{"id":256986,"date":"2023-12-08T09:33:41","date_gmt":"2023-12-08T14:33:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mathewingram.com\/work\/?p=256986"},"modified":"2023-12-31T19:19:53","modified_gmt":"2023-12-31T19:19:53","slug":"why-the-godfather-of-artificial-intelligence-fears-his-creation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mathewingram.com\/work\/2023\/12\/08\/why-the-godfather-of-artificial-intelligence-fears-his-creation\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the godfather of artificial intelligence fears his creation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Dr. Geoffrey Hinton, an artificial intelligence pioneer, at his home in Toronto on Monday, April 24, 2023. Hinton is leaving Google so that he can freely share his concern that AI could cause the world serious harm. (Chloe Ellingson\/The New York Times)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From Joshua Rothman for The New Yorker<\/a>: “People say it\u2019s just glorified autocomplete,\u201d Geoffrey Hinton told me. “Now, let\u2019s analyze that. Suppose you want to be really good at predicting the next word. If you want to be really<\/em> good, you have to understand what\u2019s being said. That\u2019s the only way. So by training something to be really good at predicting the next word, you\u2019re actually forcing it to understand. Yes, it\u2019s \u2018autocomplete\u2019\u2014but you didn\u2019t think through what it means to have a really good autocomplete.\u201d Hinton thinks that \u201clarge language models,\u201d such as GPT, which powers OpenAI\u2019s chatbots, can comprehend the meanings of words and ideas. And that they are either close to or are already able to reason in the same kind of way that human brains do. And that could be dangerous.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rise and fall of the bank robbery capital of the world<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From Peter Houlahan<\/a>: “Less than an hour later, the man the FBI called The Yankee walked out of Imperial Bank in Westwood, practically in the shadow of the Federal Building that houses the FBI\u2019s L.A. Bank Robbery Squad, with $4,190. Diving into rush hour traffic on the 405 Freeway, The Yankee headed over the hills to the San Fernando Valley and pulled a final job just before closing time at the First Interstate in Encino for a take of $2,413.  Four hours, six heists, $13,197. As impressive as The Yankee\u2019s performance had been, a record for bank licks by one person in a single day, It did not entirely shock the FBI agents in bank robbery squad. This was L.A. after all, and by 1983, L.A. had long established itself as the undisputed \u201cBank Robbery Capital of the World.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note<\/strong>: This is a version of my personal newsletter, which I send out via Ghost, the open-source publishing platform. You can see other issues and sign up here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Tiny robots made from human cells can heal damaged tissue<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"These<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From Matthew Hutson for Nature<\/a>: “Scientists have developed tiny robots made of human cells that are able to repair damaged neural tissue. The \u2018anthrobots\u2019 were made using human tracheal cells and might, in future, be used in personalized medicine. Developmental biologist Michael Levin at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, and his colleagues had previously developed tiny robots using clumps of embryonic frog cells. But the medical applications of these \u2018xenobots\u2019 were limited, because they weren\u2019t derived from human cells and because they had to be manually carved into the desired shape. The researchers have now developed self-assembling anthrobots from human skin cells and are investigating their therapeutic potential using tissue grown in the laboratory.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editor’s note: <\/strong><\/em>If you like this newsletter, I’d be honoured if you would help me by contributing whatever you can <\/em>via my Patreon<\/em><\/a>. Thanks!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hedge funds are financing prospectors who search the ocean floor for lost treasure<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From Bloomberg<\/a>: “When the ship got back to Reykjavik, the captain and two operations managers were taken to be interviewed by Icelandic detectives. At no point did the Icelandic authorities learn the identity of this mysterious client, the backer of the expedition. They couldn\u2019t have known that the German ship was one of dozens he\u2019s pursued over the years. Media reports about wrecks this man has found or recovered have described him variously as an anonymous London financier, \u201cthe unknown salvor\u201d and \u201cthe Originator.\u201d He\u2019s marshaled a high-tech operation to recover the lost treasures of history, spanning centuries and entire civilizations and covering most of the blue portion of the planet. And he\u2019s managed to keep this remarkable enterprise secret\u2014until now.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inside the greatest collection of dictionaries that librarians have ever seen<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From April White for Atlas Obscura<\/a>: “Madeline Kripke’s first dictionary was a copy of Webster\u2019s Collegiate<\/em> that her parents gave her when she was a fifth grader in Omaha in the early 1950s. By the time of her death in 2020, at age 76, she had amassed a collection of dictionaries that occupied every flat surface of her two-bedroom Manhattan apartment\u2014and overflowed into several warehouse spaces. Many believe that this chaotic, personal library is the world\u2019s largest compendium of words and their usage. More than 1,500 boxes arrived at Indiana University in late 2021, accompanied by a catalog detailing some 6,000 volumes. But that\u2019s only a fraction of the total. By the fall, the count stood at about 9,700 and there’s still a long way to go. The latest estimate of the total is about 20,000.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The earliest set of playing cards dates back to the 15th century<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From Tim Husband for The Met<\/a>: “The earliest preserved European playing cards belong to a luxury deck known as The Stuttgart Playing Cards<\/em>, which date to about 1430. Exquisitely hand painted on a gold ground, each card is a work <\/strong>of art. The high quality of the painting and remarkably good state of preservation indicate that the pack was likely commissioned as a collector’s item rather than for play. The original commissioner is unknown, but these exceptionally fine and unusually large cards soon found their way into the collections of the dukes of Bavaria. They are first mentioned in an inventory of the archducal Kunstkammer, or cabinet of curiosities, that was compiled in 1598. The suit signs of the set <\/em>are Falcons, Ducks, Hounds, and Stags, and each suit comprises 13 cards.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Going over my list of goals for 2023<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n

\u201cShoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.\u201d pic.twitter.com\/YIhxs9VMY6<\/a><\/p>— Trung Phan (@TrungTPhan) December 6, 2023<\/a><\/blockquote>