zlatiah

An artificial intelligence (AI) system has for the first time figured out how to collect diamonds in the hugely popular video game Minecraft — a difficult task requiring multiple steps — without being shown how to play. Its creators say the system, called Dreamer, is a step towards machines that can generalize knowledge learned in one domain to new situations, a major goal of AI.

Collecting a diamond is “a very hard task”, says computer scientist Jeff Clune at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, who was part of a separate team that trained a program to find diamonds using videos of human play. “There is no question this represents a major step forward for the field.”

An even bigger target for AI, says Clune, is the ultimate challenge for Minecraft players: killing the Ender Dragon, the virtual world’s most fearsome creature.

The associated preprint

Associated blog post

~~Neuro-sama: finally a worthwhile opponent~~

On health economist Jay Bhattacharya’s first day as head of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), the chiefs of four of the 27 institutes and centres that make up his agency — including the country’s top infectious-diseases official — were removed from their posts. The unprecedented move comes amid massive cuts to research at the NIH.

The directors of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) and the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) were informed late on 31 March that they were being placed on administrative leave. Together, these leaders were in charge of US$9 billion in funding at the NIH.

Try this archive.org link if there is soft paywall

The United States has ordered consular offices to significantly expand their screening processes for student visa applicants, including through comprehensive social media investigations, to exclude people they deem to support terrorism.

It specifically targets new and renewing F, M and J student visa applications, providing explicit instructions for consular officers to conduct mandatory social media reviews digging into applicants’ lives online. Officers are directed to examine the social media of all students applying to a visa for evidence of activities the administration defines as a threat to national security or terrorism.

So I guess this is a thing for people who want to study/do research in the US now

Since this wasn't apparent the last time I asked... no, I'm actually not a US citizen or green card holder (permanent resident). Just happened to be in this country for a long time due to career reasons.

The massive changes in US research brought about by the new administration of President Donald Trump are causing many scientists in the country to rethink their lives and careers. More than 1,200 scientists who responded to a Nature poll — three-quarters of the total respondents — are considering leaving the United States following the disruptions prompted by Trump. Europe and Canada were among the top choices for relocation.

The trend was particularly pronounced among early-career researchers. Of the 690 postgraduate researchers who responded, 548 were considering leaving; 255 of 340 PhD students said the same.

I have answered this poll myself; this is meant for scientists of all career-stages, so a lot of PhD students and postdocs along with faculty members.

I don't think the article is paywalled, but let me know if it is.

As title suggested. For context & as an example... there was something I wanted to investigate today, but the only primary information was from a 2023 Twitter (yup, before it became X) thread. The annoying part is that the crucial tweets got labelled as "sensitive content" so it's not even available on Wayback Machine

The key is 100% boycotting all services provided by a company. Wikipedia's list of Amazon product/services as reference (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Amazon_products_and_services).

Incidentally, I know entire neighborhoods that don't have other grocery stores besides Target/Whole Foods, not to mention that AWS is the cloud computing industry standard... As a personal example, my vet-prescribed cat foods are manufactured by Purina, a subsidary of Nestlé (needless to say, a separate but also extremely evil large corporation)

Assume that this is not a wannabee, but someone who, for example, already has a solid job offer from an EU country, and some cash for the relocation.

Asking here because I don't think this has a concrete answer... (or maybe it does? Please let me know if there is one!)

So a lot of times good people do good things and bad people do bad things... but what if someone with malicious intent unintentially improved the world? Or vice versa, someone with all the right intentions but made things worse for everyone

I guess this can be applied to a lot of politicians, but the question isn't based on any real-life events

A couple of things I tried... Please validate to tell me I'm not crazy. Searches done on www.nih.gov (linked in post).

These are blocked:

• "diversity"
• "diversity "
• "equity"
• "inclusion"
• "DEI"

These are not blocked:

• "diverse"
• "diversit"
• "diversity*", "inclusion*", "equity*"
• "diversitya"
• "equity and diversity"
• "diversity and equity"
• "diversity equity inclusion"

What is the meaning of this