Driverless car
Aug 03, 2022

The Batch: UK's Drone Superhighway, Largest Open Source Language Model, AI Protects Bees, Countering Biased Labels

While working on Course 3 of the Machine Learning Specialization, which covers reinforcement learning, I was reflecting on how reinforcement learning algorithms are still quite finicky.
Data scrapping tweak
Jul 27, 2022

The Batch: Military AI Spending Grows, Automated Talent Scout, Drive-Thru Car Inspection, Humanized Training for Robots

In this issue of The Batch: AI War Chest Grows | Drive-Thru Car Inspection Uses Computer Vision | AI computer vision grading soccer players...
An illustration of a person thinking about his projects pillar
Jul 20, 2022

The Batch: In-Demand Job Titles, New Rules for Self-Driving Cars, How to Cut AI's Carbon Emissions, Learning from Metadata

Last week’s letter focused on coming up with AI project ideas, part of a series on how to build a career in the field. This letter describes how a sequence of projects might fit into your career path.
A person holding a giant sheet with tips on how to find projects
Jul 13, 2022

The Batch: Self-Driving Car Fleet Stalls, Homebrew DALL·E Goes Viral, Microsoft's AI Ethics Upgrade, When Higher Accuracy Hurts Some Classes

In the last two letters, I wrote about developing a career in AI and shared tips for gaining technical skills. This time, I’d like to discuss an important step in building a career: project work.
An illustration of a person holding a giant sheet with different ML subjects
Jul 06, 2022

The Batch: Autonomous Atlantic Crossing, AI in the Courtroom, Satellite Photos Reveal Secrets, More Masking For Better Learning

Last week, I wrote about key steps for building a career in AI: learning technical skills, doing project work, and searching for a job, all of which is supported by being part of a community. In this letter, I’d like to dive more deeply into the first
An illustration of a person on top of a career path
Jun 29, 2022

The Batch: Machine Learning for Martian Drone, Regulators Punish Meta for Algorithmic Bias, Transformers Conquer Graphs

The rapid rise of AI has led to a rapid rise in AI jobs, and many people are building exciting careers in this field. A career is a decades-long journey, and the path is not always straightforward.
People Hugging
Jun 22, 2022

The Batch: Next Step for Language Modeling, Predicting Wind Power, Even Bigger Transformers, Deep Doo-Doo

Many things in life have a positive side and a negative side. For instance, a new AI system might help democratize access, and at the same time it might be more accessible to people who have internet access than those who don’t.
Microscope and Plato's head statue
Jun 15, 2022

The Batch: Google Engineer Claims Sentient AI, Ethics Team Grounds Taser Drones, Meta Reorgs AI Division, Deep Learning Optimizes Physical Designs

A Google Engineer recently announced he believes that a language model is sentient. I’m highly skeptical that any of today’s AI models are sentient. Some reporters, to their credit, also expressed skepticism.
Graph US Three-month treasury bill secondary market interest rate, discount basis
Jun 08, 2022

The Batch: Top 100 AI Startups, Inside the Mind of DALL·E 2, Child Welfare Officials Drop AI, Fresh Images From Cellular Automata

Last week, I wrote about how rising interest rates are likely to lead investors and other finance professionals to focus on short-term returns rather than longer-term investments. Nonetheless, I believe this is still a good time to invest in long-term bets on AI.
US federal funds effective interest rate
Jun 01, 2022

The Batch: AI Games Google, Actors Fight Deepfakes, Models Gain Good Judgement, Deep Learning Delivers Personalized Discounts

The United States Federal Reserve Bank has signaled that it will continue to raise interest rates. As one consequence, the stock market is significantly down, particularly tech stocks, relative to the beginning of the year.
Andrew Ng staring at neural networks
May 25, 2022

The Batch: Special Issue! Foundational Algorithms, Where They Came From, Where They're Going

Years ago, I had to choose between a neural network and a decision tree learning algorithm. It was necessary to pick an efficient one, because we planned to apply the algorithm to a very large set of users on a limited compute budget.
Blue globe and several pins around it on a pink background
May 18, 2022

The Batch: One Model For Hundreds of Tasks, Recognizing Workplace Hazards, When Data Means Danger, Vision Transformer Upgrade

One of the challenges of building an AI startup is setting customer expectations. Machine learning is a highly experiment-driven field. Until you’ve built something, it’s hard to predict how well it will work. This creates a unique
Bodiam Castle at East Sussex, England
May 11, 2022

The Batch: Liberation for Large Language Models, AI Picks Music Hits, Robots in Hospitals

Last week, I described trends that AI Fund, the venture studio I lead, has seen in building AI startups. I'd like to discuss another aspect of building companies that’s unique to AI businesses: the controversial topic of data moats.
Hot air balloons and rocket departing
May 04, 2022

The Batch: Predicting the Next Pandemic, Driverless Cars Go Driverless, Managing Medical Uncertainty, Data-Efficient Vision Transformers

AI Fund, which I lead, is a venture studio that works with entrepreneurs to build companies rapidly and increase their odds of success. We’ve evaluated a lot of AI startup ideas. There’s no one-size-fits-all template for building businesses.
Social media logos as a puzzle
Apr 27, 2022

The Batch: Recognizing Distracted Drivers, Training Fighter Pilots, Dominating the Bridge Table, Training Trillions of Parameters

It's official: Elon Musk will buy Twitter, pending approval of the transaction by the company's stockholders and the U.S. government. While some people are celebrating the deal in the name of free speech, others are worried about the platform’s future.

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