TLDR 2023-05-18

Google's AI search 🔎, Montana bans TikTok 📱, inside GitHub Copilot 👨‍💻

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Big Tech & Startups

The AI takeover of Google Search starts now (11 minute read)

Google is putting AI into its search results. It implemented an AI snapshots feature that appears at the top of Search. The feature pulls information from the web and outputs a summary along with links. An algorithm determines whether the AI can provide a useful answer, so not all searches will trigger an AI response. The feature can be accessed by opting into Search Generative Experience in Search Labs. Screenshots of the feature are available in the article.

StableStudio is Stability AI’s latest commitment to open-source AI (2 minute read)

Stability AI is releasing an open-source version of DreamStudio called StableStudio. StableStudio will allow community developers to improve and experiment with Stable Diffusion's interface. Stability AI's approach to open-source has helped drive interest in its products and improve the company's software. StableStudio could potentially compete with DreamStudio. Stability AI has previously said that it plans to create customized versions of DreamStudio for corporate clients, but it is unclear how successful this strategy has been.
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Science & Futuristic Technology

Researchers treat depression by reversing brain signals traveling the wrong way (4 minute read)

Researchers have discovered the mechanism behind how transcranial magnetic stimulation helps bring relief to severely depressed patients. The treatment works by reversing the direction of abnormal brain signals. Those with the most severe depression were the most likely to benefit from the treatment. The research suggests that backward streams of neural activity between key areas of the brain could be used as a biomarker to help diagnose depression.

Long-sought universal flu vaccine: mRNA-based candidate enters clinical trial (3 minute read)

An mRNA-based flu vaccine designed to offer long-lasting protection against a broad range of influenza viruses is now in a phase I clinical trial. Health systems around the world currently battle seasonal influenza by reformulating shots each year to match circulating strains. A universal influenza vaccine would be a major public health achievement. It would eliminate the need for annual flu shots. The vaccine could also help protect against the spread of a future flu pandemic.
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Programming, Design & Data Science

Inside GitHub: Working with the LLMs behind GitHub Copilot (9 minute read)

This article explores what it was like for researchers and engineers at GitHub to build the early versions of GitHub Copilot, what it was like to work with different large language models, how GitHub Copilot has evolved, and more. It covers model improvements, prompt crafting, fine-tuning, and the history of GitHub Copilot. The next version of Copilot, GitHub Copilot X, will bring AI to more components of the overall platform, such as docs and pull requests.

Dify (GitHub Repo)

Dify is an LLMOps platform designed to help people create sustainable, AI-native applications. It offers out-of-the-box applications that can serve as Backend-as-a-Service APIs. Dify can help streamline operations with its single interface for prompt engineering, visual analytics, and continuous improvement. It is compatible with Langchain.
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Miscellaneous

Americans Have Never Been So Unwilling to Relocate for a New Job (2 minute read)

The share of job seekers who relocated for employment fell to its lowest level on record in the first quarter of 2023. A post-pandemic surge in remote and hybrid positions has made it possible for more workers to stay where they're living. Higher interest rates have made relocating more expensive. Diminishing job security has made the cost of relocating seem less of a safe investment.

Ask HN: Can someone ELI5 Transformers and the “Attention is all we need” paper (Hacker News Thread)

The Transformer model is a design for building network architectures that can process data in parallel and focus on different parts of the data. Transformers are unique because they use a mechanism called 'attention' to understand relationships between words in sentences. They can pay attention to all parts of a sentence at the same time, making them faster than models that read one word at a time. Transformers consider all words in a sequence and then pay attention to the most important ones for the given task.
Quick Links

Using Bun.js as a bundler (6 minute read)

Bun.js is a JavaScript runtime that is primarily focused on extreme speed.

The Return to the Office Has Stalled (6 minute read)

Office usage rates have barely budged since the start of this year as most companies have settled into a hybrid work strategy.

Elon Musk doubles-down on Tesla robotaxis in TV interview (7 minute read)

Elon Musk says that Teslas will be able to act as robotaxis when owners aren't using them.

Montana's governor signs bill banning TikTok (2 minute read)

The ban will take effect in 2024 unless legal challenges cause delays.

Google's newest A.I. model uses nearly five times more text data for training than its predecessor (3 minute read)

PaLM 2 was trained on 3.6 trillion tokens, allowing it to perform more advanced coding, math, and creative writing tasks.

JunoDB (GitHub Repo)

JunoDB is a key-value store that provides single-digit millisecond latency at any scale.
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