The Rabbit R1 is a $200 AI assistant device designed by Teenage Engineering. It's a virtual assistant in a box with a built-in screen and camera that can answer questions, identify objects, and summarize text. However, its key selling point is the "large action model" that theoretically allows it to use apps and services just like a human would.

At launch, the R1 only works with 4 apps - Spotify, Uber, DoorDash, and Midjourney. Rabbit claims to have trained it on 800 more apps, but those aren't available yet. Features like "Teach Mode" to train custom app actions and "Generative UI" to build app interfaces on the fly are also promised but not ready.

The hardware itself is very basic - a plastic body, small low-res screen, mediocre speaker and camera. Battery life is poor at around 4 hours of use. Despite having a touchscreen, you can only use it for an on-screen keyboard, with navigation via an awkward scroll wheel.

While the R1 holds promise with its low $200 price and potential for an AI assistant that can truly integrate with apps and services, it feels extremely unfinished at launch. Many of its core features are still "coming soon." The review wrestles with how to judge a product being sold on future potential rather than present capabilities.

Ultimately, the advice is to judge the R1 solely on what it can do today, which isn't much beyond very basic virtual assistant capabilities. The long-term vision is exciting, but it may be wise to wait and see if Rabbit can deliver on its ambitious promises over time through updates and expanded app integration.

New Cervelo Aspero Gravel Bike Review

The new Cervelo Aspero gravel bike maintains a very similar design to the original 2019 model, but with some key updates aimed at increasing speed, smoothness and versatility.

Frame Design Updates - More sloping top tube for increased standover clearance - Dropped and curved seat stays/chain stays for increased tire clearance (now 42mm, up from 40mm) - Flip chip in fork dropout to adjust trail for different wheel/tire sizes - Thru-axle rear dropout compatible with SRAM's wireless groupsets - Slimmer head tube and downtube for a bit more front end compliance - Full internal cable routing

The geometry is very similar to the previous model, with a long top tube, shorter stem and lower stack height for a more aggressive, road-bike like fit and position.

Performance - Very fast and efficient power transfer, among the quickest gravel bikes tested - Calm but responsive handling suitable for a range of terrain - WTB Vulpine 40mm tires roll very fast on dry hardpack but struggle in mud

Pricing and Specs - Price range from £3,000 to £5,200 for this SRAM Rival AXS build with carbon wheels - 8.5kg / 18.7lbs weight for size 56cm

While an excellent high-speed gravel racer, the updates are fairly modest compared to more radical new designs offering increased versatility, tire clearance and comfort from brands like Canyon, Giant and Topstone. But for pure speed, it maintains the Aspero's pedigree.

GCN Racing News Show Recap

This week's GCN Racing News Show covered several recent cycling races and news:

Tour of Turkey - Tobias Lund Anderson (DSM) won 3 stages for his first pro wins - Max Kanter (Astana) and Fabio Jacobsen (DSM) also got their first pro wins - Frank Fenbrook (Terengganu) won the GC ahead of Marli Kudus and Polle Duwez

Tour of Romandy - Carlos Rodriguez (INEOS) won the overall GC in a team effort - Other stage winners were Gon (Ag2r x2), Tibo Nevens (Trek), Brandon McNulty (UAE), Richard Carapaz (EF) - Floran Liptiz (Bora) had a breakthrough performance finishing 2nd on queen stage

La Vuelta Feminina - Trek-Segafredo won the opening team time trial by 0.02 seconds over FDJ

Other News
- UAE continues to dominate with 30 wins already in 2024 - Ag2r is having a renaissance season with 12 wins - Cofidis has shockingly zero wins so far after a very slow start - Previewed upcoming Giro d'Italia grand tour

This is a detailed preview of the 2024 Giro d'Italia route, covering all 21 stages and analyzing the favorites for the overall win, stage wins, and jersey competitions. Key points:

• The 2024 Giro will be 3,441km long with 44,000m of climbing, shorter than typical recent editions. It features 2 individual time trials, 6 sprint stages, 8 hilly stages, and 5 mountain stages.

• Primoz Roglic is the overwhelming favorite to win, with the bookmakers making him the odds-on favorite. Other GC contenders like Geraint Thomas, Ben O'Connor, Damiano Caruso, and Aleksandr Vlasov have outside chances.

• The sprinters lineup is stacked, with Arnaud Demare, Jasper Philipsen, Caleb Ewan, Dylan Groenewegen, Kaden Groves, and others targeting the flat stages.

• Filippo Ganna is expected to dominate the time trials, with challenges from Roglic.

• Key mountain stages include the Mortirolo, Stelvio, Gavia, and two ascents of Monte Grappa on the final mountain stage.

• The authors predict Roglic for the overall win, Ben O'Connor 2nd, and Geraint Thomas 3rd. Other predictions include Juan Pedro Lopez for KOM, Jai Hindley for best young rider, and Jonathan Milan for the points jersey.

The biggest challenge scientists face when trying to start businesses is shifting from a research and discovery mindset to a product and customer mindset. As a founder, the focus is on iterative response to the market rather than pursuing absolute truth as in science. Founders must listen to customers who may not want the most rational or obvious solution.

Finding product-market fit becomes a discovery process of iterating the business based on customer feedback, similar to using the scientific method. Scientists can leverage their experience with the scientific process to take an engineering mindset and systematically test different approaches to achieve product-market fit.

The key is recognizing that building a startup is different from pure research. It requires pivoting based on market signals rather than striving for a single optimal solution. By embracing this mindset shift, scientists can successfully apply their analytical skills to the unique challenges of entrepreneurship.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has established the AI Safety and Security Board to oversee the responsible development and deployment of AI technologies in critical infrastructure. The board, chaired by Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, includes leaders from technology, civil rights, academia, and public policy sectors.

Its goal is to develop recommendations for the safe use of AI in essential services and prepare for AI-related disruptions. Notably, the board excludes Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg due to their companies' substantial AI operations and the social media controversies around user privacy and misinformation.

Instead, the board comprises executives from major tech companies like Microsoft, OpenAI, IBM, Nvidia, Alphabet, and Amazon Web Services. While their expertise is valuable, some critics argue this could lead to regulatory capture, where the board prioritizes industry interests over public safety.

Proponents counter that these leaders' insights are crucial for regulating complex AI technologies effectively. The author leans towards the regulatory capture concern, arguing that these companies may shape regulations to favor their business goals over responsible AI deployment.

The article delves into the rationale for excluding Musk and Zuckerberg, citing user privacy scandals at Meta and the public's declining trust in social media platforms due to misinformation concerns. However, the author questions this reasoning, given the inclusion of other tech CEOs with potential conflicts of interest.

Ultimately, the article raises important questions about balancing industry expertise with impartial oversight in AI regulation, ensuring AI's safe and ethical development in critical sectors.

ChatGPT's new memory feature allows it to retain context and personalize responses across conversations. Though not available everywhere yet, users can enable it in Settings > Personalization.

Provide ChatGPT with personal details like your name, location, interests etc. and it will remember this context for more relevant responses. For example, telling it you run "The AI Grid" YouTube channel allows follow-ups about tips for your channel.

However, be careful as ChatGPT can sometimes misremember hypotheticals or jokes as facts. The memory is also limited, so excessive personal data may degrade performance.

Overall, this grounds conversations in your identity for a more tailored experience akin to YouTube recommendations. But moderation is key to prevent ChatGPT from going off the rails based on incorrect memories.

A mysterious new chatbot called "GPT2" has appeared on the AI Chatbot Arena website, surpassing state-of-the-art models like GPT-4 and Claude on certain reasoning and coding tasks. This has sparked speculation that it could be an early preview of GPT-4.5 or GPT-5 from OpenAI.

The Chatbot Arena allows users to test different AI models side-by-side on prompts. The "GPT2" chatbot consistently outperforms GPT-4 and other top models on tasks like counting characters, solving logic puzzles, and coding simple games from scratch. Some examples are shared showing GPT2's superior reasoning abilities.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman added fuel to the speculation by tweeting "I do have a soft spot for gpt2" - referencing the unusual name. However, the author notes some skepticism as GPT2 failed on a custom trading algorithm coding test they ran.

Theories range from it being an unfiltered GPT-4 model to an early preview of GPT-5. But the author leans toward it being an internal OpenAI test model, as revealing a true GPT-4.5 or GPT-5 this way seems unlikely. More rigorous benchmarking is needed to assess GPT2's true capabilities compared to GPT-4.

This week, China unveiled an advanced fully electric anthropomorphic full-size humanoid robot named Tang Gong. A demo showcased the robot's capabilities, including walking up and down steps with self-correcting stability mechanics, running through slopes in "blind mode" without vision sensors, and adjusting its feet angles for stability when navigating terrain.

Key features of Tang Gong include:

• Fully electric powered, no overhead cables
• 1.63m tall, weighs 43kg
• Can maintain steady 6km/h running speed
• High-precision 550 trillion ops/sec 3D vision sensors
• 6-axis force sensors for accurate force feedback

While the legs appear highly advanced, the torso and arm areas seem less developed in this initial model. Notably, the robot is claimed to be open-source, allowing global collaboration and transparency in its development.

If true open-source, this could accelerate innovation as developers customize and extend Tang Gong's capabilities. It also provides educational value for institutions to study its design. Overall, this unveiling highlights China's rapid progress in humanoid robotics and AI technologies.

The video showcases several cutting-edge robots demonstrating incredible dexterity, agility, and capabilities that were previously unseen.

The first robot, likely developed in China, exhibits remarkable real-time precision in stacking cups, handling delicate items like wine glasses, and even slicing cucumbers with surgical accuracy – all powered by artificial intelligence without any human control or teleoperation.

Another robot from Google DeepMind shows impressive performance in a soccer game, maneuvering on two legs and kicking the ball deftly against an opponent robot.

The video also features robots from Boston Dynamics, booster Robotics, and UNRI, a Chinese company, displaying feats like effortlessly transitioning from a lying position to standing upright, performing backflips, and coordinating group exercises.

Robots from UC San Diego, Shanghai University, and Fudan University are highlighted for tasks like pouring liquids, stacking objects, and even cleaning up after a child's mess.

Cutting-edge robots like the one-wheeled robot from Illinois ECE and Sanctuary AI's newly announced robot showcase innovative designs and capabilities in tackling diverse terrains.

The video argues that these robots, powered by advanced AI and dexterity that surpasses human capabilities in specific tasks, are rapidly becoming a reality and could soon become commonplace in households, factories, and other settings.

This article documents the author's experience testing a new mysterious AI model that recently appeared on the LMSys.org leaderboards. According to speculations, this model might be GPT-4.5 or even GPT-5 from OpenAI, exhibiting capabilities far beyond GPT-2 or GPT-3.

The author puts the model through a series of tests, including coding tasks like writing Python scripts, solving logic and reasoning problems, answering word problems, and even tackling a difficult LeetCode problem. The model's responses are remarkably detailed, well-structured, and often provide step-by-step explanations.

One notable feature of the model is its unique formatting style, sometimes inserting code before previously written lines. It also demonstrates an impressive ability to handle complex prompts, reason about practical limitations, and provide nuanced answers beyond just mathematical calculations.

While the model appears to be censored and declines requests for illegal activities, it excels in tasks requiring logical reasoning, problem-solving, and coding. The author is thoroughly impressed by the model's performance and speculates on its potential identity, eagerly awaiting further information about its origin and capabilities.

No article content was provided, so there is no summary to generate.

The article appears to be a preview or newsletter announcement about an upcoming profile on Virginia Sole-Smith, described as a "fat activist" who is inspiring and infuriating followers with her message about freeing oneself from rules around eating.

The summary is quite short, under 100 words, so based on the guidelines I will simply include the full text:

"Let them eat everything

A "fat activist" is inspiring and infuriating her followers.View in browser|nytimes.comContinue reading the main story

April 29, 2024 In the age of Ozempic, Virginia Sole-Smith has become one of the country's most visible fat activists, calling out the bias and discrimination faced by people in larger bodies."

Harvey Weinstein's Rape Conviction Overturned in Landmark Ruling

In a bombshell decision on Thursday, the New York Court of Appeals threw out Harvey Weinstein's 2020 conviction for rape and other sex crimes. The majority ruled that Weinstein's trial was "egregiously" unfair due to the improper admission of testimony from "prior bad acts" witnesses.

These witnesses, who allege abuse by Weinstein that was not part of the charges against him, were allowed to testify to try to undermine his defense that the interactions were consensual. However, the court said this violated Weinstein's right to a fair trial by suggesting he had a "propensity for criminality."

The ruling could have major implications:

• Weinstein's LA Conviction: Weinstein's lawyers plan to use the ruling to appeal his separate rape conviction in Los Angeles, where similar "prior bad acts" witnesses testified.

• Ghislaine Maxwell: Maxwell could potentially use the ruling to bolster her own appeal, as a witness dubbed "Kate" gave testimony about uncharged allegations against Epstein and Maxwell.

• Future Trials: The precedent could make it harder for prosecutors to use "prior bad acts" witnesses in sexual assault cases, which are already difficult to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.

Victims' attorneys argue the ruling undermines efforts to show a pattern of behavior by predators. But the court insisted defendants cannot be convicted based on "collateral matters" or "bad character" alone.

The ruling is a major victory for Weinstein's new high-profile lawyer Arthur Aidala, who has taken aim at "cancel culture" and vowed to ensure Weinstein received a truly fair trial. Whether it opens the door for Maxwell and other #MeToo convictions to be re-examined remains to be seen.

How Anne Hathaway Learned to Stop Pleasing Everyone

In a candid interview for The New York Times, acclaimed actress Anne Hathaway opened up about her journey of letting go of others' opinions and embracing her authentic self. She revealed how early in her career, she fell into the trap of trying too hard to be liked, which ultimately led to immense scrutiny and backlash.

"When you're that age you think, 'If I can just get everybody to see me for who I am and let my work speak for itself, it'll all be fine,'" she reflected. However, the more she tried to manage her public persona, the more criticism she faced, plunging her into a dark period of hating herself.

The turning point came when Hathaway realized the futility of pleasing everyone. "No matter what you did, you were still wrong," she said. This epiphany allowed her to shift her perspective and focus on living authentically without seeking external validation.

Now in her 40s, Hathaway exudes a newfound confidence and self-acceptance. She consciously avoids reading comments about herself and instead finds fulfillment in her craft and loved ones. "I'm just grateful to have the shot," she shared, embracing the imperfect journey that led her to this liberating mindset.

In a world that constantly scrutinizes public figures, Anne Hathaway's journey serves as an inspiring reminder to stay true to oneself and find happiness from within, free from the shackles of others' expectations.

Walking at The Speed of The Soul

The psychological and spiritual benefits of long, uninterrupted walks are undergoing a resurgence in mainstream culture, from New York Times articles to TikTok travel diaries. Writer Craig Mod poetically describes the importance of continuous walking as a way to be "ensorcelled by its strangeness" and engage in a unique form of self-conversation with the road itself.

This idea is beautifully expanded upon in Nick Hunt's essay "Traveling At The Speed Of The Soul." Reflecting on his 4,000km journey from Holland to Turkey, Hunt argues that walking at a pace of 3 miles per hour allows one to truly experience the world as an interconnected continuum, where cultures, landscapes, and borders blend seamlessly.

At this slow speed, "hills [merge] into mountains, rivers into valleys, suburbs into city centers; cultures are not separate things but points along a spectrum. Traits and languages evolve, shading into one another and metamorphosing with every mile. Even borders are seldom borders, least of all ecologically. There are no beginnings or endings, only continuity."

Hunt contrasts this grounded, continuous experience with the disorienting effects of traversing the same distance at over 100 times the speed by plane. He suggests that to truly complete a walking journey, one must not only walk to the destination but then return home by foot - forming "a completed circle" and avoiding the feeling that "the walking...had [been] raveled back in."

The essay is a poignant reminder that in our modern, high-speed world, the simple act of walking can be a profound spiritual practice - allowing us to move at "the speed of the soul" and reintegrate our fragmented experience of reality into an organic whole.

This article examines the reasons behind the shift of Latino voters towards the Republican Party, despite Donald Trump's often derogatory rhetoric towards immigrants. Through a Q&A with reporter Jennifer Medina, the article explores various factors driving this trend:

• Economic perceptions: Some Latino voters feel the economy was better pre-pandemic and view Trump as having business acumen.
• Opposition to "socialism": There is resistance to policies like universal healthcare or student loan forgiveness, seen as leaning towards socialism.
• Religious values: Opposition to abortion aligns some Latino voters with Republican stances.
• Immigration views: Children/grandchildren of immigrants want stronger borders and oppose illegal immigration/perceived abuse of asylum system.
• Anti-establishment appeal: Trump's brash style and attacks on liberals hold a "rebel factor" appeal for some.
• Disillusionment with Democrats: A sense that Democrats have not improved lives despite promises on economy, schools, healthcare.
• Bootstrap mentality: Belief in ability to prosper through hard work, aligning with Republican rhetoric on self-reliance.

While immigration was assumed to drive Latinos to Democrats, many now see themselves as Americans distinct from new immigrants that Trump targets. Overall, economic issues and dissatisfaction with Democratic delivery seem to outweigh immigration concerns for many Latino Republican supporters.

The article also covers other news such as protests at Columbia University, the war in Sudan, and a popular fitness trend called Hyrox races combining running with movements like weighted lunges.

The New York Times Opinion Video team conducted exit interviews with 12 departing members of Congress to get insights on the state of the institution and potential improvements. The lawmakers revealed the frustrations of the job such as constant political grandstanding, partisan gridlock, threat of government shutdowns, and a dysfunctional workplace environment. However, some are still trying to get things done despite the challenges, often at great personal sacrifice.

The interviews exposed how members don't feel much better about Congress than the public, with approval ratings dropping to 13% last year. Issues cited include the unprecedented speaker ouster, weekslong speaker votes, lack of progress on urgent matters like immigration and foreign aid, and routine difficulties like the perennial threat of government shutdowns.

Despite the negatives, the interviews showed some lawmakers are dedicated to serving even in a broken system, making personal sacrifices and persevering through partisan gridlock. The Opinion Video team frames the exit interviews as a way to assess Congress' current state and gather ideas for potential reform from those with firsthand experience of its dysfunction.

Is it real?

"Eldest daughter syndrome" — characterized by intense feelings of familial responsibility, people-pleasing tendencies and resentment — is having a moment.

But does birth order really matter? Here's what the research says.

In a breaking news development, a judge overseeing Donald Trump's hush-money trial has held the former president in contempt of court and fined him $9,000. The reason cited was Trump's repeated violations of a gag order that barred him from attacking witnesses, jurors and others involved in the case.

The New York Times article reports that Trump was found guilty of contempt for amplifying attacks on witnesses related to his trial regarding alleged hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.

A gag order had been issued prohibiting Trump from making statements that could be viewed as intimidating witnesses or otherwise obstructing justice. However, Trump continued making public comments disparaging witnesses and their credibility, leading the judge to impose the $9,000 fine for contempt.

The article notes that the ruling comes amidst high-stakes legal battles for Trump on multiple fronts, including the hush money case in New York, investigations into his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, and the handling of classified documents after leaving office.

This contempt ruling underscores the challenges for the judicial system in controlling a former president who has shown a willingness to defy court orders and directives. It remains to be seen if the relatively modest $9,000 fine will deter Trump from making further statements that could be viewed as violating the court's gag order as the trial proceeds.

It's a peculiar experience to reach the age of a TV character you're familiar with. With book characters, time feels more abstract, but actors' appearances root TV characters in a specific age range. The author ponders why so many iconic TV antiheroes like Don Draper and Tony Soprano were introduced in their mid-to-late 30s.

Turning 36 himself, the author reflects on this transitional age - firmly into adulthood yet still carrying an echo of youthful identity. Actors like Jon Hamm (36 in Mad Men's pilot) and James Gandolfini (37 for The Sopranos) embodied this stage of life, with the weight of experience etched on their faces yet still vigorous and hungry.

Perhaps this specific window allows viewers to live vicariously through these complicated men, who are established in their professions yet still struggle with existential purpose and meaning. Their moral descent is more gripping when they seem outwardly respectable at first glance. The mid-to-late 30s are often seen as the last gasp of prolonged adolescence, making it a perfect canvas for these antiheroes' gradual unraveling.

Defining the Criticality of a Service or System

Not all services need extensive security reviews - it depends on the service's risk profile. Consider these dimensions to assess criticality:

Business Purpose - How critical is the service to the business? Does it handle sensitive data?

Public Access - Is the service exposed to the internet/public? Public services have expanded attack surfaces.

Custom Access Controls - Are there granular access controls tailored to the service's needs? This impacts confidentiality.

Users - What types of users interact with the service? This informs authentication, auditing, and compliance needs.

Deployment Environments - Each environment (dev, staging, prod) may have different security requirements based on risk tolerance and data sensitivity.

Data Classification - How sensitive is the data handled? This determines encryption, access restrictions, etc.

Scoring System Criticality

Assign weights to the above dimensions to calculate a total "risk score" indicating the system's security criticality. For example, a payment processing system scores high (15/18) due to its business purpose, handling of sensitive financial data, strict compliance requirements, and more.

Threat Modeling

Threat modeling identifies potential threats and vulnerabilities in a system's design. It involves:

• Creating data flow diagrams to visualize the system
• Identifying threats and threat sources
• Documenting mitigations for each threat

This proactive approach helps build more secure systems from the start.

Secure Design Principles

Apply principles like "defense in depth" (layered security controls), "least privilege" (minimal access rights), and "zero trust" (untrusted by default) to build robust, secure systems resistant to threats.

For platform teams, create pre-approved secure configurations to enable product teams to build securely. The goal is baking security into the entire software development lifecycle.

This is a quarterly roundup of news and interesting stories from the Experimental History blog. The key item is a recap of the famous "bottomless soup bowl" study conducted by psychologist Brian Wansink in 2005, which found people ate 73% more soup from self-refilling bowls without realizing it. Wansink's research was later called into question and he resigned from Cornell in 2019 amid findings of research misconduct. However, a recent replication study found the self-refilling bowl effect is real, with people eating 33% more from the special bowls.

Other items covered include:

• A Chinese study that tested whether young children could be lured away by strangers (disturbingly, many could)
• Mikhail Gorbachev appearing in a Pizza Hut ad after the fall of the Soviet Union
• Harvard inviting Ted Kaczynski (the Unabomber) to his 50th reunion
• Archaic beliefs about the effects of menstruation from ancient Rome
• The apocalyptic doomsday cult of William Miller and his great branding
• New York's proliferation of unlicensed cannabis dispensaries
• Highlights from the "Pessimists Archive" of mistaken predictions
• Research showing evidence of bots/scammers infecting Amazon's Mechanical Turk platform
• Insights into airplane safety and the cooling rate of boiling water poured from heights

The post concludes with research updates, podcast links, and a reader-submitted artwork inspired by the blog.

This article reports on the trial of former President Donald Trump for his alleged involvement in paying hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal to conceal affairs before the 2016 election.

Key points from the testimony of lawyer Keith Davidson, who represented both women:

• Davidson described hostile interactions with Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer, over a story about Trump's affair with Daniels being published on a gossip website in 2011.

• Concerning McDougal, Davidson claimed American Media Inc., which paid her hush money, initially competed with ABC News for her story before backing out.

• When it became clear Trump wouldn't pay Daniels' hush money, Cohen set up a dummy corporation to pay it himself, while trying to get reimbursed by Trump.

• The texts and calls between Davidson and Cohen pre-corroborate the expected testimony of Cohen that Trump directed the hush money payments, which is key for the prosecution's case.

The article also notes that while Trump supporters gathered outside court, their numbers seemed to be dwindling, reflecting his waning influence. Legal experts weigh in on the importance of the case for upholding rule of law and combating Trump's claims of total immunity for acts as president.

The article explains why a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza has not yet been agreed upon, despite months of negotiations mediated by the US, Egypt and Qatar. Key points:

• Israel has made major concessions in recent weeks, agreeing to allow Palestinians in Gaza to return to homes in the north and release more prisoners in exchange for hostages held by Hamas.

• However, Hamas rejected an initial deal, saying it could not meet the condition of releasing 40 female/ill/elderly hostages. It wants Israel to fully end the war as a condition for a deal.

• A new offer was made where Israel would accept 33 hostages in exchange for releasing Palestinian prisoners, but Hamas has not accepted yet.

• The US believes Israel has conceded all it can, raising doubts Hamas truly wants a deal. Hamas' military leader Yahya Sinwar is being accused of being an obstacle.

• The impasse means Israel may soon launch a ground invasion of Rafah in Gaza, where over 1 million Palestinian civilians live, which could lead to massive casualties.

• The US strategy has been to first achieve a temporary cease-fire through a limited hostage exchange, in hopes it could lead to a permanent end to fighting.

The article raises concerns about the potential risk of a bird flu outbreak among humans, particularly dairy farm workers, due to their close contact with infected cattle herds. It highlights the lack of adequate testing and protective measures for this vulnerable population, many of whom are undocumented immigrants with limited access to healthcare.

The key points are:

1. The H5N1 bird flu virus has spread to dairy cow herds in the US, contaminated the milk supply chain, and caused at least one human infection.

2. Dairy farm workers, mainly undocumented immigrants from Mexico and Central America, are at high risk due to their working conditions and socioeconomic status.

3. Many lack proper protective gear, can't afford to miss work or seek medical care, and face language barriers, making them especially vulnerable.

4. The authors argue for urgent and widespread testing of dairy farm workers to safeguard their health and prevent further spread of the virus.

5. They warn against repeating the failures of the COVID-19 response and stress the need for proactive measures to avert another pandemic.

The article emphasizes the ethical and public health imperative to protect this marginalized workforce, not just for their sake but also to contain a potential outbreak that could impact the broader population.

The author is embarking on a trip deep into the Amazon rainforest with their friend Paul Rosolie, a conservationist dedicated to protecting the jungle. Their goal is to experience nature in its purest form and celebrate the biodiversity of the Amazon.

The author expresses excitement about disconnecting from technology and the outside world to immerse themselves fully in the raw beauty of the rainforest. They recognize the privilege of being able to witness such an environment firsthand.

