How Large Language Models Reflect Human Judgment  
Artificial intelligence is based around prediction. But decision making requires both prediction and judgment. That leaves a role for humans, in providing the judgment about which types of outcomes are better and worse. But large language models represent a key advance: OpenAI has found a way to teach its AI human judgment by using a simple form of human feedback, through chat. That opens the door to a new way for humans to work with AI, essentially talking to them about which outcomes are better or worse for any given type of decision. Continued here |
The Best Wi-Fi Routers
If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more. Please also consider subscribing to WIREDThe humble Wi-Fi router has become an essential fixture in every home, but the one your internet service provider sent is likely the reason your Wi-Fi sucks. There are various ways to improve your Wi-Fi, but few are as effective as upgrading your router. Benefits will extend to everything from streaming movies and online gaming to video calls. Most people can get by just fine with a single Wi-Fi router, and I’ve collected recommendations to suit different needs, spaces, and budgets. I tested all of these in a busy family home full of Netflix-addicted gamers. Continued here |
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What the Scientists Who Pioneered Weight-Loss Drugs Want You to Know
The history of weight-loss drugs is littered with failures. Some were outright dangerous: In the 1950s and ’60s, amphetamine-based diet pills were popular, but their prominence faded after being linked to addiction and other severe side effects. In 1997 the drug cocktail fen-phen was removed from the US market after it became clear it caused heart valve damage. Other attempts at treating obesity with drugs hit scientific dead ends. The history of anti-obesity drug discovery is for the most part “a bottomless pit into which people shove money and time,” wrote Derek Lowe in Science.The new crop of much-hyped weight loss drugs seems to be different. These work by mimicking a hormone called glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1), which regulates blood sugar levels and slows down the rate at which food leaves the stomach, making people fuller for longer. GLP-1-mimicking drugs seem to be a powerful tool for weight loss: Some people lose 15 percent of their body weight or more after 68 weeks on semaglutide, which is approved in the US for weight loss as Wegovy and for type 2 diabetes under the brand name Ozempic. Continued here |
The case for why our Universe may be a giant neural network
A new scientific paradigm is emerging that presents us with a radically different cosmic narrative. The big idea is that the Universe is not just an arbitrary physical system, but something more like an evolving computational or biological system — with properties strikingly similar to a complex adaptive system, like an organism or a brain. If this characterization turns out to be accurate, I do not think it is an overstatement to say that it is the most profound paradigm shift in the history of science and philosophy. If true, it raises new existential questions that will force us to completely rethink the nature of reality and ideas about whether the Universe has a function or “purpose.”The idea that the Universe is something like an organism or a brain isn’t a new one. This concept goes back at least to 500 B.C. when it was first dreamed up by Anaxagoras. The pre-Socratic Greek philosopher proposed that an intelligent cosmic force, or “Nous,” guides the development of the Universe toward a more organized and purposeful state of existence. Today we might describe Nous as the principle of self-organization. Continued here |
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An evolutionary history of the human brain, in 7 minutes
Plato famously described the human psyche as two horses and a charioteer: One horse represented instincts, the other represented emotions, and the charioteer was the rational mind that controlled them. Astronomer Carl Sagan continued this idea of a three-layer, “triune brain” in his 1977 book The Dragons of Eden.But leading neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett challenges this idea of the brain evolving in three layers, instead revealing a common brain plan shared by all mammals and vertebrates. The development of sensory systems led to the emergence of the brain, and hunting and predation may have initiated an arms race to become more efficient and powerful predators. Continued here |
Fieldnotes
then the marsh, then the bog, then the cactus, there were cougars here, and glaciers, then the kettlestone, then the vernal pond, then the hedges, then the sandmines, then the lost egg, so a praying mantis, so you would come upon it, the lost egg, so you would feel the sticky foam, ask if it is full, still full, a potential, potential, you would ask, of the variety, was it the native species, how to tell, you can’t tell, from the egg, you could tell by the gait, the way the body moved, and when, and how, they approached, approached unknowns, as subjects, as objects, as something to eat, something to own, something to seed, to grow, to understand, that’s it, all there was, is, to how, how to tell, and all, all of this, all of this, at the base, of the sandpile, where you would ask, you would ask, if that’s it, if that’s that, that’s something, to pray for Continued here |
