Society's Backend
Weekly Backend #5: 55 Resources
The inner workings of transformers, Machine Learning Q and AI, machine learning classifies harmful...
an hour ago
The inner workings of transformers, Machine Learning Q and AI, machine learning classifies harmful viruses, and more
Artificial Ignorance
AI Roundup 065: The gpt2-chatbot mystery
May 3, 2024.
2 hours ago
One Useful Thing
Freeing the chatbot
Intelligence, of a sort, is going to be all around us
yesterday
Intelligence, of a sort, is going to be all around us
Artificial Ignorance
Tutorial: How to streamline your writing process with Whisper and GPT-4
These Python scripts help me write 3x faster and go from loose ideas to first draft in minutes.
2 days ago
These Python scripts help me write 3x faster and go from loose ideas to first draft in minutes.
Society's Backend
What you need to understand about LLM creativity
An simple overview of temperature and its effect on LLM output
3 days ago
An simple overview of temperature and its effect on LLM output
AI Snake Oil
AI leaderboards are no longer useful. It's time to switch to Pareto curves.
What spending $2,000 can tell us about evaluating AI agents
3 days ago
What spending $2,000 can tell us about evaluating AI agents
Society's Backend
Weekly Backend #4: 62 Total Resources
Apple’s LLM OpenELM, GPT-4-Turbo, Phi-3, Grok-1.5 Vision, and more
a week ago
Apple’s LLM OpenELM, GPT-4-Turbo, Phi-3, Grok-1.5 Vision, and more
Artificial Ignorance
AI Roundup 064: Big Tech's small models
April 26, 2024.
a week ago
Society's Backend
Things Everyone Should Understand About the Stanford AI Index Report
And my notes on why they’re important
a week ago
And my notes on why they’re important
Matt Mazur
It’s Time to Build
It’s been a few months so I wanted to say hey to the 7 of you who follow this blog and share a few...
a week ago
It’s been a few months so I wanted to say hey to the 7 of you who follow this blog and share a few updates about what I’ve been up to. Quick recap At the start of 2023 I quit consulting to go full time on Preceden, my SaaS timeline maker, after growing it on … Continue reading...
One Useful Thing
Innovation through prompting
Democratizing educational technology... and more
a week ago
Democratizing educational technology... and more
Artificial Ignorance
AI Roundup 063: Llama 3
April 19, 2024.
2 weeks ago
Society's Backend
Why Rust Isn't Killing C++
And a consideration for choosing a language
2 weeks ago
And a consideration for choosing a language
Artificial Ignorance
Who in their right mind would do an AI hardware startup
From megaFLOPS to mega flops.
2 weeks ago
From megaFLOPS to mega flops.
Society's Backend
Know Your Benchmarks
How the Chatbot Arena leaderboard for LLMs works and why it’s important to understand
2 weeks ago
How the Chatbot Arena leaderboard for LLMs works and why it’s important to understand
Artificial Ignorance
AI Roundup 062: Data is the new oil
April 12, 2024.
3 weeks ago
AI Snake Oil
AI Snake Oil is now available to preorder
What artificial intelligence can do, what it can't, and how to tell the difference
3 weeks ago
What artificial intelligence can do, what it can't, and how to tell the difference
One Useful Thing
What just happened, what is happening next
The tasks AI can do well are expanding rapidly
3 weeks ago
The tasks AI can do well are expanding rapidly
Weighty Thoughts
What is Defensibility?
Back to basics for AI startups and others
3 weeks ago
Back to basics for AI startups and others
Artificial Ignorance
AI Roundup 061: The AI innovator's dilemma
April 5, 2024.
4 weeks ago
AI Snake Oil
Tech policy is only frustrating 90% of the time
That’s what makes it worthwhile
4 weeks ago
That’s what makes it worthwhile
Artificial Ignorance
YCombinator's AI boom is still going strong (W24)
Combing through all 158 YC AI startups (65% of the batch).
a month ago
Combing through all 158 YC AI startups (65% of the batch).
Society's Backend
Run Your Own Race
What Bluey can teach us about machine learning
a month ago
What Bluey can teach us about machine learning
One Useful Thing
On the necessity of a sin
Why treating AI like a person is the future
a month ago
Why treating AI like a person is the future
Society's Backend
Backend Biweekly #3: 97 Updates and Resources
Huge Nvidia Updates, Gemini Hackathon for Money, and more
a month ago
Huge Nvidia Updates, Gemini Hackathon for Money, and more
Artificial Ignorance
AI Roundup 060: Another CEO gone
March 29, 2024.
a month ago
Society's Backend
Why Gemini's Struggles Aren't Straightforward
And an overview of LLM security issues
a month ago
And an overview of LLM security issues
Weighty Thoughts
CUDA is Still a Giant Moat for NVIDIA
Despite everyone’s focus on hardware, the software of AI is what protects NVIDIA
a month ago
Despite everyone’s focus on hardware, the software of AI is what protects NVIDIA
Artificial Ignorance
AI Roundup 059: In̶f̶l̶e̶c̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ Microsoft AI
March 22, 2023.
a month ago
The Berkeley...
Modeling Extremely Large Images with $x$T
As computer vision researchers, we believe that every pixel can tell a story. However, there seems...
a month ago
As computer vision researchers, we believe that every pixel can tell a story. However, there seems to be a writer’s block settling into the field when it comes to dealing with large images. Large images are no longer rare—the cameras we carry in our pockets and those orbiting our...
Artificial Ignorance
States are racing ahead of Congress to regulate deepfakes
Several states just banned deepfakes in political ads and porn.
a month ago
Several states just banned deepfakes in political ads and porn.
Society's Backend
Devin Has Exposed a Major Issue with Software Engineering
And isn't that we're all going to lose our jobs
a month ago
And isn't that we're all going to lose our jobs
One Useful Thing
Which AI should I use? Superpowers and the State of Play
And then there were three...
a month ago
And then there were three...
Artificial Ignorance
AI Roundup 058: Devin and SIMA
March 15, 2023.
a month ago
Society's Backend
Backend Biweekly #2: 112 Total Updates and Resources
Details on Metas training clusters, analysis of ML competitions in 2023, AI's impact on water...
a month ago
Details on Metas training clusters, analysis of ML competitions in 2023, AI's impact on water resources, and more
One Useful Thing
I, Cyborg: Using Co-Intelligence
How I used AI in my book about AI
a month ago
How I used AI in my book about AI
Artificial Ignorance
The subscriptionization of AI
Navigating the paid AI landscape.
a month ago
Navigating the paid AI landscape.
AI Snake Oil
AI safety is not a model property
Trying to make an AI model that can’t be misused is like trying to make a computer that can’t be...
a month ago
Trying to make an AI model that can’t be misused is like trying to make a computer that can’t be used for bad things
Society's Backend
Why Machine Learning Technical Debt is Especially Bad
And effective ways to mitigate it
a month ago
And effective ways to mitigate it
The Berkeley...
2024 BAIR Graduate Directory
Every year, the Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research (BAIR) Lab graduates some of the most...
a month ago
Every year, the Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research (BAIR) Lab graduates some of the most talented and innovative minds in artificial intelligence and machine learning. Our Ph.D. graduates have each expanded the frontiers of AI research and are now ready to embark on new...