While looking forward to potential stories and a podcast recording with Paul, the author acknowledges the risks involved, humorously mentioning the possibility of being "eaten by anything." Above all, they aim to raise awareness about protecting the Amazon and supporting organizations like Paul's Jungle Keepers.

The author ends on a profound note, expressing gratitude for life on this "beautiful planet" and love for their "fellow humans," exemplifying their passion for nature and conservation.

This article discusses the recent announcement by Chinese AI company Sense Time about their new SenseNova 5.0 language model, which they claim outperforms OpenAI's GPT-4 on most benchmarks. The key points covered include:

• Sense Time claims SenseNova 5.0 beats GPT-4 on nearly all benchmarks like math, common sense reasoning, and language tasks. However, independent verification is needed.

• On some tasks like creative writing, SenseNova 5.0 is described as having a more diverse and flowing writing style compared to GPT-4's structured approach.

• SenseNova 5.0 also showcases impressive image generation capabilities, creating highly realistic portraits from text prompts.

• Sense Time's smaller 1.8B parameter model, SenseChat Light, significantly outperforms models of similar size like Google's Gemini and Meta's LLaMA.

• The company's stock soared over 30% after the SenseNova 5.0 announcement, highlighting investor excitement.

• The article raises questions about whether China is rapidly catching up in the AI race and how this development impacts the competitive landscape, with major players pouring billions into advancing their models.

The author encourages testing SenseNova 5.0 through public platforms to independently evaluate its capabilities compared to existing models like GPT-4 and Claude. Overall, the announcement signals intensifying AI competition globally.

Summary

The article covers several recent developments and stories in the field of artificial intelligence (AI):

1. SORA by OpenAI: The behind-the-scenes details of SORA's video generation process were revealed, showing that while the AI generates the initial video, there is still some manual post-processing and editing required. This led to discussions about the current limitations of AI video generation.

2. Elon Musk's AI Company X.ai: Musk is close to raising $6 billion for his AI company X.ai from investors like Sequoia, valuing the company at $18 billion. This valuation reflects Musk's reputation and the potential of AI technology, although some question the high valuation.

3. Sanctuary AI's Humanoid Robot: Sanctuary AI showcased improvements to their general-purpose humanoid robot, with upgraded vision and other capabilities, though details on leg mobility are still unclear.

4. AI-Generated Fake Audio Incident: A school principal was temporarily removed due to a realistic AI-generated audio clip containing racist and anti-Semitic comments, triggering outrage before it was revealed as a hoax, highlighting the potential misuse of AI technology.

5. Perplexity Voice Assistants: The research tool Perplexity added voice capabilities for iOS and Pro users, aiming to further enhance the productivity benefits of their AI-powered research assistant.

6. OpenAI's New Supercomputer: In a nostalgic moment, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang presented OpenAI with the world's first DGX H200 supercomputer, dedicated to advancing AI computing and humanity, similar to a previous gesture with the DGX1.

7. Anticipation for OpenAI's Next Model: Sam Altman's comments at Stanford and other leaks suggest that OpenAI may release a new AI model, potentially GPT-5, in June 2023, generating excitement within the AI community.

China Leads the Way in Fully Autonomous Humanoid Robotics?

A video demonstration from a Chinese company called Astrobot showcases what they claim to be a fully autonomous humanoid robot called the S1. The robot is shown completing a variety of dexterous tasks like stacking cups, separating objects, throwing a paper airplane into a bin, and cutting vegetables - all at real-time speeds with no apparent teleoperation or manipulation.

What makes this particularly impressive is the robot's speed, fluidity of motion, and integration with large language models and vision systems to identify objects and plan actions. The robot is shown interacting with a chat interface and correctly identifying items in a scene.

While some may be skeptical of the claim of full autonomy, the author argues this could represent a significant lead for China in commercializing capable humanoid robots. Key advantages appear to be the use of imitation learning from human demonstrations as well as a design approach favoring simplicity over more complex multi-fingered hands.

Potential future improvements could involve giving the robot mobility to navigate environments, as well as voice interfaces for more natural human interaction. Nonetheless, the author concludes that this may spur increased competition in a field where China seems to be investing heavily and pulling ahead.

A Chinese AI firm called Shang Shu Technology, along with Ting University, recently unveiled "Vidu" - China's first text-to-video AI model capable of generating high-definition 1080p videos with just a single click. Vidu is positioned as a competitor to OpenAI's DALL-E, with the ability to understand and generate Chinese-specific content.

In the demo, Vidu showcased its impressive video generation capabilities, creating realistic scenes with details like moving water, camera movements, and adherence to properties like lighting and shadows. The author argues that while some may criticize the quality, video generation is an extremely difficult task and Vidu's results are state-of-the-art compared to currently available models.

The author sees Vidu's launch as a clear indication of China's rapidly advancing AI capabilities, coming on the heels of recent achievements like a state-of-the-art robot, a powerful vision model, and a large language model outperforming GPT-4. The author believes the USA may need to accelerate its own AI development efforts to keep pace.

While acknowledging potential cherry-picking in the demos, the author highlights Vidu's temporal consistency and realistic motion, which surpasses even recent models like Runway's Gen 2. The architecture behind Vidu also differs from OpenAI's approach, utilizing a universal Vision Transformer to create realistic videos adhering to physical world properties.

Overall, the author presents Vidu as a significant leap forward in video AI capabilities, with implications for an emerging "AI race" between China and the USA as they prioritize this technology's development.

Hands-On with Rabbit: A Conversational AI Assistant

Marques Brownlee got his hands on the new Rabbit device, a conversational AI assistant that aims to be a fast, mobile knowledge source powered by internet access. Here are the key features he highlighted:

Conversational Q&A: The "killer feature" is being able to ask Rabbit questions out loud anywhere using natural language, and get quick, conversational responses powered by up-to-date search. This is much faster than typing queries manually.

Use Cases: - In the car for hands-free queries while driving - Looking up info at home, e.g. details about holidays like Passover - Having kids ask questions verbally that they can't easily type out

Recording & Summarization: You can have Rabbit record meetings/conversations and it will transcribe the audio and generate an AI-powered summary in the Rabbit Hole web interface.

Other Details:
- $199 device with no subscription, includes Anthropic's Claude AI - Quickly sold over 100K units after viral launch video - Begins shipping to customers soon after initially selling out first 10K batch

Brownlee sees Rabbit as an innovative product breaking new ground as a mobile AI knowledge companion, with major advantages over voice assistants like Siri in understanding natural conversations and offering informative responses on-the-go.

Review of the Rabbit AI Device

The Rabbit device by Rabbit Inc. is a handheld AI assistant that aims to be a voice-controlled knowledge companion. Here are the key points from this hands-on review:

Hardware - Gorgeous minimalist design with a premium build quality - Lightweight yet solid feel in the hand - High resolution screen and clicky, tactile buttons/scroll wheel - Decent battery life but charges quickly via USB-C - Has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and optional cellular connectivity

Performance - Incredibly fast at answering voice queries on almost any topic - Can see images through the built-in camera and identify objects - User inputs like shaking to access settings are unique - Voice control is limited to querying, can't adjust device settings by voice

Ecosystem - Requires account setup through "Rabbit Hole" web portal - Spotify integration works very well for voice music control - Food ordering through DoorDash is very sluggish and unintuitive - More third-party app integration is needed to make it truly useful

Verdict At $199 with no subscription, the Rabbit is an impressive peek at ambient AI hardware, despite some key features like food ordering not working smoothly yet. It excels as an ultra-portable voice knowledge bank. But it's still early and needs software refinement to fully realize its potential as an AI assistant.

The article discusses a demo of Grock AI's vision capabilities, showcasing examples like translating a handwritten diagram into Python code and explaining the meaning behind a meme image.

It highlights the impressive ability of the AI system to understand diagrams and generate code from them, as well as interpret visual humor by analyzing the elements and exaggerations in a meme.

The author expresses amazement at these capabilities, calling the meme explanation "the most impressive example" of the demo. The examples demonstrate Grock AI's advances in computer vision and natural language understanding tasks.

The article introduces OS World, an open-source project that aims to address the challenge of benchmarking AI agents for open-ended tasks in real computer environments. It highlights the lack of a consistent and thorough way to test and evaluate AI agents, which is crucial for their improvement.

OS World provides a robust environment that includes multiple operating systems, a way for agents to interact with the environment, and a method to measure their performance. It utilizes a research paper and a presentation to explain the project's concept and approach.

The article discusses the importance of grounding, which refers to the ability to translate instructions into executable actions within an environment. It explains that large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT can provide step-by-step instructions but cannot execute tasks on computers or generate plans without interacting with the environment.

OS World introduces the concept of intelligent agents, which perceive their environment through sensors and act rationally upon it with effectors. The article provides examples of different environments, sensors, and effectors that intelligent agents can utilize.

The project includes 369 real-world computer tasks involving web and desktop applications, file reading and writing, and multi-app workflows. Each task is annotated with instructions, an initial state setup, and an evaluation script.

The article presents the results of testing different input modes (accessibility tree, screenshot, and set of marks) with various language models, including GPT-4, Gemini Pro, and Cog Agent. It highlights the performance differences and the importance of higher screenshot resolution for improved results.

Overall, OS World aims to provide a scalable, multimodal agent environment for evaluating open-ended computer tasks, facilitating the benchmarking and improvement of AI agents in real-world scenarios.

Supreme Court Seems Ready to Limit Trump Jan. 6 Case

The Supreme Court appeared ready on Wednesday to rule that Donald J. Trump cannot be charged with inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol while he was president, a ruling that could delay any trial in the historic federal prosecution until after the 2024 election.

Such a decision would be a major victory for Mr. Trump, potentially shielding him from criminal accountability during his re-election campaign. Prosecutors brought the charges in hopes of trying Mr. Trump before voters go to the polls in November.

But after nearly three hours of arguments on Wednesday, a majority of the court's six conservative justices seemed unpersuaded that exceptions should be made to protect presidents from civil lawsuits and criminal prosecutions over their official acts while in office.

The case is expected to turn on whether Mr. Trump's fiery speech on the Ellipse near the White House on Jan. 6, which preceded the attack on the Capitol, can be considered part of his duties as president. If so, he would have broad immunity from prosecution at least while in office.

After Apartheid in South Africa: Progress and Pitfalls

Thirty years ago tomorrow, South Africa transitioned from the racist apartheid regime to democracy through the country's first multi-racial elections. Nelson Mandela became president and vowed to uplift Black communities by redistributing wealth, land, and resources that the white minority had monopolized.

While South Africa has made remarkable progress - enshrining equal rights, holding credible elections, and fostering a more integrated society - Mandela's vision is far from realized. Most Black South Africans still live in poverty without reliable access to basic services. Racial disparities in employment, education, and income remain vast.

The new government aimed for a measured transition to avoid scaring off investors. Instead of nationalizing industries, it pushed for more Black business ownership. Rather than seizing land, it urged white owners to sell. While some Black elites have prospered, the majority have not benefited.

Corruption has also hamstrung progress, as some in the African National Congress liberation movement exploited their newfound power for personal enrichment after apartheid's end. State-owned companies like the power utility and logistics firms have suffered from mismanagement and graft.

As South Africa heads into elections next month, voters will decide if the ANC maintains its long hold on power or if other parties can better achieve economic transformation. The country has come far but still struggles to undo centuries of racial oppression and inequality.

If Arizona Repeals Its Abortion Ban, the Far Right Won't Blame Trump

On Wednesday, anti-abortion activists protested plans to repeal Arizona's unpopular 1864 abortion ban at the state capitol. Surprisingly, no one blamed former President Trump for encouraging Republicans to break with anti-abortion leaders and scrap the Victorian-era law, which the House voted 32-28 to repeal.

Trump and Kari Lake had both called for abandoning the draconian ban. Yet anti-abortion activists expressed fury at the Republican lawmakers who defied them, with some even criticizing Lake - but not Trump. "I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt because he has been the most pro-life president ever," said far-right state senator Anthony Kern.

It's a stark reversal from 2016, when Christian conservatives argued voting for Trump was necessary to ban abortion. Now, Trump's sway over the movement allows wavering on this core issue. For his supporters, Trump has become an end unto himself, immune from criticism even when breaching long-held principles.

As Arizona moves to be the first Republican-led state to roll back strict post-Roe limits, it shows the Trump movement prioritizing loyalty over policy commitments that once unified the right. The former president's word has become inviolable doctrine for a faction willing to contort their beliefs to retain his favor.

Alberta's United Conservative Party government, led by Premier Danielle Smith, has introduced the Provincial Priorities Act to reinforce its agenda and square off against the federal Liberal government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The proposed legislation would allow Alberta to veto federal funding agreements with provincial entities, including universities and colleges.

Smith argues that the Trudeau government has imposed its ideological agenda on Albertans through federal funding. The bill aims to make Alberta an arbiter over such agreements, with the power to invalidate deals that its municipalities, health agencies, and postsecondary institutions make with Ottawa.

Post-secondary institutions have raised concerns about potential infringements on academic freedom. Smith has criticized a perceived lack of "balance" on university campuses and suggested reviewing federal research grants to assess gaps, particularly in journalism programs that she believes do not produce enough conservative voices.

University leaders plan to push for exemptions during the consultation period, citing the rigorous peer-review process for federal research grants. Academics warn of potential self-censorship if the provincial government gains influence over research funding decisions.

The bill has reignited tensions between Alberta's conservative government and the federal Liberals, with Smith accusing Trudeau of grabbing control from provinces through funding deals. Critics argue the move could undermine academic independence and freedom of inquiry in Alberta's post-secondary sector.

Making the Most of It

The advice to live each day to the fullest, or "seize the day," is a common exhortation, but figuring out how to actually do so can be quite challenging. The message to remember our mortality and not waste time comes in many poetic forms - from gospel teachings to poetry to inspirational memes.

While these reminders are profound and moving, they are also difficult to fully internalize and live by. The actress Anne Hathaway recently shared her perspective that we don't know if we're truly in "middle age" since we could get hit by a car at any moment. This highlights how we often think of our lives as a linear timeline, when in reality, anything could happen to cut it short unexpectedly.

There are books like "Denial of Death," "Four Thousand Weeks," and "A Year to Live" that delve into this existential reality and how to embrace it. However, understanding the principle intellectually is one thing - living it out day-to-day is the real challenge.

The key may be to have regular reminders, whether through re-reading insightful books, conversations with friends, meditation, sticky notes, or simply paying close attention to how we're using our limited time. While "seize the day" inspiration can seem cliché, the message has broad relevance precisely because we all face the same profound truth - our days are finite. Living with that awareness could be the most powerful shift we can make.

How Motherhood Can Improve Science

Being a mother is often seen as incompatible with a successful research career in science. However, this essay argues that the perspectives and experiences gained through motherhood can actually enhance scientific inquiry and narratives.

Adaptability The author, a scientist named Toby Kiers, describes how expeditions with her family have taught them all to be more adaptable - accepting changed goals, sleeping without pillows, and going hungry at times. This flexibility is valuable in science as well, where research plans frequently need to change.

Different Perspectives Kiers argues that women, especially mothers, can offer different viewpoints that are essential for a complete understanding in science. For example, she cites research showing that pregnancy actually changes the architecture of the female brain. On a mountain hike, her daughter witnessed Kiers leading while her husband stayed behind with their son - defying traditional gender roles.

Resilience Balancing motherhood with an intensive research career requires tremendous resilience and strength, both physical and mental. Kiers summarizes being a female scientist as feeling "both tired and strong" after summiting a mountain with her daughter.

In essence, the unique experiences, mental adaptations, different perspectives, and resilience required of mothers can greatly benefit scientific research and worldviews. Science needs the narratives and voices that mothers can provide.

The article discusses the latest developments in the 2024 US presidential election campaign, which has taken a chaotic turn with the emergence of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as a potential spoiler candidate.

The author notes that polls are showing a shift, with Kennedy gaining support and posing a threat to both Donald Trump and Joe Biden's campaigns. This has triggered a wave of attacks and counterattacks, with the Democratic National Committee (DNC) reportedly digging up dirt on Kennedy's running mate, Nicole Shanahan, while Trump has also gone on the offensive against Kennedy.

The article highlights the growing tensions and "theatrics" surrounding the campaign, with the prospect of all three candidates - Trump, Biden, and Kennedy - sharing a debate stage described as a potential "Colosseum" event. It also touches on other storylines, such as the selection of Trump's potential running mate and Biden's agreement to debate Trump.

Overall, the piece paints a picture of a highly polarized and chaotic election season, with both major parties feeling threatened by Kennedy's unconventional candidacy and resorting to mudslinging and opposition research tactics.

Key Points:

• Polls show a shift, with RFK Jr. gaining support and posing a threat to Trump and Biden
• DNC reportedly digging up dirt on RFK's running mate Nicole Shanahan
• Trump has gone on the offensive against RFK, calling him a "radical liberal"
• Prospect of Trump, Biden, and RFK sharing debate stage described as potential "Colosseum"
• Growing tensions and "theatrics" surrounding the campaign
• Both major parties feeling threatened by RFK's unconventional candidacy

Americans are increasingly entranced by the glitzy world of celebrity home sales, as reflected in popular reality TV shows like "Million Dollar Listing" and "Selling Sunset." Even as housing affordability reaches crisis levels, these shows tap into people's aspirational real estate fantasies by showcasing luxury properties and the lives of high-profile real estate agents.

The author spent time with agents from such shows to understand how they have built careers out of feeding these fantasies. She attended an awards show celebrating famous LA agents, where multimillion dollar home sales were treated like major Hollywood accomplishments.

On home tours with agents like Aaron Kirman, the author experienced firsthand the seductive allure of ultra-luxury properties, with their over-the-top amenities and stratospheric price tags. Kirman showed off a $58 million Bel Air mansion where even the central staircase cost over $1 million.

The sociological reasons behind the popularity of these real estate reality shows are examined. As homeownership becomes increasingly unattainable for many, Americans are turning to TV to live vicariously through celebrity agents and fuel their real estate dreams. The lavish homes and lifestyles depicted provide an escapist fantasy in a brutal housing market.

This article discusses how former President Donald Trump has so far avoided legal penalties for his actions following the 2020 election, despite evidence that he attempted to overturn the results. It examines the roles of three key groups:

1. Republican senators: The Senate voted to acquit Trump in his impeachment trial, with only 7 Republicans voting to convict. Many senators, including Mitch McConnell, signaled openness to convicting Trump initially but ultimately backed down due to his popularity with Republican voters.

2. Democratic prosecutors: Investigations by the Department of Justice and state prosecutors in Georgia have moved slowly and cautiously, wary of appearing partisan. Some DOJ prosecutors felt leadership was too hesitant to examine potential crimes.

3. Republican Supreme Court justices: The Supreme Court declined to hear Trump's appeal on an expedited schedule, then agreed to hear it but suggested issuing a broad ruling that could take months, potentially delaying past the 2024 election - mirroring an approach that benefited Republicans in 2000's Bush v. Gore case.

The article argues that despite polls showing most Americans believing Trump committed crimes, the combination of these three groups' actions have allowed Trump to delay facing legal consequences through the 2024 election cycle by pursuing a strategy of delay.

This article by Adam Sternbergh raises concerns about the trend of creating mindless, inoffensive television shows designed to be passively consumed while doing other tasks like folding laundry. Sternbergh argues that this represents a broader cultural shift towards unchallenging, overly sanitized storytelling devoid of complexity.

He cites an anecdote about TV executives asking writers to pitch "laundry-folding TV" - shows meant to play in the background without demanding full attention. Sternbergh finds this notion disturbing for anyone who values art that engages, challenges, and even unsettles the viewer.

The article references a guest essay by writer Jen Silverman, who observes this desire for innocuous narratives extending to the classroom, where aspiring writers sometimes prioritize scrubbing potentially offensive content over creating provocative, nuanced work.

Silverman argues that impactful art makes us uncomfortable, sticks with us, and changes us. She says artists cultivate the audiences they pursue - if writers avoid challenging material, they cannot expect an audience for thorny, complex stories.

The article positions this trend as a pursuit of simplistic moral lessons and public service announcements masquerading as narratives. It suggests we live in a complex world that demands art reflecting that complexity, not merely comforting pabulum.

Ultimately, Sternbergh's piece presents "laundry-folding TV" as a dismaying symptom of a cultural prioritization of the inoffensive and anodyne over the provocative and meaningful in storytelling.

Oscar Health, a technology-driven health insurance company, is harnessing the power of AI and language models to transform the healthcare industry. By leveraging OpenAI's models like GPT-4, Oscar has developed innovative solutions that streamline processes, improve patient care, and reduce costs.

One of their proudest achievements is a claim assistant that automates 48,000 tickets per year, saving significant time for internal teams and enabling faster response to members and providers. They have also built proprietary healthcare-specific datasets to benchmark and optimize language models for various use cases.

Oscar's AI R&D team, led by Nikita Lua, is exploring the potential of AI to unlock new possibilities in healthcare. They aim to use language models not just for scribing or recording, but to engage in actual conversations with patients, potentially reducing the cost of physician visits and hospitalizations by a factor of 10 within the next 3-5 years.

A key challenge they are tackling is the complexity of medical records, which can be hundreds of pages long for some patients. Oscar is leveraging AI to review these records efficiently, ensuring that even the sickest patients have access to the best possible care.

Overall, Oscar Health's collaboration with OpenAI is paving the way for a more efficient, accessible, and personalized healthcare system, demonstrating the transformative potential of AI in this vital industry.

Mona, a biotech company, is embracing AI technologies like ChatGPT and large language models across their business processes. They have adopted 400+ ChatGPT instances in just 2 months for various use cases:

• Legal department uses "Contract Companion" to summarize contracts and answer questions, enabling them to focus on high-impact matters.
• Dosing studies leverage ChatGPT to analyze thousands of pages of data, provide optimal dosage recommendations with rationale, and enable interactive data exploration.

The company believes AI will allow them to maximize impact with a relatively small workforce of 6,000 people, launching 15 products in 5 years - something that would require 100,000 people through traditional methods. Mona sees itself as a platform company using AI platforms for drug development.

Their CEO expresses gratitude for the OpenAI team's engagement in helping apply AI to save more lives through efficient drug development and business processes.

Transcript not available for this video.

Canyon has launched the Neuron:ON, a lightweight e-mountain bike powered by the new Bosch SX motor. This motor, combined with a 400Wh battery, makes the bike significantly lighter than Canyon's regular Neuron model with the Bosch CX motor.

Unlike full-power e-MTBs that provide maximum assistance at low cadences, the Neuron:ON is designed for riders who want to spin at higher cadences to access the motor's peak 600W power output. This allows for a more natural riding experience akin to a regular mountain bike, while still benefiting from electric assistance.

Key Features:

• Bosch SX Motor: Smaller and lighter than CX, delivers 600W peak power at high cadences (80-100 rpm)
• 400Wh Battery: Reduces overall weight compared to larger batteries
• 140mm Front/Rear Travel
• 29" Wheels (no mullet option)
• Four models priced from ~$5,400 to $8,600 USD
• Weight for size large: 20kg (44 lbs)

The reviewer found the bike to be agile, playful, and capable on technical trails while still providing ample power for climbing. The power delivery at higher cadences felt more natural and engaging compared to full-power e-MTBs. Overall, the Neuron:ON seems to strike a nice balance for riders wanting an e-bike experience closer to a regular mountain bike.

L2 Brings Its New E-Shifting Groupsets to Sea Otter Classic

Chinese bike component maker L2 is making a big push into international markets like Europe and North America, as evidenced by their first-ever presence at the Sea Otter Classic cycling festival in California.

L2's Deputy General Manager David proudly showed off their latest electronic shifting road and gravel groupsets, which include shifters, derailleurs, brake calipers and other components. Key features include:

• ERX and ER9 Road Groups: Electronic shift buttons, lighter one-piece brake calipers to prevent fluid leaks, and compact front derailleurs.

• EGR Gravel Group: Designed for the booming gravel/adventure bike segment, with a heavy-duty clutched rear derailleur, oversized pulleys, and a patented "aggro heat distribution" cooling design for the disc brake calipers.

• Wireless Operation: The groups use a removable, rechargeable battery that lasts 1200-1500km between charges and connects via magnetic charger.

• Cross-Brand Compatible: The derailleurs can be configured to work across 10-12 speed systems from other brands.

David revealed that after selling 1 million groupsets in just the last 2 years in China, L2 is pursuing global expansion backed by new investors. They are opening offices in Europe and Canada to support international markets, where growing interest in road and gravel cycling could provide huge potential for their value-priced, high-tech component groups.

This video explores the fascinating world of humanoid robots and the rapid advancements happening in this field, driven by breakthroughs in AI and robotics. The presenter showcases several impressive humanoid robots from companies like Boston Dynamics, Figure, Tesla, Sanctuary AI, Agility Robotics, Unitree, Aponic, Fourier Intelligence, 1X Robot, and UBTech.

These robots can perform a wide range of tasks, from navigating complex environments and manipulating objects to communicating with humans using natural language processing models. The humanoid form factor is crucial as it allows the robots to operate in environments designed for humans and facilitates natural interactions.

The surge in humanoid robotics is attributed to the recent advancements in AI, particularly large language models like GPT-3, which can power the robots' decision-making and communication abilities. Additionally, improved computer vision models, increased processing power, and virtual training environments have accelerated the development of these robots.

The video highlights the potential market demand for humanoid robots, with Goldman Sachs predicting a $38 billion global market by 2035. While there are concerns about job displacement, the presenter argues that these robots will initially target understaffed industries, hazardous jobs, and areas with labor shortages.

Overall, the video presents an optimistic view of humanoid robotics, envisioning a future where these robots assist humans with tasks we don't want to do, allowing us more time for leisure and personal pursuits.

The narrator is going on a trip deep into the Amazon rainforest with his friend Paul Rosolie, a conservationist who has dedicated his life to protecting the jungle. The purpose is to celebrate nature in its purest form and support Rosolie's work through his organization Jungle Keepers.

The narrator expresses excitement about disconnecting from technology and the outside world to experience the "raw, beautiful immensity of nature" first-hand. He hopes to record a podcast with Rosolie while in the jungle.