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"Penny Universities": How British coffeehouses changed the intellectual world
Be careful when you next go into your favorite coffee shop. Sure, you might harmlessly be looking for a pick-me-up to get through that three-hour meeting, but what else might you find? Revolution, radicalization, and deviancy. That’s not caffeine you’re tasting — it’s danger. As King Charles II put it, coffee is “the great resort of idle and disaffected persons…[and] has produced very evil and dangerous effects.” People who hang about in coffee houses are the disreputable, dodgy sort — do you really want to be seen around those types?For hundreds of years after their introduction, coffeehouses didn’t just sell coffee. They sold ideas. If you walked into an average 17th-century coffeehouse in Britain, you’d see gathered around the table academics, authors, artists, foreign exiles, revolutionaries, and political radicals. There would be a buzz in the air — the buzz of excited and scholarly debate. These coffeehouses were not hushed places of laptops and headphones. They were forums. Continued here |
Red Flags Founders Should Recognize when Scaling a Company When forming partnerships or raising capital, look out for these red flags Continued here |
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What Founders Should Ask VC Firms, Post-SVB The Silicon Valley Bank collapse shook the startup world to its core, and now founders should carefully consider what to ask potential investors before signing. Continued here |
How to Crisis-Proof Your Career
Companies with the best chance of surviving and growing beyond this economic crisis are those that swiftly and steadily employ a crisis-management approach in their enterprise. Similarly, your career is your “enterprise” and as captain of your career trajectory, it’s completely up to you how you choose to steer your ship during this crisis. Continued here |
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Weekly Crossword: A faster horse
A quote apocryphally attributed to Henry Ford goes, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” Continued here |
Save on Pots and Pans at All-Clad's Factory Seconds Sale
There are two things in every kitchen that qualify as heirlooms: cast-iron pans and All-Clad pots and pans. Okay, if you're super fancy, copper pans make nice heirlooms too. But for most of us, there's the great grandparents' cast-iron skillet and the All-Clad pan someone gifted us long ago.All-Clad makes some of the best, most durable, most reliable, and most expensive pots and pans you can buy. The trick is to get them without paying full price. That's why now is the time to buy, during the All-Clad Factory Seconds Sale. It ends on Wednesday, June 14, so don't wait too long. You can save up to 50 percent on All-Clad pans, pots, and some utensils. Most of these include All-Clad's lifetime warranty, but read the fine print to make sure. You'll need to enter your email address to access the deals, which is a little annoying. Also, keep in mind that all sales are final, and items ship in 10 to 15 business days. Continued here |
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M2 Ultra Mac Studio review: Who needs a Mac Pro, anyway?
The original Mac Studio, despite the absence of "Pro" in the name, was Apple's most compelling professional desktop release in years. Though it was more like a supercharged Mac mini than a downsized Mac Pro, its M1 Max and M1 Ultra processors were fantastic performers, and they were much more energy-efficient than the one in the most recent Intel Mac Pro, too. Continued here |
When Your Boss Gives You Bad Feedback, Badly
It’s difficult to manage your feelings when getting feedback that feels too harsh, overly nice, or somehow dishonest. We all struggle with feedback, so extend a little grace to yourself for having strong emotions, and to the other person for initiating a difficult conversation. The authors present the three most common ways people deliver feedback in a way that causes harm and elicits strong emotions, as well as five key steps to take when you get poorly delivered feedback. Continued here |
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A Massive Vaccine Database Leak Exposes IDs of Millions of Indians
On the evening of June 11, a journalist from the Kerala-based news portal The Fourth reported that a Telegram bot in a channel called “hak4learn” was offering access to the private data of millions of Indians. All a user had to do was put in a phone number or Aadhaar (India’s national ID) number, and it would return details including their name, passport number, and date of birth. The data appears to have come from India’s CoWIN vaccination tracking app, which has more than 1 billion registered users.“The scale of the data breach is what makes it hard to guess the repercussions,” says Srikanth Lakshmanan, a researcher who runs the digital payments collective Cashless Consumer. “Conservative estimates mean at least personal data of several hundred million users was exposed.” Continued here |
Meet the Founder: Milano Di Rouge's Milan Harris Milano Di Rouge's Milan Harris on the lack of resources, mentorship, and recognition for entrepreneurs of color, many of whom are first-generation business owners living outside of startup hubs. Continued here |
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How to Answer "What Are Your Salary Expectations?"
