Unit ⑧ Letter #20232
We decided to open up to our wider network and share a selection of our resources with our colleagues and followers. 🦾
Dear Unit ⑧ friends,
We have been internally exchanging readings for a while, sharing links we find relevant for our development as a small organisation, looking for meaningful directions to head to, and keen to keep abreast in the realm of technology from a technical, political, ethical and artistic point of view. Here are some links to the articles we paid attention to these past weeks, covering topics from legal regulations of Blockchain and AI to the nature of consciousness and what it entails. We hope you enjoy them!
Latest
♢ Mistral AI introduces its new model Mixtral 8x7Bism
The French open model, released on December 11th, is a high-quality sparse mixture of expert models (SMoE) with open weights. Licensed under Apache 2.0., Mistral claims that the model outperforms Llama 2 70B and is currently the best open model option.
♢ Meta - IBM alliance
Meta and WSJ report on Meta Platform's new coalition with International Business Machines, which includes firms and research institutions such as Intel, Oracle, Cornell University, the National Science Foundation, and many more. They are pushing a so-called open model, hoping to gain traction in a fast-growing market, while standing behind “open innovation and open science” in AI.
♢ Sam Altman is interviewed by The Verge
Sam Altman gave an interview to The Verge about his journey getting fired and rehired by OpenAI.
Moods
♧ On Marc Andreessen’s Techno-Optimism
The Futuristic Lawyer and Jurgen Gravenstein reflect on Marc Andreessen’s Techno-Optimism Manifesto, published some weeks ago, in line with the “effective accelerationism” movement, which is gaining momentum. Emily Baler discloses @BasedBeffJezos for Forbes, along with his techno-optimistic agenda. @BasedBeffJezos, also known as Guillaume Verdon, is the Leader of this liberal movement, who stands behind the idea that any means is acceptable to reach a legitimate goal.
Regulations
♢ IMF regulations
Reuters reports about an attempt by global financial regulators and the International Monetary Fund to set out a roadmap with timelines for the IMF and G20, fearing that non-compliance with existing laws of cryptocurrencies could threaten macroeconomic and financial stability.
♢ AI EU Act
Tech Crunch, Tech Policy Press and The Futurist Lawyer report, among many other media, about the last iteration of a consensual Regulation Act by the European Union. The draft — still in need of going through various agreements before becoming a settled law — forces the AI firms to comply in terms of transparency, showing documentation and training methods before releasing their models. The regulation act also focuses on surveillance systems, considering their potential for misuse of facial recognition systems and deep-fakes among others.
Innovation
♤ Ethereum Fee Revolution
Adam Boudjemaa reports about EIP-1559, an update to the Ethereum protocol that introduces changes to how transaction fees are calculated, applied and distributed to avoid overpaying.
♤ Building Apps on Chain
In her article for Coindesk, Alana Levin advocates for traditional-looking apps with select elements of data or resources on-chain. This would allow long-term capabilities, which shall be created through new information networks that don’t and can’t only exist in Web2. She claims that using the blockchain as an information network would be a straightforward way to look at it as “an open, permissionless database.”
Interesting
♢ Interview Benjamin Bratton by Joshua Citarella
In this edition of his podcast (Part 1 and Part 2), artist and political commentator Joshua Citarella holds a conversation with design and technology theorist, Benjamin Bratton. Bratton is particularly recognised for his contributions to discussions about urbanism, architecture, and the role of technology in society. His most notable work is The Stack: On Software and Sovereignty, where he presents a comprehensive design and geopolitical theory for the age of global computation and algorithmic governance. His ideas often intersect various disciplines, blending technology, philosophy, architecture, and urban planning.
♢ Consciousness is not a computation
Roger Penrose, renowned for his contributions to mathematics and physics, proposed an innovative theory to unify general relativity and quantum mechanics. Penrose has also explored the role of quantum mechanics in consciousness, though these ideas are more speculative. In this episode of Lex Friedman's show, he discloses some notions of consciousness and the possibility of conscious AI, based on theories around quantum mechanics.
Unit ⑧ Blog
☞ AI & Education
We would also like to promote our last blog post about AI and education, what the stakes are and how fear led to acceptance, implementation and enthusiasm about a paradigm shift in education thanks to AI. Have a look here!