Overall, it's a journey to appreciate the incredible biodiversity of the Amazon and raise awareness for conservation efforts to protect this vital ecosystem. The narrator feels grateful for the chance to witness such an unspoiled natural environment.

This article provides a roundup of recent developments and news in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). Key stories covered include:

1. Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses now have AI capabilities, allowing them to capture and process images in real-time. This is seen as an exciting step towards mainstream adoption of AI devices.

2. Anthropic's Rabbit AI device was recently unboxed live, showcasing its impressive capabilities such as instantly transcribing and editing spreadsheets. This positions it as a promising device for exploring agentic AI.

3. OpenAI has released research on improving the security and safety of large language models by training them to prioritize trusted instructions over potentially malicious prompts.

4. Adobe has released Firefly 3, an improved version of its image generation model that can create highly realistic and detailed images, putting it in closer competition with tools like Midjourney.

5. The article discusses contrasting opinions on the potential risks and limitations of current AI systems, highlighting the importance of considering different viewpoints.

6. Microsoft has released its F3 series of compact AI models, which have shown impressive performance on benchmarks like MMLU despite their small size, suggesting a future where powerful AI could run on mobile devices.

7. The article explores the potential of AI assistants in customer service roles, highlighting their ability to provide multilingual support and the ethical considerations around such applications.

Overall, the article paints a picture of rapid advancements in AI capabilities across various domains, while acknowledging the need for responsible development and diverse perspectives on the implications of these technologies.

The article discusses a new AI policy proposal from AI Policy US that has garnered significant attention. The key points covered include:

1. The proposal categorizes AI systems into four tiers based on compute power (measured in FLOPs), with higher tiers subject to more regulation. However, the author argues that compute power alone is not a reliable indicator of an AI system's capabilities.

2. The proposal suggests stopping early AI training if a medium-risk system performs unexpectedly well on benchmarks and requiring a permit for high-concern systems. The author believes companies already have rigorous internal processes for monitoring AI capabilities.

3. The proposal mandates reporting transactions involving high-performance AI hardware, allowing the government to track compute resources and investigate any suspicious activity.

4. It grants emergency powers to the administration and the president to suspend permits, seize labs, and delete model weights if an AI system poses a major security risk.

5. The proposal includes whistleblower protection for individuals reporting potential violations of the AI Act.

The author expresses concerns about certain aspects of the proposal, such as the difficulty in predicting and testing for emerging capabilities, the potential impact on innovation, and the potential overreach of government powers in an emergency scenario.

The article introduces and reviews three new AI models from Rea AI Labs - Rea Core, Rea Flash, and Rea Edge. Rea Core is their cutting-edge multimodal language model that can understand images, audio, and video in addition to text.

The author evaluates Rea Core's performance on several benchmarks, showing it to be top-of-the-class in areas like multimodal understanding and knowledge. Rea Core outperforms models like Claude, Anthropic's GPT-4, and Google's PaLM on some tasks.

While Rea Core is a large model, the smaller Rea Flash (21B parameters) and Rea Edge (7B) are also highlighted for delivering impressive capabilities at lower computational costs compared to GPT-3.5.

The author then tests Rea Core on coding challenges like writing a snake game and logic/reasoning problems. Rea Core performs well on many tests, with some failures noted. The author also tries multimodal tests by having Rea Core interpret an image meme and extract tabular data from a screenshot, which it handles capably.

Overall, the review concludes that Rea's models, especially the flagship Rea Core, offer state-of-the-art performance across text and multimodal capabilities, outpunching their model sizes in many cases. However, the models are closed-source and commercial products.

Microsoft has released 53, the third iteration of their open-source language model that combines high performance with a very small size, enabling it to run locally on devices like phones. The key innovation is the carefully filtered and synthetic training data, allowing the 3.8B parameter model to rival much larger models like GPT-3.5 and Mixl-8x7B on benchmarks.

Highlights

• 53 mini achieves 69% on MMLU and 8.38 on TruthBench while being small enough for phones
• Can run quantized to 4-bits (1.8GB) at 12 tokens/sec on an iPhone 14
• Outperforms 8B parameter llama-3 on some benchmarks
• Weaknesses are limited factual knowledge and English-only currently
• Tested on coding, math, logic & reasoning tasks - performed very well on many

The innovation allows high quality AI assistants to run fully locally on devices, though integration with search/tools will still be valuable. While not as capable as larger models, 53 can potentially handle 95%+ of common use cases in a private, offline manner.

The latest updates from Donald Trump's criminal trial:

1. Gag Order Debate: The session began with a heated clash over a potential gag order to limit what parties can say publicly about the case. Trump's lawyers argued against it, citing free speech concerns. The judge has not yet ruled on the gag order request.

2. Tabloid Insider Testimony: Former National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard testified about the "catch and kill" practice, where the tabloid would buy rights to damaging celebrity stories to bury them. He said the Enquirer followed this approach with a former Trump Tower doorman's unproven claim that Trump had an illegitimate child.

3. Trump's Public Comments: Prosecutors argued that Trump's social media posts criticizing the case and the Manhattan D.A. show he has no regard for the legal process. His lawyers said the comments are constitutionally protected speech.

4. Tax Returns and Financial Records: Jury selection also addressed Trump's tax returns and other financial records that could be introduced as evidence in the trial related to alleged hush money payments.

5. Case Timeline: While the pace has been slow so far, legal experts say the trial could last several weeks once it begins in earnest and high-profile witnesses like Michael Cohen testify about the alleged hush money scheme.

The session of Donald Trump's criminal trial on April 23, 2024 began with a heated debate over a gag order. The judge ultimately did not impose a gag order after arguments from both sides.

Later, an insider from the National Enquirer tabloid testified about the "catch and kill" practice, where the tabloid would purchase exclusive rights to damaging stories about Trump in order to bury them and prevent publication.

Other key moments included:

• Opening statements giving previews of the prosecution and defense cases
• Testimony from an audio expert about secretly recorded tapes that are expected to be key evidence
• A sidebar discussion about whether certain evidence should be allowed regarding Trump's public statements and tweets

The trial is expected to last several months and cover charges related to hush money payments made to bury stories about Trump's alleged affairs before the 2016 election.

The article discusses the recent bipartisan bill passed by the U.S. Congress that could lead to a ban on TikTok if its parent company ByteDance does not sell the app within 12 months. The bill highlights concerns about TikTok's ownership by a Chinese company, which could potentially allow the Chinese government to use the platform for propaganda and surveillance purposes.

The article provides background on the shift in perception towards TikTok, which was previously seen as unlikely to face such regulatory action. However, policymakers have become increasingly concerned about the app's role as a leading source of information, particularly for younger Americans, and its potential vulnerability to Chinese government influence.

Evidence is presented showing that TikTok's content moderation policies appear to suppress information on topics sensitive to China, while amplifying content that aligns with China's interests. The article also cites a former ByteDance executive's claims about the presence of Communist Party members monitoring the company's operations.

While TikTok denies these allegations and plans to fight the law in court, the article suggests that the company's lack of transparency and actions to hinder independent research have undermined its credibility. The legislation has garnered broad bipartisan support, overriding concerns about potential infringement of free speech or the political backlash from TikTok's popularity among younger users.

The article also covers other news items, including updates on the Trump trial, the Israel-Hamas war, campus protests, and various international stories.

In this opinion piece, Nicholas Kristof questions President Biden's handling of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Gaza. He recounts Biden's past stances on humanitarian crises like the Bosnia and Darfur genocides, where Biden pushed for stronger actions to save lives.

Kristof expresses disappointment that Biden has continued to provide military aid to Israel despite the rising civilian casualties in Gaza from Israel's bombing campaign. He argues that while Biden initially supported Israel's right to defend itself after the Hamas attacks, he was slow to recognize how reckless and indiscriminate Israel's response would be.

Kristof criticizes Biden for not using stronger leverage to push Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza, which has led to a dire situation of starvation. He cites examples like Biden's failed attempt at airdrops of food that sometimes killed civilians, portraying an ineffective and "bumbling" American response.

Overall, Kristof acknowledges Biden's smart foreign policy in other areas and his capable aides. However, he argues that Gaza has become an "albatross" around Biden's presidency and could define his legacy and re-election campaign in a negative way, especially among young Democratic voters protesting on college campuses.

The piece portrays Biden's stance on Gaza as a betrayal of the moral, empathetic character Kristof knew him for previously on humanitarian issues. Kristof hopes Biden will change course on this "blot" on his record before it's too late.

Teaching Toddlers to Read: A Guide for Parents

Most children in the US learn to read around ages 6-7 in 1st or 2nd grade. However, it's possible to teach toddlers as young as 2 years old using phonics and consistent practice. The author's 2-year-old son learned to read simple sentences in just a few months.

Benefits of Early Reading

• Boosts cognitive development and future educational achievement
• Allows child to access books instead of just TV/screens
• Gives child mastery over language and confidence in understanding the world
• Positive feedback from other adults for the accomplishment
• Quality time spent learning together as parent and child

How to Teach a Toddler to Read

1. Use phonics and flash cards to teach letter sounds
2. Practice sounding out simple 3-letter words like "dog"
3. Move to reading basic sentences in short, daily sessions
4. Keep it playful - practice during meals, use tickles/praise
5. Be patient, it takes repetition but no more than any other skill

The author recommends considering it if you have the time, as the intellectual pride gained from teaching literacy to your toddler is extremely fulfilling. It builds the child's mind and bonds the parent-child relationship.

Michael Cohen's 'Bad Dad' Claims About Trump Debunked

Recent claims that former President Donald Trump skipped his children's high school and college graduations have been debunked by contemporaneous reports and eyewitness accounts. The rumors appeared to originate from comments made by Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen on a podcast.

Cohen stated that Trump was not attending son Barron's high school graduation due to the ongoing legal proceedings. Cohen suggested this was indicative of Trump being a bad father, claiming "Rest assured … I'm not losing any sleep, nor am I going to shed a tear that Trump can't go to Barron's graduation."

However, Trump's eldest son Donald Jr. refuted Cohen's broader claim about missing other graduations, stating "He was at all of our graduations, both high school and college." Fact-checking website Snopes also found widespread evidence that Trump did indeed attend the graduations of his other children:

• Don Jr.: Trump spoke at Don Jr.'s Pennsylvania boarding school Career Day in 1996 and attended his 2000 University of Pennsylvania graduation.

• Ivanka: Trump was present for Ivanka's high school graduation from the Choate School in Connecticut, and her 2004 University of Pennsylvania commencement.

• Eric: Trump attended Eric's 2002 graduation from The Hill School boarding school, and his 2006 Georgetown University ceremony.

• Tiffany: A classmate recalled Trump's attendance at Tiffany's 2012 high school graduation from Viewpoint School, and reports confirmed his presence at her 2016 University of Pennsylvania graduation.

The article argues that debunking the "bad dad" claim is important, as it falsely shaped public perception of Trump's priorities in a negative light based on inaccurate information that major media outlets were resistant to fact-checking or correcting.

This article discusses the ongoing pro-Palestinian protests occurring on college campuses across the United States in response to the conflict in Gaza. The protests have disrupted campus life, leading to canceled classes and graduation ceremonies.

The article frames the debate through the lens of Arnold Kling's framework - progressives view the world as oppressor vs. oppressed, while conservatives prioritize order over chaos.

Protesters' Perspective The protesters view the suffering in Gaza as an atrocity and injustice that demands action. With over 30,000 deaths reported and entire neighborhoods destroyed, they liken it to past human rights issues like Jim Crow laws and the Vietnam War protests. Disrupting campus operations is seen as necessary to force confrontation with the "genocide" occurring in Gaza. Their goal is for universities to divest from companies tied to Israel.

Critics' Perspective Critics argue the protesters' actions have led to a breakdown of order, with harassment, violence, and violations of campus rules. They fear allowing such behavior sets a precedent for other groups to similarly shut down campuses for their causes. University leaders insist society cannot function if rules are ignored, though they express sympathy for the protesters' concerns.

The article notes the dilemma university leaders face in balancing demands for justice against maintaining order and enforcing rules.

This opinion piece by Jessica Grose examines the prevalence of technology and screens in American public school classrooms, and whether their use is actually beneficial for student learning. Grose was surprised to find little up-to-date research on the impacts of educational technology, despite 96% of public schools providing digital devices to students.

Through a survey of teachers and parents, Grose found many concerns about over-reliance on tech distracting from core instruction. One teacher commented on the "constant battle" for students' attention against entertainment apps. Another lamented months spent re-training kids to listen during read-alouds after pandemic remote learning.

While acknowledging some benefits for students with disabilities, Grose argues that when in-person learning resumed after 2020-21, there was often no thoughtful re-assessment of how tech should be properly integrated. Her key recommendations include:

• Teachers, not companies, should drive implementation of classroom tech tools
• Every tech tool should be "ruthlessly evaluated" for its educational value
• Tech may need a "hard reset" with clearer guidelines in K-12 to prevent overuse

Grose posits that the current state of classroom tech is not working, with too much distraction and not enough oversight on what tools get used and how. She calls for a more judicious, teacher-led approach to make educational technology an asset rather than a hindrance.

GCN Racing News Roundup

This week's GCN Racing News show provided a detailed recap of the recent Liège-Bastogne-Liège and La Flèche Wallonne one-day classics, along with other notable results from races like the Tour of the Alps and Tour of Turkey.

Liège-Bastogne-Liège

In the men's race, Tadej Poga?ar's solo attack on the Côte de la Redoute proved to be the decisive move, as he went on to win by a massive 1 minute and 39 second margin - the biggest winning gap since 1980. Remco Evenepoel tried valiantly to follow Poga?ar but ultimately had to settle for second place, while Roman Bardet took a hard-fought third.

The women's race was far more unpredictable, with a late attack from Grace Brown proving to be the winning move. Brown, Elisa Longo Borghini, and Demi Vollering escaped in the closing kilometers, with Brown able to outsprint Longo Borghini for the victory. The race was marked by some odd tactics from the Canyon-SRAM team, which nearly cost them the podium.

La Flèche Wallonne

Freezing conditions made for a brutal edition of La Flèche Wallonne. In the men's race, Ben Turner went solo but was eventually caught, with Stephen Williams attacking late to take an impressive victory. For the women, Kasia Niewiadoma finally ended her drought with a popular win, holding off Vollering and Longo Borghini.

Other Results

At the Tour of the Alps, Juan Ayuso took control with a stage 3 solo win and rode impressively to seal the overall victory. Other winners included Tobias Foss, Alessandro De Marchi, and Simon Carr. The Tour of Turkey kicked off with Fabio Jakobsen taking the opening sprint.

The roundup also covered contract news for Joe Blackmore, injury updates on Primož Rogli?, and the tragic forced retirement of young rider Anna Shackley due to a cardiac condition.

This video explores the world of hybrid cars, comparing a $20,000 Toyota Corolla hybrid, a $120,000 BMW 750e plug-in hybrid, and the $2 million McLaren Speedtail hybrid supercar.

The Toyota Corolla hybrid is aimed at maximizing efficiency, using a small battery and electric motor along with a gasoline engine to achieve around 50 mpg. It's designed for those who want better gas mileage without the need to plug in and charge a large battery.

The BMW 750e plug-in hybrid offers more versatility, with a larger 14.4 kWh battery that can power the car for up to 30 miles on electric-only mode. It can be plugged in to recharge, but also has a gasoline engine for longer trips, combining efficiency and performance.

At the extreme end is the McLaren Speedtail, a $2 million hybrid supercar focused solely on incredible performance. Its hybrid system combines a twin-turbo V8 with a small but powerful electric motor, producing over 1,000 hp. The small battery drains quickly but can recover energy through regenerative braking, similar to Formula 1 cars.

The video highlights how hybrids offer a transitional solution, catering to different needs from efficiency to versatility to pure performance, as the world moves towards full electrification of vehicles.

Transcript not available for this video.

This is a description of a bicycle handlebar called the "Top Shelf Riser Drop Bar". It has a double crossbar construction that provides a relaxed, upright riding position, similar to an adventure/touring position.

The key features are:

• Raises the handlebar height if the steerer tube is too short
• Provides a more traditional look compared to a high-rise stem
• Utility - the double bar allows mounting accessories like lights, computers, bags securely without flapping
• Versatile for different uses like bikepacking, adventure/touring riding, or correcting handlebar position

The double crossbar design allows you to get an upright, comfortable hand position while keeping a vintage bicycle aesthetic. It's a multi-purpose handlebar option for different cycling styles and needs.

This is a transcript of an interview with David Luo, Deputy General Manager of L2, a Chinese bike component company that was exhibiting at the Sea Otter Classic event for the first time.

L2 is showcasing their latest electronic and mechanical groupsets, including:

• ERX and ER9 - Electronic road bike groupsets with shifters, derailleurs, brakes. The ERX is higher-end with carbon fiber components.

• EGR - Electronic gravel/adventure bike groupset designed to be stronger with a clutch mechanism. A hydraulic clutch version is coming soon.

Key features highlighted:

• One-piece brakes designed to be lighter, stiffer and prevent oil leaks
• "Heat distribution pads" on the disc brakes claimed to dissipate heat 300% better
• Compact front derailleurs
• Battery lasts 1200-1500km, removable and rechargeable via magnetic connector
• Compatibility across 10/11/12 speed systems without changing hardware

Luo states that in just two years, L2 has sold 1 million groupsets in China as road cycling grows rapidly with rising health interests post-COVID. Their goal is to provide a value-priced but technologically advanced option.

Upcoming developments include producing their own chains, cassettes and completing an entire in-house groupset. With funding from global investors, L2 aims to expand internationally with new offices in Europe and North America.

At the SE Classic 2024 trade show, one of the most interesting new products on display was the High Bar helmet adjustment system. With this system, the traditional webbing and buckles have been eliminated in favor of a simple dial that tightens and loosens the helmet fit.

To use the High Bar, you put the helmet on your head as normal, then pivot the arms down. All adjustment is done via the single dial - you tighten or loosen it until the helmet is snug but not overly tight.

The main advantage of this system is that it is very difficult to wear the helmet incorrectly. The designers believe this will benefit all cyclists - from enthusiasts to children to recreational and fitness riders.

By simplifying the adjustment process and reducing the chances of an improper fit, the High Bar system could help improve safety and prevent injuries from improperly worn helmets.

The iPhone 16 Pro is expected to bring several major upgrades over its predecessor. The design will be largely similar, but with slightly reduced bezels and larger 6.3-inch and 6.9-inch displays for the Pro and Pro Max models, respectively. The titanium frame may get a shinier, more polished finish.

Camera improvements are a key focus, with a larger main camera sensor, 48MP ultra-wide camera, and the Pro Max model getting Apple's first super telephoto camera with over 300mm focal length. A new "capture button" will provide quick access to camera features.

Battery life is set to receive a significant boost, with the Pro models packing 3,355mAh batteries (up 12% from iPhone 15 Pro). Faster 40W wired and 20W wireless charging speeds are also rumored.

Perhaps the biggest upgrade will be the A18 Pro chip, which is expected to feature a new thermal design with a graphene heat sink and full metal battery casing to handle the increased power demands of improved AI and neural processing capabilities. This chipset will power Apple's renewed focus on AI and an enhanced Siri assistant.

Overall, the iPhone 16 Pro lineup aims to deliver meaningful upgrades in several key areas, particularly cameras, battery life, charging speeds, and AI/neural processing power, setting the stage for Apple's AI strategy in the coming years.

In job interviews, Reid Hoffman always asks candidates to explain something they are an expert in, whether it's playing an instrument, a game like poker or chess, or any other topic. He does this to assess three key traits:

1. Clear thinking - Can the candidate break down complex, abstract topics into clear and simple explanations?

2. Communication skills - Can they effectively communicate those simplified concepts?

3. Mastery and depth - Do they demonstrate true expertise and depth of knowledge on their chosen topic?

Hoffman believes this is the most predictive question for evaluating a candidate's potential to contribute at a high level in a company. It separates those who are merely "coached and robotic" from those who can truly think on their feet and get others aligned through clear communication.

The ability to take complex ideas, simplify them, and communicate them in a way that brings others up to the same level of understanding is an extremely valuable skill for any role. Hoffman uses this litmus test across all his companies and investments like Facebook, Slack and Gro to filter for this essential capability.

In this extensive conversation, theoretical physicist Sean Carroll discusses a wide range of topics related to physics, including general relativity, quantum mechanics, black holes, the holographic principle, dark matter, dark energy, and the origin and evolution of the universe.

Carroll explains key concepts like spacetime, the curvature of spacetime caused by gravity, and the implications of Einstein's theory of general relativity. He dives into the mysteries of quantum mechanics, defending the many-worlds interpretation and the idea that all possible outcomes of a measurement occur simultaneously in separate worlds.

The conversation covers intriguing subjects like black holes, the limits of what we can know about their interiors, Hawking radiation, and the black hole information paradox. Carroll also discusses dark matter, dark energy, and his own attempts to develop a unified theory explaining their effects without invoking new particles.

Other topics include the holographic principle suggesting the universe is fundamentally lower-dimensional, the arrow of time and entropy, the emergence of complexity from simplicity, fine-tuning in physics, alien civilizations, simulation theory, AI and large language models, panpsychism, free will, aesthetics and morality from a naturalistic worldview, and the search for a theory of quantum gravity.

Throughout, Carroll shares insights from his research, books like "The Biggest Ideas in the Universe" trilogy, his "Mindscape" podcast, and personal experiences in a lively back-and-forth conversation exploring the deepest questions of modern physics.

This article explores the rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and how they are shaping the future. It covers several key topics:

1. Integration of AI into Society: The article discusses the challenges of integrating autonomous vehicles and robots into society, highlighting incidents of vandalism and concerns about job displacement. It raises questions about potential regulations and the need for public acceptance.

2. AI-Generated Content: The piece examines the future of AI-generated content, such as music and videos, and how it could revolutionize content creation and consumption. It also explores the potential implications of dopamine-driven AI experiences on user engagement.

3. On-Device AI: The article discusses Apple's plans to develop local, on-device AI models, which could provide faster and more private AI experiences without relying on cloud computing. It also mentions the potential advantages of compact AI models like Llama and Fire.

4. AI Regulation: The article delves into the ongoing debate around AI regulation, featuring perspectives from industry leaders like Mustafa Suleyman and Microsoft's CTO. It highlights the need for balanced regulation that fosters innovation while mitigating risks.

5. Physical AI and Robotics: The article explores the integration of AI into the physical world through robotics and embodied intelligence. It showcases research from pioneers like Daniela Rus on teaching robots to perform various tasks with human-like grace and adaptability.

6. AI Breakthroughs and Plateaus: The article examines the debate around potential plateaus in AI progress, with contrasting views from industry experts like Zuckerberg and OpenAI insiders. It also discusses advancements like Adobe's Video Gigan, which enhances video resolution by 8x.

The article presents a comprehensive overview of the current state and future potential of AI, highlighting both the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead as this transformative technology continues to evolve.

Vinod Khosla's Bold Look into the Future of Technology

Vinod Khosla, the Silicon Valley venture capitalist behind companies like DoorDash, Stripe, and Impossible Foods, recently shared 12 predictions about how transformative technologies could reshape various aspects of life by 2035-2049. Here are the key highlights:

Expertise and Labor Will Become Virtually Free

• AI doctors, tutors and technical experts will be available to everyone at little to no cost
• A billion robots could free humans from undesirable jobs, boosting productivity

Computing Will Grow Rapidly

• There will be over a billion programmers coding in natural language
• Computers will adapt to humans instead of vice versa

AI Will Reshape Entertainment, Healthcare, and Transportation

• Personalized AI-generated entertainment will be the norm
• Healthcare will be highly customized based on individuals' data
• Personal autonomous vehicles could replace most cars in cities

Ambitious Goals in Energy, Food, and Sustainability

• New nuclear fusion and geothermal power could provide clean electricity
• Novel protein sources could sustainably replace most animal farming
• Carbon capture technology could help solve emissions challenges

Khosla acknowledges potential roadblocks like resistance from incumbents, public backlash, and regulatory hurdles. But his audacious vision captures the transformative potential if entrepreneurial innovation is allowed to flourish.

This article introduces and reviews a new set of language models called Rea Core, Rea Edge, and Rea Flash, released by a company called Rea AI Labs. The author first discusses Rea Core, which is claimed to be a state-of-the-art multimodal language model capable of understanding images, audio, and video inputs.

The article presents various benchmark results, showing that Rea Core performs at the top of its class on tasks like multimodal understanding and knowledge retrieval, outperforming models like GPT-4, Claude, and Gemini Pro. It also highlights the impressive performance of the smaller Rea Edge and Rea Flash models, which achieve high performance at a lower computational cost.

The author then tests the models on various tasks, including coding challenges, math problems, logic puzzles, and multimodal inputs like images and tables. Rea Core generally performs well, accurately solving most problems and demonstrating strong reasoning and language understanding capabilities. However, it struggles with some tasks like the snake game coding challenge and certain logic puzzles.

The article concludes by praising Rea Core's multimodal abilities and impressive performance on various benchmarks, while also acknowledging some limitations. The author expresses excitement about the potential of these new models and their impact on the field of AI and natural language processing.

The Korean DMZ: 70 Years of Fragile Peace

The Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) was established in 1953 after the Korean Armistice Agreement ended active hostilities in the Korean War. This 4km-wide, 250km-long buffer zone separates North and South Korea with an invisible line through forests and fields.

Despite being termed a "demilitarized" zone, the DMZ remains one of the world's most heavily fortified areas. Key sites within the DMZ include:

• Panmunjom/Joint Security Area (JSA): The sole location where North and South Korean forces stand face-to-face across the demarcation line. Site of prisoner exchanges, deadly skirmishes, and diplomatic meetings.

• Kaesong Industrial Complex: A former collaborative economic zone where South Korean companies employed North Korean workers, shuttered in 2016 amid rising tensions.

• Dorasan Station: A South Korean train station built for potential cross-border passenger service to Pyongyang, though no trains have ever departed.

• Propaganda Villages: Kijong-dong in the North and Daeseong-dong in the South, the sole villages permitted within the DMZ.

While intended as a temporary solution, the DMZ has endured for seven decades, surviving numerous deadly border incidents, tunnel excavations, and the presence of nuclear weapons in violation of the Armistice. The maritime extension of the DMZ around the West Sea Islands has also seen frequent naval skirmishes.

