TLDR 2024-08-20

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TESLA IS HIRING PEOPLE TO DO THE ROBOT

Tesla is employing people to wear motion capture suits to help train its humanoid Optimus robot. The position pays up to $48 per hour and requires walking for up to over seven hours a day while carrying up to 30 pounds and wearing a VR headset for extended periods. Employees must also be between 5'7" and 5'11" tall. Optimus may require millions of hours of data before it's fully ready to work in Tesla's factories.

WAYMO IS DEVELOPING A ROOMIER ROBOTAXI WITH LESS-EXPENSIVE TECH

Waymo's new driverless technology should be able to handle a wider array of weather conditions without requiring as many cameras and sensors. The upcoming Waymo-Zeekr has an accessible interior with a low step, a high ceiling, more leg room, and other features. The car system has a 360 view of obstacles and its sensors have wipers to clear them of most dirt and precipitation. Pictures of the sixth-generation self-driving car are available in the article.

A PERSONALIZED BRAIN PACEMAKER FOR PARKINSON'S

A recent study exploring an innovative approach to deep brain stimulation found that it cut in half the time patients experienced their most bothersome symptoms. The personalized therapy, called adaptive deep brain stimulation, tailors the amount of electrical stimulation to each patient's individual symptoms. Patients note feeling the difference instantly and most say it helped improve their perceived quality of life. The study was small, but it represents a significant step in creating personalized treatments for neurological and psychiatric disorders.

ROCKET LAB ENTERED “HERO MODE” TO FINISH MARS PROBES—NOW IT'S UP TO BLUE ORIGIN

Two NASA spacecraft built by Rocket Lab are beginning preparations for launch on Blue Origin's first New Glenn rocket. The two science probes will launch between late September and mid-October. They will take advantage of a planetary alignment between Earth and Mars that only happens once every 26 months to travel to Mars to help scientists learn more about the processes that drive Martian climate change. Assuming the launch is successful, the twin spacecraft will be expected to arrive in orbit around Mars in early September 2025. The next launch window is in late 2026.

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SRCBOOK

Srcbook is a tool for creating TypeScript and JavaScript notebooks (similar to Python's Jupyter notebooks) that enable developers to create, run, and share reproducible programs and ideas. It has AI features for exploring and iterating on ideas. Users can export notebooks to valid markdown.

ALGORITHMS WE DEVELOP SOFTWARE BY

Becoming a better engineer is about becoming a better pathfinder in problem space. Engineers get better at solving problems by writing more code. One way to do this is by rewriting code - rewriting code takes significantly less time than the initial implementation and the results are usually much better. Breaking assumptions can help engineers approach problems differently and result in more efficient solutions.

AMD SIGNS $4.9 BILLION DEAL TO CHALLENGE NVIDIA'S AI INFRASTRUCTURE LEAD

AMD has agreed to buy ZT Systems, an artificial intelligence infrastructure group, for $4.9 billion in cash and stocks. The acquisition will help AMD accelerate the adoption of its AI data center chips, which compete with Nvidia's popular GPUs. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval. It is expected to close in the first half of 2025.

COMPETING IN SEARCH

Google has the best results because everyone uses it. Being the default search brings in more data, making the search engine even better. It is unclear what companies will do if Google was ordered to stop paying to be the default. Companies like Apple may reinvest the money they were paying Google previously to develop their own search engines. This article takes a look at the many possible impacts the recent antitrust case against Google may have.

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HOW THE SPARKLES EMOJI BECAME THE SYMBOL OF OUR AI FUTURE

One of the earliest examples of companies using the sparkles emoji for AI was in early 2021 when AI marketing startup Jasper featured it in a content-creation tool and promotional materials.

GITHUB CEO THOMAS DOHMKE SAYS THE AI INDUSTRY NEEDS COMPETITION TO THRIVE

This is a transcript of an interview with GitHub's CEO Thomas Dohmke where he discusses how independent GitHub really is inside of Microsoft, GitHub Copilot, how much of GitHub's AI roadmap is tied to Microsoft's AI roadmap, and much more.

SOFTWARE ESTIMATES HAVE NEVER WORKED AND NEVER WILL

As soon as a type of software development becomes so routine that it would be possible to estimate, it turns into a product or service that you can just buy rather than build.

$16,000 HUMANOID ROBOT READY TO LEAP INTO MASS PRODUCTION

China's Unitree Robotics $16,000 G1 model is ready for mass production - a video of it performing several moves, climbing stairs, and dealing with obstacles is available in the article.

MARKOV CHAINS ARE FUNNIER THAN LLMS

Markov chains, which are like very small, simple, and naive large language models, produce better humor than models like ChatGPT, which have been stripped of personality.

LLM APPLICATIONS I WANT TO SEE

Large language models bring a diverse range of possibilities - some of these actually rely on new AI capabilities and others will be things that could have been done before LLMs, but it didn't occur to anyone to try.