The hottest Data Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Literature Topics

Effects of Banning Targeted Advertising

Platform Papers • 2 HN points • 30 Apr 24
🕹 Technology Advertising Privacy Innovation Policy Data
  1. Banning targeted advertising may harm consumers by potentially leading to higher prices, reduced innovation, and less favorable outcomes for developers.
  2. Google's ban on targeted advertising in children's games resulted in a notable decrease in app innovation, showcasing the negative impacts of such regulations on developers.
  3. The dilemma lies in balancing user privacy concerns with the need for targeted advertising to maintain app diversity and innovation on digital platforms.

Synthetic data: Anthropic’s CAI, scaling, OpenAI’s Superalignment, tips, and open-source examples

Democratizing Automation • 332 implied HN points • 29 Nov 23
🕹 Technology AI Data Models Methods Applications
  1. Synthetic data is becoming more important in AI, with a focus on removing human involvement.
  2. Proponents believe that using vast amounts of synthetic data can lead to breakthroughs in AI models.
  3. Open and closed communities are both utilizing synthetic data for different end goals.

Images are Biased

Never Met a Science • 77 implied HN points • 26 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Media Communication Data Images Information
  1. Images are a biased form of communication compared to text because they inherently introduce bias by conveying more context and extra-textual information.
  2. Different communication modalities like images and text convey different amounts and types of information, impacting how we understand and interpret data and knowledge.
  3. Understanding the rise of visual communication technologies can lead to a deeper comprehension of the effects of information technology on society and help in decision-making for the future.

AI, The Idiot Ant Queen

Desystemize • 1404 implied HN points • 07 Mar 23
🕹 Technology AI Ethics Science Engineering Data
  1. Artificial intelligence could lead to a loss of understanding and agency in decision-making
  2. AI ethics issues stem from existing power imbalances and biases, not just the capabilities of AI systems
  3. The real concern with AI is the potential control it may have over societal institutions, impacting human autonomy and decision-making
Get a weekly roundup of the best Substack posts, by hacker news affinity:

'Human intelligence'

imperfect offerings • 13 HN points • 10 Apr 24
🚌 Education AI Data Work Learning Assessment
  1. The concept of 'artificial intelligence' has historically been used to define and value 'intelligence', leading to discriminatory practices in education and beyond.
  2. The term 'human intelligence' has been co-opted by the AI industry to alleviate concerns about job displacement, but in reality, it devalues certain types of work and people, especially those involving care and emotional labor.
  3. The comparison between artificial and human intelligence creates a double bind for students and workers, expecting them to conform to data-driven systems while also being 'more human', which can lead to confusion and anxiety.

Why We Founded SaaSGrid

Bottom Up by David Sacks • 541 implied HN points • 06 Sep 23
🕹 Technology SaaS Metrics Data
  1. SaaS companies need a dedicated dashboarding platform for their metrics.
  2. Problems faced by SaaS companies include lack of proper metrics, errors in data, and lack of real-time availability.
  3. SaaSGrid provides a solution by automating the calculation of key SaaS metrics and offering real-time dashboards.

Gsnowflake

benn.substack • 788 implied HN points • 07 Jul 23
🕹 Technology Data AI Cloud Computing Natural Language Processing
  1. Google is technically a database but differs from traditional databases in its structure and content.
  2. Snowflake is introducing features like Document AI that hint at a shift towards focusing on information retrieval rather than just data analysis.
  3. The market for an information database could potentially be larger and more accessible than traditional data warehouses, offering simpler access to basic facts and connections.

🚗 Waze

First 1000 • 1041 implied HN points • 28 Feb 23
🕹 Technology Community Data Mobile Apps Acquisition
  1. Let the 1% help you build, they're probably more willing than you think
  2. Reward the 9% for their efforts, they just want to know they'll be recognized
  3. Make the 90% feel something, sometimes emotion is more powerful than utility

Race, Homicide, & Data

Peter Boghossian • 1041 implied HN points • 02 May 23
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Race Data
  1. The news media and public figures can create inaccurate narratives that influence perceptions.
  2. Educating people about accurate data is crucial to addressing social issues like crime and policing.
  3. Examining and fact-checking data can reveal insights that challenge popular movements and ideologies.

