Lunch at the Labs

Various web links I found to be of interest recently.

• If the generals are counting tunnels, it suggests things are not going well

  Tal Schneider writing about the Israel-Gaza war in The Times of Israel.

  The IDF method is frustrating and we can't keep using it, because it involves destroying infrastructure and buildings above ground in order to get to what's underneath.

  In the first stage [of the ground offensive], the IDF had a broad mandate for widespread destruction [as it sought to dismantle Hamas]. Obviously, we can't uncover tunnels in that way in Khan Younis and Rafah, so deciphering what's going on underground will have to be done another way - to reveal what's underground without destroying the buildings and infrastructure above.

  I believe the way to do it is by digging from our side toward them, while inserting smart tools - sensors, microphones and robots, anything that can penetrate the tunnels and bring us intelligence on where they're located.

  I'm talking even about some sort of underground torpedo, launching an excavation machine with explosives capabilities, at the right time. We need to change the approach - to attacking the tunnels from within.

• Cory Doctorow: What Kind of Bubble is AI?

  Tech bubbles come in two varieties: The ones that leave something behind, and the ones that leave nothing behind. Sometimes, it can be hard to guess what kind of bubble you're living through until it pops and you find out the hard way.
  ...
  AI is a bubble, and it's full of fraud, but that doesn't automatically mean there'll be nothing of value left behind when the bubble bursts. World-Com was a gigantic fraud and it kicked off a fiber-optic bubble, but when WorldCom cratered, it left behind a lot of fiber that's either in use today or waiting to be lit up. On balance, the world would have been better off without the WorldCom fraud, but at least something could be salvaged from the wreckage.
  ...
  Even more important, these models are expensive to run. Even if a bankrupt AI company's model and servers could be acquired for pennies on the dollar, even if the new owners could be shorn of any overhanging legal liability from looming copyright cases, even if the eye-watering salaries commanded by AI engineers collapsed, the electricity bill for each query - to power the servers and their chillers - would still make running these giant models very expensive.

  Do the potential paying customers for these large models add up to enough money to keep the servers on? That's the 13 trillion dollar question, and the answer is the difference between WorldCom and Enron, or dotcoms and cryptocurrency.

• Quantum Computing's Hard, Cold Reality Check

  Hype is everywhere, skeptics say, and practical applications are still far away.

  A fundamental challenge for today's quantum computers is that they are very prone to errors. Some have suggested that these so-called "noisy intermediate-scale quantum" (NISQ) processors could still be put to useful work. But Painter says there's growing recognition that this is unlikely and quantum error-correction schemes will be key to achieving practical quantum computers.
  ...
  In May, Matthias Troyer, a technical fellow at Microsoft who leads the company's quantum computing efforts, co-authored a paper in Communications of the ACM suggesting that the number of applications where quantum computers could provide a meaningful advantage was more limited than some might have you believe.

• 2 of the biggest failures in the driverless car industry in 2023

  Major businesses in the self-driving vehicle and tech space, including Aurora, TuSimple, and Embark Technology, lost a combined $40 billion in value between going public and October 2022. The sector's bad fortunes have only continued this year.

• Famed Bell Labs leaving historic headquarters to move to New Brunswick

  Nokia's research arm, Nokia Bell Labs, announced Monday it will leave its historic headquarters in Murray Hill over the next five years to relocate to a new tech hub being built in New Brunswick.

  The research and development company's new headquarters will be located at the HELIX innovation center in New Brunswick, according to a Nokia press release. Originally known as "The Hub," the HELIX innovation center is a large complex being built in the city's downtown on the site of the former Ferren Mall.

• Liz Magill, UPenn president, resigns after antisemitism testimony draws backlash

  Experts and advocates say the chant, "Israel, we charge you with genocide," is a typical refrain heard at pro-Palestinian rallies. Jewish and Palestinian supporters both acknowledge protesters aren't saying "We want Jewish genocide."

• Scientists Have Reported a Breakthrough In Understanding Whale Language

  Researchers have identified new elements of whale vocalizations that they propose are analogous to human speech, including vowels and pitch.

• How ideas made Derek Parfit

  David Edmonds's new biography of Derek Parfit.

  Parfit came to believe that his philosophical work was deeply important and that anything that took him away from this work must be studiously avoided. Hence, he ate the same food and wore the same clothes every day. He avoided social engagements and nonphilosophical conversation. If he could make a significant and salutary impact on the intellectual landscape, then his resolute spurning of those close to him would be worth it. In light of his philosophical achievements, Edmonds judges that Parfit's "gamble paid off."

• Wasabi, beloved on sushi, linked to "really substantial" boost in memory, Japanese study finds

  A study conducted in Japan suggests there's more to sushi than just a healthy dose of fish and seaweed. Researchers at Tohoku University found that wasabi, that spicy green condiment traditionally dabbed on the raw fish dish, improves both short- and long-term memory.