PicoBlog

Welcome to Import AI, a newsletter about AI research. Import AI runs on lattes, ramen, and feedback from readers. If you’d like to support this (and comment on posts!) please subscribe. SPECIAL EDITION! GPT2, Five Years On: …A cold eyed reckoning about that time in 2019 when wild-eyed technologists created a (then) powerful LLM and used it to make some very confident claims about AI safety, policy, and the future of the world…

Once upon a time I decided to train a neural net to generate pickup lines. Once I started collecting the training data I began to regret it when I saw how awful the existing lines were. Turns out I needn’t have worried. The neural net I used was so small and clueless that its pickup lines were mostly incoherent and confusing. You must be a tringle? Cause you’re the only thing here.

Welcome everyone to the Week 7 update of the True Pressure Score (TPS), a complementary evaluation tool to pair with the TSR to bring much-needed context to the ‘sack’ and ‘pressure’ statistics while simultaneously providing a more refined gauge on determining who actually are the most skilled, impactful and valuable pass-rushers in football. From a team perspective, all pressures are positive for a defense, but they can mean very different things for an individual pass-rusher making the play.

Good morning. Let’s basketball. Nonchaloir (Repose); John Singer Sargent; 1911 The Indiana Pacers put 117 points on the Boston Celtics in regulation, watched the Celtics shoot just 33% from deep, got Joe Mazzulla to play a center every minute of the game even though those centers (Al Horford and Luke Kornet) were largely being abused by Indiana’s offense, shot 63% inside the arc and lost. It’s like the Nicene Creed of heartbreak, and it very well could be the series.

Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade.This week I decided to check in with standard cable news. If you have be reading my Substack offerings you know that I endeavor to stay responsibly informed, but limit my standard commercial news encounters. This is what happened. Upon opening up the screen I was immediately hit with an image that made me sit down, close the screen and take long deep breaths.

by Eoghan Lyng ❉ Reuniting with drummer Terry Chambers, the XTC bassist is here to talk about his newest project, TC&I. To all intents and purposes, Colin Moulding has been retired for ten years from the public eye, writes Eoghan Lyng. Yet, now, he’s back with a brand new E.P. What’s better, it’s a perfectly splendid collection of songs! This sees Moulding reunite with XTC drummer Terry Chambers (it’s credited to the moniker TC&I), the first time they’ve played on a record together since 1982's Mummer.

(Listen to the radio version here.) On Father’s Day at mid-morning, I was working in my home office when I heard a familiar wheep! at close range. I looked out the window and there he was—a Great Crested Flycatcher up in my box elder. He didn’t stick around for a photo op but was fun to hear. Great Crested Flycatchers are hard to see because they usually stick to the upper canopy, but they call a lot to let us know what we’re missing.

Friends, today I have what Taylor Swift would call a quill pen story for you. It may not be as fun as getting to the bottom of a famous 1990s song or college football traditions, but I’m sharing it because it was something I was genuinely curious about — and because I believe it’s important. Have you ever heard the Henry Ford quote: I was at an event recently where a panelist mentioned it.

Bloomfield, Young Giants, Shoot : what a lot of crap football films there have been. Okay so Wim Wenders’ The Goalkeeper’s Anxiety At The Penalty Kick is alright, but for the most part, football on film’s been as great a success as the Paddy McGuinness Question Of Sport reboot. The same Hollywood that’s made boxing, baseball and even fly fishing compelling has completely failed to transfer the magic of the beautiful game to the big screen.