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.
That is all for this week. Signing off from New York City.