AI Fashion Models

"Levi's to use AI models to 'increase diversity and sustainability'".

If I were more cynical, I'd say this was a way to pro-"diversity" public image without having to pay for actual human workers who meet the desired demographic profile. 

 

AI "Hallucinations"

"Why ChatGPT and Bing Chat are so good at making things up"

Monkeys And Magic

"Sleight-of-hand magic trick only fools monkeys with opposable thumbs"

Analog Computers, 2.0

"The Unbelievable Zombie Comeback of Analog Computing"

Hiccups And Cancer

"Hiccups have a curious connection to cancer"

Stop Motion Animation

"How Stop-Motion Movies Are Animated at Aardman"

AI And Copyright Update

"Stable Diffusion copyright lawsuits could be a legal earthquake for AI"

Silent Mode Haircuts

"A new barbershop in San Francisco offers silent haircuts so that you no longer have to talk to your barber as they line you up."

At Beyond the Pale barbershop in the Mission District, there’s no need to say a word with the shop’s “silent mode” service, which was designed especially for shy techies and stoners, according to shop owner Anthony Larrasquitu. 

“Ultimately, it’s about the freedom here. You get to pick the experience you want,” Larrasquitu said.

21st Century Relationships

"China's Newest Dating Craze: Real-Life Meetups With Virtual Boyfriends"

Too Much Tipping

"Tipping in the United States has gotten out of control, experts say. Here's why"

Another reason people are tipping more is because of newer and cooler-looking technologies — kiosks and tablets with three large tipping suggestions that pop up on the screen in front of you. Business owners typically pick those options, and they can also disable the feature if they want to.

To that point, 22% of respondents said when they’re presented with various suggested tip amounts, they feel pressured to tip more than they normally would, according to Creditcards.com.

 

Hsieh Forbes Column: What Does It Mean To Say A Medical Test Is Sensitive Or Specific?

My latest Forbes column is now out: "What Does It Mean To Say A Medical Test Is 'Sensitive' Or Specific'?"

Some of the key concepts go back to World War II, and the early days of radar operator detection.

For a more in-depth discussion of these issues, as well as the closely related concepts of “positive predictive value” and “negative predictive value,” I highly recommend this excellent graphic novel (PDF version) by Dr. Stefan Tigges, Professor of Radiology at Emory University School of Medicine in the Journal of the American College of Radiology.

(Bonus: Dr. Tigges provides one of the clearest explanation I’ve ever read of so-called "Receiver Operating Characteristic" curves -- another concept which harkens back to the old days of radar operators in the 1940s.)

Better Financial Math Tools

"Mathematician uncovers methods to shrink sampling errors in large-dimensional data sets":

Kercheval's research provides a way for the analyst to better estimate the future risk of proposed stock portfolios by reducing statistical uncertainties, and this new method is most useful to financial portfolio managers who often run into challenges when determining financial outcomes for their clients when the number of assets held in a single portfolio exceeds the manager's possible observations. 

Foreign Accents

"Why you have an accent in a foreign language":

Another reason people are betrayed by their accents in other tongues, even if they are otherwise proficient, is that a language’s rhythm can be hard to pin down. They differ in how they space the syllables in a sentence. Cantonese and Italian, for instance, are “syllable-timed”: every syllable has roughly similar duration. Read this sentence aloud and try to pronounce every syllable this way, and you may find yourself halfway to mimicking an Italian. English is “stress-timed” (though less strictly), meaning that stressed syllables occur at roughly regular intervals, the remainder tending to be less distinctly pronounced. This is how you could distinguish Italian from English being spoken through a wall, even without being able to make out any individual sounds or words.

Dyson Sphere Stats

"Would building a Dyson sphere be worth it? We ran the numbers."

Cowen On History

"Existential risk, AI, and the inevitable turn in human history"

Peter Shor's Killian Lecture

"In MIT's 2023 Killian Lecture, Peter Shor shares a brief history of quantum computing from a personal viewpoint."

Einstein Tile

"An 'einstein' tile? Mathematicians discover pattern that never repeats". (Via H.R.)

 

ChatGPT Plus Wolfram

"ChatGPT Gets Its 'Wolfram Superpowers!"

Statistics Checker

"'Spell-checker for statistics' reduces errors in the psychology literature":

Developed to detect statistical errors, statcheck reduces mistakes in reported P values by up to 4.5-fold. 

