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EXPLOSIVE

Caroline Ellison's testimony painted Sam Bankman-Fried as the mastermind behind the FTX fraud and detailed how he manipulated balance sheets, bribed foreign officials, and more.

A MONKEY SURVIVED TWO YEARS WITH A MINIATURE PIG’S KIDNEY

The pig's kidney was genetically engineered to make it as human as possible.

INSIDE VIEWS, IMPOSTOR SYNDROME, AND THE GREAT LARP

People with impostor syndrome should view themselves as learning - pay attention to what works and try to understand what's going on when something unusual happens.

IMPORTANT CONTRACT IN TECH

Practically everyone asked about Apple's search deal with Google said that they'd give anything to be part of it.

MICROSOFT TO KILL OFF VBSCRIPT IN WINDOWS TO BLOCK MALWARE DELIVERY

VBScript will be made an on-demand feature and eventually removed from Windows.

“SNAPDRAGON X”

Qualcomm will share more about its next-generation Arm processor for PCs, Snapdragon X, at its annual Snapdragon Summit later this month.

BIG TECH STRUGGLES TO TURN AI HYPE INTO PROFITS

Tech giants are investing in costly generative AI tools, leading to pricier software upgrades. Firms are exploring ways to balance innovation with profitability while anticipating future cost reductions.

CLEANLAB RAISES $30M TO HELP BUILD TRUSTWORTHY LLMS

Starting as an open sourced package at MIT, CleanLab has now grown into an enterprise-grade no-code tool for curating high quality data for industry ML pipelines.

DEEP DIVE INTO MULTIMODAL FRONTIER MODELS

An excellent dive into the current research activity around multimodal language models.

PAPER FOR MISTRAL 7B MODEL

The Mistral 7B model was released via a tweet. It beats many models twice its size. This paper explores some of the technical contributions and details. No discussion of the pre-training dataset, but good insights into the architecture.

IMPROVING MEMORY IN CONTINUAL TEXT CLASSIFICATION

This study explores the challenges faced in "continual learning", where a model tries to keep learning new things without forgetting old ones, especially in categorizing texts. It introduces a new method called InfoCL, which uses special techniques to help the model remember better and reduce mistakes.

MAKING AI-GENERATED SENTENCES SOUND NATURAL

Researchers found that the sequence in which ideas or 'concepts' are presented to models that generate sentences affects how good the sentences turn out to be. Among various programs tested, BART-large did the best job when given ideas in a certain order, but surprisingly, bigger isn't always better.

OPEN LLMETRY

OpenLLMetry is a set of extensions built on top of OpenTelemetry that gives you complete observability over your LLM application.

Researchers have developed a new technique that combines sound information and language data to correct mistakes in automatic speech recognition systems.

CHATGPT HISTORY EXPORT TO MD

A CASE FOR GPT-4’S CAPACITY TO REASON

Although GPT-4 lacks consciousness and long-term memory, there is good evidence that it is able to reason and comprehend concepts.

UNIVERSAL, INTERACTIVE, REAL WORLD SIMULATOR

What if your simulator was generative AI? It would work to zero shot transfer robotic policies! This work from DeepMind and colleagues tackles the challenge that RL usually can't generalize past the training environment. If we just make everything the training environment then there is no need for extrapolating.

$500 MILLION INVESTMENT IN AI STARTUP ANTHROPIC

Prosecutors want to prevent former FTX cofounder Sam Bankman-Fried’s attorneys from mentioning his $500M investment in AI startup Anthropic during trial, deeming it irrelevant. Meanwhile, Anthropic, seen as a competitor to OpenAI, is seeking funding that could propel its valuation to $20B-$30B, after recently securing a $1.25B commitment from Amazon.

GOOGLE INSIDERS ARE SLAMMING BARD FOR NOT BEING WORTH IT

GROWTH IS SLOWING

DEFI PROTOCOL BARNBRIDGE PREPARES FOR SEC ACTION, FINES

DeFi protocol BarnBridge is facing legal issues with the SEC. It is conducting a token-holder vote on how to respond. The vote is on whether the founders should comply with SEC orders, which might result in a potential shutdown. Though unclear what law has been breached, there are hints that BarnBridge was potentially breaching regulations around offering securities to US citizens.

JPMORGAN DEBUTS TOKENIZATION PLATFORM, BLACKROCK AMONG KEY CLIENTS

JPMorgan has launched its Tokenized Collateral Network, a blockchain-based application for investors to transfer assets on-chain after depositing collateral backing them. It recently made its first trade with asset management company BlackRock by turning shares of a money market fund into tokens for an over-the-counter trade. The platform is designed to improve transaction efficiency and security and allows quicker collateral movement compared to traditional methods.

TOKENIZED DIGITAL COLLECTIBLES ON MAGIC EDEN

Magic Eden is launching a new digital collectible experience featuring tokenized Pokemon cards. These cards, which will be dropped next week, are physically backed and can be redeemed. Some of the highlighted cards include the 2000 Pokemon Gym Challenge 1st Edition Holo Blaine’s Charizard #2 and the 2006 Pokemon Ex Crystal Guardians Holo Charizard #4.

