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Category: robotics/AI – Page 82

Softbank Group chief executive officer Masayoshi Son plans to borrow $16 billion to invest in artificial intelligence (AI), the company’s executives told banks last week, The Information tech news Web site reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The Japanese technology investor might borrow another $8 billion early next year, the report added. It was reported in January that Softbank is in talks to invest up to $25 billion in ChatGPT owner OpenAI, as the Japanese conglomerate continues to expand into the sector.

Softbank’s investment would be on top of the $15 billion it has already committed to Stargate, a private sector investment of up to $500 billion for AI infrastructure — funded by Softbank, OpenAI and Oracle Corp — to help the US stay ahead of China and other rivals in the global AI race.

The Information — a tech industry-focused publication headquartered in San Francisco — previously reported that Softbank was planning to invest a total of $40 billion into Stargate and OpenAI, and had begun talks to borrow up to $18.5 billion in financing, backed by its publicly-listed assets.

Separately, Arm Holdings PLC is set to sign a pact next week to establish a base in Malaysia, the Malaysian news agency Bernama reported on Friday, citing Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. Anwar had a discussion with Arm chief executive officer Rene Haas on Friday, he told reporters in Putrajaya, Malaysia. Son also took part in the meeting, he said.

(https://open.substack.com/pub/remunerationlabs/p/softbank-gr…Share=true)

This would be on top of the $15 billion SoftBank has already committed to Stargate.

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Brain creates summaries while reading.

Unlike artificial language models, which process long texts as a whole, the human brain creates a “summary” while reading, helping it understand what comes next.

In recent years, (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Bard have revolutionized AI-driven text processing, enabling machines to generate text, translate languages, and analyze sentiment. These models are inspired by the human brain, but key differences remain.

A new Technion-Israel Institute of Technology study, published in Nature Communications, explores these differences by examining how the spoken texts. The research, led by Prof. Roi Reichart and Dr. Refael Tikochinski from the Faculty of Data and Decision Sciences. It was conducted as part of Dr. Tikochinski’s Ph.D., co-supervised by Prof. Reichart at Technion and Prof. Uri Hasson at Princeton University.

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Researchers have developed small robots that can work together as a collective that changes shape and even shifts between solid and “fluid-like” states — a concept that should be familiar to anyone still haunted by nightmares of the T-1000 robotic assassin from “Terminator 2.”

A team led by Matthew Devlin of UC Santa Barbara described this work in a paper recently published in Science, writing that the vision of “cohesive collectives of robotic units that can arrange into virtually any form with any physical properties … has long intrigued both science and fiction.”

Otger Campàs, a professor at Max Planck Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetics, told Ars Technica that the team was inspired by tissues in embryos to try and design robots with similar capabilities. These robots have motorized gears that allow them to move around within the collective, magnets so they can stay attached, and photodetectors that allow them to receive instructions from a flashlight with a polarization filter.

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Well, now the Ultra is officially been released A handful of Chinese media drivers have finally gotten behind the wheel for a review—both in the context of on-the-road driving and hammering it in more aggressive circumstances. Haoran Zhou, the former car PR person and F1 reporter, did a lead-follow of the SU7 Ultra on track.

I have to note that this is technically a step down from the full-race-ready track-prepped version that Xiaomi sent around the Nürburgring. The two cars still have the same 1,526 horsepower, but the lap-setting version has essentially a full carbon-fiber body, complete with huge brake ducts right into the side of the car. This version uses mostly the body of the standard SU7, although it does have a new aluminum hood.

Because of this, the SU7 Ultra is still as fully featured as the standard car. Zhou spent half of the video using Xiaomi’s driver assistance features. It appears to work as well as the standard SU7, but Zhou did remark that it was a little surreal to have a 1,500-horsepower car do some sort of autonomous driving. “I’m trying my best to find a positive use case for it,” he said, theorizing that these features would save wear and tear on the vehicle itself between track day use. “No normal human being would be driving like this in an SU7 Ultra,” he said.

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We speak with Sakana AI, who are building nature-inspired methods that could fundamentally transform how we develop AI systems.

The guests include Chris Lu, a researcher who recently completed his DPhil at Oxford University under Prof. Jakob Foerster’s supervision, where he focused on meta-learning and multi-agent systems. Chris is the first author of the DiscoPOP paper, which demonstrates how language models can discover and design better training algorithms. Also joining is Robert Tjarko Lange, a founding member of Sakana AI who specializes in evolutionary algorithms and large language models. Robert leads research at the intersection of evolutionary computation and foundation models, and is completing his PhD at TU Berlin on evolutionary meta-learning. The discussion also features Cong Lu, currently a Research Scientist at Google DeepMind’s Open-Endedness team, who previously helped develop The AI Scientist and Intelligent Go-Explore.

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Rather than simply scaling up models with more parameters and data, they’re drawing inspiration from biological evolution to create more efficient and creative AI systems. The team explains how their Tokyo-based startup, founded in 2023 with $30 million in funding, aims to harness principles like natural selection and emergence to develop next-generation AI.

Continue reading “Can AI Improve Itself?” | >

Summary: Concerns over potential negative impacts of AI have dominated headlines, particularly regarding its threat to employment. However, a closer examination reveals AI’s immense potential to revolutionize equal and high quality access to necessities such as education and healthcare, particularly in regions with limited access to resources. From India’s agricultural advancements to Kenya’s educational support, AI initiatives are already transforming lives and addressing societal needs.

The latest technology panic is over artificial intelligence (AI). The media is focused on the negatives of AI, making many assumptions about how AI will doom us all. One concern is that AI tools will replace workers and cause mass unemployment. This is likely overblown—although some jobs will be lost to AI, if history is any guide, new jobs will be created. Furthermore, AI’s ability to replace skilled labor is also one of its greatest potential benefits.

Think of all the regions of the world where children lack access to education, where schoolteachers are scarce and opportunities for adult learning are scant.

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Firefly robot spacecraft landed on the Moon! 🤖🌒

Blue ghost’s amazing view of the moon from 62 miles up.

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Continue reading “Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost’s Sent Close Up View Of The Moon!” | >