Jan 2021 Gwern.net Newsletter
a day ago
- The January 2021 Gwern.net newsletter is released, summarizing updates including new writings and links on AI and other topics.
- OpenAI's DALL·E and CLIP models demonstrate remarkable image generation and zero-shot understanding through scaling and contrastive learning.
- Scaling down AI includes developments like DeiT, BoTNet, and VQGAN for more efficient transformers and GANs on limited compute.
- Transformer supremacy in vision tasks grows, with hybrid GANs and autoregressive models challenging pure GAN approaches.
- Genetics research highlights heritability, with studies on polygenic traits, recent human evolution, and gene editing advances like base editing for progeria.
- Statistics and meta-science cover quantum field theory, citation accuracy, and energy-efficient algorithms.
- Psychology and biology topics include cognitive fatigue, visual ear phenomenon, and microbiome connections to health and aging.
- Technology and economics sections discuss fortifications, advertising efficacy, and credit card payment economics.
- Fiction and miscellaneous entries include a medieval poem and reflections on the rapid pace of AI progress.