2023-07-28
Wow. AI safety researchers show it is possible to create targeted adversarial attacks on LLMs by appending specific characters to the prompt. These are akin to similar adversarial attacks on image recognition and may be impossible to protect against. https://llm-attacks.org/ [image]
New York Times
Researchers: the guardrails on ChatGPT, Bard, and Claude can be bypassed by adding a long suffix of characters to prompts, generating false and toxic responses
Cade Metz / New York Times :
2023-01-22
Amazon's staff cuts are hitting its longer-term bets harder, including its ambitious drone delivery service, launching just now after 10 years developments. One of those forecasts which might still play out, but over the very long term rather than soon. https://www.cnbc.com/...
CNBC
A look at Amazon's nascent drone delivery unit, which has struggled due to crashes and other safety issues and now faces layoffs and other cost-cutting measures
Annie Palmer / CNBC :
2022-10-18
Interesting stats in an @Adobe survey of how part-time creators monetize. I doubt this is representative, many online monetizers are making very little, but shows the energy in content as a career, with half of Gen Z preferring this to education. Link in https://news.adobe.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Variety
May 2022 survey of non-professional creators in nine regions: 48% monetize content, including 53% in the US; 77% of those who monetize started in the past year
Todd Spangler / Variety :
2022-08-15
“I think there's no doubt that 90% of what the brain does is self-supervised learning,” Nice piece in @QuantaMagazine on the science comparing brain functioning with self-supervising AI learning, potentially to build an encompassing model of learning. https://www.quantamagazine.org/ ...
Quanta Magazine
Some computational neuroscientists say self-supervised AI learning models have shown a closer correspondence to brain function than supervised-learning models
2022-08-01
Virtual influencers are becoming massive, especially in China, where it's a $16bn industry. Behind them are not just AI, but a horde of overworked motion capture actors who are sometimes going off-script. https://restofworld.org/...
Rest of World
Inside China's $16B virtual influencer industry, as motion capture actors complain of hard working conditions powering their avatars four to five hours per day
It's really about the Pacific, but Taiwan stands in the way. Art: Mark Corry. Tweets: Ross Dawson / @rossdawson : Virtual influencers are becoming massive, especially in China, wh...
2022-07-14
Unity, share price -70% this year to a value of $12bn, is merging with app monetisation platform Ironsource to broaden their gaming industry base. Unity still makes losses despite its presence and obvious potential, this merger helps get it into the black https://techcrunch.com/...
TechCrunch
Unity plans to merge with app monetization service ironSource, valued at $4.4B in the all-stock deal; Silver Lake and Sequoia will invest $1B after the merger
2022-07-13
Unity, share price -70% this year to a value of $12bn, is merging with app monetisation platform Ironsource to broaden their gaming industry base. Unity still makes losses despite its presence and obvious potential, this merger helps get it into the black https://techcrunch.com/...
TechCrunch
Unity to merge with app monetization service Ironsource, valued at $4.4B in the all-stock deal; Silver Lake, Sequoia will invest $1B in Unity after the merger
Update: the companies have confirmed the news here. IronSource is being valued at $4.4 billion in the all-stock deal.
2022-05-08
Really nice piece about @engineered_arts, the current leader in realistic androids (based in Cornwall, making it one of the interesting startups most remote from traditional startup centers) and how people are responding to human-like machines. https://www.theverge.com/...
The Verge
Inside Engineered Arts, a UK-based company making humanoid robots for entertainment and education that can emote and respond to passersby with preset banter
a UK company trying to cross the uncanny valley https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/... James Vincent / @jjvincent : Humanoid bots aren't good at replacing humans (no ...
2022-04-25
In a first in China, Guangzhou has granted a license for 100 autonomous taxis. All slower than originally expected, but there will be more of this in more countries. https://www.cnbc.com/...
CNBC
Robotaxi startup Pony.ai announces that Guangzhou granted the company a license to operate 100 self-driving cars as traditional taxis in the Chinese city
Evelyn Cheng / CNBC :
2022-03-16
Human + robot restaurant service Food service robotics company @bearrobotics raises $81m to build robots that support human waiters. Their robots have already delivered 28 million meals. https://techcrunch.com/... https://twitter.com/...
TechCrunch
Bear Robotics, which makes robots that serve food in restaurants like Chili's, raises a $81M Series B led by IMM, bringing its total funding to $117M
Brian Heater / TechCrunch :
2022-02-25
The rise of cryptocurrencies including central bank digital currencies means that US sanctions power is substantially reduced. There was talk of cutting Russia off from SWIFT. Now there are alternatives to traditional payments systems. In @nytimes https://www.nytimes.com/...
