Tech Brew Ride Home - Wed. 01/06 – New GPT-3 Models Can Generate Images From Text

Starting point is 00:00:00 On April 4th, 2023, around 2 in the morning, a man was found stabbed multiple times on a sidewalk in downtown San Francisco. Hey, who did this to you? What happened next turned the story into a political firestorm. Reports have identified the victim as Bob Lee, the founder of Cash App. From Bloomberg Podcasts, this is Foundering, the Killing of Bob Lee, beginning April 16. Welcome to the tech meme right home for Wednesday, January 6th, 2021. I'm Brian McCullough. Today, there are two new GPT3 models, and now the robots seem to have come for the graphic artists. Trump continues his tech Cold War against China, but the question is, Will Biden?

Starting point is 00:00:52 WhatsApp is further absorbed into the Facebook mothership. Eve Online players broke the game by playing it so hard, and Cameo wants you to know there's money in the banana stand. I mean paying Tom Arnold to record videos for you. Here's what you missed today in the world of tech. OpenAI has introduced two new GPT3 models. The first is called Clip, which can classify images in categories from arbitrary text. The second is more interesting. It's Doll E, which can generate images entirely from snippets of text, quoting the MIT Technology Review. For all, GPT3's flare, its output can feel untethered from reality as if it doesn't know what it's talking about. That's because it doesn't.

Starting point is 00:01:42 By grounding text in images, researchers at OpenAI and elsewhere are trying to give language models a better grasp of the everyday concepts that humans use to make sense of things. Dull E and Clip come at this problem from different directions. At first glance, Clip, contrastive language image pre-training, is yet another image recognition system. Except that it is learned to recognize images not from labeled examples in curated data sets, as most existing models do, but from images and their captions taken from the internet. It learns what's in an image from a description rather than a one-word label such as cat or banana. Clip is trained by getting it to predict which caption from a random selection of 32,000 captions is the correct one for a given image. To work this out, Clip learns to link a wide variety of objects with their names and the words that describe them. This then lets it identify objects in images outside its training set.

Starting point is 00:02:38 Most image recognition systems are trained to identify certain types of objects, such as faces in surveillance videos or buildings in satellite images. Like GPT3, Clip can generalize across tasks without additional training. It is also less likely than other state-of-the-art image recognition models to be led astray by adversarial examples. which have been subtly altered in ways that typically confuse algorithms, even though humans might not notice a difference. Instead of recognizing images, Dali, which I'm guessing is a Wally slash dolly pun, draws them. This model is a smaller version of GPT3 that has also been trained on text image pairs

Starting point is 00:03:19 taken from the internet, given a short natural language captions, such as a painting of a capybara sitting in a field at sunrise, or a cross-section view of a walnut, Dolly generates lots of images that match it. Dozens of capybara's of all shapes and sizes in front of orange and yellow backgrounds, row after row of walnuts, though not all of them in cross-section, end quote. The results are apparently striking, though maybe not as striking as when GPT3 first got everyone's attention a few months ago. In the show notes, there's a link to the Open AI blog where they show you examples of what

Starting point is 00:03:55 this AI can achieve. You can also use the tool, apparently, to generate your own images. Sam Altman had it draw an illustration of a baby shark in a wizard hat wielding a blue lightsaber, and it did it, though apparently the tool was neutered just a bit so people couldn't, you know, produce porn with it. Still, as Daniel Rack tweeted, quote, People think AI is coming for truck drivers first. Boy, do I have news for you, end quote.

