#startups
Will AI combined with the mathematics of category theory enable AI systems to have powerful and accurate reasoning capabilities and ability to explain their reasoning?
While I'm kind of doubtful, I'm not well-versed in category theory to be able to have an opinion. I tried to read the research paper, but I didn't understand it. I think one needs to be well-versed on category theory before reading the paper. I have the YouTube video of a discussion with one of the researchers (Paul Lessard) below, which I actually stumbled upon first. And I also have an introductory video to category theory.
Apparently they have gotten millions of dollars in investment for a startup to bring category-theory-based AI to market, which surprises me because it seems so abstract, I would not expect VCs to understand it and become strong enough believers in it to make millions in investments. Then again, maybe VCs see their job as taking huge risks for potentially huge returns, in which case, if this technology is successful and successfully takes over the AI industry, they win big.
As best I understand, set theory, which most of us learned (a little bit of) in school, and group theory (which we didn't learn in school, most of us) are foundations of category theory, which uses them as building blocks and extends the degree of abstraction out further. Set theory has to do with "objects" being members of "sets", from which you build concepts like subsets, unions, intersections, and so on. Group theory is all about symmetry, and I have this book called "The Symmetry of Things", which is absolutely gorgeous, with pictures of symmetrical tiling on planes and spheres using translation, reflection, rotation, and so on. The first have introduces a notation you can use to represent all the symmetries, and that part I understood, but the second half abstracts all that and goes deep into group theory, and it got so abstract that I got lost and could not understand it. From what I understand, group theory is incredibly powerful, though, such that, for example, all the computer algebra systems that perform integrals of complex functions symbolically do it with group theory, not with trial-and-error or exhaustive brute-force-search or any of the ways you as a human would probably try to do it with pencil and paper and tables of integrals from the back of your calculus book. Category theory I have not even tried to study, and it is supposed to be even more abstract than that.
Anyway, I thought I would pass this along on the possibility that some of you understand it and on the possibility that it might revolutionize AI as its proponents claim. If it does you heard it from me first, eh?
Categorical deep learning: An algebraic theory of architectures
"Stubborn visionaries & pigheaded fools: How do you know when to stop, versus when to push through?"
"The puzzle:"
"Scenario 1 (S1)"
"At time (A) you start an AdWords campaign."
"At time (B) it's obviously not working; a waste of time and money."
"...But you keep trying, and by time (C), it's working! You did it!"
"Scenario 2 (S2)"
"At time (A) you start an AdWords campaign."
"At time (B) it's obviously not working; a waste of time and money."
"...But you keep trying, and by time (C), it's still not working, and you've wasted even more time and money. What a waste!"
"We've all experienced both scenarios, not just in AdWords but in life in general."
"S1 we call 'success through perseverance,' and you've heard this echoed in many platitudes".
"S2 we call 'failure through obstinance,' and you've heard this echoed in many platitudes."
"How do you know, at time (B), which scenario you're in?" "You cannot know. Not for AdWords, not for product design, not for the vision of your company and the market you hope to create around it, not for almost anything, big or small. It all looks the same at point B. Venture capitalists don't know either, though it's their job to know."
Lumen Orbit is a new startup wants to "put hundreds of satellites in orbit, with the goal of processing data in space before it's downlinked to customers on Earth."
"Lumen's business plan calls for deploying about 300 satellites in very low Earth orbit, at an altitude of about 315 kilometers (195 miles). The first satellite would be a 60-kilogram (132-pound) demonstrator that's due for launch in May 2025."
"We started Lumen with the mission of launching a constellation of orbital data centers for in-space edge processing, Essentially, other satellites will send our constellation the raw data they collect. Using our on-board GPUs, we will run AI models of their choosing to extract insights, which we will then downlink for them. This will save bandwidth downlinking large amounts of raw data and associated cost and latency."
If you're wondering who wants this, there's a bunch of investors listed in the article, and it says they've raised $2.4 million to start with.
Lumen Orbit emerges from stealth and raises $2.4M to put data centers in space - GeekWire
"Why vertical farms worldwide are failing."
Spoiler: the need for highly skilled labor makes labor costs much higher than regular farms.
Why vertical farms worldwide are failing! - Two Bit da Vinci
"Florida is on its way to banning -- and criminalizing -- alternative meat".
"'We're not going to have fake meat. Like that doesn't work,' Gov. Ron DeSantis said."
Eh. Why not?
"Cell-cultivated meat, to be clear, differs from traditional veggie burgers and meat alternatives like Impossible Burgers. As the Congressional Research Service (CRS) defines: Cell-cultivated meat 'is developed in a lab, grown from a sample of animal cells that does not require the slaughter of animals.' In other words, it's actually meat. The development of cell-cultivated meat, the CRS explained, happens in five steps: the biopsy of animal cells, cell banking, cell growth, harvesting, and food processing. It's an industry that has heavy oversight in the US by both the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)."
Huh, wonder why they would care.
"As of today, the unknowns are so great. There are no long-term studies." Says the House bill sponsor Danny Alvarez, a Republican representative.
Yeah but that hasn't exactly stopped us from putting whacky stuff in our food supply before.
Florida is on its way to banning -- and criminalizing -- alternative meat - Food & Wine
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/Florida-is-Attempting-to-Ban-Fake-Meat-2-FT-BLOG0324-10750cfc56e4434b85e72efaf362e4ed.jpg)
"January 2024 in Israeli tech funding: $473 million in 17 deals."
$473 million seems like a lot. Considering what is happening around Israel. But that's all over the regular news so I don't need to go into that.
"This is a 75% increase compared to the $270 million raised by Israeli startups in January 2023."
Investment actually increased.
$116 million of that was to one company, though. A cybersecurity company called Silverfort which raised a $116 million Series D for its "identity security platform." "Another record year of more than 100% growth" in revenue.
January 2024 in Israeli tech funding: $473 million in 17 deals
"New VC in town: 'MANG'"
"MANG" stands for "Microsoft, Amazon, Nvidia, Google".
These 4 companies constitute 8% of all VC funding in North America.
Who are they funding? OpenAI, Anthropic, Inflection, Databricks, CoreWeave, Cohere, HuggingFace, Runway, Iambic (no pentameter), together.ai (no capitalization), and Inceptive.
5 robotics startups that caught the attention of Bill Gates.
Agility Robotics: A humanoid robot for logistics work.
Tevel: "Flying autonomous robots that can scan tree canopies and pick ripe apples and stone fruits around the clock, while simultaneously collecting comprehensive harvesting data."
Apptronik: "'General-purpose' humanoid bi-pedal robots".
RoMeLa: "A robot that can navigate rocky and unstable terrain, and retain its balance without falling over."
Field AI: "Developing AI software for other companies' robots that enables them to perceive their environments, navigate without GPS (on land, by water, or in the air), and even communicate with each other."
