Menu

Blog

Page 1342

Nov 22, 2023

The AI startup behind Stable Diffusion is now testing generative video

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Stable Diffusion’s generative art can now be animated, developer Stability AI announced. The company has released a new product called Stable Video Diffusion into a research preview, allowing users to create video from a single image. “This state-of-the-art generative AI video model represents a significant step in our journey toward creating models for everyone of every type,” the company wrote.

The new tool has been released in the form of two image-to-video models, each capable of generating 14 to 25 frames long at speeds between 3 and 30 frames per second at 576 × 1,024 resolution. It’s capable of multi-view synthesis from a single frame with fine-tuning on multi-view datasets. “At the time of release in their foundational form, through external evaluation, we have found these models surpass the leading closed models in user preference studies,” the company said, comparing it to text-to-video platforms Runway and Pika Labs.

Nov 22, 2023

Futuristic Luxury RVs Are like Five-Star Hotels On Wheels

Posted by in category: futurism

Have you ever dreamed of traveling in a luxurious RV that looks like a five-star hotel on wheels? Well, the future of Luxury RVs by Coldstar Art is here! Futuristic Luxury RVs are taking the RV industry by storm with their amazing concepts and designs. These RVs come in vibrant colors such as orange and have an amazing interiors with beds, a kitchen, and even a living room. They are basically like an SUV but with all the amenities of a five-star hotel.

Nov 22, 2023

Bill Gates says a 3-day work week where ‘machines can make all the food and stuff’ isn’t a bad idea

Posted by in category: food

“A society where you only have to work three days a week, that’s probably OK,” Bill Gates said.

Nov 22, 2023

DeepMind Says New Multi-Game AI Is a Step Toward More General Intelligence

Posted by in categories: entertainment, information science, robotics/AI

AI has mastered some of the most complex games known to man, but models are generally tailored to solve specific kinds of challenges. A new DeepMind algorithm that can tackle a much wider variety of games could be a step towards more general AI, its creators say.

Using games as a benchmark for AI has a long pedigree. When IBM’s Deep Blue algorithm beat chess world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997, it was hailed as a milestone for the field. Similarly, when DeepMind’s AlphaGo defeated one of the world’s top Go players, Lee Sedol, in 2016, it led to a flurry of excitement about AI’s potential.

DeepMind built on this success with AlphaZero, a model that mastered a wide variety of games, including chess and shogi. But as impressive as this was, AlphaZero only worked with perfect information games where every detail of the game, other than the opponent’s intentions, is visible to both players. This includes games like Go and chess where both players can always see all the pieces on the board.

Nov 22, 2023

OpenAI reinstates Sam Altman as its chief executive

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Yay face_with_colon_three


OpenAI said late Tuesday it had reinstated Sam Altman as its chief executive in a stunning reversal that capped five days of drama that rocked the artificial intelligence community.

The company, maker of the popular ChatGPT, said it would also create a new board of directors. This comes after the former board voted to fire Altman as CEO late last week.

Continue reading “OpenAI reinstates Sam Altman as its chief executive” »

Nov 22, 2023

First experimental evidence of hopfions in crystals: Research opens up new dimension for future technology

Posted by in categories: mathematics, particle physics

Hopfions, magnetic spin structures predicted decades ago, have become a hot and challenging research topic in recent years. In a study published in Nature, the first experimental evidence is presented by a Swedish-German-Chinese research collaboration.

“Our results are important from both a fundamental and applied point of view, as a new bridge has emerged between and abstract , potentially leading to hopfions finding an application in spintronics,” says Philipp Rybakov, researcher at the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Uppsala University, Sweden.

A deeper understanding of how different components of materials function is important for the development of innovative materials and future technology. The research field of spintronics, for example, which studies the spin of electrons, has opened up promising possibilities to combine the electrons’ electricity and magnetism for applications such as new electronics.

Nov 22, 2023

Tesla (TSLA) starts discounting new vehicles by $3,000 in end-of-quarter push

Posted by in categories: sustainability, transportation

Tesla has started discounting new inventory Model Y and Model 3 vehicles again in an apparent new end-of-quarter delivery push.

While Tesla has historically often used price reductions as a way to create demand, but until recently, the automaker has refrained from straight discounts on vehicles.

That changed when Tesla started discounting new inventory vehicles earlier this year.

Nov 22, 2023

Harvard Professor Says Godlike Aliens May Be Creating Universes in Labs

Posted by in categories: alien life, quantum physics

face_with_colon_three I agree face_with_colon_three


In a new interview, perpetually provocative Harvard astronomer and alien hunter Avi Loeb posited both that super-human aliens could be building “baby universes” in labs and that his haters are just “jealous.”

When discussing his work and theories in a chat with Fox News, Loeb showed his tendency toward imaginative, deeply speculative theories of extraterrestrial life.

Continue reading “Harvard Professor Says Godlike Aliens May Be Creating Universes in Labs” »

Nov 22, 2023

Why North Korea may use nuclear weapons first, and why current US policy toward Pyongyang is unsustainable

Posted by in categories: existential risks, military, nuclear energy, policy

I suggest two responses to this difficult challenge for the United States and its allies: At the time of attack, the allies should respond with nonnuclear retaliation as long as politically feasible, in order to prevent further nuclear escalation. However, this will be difficult given the likely post-strike panic and hysteria. So, in preparation, the US should deconcentrate its northeast Asian conventional footprint, to reduce North Korean opportunities to engage in nuclear blackmail regarding regional American clusters of military equipment and personnel, and to reduce potential US casualties and consequent massive retaliation pressures if North Korea does launch a nuclear attack.

North Korean first-use incentives. The incentives for North Korea to use nuclear weapons first in a major conflict are powerful:

Operationally, North Korea will likely have only a very short time window to use its weapons of mass destruction. The Americans will almost certainly try to immediately suppress Northern missiles. An imminent, massive US-South Korea disarming strike creates an extreme use-it-or-lose-it dilemma for Pyongyang. If Kim Jong-Un does not use his nuclear weapons at the start of hostilities, most will be destroyed a short time later by allied airpower, turning an inter-Korean conflict into a conventional war that the North will probably lose. Frighteningly, this may encourage Kim to also release his strategic nuclear weapons almost immediately after fighting begins.

Nov 22, 2023

Wi-Fi for neurons: first map of wireless nerve signals unveiled in worms

Posted by in categories: internet, neuroscience

Studies find a densely connected network of neurons that communicate over long distances, rather than across synapses.