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GUIDE TO ATTENDING A SPACE LAUNCH IN PERSON

A good way to get a feel for what it's like to attend a space launch in person is to watch someone vlog about their experience.

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XAI ENDS DEAL WITH ORACLE, BUILDS OWN AI DATACENTER

xAI has ended its deal with Oracle. It will build its own datacenter after Grok 2 training finishes. The company originally contracted for 24k H100s from Oracle.

A16Z IS TRYING TO KEEP AI ALIVE WITH THE OXYGEN INITIATIVE

VC firm Andreessen Horowitz has secured thousands of AI chips, including Nvidia H100 GPUs, to dole out to its AI portfolio companies in exchange for equity.

QUORA'S POE NOW LETS USERS CREATE AND SHARE WEB APPS

Quora's Poe has introduced a feature called Previews, enabling users to create interactive apps such as data visualizations and games directly through chatbot interactions.

DISTILLING SYSTEM 2 INTO SYSTEM 1

System 2 models are those that use something like Chain of Thought to spend more test time compute and improve reasoning. It turns out that you can distill this behavior into a System 1 model that runs faster with similar accuracy.

LEARNING AT TEST TIME

A new RNN variant that outperforms Mamba on a number of tasks. Importantly, the update function is itself an ML model - which enables long contexts and in-context learning.

BOOSTING LARGE VISION LANGUAGE MODELS WITH SELF-TRAINING

Video Self-Training with augmented Reasoning (Video-STaR) is a new approach for improving Large Vision Language Models (LVLMs).

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GRAPHRAG

GraphRAG is a way to explore unstructured text using the power of language models. The quick start runs on Azure, making it easy to spin up.

MOBILELLM

MobileLLM optimizes sub-billion parameter language models for on-device use cases.

ENHANCING TRAFFIC SIGNAL CONTROL WITH AI

Researchers have developed a new framework that combines a large language model with reinforcement learning to improve traffic signal control systems.

TINYGRAD NOTES

Tinygrad is a toolkit for training deep learning models. This set of notes is a great introduction for AI compilers and prepares one for a deep dive into Tinygrad internals.

POP CULTURE

Goldman Sachs released a critical 31-page report titled "Gen AI: Too Much Spend, Too Little Benefit?", arguing that generative AI's productivity benefits and returns are significantly limited and that its power demands will drastically increase utility spending. The report highlights doubts about AI's ability to transform industries, pointing out high costs, power grid challenges, and lack of clear productivity gains or significant revenue generation. It suggests a potentially bleak future for the technology without major breakthroughs.

THE AI SUMMER

The rapid adoption of ChatGPT, which reached 100 million users in two months, stands in contrast to historical tech developments like the iPhone and e-commerce, which took years to gain traction. Despite the initial hype, many users have not found long-term utility with ChatGPT and enterprise deployment of large language models remains limited, indicating a need for further development to achieve meaningful product-market fit and sustained value.

4D OCCUPANCY GENERATION FOR DRIVING SCENES

OccSora is a diffusion-based 4D occupancy generation model designed to improve long-term temporal evolutions.

COMPREHENSIVE AGI SURVEY

This project investigates the journey towards Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), which aims to perform diverse real-world tasks with human-like efficiency.

KRUT AI (PRODUCT LAUNCH)

Krut AI is an AI co-pilot built for e-commerce that helps with product shots and content creation.

BITCOIN CONTINUES REBOUND AS SPOT ETFS SEE $295 MILLION IN DEPOSITS

Bitcoin's recent price rebound above $57k was supported by record-high inflows into U.S. spot BTC ETFs of around $300M on July 8th, the highest since early June. Institutional investors seem to be using the price dip as a buying opportunity.

PAYPAL'S STABLECOIN SURPASSES $500 MILLION MARKET CAP

PYUSD, which expanded to the Solana network in May, has surpassed $500M in market cap. The stablecoin's expansion to a mix of centralized and DeFi platforms has helped increase its supply from $270M to over $530M in 1 month.

