Monday 6th May 2024

James Shore: A Useful Productivity Measure?

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How LLMs Work, Explained Without Math

A basic question I think a lot of people have about the GenAI revolution is where does the apparent intelligence these models have come from. In this article, I'm going to attempt to explain in simple terms and without using advanced math how generative text models work, to help you think about them as computer algorithms and not as magic.

I'll begin by clearing a big misunderstanding people have regarding how Large Language Models work. The assumption that most people make is that these models can answer questions or chat with you, but in reality all they can do is take some text you provide as input and guess what the next word (or more accurately, the next token) is going to be. Let's start to unravel the mystery of LLMs from the tokens.

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Why so many bad bosses still rise to the top

Lucia Rahilly: It’s with both great glee and a genuinely heavy heart that we begin our topic for today and talk about Tomas’s research on why so many incompetent men rise to leadership positions. It’s a serious and, in some cases, devastating issue. What prompted you to pursue this particular line of research?

Our research was focused on abilities, competencies, interests, and personalities, but of course, we collected data on age, gender, and socioeconomic status. We found a remarkable gap whereby gender was one of the strongest predictors of why people reach leadership roles through nomination, selection, or election.

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Ideas | Indian politicians are bringing the dead on the campaign trail, with help from AI

Digital rights activists have questioned the ethics of using “soft fakes” to resurrect the past and manage the future.

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Brittney Griner: What I Endured in a Russian Prison

"Prison is more than a place. It’s also a mindset," Griner writes in a searing excerpt from her memoir "Coming Home"

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A slow journey through Vietnam's Mekong Delta and Con Dao islands

Flashes of blood red and pearly white peer through curtains of coconut palms along the riverbank. Others push through the flotsam and jetsam of the Mekong, breaking up congregations of swollen-stalked water hyacinths and coconut husks borne along by the torpid current. Legend has it that this mighty waterway is ruled by river monsters, but these fiery eyes are painted onto boats — big ones laid low with mountains of coconuts, little ones ferrying fishing traps and fruit farmers cradling jackfruits and durians.

“It’s a tradition of the area to decorate boats like this,” says my guide Jerry Le, baseball cap in hand, his American-inflected drawl lifted onto the breeze that follows in the wake of a large cargo ship passing our open-sided sampan boat. “We believe the eyes are a window to the soul, so by painting the eyes on, they’re giving the boats a soul. Then the boats help protect their owners — especially at night.”

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A Subreddit for Dumbphones Is the Smartest Place Online - WIRED (No paywall)

If you’re stressed about screen time, r/Dumbphones can show you a better way.

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How do I stop living paycheck to paycheck?

Plus, lessons worth learning about financial literacy.

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Implicit Bias Hurts Everyone. Here’s How to Overcome It. - Scientific American (No paywall)

The environment shapes stereotypes and biases, but it is possible to recognize and change them

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Inside the growing business of pet cloning

Two decades after Dolly the sheep, cloning technology has moved on so much that you can now clone your pets.

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