Weekly Link Roundup #32
Wow. Félicitations to Paris and France for the Olympics! This pic below is me trying to outrun all the information :-)
AI-Generated Art Scene Explodes as Hackers Create Groundbreaking New Tools: I absolutely love this as a signal. The idea that hacking two different AI models together can result in a new capability is one of those items that makes me think that while we can debate if the biz models of AI companies are on a bubble, we haven’t come close to exhausting the possibilities of this technology. I mean seriously, we’re still figuring out the Web. See also: Putting the squeeze on computer art: “Researchers have demonstrated a novel image compression tool that combines recursive algorithms with convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to out-perform other approaches to the compression of images from computer art and interaction design.” See also: Meet Prompt Poet: The Google-acquired tool revolutionizing LLM prompt engineering: More tools to improve not just access but working with AIs.
Adjacent Possible: This is such an IMPORTANT idea. The main idea is keep your eyes open - you never know what solutions you may find to problems you’re not even considering. “The “adjacent possible” can be defined as “the set of possibilities available to individuals, communities, institutions, organisms, productive processes, etc., at a given point in time during their evolution” (Loreto 2015, p. 9). The concept of the “adjacent possible” is useful for understanding how new possibilities emerge, and how they are constrained, discovered, explored, actualized, developed, reconfigured, designed, and so on, in an interplay between what is actual and what is possible for specific entities in specific settings.” See also this on the ability to do the Adjacent Possible at scale: AI Trained on Old Scientific Papers Makes Discoveries Humans Missed: “In one experiment, researchers analyzed only papers published before 2009 and were able to predict one of the best modern-day thermoelectric materials four years before it was discovered in 2012.”
Reading Assignment: 2024 Hugo Award Winners: Pick something from this list. Doesn’t matter what - they’re all good. Inject some new thinking directly into your brain stem.
Andrej Karpathy Coined a New Term ‘Jagged Intelligence’: Understanding the Inconsistencies in Advanced AI: When I talk about how #learninganddevelopment could be using this breakout moment for AI to not just find new ways of doing existing things but taking it as a moment to establish themselves as thought conduits into the org, this is the kind of thing I’m talking about. Building and working with operators inside the org to develop content to teach the rest of the company about things like jagged intelligence. “These models have demonstrated remarkable capabilities in performing complex tasks, from solving intricate mathematical problems to generating coherent and contextually relevant text. However, despite these impressive achievements, they often need to be more consistent with tasks that seem trivial or straightforward to humans. The term “Jagged Intelligence” aptly captures this duality, where advanced AI can excel in some areas while faltering in others that appear to require far less cognitive effort.”
Unleashed is making a platform for MMOs to bring people together | The DeanBeat: I can’t love this enough “Dubbed Realms, Unleashed’s platform leverages both gen AI and deep human expertise in growing gamer communities, making development rapid, cost-effective, and highly monetizable – scalable for both niche games with a small but passionate fanbase, to mass market MMOs with many millions of players.” > > One thing I absolutely LOATHE about gamification is that is a rationalization for pulling apart game design into component parts and acting like those dismembered parts are still meaningful. This platform will allow people to build full games and not just the parts.
As Maui rebuilds, research team contributes expertise on hazard-resilient housing: Maybe share some with people in Washington, Oregon, California…and if you have any info on tornados, I got a list of those states too. Also, if you’re looking for signals related to the construction market, I’m guessing “hazard-resilient housing” is about to have a boom.
Adobe Tells Users They Can Get Sued for Using Old Versions of Photoshop: Lesson 101 in Shooting Yourself in the Corporate Foot. So there’s this thing in hiking called “Glissading.” Fancy word for sliding down snow on your butt. Now if you know the trail, you should be fine. If you don’t though, and its not deep winter, there may be an air gap between the snow you’re sliding on and the ground. You won’t know it until it happens and you punch through the snow and drop 4-5 feet down onto your bottom. Same for Adobe. They might not see it right away but I’m betting there is snow melting from the bottom. Same with Unity. Actions like this erode a user base. and it’ll start with the real experts, the ones who are tech savvy enough to know how to switch platforms but the erosion is happening whether its visible or not.
OpenAI Generates More Turmoil: Of the 11 people there at the start of OpenAI, only two are left active. This happens in startups but when the talent walking away is genius-level smart with AI but also going to competitors, it should be a worrying signal.
Susan Wojcicki, former YouTube chief and Silicon Valley power, dies at 56: I include this story both because a woman at the top of the tech pyramid is a rare thing and that the praise for Wojcicki seems to be near-universal but also because its a chance to say F*CK CANCER. and may her memory be a blessing to her family and friends. \
Humane’s daily returns are outpacing sales: File under *Literally Everyone Saw This Coming
You might get a discount or free coffee but you're also being played by the multibillion-dollar gamification industry: I include this because I generally don’t like gamification and this is a warm hug of confirmation bias for me. I also think this definition of gamification is pretty good “Gamification—the use of game elements in non-game contexts to increase participation—is on the rise.” See also: How gamification took over the world: With a fav quote - “Instead of liberating us, gamification turned out to be just another tool for coercion, distraction, and control.”
The Resistance to AI in Education isn’t Really about Learning: Um, yep. Just like RTOs aren’t really about collaboration and productivity. “the resistance to AI in education is not truly about learning. It reflects a reluctance to re-evaluate the traditional roles of educators and to embrace the opportunities AI offers to enhance the learning experience.”