The Truth Behind Gang Violence

Peter Boghossian • 982 implied HN points • 05 May 23
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Racism Gun Violence Community Policy Data
  1. Young men, specifically black Americans, are disproportionately involved in gun violence in the US.
  2. Out-of-wedlock birth rates are a significant factor in contributing to violence, particularly in the black community.
  3. There is a need to address the root causes of rising out-of-wedlock birth rates, which spiked after 1963, to prevent further violence.

Do we need RL for RLHF?

Democratizing Automation • 182 implied HN points • 06 Dec 23
🕹 Technology AI Research Algorithms Data Models
  1. The debate around integrating human preferences into large language models using RL methods like DPO is ongoing.
  2. There is a need for high-quality datasets and tools to definitively answer questions about the alignment of language models with RLHF.
  3. DPO can be a strong optimizer, but the key challenge lies in limitations with data, tooling, and evaluation rather than the choice of optimizer.

The Marketing Funnel Funeral: How To Replace Dusty Funnels With Dynamic Flywheels That Attract, Engage, And Retain Superconsumers

Category Pirates • 707 implied HN points • 12 Jun 23
💼 Business Marketing Community AI Data
  1. Flywheels focus on attracting customers with value, engagement, and community.
  2. Marketing funnels push customers down a linear path, while flywheels put customers at the center to drive organic growth.
  3. Superconsumers are key in fueling the positive feedback loop of a marketing flywheel.

Google Gemini and the Responsible AI Conundrum

Rod’s Blog • 39 implied HN points • 26 Feb 24
🕹 Technology AI Data Ethics Security Government
  1. Google's Gemini AI models are designed for various tasks and are based on responsible AI principles, but faced challenges like data poisoning attacks.
  2. The data poisoning attack on Google's Gemini showed the model's vulnerability and raised questions about the effectiveness of Google's Responsible AI policy.
  3. Experts suggest that Google should have better safeguards for data quality, transparency in model deployment, and more engagement with the AI community to address ethical implications.

Data: the new oil or a new byproduct?

Topsoil • 511 implied HN points • 30 Jun 23
🕹 Technology Data Agriculture Framework Digitization Analytics
  1. Data in agriculture is essential for advancements like Generative AI, automation, and precision agriculture.
  2. Challenges in farm digitization include issues like connectivity, interoperability, data quality, trust, and incentives.
  3. Farmers derive value from data through decision-making, enabling technologies, sharing with advisors, compliance, and future income opportunities.

I have access to Claude-3 Opus, a (seemingly) considerably more advanced model than GPT-4, ask it anything

Philosophy bear • 27 implied HN points • 05 Mar 24
🕹 Technology AI Models Artificial Intelligence Data Machine Learning
  1. Claude-3 Opus is a highly advanced model compared to GPT-4, especially in reasoning capabilities, scoring impressively on GPQA and other tests.
  2. The model's knowledge base is top-notch, performing as well as or better than a graduate student with Google access in specific sciences.
  3. Questions posed to Claude-3 Opus should be challenging, aiming for queries that most people would answer correctly but the model might get wrong, to reveal its strengths and weaknesses.

Top Questions ahead of Battlefin’s Discovery Day Miami

The Data Score • 59 implied HN points • 22 Jan 24
💰 Finance Investing AI Data Technology Economics
  1. The article highlights key questions for speakers at Battlefin's Discovery Day Miami, focusing on emerging technologies integration and data-driven insights in investment debates.
  2. The author tested ChatGPT for question generation, challenging its ability to create relevant and insightful questions for each panel session.
  3. The author compared their questions with ChatGPT's questions for each panel, reflecting on their differences and the strengths of human creativity against AI capabilities.