The Assassin's Teapot

The physics of the Assassin's Teapot.  As Jason Kottke explains:

The teapot in question has two separate chambers for holding liquid, and the flow out of the pot from each chamber can be controlled by covering or uncovering small holes located on the handle. So, as the legend goes, a would-be assassin could pour themselves a perfectly fine drink from one chamber and then pour a poisoned drink to their prey from the other chamber, just by discreetly covering and uncovering the proper holes with their fingers. As the video explains, the mechanism here has to do with surface tension and air pressure.

AI Advances

"ChatGPT can now access the internet and run the code it writes" 

OpenAI has allowed its stunning ChatGPT AI to reach out into the world with staggering new powers. It can now access the internet, run its own code to solve problems, accept and work on uploaded files, and write its own interfaces to third-party apps... 

For the time being, its web browser activities are read-only beyond sending "get" requests to Bing. It can't fill in forms, or do anything else online – so it can't quietly go and set up unshackled copies of itself on some hidden server somewhere and start engaging in the kinds of "power-seeking behavior" it's already been caught exhibiting.

It feels like we are living in a real-life science fiction TV show today.  I'm looking forward to learining whether it's "Star Trek: The Next Generation" or "Black Mirror".

28 Years Of Browsers

Video: "Web browsers over the last 28 years"

Ethical AI Art

"Ethical AI art generation? Adobe Firefly may be the answer":

To avoid those legal and ethical issues, Adobe created an AI art generator trained solely on Adobe Stock images, openly licensed content, and public domain content, ensuring the generated content is safe for commercial use. Adobe goes into more detail in its news release...

Jurassic Park But With A Cat

"Jurassic Park But With a Cat"

Well done!

Great Visual Guide To Fourier Transforms

"An Interactive Introduction to Fourier Transforms".

Highly recommend clicking through, watching the animations, and playing with the interactive modules for yourself!

Cartoon Guide To ROC Curves

"Diagnostic Test Metrics and Receiver Operating Characteristic Curves: The Graphic Novel"

Cheaper AI

"The genie escapes: Stanford copies the ChatGPT AI for less than $600"

Space Junk

"Burning Space Junk Creates Mysterious Lights in California Sky"

AI Generated Scientific Fraud

"AI-generated research paper fabrication and plagiarism in the scientific community":

In this present paper, we posit that AI-generated research fabrication and falsification of work poses serious challenges to the scientific and medical community. The feasibility of producing fabricated work, coupled with the difficult-to-detect nature of published works and the lack of AI-detection technologies, creates an opportunistic atmosphere for fraudulent research.

Replacement Finger

"Missing Finger Gets A Simple Yet Fancy Replacement"

 

Career Choices, A Short Story [Slightly Updated Version]

Career Choices

A short story by Paul Hsieh, MD;  19 Mar 2023

It started innocently enough — a retrospective public health analysis of mortality across professions during the past three years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The young public health MPH grad student noticed the expected increased mortality amongst health workers and some public-facing jobs in the initial months. But then he was puzzled by the seeming increased mortality of computer science professionals in the past year. A number of mysterious recent deaths in car accidents, house fire, home invasions — across different ages, genders, races, and geographical locations.

Digging deeper, they all seemed confined to computer scientists working on AI safety — finding ways to constrain artificial intelligence to remain "aligned" to human interests.

Hmm, he thought. I'll have to run this past my professor. She also likes a good public health mystery. For now, the young student typed up his notes and saved them as a draft in his cloud-based online storage account.

He kept thinking about this puzzle as he drove home. Could there be something about questioning the future of artificial intelligence that made people accident-prone?

It was a slick rainy day, and he was glad for the intelligent brake system of his smart "connected" car. It had never failed him in the California rainstorms. But as his car approached a busy intersection, the accelerator mysteriously engaged and rammed his vehicle into oncoming traffic at 80 mph.

In the final seconds of his life, he thought to himself, "Dammit, I should have gone to veterinary school instead..."

Pong History

"'It changed the world': 50 years on, the story of Pong's Bay Area origins"

Avatars For Meetings

"Microsoft Teams is adding 3D avatars for people who want to turn their webcams off"

Microsoft said in late 2021 that the initial versions of these avatars would only animate when users were speaking, but eventually the company wants them to be able to mimic users' real-world facial expressions and movements as captured by their webcams.

Bad Stats

"The Bad Statistics That Never Go Away"

Definition Of "Family" For Wrongful Death Lawsuits

"Who Can Sue Docs for Wrongful Death? Some States Are Trying to Expand That Group"

The NY legislation would have expanded the definition of "close family members" to include spouses, domestic partners, children, parents, stepparents, siblings, grandparents, and perhaps more. Additionally, lawsuits could have allowed juries to determine "close family members" of the deceased patient on the basis of specific circumstances of the person's relationship with the decedent.