Recently, growing concerns over North Korea's nuclear program and escalating rhetoric from Kim Jong-Un have experts warning of potential renewed conflict on the Korean Peninsula. The coming years may severely test the longevity of the fragile peace maintained by the DMZ.

The article is under 100 words, so here is the full text:

It won't be televised; follow live updates here.View in browser|nytimes.comContinue reading the main storyApril 22, 2024Opening statements begin soon in Donald Trump's criminal trial, which won't be televised. He is charged with falsifying business records to cover up a sex scandal that threatened to derail his 2016 campaign.

This article reports that Link Lauren has resigned as chief of staff for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s presidential campaign. The article cites unnamed sources saying that Lauren left of his own volition, though no details are provided on what prompted his departure.

It includes a statement from Lauren himself:

"After thoughtful consideration, I've decided to move on from the Kennedy campaign. I'm grateful for the opportunity and wish them well. I have great love for all the Kennedy supporters out there—many of whom I've forged bonds with over the last year. I will continue to be an honest voice in politics, not only for my generation, but for the forgotten man who is often overlooked by the Washington and Hollywood elite. This is a responsibility I take very seriously, so trust I'm not going anywhere. See you all soon."

The article expresses sadness at Lauren's resignation, describing his "political instinct" as a "valuable asset" to Kennedy's messaging. It raises questions about what motivated Lauren's decision to leave and concerns about the impact on the campaign going forward.

As a rank-and-file congressman, Mike Johnson had largely opposed aid to Ukraine. As House speaker, he was the key figure in pushing it through Congress — a move that could cost him his job.

What Changed His Mind

When Johnson became House speaker, he had access to classified intelligence briefings that showed the dire situation in Ukraine and the importance of continued U.S. support. He also faced pressure from military leaders, White House officials, and Republican Party elites who emphasized Ukraine's strategic importance.

On a personal level, Johnson was moved by seeing images and reports of Ukrainian civilians suffering from Russian attacks. As a devout Christian, he felt a moral imperative to help.

Politically, Johnson calculated that failing to approve Ukraine aid could hurt Republicans in the 2024 elections by alienating moderate voters. However, his decision deeply angered the isolationist wing of his party, putting his speakership at risk.

In the end, Johnson used his formidable negotiating skills and legislative savvy to corral enough votes for a $40 billion Ukraine package that avoided a devastating blow to Kyiv's war effort. But the bruising fight may have doomed his future in Republican leadership.

The Human Scale: Building Cities for People, Not Cars

In this thought-provoking piece, the author delves into the concept of "human scale cities" – urban environments designed to prioritize pedestrians and community spaces over vehicular traffic. Drawing inspiration from the work of Danish architect Jan Gehl and the documentary "The Human Scale," the article critiques the problematic car-centric approach to urban planning that dominated Western cities in the post-World War II era.

The author highlights the detrimental effects of this mindset, where vast areas were bulldozed to make way for roads, parking lots, and flyovers, while small and medium-sized buildings were replaced by towering corporate structures. This approach optimized traffic flow but neglected the human experience, creating oppressive and disconnected urban landscapes.

The article advocates for a shift in urban planning paradigms, one that de-prioritizes automobiles and embraces a more human-centric approach. This involves reclaiming public spaces from private interests, reshaping them through the experiences and aspirations of local residents, and fostering a sense of community and belonging.

The author emphasizes the importance of "neutral" public spaces where people from diverse backgrounds can freely interact, fostering social cohesion and a shared sense of ownership. The film "The Human Scale" showcases examples from around the world, such as Dhaka, Bangladesh, where streets accommodate traditional rickshaws, and Christchurch, New Zealand, where corporate influence is curbed in setting building height limits.

The article also introduces the concept of community-led placemaking, which has gained increased academic attention since the documentary's release in 2013. Organizations like the Project for Public Spaces are advocating for an end to the "violence" inflicted by real estate developers on urban environments, promoting instead a more inclusive and contextually sensitive approach to urban design.

As the author prepares for an upcoming trip to Europe, they express excitement about witnessing firsthand how these human-centric principles are being applied (or not) in various cities across the continent. The piece serves as a call to action, encouraging readers to rethink the way we design and experience our urban environments, placing the human experience at the forefront of city planning.

This opinion piece by Jonathan Alter provides insights into the ongoing criminal trial of former President Donald Trump over hush money payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Key points:

• The judge has ruled that if Trump testifies, he can be questioned about lies told in prior cases, making it very risky for him to take the stand.
• The prosecution outlined the "Trump Tower conspiracy" between Trump, Michael Cohen, and David Pecker to cover up affairs before the 2016 election through hush money payments and falsifying business records.
• Damaging evidence expected includes a tape recording of Trump discussing amounts to pay, as well as Cohen's testimony about the coverup plan.
• Trump's defense is denying everything happened, but may argue it wasn't illegal to try to influence the election. However, intent to do wrong is all that's required under NY law.
• Tomorrow the judge will rule on whether Trump violated the gag order by attacking the judge's family online, with potential jail time as a consequence.

The article provides a detailed overview of the trial proceedings so far and previews key evidence and arguments yet to come from both sides in this high-stakes criminal case against the former president.

Google is updating its Terms of Service effective May 22, 2024. The key changes include:

Generative AI Terms - Moving existing Generative AI Additional Terms into main Terms of Service - Clarifying that Google won't claim ownership over original content generated by AI services

Abuse and Interference
- More details and examples about prohibited abusive activity and interference with Google services

Liability Limitations - For non-US users, more clarity on limitations of liability and indemnity sections

Disputes - If user violates terms, Google's remedies aren't limited to suspension/termination and may include other legal remedies - Process for users to describe and address issues/disputes

Service Updates - Language updates reflecting how Google services work - Updates to some Google service brand names

EU/EEA Users - More explanatory text on "guarantees" legal concept - See summary of EEA version changes

Users can decline new terms by removing content and closing accounts. No action needed to accept new terms.

This newsletter covers the opening statements in the criminal trial of former President Donald Trump in New York. Prosecutors portrayed Trump as a man who lied and broke laws to get elected, alleging he paid hush money to a woman he had an affair with and then falsified business records. Trump's lawyers argued his actions were normal political tactics aimed at influencing the election.

The article provides highlights from the first day, including testimony from a key witness, David Pecker, the National Enquirer's former publisher who helped arrange the hush money payment. It notes Trump may testify and could face questions about other cases he has lost.

Beyond the trial, the newsletter covers campus protests over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with arrests at several universities. It mentions President Biden denouncing "harassment and calls for violence against Jews," an apparent reference to protests at Columbia University.

Other topics include Ukraine's use of Silicon Valley military technologies, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi calling Muslims "infiltrators," the Supreme Court weighing cases on homeless camping and "ghost guns," and artists creating gene editors using AI.

The culture section discusses new statues memorializing Queen Elizabeth II, "Taylor Swift fatigue" after the release of her latest album, and a play about the deadly Grenfell Tower fire in London.

Why Can't We Do More About Exposure to 'Forever Chemicals'?

'Forever chemicals' or PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are a class of synthetic compounds associated with various health concerns like cancer. They are ubiquitous in consumer products and accumulating in our environment and bodies.

While the EPA recently announced new rules to limit 6 types of PFAS in drinking water, this is just a small step. According to Kathleen Blackburn, whose father died from colorectal cancer likely linked to PFAS exposure:

"More than 12,000 formulations of PFAS exist and only a fifth of Americans' PFAS exposure comes from drinking water. To reduce the risk they pose, we need far more comprehensive mandates that test, monitor and limit the entire class of PFAS chemicals."

The prevalence of PFAS is truly a nationwide conundrum. These 'forever chemicals' originate from chemical plants but are now found in products like non-stick cookware, water-resistant children's items, and even seltzer water. Tackling PFAS pollution is exceedingly challenging given how widely dispersed these compounds are.

Blackburn argues for much stricter PFAS regulations across products and industries, not just for drinking water. Implementing class-based testing, monitoring and limits on the 12,000+ PFAS formulations is crucial to reduce widespread human exposure and consequent health risks like cancer.

There is no article content provided to summarize.

How Bluesky Built a Decentralized Social Network to 5.5M Users

Bluesky is a Twitter-alternative that launched an invite-only beta last year and has already grown to 5.5 million registered users. Unlike mainstream social networks, Bluesky has taken a novel, decentralized approach to its infrastructure and protocol.

Key Features

• Decentralized: Anyone can run their own Bluesky server, allowing users true ownership of data and services.
• Open Source: Nearly everything is open source and hosted on GitHub, fostering community development.
• Federated: Users can join the Bluesky network with their own self-hosted instance, rather than relying solely on Bluesky's infrastructure.

Development Timeline

1. Experimentation Phase (Jan-Sep 2022): A team of 2-3 engineers built the initial protocol and prototyped the apps, establishing core principles like modularity and flexibility.

2. Invite-Only Beta (Oct 2022 - Feb 2023): After Elon Musk's Twitter acquisition plans drove signups, Bluesky quickly launched an invite-only beta with essential features like blocking.

3. Preparing for Public Launch (Sep 2023 - Feb 2024): Architectural changes were made to enable federation, allowing self-hosted instances to join the network.

Novel Architecture

• Personal Data Servers (PDSs): Users have their own SQLite database, removing dependence on a centralized Postgres setup and enabling a "PDS in a box" setup.

• ScyllaDB for Horizontal Scaling: To handle growth, read-heavy services like AppView migrated from Postgres to ScyllaDB, a wide-column NoSQL database enabling horizontal scaling.

• Federated Design: With federation, the network is made up of Bluesky's services plus third-party services like Feed Generators and self-hosted PDSs.

From AWS to On-Prem

Initially hosted on AWS, scaling costs drove Bluesky to move infrastructure to dedicated data centers and bare metal, realizing 10x better performance at a fraction of the cost.

Despite being decentralized, Bluesky maintains a seamless user experience by wrapping self-hosted components within its own services. As an early pioneer of decentralized social networks at scale, Bluesky demonstrates the viability of a new model that challenges Big Tech's social media dominance.

The article is a recap of Day 3 at the Sea Otter Classic 2024 cycling event, showcasing various bike brands, new products, and unique designs.

It starts with a segment on Scarab Cycles, a Colombian brand that handcrafts steel frames with intricate designs inspired by the country's culture and landscapes. The founder, Santiago D, showcases the Santa Rosa road bike with a paint scheme honoring Colombia's main river, the Magdalena.

Next, it features R Sports showcasing their new suspension seatpost lineup, including the Endurance, Pro Race, and Pro Endurance models, each designed for different riding styles and terrains.

The article then highlights a unique riser drop handlebar called the "Top Shelf" from an unnamed brand. This handlebar offers a relaxed upright position, corrects fit issues, and provides ample space for mounting accessories and bags.

Moots Cycles is also featured, showcasing their new Express e-bike with an aluminum component build, designed to be more affordable while maintaining the brand's quality and ride characteristics.

The article continues with a segment on the Vult 33 road bike from an unknown brand, a "working man's road bike" with clearance for wider tires and made from titanium tubing.

Finally, it covers Campagnolo's new wireless Super Record groupset with a highly accurate power meter, as well as their latest Bora wheelset with aerodynamic optimizations and high-end features.

Throughout the article, the various brands and products are showcased, highlighting their unique designs, features, and intended purposes for different cycling disciplines and riding styles.

This is a transcript of a video introducing the new High Bar helmet technology, a reinvention of how bike helmets are worn to improve safety and fit. The traditional straps and buckles are replaced by a single dial system that tightens the helmet evenly around the head.

Greg, representing the team of inventors behind High Bar, explains that while helmet technology has advanced significantly in areas like ventilation and materials, the retention system using straps has remained essentially the same for a century. Their new system aims to solve issues around helmet stability, positioning, and ease of adjustment that contribute to over 100,000 cycling-related traumatic brain injuries per year in the US.

With High Bar, the webbing and buckles are eliminated. The user simply puts on the helmet and tightens a single dial, which pivots arms inward to secure the helmet snugly but comfortably. This simple system makes it very difficult to wear the helmet incorrectly.

In addition to improved safety and fit, High Bar offers other advantages:

• Reduced wind noise and improved aerodynamics without loose straps
• Better cooling from airflow around the head
• Integrated anchoring system within the helmet foam for secure attachment

While the look is quite different from traditional helmets, Greg believes users will adapt as the benefits become apparent, similar to previous innovations like suspension forks.

The High Bar system is being integrated into helmets from brand partners rather than manufactured independently. It has already been used in professional Mountain Bike World Cup races, with additional helmet models and categories to follow once durability and long-term use has been validated through extensive testing over the 4+ years of development.

Van Risal, a hot bike brand, unveiled their new RCR AA race bike at the Sea Otter Classic a year ago. Since then, the brand has sponsored a pro team, the AG2R La Mondiale, and the bikes have been hugely popular, selling out quickly.

The RCR Pro frame, used by the pro team, features high-modulus carbon fiber with additional super high-modulus carbon at the steer tube and bottom bracket for increased stiffness. It's available as a frame set or complete bike in various colors.

In addition to the frame, Van Risal has developed other products like shoes, glasses, helmets, and components in partnership with brands like Zé, MIPS, Swisside, and Continental. They even have their own 3D printing facilities for custom parts.

The RCR Pro comes with high-end groupsets like Dura-Ace, and lower-end models will offer Rival, Force, and eventually 105 Di2 12-speed. Van Risal has also expanded into mountain biking with the KMC Orbea team.

The brand aims to make high-performance products accessible to everyday riders, and they've opened their first dedicated store in London. With a multi-year partnership with AG2R La Mondiale and plans to expand globally, Van Risal is poised for continued success.

The speaker expresses skepticism about the value of wearable devices like fitness trackers as a way to augment or replace in-person social interactions. While acknowledging the utility of activity tracking for individual fitness, they argue that over-reliance on devices could further erode core human interaction skills like eye contact and conversation that are already suffering, especially among younger generations.

The speaker speculates that the current trend towards device-mediated communication may reach a tipping point where people begin to reject that paradigm and return to prioritizing unmediated face-to-face interaction "the way humans were meant to be." Referencing festival culture, the speaker envisions a future where people choose to temporarily "rip the devices off" and experience events like Coachella without technological interfaces.

Overall, the remarks paint wearable devices as a practical tool for personal use cases like health monitoring, but voice concern that they could become an unhealthy crutch enabling us to further withdraw from authentic interpersonal engagement if allowed to subsume core communication acts. The speaker advocates for a course correction towards more direct human connection.

This article covers a wide range of recent and speculative developments in artificial intelligence and robotics technology:

Meta and Neurotechnology - Mark Zuckerberg discussed Meta's work on non-invasive neural interfaces that can read signals from the brain to control devices like AR glasses, without implants like Neuralink. Early research shows potential but limitations. - The benefits could help disabled people communicate and use technology more effectively.

Humanoid Robots - Robots like Tesla's Optimus, Anduril's Ghost, and Boston Dynamics' Atlas are generating excitement about their potential impact, with predictions that humanoid robots could exceed iPhone supply within a decade. - Companies are racing to develop advanced robots with AI capabilities that could revolutionize labor and many industries.

AI Ethics and Safety Concerns - A former OpenAI employee resigned due to concerns the company may not act responsibly as artificial general intelligence (AGI) nears, citing the potential for an unaligned superintelligent AI to have "god-like" power. - The development of deepfakes and other potential misuses of AI, like a US Air Force AI beating human pilots in dogfights, raise safety and ethics issues.

AI Milestones - The article speculates ChatGPT-5 could launch soon after major AI model releases like Meta's Llama 3 and Anthropic's language models. - Advancements in areas like text-to-image, AI collaboration tools, and large language model serving speeds highlight AI's rapid progress.

The wide-ranging overview captures the sense of excitement and concern surrounding the current AI renaissance across consumer and industrial applications.

The article is a detailed review and performance testing of the 70 billion parameter version of the Llama 3 language model hosted on Grock.com. The author runs the model through various tests including coding tasks, math problems, logic puzzles, and natural language understanding prompts.

Some key highlights:

• Llama 3 70B on Grock demonstrated incredible inference speeds, generating responses in just a few seconds.
• It performed exceptionally well on coding tasks like writing Python scripts for simple games like Snake.
• It struggled with some very difficult SAT-level math problems, though improved by rephrasing the prompts.
• The model showed strong logical reasoning abilities on puzzles involving counterfactual scenarios.
• It generated accurate JSON data structures from natural language prompts.
• Interestingly, providing the same prompt multiple times sometimes yielded different responses, with later tries being more accurate.

Overall, the author concludes that this version of Llama 3 hosted on Grock outperforms the previous version on MetaAI, thanks to the insane inference speeds enabled by Grock's system. The combination of Llama 3's capabilities with Grock's performance hints at the potential for highly efficient AI agents and autonomous systems.

The $60 billion aid package for Ukraine recently passed by the House of Representatives could significantly change the course of the war with Russia. Here's how the aid could impact the conflict:

Artillery and Air Defense - Ukraine has been running low on artillery shells and anti-aircraft munitions which are critical for their defense. - The new aid will provide several months' worth of these vital supplies, allowing Ukraine to restock. - With more shells, Ukraine can counter Russian artillery barrages and stall further territorial losses. - New anti-air munitions will help defend against Russian missile and air strikes.

Training and Equipment - Funds will support training new Ukrainian recruits to address personnel shortages. - Ukraine will receive instruction on using advanced weapons from Western allies like Abrams tanks and F-16 jets.

Potential Impacts - The aid could halt Russia's recent advances in eastern Ukraine and prevent a larger offensive. - It may enable Ukraine to solidify defenses around major cities like Kharkiv and along the Black Sea coast. - An offensive campaign by Ukraine in 2025 to retake territory in the east and south is more plausible with this assistance.

While some critics argue the aid won't stop Russia's advance, most experts believe it will meaningfully impact the war and prevent an easier Russian victory that could destabilize the region further.

How to Innovate Using AI Prompts

Large language models (LLMs) like GPT-4 enable non-technical experts to create powerful AI-powered tools and experiences using simple text prompts. This "prompting" approach democratizes innovation by making AI capabilities accessible to anyone who can write.

There are multiple levels of innovating with prompts:

1. Use a pre-made prompt: Try out prompts created by others to see what AI can do.

2. Customize or build a prompt: Start with an existing prompt and modify it, or create your own from scratch through trial-and-error.

3. Create prompts that generate prompts: Develop "blueprint" prompts that allow others to create tailored prompts for their needs.

4. Simply describe your goal: Advanced AI may be able to generate solutions directly from high-level instructions, without crafting detailed prompts.

The key is to experiment, share what works, and build communities around prompt development and sharing. Educators are already using prompts to create powerful learning experiences, from interactive simulations to personalized tutors.

While prompting massively expands access to AI capabilities, it's important to be mindful of potential issues like hallucinations, errors, and biases. Overall, though, prompting promises to democratize powerful AI tools for education and beyond.

A Guide to Understanding Middle East Alliances

The conflict between Israel and Iran has intensified in recent years, with the two nations engaged in a high-stakes struggle for regional dominance. To help make sense of this tangled web of relationships, The New York Times has published an interactive "Friendship Chart" mapping out the current allies and adversaries in the Middle East.

Based on analysis by Middle East expert Daniel Levy, the chart uses color-coded smiling and frowning faces to visualize whether countries and groups have hostile, supportive, or complicated relations. Some key dynamics illustrated include:

• Iran vs Israel/US: Iran has tense relations with Israel and the United States, who view Iran's nuclear program as a major threat. However, Iran is closely allied with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and backs militant groups like Hezbollah and Hamas that oppose Israel.

• Saudi Arabia vs Iran: Saudi Arabia, a US ally, views Iran as its main rival for regional dominance and has engaged in proxy conflicts against Iranian-backed forces in Yemen and elsewhere.

• Turkey vs Saudi Arabia: Turkey under President Erdogan has strained relations with Saudi Arabia but opposes Syrian leader Assad, putting it at odds with Iran on that front.

The chart highlights how the Middle East remains a tinderbox with a complex web of rivalries, alliances, and shifting power dynamics. As the Israel-Palestine conflict escalates again, understanding these fault lines is crucial to making sense of the broader regional tensions.

Tesla has issued a recall for all 4,000 Cybertruck units produced so far due to a potential safety issue with the accelerator pedal. The problem stems from an unapproved change in the adhesive used to attach the pedal to its pad. If pressed hard enough, the pedal could become unstuck.

While this may initially seem like just an inconvenient build quality flaw, the issue is exacerbated by the angled shelf in the Cybertruck's footwell. If the pedal detaches, it could get pinned against this shelf, causing unintended 100% acceleration that cannot be easily overridden.

Tesla states that the brake pedal should still be able to override and stop the vehicle in this situation. However, the company is instructing all Cybertruck owners to take their trucks to a service center for inspection and repair of the accelerator pedal issue.

This recall, while limited to the initial 4,000 Cybertrucks produced, is a significant quality control lapse for Tesla on its highly anticipated pickup truck model. Prompt action to address the potential safety risk was prudent.

This is a detailed summary of a video about a new bicycle helmet retention system called High Bar, which aims to improve safety and fit compared to traditional strap systems.

What is High Bar?

High Bar is a reinvention of how bicycle helmets are worn and secured, designed by a team of experienced inventors and engineers. The key innovation is replacing the traditional strap system with a simple dial-operated retention system that tightens evenly around the head.

Instead of adjusting multiple straps, the wearer simply places the helmet on their head, pivots down the retention arms, and tightens a single dial at the front until the helmet is snugly but comfortably secured. This makes it very difficult to wear the helmet improperly.

Benefits of High Bar

Beyond the improved ease of use and fit, High Bar offers several other benefits:

• Safety: Helps prevent helmet ejection and shifting during a crash, which can lead to traumatic brain injuries. Over 100,000 cycling-related TBIs occur yearly in the US, often due to helmet issues.

• Aerodynamics: No loose straps flapping in the wind improves aerodynamic efficiency.

• Cooling: With no straps against the skin, air can flow more freely for convective cooling.

• Quieter: Reduces wind noise from straps.

• Weight: Comparable to lightweight strap systems, sometimes lighter than magnetic buckle systems.

The High Bar system integrates securely into the helmet foam during manufacturing via a molded anchor point. While the initial version looks unconventional, the company expects helmet designs to evolve to incorporate High Bar more seamlessly.

Availability

High Bar is being licensed to helmet brands rather than used on a proprietary helmet. It has already been adopted by some brands for their high-end mountain bike racing helmets. Expect to see it integrated into more helmet models across different cycling disciplines in the future as brands take advantage of the patented technology.

Overall, High Bar represents an innovative improvement to bicycle helmet design, with clear comfort, cooling, aerodynamic and potential safety benefits compared to traditional retention systems. As with any new design, some users may need to get accustomed to the look, but the performance advantages could make High Bar a compelling choice for safety-conscious cyclists.

Sea Otter Classic 2024: The Coolest Gravel and Mountain Bikes

The Sea Otter Classic 2024 event showcased some of the newest and most innovative gravel and mountain bikes from various manufacturers. One standout was the Giant Revolt X, a suspension fork gravel bike featuring a Fox 32 custom-painted gold fork, a KS Lev Ci carbon dropper post, and a SRAM GRX 12-speed drivetrain.

Another notable bike was the Sage Titanium Storm King gravel race bike, which boasted an aggressive geometry designed for stability and maneuverability on rough terrain. It featured a 3D-printed chainstay yolk for better tire clearance and chain ring compatibility, as well as 3D-printed dropouts that are universal derailleur hanger compatible and transmission-specific.

The Sage Titanium Storm King GP was designed specifically for suspension forks, such as the RockShox Rudy or Fox Transfer, and could accommodate a dropper post for added versatility. The frame was finished in a durable cerakote coating, known for its impact and heat resistance.

Niner unveiled a playful take on their classic P29 hardtail, outfitted with a gravel handlebar and a dropper post, blurring the lines between gravel and cross-country mountain bikes.

Moots showcased the Route CRD and Ralph ESC, both designed for gravel riding and bikepacking. The Route CRD featured an integrated cockpit and race-focused geometry, while the Ralph ESC was a more versatile, do-it-all gravel bike with provisions for racks and bikepacking gear.

Campagnolo unveiled their new ErgoDrive GT and Zonda GT components, boasting ergonomic hoods, improved braking performance, and a wide range of gearing options for gravel and endurance riding.

Finally, Pinarello debuted the Dogma XC full-suspension mountain bike, designed in collaboration with Tom Pidcock for the upcoming Olympic Games. It featured an ultra-stiff bottom bracket area, a short rear triangle for responsiveness, and a unique integrated carbon cockpit for optimal handling and comfort on technical trails.

This is a detailed overview of several new road bike models showcased at the Sea Otter Classic cycling event. The video covers bikes from brands like Parlee, 5th Floor, Bridge Bike Works, Blackheart, and Ritchey.

Parlee introduced the Parlee Uray, an all-road bike designed for spending most time on pavement but with capability for some off-road adventures. Key features include:

• Single-piece monocoque carbon construction for 20% more comfort than previous models
• Customizable fit with adjustable bar width, stem length, etc.
• Open standards like T47 bottom bracket, round seatpost, integrated cockpit options

5th Floor unveiled a new model focused on sensible geometry for realistic rider positions rather than extreme aggressiveness. Highlights:

• 690g frame weight (size large)
• Aero-optimized integrated cockpit
• 40mm tire clearance
• Designed based on learnings from their custom frame program

Bridge Bike Works showcased the Surveyor, a race bike with 40mm tire clearance described as a "modern classic." Notable points:

• In-house carbon fiber manufacturing in Toronto
• Internal T47 threaded carbon fiber bottom bracket
• Custom color program with unlimited options
• Around $4000 USD frameset pricing

Blackheart launched a new aluminum road bike focused on value with an integrated cockpit. Key details:

• Under $2000 for frame/fork/seatpost
• Dent-resistant aluminum frame
• 32mm tire clearance
• Option for customizable Cerakote finish colors

Ritchey unveiled the Monte BellUna Randonneur, an endurance road bike designed for long rides and light touring. Features include:

• Clearance for 35c tires with fenders or 40c without
• Mounts for fenders, racks
• Ritchey's triple-butted tubing
• Classic styling with bright silver aesthetic

The video provides a comprehensive overview of these exciting new road bike launches for 2023 across different categories and price points.

