⚠️ China’s Hush-Hush Heist

AND: Daoist AI

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to AI

Happy Tuesday, tech enthusiasts! Grab your mug of motivation - it's time to dive deep into the fascinating world of AI.

In today’s Tracker:

  • 🧪 Research highlights: AI Unfolds New Dimensions in Neurological Exploration

  • 🚨 Industry news: Silicon Smugglers in China

  • ⚖️ Policy and regulation: Gates Open for AI in China: Xi Jinping Signals Thaw in Tech Cold War

  • 🌐 AI and society: Soul Machines: A Dive into Daoist Tech-osophy

  • 🧰 Tool of the day: Draw AI: Drawing the Future

  • 🧠 Let’s get smart with AI: AI's Trippy Trip

🧠 AI Unfolds New Dimensions in Neurological Exploration

Using artificial intelligence (AI), a new study from the University of Rochester accurately measured fluid passage around the brain's blood vessels, a crucial process linked to neurological conditions such as Alzheimer's, strokes, and traumatic brain injuries.

The multidisciplinary team, led by Associate Professor Douglas Kelley, combined in vivo measurements with a novel AI technique to illuminate the complex system of perivascular spaces in the brain responsible for waste clearance.

Combining existing 2D data with physics-informed neural networks, they obtained high-resolution views of the system, disclosing unknown pressures, forces, and flow rates in three dimensions.

This innovative application of artificial intelligence may pave the way for a better understanding of and potential treatments for numerous neurological diseases.

🚨 Silicon Smugglers in China

In the wake of U.S. sanctions on exports of Nvidia's advanced A100 and H100 chips to mainland China and Hong Kong, a de facto underground market has sprung up in China, where buyers can purchase these high-end artificial intelligence processors at double the price.

This black market illustrates both the high demand for these chips in China and the relative simplicity with which small-batch transactions can circumvent U.S. sanctions. 

Typical purchasers include app developers, entrepreneurs, researchers, gamers, and even the Chinese local government.

Most of these chips are acquired by purchasing excess stock that enters the market after Nvidia dispatches large quantities to large U.S. companies or by importing via companies based in India, Taiwan, and Singapore.

While Nvidia has created slower China-specific variants, the A800 and H800, to replace the banned A100 and H100 chips, lesser quantities of the original, high-performance chips continue to enter the Chinese market, highlighting the difficulties of enforcing export restrictions.

⚔️ Gates Open for AI in China: Xi Jinping Signals Thaw in Tech Cold War

In a recent encounter with Bill Gates, Chinese President Xi Jinping welcomed the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) technology to China by U.S. companies, including Microsoft.

Despite strained U.S.-China relations and existing U.S. export controls targeted at curbing China's AI development, Xi's stance demonstrates his belief in the potential of AI to drive economic growth, balanced by an understanding of its associated risks.

This development occurs as China grapples with formulating new AI-related laws and regulations. Microsoft, which has a long-standing presence in China and supports OpenAI, continues to confront the difficulties of operating within China's strictly regulated internet sector, even as its AI-related initiatives garner global attention.

🌌 Soul Machines: A Dive into Daoist Tech-osophy

In the insightful article "Singularity vs. Daoist Robots," philosopher Yuk Hui examines the concept of 'cosmotechnics' - the confluence of technology and worldview.

Hui compares Eastern and Western philosophies of technology, arguing that while Western civilizations have used technology as a tool to establish human dominance over all else, Eastern thought, particularly Chinese thought, perceives technology as an integral part of the Daoist concepts of 'dao' and 'qi' - soul and machine inseparable.

Hui explains that this unity has influenced technological development in China, with technology intended to achieve harmony with nature, as opposed to the Western approach of conquering nature.

Hui contrasts the relational essence of Chinese thought, in which being is inextricably bound to other beings, with the Western search for the absolute or fundamental. In Chinese thought, a "resonance" between the subject and the cosmos serves as the foundation for morality and natural order.

Hui concludes by emphasizing that in Chinese thought, the end is in the "constantly regenerative cosmos" rather than in a defined, discoverable world, highlighting the absence of the pursuit of immutable reality in Chinese philosophy.

While a complete summary of this nuanced article would necessitate a deeper dive, this summary captures the author's key points.

🎨 Draw AI: Drawing the Future

Draw AI is an innovative platform dedicated to exploring and creating a unique way of displaying and earning income from creating AI prompt words. The primary purpose of Draw AI is to build a shared and reciprocal community of AI painters, where users can exchange prompt words, learn from one another, and contribute to the growth of the AI painting community.

Learn more about the tool here.

😵‍💫 AI's Trippy Trip

Hallucination is a well-known phenomenon in large language models. It occurs when the system provides an answer that is factually incorrect, extraneous, or nonsensical due to its training data and architecture limitations.

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—Carl Sagan

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.

Credit: @the_snapp

  • 🛠️ XATA - is a sophisticated AI tool that gives users access to a significant language model that can be utilized for various purposes.

  • 🎨 Kittl - an AI-powered tool that assists users in creating fresh and original ideas for creative endeavors.

  • ✍🏽 SnapGPT - is an artificial intelligence (AI) program that helps you generate human-like writing.

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