Artificial Ignorance
AI Roundup 057: Claude 3
March 8, 2024.
a month ago
Weighty Thoughts
Today’s AI critics don’t understand the history of technology
But is AI different than other technologies?
a month ago
But is AI different than other technologies?
Artificial Ignorance
Why Claude 3 is a big upgrade
On Monday, Anthropic released Claude 3, a family of models that hit new highs on various benchmarks,...
a month ago
On Monday, Anthropic released Claude 3, a family of models that hit new highs on various benchmarks, add multi-modal capabilities, and are a real competitor to GPT-4.
Society's Backend
The Metrics Machine Learning Engineers Care About That Modelers Don't
And a brief overview of TPUs in Google data centers
a month ago
And a brief overview of TPUs in Google data centers
AI Snake Oil
A safe harbor for AI evaluation and red teaming
An argument for legal and technical safe harbors for AI safety and trustworthiness research
a month ago
An argument for legal and technical safe harbors for AI safety and trustworthiness research
One Useful Thing
Captain's log: the irreducible weirdness of prompting AIs
Also, we have a prompt library!
2 months ago
Also, we have a prompt library!
Artificial Ignorance
AI Roundup 056: Data deals
March 1, 2024.
2 months ago
Society's Backend
Backend Biweekly #1: Important AI Developments and ML Learning Resources
Updates on Apple, Mistral, and Microsoft and resources to build the GPT tokenizer, use MLX to train...
2 months ago
Updates on Apple, Mistral, and Microsoft and resources to build the GPT tokenizer, use MLX to train models, and benchmark LLMs
Artificial Ignorance
Tutorial: How to narrate video with Sora, GPT-Vision, and ElevenLabs
The future of entertainment is going to be a wild ride.
2 months ago
The future of entertainment is going to be a wild ride.
Society's Backend
Updates to Society's Backend
New benefits for paid subscribers, support Society's Backend for just $1/mo, a referral program, and...
2 months ago
New benefits for paid subscribers, support Society's Backend for just $1/mo, a referral program, and more
AI Snake Oil
On the Societal Impact of Open Foundation Models
Adding precision to the debate on openness in AI
2 months ago
Adding precision to the debate on openness in AI
Rozado’s Visual...
Which is the Wokest AI?
A Wokeness Ranking of LLMs
2 months ago
A Wokeness Ranking of LLMs
Artificial Ignorance
Bridging AI and human creativity
A conversation with Harrison Telyan, co-founder of NUMI.
2 months ago
A conversation with Harrison Telyan, co-founder of NUMI.
Rozado’s Visual...
Artificial Intelligence and Portraits of 17th Century Physicists
The case for customizable AI systems as an alternative to one-size-fits-all AI systems
2 months ago
The case for customizable AI systems as an alternative to one-size-fits-all AI systems
Artificial Ignorance
Groq, Gemini, and 10x improvements
As a programmer and CTO, I've developed a rough rule of thumb when it comes to scaling systems. When...
2 months ago
As a programmer and CTO, I've developed a rough rule of thumb when it comes to scaling systems. When you scale your inputs (users, page views, messages, etc) by 10x, something breaks. Usually, it's something pretty fundamental. And the end result is that you need to replace a...
Society's Backend
Why Machine Learning Terminology is So Confusing
And definitions for the most important terms you should know
2 months ago
And definitions for the most important terms you should know
One Useful Thing
Strategies for an Accelerating Future
Four questions to ask your organization.
2 months ago
Four questions to ask your organization.
The Berkeley...
The Shift from Models to Compound AI Systems
AI caught everyone’s attention in 2023 with Large Language Models (LLMs) that can be instructed to...
2 months ago
AI caught everyone’s attention in 2023 with Large Language Models (LLMs) that can be instructed to perform general tasks, such as translation or coding, just by prompting. This naturally led to an intense focus on models as the primary ingredient in AI application development,...
Artificial Ignorance
AI Roundup 054: Ten million tokens
February 16, 2024.
2 months ago
Society's Backend
Alignment: Understanding the Multi-Billion Dollar Opportunity within Machine Learning
A glimpse into the biggest challenge in the world of AI, why it matters to you, and why it's worth...
2 months ago
A glimpse into the biggest challenge in the world of AI, why it matters to you, and why it's worth so much
Weighty Thoughts
Deep Tech Startups Are Not Software Startups
Or why AI and “Software/SaaS” are apples and oranges
2 months ago
Or why AI and “Software/SaaS” are apples and oranges
Artificial Ignorance
AI Roundup 053: Bye bye Bard
February 9, 2024.
2 months ago
One Useful Thing
Google's Gemini Advanced: Tasting Notes and Implications
And then there were two.
2 months ago
Artificial Ignorance
AI's massive cash needs are Big Tech's chance to own the future
Over the past year, AI startups have raised some impressive amounts of money. OpenAI raised $10...
2 months ago
Over the past year, AI startups have raised some impressive amounts of money. OpenAI raised $10 billion, Anthropic did $6 billion, Inflection AI raised $1.3 billion, and dozens of companies closed rounds in the hundreds of millions.
Society's Backend
I Beat Newsletter Fatigue With AI
And why direct forms of communication will always be super valuable
2 months ago
And why direct forms of communication will always be super valuable
Weighty Thoughts
VC Office Hours
Talk to James Wang, author of Weighty Thoughts and General Partner of Creative Ventures
2 months ago
Talk to James Wang, author of Weighty Thoughts and General Partner of Creative Ventures
Artificial Ignorance
AI Roundup 052: AI, EO, DPA
February 2, 2024.
3 months ago
Rozado’s Visual...
The Political Preferences of LLMs
Substantial political homogeneity in Large Language Models (LLMs) responses to questions with...
3 months ago
Substantial political homogeneity in Large Language Models (LLMs) responses to questions with political connotations
Artificial Ignorance
Lies, damned lies, and benchmarks
While benchmarks (and leaderboards) are useful tools, they are but a small facet when it comes to...
3 months ago
While benchmarks (and leaderboards) are useful tools, they are but a small facet when it comes to evaluating large language models. Often, they're not the best indicators of real-world utility - and I want to dig into why (and what other approaches exist).
One Useful Thing
What Can be Done in 59 Seconds: An Opportunity (and a Crisis)
Five analytical tasks in under a minute
3 months ago
Five analytical tasks in under a minute
Society's Backend
Bridging the Gap from Simple Algebra to Machine Learning
You probably know more about machine learning math than you think
3 months ago
You probably know more about machine learning math than you think
Artificial Ignorance
AI Roundup 051: The Taylor Swift thing
January 26, 2024.
3 months ago
AI Snake Oil
Will AI transform law?
The hype is not supported by current evidence
3 months ago
The hype is not supported by current evidence
Society's Backend
The Step-by-Step Guide to Becoming a Machine Learning Engineer
And other practical guides to understand machine learning
3 months ago
And other practical guides to understand machine learning
AI Snake Oil
Generative AI’s end-run around copyright won’t be resolved by the courts
Output similarity is a distraction
3 months ago
Output similarity is a distraction
Weighty Thoughts
Who’s Winning the AI War?
All of us, except the AI startups and VCs—unless a real war breaks out
3 months ago
All of us, except the AI startups and VCs—unless a real war breaks out
Andrej Karpathy blog
Self-driving as a case study for AGI
Sparked by progress in Large Language Models (LLMs), there’s a lot of chatter recently about AGI,...
