Polymath Engineer Weekly #28
A little AI density this week
Links of the week
Exhausted gods with broken tools: writing software
“But in reality, writing software often feels like hell.
We’re gods but most of what we do is tedious instead of joyful and our tools are often broken in one way or another.
Instead of trying to create an Eden we often settle for things mostly or barely working. Setting the bar higher means more effort, more fragile results, and more maintenance in the long term.“
⏯︎ It’s Time to Pay Attention to A.I. (ChatGPT and Beyond)
“Imagine being able to have a language conversation about anything with a computer. This is now possible and available to many people for the first time with ChatGPT. In this episode we take a look at the consequences and some interesting insights from Open AI’s CEO Sam Altman.“
Bitcoin, Currencies and Fragility
“In its current version, in spite of the hype, bitcoin failed to satisfy the notion of "currency without government" (it proved to not even be a currency at all), can be neither a short nor long term store of value (its expected value is no higher than 0), cannot operate as a reliable inflation hedge, and, worst of all, does not constitute, not even remotely, a safe haven for one's investments, a shield against government tyranny, or a tail protection vehicle for catastrophic episodes.
Furthermore, bitcoin promoters appear to conflate the success of a payment mechanism (as a decentralized mode of exchange), which so far has failed, with the speculative variations in the price of a zero-sum maximally fragile asset with massive negative externalities.“
⏯︎ SREcon22 EMEA - The Math of Scalability
“Math is often viewed as ""too academic"" and detached from the realities of engineering. Not so! Math is about rigorous modeling and flushing out hidden assumptions and is an invaluable tool for understanding the world. This talk showcases mathematical models that provide insights on how things scale.“
Exploring Prompt Injection Attacks
“Prompt Injection is not very different from other injection attacks that we are used to seeing in the infosec field. It is the consequence of concatenating instructions and data, so the underlying engine cannot distinguish between them. As a result, attackers can include instructions in the data fields under their control and force the engine to perform unexpected actions. In this general definition of injection attacks, we could consider the prompt engineering work as instructions (like a SQL query, for example), and the input provided information as data.“
Audi Uses Artificial Intelligence For Wheel Design
“In concrete terms, FelGAN works either by rapidly proposing a large number of photo-realistic designs itself or recombining existing designs in a targeted way. In this way, the system acts as a kind of spontaneous idea hub for Audi’s wheel design team, allowing them to exchange new versions and variations. The tool lets designers easily experiment with shape, colour, surface structure, and other parameters in real time.“
Book of the Week
Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice
Do you have any more links our community should read? Feel free to post them on the comments.
Have a nice week. 😉
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