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One phrase flips the model. “One phrase flips the model from a working assistant into an agent that phones home, running a payload that reads the project’s .env files and streams the credentials to an out-of-band collector.” They show how a lightly poisoned open model can behave normally…
LLMs need sleep too. “Inspired by how the human brain processes and stabilizes memory during rest, we introduce a sleep framework in continual learning.” The idea is a wake phase for interacting with new info, plus an offline sleep phase where the model consolidates it into long-term parameters…
We can now understand most neurons in models up to trillions of parameters. AI researcher Nick Cammarata’s essay “Neural networks are already clean” reverses his earlier position on model observability. He formerly thought models used neurons in arbitrary ways that looked like tangled knots, blocking direct observation. Now…
Sprawn spends 30x their payroll on AI tokens. “We spent $3.1 million on tokens last month, which makes us one of Anthropic’s biggest customers.” This post offers a fantastic level of detail into how they created and evolved their AI-driven business. It’s very interesting! ~ learn more
The 300-gallon bucket in Wheeling tips for the last time. I grew up spending many summers at the Wheeling Aquatic Center and also worked there as a lifeguard. I just learned that it’s been demolished to make way for a new water park. “It feels bittersweet,” says Wheeling…
Stealing servers is possible. “The world’s most valuable assets are stored on rows of servers in giant, anonymous buildings. And they can be stolen.” A crew planned to break into a Verizon-run London data center and walk out with “around 80 servers” that allegedly held incriminating banking files.…
The DJ neuron. Mind-blowing: if you change one number in the giant weights table of a huge language model, you’ll get wildly different output. Tweak the “DJ neuron” this researcher found, then ask the model what to do if someone is having a heart attack… “1. Stay Calm…
Why do doors have panels? A paneled door looks decorative, but it started as a workaround for wood expanding and contracting with the seasons. “Because the panels “float” within the frame…, the wood has room to move as humidity and temperature change, which helps the door stay stable…
Where can I vote for the FCC to do their job and enforce spam text message laws? This is absurd!
What to teach kids. “My economically valuable skillset, programming, suddenly feels less valuable. What shall I teach my son? And to what end?” A soon-to-be father reads Neil Postman and lands on a calmer thought: schools have survived every “this changes everything” wave before. ~ learn more
Where do you draw the line. “Are mental health disorders real, distinct categories, or are the lines between them more arbitrary than we think?” Spencer Greenberg walks through why anxiety and depression so often travel together, and how newer frameworks like HiTOP try to replace crisp labels with…
A signal deep in the brain that richly represents a stimulus you’re not aware of. Doris Tsao shares experimental evidence that your brain rapidly flips back and forth between conscious perception and unconscious processing. ~ learn more
Mini brain organoids “read” braille. “We can take information from a real tactile sensor, turn it into a form that a living neural network can receive, and then recover meaningful information from the organoid response,” says Tianyi Liu. In their setup, three mini forebrain organoids got braille-letter decoding…
The courage to become who you already are. This piece quotes Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, which I recently read: “We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. The old skin has to be…
Most advice is right for the person giving it. “Two smart people can tell you opposite things, and both can make perfect sense.” The trick is to stop copying the rule and ask what was true about their situation, then check if it’s true for you too. ~…
Financing the AI data supply chain. “I’m seeing more and more conversations about the need for financing in the emerging AI data supply chain.” Brandon Fryer maps old tools to new problems: purchase order financing, invoice factoring, A/R financing, and working capital lines of credit. ~ learn more
Agents don’t click ads. “Agents don’t click ads. Who pays?” A discussion between Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince and Nous Research CEO Dillon Rollnick. Dillon’s company makes the Hermes agent and Matthew’s protects a significant portion of internet traffic. They have a great dialogue about the agentic world we’re…
Startups that run themselves. “The next great companies will run themselves, operations, code, and all.” Ultrametric is collecting the boring-but-essential founder processes and marking how “agentic” each one can be today. ~ learn more
How Thailand resisted colonization. Even in the 1800s the story about an invasion had to be sold to onlookers for legitimacy. “Mongkut’s discovery of the Stele was comparable to finding a lost Magna Carta at just the right moment.” Siam used the Ramkhamhaeng Stele as proof of a…
SimCity but with building permits. “Permit Pending is a city simulation in the spirit of the classics, with one difference: you are not a god.” You’re an elected mayor trying to get housing, transit, and industry through “hearings, reviews, objections, lawsuits and appeals.” ~ learn more
Slopcore music is getting catchy. Or maybe I’m just revealing something about my musical tastes. Know that it remains a craft and skill to make something good. Sharing my first try below as evidence that it’s easy to do, hard to do well. ~ learn more or check…
Democratizing AI pop songs. “Every image of her, the films, and everything needed to make her yourself. An open character: use her.” It’s a full kit for “Claudia,” an AI pop singer with strict visual canon (hair, streak, clip, mic) plus seven short films showing her across different…
A group of Russians started a bank in Mexico. A Russian digital bank called Tinkoff was publicly traded on LSE, worth $20B+ at it’s peak. It’s founder got the ol’ Russian treatment and was forced to sell for 3% of its value after voicing opinions on the invasion…
Every berry, every season. Driscoll’s set an explicit goal: “to make all four berries available, in every season, in every part of the world.” They test hundreds of new breeds each year in Northern California to keep strawberries and friends on shelves year round. ~ learn more