TLDR 2023-07-12

Apple's WeChat store 📱, GPT-4 details leak 🤖, Sam Altman SPACs nuclear microreactors ☢️

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Big Tech & Startups

Sam Altman explains why he's helping to take nuclear microreactor company Oklo public via SPAC (5 minute read)

Oklo, an advanced nuclear fission microreactor startup, is going public via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Altman is also the chairman of Oklo's board. The SPAC will raise as much as $500 million for the company. It will close by early 2024. The company plans to use the raised capital to ramp up its supply chain and procurement processes and for building a pilot scale production facility for its reactor. Artificial intelligence will demand a lot of energy if it scales up in the way Altman is predicting it will.

Apple launches online store on China's giant WeChat messaging app (1 minute read)

Apple has launched an online store on WeChat. WeChat has over 1.2 billion users. It is China's biggest messaging platform. The super app also features mini-programs that lets users access services from inside WeChat. Apple's WeChat store will allow users to purchase the full line of Apple's products with free shipping. Some customers will be able to receive three-hour delivery and other Apple services, like the trade-in program.
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Science & Futuristic Technology

Here come the Moon landing missions (probably) (6 minute read)

The next six months will see up to half a dozen missions attempt to land on the Moon. The three primary drivers in the renewed interest in the Moon include the discovery of water on the Moon in the 1990s and early 2000s, the rise of China's space program, and private companies looking to exploit resources on the lunar surface. This article provides a rundown on what to expect from the upcoming Moon missions. The missions include Chandrayaan-3 in July, Luna 25 and SLIM in August, IM-1 sometime in the third quarter of this year, Peregrin Mission One in the fourth quarter, and IM-3 near the end of the year.

Can Neural Stimulation Zap Addiction? (10 minute read)

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has shown encouraging results in clinical trials involving people addicted to various substances. The treatment has already been authorized in the US, Canada, and the EU as an aid for cigarette smokers trying to quit. Researchers are currently studying different forms of TMS that may be able to rewire the brain of people with addictions more effectively. Some treatments are currently waiting for regulatory approval. One of the downsides of TMS is the cost, which many health insurance providers do not cover.
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Programming, Design & Data Science

gpt-prompt-engineer (GitHub Repo)

gpt-prompt-engineer is a tool that allows prompt engineers to take their experimentation to a whole new level. Users simply input a description of the task to be completed with some test cases and the system will generate, test, and rank prompts to find the ones that perform the best. gpt-prompt-engineer uses an ELO rating system to rate generated prompts. A classification version is available for handling classification tasks.

AI Companion App (GitHub Repo)

This tutorial teaches readers how to create and host AI companions that they can chat with through their browsers or via SMS. Users can choose the personality and backstory of their companions. A vector database with similarity search is used to provide conversations with more depth. These companions can be used as friends, romantic partners, coaches, and more. The tutorial is intended to be a starter stack for those curious about how chatbots are built.
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Miscellaneous

Threads and the Social/Communications Map (15 minute read)

This article discusses how social media has changed over the past decade. While Threads looks a lot like Twitter on many levels, there are essential differences that may lead it to become something larger than Twitter ever was. Owning social media is a fool's errand. The most important new social networks in recent years have been notable for not really being social networks at all. Apps like TikTok showed that an abundance of easily-discoverable content can be a powerful force.

It is over. GPT-4's details are leaked (8 minute read)

This pastebin text contains notes detailing GPT-4's structure. GPT-4 is more than 10 times the size of GPT-3, with an estimated total of 1.8 trillion parameters across 120 layers. OpenAI utilized a Mixture of Experts model to help keep costs reasonable. The model would have cost around $63 million to train. Many more details are available in the text.
Quick Links

Is distributed computing dying, or just fading into the background? (8 minute read)

Distributed computing involves taking large projects, slicing them into pieces, and then sending out these pieces to PCs for processing.

New ChatGPT rival, Claude 2, launches for open beta testing (2 minute read)

Claude 2 is available for users to try on a new beta website and it is also available as a commercial API for developers.

TikTok parent ByteDance to allow US staff to cash out on shares (3 minute read)

TikTok's US employees will be allowed to vest their shares without waiting for their company to list on the stock market.

Why does did Google Brain exist? (11 minute read)

A look at Google Brain from someone who worked in the division.

Microsoft confirms more job cuts on top of 10,000 layoffs announced in January (2 minute read)

A memo issued by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella indicates that the company plans to change its hardware lineup and consolidate leases.

LinuxOS Achieves 3% Desktop Market Share After 30 Years (2 minute read)

One of the reasons behind Linux's rise in user base is due to its strong presence in high performance computing, making it the go-to choice for AI/ML experts.
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