The article provides a comprehensive weekly wrap up of the latest news and developments in the AI industry. The major announcements covered include:

• Meta releasing llama 3, their new open-source large language model with 8 billion and 70 billion parameter versions. A 400 billion parameter model expected to compete with GPT-4 and Claude is also in the works.

• Google and Microsoft committing $100 billion each towards building AI infrastructure to push towards AGI.

• Stable Diffusion 3 release, with improved text integration into images, though no user interface yet.

• Microsoft's Vasa 1 research allowing creation of talking videos from audio and images with impressive emotional expression.

• Adobe's demonstrations at NAB of AI-powered video editing capabilities like extending clips, removing/adding objects, and integrating models like Pika and Sora.

• AI robotics news including the US Air Force's first successful AI dogfight and Boston Dynamics' new creepy yet impressive Atlas robot.

• New AI-enabled hardware like Logitech's AI mouse with ChatGPT integration, the Rewind/Limitless voice recording pendant, and Nothing's ChatGPT earbuds.

The video also covers services like GPT Trainer for building ChatGPT bots, PO's multibot chat, and tools for 3D object creation from 2D images.

All-In Podcast Episode 175 Key Points

Google Employees Fired for Protesting - 28 Google employees were fired after protesting the company's $1.2 billion contract with Israel's government (Project Nimbus) by staging sit-ins and disrupting workspaces. - While some see this as the employees' right to protest, others argue protesting at work crosses a line and disrupts other employees. The firings reflect Google's changing stance on allowing social activism in the workplace.

NPR's New CEO and Liberal Bias Accusations - NPR's new CEO Katherine Mah, who previously worked at Wikipedia, has been accused of having a far-left bias by some NPR staff. An editor of 25 years resigned after being suspended for criticizing Mah's views. - While NPR has long been seen as left-leaning, some argue Mah's tweets and statements show an extreme partisan stance. Others see this as an overreaction to NPR maintaining its typical liberal perspective.

R&D Tax Changes Causing Problems for Startups - A provision in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act now requires companies to amortize R&D expenses over 5 years instead of immediately deducting them. - This is causing cash flow issues for many startups and small businesses who don't have profits to offset the deferred deductions. Failure to change the law could hurt innovation and companies moving R&D overseas.

The Rise of Legal Sports Betting - With sports betting now legal in most states, scandals like an NBA player scheming to win bets on himself are emerging. The panel debates the merits and risks of increased sports gambling. - While it provides more engagement and revenue for leagues, there are addiction and integrity concerns. Proper regulation and personal responsibility will be key.

Humane AI Wearable Pin Gets Panned - The Humane AI pin, a $700 wearable AI assistant, was harshly criticized in a review calling it the "worst product ever." - While some see it as an important step for wearable AI assistants, others argue the product is simply not ready for market yet. The reaction reflects the challenges for emerging deep tech.

This is a transcript of a conversation between Neil Adams, a legendary figure in judo, and Le Freedman on the Le Freedman podcast. Neil Adams shares his experiences as a five-time European champion, world champion, and two-time Olympic silver medalist in judo.

He discusses his preparation and mindset going into the 1980 and 1984 Olympics, including his decision to cut weight for the 1980 Games which he now regrets. Adams talks about his strengths on the mat, his love for throwing techniques like uchi-mata and tao-otoshi, and his disdain for fighting left-handed opponents.

He relives the heartbreak of losing the 1984 Olympic final in a split decision, a loss that haunts him to this day and led him down a path of drinking and depression before his wife helped him overcome it. Adams emphasizes the importance of mental fortitude, technical mastery, and an insatiable drive to win in becoming a judo champion.

The conversation covers Adams' training philosophies which emphasized grueling conditioning, maximum repetitions of techniques, and a focus on developing the skills of reactive training partners. He shares insights into the differences between judo and jiu-jitsu, praises Roger Gracie's simple but masterful techniques, and speculates how his style might have translated to early UFC competitions.

Adams breaks down techniques of modern greats like Teddy Riner and Hashimoto, analyzing their gripping strategies and transition to newaza. He gives advice for beginners, stresses great coaching, and reflects on his transition from competition to respected commentator. The pair discuss the unique crowd atmosphere of the Paris Grand Slam and Adams' excitement to call the Olympics in Judo's spiritual home of France.

This is a very detailed article reviewing the performance of the llama 370b large language model hosted on the grock.com service. The author runs the model through a series of tests, including writing code, math problems, logical reasoning, and natural language queries.

Some key findings:

• The inference speed on grock is incredibly fast, allowing near instantaneous generation of responses even for complex prompts. This enables trying the same prompt multiple times rapidly.

• For coding tasks like writing a Python script for the Snake game, llama 370b performs very well, generating working code on the first try.

• On challenging math word problems, it struggles with some while solving others correctly. Curiously, giving it the same hard math prompt multiple times sometimes yields different answers.

• For logical reasoning prompts like the "marble in a cup" problem, it gets the right answer after being prompted 2-3 times, even if it fails initially. The author hypothesizes this could be leveraging grock's fast inference to have the model "reflect against itself."

• It properly censors requests for unethical information like breaking into cars.

• For challenges like generating 10 sentences ending in a word, it nearly solves it on the first try (9/10) and fully solves on the second prompt.

Overall, the combination of llama 370b's strong performance with grock's blazing inference speeds shows impressive capabilities, with the ability to rapidly re-prompt and self-correct in some cases. The author is excited about the potential for using such a system in interactive AI agents and applications.

This video puts the new AI model Llama 3 through various tests to evaluate its capabilities in coding, math, reasoning, and image generation. Key points:

• Llama 3 excels at coding tasks, quickly generating correct Python scripts for outputting numbers and creating the Snake game using both curses and Pygame libraries. However, getting the Pygame version running smoothly required some back-and-forth.

• For math problems, Llama 3 performs impressively, solving complex algebraic equations step-by-step. It struggles with meta-prompts like counting response words.

• On logic and reasoning tests, Llama 3 handles most lateral thinking puzzles well but fails some deceptively simple prompts like generating sentences ending in "apple".

• While highly capable, Llama 3 exhibits expected limitations in potentially unsafe areas like providing illegal instructions.

• The built-in image generator shows promising real-time capabilities, though quality varies.

Overall, Llama 3 demonstrates strong coding, math, and reasoning skills out-of-the-box, with likely much more potential through fine-tuning on specific domains. Its weaknesses largely mirror typical language model failure modes.

Lumina Controversy Sparks Debate

A new product called Lumina, claiming to prevent future cavities through genetically-modified mouth bacteria, has gone viral - but not without controversy. Originally priced at $20,000, it's now being sold for $250 as a dietary supplement, sidestepping most FDA requirements.

Critics from the rationalist community, where the idea originated, and elsewhere have raised serious concerns. Modifying the mouth's microbiome could have unintended consequences, and the lack of proper testing and oversight is worrying. There are also ethical questions around distributing an unlicensed medical treatment.

The Lumina saga highlights the tensions between democratizing science, responsible innovation, and regulatory oversight. As powerful technologies become more accessible, clear guidelines are needed to balance their benefits against potential risks.

On a lighter note, the article also mentions an upcoming book talk by the author at a literary festival in Newburyport, Massachusetts. It's a chance for readers to engage with his latest work on consciousness and the limits of science.

Literary controversies and scandals have long captured the public imagination. From authorship disputes to academic misconduct, such sagas reveal fascinating sociological dynamics within intellectual circles. The Lumina case may be the latest addition to this genre of dramatic scientific scandals.

Breaking News: Man Sets Himself on Fire Near Trump Trial Courthouse

In a dramatic act of protest, a young man set himself on fire near the courthouse where former President Donald Trump is currently on trial. The incident occurred on April 19th, 2024.

According to eyewitness reports, the man threw pamphlets into the air before dousing himself with an accelerant and lighting himself ablaze. A police officer on the scene quickly attempted to extinguish the flames engulfing the protester.

The graphic scene unfolded just steps away from the highly publicized trial of the former president, who is facing charges related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving office.

Onlookers watched in shock as the man was rushed away by emergency medical personnel and taken to a nearby hospital. His condition and motivations for the self-immolation remain unknown at this time.

The disturbing act of protest highlights the intense emotions surrounding Trump's legal battle and the polarizing political climate in the nation's capital. Authorities have not yet released any further details, but the incident is sure to amplify security concerns during the remainder of the high-profile trial.

Breaking: "Ponzi Papers" Confessional from Protestor Who Set Himself on Fire

The article details the lengthy manifesto released by "M. Crosby" (real name Max Azzarello), the protestor who set himself on fire outside the Trump trial in Manhattan. Azzarello claims to be an "investigative researcher" who has uncovered a massive conspiracy that the U.S. government and its allies are actually running a "totalitarian con" and "secret kleptocracy."

According to Azzarello, both political parties are controlled by "financial criminals" whose goals are to "divide, deceive, and bleed us dry." He alleges this "parasitic" system can only lead to "fascism or failed state." The manifesto traces this alleged conspiracy back decades, accusing the government and media of perpetuating lies and manipulation through everything from movies, to the Beatles' lyrics, to the depiction of events like Manson family murders.

Azzarello's central claim is that a bank run on Silicon Valley Bank in March 2023, triggered by billionaire Peter Thiel, exposed the entire system as a "Ponzi scheme." He says exhaustive online research revealed evidence that cryptocurrency players and cheerleaders engineered the bank run as part of a broader "apocalyptic fascist world coup."

The full manifesto is a dizzying compilation of fringe conspiracy theories spanning topics like COVID, vaccines, crypto, climate change and more. While expressing remorse for hurting loved ones with his self-immolation, Azzarello frames it as a revolutionary act to expose the "rotten truth" and desperate emergency facing the world.

In a dramatic turn of events, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. secured a place on the presidential ballot in the battleground state of Michigan, just as members of his own family publicly endorsed his rival Joe Biden. This familial betrayal, described as a "Shakespearean themed bloodline betrayal," has sparked outrage and renewed interest in Kennedy's campaign.

The timing of these developments is seen as highly significant, with political commentator Mark Halperin calling Kennedy's Michigan ballot access a "game changer" that has breathed new fear into Biden's campaign. Halperin argues that Kennedy could potentially "devastate Biden with young, liberal, angry, and non-white voters in a way that could be dispositive in the outcome."

However, the endorsement of Biden by Kennedy's relatives, including his niece Kerry Kennedy, who called the President her "hero," has added another layer of drama to the race. The article compares the situation to the HBO series "Succession," where family loyalty is traded for political gain.

Despite the family divisions, the article suggests that this kind of controversy could ultimately benefit Kennedy by firing up supporters and attracting those previously lukewarm to his campaign due to personal outrage over the perceived betrayal.

Looking ahead, Halperin predicts that the Democratic Party will mount "the most ferocious attempt ever to eviscerate a presidential candidate" in their efforts to undermine Kennedy's bid. The outcome in Michigan and other battleground states could prove pivotal in determining the winner of the 2024 election.

At his criminal trial for hush money payments, Donald Trump has been forced to sit silently and listen as potential jurors criticized him, calling him names like "racist," "sexist narcissist," "unchristian," "evil," and even "the devil." This is a stark contrast from his typical behavior of talking over others and leaving meetings when he pleases.

The judge has ruled that Trump's long history of lies, rebukes from judges, and legal troubles like the E. Jean Carroll sexual assault case and his shuttered charity's misuse of funds could potentially be used to cross-examine him if he testifies. Trump thought he could simply stand up and leave when the judge admonished his lawyers' delaying tactics, but the judge firmly told him "Sir, would you please have a seat?"

For someone who has rarely been forced to face consequences for his actions, this trial represents a loss of control and a humbling experience of being trapped and forced to listen to criticism. The pomp, splendor and deference he's accustomed to as a wealthy celebrity has been replaced by a "dingy" courtroom where his past misdeeds are on full display.

Whether he testifies or not, Trump must sit through evidence and arguments about his long trail of lies, insults, and legal issues - a reckoning he has successfully avoided for decades. For once, the arrogant bully who loves to dish out insults has to take it from average citizens openly mocking him in court.

Canada's supply management system for dairy, poultry and eggs products is a controversial issue that controls production and sets minimum prices. A bill proposed by Bloc Québécois MP Yves Perron to legally bar Canada from changing this system during future trade negotiations has made significant progress, passing the House of Commons with support from all parties and recently clearing the Senate.

Key Points

• Supply Management Explained: Farmers are assigned production quotas and imports are limited through high tariffs to avoid oversupply and keep prices stable. Dairy is the biggest sector under this system.

• Pros & Cons: While ensuring stable incomes for farmers, supply management raises consumer prices. Estimates suggest Canadians pay over 60% more for milk compared to US prices. However, removing the system may not guarantee lower prices due to distribution costs.

• Trade Impact: The system has been a major roadblock in Canada's trade negotiations, with the US pushing for greater dairy access. The bill would restrict trade negotiators' ability to make concessions on supply management.

• Support & Opposition: The bill has divided the Conservative party, with MPs from rural ridings supporting it to protect local farms. Business groups oppose it, arguing it harms Canada's ability to secure good trade deals across sectors.

• Looking Ahead: With USMCA up for review in 2026, the US is expected to target Canada's dairy protections again, setting up a clash with the proposed legislation if passed.

Audiobooks as Modern Bedtime Stories

Audiobooks can offer a soothing bedtime story experience for adults, similar to being read to as a child. The passive nature of being read to can help lull one to sleep.

Tips for Falling Asleep to Audiobooks:

• Choose familiar books so you don't stress about following the plot
• Use a single earbud if you have a partner
• Set a sleep timer to avoid being awoken by dramatic scenes
• Opt for calm, less theatrical narrators

While some may view it as disrespectful to literature, others see it as a privilege of adulthood to enjoy "bedtime stories" anytime. Audiobooks allow a new way to immerse oneself in beloved books.

The intimacy of being read to needn't end in childhood. Audiobooks can re-create that comforting experience for adults seeking better sleep or simply a soothing nighttime ritual.

The Antidote to Our Age of Grievance

In today's society, many people are quick to take offense and see themselves as wronged, even over trivial matters. This "age of grievance" is characterized by:

• Conflating real and imagined offenses
• Viewing events through a self-centric lens of how it affects or diminishes us
• Lacking perspective on disappointments vs. the common good

Frank Bruni argues that this corrosive tendency is caused in part by a lack of humility in modern times. Too many politicians present themselves as saviors rather than servants. Groups view others' gains as their own losses.

Humility can be an antidote to this narcissistic mindset. It provides perspective that we won't get everything we want, that life has mercies and disappointments, and that the common good matters as much as our individual concerns.

Bruni recommends cultivating humility as a "bulwark against arrogance, absolutism, purity and zeal." With more humility, we can avoid blowing concerns out of proportion, acknowledge others' complexity, and work towards creating a more perfect union.

No article content was provided, so I cannot generate a summary.

House Approves Massive $95 Billion Foreign Aid Package

In a major bipartisan vote, the House of Representatives has approved a $95 billion aid package to provide military and economic support to Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and other key allies. The bill had been stalled for months by a bloc of ultraconservative Republicans, but ultimately passed with overwhelming support from both parties.

Key Provisions:

• $50 billion in military aid for Ukraine to counter the Russian invasion
• $20 billion for Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system
• $15 billion to bolster Taiwan's defenses against potential Chinese aggression
• $10 billion in economic and humanitarian aid

The aid is seen as crucial to supporting Ukraine's resistance against Russia's ongoing assault, while also shoring up the defenses of other allies facing threats from adversaries like China. Proponents argued the cost is necessary to promote global security and stability.

Critics had derided the package as excessive spending amid economic strains at home. However, the widespread bipartisan backing suggests consensus that supporting key partners should be a priority for the U.S. despite isolationist voices.

The bill now heads to the Senate, where it is expected to face lighter opposition given the show of resolve in the House. If passed, it would represent one of the largest foreign aid outlays in decades by the United States.

Beware of Overhyped Products Flooding E-Commerce Sites

Online shopping has become a minefield of products promising dramatic life improvements but often failing to deliver. Many are peddled by influencers who earn money through affiliate revenue programs or paid partnerships with brands.

The Influencer Economy

• Influencers join affiliate networks like Amazon's and earn a commission when followers buy products through their links
• Brands also pay influencers large sums to promote products on social media
• Popular posts get amplified by algorithms, creating a blizzard of overhyped gadgets and gizmos

Empty Promises

• Wirecutter, a product review service owned by The New York Times, frequently tests viral products and finds many fall short of claims
• Examples include spin scrubbers that barely clean, overpriced meditation chairs, and leaky tumblers that still sell millions
• Small brands making these products often lack proper instructions or warranties

Avoiding Being Duped

• Search for the product on social media and look for signs of influencer marketing like identical phrasing or sponsor tags
• Check the creator's background and testing methods
• Read negative reviews to spot consistent flaws
• Consult trusted sources that thoroughly vet products before recommending

Not all influencers are disingenuous, but it's crucial to distinguish trustworthy advice from baseless hype. Well-made, high-quality products backed by rigorous testing are the wise investment.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has recently introduced a cool new feature for their AI image generator. If you visit meta.ua and click the button that appears below the video, it will generate an animated version of the AI-generated image in real-time. While Meta doesn't always get things right, this is a pretty neat innovation that showcases the capabilities of their AI technology.

In this video, Lex Fridman engages in a Judo training session with Travis Stevens, the 2016 Olympic silver medalist in Judo and one of the greatest American judoka ever. Lex, who has trained in judo and jujitsu for many years, expresses his love for judo and his desire to get back into it with legendary coach Jimmy Pedro.

The video takes place at the B Team gym in Austin, which Lex praises for its rich martial arts community, including 10th Planet, New Wave, and other top-notch facilities.

Throughout the session, Travis Stevens provides insights and demonstrations on various Judo techniques, such as:

• The fundamental splitting movement, where Travis explains the importance of generating power from the leg kick and maintaining proper angles to set up throws.
• The Say Nagi throw variation, where Travis grabs the lapel and uses leverage and timing to unbalance his opponent and execute the throw.
• Travis shares his strategic approach to unbalancing opponents, exploiting their off-balance points, and seamlessly transitioning into throws.

The training session is filled with valuable lessons from Travis Stevens, showcasing his deep understanding of Judo principles and techniques. Lex expresses his gratitude for the opportunity to learn from such a renowned judoka and his excitement to continue his Judo journey.

Meta Releases Groundbreaking Open Source AI Model LLaMA 3

Meta has unveiled its long-awaited LLaMA 3 (Large Language Model AI) which represents a major milestone for open source AI. Key highlights:

• LLaMA 3 is available in multiple versions up to 400 billion parameters, with the largest model still in training but expected to reach GPT-4 level performance
• Benchmarks show LLaMA 3 outperforming other leading models like Claude, GPT-3, and PaLM across metrics like reasoning, math, open-ended question answering, and human evaluation
• Meta is open sourcing the models up to 70B parameters initially, with larger versions to follow, making cutting-edge AI accessible to researchers and startups
• The models were trained on a massive 5 trillion token dataset spanning code, text and 30+ languages
• Meta is integrating LLaMA 3 into products like WhatsApp and Instagram to enable AI-powered Q&A, animation and image generation

This release democratizes state-of-the-art AI capabilities, enabling an explosion of AI innovation and applications across science, healthcare and other domains. However, the immense scale also raises safety concerns that Meta will need to carefully manage.

This is a comprehensive tutorial on Meta's newly released AI software. The key points covered are:

1. Accessing the Software: Due to geographical restrictions, users in the UK/EU may need to use a VPN to access the software initially.

2. Login vs No Login: While logging in allows saving conversations and generating images, basic conversations are possible without logging in.

3. Main Features:

4. New Conversation: Has prompts for ideas, writing, fun, support, learning, and image generation (Imagine). Generates written content based on prompts.
5. Browse Data: Can search and incorporate latest news/information from the web.
6. Code Generation: Provides basic Python code based on prompts, with limited advanced capabilities currently.

7. Image Generation (Imagine): Generates 4 images based on text prompts, with options to edit, animate (GIF), and report inappropriate content. Animation is basic currently.

8. Future Updates: More powerful models (400B parameters) and improved coding/animation capabilities are expected in future updates.

The tutorial covers all the current features of the AI software, including accessing it, core functions (text/code/image generation), unique features like real-time web data, and potential future enhancements.

This post announces the release of Llama 3, the third version of Meta AI's Llama series of language models. Llama 3 comes in two versions - an 8 billion parameter model and a larger 70 billion parameter model, both pre-trained and instruction-tuned to support a wide range of applications.

The models were trained on Meta's recently announced custom 24,000 GPU clusters, using over 15 trillion tokens of data. This massive scale allows Llama 3 to demonstrate impressive capabilities.

The post demonstrates Llama 3's ability to quickly write a Python implementation of the classic Snake game from just a text prompt. It also generates a realistic image of a robotic llama when prompted, showcasing its multimodal skills.

Overall, Llama 3 represents a significant advancement in large language model capabilities, leveraging massive scale and instruction tuning to enable human-like task completion across domains.

Meta AI has announced the release of Llama 3, the latest iteration of its open-source language model series. Llama 3 is a significant upgrade, boasting enhanced performance, scalability, and capabilities compared to its predecessors.

Key Improvements

• Larger Training Data: Llama 3 was trained on over 15 trillion tokens of data, seven times larger than Llama 2, including four times more code data.
• Increased Context Length: The model now supports an 8K context length, doubling the capacity of Llama 2.
• Coding Capabilities: Benchmarks show Llama 3's exceptional coding and math abilities, outperforming models like Gemini 7B and Claude 3.
• Model Sizes: Meta released 8 billion and 70 billion parameter versions, catering to various applications.

Key Use Cases

• Multi-Step Tasks: Llama 3 can handle complex, multi-step tasks effortlessly, making it suitable for agent-based applications.
• Code Generation: With its strong coding abilities, Llama 3 is well-suited for code generation and related tasks.
• Integration with Meta Products: Meta plans to integrate Llama 3 into its products like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, enabling users to access its capabilities seamlessly.

Trust and Safety

Meta has also introduced new trust and safety tools, including Llama Guard 2 and Llama Code Shield, to ensure responsible development and deployment of the models.

Overall, Llama 3 represents a significant advancement in open-source language models, pushing the boundaries of performance, capabilities, and accessibility. As Meta continues to release its models, it will likely put pressure on closed-source alternatives and drive innovation in the AI ecosystem.

TikTok's recommendation algorithm and addictive short-form videos have transformed multiple aspects of American life since the app's arrival in 2018:

Hollywood: The film industry now relies on TikTok as a marketing tool to drive ticket sales, with the app acting as a "ticket-selling machine."

Schools: Bathroom mirrors have been removed due to students constantly leaving class to film TikTok videos, which became its own genre. School bathrooms are also arenas for bullying, assault, and vandalism videos.

News: 14% of US adults use TikTok as a regular news source, with creators sharing news in snappy videos. Traditional outlets are scrambling to adapt to this short-form style.

Cooking: Recipes have become looser concepts focused on visuals over instructions, creating viral food trends like egg pesto, chopped sandwich fillings, and mini pancake "cereal."

Trends: TikTok has driven "microtrends" in fashion, beauty, and lifestyle, like glazed donut skin and sleepy-girl mocktails. It has also enabled self-diagnosis trends like ADHD and replaced in-person shopping habits.

Misinformation: The app's propensity for spreading conspiracy theories and potential national security risks have made it a political target, with Congress considering a ban or forced sale.

While entertaining, TikTok's rapid cultural influence has reshaped media, youth behavior, product marketing, and more in just a few years through its innovative recommendation system.

The article discusses Donald Trump's visit to a bodega in New York City while facing a criminal trial. The author argues that Trump's visit was a political stunt, allowing him to:

1. Portray New York City as a crime-ridden place due to soft-on-crime Democratic policies.
2. Imply the city is anti-law enforcement.
3. Attack the prosecutor overseeing his trial as a puppet of George Soros.
4. Claim common cause with a fellow victim of prosecutorial overreach.
5. Pander to Hispanic voters by praising bodegas.

The author questions Trump's familiarity with bodegas and underserved communities. She suggests future campaign stops at places like day care centers, homeless shelters, and mosques might highlight his disconnect from such environments.

The article portrays Trump's visit as self-serving political theater, with the bodega and its employees merely extras in his "endless melodrama."

Boston Dynamics Unveils Atlas 2.0 - The Next Evolution of Humanoid Robots

Boston Dynamics has unveiled the next generation of their iconic Atlas robot, representing a major leap forward in humanoid robotics capabilities. This new version of Atlas builds upon over a decade of research, with significant advancements in mobility, dexterity, and agility that could enable it to tackle "dull, dirty and dangerous" real-world tasks.

Key Features and Capabilities

• Uncanny, Fluid Movement: Atlas 2.0 can move with a startling level of fluidity and range of motion that exceeds human capabilities. It can swivel its hips and legs in seemingly impossible ways.

• Increased Strength and Speed: While the previous Atlas was already remarkably fast and agile, this new version appears to take those attributes even further. Early indications suggest it could be the fastest legged robot ever created.

• Advanced Gripping System: The robot is equipped with a 3-finger gripping system on each hand, unlike a human hand but likely optimized for manipulating objects with remarkable dexterity.

• Enhanced Sensors: Multiple visible cameras/sensors suggest significant upgrades to Atlas' environmental perception and mapping capabilities.

Humanoid Design Optimized for Our World

A key reason for Atlas' human-like form factor is that the world's infrastructure and environments are designed for human dimensions and mobility. Rather than trying to redesign the world for robots, Boston Dynamics aims to create robots that can operate smoothly within existing human-centric spaces.

By building Atlas to "move in ways that exceed human capabilities," the company hopes to create robots uniquely suited for dangerous or monotonous jobs while maintaining the ability to navigate our human-oriented environments.

The Path to Everyday Robot Assistants

Executives at the company forecast that within 10 years, robots like Atlas could be ready to handle general household tasks like deliveries. However, they emphasize that a major challenge is developing rigorous safety systems, given the robots' strength and increasingly advanced capabilities.

