Arnold Kling on truth in AI: “The larger problem is that machine Intelligence and truth have parted ways on the march towards human-like general intelligence. The AI guru and 2024 Physics Nobel Laureate Geoff Hinton described the conundrum with some humor, equating AI with an alien species that has descended on Earth, but “we’re having a hard time taking it in because they speak such good English.” We are never sure whether they are telling us the truth.”
Kim Scott: “Silicon Valley’s current fascination with a trendy management meme illustrates a broader and more troubling turn in certain powerful pockets of its culture — one that has seized our politics and could even unduly influence our election (again). I’m talking about founder mode. A recently coined management style being celebrated by some venture capitalists, it embraces the notion that a company’s founder must make decisions unilaterally rather than partner with direct reports or frontline employees. All too often the extension of founder mode is to resist not only internal checks and balances but also those from the government. I see founder mode as another expression of a creeping attraction to one-man rule in some corners of tech. (I use “man” intentionally, as only 3 percent of venture capital funding goes to solo female founders.) This neo-authoritarianism is nothing short of a rejection of the historical values that made Silicon Valley what it is today.”
NYTimes: “Sugar is among [Maharashtra’s] most important industries, one that sells to big brand buyers such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi, and is heavily controlled by the political elite. Most of the state’s sugar mills are led by sitting lawmakers or political figures, a new investigation by The New York Times and The Fuller Project found. That includes at least 21 state lawmakers, four members of the national Parliament, five government ministers and nearly 50 former officials. Mill bosses come from every party — both in government leadership and opposition — including the Indian National Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Shiv Sena and the National Congress Party. Countless other mills have business or family ties to politicians and lawmakers. That means, in many cases, that the very people who could protect workers are also profiting from their exploitation.”
FT: “UK universities produce groundbreaking research with the potential to transform industries and society. Since 2014, 1,300 spinouts from 91 UK universities have generated more than £20bn in investments and created nearly 29,000 jobs. Yet, many of these ideas fail to make it to market, trapped in the so-called valley of death. This funding gap occurs between the point where researchers exhaust research grants and the point where technologies are viable enough to attract venture capital. It poses a serious threat to the UK’s economic prospects as a home for innovative companies. Proof-of-concept (POC) funding is the bridge that can help researchers cross this valley of death. It allows academic inventors to test and demonstrate the viability of their ideas as marketable technologies. It provides the insights needed for decisions to be taken on further investment.”