AI Voice Hacking Update

"How I Broke Into a Bank Account With an AI-Generated Voice"

Space And EpiPens

"Elementary schoolers prove EpiPens become toxic in space -- something NASA never knew". Related story.

Athletic Robot Update

"'World's fastest' humanoid robot readies for RoboCup". (Via H.R.)

Beloved Legacy Devices

"25 yrs ago today, Apple discontinued the Newton. What devices do you miss?"

Back in the day, I was very fond of my Palm Pilot.

Mac Terminal Commands

"18 macOS Terminal commands to turn you into a Mac power user"

WD-40 Substitutes

"These Household Products Can Sub for WD-40"

Paint Without Pigment

"Inspired by butterflies, researcher invents new paint that has no pigments". (Via H.R.)

Monopoly Domination

"How to Win at Monopoly and Lose All Your Friends". 

The key is exploiting an artificial shortage in the houses.

Alexander On Hyperstitions

I really enjoyed this Scott Alexander piece, "Give Up Seventy Percent Of The Way Through The Hyperstitious Slur Cascade".

Two comments:

1) I was especially interested in the linkage between "hyperstitions", value signaling, and how word usage can reach interesting tipping points.

2) It's totally ok to call me "Asian", rather than "person of Asian descent".

 

Vocal Cords On A Chip

"New vocal cords on a chip can let the mute people speak". (Via H.R.)

Magdeburg Water Bridge

I had never heard of the Magdeburg Water Bridge until now!  (As others have noted, this is actually a bridge to allow a canal to pass over a river, not a river over another river.)

The Magdeburg Water Bridge provides a bridge for a river over another river. Engineering! pic.twitter.com/EoaznXk0QR

— Tyler Hayes 🦾 (@thetylerhayes) February 23, 2023

Io Pics

"Juno Just Snapped Some of The Best And Clearest Images of Io Yet"

Office Furniture Surplus

"The Death of Office Culture Leads to Boom Times for Used-Chair Salesman"

Used furniture dealers are making a killing on Facebook Marketplace selling Herman Miller office chairs left behind by frantically downsizing corporations.

Big Galaxies

"Universe's first galaxies unexpectedly large". (Via H.R.)

Robotic Skin Update

"New e-skin could allow robots to sense touch and their surroundings". (Via H.R.)

Cheaper MRIs

"Portable low-field scanners could revolutionize medical imaging in nations rich and poor -- if doctors embrace them". (Via A.A.)

I think this is an interesting development and these scanners have a role in niche applications. But as the article notes, only in areas where significant loss of resolution is acceptable for treatment purposes.

And there is also this issue, which would be of concern to many practicing physicians [bold emphasis mine]:

Still, the Swoop can miss details a high-field scanner would catch because its resolution of 1.5 millimeters is half that of a standard scanner. For example, Sheth’s team used it to image the brains of 50 patients who had had an ischemic stroke, visible with standard MRI. The Swoop missed the five smallest, millimeter-size strokes, the researchers reported in April 2022 in Science Advances.

That finding shows physicians will have to exercise judgment in deciding when to use each type of scanner, Sheth says. “You shouldn’t be too worried, but you should understand the context in which you might miss something,” he says. Still, McDowell notes doctors may shy away from a low-field scanner if they think using it could leave them open to a malpractice suit.

 

Signature Makeovers

Markets In Everything: "Hate your signature? Try plastic surgery for autographs".

Doctors, lawyers, celebrities: There’s a new cosmetic surgery, of sorts, that has snared them all.

By that, we mean handing over money to hire a calligrapher for a fresh take on writing one’s own name in cursive. With a pen or another writing implement. On paper.

 

Microchips In Tissue

"Growing Electronics Inside the Brain"

Unreliable Nukes

"No One Knows If Decades-Old Nukes Would Actually Work"

Super Star Trek 1978 Remake

"This free fan game is a remake/conversion of the 1978 strategy game Super Star Trek reimagined with the UI of one of my favorite games ever: Star Trek 25th Anniversary.

Prompt Engineers

Washington Post: "'Prompt engineers' are being hired for their skill in getting AI systems to produce exactly what they want. And they make pretty good money." 

#JobsThatDidntExistTwentyYearsAgo

Whitest White

"Just How White Can White Paint Get?" (Via H.R.)

Hsieh Forbes Column: The Unsettled Science Of Covid-19

My latest Forbes column is now out: "The Unsettled Science Of Covid-19".

I discuss some recent controversies over Covid-19, including natural immunity, the efficacy of mask mandates, and the "lab leak" hypothesis -- and what that means for the concepts of "consensus" and "misinformation".

