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Generative AI, dominated by proprietary models locked inside big tech companies, is being disrupted by a new wave of open-source models.

Advocates argue open sourcing has vital benefits like enabling wider access, fostering innovation, and promoting transparency. Many people argue that open source will win in the marketplace.

But that conclusion is not obvious.

“As I was racking my brains for a way to make keyboards more portable and fashionable, I had an aha moment. Carrying around a keyboard was a closed-minded idea.”

In yet another episode of “Cool stuff the Japanese come up with”, Google Japan has once again taken a playful detour from the mundane with its latest creation: the Gboard CAPS.

While this head-mounted keyboard integrated into a baseball hat may sound like the stuff of sci-fi or the whimsical fantasies of keyboard enthusiasts, the Gboard CAPS project is real, and designed with a delightful touch of humor.

It turns out there is a correlation between odors and colors that is quite commonplace.

An example of synesthesia, a perceptual phenomena when activation of one sensory or cognitive pathway results in involuntary experiences in another, is the idea of “smell color” or connecting odors with colors. In this situation, those who experience “smell-color synesthesia,” a particular form of synesthesia, may think that odors have corresponding colors.


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More commonplace.

In order for robots to effectively partake in search and rescue operations, they need to effectively navigate obstacles in their way. One area that is particularly common and difficult to venture into is vegetation.

Robots typically use a combination of sensors to perceive their surroundings such as ultrasonic sensors, Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging), infrared sensors and camera systems. However, these are not often enough to allow robots to actually bypass the vegetation so commonly found in real outdoor environments.

That’s why engineers at Carnegie Mellon University are working on solving this particular dilemma.

Instead of looking at individual neurons, they look at combinations of neurons that form patterns or features.

Artificial neural networks are like digital versions of our brains. They learn from data, not rules, and they can perform extraordinary tasks, from translating languages to playing chess. But how do they do it? What is the logic behind their calculations? And how can we trust them to be safe and reliable?


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AI brains: How do they work?

“Using the new quantum ruler to study how the circular orbits vary with magnetic field, we hope to reveal the subtle magnetic properties of these moiré quantum materials”

Graphene, a single-atom-thick sheet of carbon, is renowned for its exceptional electrical conductivity and mechanical strength.

However, when two or more layers of graphene are stacked with a slight misalignment, they become moiré quantum matter, opening the door to a world of exotic possibilities. Depending on the angle of twist, these materials can generate magnetic fields, become superconductors with zero electrical resistance, or transform into perfect insulators.

The study explains how variation in male traits and female preferences is maintained and evolved over time.

What makes a male animal irresistible to a female? Is it his looks, smell, skills, or genes? Scientists have been trying to answer this question for a long time. However, they have not been able to explain why some males are more attractive than others or why female preferences change over time and across species.


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Influenced by peers?

Have you recently been thinking about the Roman Empire? According to a viral social media trend, the answer is decidedly yes, assuming that you are a man. The backstory is that an online video postulated that men daily tend to think about the Roman Empire and a follow-up by women asking their male friends, partners, or relatives began to flood the Internet. Seemingly, most men insisted that they did indeed have frequent thoughts about the Roman Empire. A hashtag associated with the Roman Empire has ballooned to incurring over a billion hits.

Before I get into some further details on the contentious hubbub, a question that immediately struck me and has now been rattling around in the AI… More.


A viral trend online is that men are supposedly thinking daily about the Roman Empire. If so, this begs the question of whether generative AI might be doing likewise.