Starting point is 00:04:22 And as Elizer Yudkowski tweeted, quote, consider this your notice. If you're a manga artist, you have N years left before you're out of a job. I wish that I had any grasp whatsoever of how to relate N to announcements like these. My initial sense is n equals two wisely adjusted upwards to actually after the end of the world, end quote. The Trump administration is in its final days, but that doesn't mean that they're not still pressing ahead with their aggressive China policy. when it comes to tech. President Trump has signed an executive order banning transactions with Ant Group's AliPay, Tencent's WeChat Pay, and QQ, as well as five other Chinese payment apps, quoting Reuters. The order argues that the United States must take, quote, aggressive action

Starting point is 00:05:19 against developers of Chinese software applications to protect national security. It tasks the Commerce Department with defining which transactions will be banned under the directive within 45 days and targets Tencent Holdings' QQ wallet and WeChat pay as well. Quote, by accessing personal electronic devices such as smartphones, tablets, and computers, Chinese-connected software applications can access and capture vast swaths of information from users, including sensitive, personally identifiable information and private information. The executive order states, such data collection, quote, would permit China to track the locations of federal employees and contractors

Starting point is 00:05:55 and build dossiers of personal information, the document adds. quote. So, as I've said several times when it relates to this subject, I still haven't developed a definitive opinion about this whole tech Cold War with China. Smart people I know really do believe that China's tech ambitions are a threat to the U.S.'s tech dominance in various ways, and so must be meaningfully countered. The problem I'm having, though, is at least these last few years, the Trump administration, in my opinion, hasn't put together a coherent argument about what they're doing or why. So it's hard for me to even form an opinion. That's not me being political. That's just me being someone in the tech industry that feels this whole posture vis-à-vis China by the U.S.

Starting point is 00:06:42 government has been maddeningly inconsistent so far. Case in point. After pressure from the U.S. government, the New York Stock Exchange said it would delist the stocks of three Chinese companies, China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom, in order to satisfy an executive order imposing restrictions to prevent American companies and individuals from investing in companies identified as being affiliated with the Chinese military. Now, that was always the plan. They were going to delist these three companies, and then two days ago, the NYSE reverse course and said it would no longer de-list those companies. Now, today, they're reversing the reverse, quoting CNBC.

Starting point is 00:07:27 The exchange reversed that decision on Monday, causing much confusion. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told the exchange that he disagreed with the original reversal, a senior administration official told CNBC's Eamon Javers. The NYSC said the latest reversal was due to new guidance from Treasury's office of foreign assets control that said people in the U.S. could not engage in certain transactions with the three companies as of next Monday. Trading of the three securities will be suspended at 4 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday, the exchange said, end quote. See what I mean? Confusing as all get out, isn't it? China Mobile is a $100 billion company. I believe they've been listed on the NYSC for more than a decade.

Starting point is 00:08:12 As I said before around these issues, capitalism requires a clear set of rules that everyone involved in the great game of capitalism can understand. If you don't know what the parameters of engaging in capitalism are, then that's not capitalism. So I guess one of the bigger questions going into the new year, does President Biden have as big an axe to grind with China tech as President Trump did? And will we get a more coherent position vis-a-vis Chinese tech? Unlike a lot of other policy issues, the incoming administration has been almost completely opaque about their position on this. More signs of Facebook unifying their technical infrastructure, but also if you've been comfortable using WhatsApp all along, because until now, it was largely kept at arm's length from Facebook proper. Well, FYI, WhatsApp has updated its terms and privacy policy to mandate data sharing with Facebook proper. including transaction data, mobile device information, IP addresses, and more. Quoting XDA developers. WhatsApp users are receiving an in-app notice today regarding the services new terms and privacy policy.

Starting point is 00:09:30 The notice talks about three key updates that affect how WhatsApp processes your data, how businesses can use Facebook hosted services to store and manage their WhatsApp chats, and how WhatsApp will soon partner with Facebook to offer deeper integrations across all of the latter's products. It further reveals that these changes will go into effect on February 8th, and users will have no choice but to accept these changes if they wish to continue using WhatsApp. The new terms and privacy policy update builds upon a similar change WhatsApp announced in July last year. However, in the previous update, WhatsApp gave users the option to, quote, not have your WhatsApp account information shared with Facebook, end quote. With the latest update, WhatsApp has done away with this option and users will have to accept the new term. and privacy policy if they want to continue using the instant messenger, end quote.