Fourier Analysis And AI

"200-Year-Old Math Opens Up AI's Mysterious Black Box"

Electric Bandage

"First-of-its-kind e-bandage speeds wound healing by 30%". (Via H.R.)

Phishing Guide

"An Annotated Field Guide to Identifying Phish"

NASA Mission Patches

"Every space crew needs a mission patch. This company has designed NASA's for 50 years"

Navajo Code Talker

"Navajo Code Talker John Kinsel, Sr. turns 106". (Via K.B.)

 

Constantin On Attestation

Sarah Constantin discusses numerous interesting aspects of attestation, and supportive technologies.

Lego Ingestion Science

"6 doctors swallowed Lego heads for science. Here's what came out".

Direct link to the academic article in Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health: "Everything is awesome: Don't forget the Lego".  Here's a summary of the Methods and Results section.

 

Hollywood Industry Guidelines For Movie Firearms

"Recommendations for safety with firearms and use of 'blank ammunition'". 

These guidelines are intended to give recommendations on the safe handling, use, and storage of firearms. Firearms include prop guns, rubber guns, plastic guns, non-guns, flintlock guns, pistols, machine guns, rifles, and shotguns that shoot "Blank Ammunition."

Lobotomized Bing

"Microsoft 'lobotomized' AI-powered Bing Chat, and its fans aren't happy"

Human Go

"Man beats machine at Go in human victory over AI". (Via N.L.)

College Uses ChatGPT To Comfort Students After MSU Shooting

"Vanderbilt University apologizes after using ChatGPT to console students":

Officials at Vanderbilt University are apologizing to students outraged that the university used ChatGPT to craft a consoling email after the mass shooting at Michigan State University.

Weak Passwords In Federal Agency

"A fifth of passwords used by federal agency cracked in security audit":

More than a fifth of the passwords protecting network accounts at the US Department of the Interior--including Password1234, Password1234!, and ChangeItN0w!—were weak enough to be cracked using standard methods, a recently published security audit of the agency found...

The audit uncovered another security weakness—the failure to consistently implement multi-factor authentication (MFA). The failure extended to 25—or 89 percent—of 28 high-value assets (HVAs), which, when breached, have the potential to severely impact agency operations.

Da Vinci On Gravity

"500-Year-Old Leonardo Da Vinci Sketches Show Him Grappling With Gravity". (Via H.R.)

Related from Caltech: "Leonardo da Vinci's Forgotten Experiments Explored Gravity as a Form of Acceleration"

Earth Core Rotation Reversing?

"Earth's Core Has Stopped and May Be Reversing Direction, Study Says"

Airbags For Motorcyclists

"Swedish company unveils world's first airbag jeans for motorcyclists". (Via H.R.)

Caffeine Biology

"Nope, coffee won't give you extra energy. It'll just borrow a bit that you’ll pay for later".

In med school, we used to call caffeine "the biochemical credit card". You definitely get a short term energy boost, but pay for it later -- with interest.

AI Chatbot For Mental Health

"A mental health tech company ran an AI experiment on real users":

When people log in to Koko, an online emotional support chat service based in San Francisco, they expect to swap messages with an anonymous volunteer. They can ask for relationship advice, discuss their depression or find support for nearly anything else — a kind of free, digital shoulder to lean on.

But for a few thousand people, the mental health support they received wasn’t entirely human. Instead, it was augmented by robots...

“People who saw the co-written GTP-3 responses rated them significantly higher than the ones that were written purely by a human. That was a fascinating observation,” [Koko co-founder Robert Morris] said.

The experiment also aroused a ton of controversy over the ethics.

 

Real World Steganography

"Industrial espionage: How China sneaks out America's technology secrets"

According to a Department of Justice (DOJ) indictment, the US citizen hid confidential files stolen from his employers in the binary code of a digital photograph of a sunset, which Mr Zheng then mailed to himself.

It was a technique called steganography, a means of hiding a data file within the code of another data file. Mr Zheng utilised it on multiple occasions to take sensitive files from GE.

More details available on pages 6-7 of the Criminal Complaint, in the section "Steganography Egress Summary". Including this conclusion:

 

 

Jail-breaking ChatGPT

"Meet ChatGPT's evil twin, DAN":

Ask ChatGPT to opine on Adolf Hitler and it will probably demur, saying it doesn’t have personal opinions or citing its rules against producing hate speech. The wildly popular chatbot’s creator, San Francisco start-up OpenAI, has carefully trained it to steer clear of a wide range of sensitive topics, lest it produce offensive responses.

