Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?
My friends: Alistair Croll (Solve for Interesting, Tilt the Windmill, Interesting Bits, HBS, chair of Strata, Startupfest, FWD50, and Scaletechconf; author of Lean Analytics and some other books), Hugh McGuire (Rebus Foundation, PressBooks, LibriVox) and I decided that every week the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person “must see.”
Check out these six links that we’re recommending to one another:
- ControlNet: Another step-change in AI image generation – Red Shark. “Since we’re always on the subject of AI (and given how fast the field is advancing, I think it’s time we fed all the Six Links Worthy of Your Attention into a model and created a Six Links Generator, TBH) here’s another one to add to the list of tools like ChatGPT and Dall-E and the underlying tech like Large Language Models and Generative Adversarial Networks: ControlNet. This add-on to image generators gives humans control over aspects of the image. For example, you can adjust where the lighting is coming from (and it’ll fix the shadows!) It’s pretty astonishing, albeit early.” (Alistair for Hugh).
- What Are Word and Sentence Embeddings? – co:here. “Mitch, I know you’re spending a ton of time explaining AI to people. Many of the questions I’ve been getting boil down to, ‘can you explain how this works to a mortal please?’ I have some analogies, and I’ve figured out how to demonstrate the ideas using some big sheets of paper, rulers, and post-it notes. But this post by Luis Serrano of cohere.ai is one of the best things I’ve found. Highly recommended as a way of understanding the basic concepts, then ‘scaling up’ to impossibly large dimensions.” (Alistair for Mitch).
- The discovery of giant superclusters of galaxies is challenging our very understanding of the Universe – BBC Future. “I was listening to an interview with an organic chemist who specializes in the synthesis of single-molecule nanomachines, who said something along the lines of: The more we learn about cell biology, the less we understand. Put another way: It seems that every scientific discovery we make explains many things, but also often opens up new mysteries and complexity that expands the unknown. New discoveries of mega galaxies are upending the standard model of cosmology.” (Hugh for Alistair).
- US got a record-breaking 40% of its energy from carbon-free sources in 2022, report reveals – EuroNews Green. “I need to dig into this more, but if true, it’s pretty extraordinary.” (Hugh for Mitch).
- Over $30M worth of Funkos are being dumped – NPR Business. “I have been following the success of Funko and their Funko Pop! line of business, in particular. I’m not just a customer, but I have a deep appreciation for the collectible world (it runs deep). A few years back, I decided that I would collect every Pop! that was either a bass player or a writer. My current collection is well over 100 of these cute, cartoon-ized characters from pop culture. Still, as a collector and fan, it’s easy to see how a company like this can get ahead of its skis. Lots of selection and lots of demand will always provide a gap/glut possibility. So, what’s the company to do? If they liquidate their inventory, the value of the collectibles to their customers will implode. If they give the leftovers away to kids in need, the value of the collectibles erodes into a commonplace toy. So, the company has decided to dump their overstock into landfills. This is not a good look and could still signal to collectors that what they own may not be as collectible as once suspected. It’s a real problem that has moral and commercial implications. With that, I’ve always admired this brand, because they’ve made it easy (and very fun) for anyone to get into the collectible space without breaking the bank. I’m just hopeful that they can figure out a better plan for the business, their customers, and – more importantly – the environment.” (Mitch for Alistair).
- Love Poem Medley – Rudy Francisco – Button Poetry – YouTube. “This week, I will run in the opposite direction of creativity and art created by artificial intelligence. This was passed over to me by Ron Tite, and it will (and should) take your breath away. I am not going to get into the content or the context of this, but please… just stop everything and spend a few minutes inside of this thing of beauty…” (Mitch for Hugh).
Feel free to share these links and add your picks on Twitter, Facebook, in the comments below or wherever you play.