The truth is out there

benn.substack • 508 implied HN points • 12 May 23
🕹 Technology AI Data Analysis Computers Software
  1. Computers can approach problems in ways humans can't, like Deep Blue's moves in chess.
  2. AI progress often comes from scaling computation by search and learning, not by mimicking human reasoning.
  3. Considering new approaches that leverage computation over human knowledge could help solve complex problems like pricing optimization.

So... what is multi-modal AI? And why is the internet losing their mind about it? [Math Mondays]

Technology Made Simple • 159 implied HN points • 10 Oct 23
🕹 Technology AI Machine Learning Data Models Embeddings
  1. Multi-modal AI integrates multiple types of data in the same training process, allowing models to represent data in a common n-dimensional space.
  2. Multi-modality adds an extra dimension to data, expanding the search space exponentially, enabling more diverse and powerful AI applications.
  3. While multi-modality enhances model performance, it does not solve fundamental issues with AI models like GPT, and simpler technologies may be more effective for certain use-cases.

Your friend the language model

DYNOMIGHT INTERNET NEWSLETTER • 434 implied HN points • 03 Mar 23
🕹 Technology AI Language Models Training Data Fine-tuning
  1. Large language models are trained using advanced techniques, powerful hardware, and huge datasets.
  2. These models can generate text by predicting likely words and are trained on internet data, books, and Wikipedia.
  3. Language models can be specialized through fine-tuning and prompt engineering for specific tasks like answering questions or generating code.

Moving Beyond Doomism: Data-Driven Strategies for Effective Climate Content

This Week in MCJ (My Climate Journey) • 393 implied HN points • 14 Mar 23
🌞 Climate & Environment Data Communication Behavior Circular Economy Psychology
  1. Data-driven decisions are crucial in climate content to engage mainstream audiences effectively.
  2. Promoting self-interest in climate content yields more results than focusing on planetary benefits.
  3. Starting with simple, relatable content and gradually guiding individuals towards impactful actions can drive engagement and awareness.

AI as Symptom and Dream

SCIENCE GODDESS • 393 implied HN points • 08 May 23
🕹 Technology AI Ethics Workforce Community Data
  1. Many AI researchers are calling for a pause in advanced AI research due to concerns about potential apocalyptic scenarios.
  2. There is a need to question the motives and proposed solutions of prominent AI organizations and figureheads.
  3. Ethical considerations around AI should focus on issues like worker exploitation and power concentration, rather than just sensationalized fears of AI surpassing humanity.

☞ The Garden of Computational Delights

Cabinet of Wonders • 230 implied HN points • 02 Aug 23
🕹 Technology Computing Innovation Data Emerging Tech
  1. Computing goes beyond utilitarian purposes to bring delight and wonder through creative coding and simulations.
  2. The 'Garden of Computational Delights' is a collection of places that evoke fascination with web, programming, and computing.
  3. The boundaries of what fits in the 'Garden' are fuzzy, personal, and idiosyncratic, showcasing a diverse range of computer-related interests.

Update #68: Whispering Indigenous Languages and Neural Net Training Dynamics

The Gradient • 27 implied HN points • 13 Feb 24
🕹 Technology AI Language Data Research Ethics
  1. Papa Reo raised concerns about Whisper's ability to transcribe the Māori language, highlighting challenges faced by indigenous languages in technology.
  2. Neural networks learn statistics of increasing complexity throughout training, with a focus on low-order moments first before higher-order correlations.
  3. Including native speakers in language corpora and model evaluation processes can substantially improve the performance of natural language processing systems for languages like Māori.

Extremely Open Science

Rabbit Thoughts • 39 implied HN points • 17 Jan 24
🔬 Science Research Experiment Data
  1. The author will work on a scientific project completely in the open in 2024, streaming and recording sessions for an hour per week.
  2. The project aims to show the process from scratch to help junior researchers understand and learn from the experience of dealing with minor issues.
  3. The author is choosing a question for the project that can be followed along at home with just a personal laptop or desktop computer.