Singularity University

Was AI just a fad?

By using AI systems so much, we could be polluting the very data source we need to make them useful in the first place.

Researchers found that without high-quality human data, AI systems trained on AI-made data get dumber and dumber as each model learns from the previous one. It’s like a digital version of the problem of inbreeding.

This “regurgitive training” seems to lead to a reduction in the quality and diversity of model behavior. Quality here roughly means some combination of being helpful, harmless, and honest. Diversity refers to the variation in responses and which people’s cultural and social perspectives are represented in the AI outputs.

There are also more subtle risks from too much AI-made content...

What Is ‘Model Collapse’? An Expert Explains the Rumors About an Impending AI Doom AI prophets and newsmongers are forecasting the end of the generative AI hype, with talk of an impending catastrophic “model collapse.”

Silicon Valley vs AI-Safety Bill: AI companies could face fines if their technology causes “critical harm.” Opponents argue that the bill will stifle innovation, hold developers liable for users’ abuses, and drive the AI business out of California. How do you see this unfolding?

GOVERNANCE
Silicon Valley Is Coming Out in Force Against an AI-Safety Bill
Caroline Mimbs Nyce | The Atlantic
“In part, the debate over the bill gets at a core question with AI. Will this technology end the world, or have people just been watching too much sci-fi? At the center of it all is [Scott] Wiener. Because so many AI companies are based in California, the bill, if passed, could have major implications nationwide. I caught up with the state senator yesterday to discuss what he describes as his ‘hardball politics’ of this bill—and whether he actually believes that AI is capable of going rogue and firing off nuclear weapons.”

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
An ‘AI Scientist’ Is Inventing and Running Its Own Experiments
Will Knight | Wired
“At first glance, a recent batch of research papers produced by a prominent artificial intelligence lab at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver might not seem that notable. Featuring incremental improvements on existing algorithms and ideas, they read like the contents of a middling AI conference or journal. But the research is, in fact, remarkable. That’s because it’s entirely the work of an ‘AI scientist’ developed at the UBC lab together with researchers from the University of Oxford and a startup called Sakana AI.”

BIOTECH
Beyond Gene-Edited Babies: The Possible Paths for Tinkering With Human Evolution
Antonio Regalado | MIT Technology Review
“Editing human embryos is restricted in much of the world—and making an edited baby is flatly illegal in most countries surveyed by legal scholars. But advancing technology could render the embryo issue moot. New ways of adding CRISPR to the bodies of people already born—children and adults—could let them easily receive changes as well.”

More exciting tech news:

This Week’s Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through August 24) From an ALS patient given his voice back by AI to the future of air travel, check out this week's awesome tech stories from around the web.

Surprising results of a recent simulation have shown that a black hole might only swallow 1 percent of a star that falls into it. The rest ends up being blown away from the black hole in a sort of cosmic Slurp and Burp.

Black holes are messy eaters—not unlike a five-year-old with a bowl of spaghetti. A star starts out as a compact body but gets spaghettified: stretched to a long, thin strand by the extreme tides of the black hole.

As half of the matter from the now-shredded star gets slurped towards the black hole, only 1 percent of it is actually swallowed. The black hole simply can’t swallow all that much, so what it can’t swallow smothers the central engine and gets steadily flung away.

When observed like they would be by our telescopes, the simulations explain a lot.

Black Hole Sun: Watch a Star Get Torn to Shreds by a Supermassive Black Hole In a new study, scientists have released the most detailed simulations yet of a supermassive black hole eating a star.

Kellie Nuttall specializes in the Future of Mobility and Smart Cities, with a particular focus on the role of IOT, big data and Artificial Intelligence. Kellie leads 's Analytics and Artificial Intelligence practice in Australia. She speaks on how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping business, and how leaders must grasp AI's fundamentals and embrace its transformative potential.

When: August 29th, 2024 at 3PM PT
Link to Join: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/6717238307064/WN_sInWnCScTNm3-Lt0XIqdIQ

Join us for an exclusive, in-depth info session designed to answer all your questions and provide a behind-the-scenes look at the program.

