start or gets stuck, try reloading the page. 

TL;DR link ➡ HERE

Amazon's re:Invent, DeepMind's breakthrough, and Microsoft as OpenAI's partner ...TL;DR and Podcast 3Dec23

Last update: Monday 12/4/23 

Welcome to our TL;DR summary and podcast about the past week's top 3 AI stories on our "Useful AI News" page ➡ 1) Amazon's "re;Invent 2023" customer conference, (2) Google DeepMind's latest scientific breakthrough, and (3) A closer look at Microsoft's side of its partnership with OpenAI.

... Click the "start" button in the audio control (below) to hear the podcast. If audio fails to start, or gets stuck, try reloading the page.

 

TL;DR link ➡ HERE

"The AI Big Bang" a/k/a The fall and rise of Sam Altman ... 26Nov23 TL;DR and podcast

 Last update: Sunday 11/26/23 

Welcome to our TL;DR summary of and podcast about the past week's top two AI stories on our "Useful AI News" page ...

(1) What happened? (2) Why did it happen?

... Click the "start" button in the audio control (below) to hear the podcast. 

 

TL;DR link ➡ HERE

Microsoft's dev con, Google's GraphCast, and Sam Altman's farewell ... TL;DR + Podcast 19Nov23

Last update: Monday 11/20/23 

Welcome to our 19Nov23 TL;DR summary + podcast about the past week's top 3 AI stories on our "Useful AI News" page:
1) Microsoft's conference for developers and IT professionals, (2) Google Deep Mind's awesome AI weather forecasts, and (3) the sudden seismic firing of Sam Altman by OpenAI's board ... Click the "start" button in the audio control (below) to hear the podcast.

 

TL;DR link ➡ HERE

OpenAI's Dev Con, Elon's Grok, and Humane's AI pin ... TL;DR + Podcast 12Nov23

Last update: 11/13/23 

Welcome to our TL;DR summary + podcast about the past week's top AI stories on our "Useful AI News" page: 1) Open AI's first-ever developers conference, (2) "Grok" (Elon Musk's sardonic chatbot), and (3) Humane's new AI pin.
... Click the "start" button in the audio control (below) to hear the podcast.

 

TL;DR link ➡ HERE

Civil war in the AI community ➡ Open vs. closed AI platforms ... Top AI stories TL;DR 3Nov23

Last update: 11/3/23 

This week's top stories covered two related developments. The first played out onstage in three of the grandest global venues; whereas the second unfolded backstage ... Note: The current edition of "Useful AI News" can be found ➡ HERE

Google vs. Microsoft... Top AI stories TL;DR 27OCT23

Last update: 10/27/23

Consider the image for this blog note. Question: Why is that man smiling? Answer: He is smiling because he is Satya Nadella, the very well paid CEO of Microsoft. As described in the articles reporting our first top story, Nadella's huge investment bets in AI have yielded substantial quarterly earnings, earnings that have convinced Wall Street that AI will soon become a highly productive and highly profitable money maker for Microsoft. Microsoft’s growth in the most recent quarter stemmed from the business unit the company labels “Azure and other cloud services,” which houses its investments in AI ... Note: The current edition of "Useful AI News" can be found ➡ HERE
 

Bard vs. ChatGPT ... Top AI stories TL;DR 20Oct23

Last update: 10/20/23

When OpenAI introduced ChatGPT driven by a comprehensive LLM called "GPT-3.5" back in late 2022, it caught Google off-guard. Google was even more befuddled when OpenAI replaced GPT-3.5 with the more powerful model GPT-4 in early 2023; then OpenAI released an incessant stream of new capabilities for ChatGPT in the months that followed ... Note: The current edition of "Useful AI News" can be found ➡ HERE

Ezra Klein, "The Matrix", and Big Tech's current efforts to trivialize LLMs

Last update: 5/31/23 

Once again, the editor of this blog calls his readers' attention to some cogent observations about artificial intelligence (AI) from Ezra Klein, his favorite public intellectual. Mr. Klein's observations appeared in a recent NY Times op ed ==> "Beyond the ‘Matrix’ Theory of the Mind", Ezra Klein, NY Times, 5/28/23. As the editor suggested in a previous note on this blog, "Ezra Klein: the public intellectual as AI critic", Klein is brilliant and well informed; but he is not an AI expert, so his incisive comments illuminate the limits of what can be understood about large language models (LLMs) and other AI technologies by non-experts.

Developing reliable specialized large language models (LLMs) for the multi billion dollar online/hybrid education market

Last update: Friday 5/12/23 

Why did OpenAI release ChatGPT with the GPT-3.5 model, then with GPT-4, even though both models were prone to factual errors, bias, and "hallucinations". Open AI claimed that it did so, even at the risk of being banned in some countries (e.g., Italy temporarily), in order to learn from widespread user experience with the flawed models. 

Ezra Klein: the public intellectual as AI critic

Last update: Sunday 4/23/23

 

According to Wikipedia, "The term public intellectual "describes the intellectual participating in the public-affairs discourse of society, in addition to an academic career." The editor of this blog frequently cites Wikipedia definitions of important concepts, but he was surprised and disappointed by the narrow academic focus of its definition in this case. Ezra Klein is not a tenured professor in a university and does not have a PhD, the union card usually required for admission to tenure. But neither did Walter Lippmann, one of this nation's first and most eminent public intellectuals 

The Neoskeptics editor asked the GPT-4 Oracle: "What's the next big thing after Large Language Models (LLMs)?" -- DRAFT

Last update: Saturday 4/15/23 

Once again, the editor of this blog has asked the GPT-4 oracle to look into its crystal ball. Of course, an LLM can't analyze anything or predict anything; but it should be able to produce a plausible distillation of the consensus of opinions among the small community of experts who have published the most papers on the Internet that addressed the issues raised by his questions. Like millions of other "well informed" people, the editor had been surprised, nay flabbergasted by the sudden appearance of ChatGPT last fall running GPT-3.5, and again a few weeks ago when the new GPT-4 model was introduced. 