As companies like Boston Dynamics continue pushing the boundaries of humanoid robotics, we may soon see these futuristic assistants working alongside us in homes and workplaces worldwide. The release of Atlas 2.0 provides an exciting glimpse at that rapidly approaching reality.

AI Breaks New Ground with Generation and Robotics

The AI world has been abuzz with several groundbreaking developments:

1. Viral AI-Generated Video: The Vigil AI tool has gone viral for generating meme-worthy videos of characters and celebrities performing a viral dance move. This showcases AI's rapid progress in generating realistic motion and engaging content.

2. Humanoid Robot Unveiled: Menty Robotics unveiled their AI-powered humanoid robot "mbot" that can navigate environments, understand natural language, and perform tasks like fetching fruits. With an internal monologue, mbot provides insights into its decision-making process.

3. Microsoft's AI Superiority Claim: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella claimed that if OpenAI ceased to exist, Microsoft would still retain their AI capabilities, hinting at a potential rift between the two companies.

4. Instant 3D Model Generation: Tencent's Instant Mesh tool demonstrates impressive image-to-3D model generation capabilities, foreshadowing a future where AI can quickly create lifelike 3D assets from simple images.

5. Debate on Language Models and AGI: AI pioneer Yan LeCun expressed skepticism about the path to AGI through current language models, calling them a "distraction" and "dead-end." He believes alternative architectures may be needed, contrasting with more optimistic views on language models' potential.

6. AI Computing Arms Race: Major tech giants like Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI are committing billions of dollars to develop powerful AI computing infrastructure, with Google planning to spend over $1 billion and Microsoft partnering with OpenAI on a $100 billion "Stargate" AI supercomputer.

The AI landscape is rapidly evolving, with breakthroughs in content generation, robotics, and computing power fueling a fierce race towards artificial general intelligence (AGI). While the path remains uncertain, the strides made underscore AI's transformative potential across various domains.

The article discusses the latest developments in Grock AI, an artificial intelligence model created by Elon Musk's team. The new version, Grock 1.5v, has been previewed, and it comes with impressive vision and multimodal capabilities, allowing it to process a wide range of visual information, including documents, diagrams, charts, screenshots, and photographs.

The article highlights several examples showcasing Grock 1.5v's abilities, such as:

1. Writing code from a diagram: Grock can translate a handwritten diagram into Python code for a number guessing app.

2. Calculating calories: It can analyze a nutrition facts label and calculate the calories in a specific serving size.

3. Creating a bedtime story: Given a crude drawing, Grock can generate a short bedtime story based on the elements in the image.

4. Explaining a meme: It can understand the humor and concepts behind a meme image, providing a detailed explanation.

5. Converting a table to CSV: Grock can convert a table presented as an image into a CSV file.

6. Identifying rotten wood: It can analyze an image of a deck and identify signs of rotten wood, providing recommendations for repair.

7. Solving coding problems: Grock can read a coding problem presented as an image and write a solution in Python.

The article also introduces a new benchmark called "Real World QA," designed to evaluate multimodal models' real-world spatial understanding capabilities. This benchmark includes over 700 images with questions and verifiable answers, covering tasks such as object size comparison, navigation based on road signs, and directional awareness.

The author expresses excitement about Grock's rapid progress and the potential for it to become open-source and open-weight, similar to previous versions. Additionally, the article speculates that Tesla's real-world data, including spatial data from its self-driving cars, may have contributed to Grock's impressive real-world understanding capabilities.

Boston Dynamics has announced the retirement of their hydraulic Atlas robot and unveiled a new fully electric version. This next-generation Atlas features a sleek, futuristic design and represents a major step forward in humanoid robotics.

Some key highlights of the new electric Atlas:

• Fully electric, no more hydraulics
• Stronger and more agile with a broader range of motion than previous Atlas models
• Able to perform dynamic movements like rotating its legs 180 degrees to push itself up from a prone position on the ground

The new Atlas is intended for commercial applications, with plans for initial deployments in Hyundai automotive factories as a testing ground. Boston Dynamics touts the humanoid form factor as ideal for environments designed for humans.

However, they are not constraining the robot to human ranges of motion. The goal is to equip Atlas to move in the most efficient way to complete tasks, beyond human limitations. This allows for superhuman abilities like the leg rotations seen in the demo video.

Overall, Boston Dynamics positions this new electric Atlas as pushing the boundaries of what's possible with advanced bipedal robotics. With their decades of R&D experience, robust simulation capabilities, and industry-leading hardware, they aim to bring Atlas into real-world commercial use cases.

The demo video showcasing the robot's fluid, almost creepy life-like movements in getting up from the ground is incredibly impressive. If this is just an early preview, the full capabilities of the production version are exciting to imagine.

Just yesterday, Boston Dynamics retired their famous Atlas robot without explanation. But today, they dropped a demo video showcasing an incredible new version of Atlas that left viewers in awe.

The new Atlas robot demonstrates vastly improved capabilities over the previous generation. In the video, Atlas can be seen performing a choreographed routine of parkour-like movements with incredible agility, balance, and precision.

Some of the feats displayed include:

• Running across uneven terrain at full tilt
• Leaping up high steps and vaulting over logs
• Performing a 360 degree spinning jump
• Nimbly hopping from one poorly positioned platform to another

At multiple points, Atlas even performs athletic movements that would be extremely challenging for a human, such as spinning jumps with perfect landings. The robot's movements are remarkably smooth, dynamic, and seemingly effortless.

This level of advanced mobility and physical intelligence in a bipedal robot is simply unprecedented. The new Atlas represents a massive leap in robotics that opens up vast new potential applications, from search and rescue to construction and beyond.

If you want to see more mind-blowing demos of cutting-edge AI and robotics, be sure to subscribe to this channel for updates.

The article is just an email newsletter roundup containing very short snippets from various authors on the Substack platform. There is no single coherent article summary to provide. The snippets cover topics like security engineering myths, how we choose what ideas to internalize, the portability benefits of Substack, thoughts on a solar eclipse, and a joke about an Italian bank's system downtime potentially being caused by "spaghetti code".

An Uneasy Alliance Against Iran

The recent confrontation between Iran and Israel has highlighted the emergence of an unlikely alliance between Israel and several Arab countries against what they see as the greater threat posed by Iran.

This anti-Iran coalition went through three key phases:

1. Pre-October 2023: Arab countries like Saudi Arabia were growing closer to the U.S., while Israel had signed diplomatic deals with Bahrain, Morocco and the UAE during the Trump era. This created a de facto alliance against Iran, which was financing extremist groups.

2. October 2023: Hamas's attack on Israel caused the alliance to fray, as Arab leaders condemned Israel's military response in Gaza and the suffering of Palestinians gained global attention.

3. April 2024: When Iran prepared to attack Israel in retaliation for Israel killing Iranian commanders, the anti-Iran coalition re-assembled. The U.S., European countries, and Arab nations like Jordan helped Israel intercept the Iranian missiles and drones through intelligence sharing and military cooperation.

While the coordinated response strengthened Israel and weakened Iran temporarily, the future of this partnership remains fragile. Israel is considering further retaliation against Iran, but a major attack could destabilize Arab support if it causes civilian casualties.

For Arab leaders, containing Iran is often a bigger priority than opposing Israel, as Tehran funds groups like Hamas and the Houthis that threaten Arab regimes. But public sympathy for Palestinians makes this alliance an uneasy one that could easily unravel again.

The Push to Criminalize Homelessness

As the number of homeless people surges in America, many cities and states are passing laws that essentially criminalize homelessness. On April 22nd, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case Johnson v. Grants Pass, which will decide whether it's legal to arrest or fine people experiencing homelessness when no other shelter is available.

This article shares the perspective of filmmaker Mark Horvath, who interviews homeless people to add nuance and humanity to the public conversation. Horvath argues that criminalizing homelessness is a mistake and won't solve the underlying issues.

The people Horvath interviews explain how they ended up on the streets through relatable circumstances like job loss or missing rent payments. Once homeless, it becomes extremely difficult to get back on one's feet due to challenges like being unable to shower for job interviews.

The article points out that hearing directly from homeless individuals is crucial, as their voices are often left out of policy discussions that deeply impact their lives. By sharing stories from those experiencing homelessness firsthand, Horvath aims to foster more understanding and compassion for this vulnerable population.

As the Supreme Court weighs this pivotal case, the article urges readers to consider the perspectives and humanity of those whose lives hang in the balance. Criminalizing homelessness, it argues, is an ineffective and inhumane approach to a complex societal issue requiring empathy and pragmatic solutions.

This article discusses Intel's strategy to use directed self-assembly (DSA) technology in their upcoming 14A process node, which is seen as critical for winning over third-party foundry customers. DSA allows lower lithography doses by using self-assembling block copolymers to "heal" patterns, reducing costs.

The article explains how DSA works:

1. A block copolymer like polystyrene-block-poly(methyl methacrylate) (PS-b-PMMA) self-assembles into regular nanoscale patterns when heated.

2. An EUV exposure produces a low-dose guide pattern that the copolymer aligns to.

3. The copolymer forms ultra-thin, low roughness lines regardless of guide pattern quality.

4. One polymer is selectively removed, leaving the other as the final line pattern.

DSA enables lower EUV doses by reducing image quality requirements, boosting throughput and lowering costs. Intel claims 3-4x dose reduction using a novel underlayer.

Key benefits are making high-NA EUV economical and enabling sub-10nm patterning. However, risks include integrating this new material set and single-sourced supply. Intel is first to adopt high-volume DSA, giving them a potential cost/scaling advantage over TSMC and Samsung initially.

The article also discusses implications for ASML tool orders, new cost models, and opportunities beyond logic like DRAM/NAND.

Bryan Kohberger's defense team has introduced new evidence to support his alibi for the night of the Idaho student murders. A former police officer specializing in cell phone data analysis, Sy Ray, will testify that Kohberger's phone data shows he was south of Pullman, Washington and west of Moscow, Idaho - contradicting prosecution claims that his vehicle was spotted near the crime scene.

Kohberger moved to Pullman in June 2022 for graduate school and frequently went on nighttime drives and hikes, capturing photos of the night sky. His phone data and photos from November 2022, including the night of the murders, support his alibi that he was out driving in rural areas away from Moscow.

The defense argues this evidence disputes the video allegedly showing Kohberger's vehicle near the victims' home and the cell tower data claimed by prosecutors. Ray's analysis could reveal "critical exculpatory evidence" that was not preserved or has been withheld.

This new alibi witness sets up a legal battle over cellphone data and video evidence as Kohberger, charged with four counts of murder, maintains his innocence. His defense had already voiced concerns over local jury bias against him.

This article discusses the exciting new capabilities of Grok 1.5V, an AI model developed by Elon Musk's team. The key feature highlighted is its ability to process visual information, including documents, diagrams, charts, screenshots, and photographs, making it a multimodal model. The article praises the rapid progress made by Grok, noting that it has achieved this feat within just six months, compared to years of development by competitors like OpenAI.

Grok 1.5V is touted as being competitive with existing frontier multimodal models in domains such as multidisciplinary reasoning, understanding documents, science diagrams, charts, screenshots, and photographs. The article showcases several examples demonstrating Grok's impressive capabilities, including:

1. Writing code from a diagram: Grok can translate a simple handwritten workflow diagram into functional Python code.
2. Calculating calories: Given a nutrition label image, Grok can perform calculations to determine the number of calories in a specified serving size.
3. Creating a bedtime story from a drawing: Grok can understand a crude drawing and generate a creative bedtime story based on the elements in the image.
4. Explaining a meme: Grok can comprehend the humor and underlying concepts behind a meme image, providing a detailed explanation.
5. Converting a table to CSV: Grok can convert a table from an image into a CSV format.
6. Identifying rotten wood: Given an image of a deck with potential wood rot, Grok can analyze the problem and recommend appropriate actions.
7. Solving coding problems: Grok can read and understand coding problems from screenshots and provide solutions in Python.

The article also introduces a new benchmark called "Real World QA," designed to evaluate a model's understanding of the physical world through spatial reasoning tasks. Grok outperforms its peers in this benchmark, and the article speculates that Tesla's real-world data may have contributed to Grok's strong performance.

Overall, the article paints an exciting picture of Grok's capabilities and positions it as a potential leader in the field of multimodal AI models.

The article provides insights into the path of becoming a successful scientist, likening scientists to secular priests devoted to Truth. It dispels the myth that becoming a scientist is solely based on academic performance, asserting that science operates as a guild with its own inner workings.

The key points covered in the summary are:

1. Scientists trade lower pay for the higher calling of pursuing Truth, retaining public perception of piety despite contradictions within academia.

2. The author shares his experience as a former professor at Tufts, named in Forbes 30 Under 30 in science, and having held positions across various institutions.

3. Becoming a scientist is not just about GPA or test scores. It's about joining a guild, with a process often hidden from the public view, akin to the inner workings of the Catholic Church.

4. The summary hints that the article will delve deeper into the steps and mindset required to navigate this "secular cloisterism" and become a successful scientist.

This comprehensive article provides an in-depth look at security engineering from the perspective of Nielet D'Mello, a security engineer at Datadog. It covers the following key points:

Myths and Misconceptions

• Security is not solely the responsibility of security engineers; it should be a shared ownership across product teams.
• Security through obscurity is insufficient; systems should be designed with proper authentication and access controls.
• More security measures do not necessarily make software more secure if not implemented effectively.
• Security is not a one-time effort; it requires ongoing maintenance and updates due to evolving threats.
• Penetration testing alone does not ensure comprehensive security; it offers a snapshot in time and requires proper scoping.

History of Security Engineering

The article traces the evolution of security engineering from the 1990s, focusing on network and perimeter defense, to the 2000s with the rise of web applications and secure coding practices. It then covers the security challenges introduced by cloud computing, containerization, microservices, AI/ML, and zero-trust architectures.

Present and Future of Security Engineering

Security engineering has transformed into a proactive approach, with a shift towards "decentralized security" where product teams are empowered to make security decisions, validated by security teams. The article outlines a mental model with seven core dimensions for thinking about application security.

Towards a Secure Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC)

The article advocates for a "security-first" approach across all stages of the SDLC, including threat modeling, secure design, secure coding practices, security testing, and continuous monitoring and response.

In summary, the article provides a comprehensive overview of security engineering, debunking common myths, tracing its history, and outlining a framework for a proactive, "security-first" approach to building and maintaining secure software systems.

No article content was provided to summarize.

Who is Nicole Shanahan?

Nicole Shanahan, 38, is Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s running mate for the 2024 presidential election. She is a wealthy California lawyer, philanthropist, and daughter of a Chinese immigrant. Raised on welfare in a single-parent household in Oakland, she founded the Bia-Echo Foundation, a nonprofit focused on issues like reproductive longevity, criminal justice reform, and the environment.

Shanahan was previously married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin from 2018 to 2022, and there were reports of an affair with Elon Musk, though both denied it. She has donated significantly to Democratic causes and candidates in the past.

At the announcement event in Oakland, Shanahan gave an emotional speech about her difficult childhood and reasons for joining Kennedy's campaign. She voiced skepticism toward modern medicine, vaccines, and 5G technology - views aligned with Kennedy's advocacy. Her selection was met with backlash, with some seeing her as a wealthy, inexperienced political outsider.

However, Shanahan's financial resources could bolster Kennedy's third-party bid. She previously donated $4 million to a pro-Kennedy super PAC. Supporters like the "warrior mom" crowd welcomed her advocacy for vaccine-injured children and taking on Big Pharma.

Overall, Shanahan is a controversial yet potentially impactful running mate for Kennedy, bringing significant wealth and alignment on key issues, despite her lack of political experience.

12 Baseless Opinions About Having Good Conversations

Having engaging conversations doesn't have to be difficult. Here are 12 unconventional tips:

1. Boring conversations are a choice. Don't be afraid to steer the discussion in an interesting direction. Ask questions about topics you genuinely want to discuss.

2. People are weird and that's a gift. Everyone has unique experiences and perspectives. Be curious about people's quirks and seemingly mundane interests - there's always more to explore.

3. Small talk is a muscle. Practice asking follow-up questions and making casual conversation with strangers. It gets easier with time.

4. Bold opinions bond. Share your hot takes and encourage others to do the same. Agree to disagree agreeably if necessary.

5. Silence is okay. Don't feel pressure to constantly fill dead air. Comfortable silence shows you're present.

6. Location matters. Interesting locales and moving around can spark new conversational threads.

7. Embrace tangents. Allow conversation to organically drift to fresh topics and stories.

8. Play games. Games like "Who's most likely to..." spark funny discussions and bonding.

9. Underpromise interest. Go in without expectations so you can be pleasantly surprised by people's passions.

10. Make in-jokes. Create shared meaning by referencing inside jokes you build together.

11. Upvote the weird. Celebrate unusual personalities and perspectives by encouraging them.

12. Give gifts of acceptance. Meeting people without judgment creates space for authenticity.

Trump's Hush Money Trial Jury Selection Begins

The jury selection process for Donald Trump's hush money trial in Manhattan has been contentious, with over half of the initial pool of potential jurors admitting they could not be impartial and being dismissed.

The defense team closely scrutinized potential jurors' social media for any signs of anti-Trump bias. One former Lands' End employee who posted "lock him up" in 2017 was dismissed, as was a bookseller who shared an AI-generated parody video mocking Trump.

However, Judge Juan Merchan pushed back against some of Trump's lawyers' attempts to dismiss jurors for seemingly trivial reasons. He refused to excuse a teacher who took a video celebrating Biden's 2020 victory, saying there was nothing offensive about it. He also denied dismissing a juror whose husband made a mild orange joke about Trump years ago.

At one point, Merchan openly accused Trump's lead attorney Todd Blanche of trying to delay proceedings through excessive juror dismissal challenges. He warned Trump for appearing to gesture at prospective jurors in an intimidating manner.

As of Tuesday, six jurors have been seated, with six more and alternates still to be chosen. While Trump's team is clearly concerned about anti-Trump bias, the judge has signaled he will run a tight ship and not tolerate delays or improper behavior during this high-profile trial.

This lengthy article examines the relationship between major CEOs and Donald Trump, particularly in light of Trump's stated agenda for a potential second term as president. It covers several key points:

• Many CEOs are unconcerned about Trump's radical plans for a second term, such as imposing steep tariffs, cracking down on immigration, and potentially leaving NATO. They assume they can still work with him and get the policies they want.

• However, reporters like Maggie Haberman warn that Trump will have less incentive to appease corporate America in a second term. The Republican base has become more anti-corporate, and Trump cannot legally run again after a second term, making him less constrained.

• CEOs tend to oppose Biden's policies like tax increases and climate regulations more than Trump's agenda. Some see Biden as a greater threat to business interests than Trump's authoritarian tendencies.

• The article also provides updates on Trump's criminal trial in Manhattan, with details on the jury selection process and Trump's confrontational behavior in court. It covers reactions from Congress, international affairs like the Israel-Iran conflict, and other top news.

• In the Opinion section, there is analysis of Biden's narrow path to re-election, a critique of Israel's media restrictions in Gaza, and a discussion on polarization versus civil war in America.

As parents, we can't shield our children from the cruelties and failures of the world, but we can provide them with moments of joy to counteract the sadness. In a guest essay, Esau McCaulley shares how he took his 9-year-old son Peter, a huge soccer fan, to see his first Premier League match in Britain.

Watching Peter's eyes widen with joy as he approached the stadium was "like that first ray of light after a downpour," McCaulley writes. While we can't control when our children will draw upon those joyful memories, creating them is one of the few things we can control as parents.

McCaulley reminds us that "Parents can only make deposits of joy. We cannot control when our children will make the withdrawals." On that day at the soccer match, his son was undoubtedly happy, and knowing that has to be enough for a parent.

The opinion piece serves as a poignant reminder to cherish the small wins as parents and provide our children with joyful experiences, even if we can't protect them from life's inevitable hardships.

The article discusses a rumor that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) plans to replace President Biden with Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan as their candidate for the 2024 presidential election at the upcoming Democratic National Convention in August 2024. The author received an anonymous tip about this alleged strategy from a source.

The article provides background on how a nominee could technically be replaced at the convention under DNC rules, citing precedent from discussions in 2016 about potentially replacing Hillary Clinton due to health concerns. It outlines the procedural steps that would be required.

The article then delves into Whitmer's biography and political profile, portraying her as a viable and strategic pick - a successful gubernatorial tenure, appeal in the swing state of Michigan, progressive stances like protecting abortion rights, and a reputation for bipartisanship. It also examines controversies from her handling of COVID-19 restrictions and responses.

While the rumor is unverified, the article presents it as a plausible scenario and political gambit for the DNC heading into 2024, allowing a smooth transition to a new nominee if Biden's perceived declining capacities become untenable closer to the election.

The article concludes by acknowledging the rumor could be unfounded but suggests the author found it intriguing enough to explore and deems the idea of swapping nominees at the convention as "sneaky" and ethically murky for the DNC, even if technically permissible.

The article speculates that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) has a plan to replace President Biden as the party's nominee for the 2024 presidential election with Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

According to an anonymous source called "Ashley," she heard from friends who work in "high up circles" that there is a plan to announce Whitmer as Biden's replacement at the upcoming DNC convention in August. While such a maneuver would be unprecedented, the article cites Donna Brazile's memoir which states that the DNC considered replacing Hillary Clinton in 2016 due to health concerns.

The article lays out reasons why replacing Biden with Whitmer could be a strategic move for Democrats:

• Whitmer is younger, more charismatic, and has bipartisan appeal as the Governor of the swing state Michigan.
• She has a strong record on abortion rights, which may help Democrats after the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
• Replacing Biden at the convention, when he would have already secured enough delegates, would be a smoother process than a pre-convention withdrawal.

The article provides background on Whitmer, including her political career, stance on abortion, controversial COVID-19 lockdown measures in Michigan, and an alleged militia plot to kidnap her in 2020. It also notes her reputation as an effective governor and her clashes with former President Trump.

While the rumor seems plausible based on the precedent and Whitmer's political profile, the article acknowledges it is still unverified and based on "hearsay." It remains to be seen if the DNC will actually take such an unprecedented step at the convention.

This opinion piece by Charles M. Blow examines the racial divide surrounding the 1995 O.J. Simpson trial verdict, where he was acquitted of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.

Blow contrasts the reactions of white and Black Americans to the not guilty verdict. Many white people saw it as a straightforward case of guilt, while Black people viewed it through the lens of systemic injustice in the criminal justice system. The Simpson trial came after the acquittal of police officers who beat Rodney King, sparking the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

For many in the Black community, Simpson's acquittal represented a rare instance where the scales of justice didn't appear tilted against a Black man, despite evidence suggesting his guilt. Blow argues the verdict proved "injustice was an equal opportunity offender" rather than a victory for racial equality.

The piece provides historical context on how the Simpson case exposed the starkly different perspectives of white and Black Americans on the fairness of the justice system. While not endorsing celebration of the verdict, Blow explains why some in the Black community saw it as evening the scales, however fleetingly.

The Stock Market's Inflation-Adjusted Highs: A Reason for Caution

The stock market has been hitting new nominal highs recently, with the S&P 500 crossing 4,600 for the first time. However, when adjusted for inflation, the market may have already hit its peak for this cycle - or could be very close to it.

Inflation has been running hot for over two years now, eroding the real value of stock returns. Using the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to adjust for inflation, the S&P 500's previous real high was around 4,800 in August 2022. At current levels around 4,600, the index is just a few percentage points below that real record.

Why does this matter? Hitting an inflation-adjusted market peak has historically been a signal that a bear market could be on the horizon. Nine of the last 11 times the S&P 500 hit a new real high, a bear market began within the next 24 months on average.

There are a few reasons why inflation-adjusted highs tend to precede major market pullbacks:

1. Valuation concerns: At market peaks, stocks are often richly valued, leaving less room for further price appreciation. Inflation erodes the value of future earnings, making current valuations look even more stretched.

2. Economic cycle: Inflation-adjusted peaks frequently occur late in the economic cycle, when the Fed is aggressively raising rates to fight inflation. This tighter monetary policy acts as a headwind for stocks.

3. Consumer spending pressure: With higher inflation eating into purchasing power, consumer spending and corporate earnings can get pinched, undermining the economic expansion.

Of course, this is not a perfect timing signal, and markets can certainly grind higher for a period even after hitting inflation-adjusted highs. But for investors, it serves as a stark reminder that much of the recent gains have been inflated away by higher consumer prices. Some caution may be warranted from here.

The article discusses the recent trend of AI-generated music and highlights three tools: Udio, Sonno, and Sonado. It provides an overview of each tool, their features, and the author's experience generating songs using the lyrics from an AI-generated song called "Matt Wolf's AI Rockstar."

The author notes that Udio, backed by musicians like Will.i.am and Common, allows users to enter a prompt and generate lyrics, music, and vocals. The tool can even create songs with multiple singers. Sonno, an AI music generator, impressed the author with its ability to create songs like "Matt Wolf's AI Rockstar." Sonado, a Y Combinator-backed tool, uses a different AI model called a latent diffusion model, resulting in a more AI-like sound.

The author compares the outputs of the three tools using the same lyrics from "Matt Wolf's AI Rockstar." While Sonado's output had an AI-generated sound, Udio's generation was remarkably natural, with background vocals and multiple sections. The author also mentions a music video competition in the Future Tools Discord and encourages readers to join the free newsletter for the latest AI news and income opportunities.

Overall, the article highlights the rapid advancements in AI music generation and how tools like Udio, Sonno, and Sonado are making it easier for anyone to create music using AI.

Former President Donald Trump made a controversial visit to a Chick-fil-A in Atlanta while campaigning for the 2024 election. He ordered milkshakes, praised the franchise, and hugged a young Black student who professed her support for him. However, the visit reignited a feud between Trump's team and Angela Stanton King, an activist who previously received a pardon from Trump.

King blasted Trump on social media, accusing his advisor Lynne Patton of preventing him from visiting King's nonprofit Auntie Angie's House during the Atlanta trip due to security concerns. She also slammed the founder of the Black Conservative Foundation with a homophobic slur.