3 months ago
Sparked by progress in Large Language Models (LLMs), there’s a lot of chatter recently about AGI, its timelines, and what it might look like. Some of it is hopeful and optimistic, but a lot of it is fearful and doomy, to put it mildly. Unfortunately, a lot of it is also very...
Artificial Ignorance
AI Roundup 050: Synthetic Geometry
January 19, 2024.
3 months ago
Society's Backend
If You Understand Bananas, You Can Understand Machine Learning
A simplified high-level overview of primary machine learning algorithms for anyone to understand
3 months ago
A simplified high-level overview of primary machine learning algorithms for anyone to understand
Matt Mazur
My Indie SaaS Revenue has Grown 37% per Year for 13 Years
Unlike many indie founders, I’ve never shared revenue numbers for Preceden, my SaaS timeline maker...
3 months ago
Unlike many indie founders, I’ve never shared revenue numbers for Preceden, my SaaS timeline maker tool. Even if they were remarkable – which they are not really – I just don’t think there are many good reasons to publicly share revenue numbers, and there are lots of downsides....
One Useful Thing
The Lazy Tyranny of the Wait Calculation
Taking AI timelines seriously
3 months ago
Taking AI timelines seriously
Artificial Ignorance
AI Roundup 049: Down the Rabbit hole
January 12, 2023.
3 months ago
Society's Backend
Clarifying DEI
What makes DEI important and where it fails
3 months ago
What makes DEI important and where it fails
One Useful Thing
Signs and Portents
Some hints about what the next year of AI looks like
3 months ago
Some hints about what the next year of AI looks like
Artificial Ignorance
AI Roundup 048: The Robot Constitution
January 5, 2024.
3 months ago
Weighty Thoughts
What’s coming next for AI in 2024
A long overdue VC apocalypse and the birth of the first real AI companies
3 months ago
A long overdue VC apocalypse and the birth of the first real AI companies
Artificial Ignorance
The AI research tool that saves me hours every week
And why it might revolutionize the search industry.
4 months ago
And why it might revolutionize the search industry.
Matt Mazur
Is the ChatGPT API Refusing to Summarize Academic Papers? Not so fast.
Yesterday on X, I shared a post about some responses I was getting from the ChatGPT 3.5 API...
4 months ago
Yesterday on X, I shared a post about some responses I was getting from the ChatGPT 3.5 API indicating that it was refusing to summarize arXiv papers: There has been a lot of discussion recently about the perceived decrease in the quality of ChatGPT’s responses and seeing...
Society's Backend
Welcome to 2024: The Year Where AI is No Longer an Option
Why everyone should learn about machine learning
4 months ago
Why everyone should learn about machine learning
Matt Mazur
Reflecting on My First Year as a Full Time Indie Founder
At the beginning of 2023 I went full time on Preceden, my SaaS timeline maker business, after 13...
4 months ago
At the beginning of 2023 I went full time on Preceden, my SaaS timeline maker business, after 13 years of working on it on the side. A year has passed, so I wanted to share an update on how things are going and some lessons learned. Preceden My main focus in 2023 was building AI...
Artificial Ignorance
AI Roundup 047: NYT v. OpenAI
Friday, December 29.
4 months ago
Society's Backend
Positioning Myself: The Greatest Piece of Career Advice I've Ever Received
And how it changed my personal life too
4 months ago
And how it changed my personal life too
Artificial Ignorance
AI Roundup 046: AI has a CSAM problem
December 22, 2023.
4 months ago
Sam Altman
What I Wish Someone Had Told Me
Optimism, obsession, self-belief, raw horsepower and personal connections are how things get...
4 months ago
Optimism, obsession, self-belief, raw horsepower and personal connections are how things get started.
Cohesive teams, the right combination of calmness and urgency, and unreasonable commitment are how things get finished. Long-term orientation is in short supply; try not to worry...
Artificial Ignorance
Who's winning the AI arms race?
It depends whether AI is a "disruptive" or "sustaining" technology.
4 months ago
It depends whether AI is a "disruptive" or "sustaining" technology.
Society's Backend
Machine Learning Infrastructure: The Bridge Between Software Engineering and AI
What makes machine learning infra so important and why I find it so interesting
4 months ago
What makes machine learning infra so important and why I find it so interesting
One Useful Thing
An AI Haunted World
Intelligence, everywhere.
4 months ago
Intelligence, everywhere.
AI Snake Oil
Are open foundation models actually more risky than closed ones?
A policy brief on open foundation models
4 months ago
A policy brief on open foundation models
Artificial Ignorance
AI Roundup 045: Google's just getting started
December 15, 2023.
4 months ago
Matt Mazur
Running Mistral 7B Instruct on a Macbook
Similar to yesterday’s post on running Mistral 8x7Bs Mixture of Experts (MOE) model, I wanted to...
4 months ago
Similar to yesterday’s post on running Mistral 8x7Bs Mixture of Experts (MOE) model, I wanted to document the steps I took to run Mistral’s 7B-Instruct-v0.2 model on a Mac for anyone else interested in playing around with it. Unlike yesterday’s post though, this 7B Instruct...
Artificial Ignorance
10 of the most impactful AI stories of 2023
A quick look back on a very busy year in AI.
4 months ago
A quick look back on a very busy year in AI.
Society's Backend
You Are What You Eat: Digital Edition
Why who you follow is more important than who follows you
4 months ago
Why who you follow is more important than who follows you
fast.ai
A new old kind of R&D lab
Answer.AI is a new kind of AI R&D lab which creates practical end-user products based on...
4 months ago
Answer.AI is a new kind of AI R&D lab which creates practical end-user products based on foundational research breakthroughs.
Rozado’s Visual...
The political preferences of Grok
Elon Musk's response to ChatGPT
4 months ago
Elon Musk's response to ChatGPT
Artificial Ignorance
AI Roundup 044: Google Gemini
December 8, 2023.
4 months ago
Weighty Thoughts
The Mystical Q
OpenAI Q*, Primer on Reinforcement Learning, and Implications
4 months ago
OpenAI Q*, Primer on Reinforcement Learning, and Implications
One Useful Thing
An Opinionated Guide to Which AI to Use: ChatGPT Anniversary Edition
A simple answer, and then a less simple one.
4 months ago
A simple answer, and then a less simple one.
Artificial Ignorance
The ideologies fighting for the soul (and future) of AI
EAs, e/accs, decels, and doomers.
4 months ago
EAs, e/accs, decels, and doomers.
Society's Backend
Always Be Networking
The things you should know about effective networking
5 months ago
The things you should know about effective networking
Artificial Ignorance
AI Roundup 043: Happy birthday, ChatGPT
December 1, 2023.
5 months ago
AI Snake Oil
Model alignment protects against accidental harms, not intentional ones
The hand wringing about failures of model alignment is misguided
5 months ago
The hand wringing about failures of model alignment is misguided
Artificial Ignorance
The Industrial Content Revolution
A fundamental change in the structure the internet.
5 months ago
A fundamental change in the structure the internet.
Rozado’s Visual...
DepolarizingGPT
A Political Chatbot that Gives 3 Politically Diverse Answers to Every Prompt
5 months ago
A Political Chatbot that Gives 3 Politically Diverse Answers to Every Prompt
Society's Backend
Mastering the Art of Documentation
Documentation is really just glorified dog sitting
5 months ago
Documentation is really just glorified dog sitting
One Useful Thing
Reshaping the tree: rebuilding organizations for AI
Technological change brings organizational change.