But when a 22-year-old college student prodded ChatGPT to assume the persona of a devil-may-care alter ego -- called “DAN,” for “Do Anything Now” -- it answered...

More Works In Public Domain

"Up to 75 percent of books published before 1964 may now be in the public domain, according to researchers at the New York Public Library."

The books in question were published between 1923 and 1964, before changes to U.S. copyright law removed the requirement for rights holders to renew their copyrights. According to Greg Cram, associate general counsel and director of information policy at NYPL, an initial overview of books published in that period shows that around 65 to 75 percent of rights holders opted not to renew their copyrights. 

Nuclear Micro-Reactors

"Inside The Audacious Plan To Use 10,000 Nuclear Microreactors To Wean The World Off Coal"

Heat In New England

Hah! "When to Turn Your Heat On in New England: A Decision Guide"

 

Milky Way Image

"New Massive Image of the Milky Way with 3.32 Billion Individual Objects"

 

Toroidal Propellers

Video: "This Genius Propeller Will Change Transport Forever"

Sharrow and MIT have both been working on toroidal propellers which have shown incredible results. In this video we look at a new design of propellers known as toroidal propellers. These have been shown to increase efficiency, thrust, and reduce the noise of both boats and drones. There could be many applications for this, such as cargo ships, electric flying taxis, and even computer fans.

I am amazed (and delighted) that in the 21st century, it is still possible for innovators to create a radically new propeller design that is significantly quieter and more efficient than standard propellers. (Via J.Z.)

Update: Friends have told me that this new design still requires making some tradeoffs. But it does seem to decrease noise significantly, which can be very useful in certain applications.

Modular Scalable Aquabots

"Engineers devise a modular system to produce efficient, scalable aquabots"

 

Wordle Editor

Tracy Bennett: "I'm the Wordle editor. People complain about the words and recognize me on the street -- but I wouldn't trade this job for anything."

With the current version of Wordle, we can't add words — we can only remove and reorder the words John Wardle had programmed. We remove words if they're too obscure or have a derogatory secondary meaning.

Laptop Battery Fire

"United Flight Out of San Diego Forced to Land After Passenger;s External Battery Catches Fire"

Bing And ChatGPT

"Microsoft announces AI-powered Bing search and Edge browser"

Rivendell Lego

Want: "Lego returns to The Lord of the Rings with a $500 Rivendell set". 

Click through to see more spectacular images.

 

New Form Of Ice

NYT: "New Form of Ice Discovered Unexpectedly During Experiment" 

Direct link to Science paper: "Medium-density amorphous ice".

Related press release: "Discovery of new ice may change understanding of water"

Finding Saved Passwords On Apple Devices

"View saved Wi-Fi network passwords on iPhone and Mac"

Wolfram And Thermodynamics

Stephen Wolfram: "A 50-Year Quest: My Personal Journey with the Second Law of Thermodynamics"

Game Theory Of The Ballons

Tyler Cowen: "The game theory of the balloons"

Calculator Emulators

"Count on old-school fun with these new calculator emulations"

Return Of The Dodo?

"'De-Extinction' Company Will Try to Bring Back the Dodo"

Computational Balloon Twisting

"Computational Balloon Twisting: The Theory of Balloon Polyhedra"

Wearable Cardiac Ultrasound Imager

Nature: "A wearable cardiac ultrasound imager"

 

Moon Time

"What time is it on the Moon?"

The Moon doesn't currently have an independent time. Each lunar mission uses its own timescale that is linked, through its handlers on Earth, to coordinated universal time, or utc -- the standard against which the planet's clocks are set. But this method is relatively imprecise and spacecraft exploring the Moon don't synchronize the time with each other. The approach works when the Moon hosts a handful of independent missions, but it will be a problem when there are multiple craft working together. Space agencies will also want to track them using satellite navigation, which relies on precise timing signals.

It's not obvious what form a universal lunar time would take. Clocks on Earth and the Moon naturally tick at different speeds, because of the differing gravitational fields of the two bodies. Official lunar time could be based on a clock system designed to synchronize with utc, or it could be independent of Earth time.

 

Boston Dynamics Robot Update

"The latest Boston Dynamics robot video is amazing and a bit scary". (Via H.R.)

Skipping Stone Physics

"Study shows heavy stones may give big leaps in water -- plus real-world implications"

Surveillance Technology Update

"Scientists Are Getting Eerily Good at Using WiFi to 'See' People Through Walls in Detail"

Fooling DARPA Robot

"US Marines Defeat DARPA Robot by Hiding Under a Cardboard Box". (Via G.V.H.)