This is your opportunity to understand how the Singularity Executive Program equips executives and leaders with the tools, knowledge and mindset to thrive in a rapidly changing world.

Do you believe in the "Cheese of Truth?" I wonder if anyone saw the future of AI in the curds. Brie so for real right now, what has your lunch foretold? I have a grate idea: come join us at the November Executive Program!

The Un-Brie-Lievable History of Tyromancy This fortune-telling practice uses cheese to predict everything from your future spouse to your next career move.

How many hours of sleep do you usually get each night? Do you use any technology to track the quality of your sleep?

How important is sleep? Is there such thing as your brain being "too active" at night?

To study how sleep changes the brain, the team implanted electrodes into multiple parts of the hippocampus in mice and rats to monitor their brain activity.

Using optogenetics—a way to turn neurons on or off using light—in rodents, they artificially disrupted BARR activity as the critters slept after learning several memory tasks. As a result, sharp-wave ripples, the type of brain activity usually associated with solidifying memory, lasted far longer.

Surprisingly, it made memory worse. On the surface, it doesn’t make sense: Wouldn’t more activity during sleep be better for memory?

Newly Discovered Brain Wave Helps Lock in Memories While We Sleep These brain waves reset neurons so they can encode new experiences the next day, while enhancing memories during sleep.

Imagine if we could stop HIV with a single shot. In a way, the neutered HIV becomes a parasite that can fight off the natural virus.

To be clear, TIPs— therapeutic interfering particles— doesn’t cure HIV. Like antiviral drugs, it keeps the virus at bay. But rather than taking a cocktail of pills every day, a single jab could last months with lower chance of resistance.

Thanks to antiviral medications, HIV infection is no longer a death sentence. With a cocktail of drugs, people with HIV can keep the virus in check. Introduced more recently, PrEP, or pre-exposure prophylaxis, can guard uninfected people from potential infections.

But antivirals come with side effects. Nausea, fatigue, dizziness, and pain are common. When taken for years—which is typical—the drugs raise cholesterol levels and increase the chances of depression, diabetes, and liver and kidney damage. They’re also expensive and very hard to come by in some regions of the world.

The new approach is a virus-like living drug. Like its evil twin, HIV, it replicates and spreads in the body. Because both viruses use the same cell machinery to reproduce, the engineered virus dominates precious resources, elbowing out disease-causing viruses and limiting their spread. TIPs also kept the virus’s levels at bay in cells from HIV-positive people.

A Novel Treatment Slashes HIV Up to 10,000-Fold in Monkeys With Just a Single Dose Scientist plan to test the idea in humans. If safe and effective, the long-lasting shot could help people who don’t have regular access to antiviral drugs.

"Cars are faster than humans, but that doesn't mean we stopped walking. When we're moving huge amounts of stuff over huge distances, we need engines, whether that's airplanes or boats or cars. And we see this technology as an engine for the imagination." -David Holz

We have zoom, we have text messages and social media, but we still meet up in-person with our family and friends. Though we have computers and smart phones, people do still read magazines and paper books. These sort of exponential technologies tend not to replace the human experience, but rather augment it.

Singularity Expert believes that generative AI will inspire artists to be more imaginative and more creative, rather than replace them.

Join us for more conversations like this at su.org/executive-program

Have you found expanded imagination in your exploration of these tools?

the AI industry’s aggressive data-gathering practices may have led to a consent crisis

“Over the past year, many of the most important web sources used for training AI models have restricted the use of their data, according to a study published this week by the Data Provenance Initiative, an MIT-led research group. The study, which looked at 14,000 web domains that are included in three commonly used AI training data sets, discovered an ’emerging crisis in consent,’ as publishers and online platforms have taken steps to prevent their data from being harvested.”

Looking for more tech news like this? Visit SingularityHub.com

The Data That Powers A.I. Is Disappearing Fast New research from the Data Provenance Initiative has found a dramatic drop in content made available to the collections used to build artificial intelligence.

would $1,000 a month for three years with no strings attached significantly change your life?