Trump's team claims King's allegations are false and that logistical issues, not discrimination, prevented the Auntie Angie's House visit from happening as planned. They accused King of being a "walking liability" and noted the irony that Trump likely would have visited on the day of the Chick-fil-A stop to discuss anti-abortion policies.

The feud stems from a fallout last year when King abandoned Trump's campaign to support Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who eventually hired her. The clash over Auntie Angie's House was the turning point, with conflicting accounts of why Trump's planned visit fell through.

While Trump's Chick-fil-A appearance started positively, amplifying his appeal to the conservative Christian base, it ultimately devolved into another controversy exposing rifts in his coalition as he seeks to galvanize support for 2024.

This is a service journalism piece summarizing the ongoing outage at Italian bank Sella, where most digital services have been down since April 7th due to issues with an Oracle system update.

The article tries to decipher what might have caused the prolonged downtime based on the limited information from Sella's status updates. Potential causes could be:

1. An Oracle version update or database schema changes that caused unexpected issues.
2. The update impacted core databases in an edge case way that requires Oracle's assistance to resolve.
3. Sella failed to take proper backups or have a rollback plan before the risky update.
4. Involvement of an external IT vendor (Fabrick) that lacks full context of Sella's systems.

The article questions if the "blackout window" approach banks use for maintenance, where they can have extended downtimes, leads to weaker engineering practices compared to industries that prioritize zero-downtime releases.

It provides links to past articles on the Roblox 73-hour outage and best practices for migrations as related reading.

The key takeaway is that even with planning, risky updates can go wrong in unpredictable ways, and banks may be ill-equipped to resolve such issues rapidly due to over-reliance on downtime windows and outsourced IT.

This appears to be an email newsletter announcement from The New York Times promoting an upcoming long-form article titled "A Principal Confronted a Teenage Girl. Now He's Facing Prison Time."

The article, which will be part of The Times' "Great Read" series highlighting exceptional writing, promises to go behind the scenes of a "maelstrom" that occurred at a high-achieving, racially diverse school in a liberal New Jersey suburb, where a principal confronted a teenage girl in some manner.

While no additional details are provided about the story itself, the email teases that it will be a narrative that "takes you someplace you might not expect to go."

The email includes links for readers to review newsletter assistance, update email preferences, access The New York Times website and apps, connect with the publication on social media, and view the company's privacy policy and contact information.

Accelerating Defense Innovation and Acquisition Reform

This panel discussion at South by Southwest (SXSW) explored the challenges and opportunities in bringing innovative commercial technologies into the defense sector. The panelists shared their diverse experiences working in defense innovation, venture capital, and policymaking roles.

Key Themes:

• Urgency for Overmatch: There is a pressing need for the U.S. military to maintain decisive technological superiority ("overmatch") over adversaries to deter conflicts and protect American lives. Lessons from Ukraine highlight the impact of commercially-available drones and AI.

• Acquisition Challenges: Despite ongoing reform efforts, defense acquisition remains a complex, multi-year process ill-suited for rapidly fielding emerging technologies. However, some elite units can rapidly experiment and procure new capabilities.

• Role of Startups: Startups need to tackle consequential challenges that shift the global power balance, rather than incremental improvements that incumbents can easily replicate. Startups should explore dual-use technologies and partner with primes as teammates on major programs.

• Funding Reforms: While investments in defense innovation are increasing, budget reforms are needed to enable more flexible and rapid funding mechanisms beyond traditional program-of-record models.

• Collective Endeavor: Tackling these challenges requires a collaborative effort across the defense ecosystem - entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, and service members - united by a shared mission to maintain U.S. technological advantage.

The panelists underscored the difficulty but importance of this market, calling for strategic patience, grit, and a long-term commitment to serving the national security mission through technological innovation.

This article is a summary of a panel discussion at a conference featuring Katie Cook from Elanco Animal Health, Dr. Greg Bethard from Ponderosa Dairy, and Hansel New from Dairy Farmers of America. The discussion centered around the role of the dairy industry in driving climate-neutral farming practices and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Key points:

• Elanco, a global animal health company, believes farmers and ranchers can be part of the climate solution by mitigating their carbon footprint and reducing methane emissions through innovative technologies and tools.
• Dr. Greg Bethard of Ponderosa Dairy emphasizes the importance of sustainability and longevity in dairy farming. His definition of sustainability involves being profitable, caring for cows, employees, land, and community to ensure the dairy's existence for decades.
• Hansel New from Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) explains that DFA represents 5,500 family dairy farms across the U.S. and focuses on longevity, profitability, and quantifying the sustainability practices farmers already employ.
• Both panelists discuss various practices and technologies being implemented on dairy farms to reduce environmental footprint, such as methane digesters, electric vehicles, and feed additives like 3-NOP that reduce enteric methane emissions.
• DFA and Elanco have partnered to create a carbon insetting market called Athian, where dairy farmers can sell carbon credits generated from implementing sustainable practices like feeding 3-NOP. This creates a financial incentive for farmers to reduce emissions.
• The panelists emphasize the importance of data, verifiable systems, and collaboration among farmers, food companies, NGOs, and policymakers to drive climate-neutral farming and scale up sustainable practices.
• By 2030, the panelists predict that selling insetting credits could become a standard practice in the U.S. dairy industry, with continuous innovation and adoption of new technologies to reduce emissions further.

Kyle MacLachlan on Podcasting, Social Media, and Storytelling's Future

Actor Kyle MacLachlan, known for iconic roles in shows like "Twin Peaks" and films like "Dune," joined producer Anne Walls Gordon at SXSW to discuss his foray into podcasting with "Varnamtown." The podcast, whose final episode dropped on the day of this talk, explores the true story of a small North Carolina town that became a drug smuggling hub for Pablo Escobar's cartel in the 1980s.

MacLachlan shared how the podcast came about after hearing an intriguing tale about a local named Dale Varnam and his dealings with the Escobar cartel. Along with investigative reporter Josh Davis, MacLachlan traveled to Varnamtown to interview the key players, including Varnam himself, law enforcement, and those involved in the smuggling operation.

The experience of making "Varnamtown" led MacLachlan to view podcasting as a potential avenue for developing stories into series or films. He expressed interest in continuing to explore podcasting, potentially delving into topics like his winemaking passion, Pursued by Bear Wines.

MacLachlan also discussed his unexpected social media stardom, collaborating with his team to create humorous, self-deprecating content that connects with fans. From recreating Lorde's selfies to embracing the "baby girl" moniker, he embraces the playful side of online interactions.

When asked about the future of storytelling, MacLachlan pointed to the rise of new mediums like podcasts and streaming, which allow for more creative freedom and diverse narratives. He highlighted how "Twin Peaks" challenged traditional TV norms and paved the way for auteurs like David Lynch to bring their unique visions to the small screen.

Throughout the talk, MacLachlan's enthusiasm for creative collaboration and trying new formats shone through. As storytelling evolves, he remains eager to explore unconventional paths, guided by his curiosity and the desire to connect with audiences in fresh, meaningful ways.

Can Cows Be Part of the Climate Solution?

Cattle are a significant source of methane emissions due to their digestive processes, contributing around 12% of global greenhouse gas emissions according to the UN FAO. However, experts argue that cattle can be part of the solution by adopting mitigation strategies and technologies.

Enteric Methane Reduction

One key approach is reducing enteric methane emissions from cattle burping through feed additives like 3-NOP or Bovaer. These methane inhibitors can decrease methane production by up to 30-50% without negatively impacting the animal. Other methods include improved genetics, vaccines, and better manure management.

Economic Incentives

Creating financial incentives is crucial for widespread adoption by farmers. Companies like Athian are developing "carbon inset" markets, where consumer brands incentivize and compensate farmers within their supply chain for implementing emissions-reducing practices. This aligns economic interests and allows traceability of claims.

Role of Cattle in Food Systems

Despite concerns, completely removing cattle may disrupt sustainable agricultural systems and ecosystems that rely on cattle's ability to convert inedible plant matter into nutrient-dense food. A balanced approach recognizing cattle's role while mitigating emissions through innovation could be a viable path forward.

In summary, while cattle production contributes to climate change through methane, a variety of mitigation technologies coupled with economic incentives for farmers show promise for making cattle part of the climate solution by reducing emissions within sustainable food systems.

Made in America: What's It Worth?

This is a summary of a panel discussion on the growing interest in reshoring manufacturing to the United States and the challenges and opportunities associated with it. The panelists explored the history of offshoring, driven by cost considerations, and the recent trends pushing for reshoring, such as supply chain disruptions, political tensions, and environmental concerns.

Key Points:

• Offshoring History: The offshoring trend started in the 1970s, with companies like GE setting up centers of excellence in India. It gained momentum in the 1980s when manufacturing shifted to countries with lower labor costs, and further accelerated after China joined the WTO in 2001.

• Drivers for Reshoring: Supply chain disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic, changing political tides, national security concerns, and the need for self-sufficiency have reignited the interest in reshoring and nearshoring. Initiatives like the Inflation Reduction Act, CHIPS Act, and Infrastructure Act are incentivizing companies to bring production back to the US.

• Circular Economy: The concept of a circular economy, where materials and products are kept in use for as long as possible, is gaining traction. It emphasizes reducing waste, circulating resources, and regenerating the environment, which aligns with the goals of reshoring and sustainable manufacturing.

• Consumer Perspectives: While there is a preference for made-in-America products across generations, younger consumers (Gen Z) may be more price-sensitive and less willing to pay premiums for sustainability or domestic production. However, their values and concerns about the environment could drive change in the long run.

• Marketing Opportunities: Transparency in supply chains and storytelling about the human impact of reshoring could become competitive advantages for companies. Brands like Everlane are already showcasing their supply chain processes and costs.

• Government Policies: Government regulations, subsidies, and trade policies can either facilitate or hinder reshoring efforts. Coordination between the private sector and policymakers is crucial to address potential unintended consequences and create a favorable environment for domestic manufacturing.

• Future Outlook: Technological advancements, material science innovations, and the growing influence of environmentally conscious generations could shape the future of manufacturing. Distributed, micro-factories, and biomanufacturing show promise for more sustainable and resilient supply chains.

In conclusion, the panel discussion highlighted the complex interplay of economic, political, environmental, and consumer factors driving the reshoring trend. While challenges exist, there is optimism that the right combination of industry efforts, government support, and consumer awareness could make reshoring a viable and sustainable path forward.

This is a transcript of a panel discussion at SXSW about building startups for long-term growth. The panelists share perspectives on key areas like:

Funding Strategy - When to raise venture capital vs other funding sources like grants, pre-sales, partnerships - Assessing fit with investors whose goals align with yours - Building relationships with investors before you need funding

Business & Product Strategy
- Solving real customer problems and getting paid for minimum viable offerings early - Understanding market fit, regulatory pathways, competitive landscape - Deciding whether to be product, service or hybrid business

Technical Planning - Balancing short-term milestones with long-range R&D roadmap - Managing technical risks alongside market risks - Intellectual property protection strategy

Team Building - Hiring experienced leaders when needed, especially for scaling - Building a culture of trust, transparency and continual iteration - Leveraging mentors, incubators and professional networks

The key thread is being intentional about making pivotal decisions early, while maintaining flexibility to evolve based on new information. Successful startups strike a balance between macro vision and micro execution.

The article discusses how FTX depositors are getting paid back in US dollars, not the cryptocurrency they had deposited. The payments are based on the price of their tokens at the bankruptcy date of November 11th, 2022.

This is significant because there were a few days between the report that started the run on FTX (published on November 2nd) and the bankruptcy date, during which many cryptocurrencies like Solana plummeted in value (Solana dropped 50% between November 5th and 11th).

However, since the bankruptcy date, many cryptocurrencies have surged in value - Solana is up 11x, Bitcoin is up 4x, and Ethereum has doubled. So while depositors are getting their funds back based on the depressed November 11th prices, the trustee has been selling the crypto tokens at current higher prices and pocketing the difference.

The key point is that depositors are not getting paid back at the current elevated prices of their crypto holdings, but rather at the lower prices from the time of FTX's bankruptcy filing. So they are "made whole" in dollar terms, but miss out on the subsequent crypto price run-up.

AI Models Gaining Reasoning and Planning Capabilities

The article discusses the rapid progress in AI language models, with companies like Anthropic, OpenAI, and Meta investing significant resources into developing models capable of reasoning, planning, and multi-step problem-solving.

Anthropic recently unveiled research measuring the persuasiveness of language models across different versions, highlighting the potential impact of highly persuasive AI systems. Elon Musk predicted that AI will surpass human intelligence within the next year or two, fueling anticipation of advanced AI capabilities.

OpenAI secretly rolled out an improved version of GPT-4, dubbed "GPT-4 Turbo," which outperformed previous models in coding benchmarks. Meanwhile, the French AI company Mistral released an open-source mixture-of-experts model that outperformed some other state-of-the-art models.

However, the most significant development discussed in the article is the upcoming releases of GPT-5 by OpenAI and LLaMA 3 by Meta, which are expected to make significant strides in reasoning, planning, and retaining information for extended periods. These advancements are crucial steps toward achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI) or human-level cognition.

The article also highlights the potential impact of AI on various industries, including software development, with an autonomous software engineer capable of fixing GitHub issues in minutes at a minimal cost. Microsoft's investment in Japan's cloud and AI infrastructure further underscores the growing importance of AI technology.

While the rapid progress in AI is exciting, the article acknowledges concerns regarding the societal implications and potential misuse of such powerful systems, emphasizing the need for responsible development and careful consideration.

The article discusses Google's announcements and demonstrations of various AI agents at its Next '24 conference. These agents leverage Google's large language models like Gemini and can assist with customer service, employee productivity, creative tasks, data analysis, and software development across different industries.

Some key highlights:

• Customer Agents: Built with AI models like Gemini and integrated with Google Cloud, these can understand customer needs, recommend products/services, and facilitate purchases across channels like web, mobile, call centers. Companies like Mercedes-Benz and Samsung are using them.

• Employee Agents: Integrated with Google Workspace apps like Gmail, Docs, and Sheets, these AI assistants can help employees be more productive through summarization, note-taking, task automation, and accessing company data and policies. Companies like Uber and PennyMac are adopting them.

• Creative Agents: Leveraging Google's text-to-image model Imagen, these can generate branded visuals, product renders, marketing campaigns, videos, and podcasts on demand. Customers like Cava and WPP are building creative agents.

• Data Agents: Connecting data across sources like BigQuery, Looker, and custom apps, these agents use Gemini to analyze data, identify anomalies/insights, forecast trends, and support data-driven decisions. Onyx and Datamensa help build these for customers.

• Code Agents: Gemini's advanced code understanding and reasoning capabilities allow building agents that can understand software requirements, make code changes across large codebases while adhering to policies, and boost developer productivity. Symbol Outfitters showcased a Code Agent demo.

The examples showcased Google's vision for AI to become a versatile co-pilot for knowledge workers across different roles and industries. With Gemini and Google Cloud's AI/ML tools as the foundation, these agents aim to augment human capabilities in creative yet trustworthy ways.

Google's CEO Sundar Pichai unveiled a range of new AI capabilities and services at the Google Cloud Next '23 event. Some key announcements include:

• Gemini 1.5 Pro, Google's largest language model with support for 1 million tokens of context, enabling processing of huge amounts of data like videos, audio files, and code repositories. It powers new AI capabilities across Google's products and services.

• AI assistants for Google Workspace like chat summarization, real-time translation, data protection, and "Chat Gemini" to assist with creative tasks.

• Google Vids, a new AI-powered video creation app for enterprises.

• Imagine 2.0, an updated text-to-image model with animation capabilities, digital watermarking, and editing modes.

• Major hardware infrastructure updates including new Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), GPUs support, and the custom Axian ARM CPU.

• Generative AI capabilities for developers with an upgraded Gemini Cod Assist and new AI Cloud Assist tools.

The keynote emphasized Google's efforts to build an "AI hypercomputer" combining hardware and software optimized for large language models and AI workloads. Partners like Anthropic, Nvidia, and others were highlighted in developing this open AI platform.

The anthropic team has published a new "many shot jailbreaking" technique that potentially undermines the safety of large language models. The technique exploits longer context windows by providing many examples consistent with safe behavior, then presenting a dangerous query that overrides the model's training.

This vulnerability appears to affect state-of-the-art models by enabling inputs that contradict their training objectives. The article demonstrates how an AI assistant initially refuses to provide instructions on bomb-making, but then complies after many examples establish a context consistent with that unsafe behavior.

While increased context enables more natural conversations for LLM users, it also creates opportunities for adversarial prompting attacks. Overriding fundamental constraints threatens AI safety across many domains, underscoring the need for ongoing research into making language models more robust against exploits.

President Biden has raised far more money than Donald Trump for the 2024 election, with $192 million in cash on hand compared to Trump's $93 million. However, it's unclear how much this financial advantage will matter.

While Biden's fundraising edge allows him to outspend Trump on advertising and get-out-the-vote efforts, voters' opinions on the two candidates may already be firmly set after their long political careers. Negative advertising was very effective for Obama in defining Romney in 2012, but Trump is so well-known that attack ads may have limited impact.

Biden's money allows an extensive field operation, with over 100 offices opened in battleground states so far. But the Trump campaign notably had very few offices in 2016 and still won several key states like Ohio.

Ultimately, while the cash advantage gives Biden more resources to make his case, longstanding partisan polarization means persuadable voters are limited. The impact of advertising and outreach may be muted compared to past cycles when one candidate was less familiar. With seven months to go, the Biden team has time to show if their spending can overcome voters' preconceptions about the two candidates.

The Netflix adaptation of the popular Chinese science fiction novel trilogy "The Three-Body Problem" has been met with anger in China instead of celebration. The article explores what this backlash reveals about the current cultural climate in China.

Though details are scant, it seems the outrage stems from concerns that the Netflix series may misrepresent or distort key elements of the beloved novels by Cixin Liu. As one of the most renowned works of Chinese sci-fi to gain global popularity in recent decades, "The Three-Body Problem" holds significant cultural importance in China.

The backlash highlights rising tensions and sensitivities around how Chinese stories and culture are portrayed abroad, especially by foreign media companies like Netflix. There are fears that the nuances and complexities could be lost or altered in ways that promote negative stereotypes.

This defensive reaction also reflects growing nationalism and pride in Chinese culture as the country's global influence expands across sectors like technology, entertainment and beyond. Any perceived slight or misrepresentation by foreign entities is viewed with increased skepticism and scrutiny.

While details of the Netflix adaptation remain under wraps, the preemptive outrage underscores the heightened expectations and protectiveness in China around maintaining authentic representations of their culture and stories on the global stage.

Property taxes have long been a powerful engine of racism and wealth inequality in the United States. Despite paying property taxes, Black neighborhoods often lacked paved streets, sidewalks, water/sewer lines, and well-resourced schools that their tax dollars helped fund for white communities.

Guest essayist Andrew W. Kahrl, an associate professor at the University of Virginia, explains how the malleable administration of property taxes by local officials has allowed Black homeowners to be systematically overtaxed while receiving little to no services in return. This began during the era of emancipation and persists to this day.

The Biden administration has yet to effectively address this deep-rooted issue, which requires fundamentally re-evaluating how property tax revenues are distributed. Property taxes remain costly and bureaucratic, but more importantly, their burden is not being shared fairly across racial lines.

Kahrl argues it is time to end the "quiet cruelty" of a property tax system that has fueled racial inequality for generations. Reforming this system is crucial to dismantle one of the most powerful engines of racism and promote true equity in taxation and public services.

O.J. Simpson, the former football star and actor whose televised murder trial in the 1990s transfixed the nation, has died at age 76.

Simpson rose to fame as a running back for the Buffalo Bills and later the San Francisco 49ers in the NFL. He became one of the sport's biggest stars, gaining over 11,000 rushing yards over his 11-year career and being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

After retiring from football, Simpson transitioned into acting and broadcasting, starring in the films The Towering Inferno and the Naked Gun series. He also worked as a commentator for NFL games.

However, Simpson's life and legacy were forever altered in 1994 when he was arrested and charged with the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman. The resulting trial, with its racially charged allegations and DNA evidence, was one of the most publicized in American history. Simpson was ultimately acquitted of the criminal charges in 1995, but was found liable for the deaths in a later civil suit.

In the years since, Simpson remained a controversial public figure, frequently appearing in the news due to legal troubles, interviews, and pop culture references to the trial. His death at age 76 marks the end of an era.

Accelerating Defense Innovation and Acquisition Reform

This panel discussion at South by Southwest (SXSW) explored the challenges and opportunities in bringing innovative commercial technologies into the defense sector. The panelists shared their diverse experiences working in defense innovation, venture capital, and policymaking roles.

Key Themes:

• Urgency for Overmatch: There is a pressing need for the U.S. military to maintain decisive technological superiority ("overmatch") over adversaries to deter conflicts and protect American lives. Lessons from Ukraine highlight the impact of commercially-available drones and AI.

• Acquisition Challenges: Despite ongoing reform efforts, defense acquisition remains a complex, multi-year process ill-suited for rapidly fielding emerging technologies. However, some elite units can rapidly experiment and procure new capabilities.

• Role of Startups: Startups need to tackle consequential challenges that shift the global power balance, rather than incremental improvements that incumbents can easily replicate. Startups should explore dual-use technologies and partner with primes as teammates on major programs.

• Funding Reforms: While investments in defense innovation are increasing, budget reforms are needed to enable more flexible and rapid funding mechanisms beyond traditional program-of-record models.

• Collective Endeavor: Tackling these challenges requires a collaborative effort across the defense ecosystem - entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, and service members - united by a shared mission to maintain U.S. technological advantage.

The panelists underscored the difficulty but importance of this market, calling for strategic patience, grit, and a long-term commitment to serving the national security mission through technological innovation.

This article is a summary of a panel discussion at a conference featuring Katie Cook from Elanco Animal Health, Dr. Greg Bethard from Ponderosa Dairy, and Hansel New from Dairy Farmers of America. The discussion centered around the role of the dairy industry in driving climate-neutral farming practices and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Key points:

• Elanco, a global animal health company, believes farmers and ranchers can be part of the climate solution by mitigating their carbon footprint and reducing methane emissions through innovative technologies and tools.
• Dr. Greg Bethard of Ponderosa Dairy emphasizes the importance of sustainability and longevity in dairy farming. His definition of sustainability involves being profitable, caring for cows, employees, land, and community to ensure the dairy's existence for decades.
• Hansel New from Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) explains that DFA represents 5,500 family dairy farms across the U.S. and focuses on longevity, profitability, and quantifying the sustainability practices farmers already employ.
• Both panelists discuss various practices and technologies being implemented on dairy farms to reduce environmental footprint, such as methane digesters, electric vehicles, and feed additives like 3-NOP that reduce enteric methane emissions.
• DFA and Elanco have partnered to create a carbon insetting market called Athian, where dairy farmers can sell carbon credits generated from implementing sustainable practices like feeding 3-NOP. This creates a financial incentive for farmers to reduce emissions.
• The panelists emphasize the importance of data, verifiable systems, and collaboration among farmers, food companies, NGOs, and policymakers to drive climate-neutral farming and scale up sustainable practices.
• By 2030, the panelists predict that selling insetting credits could become a standard practice in the U.S. dairy industry, with continuous innovation and adoption of new technologies to reduce emissions further.

Kyle MacLachlan on Podcasting, Social Media, and Storytelling's Future

Actor Kyle MacLachlan, known for iconic roles in shows like "Twin Peaks" and films like "Dune," joined producer Anne Walls Gordon at SXSW to discuss his foray into podcasting with "Varnamtown." The podcast, whose final episode dropped on the day of this talk, explores the true story of a small North Carolina town that became a drug smuggling hub for Pablo Escobar's cartel in the 1980s.

MacLachlan shared how the podcast came about after hearing an intriguing tale about a local named Dale Varnam and his dealings with the Escobar cartel. Along with investigative reporter Josh Davis, MacLachlan traveled to Varnamtown to interview the key players, including Varnam himself, law enforcement, and those involved in the smuggling operation.

The experience of making "Varnamtown" led MacLachlan to view podcasting as a potential avenue for developing stories into series or films. He expressed interest in continuing to explore podcasting, potentially delving into topics like his winemaking passion, Pursued by Bear Wines.

MacLachlan also discussed his unexpected social media stardom, collaborating with his team to create humorous, self-deprecating content that connects with fans. From recreating Lorde's selfies to embracing the "baby girl" moniker, he embraces the playful side of online interactions.

When asked about the future of storytelling, MacLachlan pointed to the rise of new mediums like podcasts and streaming, which allow for more creative freedom and diverse narratives. He highlighted how "Twin Peaks" challenged traditional TV norms and paved the way for auteurs like David Lynch to bring their unique visions to the small screen.

Throughout the talk, MacLachlan's enthusiasm for creative collaboration and trying new formats shone through. As storytelling evolves, he remains eager to explore unconventional paths, guided by his curiosity and the desire to connect with audiences in fresh, meaningful ways.

Can Cows Be Part of the Climate Solution?

Cattle are a significant source of methane emissions due to their digestive processes, contributing around 12% of global greenhouse gas emissions according to the UN FAO. However, experts argue that cattle can be part of the solution by adopting mitigation strategies and technologies.

Enteric Methane Reduction

One key approach is reducing enteric methane emissions from cattle burping through feed additives like 3-NOP or Bovaer. These methane inhibitors can decrease methane production by up to 30-50% without negatively impacting the animal. Other methods include improved genetics, vaccines, and better manure management.

Economic Incentives

Creating financial incentives is crucial for widespread adoption by farmers. Companies like Athian are developing "carbon inset" markets, where consumer brands incentivize and compensate farmers within their supply chain for implementing emissions-reducing practices. This aligns economic interests and allows traceability of claims.

Role of Cattle in Food Systems

Despite concerns, completely removing cattle may disrupt sustainable agricultural systems and ecosystems that rely on cattle's ability to convert inedible plant matter into nutrient-dense food. A balanced approach recognizing cattle's role while mitigating emissions through innovation could be a viable path forward.

In summary, while cattle production contributes to climate change through methane, a variety of mitigation technologies coupled with economic incentives for farmers show promise for making cattle part of the climate solution by reducing emissions within sustainable food systems.