Starting point is 00:10:24 Something I've been keeping an eye on is whether or not the iPhone 12 Mini has been a bit of a disappointment sales-wise. There have been hints in various data released from various sources over the last few weeks, but this data from CIRP is the most definitive I've seen yet. CIRP says that the iPhone 12 Mini made up only 6% of total iPhone. sales in October and November, while the 6.1-inch iPhone 12 in comparison garnered 27% of sales, and the 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max each took around 20%. Quoting 9 to 5 Mac. iPhone 12 minifans are sure to be disappointed by yet another report claiming that there has been weak interest in the device. Just last month, a supply chain report indicated that

Starting point is 00:11:13 iPhone 12 mini sales were, quote, sluggish despite the success of the iPhone 12 lineup as a whole. The CIRP data indicates that the iPhone 12 models accounted for 76% of new iPhone sales during the October through November period following their releases. During the launch period of the iPhone 11 lineup last year, the new iPhone 11 devices accounted for 69% of sales. This means that the iPhone 12 lineup was more successful in terms of U.S. iPhone sales in the period after their launch. But year-over-year comparisons are challenging because Apple launched the iPhone 12 in two separate waves, end quote. Yeah, but back to the mini. I didn't get one myself. I went with a pro, but still, I like the idea that the option of a smaller form factor is out there.

Starting point is 00:11:59 Even if I never opt to get it, I like to know that it's possible, because I can see a scenario where I get off the maximalist phone train someday, maybe not anytime soon, but someday. So it's disappointing to see that Apple will probably not see smaller phones as worth doing based on data like that. this. They keep trying to see if there's a niche in the market for smaller phones, and we keep disappointing them. Players in the game, Eve Online, broke a world record, and by doing so, they broke the game itself. Quoting from Polygon, a massive war in Eve Online has been raging for the better part of seven months now, breaking records both for the most players involved in a single battle, and this past week for the most destruction wrought in the game's 18-year history. On Saturday, thousands of players went at it again, only to find that the game's infrastructure

Starting point is 00:12:56 simply wasn't able to support the fight. This past weekend, more than 13,700 players showed up to fight more than the game's previous record-breaking peak of 6,557. When the majority of those players attempted to come together in the same star system to engage in the actual battle, Eve effectively stopped functioning as intended. In a blog post late Monday night, developer's CCP games said it simply cannot predict the stability of its virtual battlefields for engagements of this scale. World War B-2, as players have come to call it, began in July. It pits a massive, newly formed

Starting point is 00:13:32 coalition known as Pappy against the established power of the Imperium. At the Imperium's heart is the Goose Swarm, a powerful group of players with more than a decade of experience led by the notorious Alex the Matani Gian Turco. Pappy's leader, a player known in game as Vili, told Polygon in October that theirs is a war of extermination, and that his forces will stop at nothing short of the destruction of Matani's Imperium. Gunsworm has predictably vowed to fight to the death. For months now, both sides have been trying to draw the other onto the field for a climactic battle. On December 30th, just days after a Christmas truce was ended, both sides finally committed their fleets. The location was a previously unimportant system, a cluster of planets within the Imperium's home territory,

Starting point is 00:14:18 known as M2XFE. Quote, the biggest fights in Eve Online are the unexpected ones that escalate out of control, said David Mataralmora, who runs the Talking in Stations podcast and Twitch Stream in an interview with Polygon on Monday. The planned ones almost never become huge because one team says, I can see what's going on and I don't like the field. I'm backing out. Both teams have to feel like they have the advantage more continued, and usually that comes

Starting point is 00:14:45 because somebody has made a mistake, end quote. The resulting battle would span two real-world days. While analysts like Mora can go on about the tiny slip-ups that were made, by and large, the December 30th engagement at M2XFE was a solid stand-up fight. According to a news release issued by CCP on Monday, the outcome was the most costly battle in Eve history of the more than 1,200-player-owned Titan ships that showed up to the fight. More than 250 were destroyed, the real-world equivalent of more than 3,000. $140,000 lost, end quote. I have always been tempted by Yvonline, though I fear it would take over my life. That's why I've never pulled the trigger on it. And especially now, I simply have no time for stuff like that.

