This Teaching Routine Takes Just 5 Minutes. Its Impact Lasts Much Longer — from edweek.org by Elizabeth Heubeck
Generative AI’s environmental costs are soaring — and mostly secret — from nature.com by Kate Crawfold
First-of-its-kind US bill would address the environmental costs of the technology, but there’s a long way to go.
Last month, OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman finally admitted what researchers have been saying for years — that the artificial intelligence (AI) industry is heading for an energy crisis. It’s an unusual admission. At the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Altman warned that the next wave of generative AI systems will consume vastly more power than expected, and that energy systems will struggle to cope. “There’s no way to get there without a breakthrough,” he said.
I’m glad he said it. I’ve seen consistent downplaying and denial about the AI industry’s environmental costs since I started publishing about them in 2018. Altman’s admission has got researchers, regulators and industry titans talking about the environmental impact of generative AI.
Get ready for the age of sovereign AI | Jensen Huang interview— from venturebeat.com by Dean Takahashi
Yesterday, Nvidia reported $22.1 billion in revenue for its fourth fiscal quarter of fiscal 2024 (ending January 31, 2024), easily topping Wall Street’s expectations. The revenues grew 265% from a year ago, thanks to the explosive growth of generative AI.
…
He also repeated a notion about “sovereign AI.” This means that countries are protecting the data of their users and companies are protecting data of employees through “sovereign AI,” where the large-language models are contained within the borders of the country or the company for safety purposes.
??BREAKING: Adobe has created a new 50-person AI research org called CAVA (Co-Creation for Audio, Video, & Animation).
I can’t help but wonder if OpenAI’s Sora has been a wake up call for Adobe to formalize and accelerate their video and multimodal creation efforts?
While… pic.twitter.com/wI3pBlfTtq
— Bilawal Sidhu (@bilawalsidhu) February 20, 2024
Yikes, Google — from theneurondaily.com by Noah Edelman
PLUS: racially diverse nazis…WTF?!
Google shoots itself in the foot.
Last week was the best AND worst week for Google re AI.
The good news is that its upcoming Gemini 1.5 Pro model showcases remarkable capabilities with its expansive context window (details forthcoming).
The bad news is Google’s AI chatbot “Gemini” is getting A LOT of heat after generating some outrageous responses. Take a look:
Also from the Daily:
- Perplexity just dropped this new podcast, Discover Daily, that recaps the news in 3-4 minutes.
- It already broke into the top #200 news pods within a week.
- AND it’s all *100% AI-generated*.
Daily Digest: It’s Nvidia’s world…and we’re just living in it. — from bensbites.beehiiv.com
- Nvidia is building a new type of data centre called AI factory. Every company—biotech, self-driving, manufacturing, etc will need an AI factory.
- Jensen is looking forward to foundational robotics and state space models. According to him, foundational robotics could have a breakthrough next year.
- The crunch for Nvidia GPUs is here to stay. It won’t be able to catch up on supply this year. Probably not next year too.
- A new generation of GPUs called Blackwell is coming out, and the performance of Blackwell is off the charts.
- Nvidia’s business is now roughly 70% inference and 30% training, meaning AI is getting into users’ hands.
Gemma: Introducing new state-of-the-art open models — from blog.google
— Daniel Christian (he/him/his) (@dchristian5) February 2, 2024
From DSC:
As a bit of context here…
After the Jewish people had been exiled to various places, the walls of Jerusalem lay in ruins until the fifth century B.C.E.. At that point, a man named Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem as the provincial governor and completed the repairs of the walls. The verses below really stuck out at me in regards to what a leader should behave/look/be like. He was a servant leader, not demanding choice treatment, not squeezing the people for every last drop, and not using his position to treat himself extra right.
I don’t like to get political on this blog, as I already lose a great deal of readership due to including matters of faith. But today’s leaders (throughout all kinds of organizations) need to learn from Nehemiah’s example, regardless of whatever their beliefs/faiths may be.
14 Moreover, from the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, until his thirty-second year—twelve years—neither I nor my brothers ate the food allotted to the governor. 15 But the earlier governors—those preceding me—placed a heavy burden on the people and took forty shekels[a] of silver from them in addition to food and wine. Their assistants also lorded it over the people. But out of reverence for God I did not act like that. 16 Instead, I devoted myself to the work on this wall. All my men were assembled there for the work; we[b] did not acquire any land.