“The initial results from what OpenResearch, an Altman-funded research lab, describes as the most comprehensive study on ‘unconditional cash’ show that while the grants had their benefits and weren’t spent on items such as drugs and alcohol, they were hardly a panacea for treating some of the biggest concerns about income inequality and the prospect of AI and other automation technologies taking jobs.”

Looking for more tech news like this? Visit SingularityHub.com

Here’s What Happens When You Give People Free Money OpenResearch released the first results of the most comprehensive study on giving unrestricted cash grants to impoverished Americans. Researchers say it will flame both sides of the debate over welfare.

This definitely sounds like something out of science fiction... will this be the inspiration for the next big space-pirate trilogy?

A light sail designed using artificial intelligence is about 1000 times thinner than a human hair and weighs as much as a grain of sand – and it could help us create a spacecraft capable of reaching another star sooner than we thought.

The Breakthrough Starshot mission to travel to Alpha Centauri – the closest star to our solar system – was announced in 2016 and invited researchers to design a spaceship powered by light.

Looking for more tech news like this? Visit SingularityHub.com

Wafer-thin light sail could help us reach another star sooner A mission to the sun’s closest neighbouring star, Alpha Centauri, could be made faster thanks to a tiny light sail punctured with billions of tiny holes

we don't actually know how the physics of flight works, yet we build flying things all the time.

we're building and deploying AI's, and we can test their outcomes, but we don't always know exactly how they're doing what they're doing either.

"so how do we meet the unknowability of the world? experimentation. you don't really need to know how the world works to be able to engage with it."

Source: Aaron Frank, Singularity Executive Program

5 Day Leadership Transformation | Singularity Executive Program The Singularity Executive program is a one-of-a-kind in-person leadership program focused on innovation mindset and long-term technology strategy.

and I would walk 523 miles and I would walk 523 more🎶

Imagine being able to fly from San Francisco to San Diego, Boston to Baltimore, or Nashville to New Orleans without the need to go to an airport and with no emissions except water.

"Hydrogen has one hundred times the specific energy of today’s batteries and three times that of jet fuel,” Bevirt wrote in a blog post. “The result is an electric aircraft that can travel much farther—and carry a greater payload—than is possible not only with any battery cells currently under development, but even with the same mass of jet fuel.”

Joby's New Hydrogen-Powered Aircraft Can Fly You From San Francisco to San Diego Joby said it has created a hydrogen-powered version of its eVTOL, and the new aircraft recently completed a 523-mile test flight.

an interesting saga it has been... what are your thoughts on what is colloquially known as the 'end of obesity'?

Having more drugs on the market would mean more choices for patients—and more profits for the companies selling them. "It’s an extraordinarily exciting and busy time in the field of obesity," says Darren McGuire, a cardiologist and professor of internal medicine at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

Looking for more tech news like this? Visit SingularityHub.com

The Race for the Next Ozempic The next wave of obesity drugs could help people lose even more weight—and make some pharma companies a fortune.

How do you embrace the mistakes you've made? What do you do following a failure?

Give yourself the gift of growth, full of mistakes and continuous learning.

sounds like and had an exciting weekend

“After months of speculation about its search ambitions, OpenAI has revealed SearchGPT, a ‘prototype’ search engine that could eventually help the company tear off a slice of Google’s lucrative business. OpenAI said that the new tool would help users find what they are looking for more quickly and easily by using generative AI to gather links and answer user queries in a conversational tone.”

Looking for more tech news like this? Visit SingularityHub.com

SearchGPT Is OpenAI’s Direct Assault on Google The company behind ChatGPT is expanding into search, and leaning heavily on its relationships with publishers.

Investors are throwing billions into AI—Nvidia, Meta, Microsoft, and more! But is this a tech revolution or a colossal gamble? Nvidia’s raking in cash, but others are losing millions. What’s the real deal?

Check out this month’s edition of the Singularity newsletter. To read the full version subscribe via the link in our bio.

The future of the Imaginary internet... how do you see this resolving?

