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2023-05-17

Sam Altman goes before US Congress to propose licenses for building AI

  • OpenAI CEO Sam Altman expresses concern about the use of AI to interfere with election integrity and calls for regulation and guidelines to be put in place.
  • Altman suggests that the U.S. consider the implementation of licensing and testing requirements for development of AI models and believes a model that can manipulate a person's beliefs should be subject to a "great threshold" for licensing.
  • Altman also believes that companies should have the right to refuse the use of their data for AI training, but material on the public web should be fair game.

Industry Reactions

  • There is ongoing debate on AI regulation and safety, with some suggesting the potential for extreme outcomes and others proposing approaches such as public registration requirements for training data and model.
  • The primary concern is the need for a democratic and transparent approach to regulation, with focus on ensuring safety once AIs are widely used, and considering potential impacts on public infrastructure and employment.

JPMorgan Chase and Co tracks employees to dystopian extents

  • JPMorgan Chase & Co's employee surveillance tool called WADU has raised concerns among employees and potential hires. The AI & machine learning system uses facial and speech recognition to track employees and monitor non-verbal body language in real-time.
  • Upper management prefers employees to work in the office to refine the WADU profiles, even if employees may be more productive working from home.
  • JPMorgan Chase's WADU program collects a vast amount of data on employees, including monitoring keystrokes, mouse clicks, cameras, and microphones, alerting managers if specific content is detected. Concerns have been raised about the program's extreme surveillance tactics.

Industry Reactions

  • Critics argue that such measures represent an invasion of privacy and raise concerns about employee productivity and well-being, while others suggest these technologies are common in the banking industry and mandated by regulators.
  • The post sparks discussion about workplace surveillance, the use of metrics to measure productivity, and the pressure to constantly work, with concerns about privacy breaches and negative impacts on employee well-being.

Widely used chemical strongly linked to Parkinson's disease

  • Exposure to the chemical solvent trichloroethylene (TCE) increases the risk of Parkinson's disease, according to an epidemiological study published in JAMA Neurology.
  • Veterans who trained at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina from 1975 to 1985 and were exposed to water with high concentrations of TCE had a 70% higher risk of developing Parkinson's disease compared to those who trained elsewhere.
  • TCE is a colorless liquid used mainly to produce refrigerants and as a degreaser in heavy industry. It is highly persistent in soil and groundwater, detectable in food, and present in up to one-third of US drinking water.

Industry Reactions

  • The chemical was once common in various applications, including decaffeinated coffee and as an anesthetic for children and women in labor, but its use is now highly restricted.
  • TCE persists in soil and groundwater, and while it is not detectable in most retail products, it is detectable in up to one-third of US drinking water.

Apple previews Live Speech, Personal Voice, and more new accessibility features

  • Apple previews new software features for users with cognitive, vision, hearing, and mobility accessibility.
  • Assistive Access, Live Speech, and Personal Voice will be released later this year to increase ease and independence for users with cognitive disabilities.
  • Point and Speak in Magnifier, a feature that helps users with vision disabilities interact with physical objects, has been introduced.

Industry Reactions

  • Apple's plan to move LLM models like GPT to the edge and offer complete privacy with its silicone architecture puts it in a good position to compete with other big tech companies' cloud-based AI offerings and sets it apart in users' eyes as a champion of privacy.
  • Apple has announced new accessibility features, including Personal Voice, Assistive Access, eye tracking, and limited mobility features, that make everyday technology accessible and user-friendly for everyone and shows that narratives matter as a counterweight to the fear surrounding AI and automation.

A guidance language for controlling LLMs

  • Guidance is a new program for controlling Language Model Controllers, with efficient language model control, API-based chat models, and smart seed-based generation caching.
  • Guidance offers rich output structures, including multiple generations, selections, conditionals, and tool-use. It also has a guarantee of valid syntax with JSON, role-based chat model examples, and a unified API based on role tags.
  • Guidance acceleration optimizes Key/Value caches, removing token boundary biases, and improving inference performance.

Industry Reactions

  • The concern of prompt injection attacks is raised.
  • Microsoft has also released a new Python-based framework called Guidance, which facilitates the use of large language models (LLMs) and provides developers leverage over other tools in their machine learning toolkit.

The Sourdough Framework

  • The Sourdough Framework is an open-source book that provides a framework for making the best sourdough bread at home
  • The book gives information on the natural fermentation process with scientific references to help bakers in different environments
  • The book can be built locally or downloaded in PDF, EPUB, MOBI, or AZW3 versions, and readers can contribute to improving the book via Github or donate to support the author.

Industry Reactions

  • The project called "Open Sourdough" aims to make baking bread accessible by documenting the process with Git and Docker, but some sections might need more clarity.
  • Several tips for successful sourdough baking were shared, such as using a fridge for storage, measuring ingredients by weight, and using a Dutch oven.

Bun 0.6

  • The release of Bun 0.6 features a built-in JavaScript and TypeScript bundler and minifier for bundling frontend apps or bundling code to a standalone executable.
  • Bun's new JavaScript bundler is just the beginning of a larger project to launch Bun.App, a "super-API" that combines Bun's native-speed bundler, HTTP server, and file system router into a cohesive whole.
  • Other improvements include faster writeFile() on Linux, bug fixes to Node.js and Web API compatibility, support for TypeScript 5.0 syntax, improvements to bun test, and transpiler improvements.

Industry Reactions

  • Review suggests that a "hello world" size of 90MB is problematic for some commenters, while others perceive the size as less relevant to end-users.
  • Comparison to PyInstaller and GraalVM Native Images indicate smaller sizes for Python and Java, respectively.

Seaflooding

  • Seaflooding is a method to combat rising sea levels caused by climate change while providing economic benefits and new habitats.
  • The Dead Sea and the Qattara Depression in Egypt are potential locations for seaflooding due to existing infrastructure and low-lying position.
  • Seaflooding has been done before in the Mediterranean and can serve as a successful case study for future projects.

Industry Reactions

  • Concerns raised regarding unknown environmental harm and potential ecosystem collapse
  • Proposal to fill the Qattara Depression in Egypt with seawater could generate hydroelectricity and alleviate desertification, but faces technical and socio-political obstacles.

CS 61B Data Structures, Spring 2023 UC Berkeley

  • CS 61B Data Structures course is offering a spring session in 2023 with instructors Josh Hug and Justin Yokota.
  • Updated policies on Project 2B partnership cases and extensions are available on Ed, and a Project 2B party will be held on March 22nd.
  • Synchronous and asynchronous help from staff members will not be offered over the spring break from March 25th to April 2nd.

Industry Reactions

  • Taking the course provides a well-organized structure and delivery of the material, with video lessons available.
  • Learning data structures and algorithms is important for becoming a proficient contributor in the industry and for better engineering design, as it is a fundamental subject in computer science commonly used in industry interviews.

Farmland practices are driving bird population decline across Europe

  • This website is best experienced by visiting the website directly.
  • Please visit the website to read the article.

Industry Reactions

  • The need is for a push towards agroforestry, holistic grazing practices, and regenerative agriculture that deliver high yields and also improve CO2 sequestration and habitat creation.
  • Measures may need to be put in place to regulate land use to prevent over-reliance on destructive farming practices.