There are many interview questions that inspire dread in an interviewee — from “What’s your greatest weakness?” to “Tell me about yourself.” But one in particular is especially complicated: “What are your salary expectations?” If you go too low, you might end up making less than they’re willing to pay. But if you go too high, you could price yourself out of the job. In this piece, the author offers practical strategies for how to approch this question along with sample answers to use as a guide. Continued here |
Why You Should Lead With Promise, Not Problems Leah Austin, President and CEO of the National Black Child Development Institute, and Terri-Nichelle Bradley, Founder & CEO of Brown Toy Box, discuss their longterm mentorship and how to build a strong community. Continued here |
In a First, Wind and Solar Generated More Power Than Coal in U.S.
Wind and solar produced more U.S. power than coal during the first five months of this year, as several coal plants closed and gas prices droppedCLIMATEWIRE | Wind and solar generated more electricity than coal through May, an E&E News review of federal data shows, marking the first time renewables have outpaced the former king of American power over a five-month period. Continued here |
What Subjects Are Off-Limits for Work Chat? Politics, religion, and other subjects can cause issues at work. Continued here |
McKinsey's Three Horizons Model Defined Innovation for Years. Here's Why It No Longer Applies.
In the 20th century McKinsey created a model called the Three Horizons to explain how businesses must invest in current products, incremental innovations, and breakthrough innovations. The framework relied on time as a guiding factor; it assumes that truly breakthrough innovations will take years to develop. Technology has made that assumption incorrect: Today innovations like Uber and Airbnb can be rolled out extremely quickly. Because established companies tend to move slowly and must invest resources in existing products, this means that unlike in the 20th century, attacking disruptors now have the advantage. Continued here |
How to Stop Phantom Deliverables In Their Track Playing a little game of 'what if' before any project is a great way to get ahead of phantom deliverables. Continued here |
Recipe for how to kill a galaxy revealed at last
Although they all form simultaneously, the hottest, bluest, shortest-lived stars evolve and die first.Since redder stars survive, galaxies lacking new stellar populations are called “red-and-dead” by astronomers. Continued here |
Did climate change cause Canada's wildfires?
A spate of serious wildfires across Canada have become a global story in recent weeks, accompanied by photos of murky orange-hued landscapes.The fires have worsened air quality across the country and down into the neighbouring US, and required tens of thousands of people to be evacuated. With more than four million hectares (10 million acres) already burned it is now on track to be the country's worst wildfire season ever. Continued here |
AI-powered church service in Germany draws a large crowd
On Friday, over 300 people attended an experimental ChatGPT-powered church service at St. Paul’s church in the Bavarian town of Fürth, Germany, reports the Associated Press. The 40-minute sermon included text generated by OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot and delivered by avatars on a television screen above the altar. Continued here |
Google's ad tech dominance spurs more antitrust charges, report says
This week, the European Union (EU) is preparing to lob yet another formal antitrust complaint against Google, Bloomberg reported. Charges could come with massive fines for Google, as the EU's European Commission follows in the US Department of Justice's footsteps and starts pushing back against Google's alleged advertising technology industry dominance. Continued here |
Mark Edwards: Why is it so hard to get effective birth control in the US?
Nearly half of all pregnancies in the United States are unplanned, the result of millions of people being unable to get the birth control method that works best for them. Reproductive health advocate and 2023 Audacious Project grantee Mark Edwards discusses Upstream USA's nationwide effort to expand access to high-quality contraceptive care by integrating it into primary health-care settings -- a crucial shift towards increasing equal health opportunities and empowering people to decide when and if they want to start families. (This ambitious idea is a part of the Audacious Project, TED's initiative to inspire and fund global change.) Continued here |
How to Nurture the Leaders Right Under Your Nose The power of internal leadership development programs. Continued here |
Garmin's New Bike Computer Crams More Data Onto a Smaller Screen
If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more. Please also consider subscribing to WIREDOn a recent bike-packing trip in southern Utah with my partner, Brian, and another couple, I found myself bemused by the guys’ attachment to their GPS cycling computers. At the end of each day, they pored over stats as if they had just competed in a stage of the Tour de France. I had a cycling computer too, and would admittedly have been lost without its wayfinding wizardry. But I still find myself in an internal debate over whether all the data they spit out diminishes the joy of just riding my bike. Continued here |
A Summer Reading List for the Modern Leader Succession, shipwrecks, and a romantic comedy top my list of leisure reads Continued here |
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