It’s no secret generative AI often “hallucinates.” Given a prompt, it can spout inaccurate facts or “dream up” categorically untrue answers. Hallucinations could have serious consequences, such as a healthcare AI incorrectly, but authoritatively, identifying a scab as cancer.

How do we fix this?

Model collapse is a separate phenomenon, where AI trained on its own self-generated data degrades over generations. It’s a bit like genetic inbreeding, where offspring have a greater chance of inheriting diseases. While computer scientists have long been aware of the problem, how and why it happens for large AI models has been a mystery.

In the new study, researchers built a custom large language model and trained it on Wikipedia entries. They then fine-tuned the model nine times using datasets generated from its own output and measured the quality of the AI’s output with a so-called “perplexity score.” True to its name, the higher the score, the more bewildering the generated text.

Within just a few cycles, the AI notably deteriorated.

In one example, the team gave it a long prompt about the history of building churches—one that would make most human’s eyes glaze over. After the first two iterations, the AI spewed out a relatively coherent response discussing revival architecture, with an occasional “@” slipped in. By the fifth generation, however, the text completely shifted away from the original topic to a discussion of language translations.

The output of the ninth and final generation was laughably bizarre.

Read the full article:

This Is What Could Happen if AI Content Is Allowed to Take Over the Internet A new study found a text-based generative AI, when heavily trained on AI-generated content, produces utter nonsense after just a few cycles of training.

The Digital Wellbeing Global Impact Challenge is under way, with startups from around the world applying for $250,000 in prize money.

There's zero cost to apply and it only takes about 10 minutes, so if you or someone you know is working to create digital wellbeing by solving for challenges like misinformation, cyberbullying, social disconnection, or digital stress, apply now.

If you have questions about the program and application process, we're hosting a 1-hour information session to answer them.

When: Thursday Aug 1st 2024, 8:00 AM PT
RSVP: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/8417217720685/WN_S4_9g0cySCir8hNMguWyFQ

What is a Global Impact Challenge?
Who can apply?
What do I have to do to apply?
How do you judge applicants to pick a winner?

We'll answer all of these questions and more, as well as any other questions you may have in a live Q&A. Join us!

Where do you get your news to stay informed on new technological advances? Comment and let us know!

The study included both female and male mice, and it worked across the board.

Age catches up with us all. Eyes struggle to focus. Muscles wither away. Memory dwindles. The risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, and other age-related diseases skyrockets.

A myriad of anti-aging therapies are in the works, and a new one just joined the fray. In mice, blocking a protein that promotes inflammation in middle age increased metabolism, lowered muscle wasting and frailty, and reduced the chances of cancer.

The treatment didn’t just boost healthy longevity, also known as healthspan—the number of years living without diseases—it also increased the mice’s lifespan by up 25 percent. The average life expectancy of people in the US is roughly 77.5 years. If the results translate from mice to people—and that’s a very big if—it could mean a bump to almost 97 years.

Among a slew of pro-aging proteins already discovered, IL-11 stands out as it could make a beeline for testing in humans. Blockers for IL-11 are already in the works for treating cancer and tissue scarring. Although clinical trials are still ongoing, early results show the drugs are relatively safe in humans.

“Previously proposed life-extending drugs and treatments have either had poor side-effect profiles, or don’t work in both sexes, or could extend life, but not healthy life, however this does not appear to be the case for IL-11,” said study author Dr. Stuart Cook in a press release. “These findings are very exciting.”

Scientists Say They Extended Mice's Lifespans 25% With an Antibody Drug Blocking a protein that promotes inflammation in middle age increased metabolism, lowered muscle wasting and frailty, and reduced the chances of cancer.

Mindset is everything! Starting with "What if..." and "Imagine..." according to Naveen Jain, Vice-Chairman of the Board here at Singularity, is the vital first step.

He recently spoke with the Executive Program cohort in a fireside chat on the necessity of visualization and imagination when crafting a mindset. As soon as you tell someone "imagine..." all their preconceived notions can be set aside, opening their mind for a new clear vision. Following that up with "What if..." then sets up the hypothesis.

