Rami's Readings #55 - Nvidia Launches Blackwell 🚀
The latest on AI, LLMs, Nvidia, Grok-1, LLM Fine-Tuning, Global Real Estate, Japan, AI Investment Funds, the Burger Baron Mafia, and more.
Welcome to Rami’s Readings #55 - a weekly digest of interesting articles, papers, videos, and X threads from my various sources across the Internet. Expect a list of reads covering AI, technology, business, culture, fashion, travel, and more. Learn about what I do at ramisayar.com/about.
Apéro & Intellect Is Coming to Toronto!
Apéro & Intellect is a curated series of intimate gatherings discussing Artificial Intelligence designed to stimulate both your mind and your palate. After receiving great feedback from the three pilots last year, I am expanding the event series this year to gather a slightly larger group of people. Many of you desired more time among each other, the event will now include fantastic food (FREE) to match the beverages.
I am pleased to announce Apéro and Intellect #6 will take place in 🏙 Toronto, Canada 🍁 on Tuesday, April 9th at noon.
🤖 AI Reads
Nvidia Blackwell Platform Arrives to Power a New Era of Computing
Notes: Congratulations to Nvidia for an amazing conference! ⭐🚀
Open Release of Grok-1
Notes: Musk actually did it! A 314 billion parameter Mixture-of-Experts model open sourced under the Apache 2.0 license. Now the largest open source model.
The Open Interpreter is Launching a Hardware Product
Notes: I did not expect this project to pivot to a hardware product, but it does make sense given how quickly the Rabbit R1 sold out. I preordered.
Mistral-7B-Instruct-v0.2 Released
Notes: Mistral AI released Mistral 7-B v0.2 yesterday. 32k context window!
On the Conversational Persuasiveness of Large Language Models: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Notes: An interesting study with implications for LLM applications.
Binary and Scalar Embedding Quantization for Significantly Faster & Cheaper Retrieval
Notes: Not surprising, but a good read.
RAFT: Adapting Language Model to Domain Specific RAG
Notes: Interesting.
GLiNER: Generalist Model for Named Entity Recognition using Bidirectional Transformer
Notes: This is excellent! NER is a common task in many enterprise applications. I am looking forward to trying it out.
misbahsy/RAGTUNE: Tuning and Evaluation of RAG Pipeline
Notes: Open source project to automate tuning and evaluation of RAG pipelines.
ronaldmannak/PicoMLXServer: Pico MLX Server Is the Easiest Way to Get Started with Apple's MLX AI Framework
Notes: An ollama competitor specializing in MLX.
You Can Now Train a 70B Language Model at Home
Notes: Fairly technical. So feel free to skip.
💼 Business Reads
Billionaire's Luxury London Homes Are Coming to Market. The Timing Is Awkward
Notes: Global luxury real estate continues to be a mixed bag. San Francisco prices are picking back up again. Chicago’s Gold Coast is struggling.
A Japanese Startup Is Shipping $89 Strawberries, $120 Melons
Notes: I miss Japan.
16 Changes to the Way Enterprises Are Building and Buying Generative AI
Notes: From a16z, solid read and tracks with all my conversations.
Nvidia Backs Little-Known Upstart in India’s Biggest AI Bet Yet
Notes: Excellent entrepreneurial hustle on display.
CoreWeave Is in Talks for Funding at $16 Billion Valuation
Notes: Fast valuation growth. VC is just pouring into AI.
Just How Rich Are Businesses Getting in the AI Gold Rush?
Notes: Good read on value capture and creation in the current Generative AI boom.
OpenAI Sprinting to Keep Up With Startups on AI-Generated Video
Notes: Intense competition in this space.
AI for Bureaucratic Productivity: Measuring the Potential of AI to Help Automate 143 Million UK Government Transactions
Notes: Direct link to paper.
Saudi Arabia Plans $40 Billion Push Into Artificial Intelligence
Two of the people said that Saudi’s new investment push is likely to take off in the second half of 2024.
Stability AI Announcement
Notes: Leadership change at Stability AI.
🎨 Culture Reads
“The Last Baron” The Lebanese Burger Mafia
Notes: Currently only streaming in Canada. An amazing documentary about Lebanese immigrants to Canada.
“We can’t accept anyone in charge, it’s in our genes.”
That is all for this week. Signing off from New York City.