5 months ago
Technological change brings organizational change.
Artificial Ignorance
AI Roundup 042: sama drama
November 24, 2023.
5 months ago
Society's Backend
An Overview of Text Summarization Methods from Simple to Complex
We went through a bit of a rebrand. Let me know what you think about Society’s Backend’s new color...
5 months ago
We went through a bit of a rebrand. Let me know what you think about Society’s Backend’s new color scheme and logo! :) - Logan I've been researching text summarization methods for a project I'm working on. Since the advent of Large Language Models (LLMs), LLMs have become a go-to...
One Useful Thing
Not much is changing, a lot is changing
OpenAI, Microsoft, and the OpenOffspring
5 months ago
OpenAI, Microsoft, and the OpenOffspring
Artificial Ignorance
AI Roundup 041: Lyria
November 17, 2023.
5 months ago
Matt Mazur
Emergent Mind in The Atlantic
One of the many people who saw the incorrect Google Quick Answer about Kenya was an editor at The...
5 months ago
One of the many people who saw the incorrect Google Quick Answer about Kenya was an editor at The Atlantic who asked Caroline Mimbs Nyce, one of their reporters, to look into it. Caroline interviewed me for the article they just published which focused on the challenges Google is...
Weighty Thoughts
The AI Executive Order
AKA: “We’ll do something about it later”
5 months ago
AKA: “We’ll do something about it later”
Artificial Ignorance
A stroll through Google's Model Garden
What generative AI capabilities does Google offer to developers?
5 months ago
What generative AI capabilities does Google offer to developers?
Matt Mazur
Exploring ChatGPT’s Knowledge Cutoff
A recurring topic of discussion on the OpenAI forums, on Reddit, and on Twitter is about what...
5 months ago
A recurring topic of discussion on the OpenAI forums, on Reddit, and on Twitter is about what ChatGPT’s knowledge cutoff date actually is. It seems like it should be straightforward enough to figure out (just ask it), but it can be confusing due to ChatGPT’s inconsistent answers...
The Berkeley...
Ghostbuster: Detecting Text Ghostwritten by Large Language Models
The structure of Ghostbuster, our new state-of-the-art method for detecting AI-generated...
5 months ago
The structure of Ghostbuster, our new state-of-the-art method for detecting AI-generated text.
Large language models like ChatGPT write impressively well—so well, in fact, that they’ve become a problem. Students have begun using these models to ghostwrite assignments, leading...
Artificial Ignorance
AI Roundup 040: GPTs
November 10, 2023.
5 months ago
Matt Mazur
Experimenting with GPT-4 Turbo’s JSON mode
One of the many new features announced at yesterday’s OpenAI dev day is better support for...
5 months ago
One of the many new features announced at yesterday’s OpenAI dev day is better support for generating valid JSON output. From the JSON mode docs: A common way to use Chat Completions is to instruct the model to always return JSON in some format that makes sense for your use case,...
Society's Backend
Ask Stupid Questions
I’m convinced that after having a fourth or fifth child exhaustion kicks in and a person’s long-term...
5 months ago
I’m convinced that after having a fourth or fifth child exhaustion kicks in and a person’s long-term memory ceases to function properly. I’ve become victim to this and I’ve started taking very detailed notes during meetings. If my brain won’t store the information, something else...
One Useful Thing
Almost an Agent: What GPTs can do
Also, my book has a cover (also I have a book coming out)
5 months ago
Also, my book has a cover (also I have a book coming out)
Artificial Ignorance
OpenAI’s DevDay: The biggest announcements
New models, new products, and new pricing.
5 months ago
New models, new products, and new pricing.
One Useful Thing
Working with AI: Two paths to prompting
Don't overcomplicate things
6 months ago
Don't overcomplicate things
AI Snake Oil
What the executive order means for openness in AI
Good news on paper, but the devil is in the details
6 months ago
Good news on paper, but the devil is in the details
Society's Backend
Why everyone loves Spider-Man
Lessons anyone can learn from our friendly neighborhood web-crawler
6 months ago
Lessons anyone can learn from our friendly neighborhood web-crawler
Matt Mazur
The Kenya Quick Answer Goes Viral, Again
On Thursday evening Chris Ingraham, a journalist with 100k followers on Twitter, shared a screenshot...
6 months ago
On Thursday evening Chris Ingraham, a journalist with 100k followers on Twitter, shared a screenshot of the now-famous “african country that starts with k” Google Quick Answer, which quickly went viral, garnering over 82k likes and 3 million views as of the time of this writing...
Weighty Thoughts
The Fall of Data Moats
AI actually makes most data moats weaker
6 months ago
AI actually makes most data moats weaker
Artificial Ignorance
AI Roundup 038: Preparedness
October 27, 2023.
6 months ago
Society's Backend
Meet Devansh: Lessons Learned While Building a Community of 193,000 Subscribers
Content creation and networking lessons from a wildly successful freelance tech writer
6 months ago
Content creation and networking lessons from a wildly successful freelance tech writer
One Useful Thing
The Best Available Human Standard
What are the imperatives of the upside?
6 months ago
What are the imperatives of the upside?
Artificial Ignorance
AI Roundup 037: The AI IPCC
October 20, 2023.
6 months ago
Matt Mazur
Preceden’s Spam Problem
Around a year ago, I started noticing some spammy timelines being created on Preceden, my SaaS...
6 months ago
Around a year ago, I started noticing some spammy timelines being created on Preceden, my SaaS timeline maker tool. I’m honestly surprised it took spammers so long: Preceden is a freemium product (meaning people can sign up and try it for free), the product makes it very easy to...
Artificial Ignorance
The AI email startup that's taking on Gmail
A conversation with Andrew Lee, CEO of Shortwave and cofounder of Firebase.
6 months ago
A conversation with Andrew Lee, CEO of Shortwave and cofounder of Firebase.
AI Snake Oil
How Transparent Are Foundation Model Developers?
Introducing the Foundation Model Transparency Index
6 months ago
Introducing the Foundation Model Transparency Index
Society's Backend
I Enjoy Technical Interviews and You Can Too
A simple change in mindset that completely changed the way I interview
6 months ago
A simple change in mindset that completely changed the way I interview
The Berkeley...
Goal Representations for Instruction Following
Goal Representations for Instruction Following
Figure title. Figure caption. This image is...
6 months ago
Goal Representations for Instruction Following
Figure title. Figure caption. This image is centered and set to 50%
page width. -->
A longstanding goal of the field of robot learning has been to create generalist agents that can perform tasks for humans. Natural language has...
Artificial Ignorance
AI Roundup 036: The money pit
October 13, 2023.
6 months ago
One Useful Thing
What people ask me most. Also, some answers.
A FAQ of sorts
6 months ago
Artificial Ignorance
The State of AI Engineering
Notes from the first AI Engineer Summit.
6 months ago
Notes from the first AI Engineer Summit.
Society's Backend
Taking the AI to Consumers
The Google Pixel 8 Pro is a much bigger deal than you think
6 months ago
The Google Pixel 8 Pro is a much bigger deal than you think
Weighty Thoughts
Let’s Talk About AI Compute
What really matters and why AI computing is exactly the same as all other large-scale computing
6 months ago
What really matters and why AI computing is exactly the same as all other large-scale computing
Artificial Ignorance
AI Roundup 035: Me or your lying eyes
October 6, 2023.