What if we inspire radically new ways of thinking using technology to forge a brighter future? What do you imagine?

5 Day Leadership Transformation | Singularity Executive Program The Singularity Executive program is a one-of-a-kind in-person leadership program focused on innovation mindset and long-term technology strategy.

What have been your epiphanies while on your 🍄magical mystery tour? Did you feel like a new person after?

Magic mushrooms have recently had a reputation revamp. Often considered a hippie drug, their main active component, psilocybin, is being tested in a variety of clinical trials as a therapy for the likes of depression and post-traumatic stress, bipolar, and eating disorders.

Despite its potential, no one knows how psilocybin works in the brain, especially over longer durations.

In the study, psilocybin dramatically reset brain networks that hum along during active rest—say, while daydreaming or spacing out. These networks control our sense of self, time, and space. Although most effects were temporary, one connection showed changes for weeks.

In some participants, the alterations were so drastic that their brain connections resembled those of completely different people.

Your Brain on Mushrooms: Study Reveals What Psilocybin Does to the Brain—and for How Long In the study, psilocybin reset brain networks controlling our sense of self, time, and space. Most effects were temporary—but one change lasted for weeks.

Is your company encouraging innovation? What steps have you or your leadership taken to promote innovation in your teams? 🤝

Hungry for woolly mammoth jerky?

Thanks to the newly discovered flash-frozen DNA, this mammoth project—pun intended—is the first to assemble an enormous ancient genome in 3D.

Roughly 52,000 years ago, a woolly mammoth died in the Siberian tundra. As her body flash froze in the biting cold, something remarkable happened: Her DNA turned into a fossil. It wasn’t only genetic letters that were memorialized—the cold preserved their intricate structure too.

Fast forward to 2018, when an international expedition to the area found her preserved body. The team took little bits of skin from her head and ear, hairs still intact.

From these samples, scientists built a three-dimensional reconstruction of a woolly mammoth’s genome down to the nanometer. The results were published in Cell today.

First Woolly Mammoth Genome Reconstructed in 3D Could Help Bring the Species Back to Life Thanks to the newly discovered flash-frozen DNA, the project is the first to assemble an enormous ancient genome in 3D.

We're looking for a groundbreaking idea to address the global challenge of misinformation, cyberbullying and social disconnection.

Grand Prize: $250,000 + a scholarship to the Singularity Executive Program
Apply Now: https://www.su.org/gic/sync
Deadline: September 1st

Announced: Nov. 7, 2024 Global Impact Challenges (GICs) are targeted, impact-based innovation competitions hosted by Singularity. Since 2010, we've partnered with organizations all over the world to create incentivized competitions that address specific challenges our world is facing. Some challenges are geographically focused, while others are topic focused. Occasionally, they’re both. Every challenge is different based on the goals of the partner, but they’re all designed to identify and uplift individuals and startups that are creating exponential impact in their area.

Tag or send this to someone who should apply

Singularity X Sync Global Impact Challenge: Digital Wellbeing Singularity and Sync Partner to launch Global Impact Challenge addressing misinformation, cyberbullying, and social disconnection with $250K Prize.

Gary is a globally recognized thought leader focused on the rapidly evolving landscape of work, education, and organizational transformation driven by exponential technologies.

His acclaimed book, The Next Rules of Work, lays out the essential mindset and skillset needed to lead organizations successfully through disruptive change. Global clients like Google, Novartis, The World Bank, and the U.N. frequently bring him in to share his perspectives.

When: Tuesday, July 23rd at 8am PT
RSVP: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/4617204806973/WN_zm3JpE-zTNy24cIK34x5RQ

Gary will share a glimpse into his latest thinking and how the Executive Program fits into his work, and will be available for Q&A. Come join us!

Learn how the EP can re-frame your perspective, and develop a deeper understanding of the technologies shaping the future at this free session.

