Lifeboat Foundation

Derek Thompson published an essay in the Atlantic last week that pondered an intriguing question: “When we’re looking at generative AI, what are we actually looking at?” The essay was framed like this: “Narrowly speaking, GPT-4 is a large language model that produces human-inspired content by using transformer technology to predict text. Narrowly speaking, it is an overconfident, and often hallucinatory, auto-complete robot. This is an okay way of describing the technology, if you’re content with a dictionary definition.

He closes his essay with one last analogy, one that really makes you think about the-as-of-yet unforeseen consequences of generative AI technologies — good or bad: Scientists don’t know exactly how or when humans first wrangled fire as a technology, roughly 1 million years ago. But we have a good idea of how fire invented modern humanity … fire softened meat and vegetables, allowing humans to accelerate their calorie consumption. Meanwhile, by scaring off predators, controlled fire allowed humans to sleep on the ground for longer periods of time. The combination of more calories and more REM over the millennia allowed us to grow big, unusually energy-greedy brains with sharpened capacities for memory and prediction. Narrowly, fire made stuff hotter. But it also quite literally expanded our minds … Our ancestors knew that open flame was a feral power, which deserved reverence and even fear. The same technology that made civilization possible also flattened cities.

Thompson concisely passes judgment about what he thinks generative AI will do to us in his final sentence: I think this technology will expand our minds. And I think it will burn us.

Continue reading “Why It’s Difficult To Predict Where GPT And Other Generative AI Might Take Us” »

This year’s NVIDIA GPU Technology Conference (GTC) could not have come at a more auspicious time for the company. The hottest topic in technology today is the Artificial Intelligence (AI) behind ChatGPT, other related Large Language Models (LLMs), and their applications for generative AI applications. Underlying all this new AI technology are NVIDIA GPUs. NVIDIA’s CEO Jensen Huang doubled down on support for LLMs and the future of generative AI based on it. He’s calling it “the iPhone moment for AI.” Using LLMs, AI computers can learn the languages of people, programs, images, or chemistry. Using the large knowledge base and based on a query, they can create new, unique works: this is generative AI.

Jumbo sized LLM’s are taking this capability to new levels, specifically the latest GPT 4.0, which was introduced just prior to GTC. Training these complex models takes thousands of GPUs, and then applying these models to specific problems require more GPUs as well for inference. Nvidia’s latest Hopper GPU, the H100, is known for training, but the GPU can also be divided into multiple instances (up to 7), which Nvidia calls MIG (Multi-Instance GPU), to allow multiple inference models to be run on the GPU. It’s in this inference mode that the GPU transforms queries into new outputs, using trained LLMs.

Nvidia is using its leadership position to build new business opportunities by being a full-stack supplier of AI, including chips, software, accelerator cards, systems, and even services. The company is opening up its services business in areas such as biology, for example. The company’s pricing might be based on use time, or it could be based on the value of the end product built with its services.

The release of ChatGPT in late November 2022 lit a fire under the subdued venture capital sector, a hesitant business community, and the work of academics and regulators. While venture funding decreased by 19% from Q3’22 to Q4’22, AI funding increased 15% over the same period, according to CB Insights’ State of AI 2022 Report (annual AI funding dropped by 34% in 2022, mirroring the broader venture funding downturn). Looking specifically at generative AI startups, CB Insights found that 2022 was a record year, with equity funding topping $2.6 billion across 110 deals.

Everywhere you turn, you encounter generative AI.

In a quest to expand human settlement to the moon and beyond, NASA and industry partners are developing landing systems to take astronauts from orbit to the lunar surface with its mission Artemis. However, a small but pertinent issue of excessive dust on the surface is posing a considerable challenge for fulfilling such explorations.

To counter this, the agency is seeking ideas from university students for solutions to mitigate the issue related to dusty landings. NASA’s new Human Lander Challenge invites college students to research ways to regulate the plume effect, the process in which a cloud of dust is stirred up by lunar vehicles when rocket engines are used to provide thrust for a smooth landing on unprepared surfaces. NASA had conducted a similar program for students, through its Breakthrough, Innovative, and Game-changing challenge in 2020 for solutions to the same issue.

Generative AI, in concert with other quickly growing technologies, is propelling a revolutionary future, blurring the line between the digital and physical world, says Accenture’s new report.

When combined, cloud, metaverse, and AI trends will reduce the gap between the virtual and real worlds, according to the Fortune Global 500 tech company.

Machine learning has been leveraged to accelerate analysis in nuclear processing facilities and investigations in the field.

Surprise nuclear attacks or threats will soon be a thing of the past. Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), U.S., have developed new techniques to accelerate the discovery and understanding of nuclear weapons by leveraging machine learning.

Continue reading “AI-fueled US lab sniffs out rogue nuclear bombs and keeps us safe” »

DKosig/iStock.

This advancement in AI technology may have far-reaching effects if the claim is accurate.

According to Microsoft, 1,287 password attacks occur every second around the world.

Microsoft is now focusing on cybersecurity as part of its ongoing efforts to incorporate generative artificial intelligence into the majority of its products. The company previously announced an AI-powered assistant for Office apps.

To enhance cyber security, Microsoft Corp has announced the implementation of the next generation of AI in its security products.

Continue reading “Powered by GPT-4: Microsoft’s new AI Security Copilot to enhance cybersecurity” »

This could be the end of battery fires and protect battery supply from geopolitical risks.

Researchers at Texas A&M University in the U.S. have been exploring metal-free water-based battery electrodes that could one day be used for a wide range of applications, in place of the lithium-ion batteries popular today.

Lithium-ion batteries are at the core of the electrification of transportation that countries around the world are undertaking to reduce their carbon emissions. While the U.S. has ambitious plans to go shift to this cleaner way of transportation, it is also well aware of its shortcomings in this area.