notes

Interesting fact: OpenAI’s Whisper was developed only because the company had already copied, analyzed, and used every usable text on the internet to train its LLM. With Whisper they were able to transcribe the audio tracks of YouTube videos and use those for training as well. indiatimes.com writes in “How tech giants cut corners to harvest data for AI” The artificial intelligence lab had exhausted every reservoir of reputable English-language text on the internet as it developed its latest AI system. It needed more data to train the next version of its technology – lots more. ...

For anyone who’s lost track: User Makkara126 maintains a list of available iOS emulators in the post “Available iOS Emulators”. The subreddit r/EmulationOniOS is generally a good place to go if you want to stay well informed or have questions. The text was automatically translated from German into English. The German quotations were also translated in sense.

Imagine a glossy future in which your survival depends on the quality of a smartphone app. In such a scenario, a small software bug would no longer be merely a security flaw but would mutate into an existential threat. Although it sounds futuristic, this is already our reality. For example, the t:connect app drained the battery of the associated insulin pump t:slim X2 overnight, turning the life‑sustaining device into an almost deadly trap. ...

This grim article reveals the bitter truth about the climate crisis. Initially we debate limiting global warming to 1.5°C, but warming to 2.5°C is already a reality. Damian Carrington writes in “World’s top climate scientists expect global heating to blast past 1.5C target” for theguardian.com The experts were clear on why the world is failing to tackle the climate crisis. A lack of political will was cited by almost three-quarters of the respondents, while 60% also blamed vested corporate interests, such as the fossil fuel industry. ...

In “Venture firms double, then halve, in stunning reversal” for indiadispatch.com, Manish Singh recently highlighted an illuminating statistic. It shows that venture capital investment in startups has fallen back to 2014 levels. According to data analyzed by Morgan Stanley and Pitchbook, the number of active venture capital firms worldwide surged from 2014 levels, more than doubling by 2021, before sharply contracting to below 2014 figures in a stunning reversal. ...