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- Google is offering an on-campus hotel
Google is offering an on-campus hotel
Plus: Catching up on the weird world of LLMs
Cash Nut
August 07, 2023
Together With - Mode Mobile
In Today’s Edition
SpaceX conducts a mostly successful test of its Super Heavy booster
Enterprise Skilling Platform Disprz Bags $30 Mn To Jump On The Gen AI Bandwagon
Chinese tech giant Alibaba challenges Meta with open-sourced A.I. model launch
Catching up on the weird world of LLMs
Engineer Details Messy LK-99 Superconductor Creation Process
We’re closer to ‘engineering’ blood vessels
The First Disruption to $martphones Since iPhone 🤳
Flip the script: Turn your phone from a cost to an income source. Intriguing idea, isn't it? Which is why, this week, we have our eyes on the launch of Mode Mobile’s Public Equity Offering. It’s the latest in a series of impressive raises among smartphone innovators, likely spurred by Apple’s recent $3+ trillion valuation.
Mode saw 150x revenue growth from 2019 to 2022, a leap that has made them one of America’s fastest growing companies. Mode is on a mission to disrupt the entire industry with their "EarnPhone," a budget smartphone that’s helped consumers earn and save $150M+ for activities like listening to music, playing games, and ... even charging their devices?!
Early backers are getting up to 60% bonus stock, and in the first month alone, 9,900+ investors acquired shares — leaving only ~10% of the bonus allocation up for grabs.
Disclosure: Please read the offering circular at invest.modemobile.com. This is a paid advertisement for Mode Mobile’s Regulation CF Offering.
🚀Startups Nuts
SpaceX performed a static fire of a new Super Heavy booster on Sunday. The rocket survived the test and appeared to be in good shape afterward. However, the test did not run its full duration, and four of the rocket's 33 engines shut down prematurely. SpaceX is working on an upgraded version of its Raptor engines to address reliability. While it is unclear how far away SpaceX is from a second Starship launch attempt, the fact that the latest test took place on a Sunday indicates that there is some sense of urgency as the company can only close the road leading to its launch site on a few weekend days per year.
Read Here - Link
The funding will be deployed by Disprz for product development, including integrating generative AI across the learning and skilling cycle. The startup also aims to form strategic partnerships and make strategic acquisitions with the incoming funding, per a statement. Per a Bloomberg Intelligence report, generative AI is set to reach $1.3 Tn in market size by 2032, growing at a CAGR of 42%.
🏭Business Nuts
Google is offering its full-time employees the chance to book a room at an on-campus hotel in Mountain View for $99 a night as a 'Summer Special'. The offer will run until September 30. Google is hoping that the offer will make it easier for workers to transition to the hybrid workplace and lure workers back to the office. Some workers aren't convinced it's a good deal.
Read here - Link
Alibaba launched its large language model called Tongyi Qianwen in April. Tongyi Qianwen allows AI content generation in English and Chinese and has different model sizes, including seven billion parameters and above. Alibaba will be open-sourcing the seven-billion-parameter model called Qwen-7B, and a version designed for conversational apps, called Qwen-7B-Chat.
📱Tech Nuts
This article is a written version of a talk that summarizes the last few years of development in the space of LLMs. It aims to help people outside of the industry understand what LLMs are, what they can be used for, how they're trained, and the challenges in using them safely, effectively, and ethically. The article contains annotated slides from the talk along with extra notes and links. A video of the 40-minute-long talk is available.
The process of making LK-99 is complex and there is some difficulty in sourcing some of the materials needed. The original papers were incredibly vague about the manufacturing process. They neglected to mention key details, so scientists trying to replicate their results had to guess. These factors have caused many failed attempts. The frenzy around LK-99 has dried up an unsuspecting worldwide supply chain. It is now relatively tough to secure red phosphorus, a controlled substance, and copper phosphate has climbed in price towards $20,000 per kilogram.
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🎁Miscellaneous
Bypass surgery has significant limitations. For example, some patients lack appropriate donor vessels. Tissue engineered blood vessels, blood vessels manufactured using human cells and tissue, could provide a viable treatment option. A team of researchers has developed a fast, inexpensive, and scalable method for tissue engineering blood vessels that replicate the complex geometry of native blood vessels. The technology is not yet ready for bypass surgery, but the team believes they are on the right track. This article explains the difficulties around creating engineered blood vessels and looks at how the researchers managed to do so.
💡What else are we reading and seeing?
😎Fun Fact
Penguins have an organ above their eyes called the "supraorbital gland," which filters excess salt from their bloodstream, allowing them to drink seawater
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