![alexheath 4d OpenAI and Microsoft say it's against their rules to use their GPT APIs to build a competing AI model. It turns out that ByteDance has been doing exactly that to build its own LLM in China. As a person with firsthand knowledge of the situation put it, “They say they want to make sure everything is legal, but they really just don’t want to get caught.” More here on ByteDance's secretive Project Seed: theverge.com/2023… ByteDance is secretly using OpenAI’s tech to build a competitor theverge.com ByteDance is secretly using OpenAI’s tech to build a competitor alexheath 4d OpenAI and Microsoft say it's against their rules to use their GPT APIs to build a competing AI model. It turns out that ByteDance has been doing exactly that to build its own LLM in China. As a person with firsthand knowledge of the situation put it, “They say they want to make sure everything is legal, but they really just don’t want to get caught.” More here on ByteDance's secretive Project Seed: theverge.com/2023… ByteDance is secretly using OpenAI’s tech to build a competitor theverge.com ByteDance is secretly using OpenAI’s tech to build a competitor](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F16839d75-ffc4-492b-868f-33e018785bf1_1186x976.png)
There have been other projects that have illegitamately used OpenAI's API for RLHF training on their own LLMs, but this is the first time I've seen a major company doing it. OpenAI suspended ByteDance's API access in response to this article, they were one of OpenAI's largest customers. Yikes.
![See new posts Conversation Assaad Razzouk @AssaadRazzouk · Dec 15 Batteries are currently going through a massive domino effect of adoption certain to phaseout 50% of global fossil fuel demand by 2040 at the latest. Because: economics We are witnessing, live, the end of the age of oil (that's why Big Oil hijacked the UN climate talks) THREAD Assaad Razzouk @AssaadRazzouk It's hard to conceptualize the sheer scale of what's going on: Annual commissions of new factories are 18 times those of just 5 years ago and we're building 400 gigafactories, with capacity to make 9 TWh of batteries/ year by 2030 - over 1 kWh for every person on the planet 2/9 See new posts Conversation Assaad Razzouk @AssaadRazzouk · Dec 15 Batteries are currently going through a massive domino effect of adoption certain to phaseout 50% of global fossil fuel demand by 2040 at the latest. Because: economics We are witnessing, live, the end of the age of oil (that's why Big Oil hijacked the UN climate talks) THREAD Assaad Razzouk @AssaadRazzouk It's hard to conceptualize the sheer scale of what's going on: Annual commissions of new factories are 18 times those of just 5 years ago and we're building 400 gigafactories, with capacity to make 9 TWh of batteries/ year by 2030 - over 1 kWh for every person on the planet 2/9](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2b7324b0-b9ba-4fa7-9444-7ca35cdd5492_1152x1154.png)
This is part of a longer thread about the progress of batteries. Raw material requirements are lower than you'd expect, the Cost Curve looks great, share of addressable market per segment forms a nice domino graph. On track to remove over half of fossil fuel demand by 2040. Batteries are gonna win
![Daring Fireball @daringfireball@mastodon.social ★ iOS 17.3, Now in Beta, Includes New ‘Stolen Device Protection’ Feature https://daringfireball.net/2023/12/ios_17-3_stolen_device_protection Daring Fireball iOS 17.3, Now in Beta, Includes New ‘Stolen Device Protection’ Feature This new feature will add significant protection against a thief who steals your iPhone and knows your device passcode. Daring Fireball @daringfireball@mastodon.social ★ iOS 17.3, Now in Beta, Includes New ‘Stolen Device Protection’ Feature https://daringfireball.net/2023/12/ios_17-3_stolen_device_protection Daring Fireball iOS 17.3, Now in Beta, Includes New ‘Stolen Device Protection’ Feature This new feature will add significant protection against a thief who steals your iPhone and knows your device passcode.](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcb9fd47f-f64e-40ea-b4f7-1d6471dc03de_982x810.png)
Seems like a cool feature: previously if you managed to first get someone's passcode then steal their phone, you could also empty their bank account and turn off 'Find my iPhone'. This was a bit of a scandal when first reported by the WSJ earlier this year. With this new stolen device protection feature turned on, it'll require biometrics + passcode to make those changes, and there's a one hour delay, giving the victim time to disable the phone remotely.
