Dr. Agarwal is among more than 20 researchers who have left their work at Meta, OpenAI, Google DeepMind and other big A.I. projects in recent weeks to join a new Silicon Valley start-up, Periodic Labs. Many of them have given up tens of millions of dollars — if not hundreds of millions — to make the move.
As the A.I. labs chase amorphous goals like superintelligence and a similar concept called artificial general intelligence, Periodic is focused on building A.I technology that can accelerate new scientific discoveries in areas like physics and chemistry.
“The main objective of A.I. is not to automate white-collar work,” said Liam Fedus, one of the start-up’s founders. “The main objective is to accelerate science.”
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AI for science research
Top AI technologists are spurning major offers to start an AI focused company specializing in advancing science Dr. Agarwal is among more than 20 researchers who have left their work at Meta, OpenAI, Google DeepMind and other big A.I. projects in recent weeks to join a new Silicon Valley start-up, Periodic Labs. Many of them…
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Playing SimCity 2000 as adult
SimCity 2000 was a fun sandbox game as a kid, and looking back, building an airport first wasn’t a good choice. Ars Technia played the game with an adult lens. Can I live my values by sparing some money in a tight budget for homeless shelters or anti-smoking initiatives? Should I trust my police captain…
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Closed captions are all the rage
For various reasons is it any surprise closed captioning keeps growing in popularity? The poll suggests many young adults use subtitles because they are watching in noisy environments, whereas older adults choose them to better hear or understand what is being said. That makes sense to David Barber, a sound editor and mixer and president…
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A school in Kentucky banned phones. And the kids started talking to each other
A school in Kentucky banned phones. Unsurprisingly, they interacted more, and surprisingly, library circulation went up. “There is definitely a different feeling,” Neuss said. “It’s hard to quantify something like that. But it’s noticeable when you talk with students, walk through the hallways and go into classes.” What is easier to quantify is the immediate…
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A conservative concentration of media power
Margaret Sullivan with an astute and sobering take on the consolidation of conservative media power: In 2020, only a tiny fraction of Americans got news from TikTok. These days, that number has soared to one in five. For young adults, those figures are much higher, with almost half of adults under 30 getting news there,…
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The story behind the blinking guy meme
A random moment made Drew Scanlon famous, and uses the fame to raise money for multiple sclerosis. An avid cyclist who enjoys rides through Marin, he’s participated in a charity bike ride for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society for 10 years. At this point, he’s raised more than $300,000 for research into the disease, which…
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Drones tracking shoplifters
Is sending a drone after a shoplifter really the best thing? “Instead of a 911 call [that triggers the drone], it’s an alarm call,” says Keith Kauffman, a former police chief who now directs Flock’s drone program. “It’s still the same type of response.” Kauffman walked through how the drone program might work in the…
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Sushi’s rise in the USA
Sushi’s popularity continues to grow. Once a small niche of the seafood business, sushi is now the industry’s growth leader. Most of that growth is not happening in $300-per-head omakase restaurants (though those are proliferating). It is happening in gas stations and big-box stores, bowling alleys and stadiums, U.S. Army commissaries and amusement parks. Retail…
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History as seen through in IKEA catalog
History as seen through in IKEA catalog.