17 Furthermore, a hundred and fifty Jews and officials ate at my table, as well as those who came to us from the surrounding nations. 18 Each day one ox, six choice sheep and some poultry were prepared for me, and every ten days an abundant supply of wine of all kinds. In spite of all this, I never demanded the food allotted to the governor, because the demands were heavy on these people.
19 Remember me with favor, my God, for all I have done for these people.
Isaiah 7:14 (New International Version)
Jude 24-25 New International Version
Doxology
24 To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— 25 to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
Psalm 140:12 New International Version
12 I know that the Lord secures justice for the poor
and upholds the cause of the needy.
5 I remember the days of long ago;
I meditate on all your works
and consider what your hands have done.
6 I spread out my hands to you;
I thirst for you like a parched land.[a]
7 Answer me quickly, Lord;
my spirit fails.
Do not hide your face from me
or I will be like those who go down to the pit.
8 Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love,
for I have put my trust in you.
Show me the way I should go,
for to you I entrust my life.
Expanding Bard’s understanding of YouTube videos — via AI Valley
- What: We’re taking the first steps in Bard’s ability to understand YouTube videos. For example, if you’re looking for videos on how to make olive oil cake, you can now also ask how many eggs the recipe in the first video requires.
- Why: We’ve heard you want deeper engagement with YouTube videos. So we’re expanding the YouTube Extension to understand some video content so you can have a richer conversation with Bard about it.
Reshaping the tree: rebuilding organizations for AI — from oneusefulthing.org by Ethan Mollick
Technological change brings organizational change.
I am not sure who said it first, but there are only two ways to react to exponential change: too early or too late. Today’s AIs are flawed and limited in many ways. While that restricts what AI can do, the capabilities of AI are increasing exponentially, both in terms of the models themselves and the tools these models can use. It might seem too early to consider changing an organization to accommodate AI, but I think that there is a strong possibility that it will quickly become too late.
From DSC:
Readers of this blog have seen the following graphic for several years now, but there is no question that we are in a time of exponential change. One would have had an increasingly hard time arguing the opposite of this perspective during that time.
Nvidia’s revenue triples as AI chip boom continues — from cnbc.com by Jordan Novet; via GSV
KEY POINTS
- Nvidia’s results surpassed analysts’ projections for revenue and income in the fiscal fourth quarter.
- Demand for Nvidia’s graphics processing units has been exceeding supply, thanks to the rise of generative artificial intelligence.
- Nvidia announced the GH200 GPU during the quarter.
Here’s how the company did, compared to the consensus among analysts surveyed by LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv:
- Earnings: $4.02 per share, adjusted, vs. $3.37 per share expected
- Revenue: $18.12 billion, vs. $16.18 billion expected
Nvidia’s revenue grew 206% year over year during the quarter ending Oct. 29, according to a statement. Net income, at $9.24 billion, or $3.71 per share, was up from $680 million, or 27 cents per share, in the same quarter a year ago.
DC: Anyone surprised? This is why the U.S. doesn’t want high-powered chips going to China. History repeats itself…again. The ways of the world/power continue on.
Pentagon’s AI initiatives accelerate hard decisions on lethal autonomous weapons https://t.co/PTDmJugiE2
— Daniel Christian (he/him/his) (@dchristian5) November 27, 2023
A Photo Preservationist Saved a Trove of 4,000 Glass Plate Negatives That Nearly Went Into the Trash — from thisiscolossal.com by Kate Mothes and Terri Cappucci
Peter Declares That Jesus Is the Messiah
18 Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?”
19 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.”
20 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Peter answered, “God’s Messiah.”
Jesus Predicts His Death
21 Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. 22 And he said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”
John 12:12-16 NIV — from biblegateway.com
Jesus Comes to Jerusalem as King
12 The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. 13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,
“Hosanna![a]”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”[b]
“Blessed is the king of Israel!”
14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written:
15 “Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion;
see, your king is coming,
seated on a donkey’s colt.”[c]
16 At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him.