ChatGPT's response to our 3rd question: "What do I have to learn in order to become a competent user of applications based on large language models?"

Last update: Monday 4/10/23 

On 4/10/23 the editor of this blog posed the question in the title of this note to ChatGPT running its GPT-4 model.  In the editor's opinion, the chatbot's detailed response lays out a realistic learning program; it is not a "hallucination".

Note that this is the editor's second revision of a question he originally posed to ChatGPT on 4/8/23, revised yet again because this third version is a simpler, more effective "prompt" to ChatGPT to produce guidance for obtaining the knowledge and skills that most non-AI experts really want ... :-)

"Pandemic Survivor" -- Does anybody still watch that show?

Last update: Tuesday 7/26/22 

Is that show still on? Does anybody really watch it anymore? I haven't watched since last Christmas. Who are the main characters now? Remember way back in 2020 when  "Masks" and "Other Mitigations" were the good guys and we all tuned in every week to watch them flatten the curves?... "Masks" and "Other Mitigations" were pushed out in early 2021 by "Vaccines" and "Herd Immunity". When ratings began to sag, CDC Productions replaced them with bad guys, "Delta" and "Breakthroughs". Nobody like them, so CDC tried to bring back "Masks"and "Other Mitigations", which didn't work out. After Christmas they replaced "Delta" with "Omicron". He was supposed to be a good guy because he was less lethal than Delta, yet somehow he killed more people. I remember feeling confused and bored and suddenly noticed that I had gained 15 pounds from watching too much TV; so I decided to go out more and get more exercise and fresh air. That's when I learned that Netflix announced that it would cancel its contract with CDC Productions before the fall 2022 season began. Meanwhile, is anybody still watching the show?

Biden says Americans should decide for themselves whether to wear masks or not

Last update: Wednesday 4/20/22 

Here's the first paragraph of an article in the NY Times on 4/19/22. "President Biden said on Tuesday that Americans should decide for themselves whether to wear masks, undercutting efforts by his administration to urge Americans to keep wearing face coverings on airplanes, trains and buses even after a federal judge struck down a nationwide mask mandate on public transport."

Maybe it's time to #DefundTheCDC

Last update: Wednesday 2/16/22

We don't propose to literally shut down all of the CDC's operations. Our intention is to impose a pause on the CDC's issuance of new guidance while Omicron's current surge subsides in most states. Ideally the CDC should be an agile developer of reliable public policy; but too often its guidance has been too early, then flip-flopped, or too late to have substantial impact. 

Some merry happy seasons greetings

 

... Merry Xmas!!!

...... Seasons Greetings!!!

......... Happy New Year!!!

We wished everyone a Happy New Year two years ago 

    and look what happened in 2020 #!@!#

We wished everyone a Happy New Year last year 

    and look what happened in 2021 #!@!#

Although everyone knows that the third time is the charm, 

   we're hedging our bets this year. 

         So here's to wishing that you won't have to learn more than 

         two new letters in the Greek alphabet in 2022 ... :-)

‘Go out there and enjoy Halloween,’ Dr. Fauci says ... Oh, really???

Last update: Sunday 10/10/21

“This is a time that children love,” Dr. Fauci said according to the NY Times. "It’s a very important part of the year for children.” Yes, kids love Halloween, even kids who live in apartment buildings love Halloween, kids who knock on every apartment door, indoors not outdoors, crying "Trick or Treat!" ... kids who live in urban neighborhoods where every "house" is an apartment building, knocking on every door until someone opens the door ... not wearing a mask ... breathing on the kids in the hallway outside their apartment ... where aerosols float freely throughout the night ... Happy Halloween!!!  ... One piece of advice for every child in every kind of neighborhood -- suburban, rural and, oh yes, urban -- because, as per so many previous guidelines from the nation's pandemic pundits, one size fits all, right??? ... Now that's scary, really scary... :-(

Winning and losing pandemic wars

Last update: Wednesday 2/24/21

 

There seems to be widespread agreement that the primary goal of our total war against the coronavirus is to save as many lives as possible. This is not surprising given the fact that we have allowed health care experts, i.e., doctors and other medical specialists, to oversee our war efforts. 

Climate change and the necessary American socialist response

Last update: Friday 7/27/18

This note recalls an historic strategy that could be used for coping with climate change. It does not provide statistical estimates of the scale and scope of the required strategy because it's not written for readers who don't accept the reality of climate change. Readers who do accept this inconvenient truth will presumably have their own particular array of statistics on which they base their beliefs. So the note proceeds from there.

Pork in the Treetops

It's late (1:12 am) on Tuesday 9/2/14, but just as I was logging off I checked my email for the last time today. There, as usual, was "stuff" from the Obama political machine -- which I usually delete right after reading the "subject" because it is invariably a prelude to an hysterical plea for donations. 

Memories of a Racist Serial Killer -- Repressed and Obsessed

Last updated: Sunday 1/21/14 @ 5:34 pm

This is a very personal note, a memoir about scary events that happened back in 1975, memories that were, evidently, so disturbing that I have repressed them for 39 years.

Black Nephews vs. Black Daddies

This Sunday's New York Times Magazine carried an article "Data You Can Believe In" (Jim Rutenberg, 6/23/13) that gushes about how a gaggle of young number crunchers were responsible for identifying Obama's wavering supporters in the 2012 campaign, then targeting torrents of media messages to these waverers with high precision and minimum cost, thereby ensuring Governor's Romney's defeat.