Notices by Mark Pesce (mpesce@arvr.social), page 3

From @Nature It’s time to admit that genes are not the blueprint for life

The view of biology often presented to the public is oversimplified and out of date. Scientists must set the record straight, argues a new book.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00327-x

Starting today, when you point your camera (or upload a photo or screenshot) and ask a question using the Google app, the new multisearch experience will show results with AI-powered insights that go beyond just visual matches.

http://windowscopilot.news/2024/01/19/ai-in-google-search/

This.

https://www.platformer.news/p/why-platformer-is-leaving-substack

FORTY YEARS AGO TODAY

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_(advertisement)

It's Solstice today (AEDT 14.30ish).

I've created a celebration of the elements (water, air, earth, fire) that mutate and transform throughout the next hours...

Give it a visit at http://hyperreal.org/~mpesce/watchtowers/watchtowers.html

(The page automatically reloads to bring you the latest transformations.)

Happy Solstice, one and all!

I was showing off the Mistral 7B language model to some friends at lunch yesterday (using llama.cpp) - and let them type their own prompts.

Here's how that went.

"In 21st century neuroscience, many of us like to think memories are being stored in engram cells, or their sub-components. This study argues that rather than looking for information within or at cells, we should search for information between cells, and that learning may work by altering the wiring diagram of the brain -- less like a computer and more like a developing sculpture.

"In other words, the engram is not in the cell; the cell is in the engram."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/11/231121175231.htm

Viva la revolucion!

open revolt at OpenAI - signed by ~90% of staff:

You'd think I'm making up this lede from the AFR's front page.

But I'm not.

It's becoming increasingly important to be able to distinguish between real images and 'deepfakes' - synthetic images generated by AI. Providers have strategies to 'watermark' these synthetic images, but researchers have already found ways around this.

http://windowscopilot.news/2023/10/05/researchers-show-how-easy-it-is-to-defeat-ai-watermarks/

Microsoft's data centers in West Des Moines, Iowa guzzled massive amounts of water last year, the Associated Press reported earlier this month, to keep cool while training OpenAI's ChatGPT-4, the Microsoft-backed company's most advanced AI chatbot.

http://windowscopilot.news/2023/09/30/critics-furious-microsoft-is-training-ai-by-sucking-up-water-during-drought/

Um. Someone just ported Audacity.

TO THE F**KING BROWSER.

https://wavacity.com/

UK MP Angela Eagle, who was a joint winner of the 1976 British Girls' Under-18 chess championship, said: "There is no physical advantage in chess unless you believe men are inherently more able to play than women -- I spent my chess career being told women's brains were smaller than men's and we shouldn't even be playing." She added: "This ban is ridiculous and offensive to women."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-66538328

Like a hot tub: Water temperatures off Florida soar over 100 degrees, stunning experts

A buoy near Manatee Bay recorded an astounding 101.1-degree water temperature Monday, a temperature common for hot tubs.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/weather/hot-tub-water-temperatures-florida-soar-100-degrees-stunning-experts-rcna96163

PERFECTLY NORMAL 😬