This Week I Learned - Week #41 2024

This Week I Learned - 

* Llama 3.2 90B and 11B accept images as well as text and generate text output (image processing is not available in the European Union). Llama 3.2 1B and 3B accept and generate text. All four models can process 131,072 tokens of input context and generate 2,048 tokens of output. Llama 3.2’s vision-language capabilities now drive the company’s Meta AI chatbot. For example, users can upload a photo of a flower and ask the chatbot to identify it or post a picture of food and request a recipe. - The Batch

* Llama Stack is a set of APIs for customizing Llama models and building Llama-based agentic applications. By offering tools to build agentic workflows, Llama Stack takes Llama 3.2 well beyond the models themselves. The short course “Introducing Multimodal Llama 3.2” by Amit Sangani, Senior Director of AI Partner Engineering at Meta, shows how to put these models to use.

* Gemini Nano is the smallest version of the Gemini model family.

* Adobe integrates multiple video generators with its Premiere, including models from partners like OpenAI and Runway. 

* Gen AI learning resources by Nir Diamant:

• RAG techniques
• Prompt Engineering
• GenAI Agents

* The Nobel Prizes for Physics and Chemistry awarded this year are related to AI. Demis Hassabis, John Jumper, and David Baker won the Chemistry Nobel Prize for their work on AlphaFold and protein design. AlphaFold and AlphaFold 2, as well as the work of Baker’s lab, are compelling applications of AI that made significant steps forward in chemistry and biology.

* When we talk about artificial intelligence, we often mean machine learning using artificial neural networks. This technology was originally inspired by the structure of the brain. In an artificial neural network, the brain’s neurons are represented by nodes that have different values. These nodes influence each other through con­nections that can be likened to synapses and which can be made stronger or weaker. The network is trained, for example by developing stronger connections between nodes with simultaneously high values. This year’s Nobel Prize for Physics laureates John Hopfield and Geoff Hinton have conducted important work with artificial neural networks from the 1980s onward.

* A collection of Kaggle solutions and ideas 

* You can upload files directly into GitHub via the UI & host HTML & JS web apps through Github Pages.

* In linguistics, the Gunning fog index is a readability test for English writing. The index estimates the years of formal education a person needs to understand the text on the first reading. For instance, a fog index of 12 requires the reading level of a United States high school senior (around 18 years old). Texts for a wide audience generally need a fog index less than 12. Texts requiring near-universal understanding generally need an index less than 8 (Eighth grade reading level).

* In the US, the Plain Language Movement in government communication started in the 1970s. In 1979, the Plain English Campaign was founded in London to combat "gobbledegook, jargon and legalese". Drivel Defence for Text is an online tool that allows you to check the use of plain English.

* The Complete Plain Words, titled simply Plain Words in its 2014 revision, is a style guide written by Sir Ernest Gowers, published in 1954. It has never been out of print. 

* The honeycomb structure is a superstar in the composite materials arena, boasting an impressive strength-to-weight ratio, top-notch energy absorption, and vibration control. It's also a champ at resisting thermal buckling and soaking up sound, making it a go-to choice for engineers.

* The genus name Apis is Latin for "bee". While about 20,000 species of bees exist, only eight species of honey bee are recognized: Apis andreniformis (the black dwarf honey bee); Apis cerana (the eastern honey bee); Apis dorsata (the giant honey bee); Apis florea (the red dwarf honey bee); Apis koschevnikovi (Koschevnikov's honey bee); Apis laboriosa (the Himalayan giant honey bee); Apis mellifera (the western honey bee); and Apis nigrocincta (the Philippine honey bee).

 A bee colony generally contains one queen bee, a female; seasonally up to a few thousand drone bees, or males; and tens of thousands of sterile female worker bees.  

Apis dorsata is known to be one of the most aggressive stinging insects. The approach of a large organism within 10m of their colony triggers a defense mechanism where workers loosen their protective curtain which ‘enlarges’ the comb size. This also allows many workers (400-600 workers in a second) to unleash an attack on the predator simultaneously if threatened further.

Apples, blueberries, and cherries are 90 percent dependent on honeybee pollination. honey bees are considered "crucial to the food supply, pollinating more than 100 of the crops we eat, including nuts, vegetables, berries, citrus and melons." The USDA reports "Three-fourths of the world’s flowering plants and about 35 percent of the world’s food crops depend on animal pollinators to reproduce" and honey bees "pollinate 80 percent of all flowering plants, including more than 130 types of fruits and vegetables."