DDOCS: ONCHAIN GOOGLE DOCS

dDocs, created by Fileverse, is a decentralized word processor that aims to be a better, more private version of Google Docs. It is end-to-end encrypted, has real-time collaboration, and stores data in decentralized storage solutions like IPFS. The app also has account abstraction, allowing users to log in with email while retaining the benefits of onchain security and composability.

INTRODUCING STORY NETWORK, THE WORLD'S IP BLOCKCHAIN

Story allows creators to monetize their Intellectual Property (IP) in the age of artificial intelligence. It aims to transform the internet into an IP Legoland. The EVM-equivalent L1 hosts a Proof of Creativity Protocol that allows anyone to onramp their IP and set the conditions for using and monetizing it. Tokenized IPs can be offramped into a contract if disputed and brought into the real-world legal system. Use cases include creator-owned AIs that fans can access and monetize, IPs as collateral for other assets, and seamless introduction of IP into new applications.

POINTENOMICS 101: MASTERING THE NEW LANGUAGE OF CRYPTO INCENTIVES

Point systems have become increasingly important in the evolving Web3 landscape for incentivizing user engagement and loyalty, forming a crucial part of digital ecosystems through strategic reward mechanics. This guide talks through the structure and benefits of "pointenomics," deep diving into the practical applications, challenges, and future potential of point programs to improve user activation, retention, and overall project success.

DEEP DIVING ATTESTATIONS - A QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS

This research explores 31 days' worth of Ethereum validator votes to help better understand how to penalize missed attestations dynamically and improve network health. It found that performance varies significantly between validators and that attestation inclusion delay is a critical factor. Timing games caused by MEV adversely impact attestation performance, and big blocks have fewer attestations due to the increased data transfer time.

THOUGHTS ON BLAST DISTRIBUTION

The recent distribution $BLAST has lowered the "financial stakes" compared to earlier phases. BLAST has a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of $1.5B down from previous expectations over $8B. This means there will be more gold supply and less BLAST, effectively decreasing individual reward value unless BLAST appreciates significantly.

TOP CRYPTO VC SAYS EX-GENERAL PARTNER MADE UNDISCLOSED SIDE DEAL WITH PORTFOLIO COMPANY

Polychain Capital has accused former general partner Niraj Pant of violating fund policies by secretly accepting "adviser" tokens valued at $13.3 million from portfolio company Eclipse Labs. Pant, who directed Polychain's investment in Eclipse, allegedly did not disclose this deal, which Polychain only discovered after his departure. This incident highlights the often opaque and contentious nature of token-based compensation in the crypto industry.

HAPPYCHAIN – THE SIMPLE HAPPY GAME CHAIN

HappyChain is an OP Stack L2 with zero-friction onboarding and free-to-play games.

GERMAN GOVERNMENT RUNNING OUT OF BITCOIN TO SELL

BITCOIN MINER HUT 8 ENTERS INTO AGREEMENT FOR 205-MEGAWATT TEXAS SITE

This marks the first transaction in the company's 1.1K MW development pipeline of exclusive energy capacity and furthers its strategy to increase capacity to about 1.3 GW for high-density computing like Bitcoin and AI.

FARCASTER: EXPLAIN LIKE I'M FIVE

Farcaster is like a massive playground where everyone can use their toys (data) in different games (social apps) with no rule-maker deciding what people do or how they play.

IOS 18 HAS A NEW ‘DYNAMIC' COLOR-SHIFTING WALLPAPER

iOS 18's third developer beta enhances customization by introducing a dynamic wallpaper that changes colors over time. Users can also tint home screen app icons and place them freely, with some third-party apps gaining dark mode icons. These features are currently exclusive to the developer beta, with a public beta expected in July and a full release in the fall.

PARAMOUNT'S POTENTIAL NEW LOGO IS THE OPPOSITE OF A GLOW-UP

The Paramount logo, an iconic symbol in the film industry, is undergoing a controversial redesign that melds it with Skydance Media's identity. This new, flat reimagining of the classic emblem has not been well-received, hinting at an uncertain future for the studio. With such a significant alteration, it's understandable that reactions have been mixed among fans and industry professionals.

