Favorite Rejects 2022-12-09

DeepMind @DeepMind

In @ScienceMagazine, we present #AlphaCode - the first AI system to write computer programs at a human level in competitions. It placed in the top 54% of participants in coding contests by solving new and complex problems. How does it work? 🧵 dpmd.ai/alphacode-scie…

Ricky Mondello @rmondello

🔑 Huge news! Google’s announced that passkeys are available in Google Chrome 108. So we have iOS, iPadOS, macOS, Safari, and Chrome with support. If you’re responsible for a website or app, or its authentication story, it’s time to look at passkeys. blog.chromium.org/2022/12/introd…

blog.chromium.orgIntroducing passkeys in ChromeWe announced in October that passkey support was available in Chrome Canary. Today, we are pleased to announce that passkey support is now ...

Patrick Collison @patrickc

Lots of discussion of pandemic growth having been "pull forward" vs "new trendline". However, one place where latter story seems true is entrepreneurship: Stripe @atlas incorporations were +90% Y/Y in Nov 2020, roughly flat in 2021, and now up *another* +54% Y/Y in Nov 2022.

Ethan Mollick @emollick

I remain amused by this paper showing that many CEOs blow off work to golf if not monitored, hurting their firm. “We provide evidence that some CEOs shirk their responsibilities, by showing that firms with CEOs who play the most golf are less profitable.” papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

It’s been a really interesting fall for technology and investor sentiment even as politics has gotten dull.

FanOnTheCouch @Fan0nTheCouch

This ChatGPT thing is awesome. Here's its answer to me asking for a sketch of Riddler and his lawyer, inspired by something I saw on @Popehat's Twitter feed :

Kevin Wiener @kevin_wiener

@Fan0nTheCouch @Popehat We can go deeper

DeepMind @DeepMind

Introducing Dramatron, a new tool for writers to co-write theatre and film scripts with a language model. 🎭 Dramatron can interactively co-create new stories complete with title, characters, location descriptions and dialogue. Try it yourself now: dpmd.ai/dramatron-gith…

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

Fundamental problem with social media dynamics — last week I in good faith tweeted something that was accurate but misleading. I followed up 25 minutes later with better information, but the original misleading tweet was by far my post popular tweet of the week.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

Home Alone, a film painstakingly designed for sociological realism, reveals that the typical middle class family 30 years ago had a much larger home and overall higher material living standards. This in turn shows that capitalism has failed

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

Haha they leave their house 45 minutes before the departure of an international flight — the pre-9/11 lifestyle!

Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇦 @Noahpinion

YIMBYs are the silent majority.

Shane Phillips @ShaneDPhillips

Another day, another survey showing that about two thirds of people support apartment buildings in their community. And that renters are more welcoming than homeowners. https://t.co/PXxW4iFxXP https://t.co/RwBSDGUAgW

Quantian @quantian1

Everyone who spent the last two years arguing over Western mRNA vs. Chinese inactivated virus vaccines, please line up to receive your L, since it seems like the actual zero COVID exit strategy is… herbal remedies.

Liza Lin @lizalinwsj

@qianweizhang 2/ Chinese are rushing to buy fever medicine and test kits as the country eases up on virus testing and pandemic control measures. One remedy, however, has been in shortage for a while: Lianhua Qingwen, a herbal drug endorsed by senior Chinese officials to beat covid.