Starting point is 00:15:32 But when I hear about things like this, big battles like that happening, believe me, I'm sorely tempted, because that's exactly the sort of gaming I aspire to. Remind me someday to tell you the story about how 30 years ago, me and my middle school buddies spent six months infiltrating and eventually overthrowing a rival team of gamers on the BBS game Trade Wars 2002. I hate to be old man waving cane for the second day in a row, but look it up, kiddos, trade wars, totally text, but truly, in a way, still the best open universe game I have ever played. And finally today, we spoke not that long ago about how quietly only fans has become one

Starting point is 00:16:19 the biggest platform successes in terms of earning creators money. Of course, OnlyFans is largely about a, shall we say, certain type of creator. And yet a less NSFW platform says it too is earning people bank. Camio is that service where you can pay Andrew Dice Clay or Kevin Smith or some other medium to low-grade celebrity to record a personal video for you. Camio says it sold 1.3 million of said videos in 2020 and did around $100 million in video transactions last year. At the same time, 150 personalities were earning more than $100,000 per year on the site, quoting Axios. The company's growth last year was reflected not just in revenue, but also in the expansion of its community of creators. In 2020, Cameo added 10,000 new athletes, actors, comedians, musicians, artists, activists,

Starting point is 00:17:12 and personalities who together produced more than 30,000 hours of cameo content. In addition, to several other executives from companies like Instagram and Reddit, Camio is bringing on Rob Post, formerly of Quibi, as chief technology officer, Deb Schwartz, formerly of Bustle Digital Group as chief financial officer, Brian Frank, formerly of LinkedIn, as chief operating officer, and Melanie Steinbach, formerly of McDonald's, as chief people officer, and quote. Sounds like they're staffing up to get very serious. Very interesting.

Starting point is 00:17:45 A couple of you have joked at me that I should, should test an only fans account for this podcast. Not that I'd post nudes on there or anything, but I do want to play around with that platform just to see what its secret sauce is. Like, is it just sex or is there something unique about what they're doing that could be applicable to creators overall? I told my wife that I would have to get an only fan's account for work purposes, and she rolled her eyes as she's want to do. It's a legendary story of our relationship that soon after we started dating, I signed up for a Tinder account, because that was when Tinder was taking off, and I had to understand what the whole swipe left, swipe right thing was

Starting point is 00:18:35 all about. And to say that she was skeptical when I said that I was only testing out Tinder for professional reasons is to be putting it mildly. But seriously, I have to try out all the things. I have to understand them. By the way, I believe that they have blown the doors open to Clubhouse, so hopefully all of you have had a chance to test that out for yourselves by now. If not, please enjoy this parody video of what it's like to be on a Clubhouse chat. This is from at Puts Justin on Twitter, link in the show notes, and I share this with love for all of my friends at Clubhouse but yeah like all good parody this one is so

Starting point is 00:19:17 funny because it rings so true the description of the video on Twitter reads this is what rooms on Clubhouse sound like talk to y'all tomorrow so that's what I think yeah that's so true you know I'm really glad you brought that up I think this is really important and if I can just

Starting point is 00:19:35 speak about this for a minute because I've I've really been thinking about this quite a lot and here's the thing right here's when it all comes down to it and we like really begin to understand like this is what I think and but this is why we have you on it's my opinion it's yeah I really so my friend works at the New York times right oh nice yeah and um so this is what I think there's a lot of conversation and there's a lot of dialogue around

Starting point is 00:20:00 the subject without really dissecting and understanding the subject and I think what we really need and I've said this before I've said this on my podcast if people want to now check that out check that out as well but we'll put the link in I think what's really important is that we generate more conversation around i mean what we're doing right now yeah you know yeah this kind of like it's so important no for sure it's so important it's so important it's so important it really is like we really is yeah

Tech Brew Ride Home - Wed. 01/06 – New GPT-3 Models Can Generate Images From Text

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