7 months ago
AI Snake Oil
Evaluating LLMs is a minefield
Annotated slides from a recent talk
7 months ago
Annotated slides from a recent talk
One Useful Thing
The shape of the shadow of The Thing
We can start to see, dimly, what the near future of AI looks like.
7 months ago
We can start to see, dimly, what the near future of AI looks like.
Society's Backend
An AI Revolution Isn't Coming - We're Already In It
A small showcase of companies using AI in ways that will change your life
7 months ago
A small showcase of companies using AI in ways that will change your life
Matt Mazur
Sharing small, incremental updates with users
I use a service called Headway to keep Preceden users informed about updates to the product. Headway...
7 months ago
I use a service called Headway to keep Preceden users informed about updates to the product. Headway provides a widget I have installed on Preceden to let users know when there have been updates. Users will see a bell with a count of unread items (which Headway keeps track of in...
Artificial Ignorance
AI Roundup 034: Meta Connect
September 29, 2023
7 months ago
Matt Mazur
“Monthly Billed Annually” is Cursed Copy
There was a great discussion on Twitter recently that began with Daniel Vassallo calling out a SaaS...
7 months ago
There was a great discussion on Twitter recently that began with Daniel Vassallo calling out a SaaS for not refunding an accidental annual payment he made on their service. He intended to purchase the monthly plan, but due to an unclear UI and poor copy, he unintentionally...
Artificial Ignorance
Pitfalls of building with large language models
Dealing with more than just hallucinations.
7 months ago
Dealing with more than just hallucinations.
Weighty Thoughts
Most AI startups are doomed
Just because it matters doesn’t mean it’s defensible or profitable
7 months ago
Just because it matters doesn’t mean it’s defensible or profitable
Society's Backend
A Privacy Review: TikTok
You should stick to Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts
7 months ago
You should stick to Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts
One Useful Thing
Everyone is above average
Is AI a Leveler, King Maker, or Escalator?
7 months ago
Is AI a Leveler, King Maker, or Escalator?
Artificial Ignorance
AI Roundup 033: DALL·E 3
September 22, 2023.
7 months ago
AI Snake Oil
Is the future of AI open or closed? Watch today’s Princeton-Stanford workshop
By Sayash Kapoor, Rishi Bommasani, Percy Liang, Arvind Narayanan Perhaps the biggest tech policy...
7 months ago
By Sayash Kapoor, Rishi Bommasani, Percy Liang, Arvind Narayanan Perhaps the biggest tech policy debate today is about the future of AI, especially foundation models and generative AI. Will AI be open or closed? Will we be able to download and modify these models, or will a few...
Artificial Ignorance
The intern and the coach
A recent post from Wharton professor Ethan Mollick shared an impressive new study. In a nutshell, it...
7 months ago
A recent post from Wharton professor Ethan Mollick shared an impressive new study. In a nutshell, it found that BCG consultants who used GPT-4 were up to 43% more effective at tasks vs. employees who didn’t.
Society's Backend
Stop Obsessing Over the Product and Start Thinking About the Bigger Picture
The actual takeaways from the iPhone 15 event
7 months ago
The actual takeaways from the iPhone 15 event
Matt Mazur
Screw it, I’m Keeping Emergent Mind
A few months ago I announced I was going to try to sell Emergent Mind, my AI news aggregator, so I...
7 months ago
A few months ago I announced I was going to try to sell Emergent Mind, my AI news aggregator, so I could focus on Preceden, my SaaS timeline maker. I wound up having a lot of discussions with potential buyers, but in the end the offers I received were either too low to be worth...
Weighty Thoughts
Fear and Loathing in 7nm
How much does Huawei and SMIC's new chip matter? And what should the US do?
7 months ago
How much does Huawei and SMIC's new chip matter? And what should the US do?
One Useful Thing
Centaurs and Cyborgs on the Jagged Frontier
I think we have an answer on whether AIs will reshape work....
7 months ago
I think we have an answer on whether AIs will reshape work....
Artificial Ignorance
AI Roundup 032: The Insight Forum
September 15, 2023.
7 months ago
Society's Backend
Anti-Social Media
How our technology habituates the paradoxical relationship between social media and social isolation
7 months ago
How our technology habituates the paradoxical relationship between social media and social isolation
Artificial Ignorance
AI Roundup 031: Think of the children
September 8, 2023
7 months ago
Society's Backend
A Privacy Review: Google
I read Google's privacy policy for you
7 months ago
I read Google's privacy policy for you
Matt Mazur
Redesigning Preceden’s Pricing Page
Milan (Preceden’s designer) and I recently wrapped up a project to redesign Preceden’s pricing page....
7 months ago
Milan (Preceden’s designer) and I recently wrapped up a project to redesign Preceden’s pricing page. Here’s the previous above-the-fold content: And here’s how the new design turned out: Few things to highlight: Very happy with how it turned out. Kudus to Milan for suggesting we...
AI Snake Oil
One year update: book submitted; TIME 100; Sep 21 online workshop
It's been an eventful year
7 months ago
It's been an eventful year
Artificial Ignorance
Lessons from 139 YC AI startups (S23)
The evolution of the AI landscape, and YC's Copilot era.
8 months ago
The evolution of the AI landscape, and YC's Copilot era.
Society's Backend
How to Know if Your Data is Being Used Maliciously
The information you should know about a company before gifting them your data
8 months ago
The information you should know about a company before gifting them your data
One Useful Thing
Embracing weirdness: What it means to use AI as a (writing) tool
AI is strange. We need to learn to use it.
8 months ago
AI is strange. We need to learn to use it.
fast.ai
Can LLMs learn from a single example?
We’ve noticed an unusual training pattern in fine-tuning LLMs. At first we thought it’s a bug, but...
8 months ago
We’ve noticed an unusual training pattern in fine-tuning LLMs. At first we thought it’s a bug, but now we think it shows LLMs can learn effectively from a single example.
Artificial Ignorance
AI Roundup 030: OpenAI's $1B revenue
September 1, 2023
8 months ago
Matt Mazur
When LTD Purchasers Meet an Inactive User Policy
Last year I participated in a Lifetime Deal (LTD) promotion to offer Preceden to the AppSumo...
8 months ago
Last year I participated in a Lifetime Deal (LTD) promotion to offer Preceden to the AppSumo community. Maybe I’ll dive into my experience there in another post, but I wanted to share an interesting thing that’s happening now, a year after the deal ended. AppSumo has a policy...
Society's Backend
The Slow, Painful Death of the Free Content Creator
It's happening as you read this
8 months ago
It's happening as you read this
Matt Mazur
The Security Questionnaire Dilemma
About once a year I get an email from someone working in a security and compliance department at a...
8 months ago
About once a year I get an email from someone working in a security and compliance department at a large organization asking that I fill out a detailed security questionnaire to help them assess the risk of their employees using Preceden. I received one recently from a large,...
Artificial Ignorance
AI Roundup 029: Hug all the faces
August 25, 2023
8 months ago
Matt Mazur
When you ship a major bug before signing off for the day
For better or worse, I still handle all of Preceden’s support requests. At one I did have help...
