Cynthia Yeung 🤖📦🌱

“Mundus sine caesaribus” sounds like fun 😂 It was getting a little too dark and dull here for me anyway. bsky.app/profile/ywtc.b…

@mjandersen PMs unite! 😂

Gosh I love it when Wordle hits people with a word that a lot of people don't know.

Shaping AI's Impact on Billions of Lives I’m delighted to have collaborated with an awesome set of co-authors 🎊 on this paper that offers a blueprint of actions that can be taken by practitioners, policymakers, and other stakeholders to maximize the upsides of AI and minimize its downsides. We include 18 concrete milestones to guide AI research and development in that direction. Authors: Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, myself (@JeffDean), @FinaleDoshi, John Hennessy, @andykonwinski, @sanmikoyejo, @tamati_biskit, @2plus2make5, and David Patterson. Arxiv link: arxiv.org/abs/2412.02730 One page Economist OpEd “An agenda to maximise AI’s benefits and minimise harms” by Dave: economist.com/by-invitation/… Abstract Artificial Intelligence (AI), like any transformative technology, has the potential to be a double-edged sword, leading either toward significant advancements or detrimental outcomes for society as a whole. As is often the case when it comes to widely-used technologies in market economies (e.g., cars and semiconductor chips), commercial interest tends to be the predominant guiding factor. The AI community is at risk of becoming polarized to either take a laissez-faire attitude toward AI development, or to call for government overregulation. Between these two poles we argue for the community of AI practitioners to consciously and proactively work for the common good. This paper offers a blueprint for a new type of innovation infrastructure including 18 concrete milestones to guide AI research in that direction. Our view is that we are still in the early days of practical AI, and focused efforts by practitioners, policymakers, and other stakeholders can still maximize the upsides of AI and minimize its downsides. We talked to luminaries such as recent Nobelist John Jumper on science, President @BarackObama on governance, former UN Ambassador and former National Security Advisor Susan Rice @AmbassadorRice on security, philanthropist @EricSchmidt on several topics, and science fiction novelist @nealstephenson on entertainment. This ongoing dialogue and collaborative effort has produced a comprehensive, realistic view of what the actual impact of AI could be, from a diverse assembly of thinkers with deep understanding of this technology and these domains. From these exchanges, five recurring guidelines emerged, which form the cornerstone of a framework for beginning to harness AI in service of the public good. They not only guide our efforts in discovery but also shape our approach to deploying this transformative technology responsibly and ethically.

keep getting DM’s the same two questions: 1) what ended the Port Strike? 2) Was it @GovRonDeSantis calling the NG? Here’s the timeline from my sources…. Up until 14:09 on Tuesday all my reliable sources were telling me the ILA was digging in for a long fight @typesfast - who has the best ocean data in the world - was the first to make bold counter call “with 80% probably it will be over by Tuesday” His company @flexport has some of the best experts in the business and can see in realtime if ships are diverting or not. That combined with smart staff who understand history, political and economic issues is likely what drove the prediction Ryan also didn’t hesitate to collect information directly from experts. The person with the best trucking data (trucks need to start diverting too) is @FreightAlley and he echoed Ryan’s optimism yesterday. Yesterday afternoon @mercoglianos started warning us at @gCaptain to be ready Biden then made a statement of support of the union and @SecretaryPete applied pressure on USMX at 8PM. DC was finally waking up Yesterday afternoon I received information from a source that Daggett was getting death threats and public sentiment was against him. Some of his advisers were suggesting he sit down for a deal Later I got confirmation from another source along the same lines. There were two problems with the information that prevented me from making a prediction: 1) other sources were adamant the ILA would not budge on automation 2) we got a statement from ILA confirming that Daggett was thrown by the backlash but it said he was a combat veteran and a fighter who wouldn’t back down This morning more sources confirmed that DC was waking up and ILA was breaking due to the backlash @mercoglianos got solid information a deal would be made I published the article on @gCaptain “TikTok Fury and Death Threats: Will ILA Union Boss Daggett Fold or Double Down?” I also talked to a source in the Trump camp who assured me DJT had deep knowledge of the issues from his time as a NYC real estate developer and was working the problem. No details how but told to watch for something thst would “move the needle” Talked to @mercoglianos again and he was confident a deal was coming soon Around lunch I finally got a hold of a Democrat source who said “it close but there’s a sticking point” I assumed it was automation but they would confirm At 12:52 @GovRonDeSantis called the national guard to take over the ports in FL Had a long conversation with Sal @mercoglianos @MikeSchuler around lunch and confidence it would end was high but nobody was sure exactly when I disappeared into meetings for the rest of the afternoon. I was hesitant to make a call because numerous sources said the ILA was still dug in over automation. 17:18 Sal calls it outscooping everyone @MikeSchuler gets it up on @gCaptain just after it becomes official /1

@KamalaHarris I love their cinnamon: penzeys.com/online-catalog…

I look forward to using my new seasonings from Penzeys Spices in Pittsburgh at our next Sunday family dinner.

@Ken_Goldberg I really liked that anecdote about him and his wife taking on an extra job to help pay down a student’s lunch debt (though it’s ridiculous that any student incurs lunch debt to begin with!). I thought it showed a lot of character.

Never underestimate a public school teacher!

Ok, in honor of @Tim_Walz speaking tonight, let’s talk about school lunches—and why they matter. 🧵 x.com/MorePerfectUS/…

Obama: And I've noticed, by the way, that since it's become popular, they don't call it Obamacare no more.

I will never get tired of hearing either Obama speak. "Do not boo. Vote." - @BarackObama

.@MichelleObama: Who's going to tell Donald Trump that the job he's currently seeking might just be one of those 'Black jobs'?

The arena erupted when Michelle Obama said Trump was trying to get “one of those Black jobs.” The women around me were screaming with joy. #DNC2024

I maintain that @HillaryClinton would have been a great president. Thank you for paving the way. The first but not the last.

@fchollet Relevant from @rodneyabrooks: twitter.com/rodneyabrooks/… "The visual appearance of a robot makes a promise about what it can do and how smart it is. It needs to deliver or slightly over deliver on that promise or it will not be accepted."

Historically, there has been an inverse relationship between how human-like a robot looked and how useful it turned out to be. A simple explanation would be that the morphology of a robot is a critical affordance available to the robot's maker to make it more useful on its target tasks, and by not leveraging it, the robot ends up at a huge functional disadvantage (while looking cool and futuristic)... By making robots that are human-like, you're signaling that you're mostly interested in sci-fi vibes, at the expense of solving a specific set of useful problems

Great song choice.

NEW: We just launched the first video of our campaign. “We choose freedom.”

I will do all that I can to help elect @KamalaHarris the next President of the United States.

@kscottz That’s one of the things I appreciate about Buffet and MacKenzie Scott. Neither started their own foundation despite considerable wealth. Just gave a lot of money to existing non profits they thought were doing a great job.

@kscottz There’s also a staggering amount of emotional abuse of employees (!) that can happen in non profits. Folks are underpaid and sometimes guilted into working long hours “for the cause”.

People who think raising money from VCs is HARD have obviously never tried fundraising for a nonprofit. At least with non-profits the whole "making the world a better place" schtick isn't just lip service.