Not that 50% of all web content is AI generated.
On the contrary. It explicitly states that it is.
To quote - "It found that most of the internet is translated, as 57.1 percent of the sentences in the corpus were multi-way parallel in at least three languages. "
So in other words, that majority of web content is AI translations of other content. As its often poorly translated, or entirely mistranslated, it qualifies as "AI-generated garbage" - hence the headline.
One of the ironies of Google leading so much cutting-edge AI development is that it is simultaneously poisoning its own business from within. Google Search is getting worse and worse, on an almost monthly basis, as it fills up with ever more SEO-spam. Early adopters are abandoning it for Chat-GPT-like alternatives; which means the mass market probably soon will too.
The other irony is that it will probably take AI to save us from AI-generated SEO spam. For everyone touting AI products that will write blogs and emails, there will be people selling products that detect their garbage and save you from wasting your time reading it.
It will be interesting to see if they can take this symbolic engine approach further. Geometry problems are very neat and tidy, compared to using logic to solve real world problems. In particular I wonder if this could be some small step towards AGI.
It will make many uncomfortable to say it, but the hero in this story is China. If we didn't have their industrial might making solar cheap, then this wouldn't be happening.
People often talk about declining human demographics, but they rarely consider growing new humans artificially as a means of dealing with it. As nightmarish as it sounds, maybe that day is nearer than we think. Israeli scientists have already grown mammal embryos outside the womb to half their gestation period. If you have cloned embryos of "perfect" humans, perhaps growing them at scale outside the womb is nearer than we think.
Lots of people see the potential for AI & robotics to replace human work, but you rarely see mainstream economists deviate from the party line. The normal response is - nothing to worry about, new jobs have always been created by automation. Many people see the flaw in this answer. What about when AI & robots can do the new jobs too, but for pennies on the dollar compared to humans? How will human-employee businesses compete?
The IMF is a major pillar of the mainstream global economic establishment. For them to come out and say this out loud is significant. It means the topic is given a credibility and urgency it hadn't had before in national governments, the world's central banks, etc, etc
I don't know if this particular device will take off, but I feel confident their approach will. When you see it in action you immediately realize today's world of dozens or hundreds of individual apps per device belongs in the past. It's only a matter of time.
Microsoft, Apple, and Google have built empires on the back of computer operating systems. If someone can make an AI OS that works like this Rabbit R1 demo, there's another empire waiting to be built.
It feels like we are on the cusp of a humanoid robot breakthrough. Firm after firm, around the world is working on different versions of them. Meanwhile, basic research, fuelled by the AI boom, is rapidly advancing the field of robotics. Look at current offerings like LimX's and then look at the cutting-edge capabilities Deepmind's ALOHA is demonstrating and imagine the two together. They seem like simple versions of the humanoids in the movie "I, Robot".
Humanoid Robots in development
1X has already developed a semi-humanoid robot called EVE. Now they've received funding to bring NEO to market in 2024. It will be a crowded market for humanoid robots with other companies around the world planning to do the same too.
Thanks to the recent AI boom it seems all the tech for functioning humanoid robots is finally happening. People just need to make all its disparate parts come together into a commercial product. With so many people chasing this goal, it seems 2024 will be the year it might happen.
I find the NEO's aesthetics interesting. The usual choices in humanoid robot design are to go for the slick, glossy & hi-tech. NEO looks normcore in comparison. How robots look affects our psychology - maybe people will prefer the normcore look on robots, and 1X is starting a robot fashion trend.
Submission Statement
They are due to unveil the hydrogen propulsion system next week. I wonder who would be customers for this. Liquid hydrogen is much more expensive as a fuel than regular aviation fuel. Not needing runways will give it some use cases. Though how are they going to refuel with liquid hydrogen at places that don't have runways?
It feels like the rapid fall in cost and deployment of renewables is what will pull us back from the brink. Though who knows what temp rises will stop at before eventually receding? 2.5C, 3C?
Someone should invent a search engine that allows for curated sources. For most things, I'd love to search among the top few thousand sites, and exclude everything else.