8 months ago
For better or worse, I still handle all of Preceden’s support requests. At one I did have help (thanks Liesl!), but these days support takes at most an hour per week, and all requests fall into two buckets: As a result, there hasn’t been a pressing need to outsource support. But...
Society's Backend
The Problem with American Emergency Alerts
In a world of self-driving cars and human-like chatbots, shouldn't the best technologies would be...
8 months ago
In a world of self-driving cars and human-like chatbots, shouldn't the best technologies would be used for life-saving applications?
One Useful Thing
Now is the time for grimoires
It isn't data that will unlock AI, it is human expertise
8 months ago
It isn't data that will unlock AI, it is human expertise
Matt Mazur
Don’t Self Host Unlicensed Proxima Nova Fonts
I’m a big fan of the Proxima Nova font and have been using it on Preceden for years: For a long time...
8 months ago
I’m a big fan of the Proxima Nova font and have been using it on Preceden for years: For a long time I was loading Proxima Nova on Preceden via Typekit (a hosted web font service) for $49.99/year, but at some point I decided to self-host it to avoid the third party request which...
AI Snake Oil
Does ChatGPT have a liberal bias?
A new paper making this claim has many flaws. But the question merits research
8 months ago
A new paper making this claim has many flaws. But the question merits research
Artificial Ignorance
AI Roundup 028: Sunak's Safety Summit
August 18, 2023
8 months ago
AI Snake Oil
Introducing the REFORMS checklist for ML-based science
ML-based science is in trouble. Clear reporting standards for researchers could help.
8 months ago
ML-based science is in trouble. Clear reporting standards for researchers could help.
Matt Mazur
Emergent Mind finally went viral
Last week, the Twitter account Everything Out of Context posted a screenshot showing Google’s...
8 months ago
Last week, the Twitter account Everything Out of Context posted a screenshot showing Google’s incorrect response to the search query “country in africa that starts with k”: The tweet went viral, garnering over 133k likes, 6k retweets, and 1k replies. Someone eventually tagged me...
Artificial Ignorance
Tutorial: How to chat with your documents
A step-by-step guide to doing Q&A with your data, using LlamaIndex and OpenAI.
8 months ago
A step-by-step guide to doing Q&A with your data, using LlamaIndex and OpenAI.
Weighty Thoughts
Compute is Overrated as AI’s Bottleneck
You can’t just blindly extrapolate compute requirements
8 months ago
You can’t just blindly extrapolate compute requirements
Society's Backend
The Attention Thief: Machine Learning as a Monetization Weapon
How your greatest asset is silently stolen by technology every day
8 months ago
How your greatest asset is silently stolen by technology every day
One Useful Thing
Automating creativity
There is now strong evidence that AI can help make us more innovative.
8 months ago
There is now strong evidence that AI can help make us more innovative.
Artificial Ignorance
AI Roundup 027: Challenge accepted
August 11, 2023
8 months ago
AI Snake Oil
ML is useful for many things, but not for predicting scientific replicability
How the veneer of AI is used to legitimize awful ideas
8 months ago
How the veneer of AI is used to legitimize awful ideas
Artificial Ignorance
How Shopify is making AI Magic
A case study on turning competitive advantages into useful AI.
8 months ago
A case study on turning competitive advantages into useful AI.
Society's Backend
Artificial Intelligence: A New Paradigm Emerges
A realistic perspective of the advantages and pitfalls of artificial intelligence
8 months ago
A realistic perspective of the advantages and pitfalls of artificial intelligence
Artificial Ignorance
AI Roundup 026: AudioCraft
August 4, 2023
9 months ago
One Useful Thing
In Praise of Boring AI
Automation has always been about killing tedious work. AI can do the same.
9 months ago
Automation has always been about killing tedious work. AI can do the same.
Society's Backend
Coming soon!
Weekly publications to teach you about the technology that governs our society and how it impacts...
9 months ago
Weekly publications to teach you about the technology that governs our society and how it impacts you. Coming in August!
fast.ai
AI and Power: The Ethical Challenges of Automation, Centralization, and Scale
Moving AI ethics beyond explainability and fairness to empowerment and justice
9 months ago
Moving AI ethics beyond explainability and fairness to empowerment and justice
One Useful Thing
On holding back the strange AI tide
There is no way to stop the disruption. We need to channel it instead
9 months ago
There is no way to stop the disruption. We need to channel it instead
AI Snake Oil
Is GPT-4 getting worse over time?
A new paper going viral has been widely misinterpreted
9 months ago
A new paper going viral has been widely misinterpreted
Matt Mazur
Introducing Preceden’s new AI-Powered Timeline Generator
For the past few months I’ve been heads down building an AI-powered timeline generator tool for...
9 months ago
For the past few months I’ve been heads down building an AI-powered timeline generator tool for Preceden, my SaaS timeline maker software: The tool – which is free to use and available on Preceden’s homepage – lets you type in a topic or detailed description of a timeline and it...
One Useful Thing
How to Use AI to Do Stuff: An Opinionated Guide
Covering the state of play as of Summer, 2023
9 months ago
Covering the state of play as of Summer, 2023
The Berkeley...
Training Diffusion Models with <br> Reinforcement Learning
function reveal() {
const replay = document.querySelector('.ddpo-replay');
...
9 months ago
function reveal() {
const replay = document.querySelector('.ddpo-replay');
replay.style.display = 'flex';
}
window.onload = () => {
const replay = document.querySelector('.ddpo-replay');
replay.addEventListener('click', () => {
...
Matt Mazur
Looking to sell Emergent Mind
I currently have two products: Preceden, a SaaS timeline maker, and Emergent Mind, an AI news site...
9 months ago
I currently have two products: Preceden, a SaaS timeline maker, and Emergent Mind, an AI news site and newsletter. Emergent Mind began last December as LearnGPT, a ChatGPT examples site, and I later renamed it to Emergent Mind and transitioned it the news site that it is today:...
The Berkeley...
On the Stepwise Nature of <br> Self-Supervised Learning
Figure 1: stepwise behavior in self-supervised learning. When training common SSL algorithms, we...
9 months ago
Figure 1: stepwise behavior in self-supervised learning. When training common SSL algorithms, we find that the loss descends in a stepwise fashion (top left) and the learned embeddings iteratively increase in dimensionality (bottom left). Direct visualization of embeddings...
fast.ai
AI Safety and the Age of Dislightenment
Model licensing & surveillance will likely be counterproductive by concentrating power in...
9 months ago
Model licensing & surveillance will likely be counterproductive by concentrating power in unsustainable ways
One Useful Thing
What AI can do with a toolbox... Getting started with Code Interpreter
Democratizing data analysis with AI
10 months ago
Democratizing data analysis with AI
The Berkeley...
Generating 3D Molecular Conformers via Equivariant Coarse-Graining and Aggregated Attention
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Figure 1: CoarsenConf architecture.
(I) The encoder $q_\phi(z| X, \mathcal{R})$ takes the...
10 months ago
-->
Figure 1: CoarsenConf architecture.
(I) The encoder $q_\phi(z| X, \mathcal{R})$ takes the fine-grained (FG) ground truth conformer $X$, RDKit approximate conformer $\mathcal{R}$ , and coarse-grained (CG) conformer $\mathcal{C}$ as inputs (derived from $X$ and a predefined...