DUOLINGO ACQUIRES DETROIT-BASED DESIGN STUDIO HOBBES

Duolingo has acquired the Detroit-based animation and motion design studio Hobbes and its 12 designers and animators to form its first dedicated motion design team. The acquisition, which aims to enhance the app's animation and make learning fun and engaging, follows Duolingo's 2022 purchase of another Detroit-based studio, Gunner. The new team, which will remain in Detroit, will strengthen Duolingo's motion design capabilities and improve user experience, fueling better learning outcomes.

GREAT DESIGN ISN'T PIXEL PERFECT

Perfectionism in design can be both a strength and a potential obsession, but excessive focus on pixel-perfect details can be detrimental in fast-paced startups. Balancing this with clear goals, deadlines, feedback, and breaks helps manage perfectionism and ensures timely product delivery.

WHAT RICK RUBIN'S ‘THE CREATIVE ACT' REMINDS US ABOUT DESIGN

Creativity is inherent to being human. This is reflected in design and AI, where designers connect familiar and new ideas uniquely, with timing being crucial for success. Designers must adapt materials to the system's qualities, develop taste to sense exceptional elements, and act as editors to amplify what's vital and eliminate the excess.

YOUR HIDDEN SUPERPOWERS: PART ONE

Designers are naturally curious individuals who seek deeper understanding through extensive questioning, embracing data to uncover truths and solve real-world problems. This investigative curiosity is essential for addressing project challenges and workplace dynamics, though designers often need more access to strategic projects due to insufficient trust from influential leaders. To overcome this, designers should leverage their curiosity to build credibility and identify opportunities to demonstrate their value within the organization.

HAND DRAWN ARROWS

A customizable gallery of hand-drawn arrow SVGs that can be easily copied as SVG code or React components for use in your projects.

DISCOVER THE BASE BUILDING BLOCKS OF ANY WEBSITE

This open-source tool, ideal for grabbing colors, icons, and fonts, lets you extract design systems from any website.

DIVERSE FREE AVATAR IMAGES

This vast collection of free avatar images from across the web helps you add personality to your projects.

HOW SMALL UI DELIGHTERS HAVE A HUGE IMPACT ON UX

1 DATASET 100 VISUALIZATIONS

An information design agency took on the challenge of creating 100 visualizations from a single dataset, showcasing the diversity and complexity of data visualization. It demonstrated how different stories can be told using limited visual properties and assets by leveraging insightful and visually appealing designs.

12 AMERICAN ICONS OF DESIGN, FROM COWBOY BOOTS TO THE MACBOOK AIR

Contemporary takes on American design icons reveal the USA's enduring creative influence. From Pharrell Williams' reinterpretation of cowboy boots at Louis Vuitton to the sleek M3 MacBook Air and even Andy Warhol's iconic soup cans, this article highlights the lasting appeal and evolution of these classics, showcasing their continued impact and inspiration in the design world.

CREATIVITY IS THE BYPRODUCT OF WORK

Creativity stems from consistent effort and work rather than inspiration or luck and is enhanced by persistence and iteration.

ART

Art holds inherent value in its creation, evokes a range of emotions, and offers tools to cope with or change the world.

WHAT CONFIG 2024 TAUGHT ME ABOUT DESIGN'S NEXT GOLDEN AGE

Config 2024 emphasized thriving with AI, fostering emotional connections for lasting advantage, and prioritizing authenticity and craftsmanship as critical abilities for the next golden age of design.

AI STARTUP HEBBIA RAISES $130M AT A $700M VALUATION

An example of the high valuations being assigned to AI startups, Hebbia has raised $130 million at a $700 million valuation on $13 million ARR. Hebbia's main product, Matrix, can analyze large documents and respond to user inquiries in a spreadsheet-like format. It is currently used by 30% of asset managers for research purposes. The company plans to use the fresh funding to expand its team and offerings to other industries, such as law firms and pharmaceutical companies.

SO YOU WANT TO START A SAAS COMPANY?

Starting a SaaS company in 2024 is challenging due to the dominance of incumbents, high switching costs, and a saturated market. Tech sales is also undergoing a transformation, with buyer trust at an all-time low and traditional engagement methods becoming less effective. However, startups still have opportunities to succeed by leveraging the latest technology, rethinking business models, and exploring new strategies like the “Compound Startup” approach.