“Liquid” neural nets, based on a worm’s nervous system, can transform their underlying algorithms on the fly, giving them unprecedented speed and adaptability.
Artificial intelligence researchers have celebrated a string of successes with neural networks, computer programs that roughly mimic how our brains are organized. But despite rapid progress, neural networks remain relatively inflexible, with little ability to change on the fly or adjust to unfamiliar circumstances.
In 2020, two researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology led a team that introduced a new kind of neural network based on real-life intelligence — but not our own. Instead, they took inspiration from the tiny roundworm, Caenorhabditis elegans, to produce what they called liquid neural networks. After a breakthrough last year, the novel networks may now be versatile enough to supplant their traditional counterparts for certain applications. Read More
Daily Archives: February 14, 2023
Copyright won’t solve creators’ Generative AI problem
The media spectacle of generative AI (in which AI companies’ breathless claims of their software’s sorcerous powers are endlessly repeated) has understandably alarmed many creative workers, a group that’s already traumatized by extractive abuse by media and tech companies.
Even though the claims about “AI” are overblown and overhyped, creators are right to be alarmed. Their bosses would like nothing more than to fire them and replace them with pliable software. The “creative” industries talk a lot about how audiences should be paying for creative works, but the companies that bring creators’ works to market treat their own payments to creators as a cost to be minimized. Read More
The AI Bubble of 2023
I’ve spent 25 years watching, trading and investing in the stock market. The repetition of patterns is amazing. In every generation we see new bubbles, which form when a new innovation comes along and everyone gets excited about the future. The crowd gets swept away on a wave of madness, fueled by the recent gains they’ve seen for themselves (or for others) and all other considerations go out the window. Get me in, I don’t care how, I can’t miss out on this.
In December, ChatGPT began to spread like wildfire on social media. A handful of art-related AI programs like DALL-E 2 also began to proliferate on Instagram and some of the more image-oriented sites, but ChatGPT captured the imaginations (and nightmares) of the chattering class like nothing else we’ve ever seen.
Wall Street has begun to take notice of the AI theme for the stock market. It should be noted that trading programs based on earlier versions of AI have been around for decades, so the concept is a very comfortable one among analysts, traders and bankers at traditional firms. But now that there is retail investor interest in riding the wave, you’re going to see the assembly line lurch into action very rapidly. The switch has already been thrown. They’re pulling up their overalls and rolling up their sleeves. Funds, products, IPOs and strategies are being formulated in the dozens as we speak. This will hit the hundreds before we’re through. It’s merely stage one. Read More
The AI photo app trend has already fizzled, new data shows
Is the AI photo app trend already over? Over the past several months, AI-powered photo apps have been going viral on the App Store as consumers explored AI powered–experiences like Lensa AI’s “magic avatars” feature and other apps promising to turn text into images using AI tech. But new data from app intelligence firm Apptopia indicates consumer interest in AI photo apps has fallen as quickly as it rose.
The firm analyzed top AI photo apps worldwide, tracking both their download growth and in-app consumer spending.
In its analysis shared with TechCrunch, Apptopia examined the leading AI photo app Lensa AI and others, including Voi, Remini, Pixelup, Fotor, Wonder, FacePlay, Aiby, FaceApp, Gradient, Dawn AI, Facetune, Prequel, Voilà AI Artist, New Profile Pic Avatar Maker, and Meitu. (Voi was a later arrival, launching on December 7.)
Apptopia found that this group of AI apps first began to take off around Thanksgiving, then hit their peak in terms of both downloads and in-app purchases around mid-December. Read More
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