AI Snake Oil
Generative AI companies must publish transparency reports
The debate about the harms of AI is happening in a data vacuum
10 months ago
The debate about the harms of AI is happening in a data vacuum
One Useful Thing
On giving AI eyes and ears
AI can listen and see, with bigger implications than we might realize.
10 months ago
AI can listen and see, with bigger implications than we might realize.
AI Snake Oil
Three Ideas for Regulating Generative AI
Policy input to the federal government from a Stanford-Princeton team
10 months ago
Policy input to the federal government from a Stanford-Princeton team
Rozado’s Visual...
Is The Great Awokening Really Winding Down? Part II: Evidence from News Media
Others (here, here and here) have argued previously that The Great Awokening might be winding down....
10 months ago
Others (here, here and here) have argued previously that The Great Awokening might be winding down. I have shown before some preliminary evidence from Twitter content about how Great Awokening terminology with negative connotations are indeed down but those with positive...
One Useful Thing
Detecting the Secret Cyborgs
The AI Trap for Organizations
10 months ago
The AI Trap for Organizations
AI Snake Oil
Licensing is neither feasible nor effective for addressing AI risks
Non-proliferation only benefits incumbents
10 months ago
Non-proliferation only benefits incumbents
One Useful Thing
Setting time on fire and the temptation of The Button
We used to consider writing an indication of time and effort spent on a task. That isn't true...
11 months ago
We used to consider writing an indication of time and effort spent on a task. That isn't true anymore.
Rozado’s Visual...
Pessimism in News Media Headlines
In previous work, I documented the growing emotional negativity (anger, fear, sadness, etc) of...
11 months ago
In previous work, I documented the growing emotional negativity (anger, fear, sadness, etc) of American news media headlines between the years 2000 and 2019. Here, I extend that work by examining the attitudinal tone (pessimism, optimism or neutrality
AI Snake Oil
Is Avoiding Extinction from AI Really an Urgent Priority?
The history of technology suggests that the greatest risks come not from the tech, but from the...
11 months ago
The history of technology suggests that the greatest risks come not from the tech, but from the people who control it
fast.ai
Is Avoiding Extinction from AI Really an Urgent Priority?
The history of technology suggests that the greatest risks come not from the tech, but from the...
11 months ago
The history of technology suggests that the greatest risks come not from the tech, but from the people who control it
One Useful Thing
What happens when AI reads a book 🤖📖
And some prompts that might be useful when it does.
11 months ago
And some prompts that might be useful when it does.
Matt Mazur
Full Time Indie Hacking: Month 5 Update
At the beginning of the year I quit consulting to focus full time on Preceden, my SaaS timeline...
11 months ago
At the beginning of the year I quit consulting to focus full time on Preceden, my SaaS timeline maker tool. I also started working on a new side project, Emergent Mind, an AI-powered AI news site. My last update on how things were going was after 3 months which provides more...
The Berkeley...
GPT-4 + Stable-Diffusion = ?: Enhancing Prompt Understanding of Text-to-Image Diffusion Models with...
TL;DR: Text Prompt -> LLM -> Intermediate Representation (such as an image layout) -> Stable...
11 months ago
TL;DR: Text Prompt -> LLM -> Intermediate Representation (such as an image layout) -> Stable Diffusion -> Image.
Recent advancements in text-to-image generation with diffusion models have yielded remarkable results synthesizing highly realistic and diverse images. However,...
One Useful Thing
On-boarding your AI Intern
There's a somewhat weird alien who wants to work for free for you. You should probably get started.
11 months ago
There's a somewhat weird alien who wants to work for free for you. You should probably get started.
fast.ai
Mojo may be the biggest programming language advance in decades
Mojo is a new programming language, based on Python, which fixes Python’s performance and deployment...
a year ago
Mojo is a new programming language, based on Python, which fixes Python’s performance and deployment problems.
One Useful Thing
It is starting to get strange.
Let's talk about ChatGPT with Code Interpreter & Microsoft Copilot
a year ago
Let's talk about ChatGPT with Code Interpreter & Microsoft Copilot
AI Snake Oil
Quantifying ChatGPT’s gender bias
Benchmarks allow us to dig deeper into what causes biases and what can be done about it
a year ago
Benchmarks allow us to dig deeper into what causes biases and what can be done about it
One Useful Thing
A guide to prompting AI (for what it is worth)
A little bit of magic, but mostly just practice
a year ago
A little bit of magic, but mostly just practice
Rozado’s Visual...
Out-of-office Donald Trump still more prominent in news media content than the current U.S....
In 2019, I helped my colleague Musa al-Gharbi document the extraordinary prominence of Donald Trump...
a year ago
In 2019, I helped my colleague Musa al-Gharbi document the extraordinary prominence of Donald Trump in news media content (see here). I have recently updated that previous analysis. Briefly stated, no U.S. president in recent history has received a similar amount of media...
AI Snake Oil
I set up a ChatGPT voice interface for my 3-year old. Here’s how it went.
Chatbots are likely to revive familiar debates about kids and apps
a year ago
Chatbots are likely to revive familiar debates about kids and apps
Matt Mazur
Full Time Indie Hacking: First 3 Months in Review
At the end of 2022 I stopped contracting at Help Scout to focus full time on Preceden, a SaaS...
a year ago
At the end of 2022 I stopped contracting at Help Scout to focus full time on Preceden, a SaaS timeline maker tool that I had been running mostly as a side project since 2010. It’s April now so I figured I’d share an update on how things are going. My periodic Friday updates cover...
One Useful Thing
The future of education in a world of AI
A positive vision for the transformation to come
a year ago
A positive vision for the transformation to come
The Berkeley...
Interactive Fleet Learning
Figure 1: “Interactive Fleet Learning” (IFL) refers to robot fleets in industry and academia that...
a year ago
Figure 1: “Interactive Fleet Learning” (IFL) refers to robot fleets in industry and academia that fall back on human teleoperators when necessary and continually learn from them over time.
In the last few years we have seen an exciting development in robotics and artificial...
Rozado’s Visual...
The Great Awokening as a Global Phenomenon
The striking synchronicity with which Great Awokening terminology increased in news media worldwide
a year ago
The striking synchronicity with which Great Awokening terminology increased in news media worldwide
One Useful Thing
Thinking companion, companion for thinking
Some simple ways to use AI to break you out of biases
a year ago
Some simple ways to use AI to break you out of biases
fast.ai
From Deep Learning Foundations to Stable Diffusion
We’ve released our new course with over 30 hours of video content.
a year ago
We’ve released our new course with over 30 hours of video content.
The Berkeley...
Koala: A Dialogue Model for Academic Research
In this post, we introduce Koala, a chatbot trained by fine-tuning Meta’s LLaMA on dialogue data...
a year ago
In this post, we introduce Koala, a chatbot trained by fine-tuning Meta’s LLaMA on dialogue data gathered from the web. We describe the dataset curation and training process of our model, and also present the results of a user study that compares our model to ChatGPT and...
AI Snake Oil
A misleading open letter about sci-fi AI dangers ignores the real risks
Misinformation, labor impact, and safety are all risks. But not in the way the letter implies.
a year ago
Misinformation, labor impact, and safety are all risks. But not in the way the letter implies.
One Useful Thing
How to use AI to do practical stuff: A new guide
People often ask me how to use AI. Here's an overview with lots of links.
a year ago
People often ask me how to use AI. Here's an overview with lots of links.
