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Category: Editorial

The Yin and Yang of Learning Deep Learning

The Yin and Yang of Learning Deep Learning

Sometimes Leaning Into It Is Not Enough: You folks tend to be hyper-focused, hugely on-your-game types. (My TA, and one of my favorite people, described himself as “alpha-squared.” So true for a lot of you!) So given your alpha-ness (or your alpha-squared-ness), your dominant approach to mastering a new topic is to work like crazy. Read a whole lot of stuff, from original papers down to tech blogs and forums. You install code environments, teach yourselves all the latest and…

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How Getting to a Free Energy Bottom Helps Us Get to the Top

How Getting to a Free Energy Bottom Helps Us Get to the Top

Free Energy Minimization Gives an AI Engine Something Useful to Do:   Cutting to the chase: we need free energy minimization in a computational engine, or AI system, because it gives the system something to do besides being a sausage-making machine, as I described in yesterday’s blog on What’s Next for AI. Right now, deep learning systems are constrained to be simple input/output devices. We force-feed them with stimulus at one end, and they poop out (excuse me, “pop out”)…

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What’s Next for AI (Beyond Deep Learning)

What’s Next for AI (Beyond Deep Learning)

The Next Big Step:   We know there’s got to be something. Right now, deep learning systems are like sausage-making machines. You put raw materials in at one end, turn the crank, and at the other end, you get output – nicely wrapped-up sausages. Wherever you are in your studies of machine learning / deep learning / neural networks / AI, you know there’s got to be more. If we’re going to make anything like general artificial intelligence (GAI), we…

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Statistical Mechanics, the Future of AI, and Personal Stories

Statistical Mechanics, the Future of AI, and Personal Stories

Statistical Mechanics and Personal Stories (On the Same Page!)   Yikes! It’s Thursday morning already. I haven’t written to you for three weeks. That’s long enough that I have to pause and search my memory for my username to get into the website. Thanksgiving was lovely. The Thursday after that was grading, all day – and for several days before and after. By now, I (and most of you) have had a few days of recovery, from what has been…

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Third Stage Boost – Part 2: Implications of Neuromorphic Computing

Third Stage Boost – Part 2: Implications of Neuromorphic Computing

Neuromorphic Computing: Statistical Mechanics & Criticality   Last week, I suggested that we were on the verge of something new, and referenced an article by von Bubnoff: A brain built from atomic switches [that] can learn, together with the follow-on article Brain Built on Switches. The key innovation described in this article was a silver mesh, as shown in the following figure. This mesh is a “network of microscopically thin intersecting silver wires,” grown via a combination of electrochemical and…

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Future Forecasts: How We’ll Mind-Control Ourselves

Future Forecasts: How We’ll Mind-Control Ourselves

Tweaking Our Own Mental State: Getting Easier All the Time   This last spring, twelve minutes changed my life forever. I got into a heck of a fistfight. I went into a dark cave, and put on an alternate identity and transformed into the baddest-a** thing around. I had one of the most spiritual, exalted, uplifting experiences that I’ve ever had. And I fell in love. So here’s the story. I was at the NVIDIA GTC (GPU Technology Conference) this…

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Notational Frenzy

Notational Frenzy

When the Subtle Art of Mathematical Notation Defeats You (and How to Fight Back)   A couple of years ago, I was teaching Time Series and Forecasting for the first time. I didn’t know the subject – at all – but that didn’t bother me. Hey, it was mathematics, right? Anything that’s mathematical, I can eat for lunch, and then want some dessert-equations afterwards. First week, introducing the subject. That went fine. Second week, Simple Exponential Smoothing (SES). That’s simple….

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Fast Editorial Roundup – What to Expect, and When

Fast Editorial Roundup – What to Expect, and When

Timetable for AI and Deep Learning Study Resources:   This week, I’ve been working on the simplest, smallest-possible useful release for you; the Seven Essential Equations Cribsheet. It’s nearly there, but not quite. This means you’ll get an email soon with a link to click – and another Opt-In form – to access the Cribsheet. Editorial Calendar (Draft): Here’s the short-term calendar: This Week (Aug. 25 – 26): The Cribsheet for The Seven Essential Machine Learning Equations, Next Week (Aug….

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