The Python Package Problem: Python packages can give your software superpowers, but managing them is a barrier to AI development.
Letters

The Python Package Problem: Python packages can give your software superpowers, but managing them is a barrier to AI development.

I think the complexity of Python package management holds down AI application development more than is widely appreciated. AI faces multiple bottlenecks — we need more GPUs, better algorithms, cleaner data in large quantities.

February 28, 20242 min read
The Python Package Problem: Python packages can give your software superpowers, but managing them is a barrier to AI development.
Letters

The Python Package Problem: Python packages can give your software superpowers, but managing them is a barrier to AI development.

I think the complexity of Python package management holds down AI application development more than is widely appreciated. AI faces multiple bottlenecks — we need more GPUs, better algorithms, cleaner data in large quantities.

February 28, 20242 min read
Three Themes for AI Entrepreneurs: Starting an AI company? Three keys to AI entrepreneurship emerged at AI Fund’s annual co-founder and CEO summit.
Letters

Three Themes for AI Entrepreneurs: Starting an AI company? Three keys to AI entrepreneurship emerged at AI Fund’s annual co-founder and CEO summit.

Earlier this month, my team AI Fund held its annual co-founder and CEO summit, where many of our collaborators gathered in California for two days to discuss how to build AI companies.

February 22, 20242 min read
Three Themes for AI Entrepreneurs: Starting an AI company? Three keys to AI entrepreneurship emerged at AI Fund’s annual co-founder and CEO summit.
Letters

Three Themes for AI Entrepreneurs: Starting an AI company? Three keys to AI entrepreneurship emerged at AI Fund’s annual co-founder and CEO summit.

Earlier this month, my team AI Fund held its annual co-founder and CEO summit, where many of our collaborators gathered in California for two days to discuss how to build AI companies.

February 22, 20242 min read
How to Think About the Privacy of Cloud-Based AI: How private is your data on cloud-based AI platforms? Here's a framework for evaluating risks.
Letters

How to Think About the Privacy of Cloud-Based AI: How private is your data on cloud-based AI platforms? Here's a framework for evaluating risks.

The rise of cloud-hosted AI software has brought much discussion about the privacy implications of using it. But I find that users, including both consumers and developers building on such software

February 14, 20244 min read
How to Think About the Privacy of Cloud-Based AI: How private is your data on cloud-based AI platforms? Here's a framework for evaluating risks.
Letters

How to Think About the Privacy of Cloud-Based AI: How private is your data on cloud-based AI platforms? Here's a framework for evaluating risks.

The rise of cloud-hosted AI software has brought much discussion about the privacy implications of using it. But I find that users, including both consumers and developers building on such software

February 14, 20244 min read
What If Large Language Models Become a Commodity?: Large language models are proliferating. What are the prospects for Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, and LLM startups?
Letters

What If Large Language Models Become a Commodity?: Large language models are proliferating. What are the prospects for Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, and LLM startups?

On the LMSYS Chatbot Arena Leaderboard, which pits chatbots against each other anonymously and prompts users to judge which one generated a better answer...

February 7, 20243 min read
What If Large Language Models Become a Commodity?: Large language models are proliferating. What are the prospects for Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, and LLM startups?
Letters

What If Large Language Models Become a Commodity?: Large language models are proliferating. What are the prospects for Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, and LLM startups?

On the LMSYS Chatbot Arena Leaderboard, which pits chatbots against each other anonymously and prompts users to judge which one generated a better answer...

February 7, 20243 min read
The World Needs More Intelligence: Human intelligence is expensive, artificial intelligence is cheap. To solve big problems like climate change, it makes sense to double down on AI.
Letters

The World Needs More Intelligence: Human intelligence is expensive, artificial intelligence is cheap. To solve big problems like climate change, it makes sense to double down on AI.

Last year, a number of large businesses and individuals went to the media and governments and pushed the message that AI is scary, impossible to control, and might even lead to human extinction. Unfortunately they succeeded: Now many people think AI is scary.

January 31, 20242 min read
The World Needs More Intelligence: Human intelligence is expensive, artificial intelligence is cheap. To solve big problems like climate change, it makes sense to double down on AI.
Letters

The World Needs More Intelligence: Human intelligence is expensive, artificial intelligence is cheap. To solve big problems like climate change, it makes sense to double down on AI.

Last year, a number of large businesses and individuals went to the media and governments and pushed the message that AI is scary, impossible to control, and might even lead to human extinction. Unfortunately they succeeded: Now many people think AI is scary.

January 31, 20242 min read
AI On the Agenda at the World Economic Forum: The World Economic Forum at Davos felt like an AI conference, with big takeaways for business and regulation.
Letters

AI On the Agenda at the World Economic Forum: The World Economic Forum at Davos felt like an AI conference, with big takeaways for business and regulation.

Last week, I attended the World Economic Forum, an annual meeting of leaders in government, business, and culture at Davos, Switzerland.

January 24, 20243 min read
AI On the Agenda at the World Economic Forum: The World Economic Forum at Davos felt like an AI conference, with big takeaways for business and regulation.
Letters

AI On the Agenda at the World Economic Forum: The World Economic Forum at Davos felt like an AI conference, with big takeaways for business and regulation.

Last week, I attended the World Economic Forum, an annual meeting of leaders in government, business, and culture at Davos, Switzerland.

January 24, 20243 min read
The Easiest Way to Achieve Artificial General Intelligence: Coming up with scientific definitions of ambiguous terms like consciousness and sentience can spur progress but mislead the public.
Letters

The Easiest Way to Achieve Artificial General Intelligence: Coming up with scientific definitions of ambiguous terms like consciousness and sentience can spur progress but mislead the public.

As I wrote in an earlier letter, whether AI is sentient or conscious is a philosophical question rather than a scientific one, since there is no widely agreed-upon definition and test for these terms.

January 18, 20242 min read
The Easiest Way to Achieve Artificial General Intelligence: Coming up with scientific definitions of ambiguous terms like consciousness and sentience can spur progress but mislead the public.
Letters

The Easiest Way to Achieve Artificial General Intelligence: Coming up with scientific definitions of ambiguous terms like consciousness and sentience can spur progress but mislead the public.

As I wrote in an earlier letter, whether AI is sentient or conscious is a philosophical question rather than a scientific one, since there is no widely agreed-upon definition and test for these terms.

January 18, 20242 min read
Outstanding Research Without Massive Compute: Researchers at Stanford and Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Network dramatically simplified a key algorithm for training large language models.
Letters

Outstanding Research Without Massive Compute: Researchers at Stanford and Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Network dramatically simplified a key algorithm for training large language models.

It is only rarely that, after reading a research paper, I feel like giving the authors a standing ovation. But I felt that way after finishing Direct Preference Optimization (DPO) by...

January 10, 20243 min read

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