![See new posts Conversation depths of wikipedia @depthsofwiki The "Ship of Theseus" article has been edited 1792 times since it was created in July of 2003. At present, 0% of the phrases in the original article (seen below) remain. See new posts Conversation depths of wikipedia @depthsofwiki The "Ship of Theseus" article has been edited 1792 times since it was created in July of 2003. At present, 0% of the phrases in the original article (seen below) remain.](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F18731737-20c7-40a1-82f4-0e300c1add0c_1162x1114.png)
They explain in a follow-up how they checked, the article was first written in 2003, and you can get essentially a 'blame' layer for Wikipedia, no part of the original remains.
![See new posts Conversation Paul E Williams @PEWilliams_ Probably fair to actually take this even further and say the average homeowner has experienced a *decrease* in mortgage costs since the pandemic. Quote Matthew C. Klein @M_C_Klein · See new posts Conversation Paul E Williams @PEWilliams_ Probably fair to actually take this even further and say the average homeowner has experienced a *decrease* in mortgage costs since the pandemic. Quote Matthew C. Klein @M_C_Klein ·](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F55e760df-52dc-46e0-a371-c61913018707_1162x1064.png)
Higher interest rates have slowed down home sales, but the average American probably has very little exposure to this change.
Longer Reads
• Long thread summarizing Estonia's analysis of the current situation in Ukraine and best next-steps for their European allies. TL;DR: continue to provide Ukraine with arms and find ways to scale up artillery production. (src)
• Long thread from Paul Poast explaining our best understanding of why Russia invaded Ukraine. TL;DR: it wasn't to block their entry into NATO, they have much cheaper ways of doing that: a single NATO member can block entry, and Russia has good relations with both Orban of Hungary and Erdogan of Turkey. I also thought this abstract about Wartime Negotiations was interesting. (src)
Flotsam and Jetsam
– Paper published in Nature showing an LLM could find a never before discovered solution to an open question in mathamatics (src)
– The Chinese government has put a bounty on the head of a US citizen (src)
– While phones in schools do lower test scores, phones generally may not be what's dragging down nationwide scores, because not all countries are experiencing the same effect. (src)
– The reason to spend to help Ukraine now is that if we don't, our taxes will go up because we'll next need to more directly defend Poland Romania and the other countries Ukraine is effectively defending for us. (src)
– Waymo is now beginning to handle pickups from the Pheonix airport. (src)
– Both heavy sand-filled barriers and plastic flaps count as a 'separated bike lane' despite the fact that one stops a car and the other is designed not to. (src)
– IDF forces keep filming themselves doing offensive things that US military personel are trained not to do. But perhaps it's not a lack-of-discipline problem, they're just mimicking israeli political leaders. (src)
– Will Stancil has the poaster's resiliency, he's had a real joker moment and has come out the other side (src)
– Deepmind used AI to answer a previously open question in mathamatics. Here's the Nature paper, and here's a clearer explanation from Deepmind (src)
– There are legitimate differences in measuring wealth inequality, but Piketty goes too far by likening the other researchers to climate deniers (src)
– The case for Clipboard Managers (I use PasteBot) (src)
– GM is now trying to argue that they're getting rid of CarPlay/AndroidAuto in new cars because it's not safe. (src)
– Economist report indicates that Iran is going to be in deep trouble because of climate change. Their own analysis indicates that 70% of the population could flee by 2050. (src)
– Binder of classified info about Russia went missing at the end of Trump's term. (src)
– Apparently ChatGPT is so good at chess because there's a massive amount of chess in the training data, and it's not accidental. it nomally plays pretty well, but if you play unusual initial moves then it'll screw up quite quickly. (src)
– New effort to make really high quality free ebook versions of old public domain books. Here's the site. (src)
– Argument that we should push for teachers to teach from prewritten scripts more. Teachers are smart skilled professionals, it's possible to read a script without sounding like a robot. (src)
– A new In-N-Out has opened, the first in Idaho, 7 hour wait. Seems too long to wait for In-N-Out. (src)