Highlighting the extraordinary impact our alumni are making on the world! Today, we’re proud to celebrate Verschoor, a Singularity Executive Program alumni and a dedicated teacher who has transcended traditional education to pioneer AI-driven learning. Her transformative work with RVD.AI is revolutionizing how we teach and learn, showcasing the immense potential of AI to enhance and personalize education. Her journey is a testament to the power of human ingenuity converging with exponential technology.

Jennifer Verschoor never imagined that an email would drastically change the trajectory of her career. A dedicated teacher with no inclination towards the startup world, Jennifer’s life was confined to the four walls of her classroom. “I had no idea where I was heading,” she recalls. “Startups were not something I ever considered.” But when she received an invitation to join a nascent startup, she found herself at the crossroads of tradition and innovation.

She credits her journey into this new realm by her participation in the Singularity Executive Program, where she was the first teacher to receive a scholarship to attend. The experience was nothing short of transformative, introducing her to moonshot thinking and a mindset that embraces expansive, visionary ideas. “It was like stepping into the future,” she says, “and realizing that I had to bring some of that back with me.”
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Like most EP alumni, the impact of the program didn’t stop at the end of the five days in Silicon Valley. After returning to Argentina, she became a mentor for the Singularity Chapter there, encouraging other educators to follow in her footsteps. One of her mentees, inspired by Jennifer’s journey, applied for and received a scholarship to attend the EP in 2024. “Seeing two Argentine teachers obtaining the scholarship is unbelievable,” Jennifer remarks. It was a significant achievement, not just for her, but for the entire community of educators in Argentina.

Balancing two worlds has become Jennifer’s new normal. She splits her time between her role at a traditional school and her work with an AI startup, RVD.AI. This startup, deeply embedded in Argentina’s educational fabric, is pioneering a platform that uses AI to revolutionize teaching and learning. “The company has been around for over a century, a leading brand in the school market. Now, we are transforming that legacy into something futuristic,” Jennifer explains.
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RVD.AI is a testament to Jennifer’s ability to blend her deep classroom experience with cutting-edge technology. The platform she is helping to develop aims to assist teachers in creating differentiated lesson plans, provide real-time assessments, and ensure a safe digital learning environment for students. “The AI helps the teacher create lessons and assesses students immediately,” Jennifer elaborates. “This saves time and provides instant feedback, which is crucial for effective learning.” The platform also emphasizes differentiation, allowing it to tailor educational content to the unique needs of each student, thus promoting inclusivity.
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Having had the opportunity to play with the tool alongside Jennifer, I was struck by how intuitive and thoughtful the solution is for teachers. It's evident that Jennifer’s own experience in the classroom has profoundly shaped the tool to address real-world problems. At Singularity, we see this as a true value-add—demonstrating why it’s essential for everyone, technologists or not, to understand the power and capabilities of these technologies in solving problems in our own spaces.

read the full blog on our website:
https://www.su.org/resources/singularity-executive-program-alumni-story-bridging-tradition-and-technology-in-education

Picture a "souped-up deli meat slicer" to your brain. Did you know how brain mapping was done?

Mapping the brain is incredibly difficult and time-consuming. A small chunk of a mouse’s brain, when imaged at single-cell resolution, takes years to process, scan, and reconstruct into 3D computer models. Any trip-ups during the process ruins the product. Mapping the human brain, much larger in size, is far more difficult.

This month, a team from MIT developed a “holistic” brain-mapping platform that captures the anatomy of large slices of the human brain with unprecedented resolution and speed, slashing a process that normally takes between a week and a month to a few days.

They used the platform to image an Alzheimer’s brain, after physically expanding brain tissues with a hydrogel. The automated system sliced, imaged, and automatically stitched the images together and found myriads of cellular changes and problems with neural connections, including inflammation.

Compared to previous brain mapping projects, which often require months or years, the new platform mapped different levels of the brain’s physical makeup—from synapses to local neural circuits and brain-wide connections in slabs of human brain tissue—in just a few days.

This MIT Device Maps the Human Brain With Unprecedented Resolution and Speed A new “holistic” brain-mapping platform slashes a process that normally takes between a week and a month to a just few days.