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Earlier this month, DeepMind introduced a new “generalist” AI model called Gato. Alphabet’s artificial intelligence lab has announced that the model can play the video game Atari, captions, chat, and stack blocks with a real robotic arm. As a result, Gato can perform hundreds of different tasks.
But while Gato is undeniably fascinating, in the week since its release some researchers have been a bit ecstatic.
Nando de Freitas, one of DeepMind’s top researchers and a co-author of the Gato paper, could not hide his excitement. “Game over!” He tweeted that there was a clear path from Gato to artificial general intelligence, or the vague concept of ‘AGI’. human or superhuman level artificial intelligence. He argued that the way to build AGI is mostly a question of scale: making models like Gato bigger and better.
Unsurprisingly, de Freitas’ announcement drew gasp in the press that Deepmind is “on the verge” of human-level artificial intelligence. This isn’t the first time the hype has gotten ahead of the truth. Other exciting new AI models like OpenAI’s text generator GPT-3 and image generator DALL-E made similar big claims.
For many in the field, such heated rhetoric eclipses other important areas of research in artificial intelligence. Read the full story.
—Melisa Heikkila
must read
I scoured the internet for today’s most entertaining/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Volunteers translate Chinese social media posts into English
Even though the posts have passed China’s internet censorship regime, Beijing is unhappy. (Atlantic Ocean $)
+ WeChat wants people to use its video platform. They did the same for the digital protests. (EN)
2 Ukraine’s startup community goes about its business as usual
Many workers go about their daily work with the war effort voluntarily after working hours. (WP $)
+ Russian-speaking tech bosses living in the US are cutting ties with pro-war workers. (NYT $)
+ YouTube has shut down more than 9,000 channels linked to the war. (Guard)
3 Buffalo attack highlights failures of tech counter-terrorism deal
Critics say the platforms are not doing enough to address the root causes of extremism. (WSJ $)
+ America has experienced more than 3,500 mass murders since Sandy Hook. (WP $)
4 Crypto seems to have an insider trading problem
Just like the banking system, its supporters are opposed. (WSJ $)
+ Christine Lagarde thinks crypto has “no value”. (Bloomberg $)
+ Crypto is surmounting a bitter storm. Some still hold on for dear life. (EN)
+ The crypto industry has lost nearly $1.5 trillion since November. (Atlantic Ocean $)
+ Stablecoin Tether has made $10 billion in withdrawals since the crash began. (Guard)
5 The nuclear fusion industry is in turmoil
It’s not even operational yet, but its fuel resources are already running low. (wired $)
+ A hole in the ground could be the future of fusion power. (EN)
+ The midwest of the US could face power grid failure this summer. (motherboard)
6 Big Tech isn’t worried about the economic downturn
Even if it drops some of its market value along the way. (NYT $)
+ But lawmakers are determined to curb them with antitrust legislation. (recode)
+ Carbon emissions are also getting out of control. (New Yorker $)
7 US military wants to build a flying ship
Liberty Lifer X aircraft will be independent of fixed airports and seaports. (IEEE Spectrum)
8 We need to change how we recycle plastic
The good news is that there is technology to overhaul it – it just needs to be refined. (wired $)
+ A French company is using enzymes to recycle one of the most common single-use plastics.. (EN)
9 Why should you use your phone like drinking wine?
Establishing this delicate balance from turning positive tipping into negative. (Guard $)
10 Inside the healthy internet knitting world 🧶
Her favorite knitter’s creations have gained a cult following. (Entrance)
+ How the banning of pro-Trump patterns solved the online knitting world. (EN)
Word of the Day
“I love the instant satisfaction of making the internet better.”
—Jason Moore, known for creating more than 50,000 Wikipedia pages, says: CNN about their motivation to take on unpaid work.
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