Reuters
Sources: Ukraine is asking for volunteers from its hacker community to protect critical infrastructure and conduct cyber spying missions against Russian troops
The government of Ukraine is asking for volunteers from the country's hacker underground to help protect critical infrastructure …
The rise of cryptocurrencies including central bank digital currencies means that US sanctions power is substantially reduced. There was talk of cutting Russia off from SWIFT. Now there are alternatives to traditional payments systems. In @nytimes https://www.nytimes.com/...
New York Times
Experts say Russia could use cryptocurrency tools to lessen the impact of US sanctions, including a forthcoming digital ruble and spoils from ransomware attacks
or Russia Allison Morrow / CNN : Financial sanctions are easier than ever for Russians to evade. Thank Bitcoin Jessica Sier / Australian Financial Review : Russia could use crypto ...
2022-02-22
The US Copyright Office has rejected a request to let an AI copyright a work of art, saying that “the nexus between the human mind and creative expression” is a vital element of copyright. More to play out here in attributing ownership to AI creativity https://www.theverge.com/...
The Verge
The US Copyright Office rejects a request to grant a copyright to a work of art created by an AI, as the image didn't include an element of “human authorship”
Adi Robertson / The Verge : Source: US Copyright Office .
2022-02-03
DeepMind has created an AI system that ranks in the top half of coders when tested against coding challenges used in human competitions. These were discrete, though challenging tasks, the next step is more open-ended projects. https://www.theverge.com/...
The Verge
DeepMind details AlphaCode, a new AI coding engine that it says “writes computer programs at a competitive level”
2021-11-29
Really nice piece in @wired on the state of direct brain input - not using thoughts to control the world but evoking sight and sensations in people's minds - and the many challenges that mean it will be a slow journey. https://www.wired.com/...
Wired
A look at efforts to develop brain-computer interfaces, including Musk's Neuralink and a DARPA program to build a 64,000-electrode array for brain implants
2021-11-24
UK online therapy service Ieso has raised US$53m to leverage 10 years of data on trained psychologists providing text therapy for 80,000 patients, correlated to patient outcomes, into building AI-based chat support for mental health issues. Whaddya think? https://techcrunch.com/...
TechCrunch
UK-based mental health provider Ieso raises a $53M Series B as it plans to use its real-life therapy session data to fuel AI-powered text-based therapy
Emma Betuel / TechCrunch :
2021-11-23
Uber Eats becomes Uber Smokes In Ontario, Canada, you can now order cannabis on the Uber Eats app, but for now only for in-person pickup. Next step home delivery of your cannabis, which Uber says will increase road safety... https://www.axios.com/...
Reuters
Uber Eats will let users in Ontario, Canada order cannabis on its app for pickup, marking Uber's first foray into the weed market
but you have to go and pick it up Kim Lyons / The Verge : Uber Eats will let you order weed in Ontario but won't deliver Shawna Chen / Axios : Cannabis orders are now available on ...
2021-11-02
Facebook has developed a suite of tactile technologies that will impart a sense of touch into robots. It's a critical development in robotics, that Meta is driving this shows the scope of their ambitions. https://www.engadget.com/...
Engadget
Facebook AI unveils open source tactile tech, including ReSkin, a robot “skin”, and DIGIT, a high-resolution fingertip sensors to give robots a sense of touch
to help teach the robot - Cheap: < $6 per unit @ 100 units https://ai.facebook.com/... https://twitter.com/... Matt Beane / @mattbeane : This is the kind of thing that shows that F...
2021-06-20
Beautiful and inspiring story of how Argentina's netbook program, giving extremely basic computers to low-income children, helped spark a generation of musicians as they hacked their way around the device's limitations. https://restofworld.org/...
Rest of World
How an Argentinian govt. program that issued netbooks to 4M low-income students from 2011 to 2015 helped indirectly create a new generation of teen musicians
Working-class teens turned junked machines into musical instruments. — • BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA Tweets: @rossdawson , @restofworld , @thatericalper , @sub8u , @restofworld , @re...
2021-04-11
Venture funding in the U.S. hit $64bn in Q1, the highest amount ever for a single quarter and equal to 43% of all the venture money raised in 2020. Lots of mega-rounds: 183 over $100m. Deal-making faster, tech in the ascendancy. https://www.cnbc.com/... https://twitter.com/...
CNBC
Ernst & Young: venture funding in the US hit $64B in Q1, the highest amount ever for a single quarter and equal to 43% of all the venture money raised in 2020
Ari Levy / CNBC :