AXELAR PREPARES TOKENOMIC OVERHAUL FOR AXL

Axelar, a cross-chain platform, is planning to alter the tokenomics of its native currency, AXL. The current inflation rate of 11.5% will be reduced to around 5.2%, with an additional 0.3% for each external chain. This will encourage connections to external chains while controlling inflation. Additionally, Axelar plans to simplify the integration of L2s through an Axelar Virtual Machine and an Interchain Amplifier, allowing for automated multi-chain applications and scalable light-client connections.

ROLLBIT RESEARCH REPORT

This thread lays out how Rollbit, a leading online crypto casino, is well-positioned to capitalize on the growth in online gambling. With revenue in online sports betting projected to reach $131 billion by 2027, Rollbit has gained popularity for its wide range of offerings such as sports betting, NFTs, and crypto futures. Despite concerns regarding centralization and risk management, Rollbit is a clear frontrunner for the crypto-enabled online gambling scene.

EMBRACING SPECULATION AS A GO-TO-MARKET APPROACH IN DEFI

This post from Variant explains how DeFi projects have successfully achieved rapid product-market fit by capitalizing on financial speculation. This strategy, faced with criticism in the consumer social category, is considered the norm in the DeFi sector. New DeFi protocols often struggle for initial liquidity, as users are wary of the risks involved with new smart contracts. To overcome this, these protocols offer a product that presents an opportunity for rewards significant enough to attract early adopters and speculators. This post argues that this strategy could be implemented beyond just the DeFi sector.

INFLOWS IN FIRST 5 YEARS

Bitwise Asset Management CIO Matthew Hougan predicts that proposed U.S.-listed spot bitcoin ETFs could see $55 billion in net inflows over the next five years. The estimate is based on the performance of bitcoin ETFs in other markets and could potentially include funds converting from the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust. Hougan also cited the need for investors to select asset managers familiar with the crypto space.

HOW QUANTUM COMPUTING AFFECTS BITCOIN: EXPLORING THE IMPACT

Development in quantum computing could potentially disrupt the security of cryptocurrencies, particularly Bitcoin. Bitcoin uses blockchain technology for transaction safety, which some argue can be compromised by quantum computers due to their ability to perform calculations exponentially faster than classical computers. However, experts believe post-quantum encryption algorithms and soft forks in Bitcoin's protocol could help secure it from quantum computer attacks.

SEPTEMBER 2022

It was revealed at his trial that Sam Bankman-Fried allegedly drafted a tweet preparing for Alameda Research's shutdown but never ended up submitting it.

CAPITAL

WOO Network is working with Teneo to repurchase shares and tokens from bankrupt 3AC. This is an interesting challenge that some companies might face as a number of investors are facing bankruptcy in the midst of the bear market.

ALAMEDA HACKS

Alameda Research's lax security due to prioritizing speed led to major financial losses from frequent security incidents. This thread from an ex-Alameda employee details a few of these security breaches.

PAYMENT

First Abu Dhabi Bank used JPMorgan's Onyx for cross-border payment, marking another step forward for Onyx and JPMorgan’s involvement in the space.

OPEN BETA

FIVE KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM ADOBE MAX 2023: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

IN ILLUSTRATOR

LIGHT-DARK()

37 INNOVATIVE WAYS TO USE ACCENT COLORS WITH VISUAL GUIDE

13 PROFESSIONAL FONTS: TOP BUSINESS TYPEFACES FOR A POLISHED LOOK

LEARN ANIMATION PRINCIPLES

This fun and interactive website teaches you how to learn to design more natural animations. Most examples are built on top of key principles to be considered when using easing, offset, delay, and fade in/fade out.

COLOR SCHEME FOR PROSE AND CODE

Flexoki is a minimalistic and high-contrast color palette calibrated to improve legibility on digital screens. The color scheme, optimized for light and dark modes, covers text, interface, and background colors with an out-of-the-box solution for achieving ideal contrast levels in user interface design.

INTERVIEWS ABOUT VISUAL DESIGN

MOVIE POSTERS WITH DALL-E 3 AI

10 THINGS NO ONE TOLD ME ABOUT DESIGN SYSTEMS

EMERGENT BEST PRACTICES IN AI-ASSISTED DESIGN AND RESEARCH

FRESH

WHAT IS DESIGN-DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT?

HOW DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU LIKE ANYMORE?

Google AdMob will soon allow ad units with incentives to improve engagement. Incentives include discounts, loyalty points, in-game items, and free shipping. Advertisers now have the option to request an appeal for ad units that were previously disapproved under the former policy. Direct monetary items such as cash, cryptocurrency, and gift cards remain disallowed as rewards under any circumstance. The new policy goes into effect on October 31st.