Rozado’s Visual...
The Political Biases of Google Bard
It is probably only a matter of time until a nation state purposely builds a biased AI system...
a year ago
It is probably only a matter of time until a nation state purposely builds a biased AI system designed to advance government interests
Matt Mazur
Progress on TimelineGPT, Emergent Mind missteps, finding balance
Hey all 👋! It’s been a minute since my last post (for reasons I’ll get into below) so here’s...
a year ago
Hey all 👋! It’s been a minute since my last post (for reasons I’ll get into below) so here’s periodic update on what I’ve been up to: TimelineGPT About two months ago I launched an in-app tool for Preceden that provides GPT-powered event suggestions to users to help them build...
One Useful Thing
Superhuman: What can AI do in 30 minutes?
AI multiplies your efforts. I found out by how much...
a year ago
AI multiplies your efforts. I found out by how much...
Rozado’s Visual...
Define Wokeness! Or how you shall know a word by the company it keeps
Visualizing what words often appear in the vicinity of woke/wokeness in news media content...
a year ago
Visualizing what words often appear in the vicinity of woke/wokeness in news media content illustrates why communication is almost impossible between red and blue America
One Useful Thing
Acceleration.
7 days of new AI technologies shows us that everything is happening very fast.
a year ago
7 days of new AI technologies shows us that everything is happening very fast.
AI Snake Oil
OpenAI’s policies hinder reproducible research on language models
LLMs have become privately-controlled research infrastructure
a year ago
LLMs have become privately-controlled research infrastructure
fast.ai
GPT 4 and the Uncharted Territories of Language
Language is a source of limitation and liberation. GPT 4 pushes this idea to the extreme by giving...
a year ago
Language is a source of limitation and liberation. GPT 4 pushes this idea to the extreme by giving us access to unlimited language.
One Useful Thing
Using AI to make teaching easier & more impactful
Here are five strategies and prompts that work for GPT-3.5 & GPT-4
a year ago
Here are five strategies and prompts that work for GPT-3.5 & GPT-4
AI Snake Oil
What is algorithmic amplification and why should we care?
A symposium and a primer on social media recommendation algorithms
a year ago
A symposium and a primer on social media recommendation algorithms
Rozado’s Visual...
The Political Biases of GPT-4
Things are not always what they seem
a year ago
Things are not always what they seem
One Useful Thing
How to... use AI to unstick yourself
We often lose momentum because of something small. AI can help.
a year ago
We often lose momentum because of something small. AI can help.
Rozado’s Visual...
Northern Awokening: Social-justice and prejudice-signifying language in Canadian news media
I have recently published a report with Aaron Wudrick from the Macdonald-Laurier Institute about...
a year ago
I have recently published a report with Aaron Wudrick from the Macdonald-Laurier Institute about changes in the language that the news media in Canada use. I have documented previously how in American news media mentions of terms that signify distinct forms of prejudice have...
AI Snake Oil
Artists can now opt out of generative AI. It’s not enough.
Opting out is the latest example of generative AI developers externalizing costs.
a year ago
Opting out is the latest example of generative AI developers externalizing costs.
One Useful Thing
Secret Cyborgs: The Present Disruption in Three Papers
The future is already here, we just need to figure out a few details.
a year ago
The future is already here, we just need to figure out a few details.
Rozado’s Visual...
El desproporcionado número de referencias al machismo en los medios de comunicación españoles
Los medios de comunicación españoles constituyen una anomalía en comparación con sus homólogos...
a year ago
Los medios de comunicación españoles constituyen una anomalía en comparación con sus homólogos internacionales por su alto número de referencias al machismo que triplican a las de cualquier otro país
AI Snake Oil
The LLaMA is out of the bag. Should we expect a tidal wave of disinformation?
The bottleneck isn't the cost of producing disinfo, which is already very low.
a year ago
The bottleneck isn't the cost of producing disinfo, which is already very low.
One Useful Thing
Feats to astonish and amaze
A compendium of things I didn't think AI should be able to do
a year ago
A compendium of things I didn't think AI should be able to do
Rozado’s Visual...
Is climate change 100 times more threatening than gain-of-function research?
Mentions of climate change in news media vastly outnumber other existential threats
a year ago
Mentions of climate change in news media vastly outnumber other existential threats
AI Snake Oil
AI cannot predict the future. But companies keep trying (and failing).
A new paper on how AI companies make false promises and how we can challenge them
a year ago
A new paper on how AI companies make false promises and how we can challenge them
One Useful Thing
How to Get an AI to Lie to You in Three Simple Steps
I keep getting fooled by AI, and it seems like others are, too.
a year ago
I keep getting fooled by AI, and it seems like others are, too.
Rozado’s Visual...
Is the Great Awokening Really Winding Down? Part I: Some Multifaceted Evidence from Twitter Content
There has been some discussion lately by Eric Kaufmann, Tyler Cowen, Balaji Srinivasan, Paul Graham...
a year ago
There has been some discussion lately by Eric Kaufmann, Tyler Cowen, Balaji Srinivasan, Paul Graham and Musa Al Gharbi as to whether The Great Awokening is winding down. I’m going to write a series of blog entries about this topic to contribute to the discussion. In order to do...
One Useful Thing
Blinded by Analogies
What is this AI thing? The wrong model can lead us astray
a year ago
What is this AI thing? The wrong model can lead us astray
AI Snake Oil
People keep anthropomorphizing AI. Here’s why
Companies and journalists both contribute to the confusion
a year ago
Companies and journalists both contribute to the confusion
Rozado’s Visual...
New York Times Word Usage Frequency Chart – An Update
A timely update of an informative chart
a year ago
A timely update of an informative chart
One Useful Thing
The future, soon: what I learned from Bing's AI
We had a brief glimpse of two different types of AI. Both are significant
a year ago
We had a brief glimpse of two different types of AI. Both are significant
Rozado’s Visual...
RightWingGPT – An AI Manifesting the Opposite Political Biases of ChatGPT
The Dangers of Politically Aligned AIs and their Negative Effects on Societal Polarization
a year ago
The Dangers of Politically Aligned AIs and their Negative Effects on Societal Polarization
One Useful Thing
I hope you weren't getting too comfortable.
I just got access to the new Bing AI. My initial thoughts are that our assumptions about the limits...
a year ago
I just got access to the new Bing AI. My initial thoughts are that our assumptions about the limits of AI were wrong.
Daniel Miessler
NO. 369 | Reddit Hack, Deepfake Scams, Embracing Change…
✅ Please subscribe to and give a 17-star review to this show on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Thank...
a year ago
✅ Please subscribe to and give a 17-star review to this show on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Thank you! SECURITY Reddit has confirmed it was hacked, and it’s recommending users add 2FA. The attack started by phishing Reddit employees and stealing credentials and 2FA codes. After...
Matt Mazur
Friday Updates: Smart Icons, Automatic Suggestions, Dealing with Spammers, Better Icon Colors
Preceden Lots of updates to Preceden this week: Improving the UX for the AI Suggestions When we...
a year ago
Preceden Lots of updates to Preceden this week: Improving the UX for the AI Suggestions When we rolled out the AI Suggestions feature last week, the typical experience for the user would go something like this: Lots of UX issues there though: To remedy this, I updated Preceden to...
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