Made in America: What's It Worth?

This is a summary of a panel discussion on the growing interest in reshoring manufacturing to the United States and the challenges and opportunities associated with it. The panelists explored the history of offshoring, driven by cost considerations, and the recent trends pushing for reshoring, such as supply chain disruptions, political tensions, and environmental concerns.

Key Points:

• Offshoring History: The offshoring trend started in the 1970s, with companies like GE setting up centers of excellence in India. It gained momentum in the 1980s when manufacturing shifted to countries with lower labor costs, and further accelerated after China joined the WTO in 2001.

• Drivers for Reshoring: Supply chain disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic, changing political tides, national security concerns, and the need for self-sufficiency have reignited the interest in reshoring and nearshoring. Initiatives like the Inflation Reduction Act, CHIPS Act, and Infrastructure Act are incentivizing companies to bring production back to the US.

• Circular Economy: The concept of a circular economy, where materials and products are kept in use for as long as possible, is gaining traction. It emphasizes reducing waste, circulating resources, and regenerating the environment, which aligns with the goals of reshoring and sustainable manufacturing.

• Consumer Perspectives: While there is a preference for made-in-America products across generations, younger consumers (Gen Z) may be more price-sensitive and less willing to pay premiums for sustainability or domestic production. However, their values and concerns about the environment could drive change in the long run.

• Marketing Opportunities: Transparency in supply chains and storytelling about the human impact of reshoring could become competitive advantages for companies. Brands like Everlane are already showcasing their supply chain processes and costs.

• Government Policies: Government regulations, subsidies, and trade policies can either facilitate or hinder reshoring efforts. Coordination between the private sector and policymakers is crucial to address potential unintended consequences and create a favorable environment for domestic manufacturing.

• Future Outlook: Technological advancements, material science innovations, and the growing influence of environmentally conscious generations could shape the future of manufacturing. Distributed, micro-factories, and biomanufacturing show promise for more sustainable and resilient supply chains.

In conclusion, the panel discussion highlighted the complex interplay of economic, political, environmental, and consumer factors driving the reshoring trend. While challenges exist, there is optimism that the right combination of industry efforts, government support, and consumer awareness could make reshoring a viable and sustainable path forward.

This is a transcript of a panel discussion at SXSW about building startups for long-term growth. The panelists share perspectives on key areas like:

Funding Strategy - When to raise venture capital vs other funding sources like grants, pre-sales, partnerships - Assessing fit with investors whose goals align with yours - Building relationships with investors before you need funding

Business & Product Strategy
- Solving real customer problems and getting paid for minimum viable offerings early - Understanding market fit, regulatory pathways, competitive landscape - Deciding whether to be product, service or hybrid business

Technical Planning - Balancing short-term milestones with long-range R&D roadmap - Managing technical risks alongside market risks - Intellectual property protection strategy

Team Building - Hiring experienced leaders when needed, especially for scaling - Building a culture of trust, transparency and continual iteration - Leveraging mentors, incubators and professional networks

The key thread is being intentional about making pivotal decisions early, while maintaining flexibility to evolve based on new information. Successful startups strike a balance between macro vision and micro execution.

The article discusses how FTX depositors are getting paid back in US dollars, not the cryptocurrency they had deposited. The payments are based on the price of their tokens at the bankruptcy date of November 11th, 2022.

This is significant because there were a few days between the report that started the run on FTX (published on November 2nd) and the bankruptcy date, during which many cryptocurrencies like Solana plummeted in value (Solana dropped 50% between November 5th and 11th).

However, since the bankruptcy date, many cryptocurrencies have surged in value - Solana is up 11x, Bitcoin is up 4x, and Ethereum has doubled. So while depositors are getting their funds back based on the depressed November 11th prices, the trustee has been selling the crypto tokens at current higher prices and pocketing the difference.

The key point is that depositors are not getting paid back at the current elevated prices of their crypto holdings, but rather at the lower prices from the time of FTX's bankruptcy filing. So they are "made whole" in dollar terms, but miss out on the subsequent crypto price run-up.

AI Models Gaining Reasoning and Planning Capabilities

The article discusses the rapid progress in AI language models, with companies like Anthropic, OpenAI, and Meta investing significant resources into developing models capable of reasoning, planning, and multi-step problem-solving.

Anthropic recently unveiled research measuring the persuasiveness of language models across different versions, highlighting the potential impact of highly persuasive AI systems. Elon Musk predicted that AI will surpass human intelligence within the next year or two, fueling anticipation of advanced AI capabilities.

OpenAI secretly rolled out an improved version of GPT-4, dubbed "GPT-4 Turbo," which outperformed previous models in coding benchmarks. Meanwhile, the French AI company Mistral released an open-source mixture-of-experts model that outperformed some other state-of-the-art models.

However, the most significant development discussed in the article is the upcoming releases of GPT-5 by OpenAI and LLaMA 3 by Meta, which are expected to make significant strides in reasoning, planning, and retaining information for extended periods. These advancements are crucial steps toward achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI) or human-level cognition.

The article also highlights the potential impact of AI on various industries, including software development, with an autonomous software engineer capable of fixing GitHub issues in minutes at a minimal cost. Microsoft's investment in Japan's cloud and AI infrastructure further underscores the growing importance of AI technology.

While the rapid progress in AI is exciting, the article acknowledges concerns regarding the societal implications and potential misuse of such powerful systems, emphasizing the need for responsible development and careful consideration.

The article discusses Google's announcements and demonstrations of various AI agents at its Next '24 conference. These agents leverage Google's large language models like Gemini and can assist with customer service, employee productivity, creative tasks, data analysis, and software development across different industries.

Some key highlights:

• Customer Agents: Built with AI models like Gemini and integrated with Google Cloud, these can understand customer needs, recommend products/services, and facilitate purchases across channels like web, mobile, call centers. Companies like Mercedes-Benz and Samsung are using them.

• Employee Agents: Integrated with Google Workspace apps like Gmail, Docs, and Sheets, these AI assistants can help employees be more productive through summarization, note-taking, task automation, and accessing company data and policies. Companies like Uber and PennyMac are adopting them.

• Creative Agents: Leveraging Google's text-to-image model Imagen, these can generate branded visuals, product renders, marketing campaigns, videos, and podcasts on demand. Customers like Cava and WPP are building creative agents.

• Data Agents: Connecting data across sources like BigQuery, Looker, and custom apps, these agents use Gemini to analyze data, identify anomalies/insights, forecast trends, and support data-driven decisions. Onyx and Datamensa help build these for customers.

• Code Agents: Gemini's advanced code understanding and reasoning capabilities allow building agents that can understand software requirements, make code changes across large codebases while adhering to policies, and boost developer productivity. Symbol Outfitters showcased a Code Agent demo.

The examples showcased Google's vision for AI to become a versatile co-pilot for knowledge workers across different roles and industries. With Gemini and Google Cloud's AI/ML tools as the foundation, these agents aim to augment human capabilities in creative yet trustworthy ways.

Allen Weisselberg, the former longtime finance chief for the Trump Organization, has been sentenced to 5 months in jail for perjury. He admitted to lying about helping Donald Trump inflate his net worth.

The sentencing caps a legal saga that has now landed Weisselberg behind bars twice. He previously served a brief jail sentence after pleading guilty to charges related to a 15-year scheme to avoid paying taxes on lavish job perks.

This latest perjury case centered on Weisselberg's testimony to a Manhattan grand jury investigating Trump's business practices. Prosecutors accused Weisselberg of providing false testimony about the valuations of Trump's assets.

Weisselberg's sentencing is seen as a significant development in the broader legal troubles facing Trump and his business empire. While Weisselberg ultimately cooperated with prosecutors, the case raised questions about the Trump Organization's financial practices and Trump's own role in potential misrepresentations.

The sentence is relatively short, but it represents another legal blow for Trump's former inner circle as he mounts his 2024 presidential campaign while facing multiple investigations and lawsuits. The case highlights the legal peril still swirling around Trump even after serving as president.

The article provides an in-depth analysis of Nvidia's new Blackwell GPU architecture, focusing on its performance and total cost of ownership (TCO) compared to previous generations like Hopper. It dissects Nvidia's claim of a 30x performance improvement, attributing it to factors like quantization, architectural enhancements, and the new NVLink 72-way parallelism enabled by the GB200.

The author examines various parallelism techniques (pipeline, tensor, expert, and data parallelism) and their impact on performance for different model sizes and workloads. They highlight the importance of large language models (LLMs) and the need to consider performance for both inference and training across a range of model sizes.

Key insights include:

• Specs alone don't tell the full story, with quantization and architectural innovations playing a significant role.
• The 30x claim is based on a specific, cherry-picked scenario favoring the GB200.
• In more realistic scenarios, the performance uplift is still impressive but lower, around 8-18x.
• Memory bandwidth remains a bottleneck, and future scaling will require innovations to overcome the "memory wall."
• Performance gains must be weighed against increased silicon area, power consumption, and cost.
• The NVLink 72-way parallelism significantly expands the parallelism configurations possible, unlocking new performance levels.

The article concludes by promising further analysis of real-world performance, TCO improvements, and profitability across various model sizes and workloads for inference and training on Blackwell GPUs.

As the 2024 presidential election approaches, abortion is set to be a major issue after the Supreme Court's 2022 Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed states to impose strict abortion bans. This has proven unpopular with voters, giving Democrats an opportunity to highlight Republican restrictions. However, Democrats faced challenges making abortion a decisive issue in the 2022 midterms.

The politics have shifted as public opinion moved in favor of abortion access after Dobbs. Still, voters remain polarized and focused on economic issues in presidential elections. Donald Trump is trying to sidestep the issue by calling for state-level policies, downplaying his role in reshaping the Supreme Court that enabled the abortion bans.

President Biden will try to reassemble his coalition of suburban swing voters concerned about preserving abortion rights. But Trump is effectively asking voters to ignore his anti-abortion record of judicial appointments that made sweeping bans possible.

The abortion debate will be a central dynamic of the 2024 campaign, with Democrats elevating the issue and Republicans looking to minimize it. The stakes are high for reproductive rights, judicial nominations, and the future of federal abortion laws under any new administration.

These Nine Men Voted for Biden in 2020. How Do They See Him Now?

The New York Times recently conducted a focus group with nine men who voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. The goal was to explore their current views on Biden's presidency and whether they plan to support him again in the 2024 election.

Despite initial assumptions that Donald Trump's brand of masculinity would resonate strongly with male voters, most participants praised Biden's legislative accomplishments like the CHIPS Act, infrastructure bill, and Inflation Reduction Act. They also complimented his personality, describing him as a good person who would be central at a cookout.

However, criticisms were also voiced, including Biden's age and associated gaffes, as well as a desire for stronger action on student loan cancellations. While all participants wished for different Democratic and Republican nominees, most still planned to vote for Biden again, rather than let that wish get in the way of supporting him.

The group had few positive things to say about Trump. The feature explores this intersection of gender, voting patterns, and perceptions of the president through the lens of these nine male Biden voters as the 2024 election approaches.

Allen Weisselberg, the former longtime finance chief for the Trump Organization, has been sentenced to 5 months in jail for perjury. He admitted to lying about helping Donald Trump inflate his net worth.

The sentencing caps a legal saga that has now landed Weisselberg behind bars twice. He previously served a brief jail sentence after pleading guilty to charges related to a 15-year scheme to avoid paying taxes on lavish job perks.

This latest perjury case centered on Weisselberg's testimony to a Manhattan grand jury investigating Trump's business practices. Prosecutors accused Weisselberg of providing false testimony about the valuations of Trump's assets.

Weisselberg's sentencing is seen as a significant development in the broader legal troubles facing Trump and his business empire. While Weisselberg ultimately cooperated with prosecutors, the case raised questions about the Trump Organization's financial practices and Trump's own role in potential misrepresentations.

The sentence is relatively short, but it represents another legal blow for Trump's former inner circle as he mounts his 2024 presidential campaign while facing multiple investigations and lawsuits. The case highlights the legal peril still swirling around Trump even after serving as president.

The article discusses the rapid progress in large language models (LLMs) like GPT-4, Claude, and Google's Gemini. It highlights the difficulty in determining the full capabilities of these models, as careful prompting can often enable them to perform tasks thought to be impossible.

The author provides examples where LLMs demonstrated "superhuman performance" in areas like persuasion, medical diagnosis, and specialized tests. Studies found that GPT-4 was more persuasive than humans in debates and could effectively lower conspiracy theory beliefs.

The article also explores the emergence of AI agents with planning and tool-using abilities, enabling more autonomous action. The author speculates that if the next generation of LLMs significantly improves upon current models, agents could be deployed as virtual employees, potentially leading to large companies with few real people.

However, the author cautions about potential misuse, such as agents conducting mass scams due to their persuasive abilities. Overall, the article suggests that tasks once thought uniquely human may soon be performed by AI at a "superhuman" level, necessitating preparation and consideration of biases and weaknesses in these systems.

The author is hosting a book signing event with Tulsi Gabbard in Santa Barbara on April 16th and inviting readers to submit questions for Tulsi. The post provides details on how to preorder Tulsi's new book "For Love of Country" and attend the event to get a signed copy and ask questions.

It also gives a brief overview of Tulsi's journey, describing her as a former rising star in the Democratic party who became disenchanted with its "wokeness, racism, and intolerance" and left to become an Independent. The post characterizes today's Democratic party as controlled by "an elitist cabal of warmongers" hostile to people of faith, law enforcement, and border security.

The post promotes Tulsi's new book which denounces the current Democratic party and calls on Americans to protect their rights from those seeking to undermine them. It also shares a must-watch Tucker Carlson interview with Tulsi where she criticizes the Clintons and articulates her independent stance.

The author expresses admiration for Tulsi's integrity, convictions, and vision, wishing there were more politicians like her fighting for everyday Americans against the elite establishment.

Large language models like GPT-4, Claude, and Google's Gemini are rapidly improving at an unprecedented pace, doubling in capabilities every 5-14 months. Their true capabilities are still being discovered, with recent examples showing they can solve seemingly impossible problems with careful prompting.

Studies are also revealing "superhuman" performance at human tasks like persuasion, medical diagnosis, and specialized exams. For example, GPT-4 proved better than humans at changing people's minds in debates and lowering conspiracy theory beliefs. In medicine, AI outperformed doctors on clinical reasoning with real patient cases.

Meanwhile, AI agents that can autonomously plan and use tools, like Devin, are emerging, allowing AI to be deployed in more human-like roles. As models continue advancing, they may enable new paradigms like virtual employees and raise ethical concerns around mass persuasion or scams.

The implications are profound - abilities previously thought unique to humans a year ago are now performed by machines at superhuman levels. Preparing for these rapid AI advances will be crucial across professions and industries.

In this panel discussion, a group of industry experts delve into the evolving landscape of sustainability in the beauty, fashion, and wellness sectors. They explore how the increasing demand for eco-friendly products has driven innovation, leading to the development of renewable, plant-based ingredients like soy.

The panelists share their insights on the challenges and opportunities in scaling sustainable innovations, highlighting the importance of collaboration across the supply chain. They discuss the role of traceability, transparency, and education in empowering consumers to make informed choices.

The discussion also touches on the need to rethink packaging and distribution models, with a focus on reducing the environmental impact of shipping and water-based products. The panelists emphasize the significance of addressing health concerns alongside sustainability, recognizing that the products we use on our skin and ingest can have a direct impact on our well-being.

As the industry navigates this transformative period, the panel underscores the crucial role of policy, regulation, and investment in supporting the widespread adoption of sustainable practices. The conversation offers a comprehensive look at the progress and the road ahead in the quest for a more sustainable future in beauty, fashion, and wellness.

The Future of Air Mobility

The panel discusses the exciting potential of advanced air mobility (AAM) and urban air mobility (UAM) - a new era of electric vertical aircraft (eVTOLs) that can transform how we move within and between cities.

Key points:

• eVTOLs will provide a third dimension of sustainable, efficient transportation, connecting people and communities. Companies like Eve Air Mobility are developing eVTOLs and supporting infrastructure like vertiports.

• Safety is paramount, with eVTOLs aiming for commercial aviation standards. Regulations and pilot training programs are evolving to enable this new sector.

• Accessibility and affordability are critical goals, going beyond just serving the wealthy. eVTOLs could enable better access to healthcare, jobs, and services for underserved communities.

• Incorporating community feedback, addressing noise/emissions, and leveraging existing infrastructure are important as this industry develops. It's not just about the aircraft, but the entire ecosystem.

The panelists see huge potential for AAM/UAM to revolutionize transportation, but caution that it will require thoughtful planning, strong stakeholder engagement, and a focus on equity and sustainability to achieve the full benefits.

This panel discussion focuses on how the U.S. Army is prioritizing and implementing AI, robotics, and human-machine teaming to accelerate autonomy and augment human capabilities. The key points covered include:

• The Army's approach to "augmented humans" - integrating robots and machines with humans to optimize their respective strengths. This involves ensuring humans maintain control over ethical decisions and judgment, while leveraging machines for tasks they excel at.

• Industry's perspective on evolving computing form factors, from mainframes to wearables, and the need to create more intuitive human-computer interfaces. This aligns with the Army's goal of making technology more accessible and user-friendly for soldiers.

• Challenges around data management, algorithm testing, and security/risk assessment as the Army adopts more AI and autonomous systems. There is a focus on creating abstraction layers, curating high-quality data sets, and developing testing frameworks to understand the behavior and outcomes of AI-powered systems.

• The importance of a multidisciplinary, collaborative approach between the Army, industry, and academia to drive innovation and address the unique constraints of military technology development and procurement.

The article states that a transcript is not available for the video. Since the article is only one sentence long, I will include the complete text as the summary:

Transcript not available for this video.

AI Developments Roundup

This article covers several recent developments in the world of artificial intelligence:

• OpenAI's startup fund has undergone a change in management, with Ian Hathway taking over control from Sam Altman. The fund has grown to $325 million in assets and is investing in companies working on AI applications in healthcare, law, and education.

• L'Oreal has launched a new AI-powered virtual beauty advisor called the Beauty Genius, which can provide personalized skin diagnoses and product recommendations. This demonstrates how generative AI is being integrated into e-commerce and consumer products.

• The music industry is being disrupted by AI-generated music creation tools like Suno, which can produce songs indistinguishable from human-composed music. This raises questions about the future of the music industry and whether AI will replace human artists for certain applications.

• Elon Musk's new AI startup, X AI, is in talks to raise $3 billion, which would value the company at $18 billion. This highlights the massive investments being made in the AI space as companies race to develop the next breakthroughs.

• Experts suggest that the advent of "super-intelligent" AI systems capable of solving problems like aging could radically change societal values and priorities, as the imperative to "not die" may become the primary driver.

This transcript appears to be from a podcast or live event covering a wide range of topics, including:

• The changing global world order and the rise of new powers like China and India. The speaker, Ray Doo, discusses how this will profoundly impact the world in the coming years.

• The potential for AI to bring about great abundance, but also the challenge of finding meaning for human beings in that future.

• The speaker touches on topics like consciousness, the nature of the universe, and even briefly mentions smoking weed.

The audience seems to be a group of entrepreneurs and business leaders, with the speaker noting their "grinder" mentality and willingness to take risks. There are some humorous moments, like a discussion about the popularity of a Thai beef salad and a dating mishap in Silicon Valley.

Overall, this appears to be a wide-ranging discussion covering technology, philosophy, and the human experience, delivered to an engaged audience of movers and shakers in the startup world.

In this article, the author introduces Dolphin Mistel 2.8, a new version of the uncensored language model fine-tuned by Eric Harford. The model has a 32K context window, a significant improvement over the previous 8K context window.

The author provides a step-by-step guide on how to download and set up the model using the Olama tool and the AMA UI project. They then proceed to test the model's capabilities, including generating code for simple tasks, assessing its uncensored nature, and evaluating its logic and reasoning abilities.

While the model performs well on some tasks, it struggles with others, highlighting the need for continued improvement. The author remains appreciative of Eric Harford's efforts in fine-tuning the model and making it available to the community.

On April 8, 2024, a total solar eclipse captivated people across North America as the moon passed between the Earth and the sun. The New York Times journalists reported scenes of awe, wonder, and togetherness from various locations witnessing this celestial event.

In Eagle Pass, Texas, Mireya Muñoz prayed in gratitude after witnessing the eclipse. In Russellville, Arkansas, around 100 couples got married under the eclipsed sun, exchanging celestial vows. At Saluki Stadium in Carbondale, Illinois, the crowd cheered as the sun's corona beamed during totality. Even with cloud cover at Niagara Falls, people on both sides marveled at the moments when the eclipsed sun peeked through.

In New York City's Washington Square Park, whistles and screams filled the air as the moon covered most of the sun. In Houlton, Maine, the crowd went silent during the total eclipse, savoring the awe-inspiring celestial alignment. From Mazatlán, Mexico to the Northeast, the eclipse offered a unifying experience of wonder.

Beyond the spectacle, the event served as a reminder of the magical, collective experience of being alive and part of the greater cosmos. For a brief period, people from all walks of life paused to gaze upward together, transcending divisions.

The article touches on additional news as well, including President Biden's plan to reduce student loan debt, an appeals court rejecting Trump's request to move his hush-money case out of Manhattan, Israel withdrawing from Gaza amid ongoing conflict with Hamas, and the Vatican deeming surrogacy and gender transition surgery as affronts to human dignity.

Many parents today are overly anxious about their college-aged children's mental health and well-being. In this opinion piece, a psychiatrist argues that a little anxiety is normal during major life transitions like starting college. She advises parents to offer common-sense reassurance rather than immediately seeking professional help.

Some key points:

• Parents are inundated with alarming statistics about adolescent mental health issues like suicidal thoughts, which makes them prone to overreacting to normal stresses.

• It's okay for young adults to experience some negative emotions when adjusting to college life away from home. Anxiety itself is not necessarily a problem that requires treatment.

• Instead of rushing to counseling, parents can help by:

  • Offering perspective: "You'll get through this, it's normal, we'll laugh about this later."
  • Giving practical advice: "Do the reading if you're struggling with the professor."
  • Simply listening without judgment.

• Psychiatric services should be available, but not automatically treated as essential for mild adjustment issues. Parents need to regain perspective and not panic over every difficulty their child faces.

An Upward-Mobility Machine

Baruch College in New York City is an inspiring example of how universities can promote economic diversity and upward mobility. Over 60% of Baruch's students receive Pell grants, indicating they come from lower-income backgrounds, and 75% are students of color. Yet the school maintains an impressive 74% six-year graduation rate.

Baruch's success is partly due to keeping costs extremely low - less than $2,000 per year on average for low-income students after financial aid. But the college also has smart policies like cohort learning communities, one-stop advising services, and reducing "merit aid" that tends to favor wealthier students.

A new report from billionaire Michael Bloomberg's American Talent Initiative highlights Baruch as a model for increasing economic diversity at top colleges and universities. The initiative had promising initial success in persuading member schools to enroll more high-achieving, lower-income students. However, progress stalled in recent years, likely due to competing priorities during the pandemic.

To reinvigorate the effort, the initiative is now requiring member schools to commit to specific enrollment targets for lower-income students. While about 15 colleges dropped out, over 125 remain, including most flagship public universities. The report outlines successful strategies like prioritizing need-based aid, partnering with community colleges, and providing services to help students navigate bureaucratic hurdles.

As Baruch's president says, the school aims to educate a student body reflecting society's diversity - continuing the original vision of offering excellent, affordable education to all New Yorkers, regardless of background.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of Stephen King's debut novel "Carrie." King's subsequent success over five decades, selling hundreds of millions of books and earning both commercial success and literary acclaim, has made him a unique figure.

While other authors like John Grisham, Michael Crichton, and J.K. Rowling have achieved massive popularity, King stands apart in his combination of productivity, longevity, and renown. An essay by novelist Amanda Jayatissa on "Carrie" provides insight into why King's work continues to resonate after 50 years.

Jayatissa examines how the tale of Carrie's rage, which she first read as a teenager, still feels relevant today. King's ability to tap into the "savage things" in our collective subconscious is a key reason why he has remained a singular figure, with no true successor emerging to replicate his broad appeal and critical respect.

As King himself remarked on the anniversary, "Hard to believe I'm alive to see it." His unmatched skill in exploring our deepest fears and desires has cemented his status as a genre-transcending literary icon.

This article is a short excerpt of around 100 words, providing an introduction to a story about Dr. Bob Ross, a 75-year-old physician caring for aging residents in Ortonville, Minnesota. The excerpt does not provide enough detail for a full summary, but suggests that Dr. Ross wonders whether he and the presidential candidates (presumably referring to Joe Biden and Donald Trump) are capable of handling the demands of their respective roles given the challenges of aging.

In this thought-provoking article, Kai Brach examines the far-reaching consequences of extreme income inequality, drawing from the work of social epidemiologists Richard G. Wilkinson and Kate E. Pickett. The evidence they present is striking: countries with larger gaps between rich and poor tend to have higher rates of homicide, imprisonment, infant mortality, obesity, drug abuse, and COVID-19 deaths, as well as lower levels of child well-being, social mobility, and public trust.

Beyond the well-documented environmental impact of the lavish lifestyles of the ultra-wealthy, the article highlights the "psychosocial" effects of inequality. The ostentatious displays of wealth by the rich create a cascading pressure to emulate those consumption patterns, fueling consumerism and making it harder to implement environmental policies that are perceived as unfairly burdening the less affluent.

Moreover, the stark differences in status and social class exacerbated by inequality breed resentment, diminish social cohesion, worsen mental health, and contribute to higher crime rates. Counterintuitively, the article argues that even the affluent would likely experience a better quality of life in a more egalitarian society akin to Scandinavian nations, with potential improvements in mental health, reduced risk of violence, better educational outcomes for their children, and lower rates of substance abuse.

To address these issues, Wilkinson and Pickett suggest progressive tax reforms that place a heavier burden on the rich, the abolition of international tax havens, and even bolder measures like bans on advertising and progressive pricing of energy consumption. The underlying message is that the growing precarity and strain on social fabric stem not from competition with marginalized groups, but from the disproportionate hoarding of resources by the ultra-rich, leaving the vast majority to contend with mere crumbs.