

Unsupervised Learning is a Security, AI, and Meaning-focused podcast that
looks at how best to thrive as humans in a post-AI world. It combines
original ideas, analysis, and mental models to bring not just the news, but
why it matters and how to respond.
Hi!,
Back in the gunner seat after this year’s annual Friendship Week. So
needed but so exhausting. In a good way.
Here’s a thought-splinter I’ve been unable to get out of my brain: The
impact from everything we’ve talked about with ChatGPT, GPT-4, Langchain,
and all the various projects out there all assume something that’s unlikely to me at this point.
They all assume Altman and OpenAI will NOT
be successful. Remember, their goal isn’t to make cool AI stuff; it’s to
make true AGI. And everything we’ve seen so far is what they call failure. Now imagine what happens to productivity, the job market, and overall
society if they actually succeed! I’m personally not betting against them,
and I put AGI at 2-5 years from now.
Have a great week!
In this episode:
Worldcoin, OpenAI, and eye scanning: A global ID and
currency? Grid Threat: Russia-linked malware targets power grids
Neuralink gets FDA approval for clinical trials Bing integrated into
ChatGPT for enhanced AI chatbot experience Tesla Model Y becomes
world’s best-selling car LGBTQ searches soar 1,300% since 2004
MY WORK
The AI Attack Surface Map v1.0
My first capture of the various attack surfaces included in how AI
will be deployed in the real world.
MORE
SECURITY NEWS
Worldcoin + OpenAI + Eye Scanning
A company called Tools for Humanity raised a $115 million Series C to
continue its mission to 1) create a global ID, 2) create a global currency,
and 3) create an app that allows you to use the currency in various ways.
Why am I mentioning this? Because Sam Altman is a co-founder. So here we
have a guy doing in public what a lot of conspiracy theorists think people
are doing in private. He’s trying to build AGI that will massively disrupt
human work, and then at the same time he’s trying to create a digital
currency that seems to me could be awful useful for something like UBI
distribution. That’s speculation of course, but it seems logical. Oh and
this Worldcoin app
works by scanning your eyeball
so add that to the conspiracy porn list. I love how Altman is super
transparent about what he thinks is coming, and how he thinks we should
respond. He thinks AGI is coming and he’s building it to be first. He thinks
UBI will be needed so maybe he’s building an infrastructure it could run on?
MORE
Grid Threat
New Russia-linked malware, CosmicEnergy, could physically damage
power grids, says Mandiant.
– Malware uploaded to VirusTotal in
2021 by a Russian IP address
– Similar to Industroyer, used in attacks
on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure
– Ties to Russia’s “Solar Polygon”
project for training cybersecurity specialists
– Targets communication
protocol used in electric power industry
– Shares similarities with
Triton and Incontroller malware
– Exploits insecure by-design protocols
in industrial environments
MORE
Guam Cyberattacks
Chinese hackers targeted critical infrastructure on US military bases
in Guam using stealthy malware, according to Microsoft and Western spy
agencies. Beijing dismissed the report as unprofessional disinformation.
MORE
Sponsor
Turbocharge Your Business Growth with Streamlined Security
Compliance
Discover Vanta, the game-changing trust management platform
that empowers your business to scale and flourish, leaving behind tedious
spreadsheets and never-ending email chains.
With Vanta, you can:
Automate up to 90% of compliance
for SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, HIPAA, and more – become audit-ready in weeks,
not months!
Save hundreds of hours of manual labor and slash compliance costs by up to 85%
Leverage a single platform for continuous control monitoring, security
posture reporting, and seamless audit readiness
Don’t miss out! Watch Vanta’s captivating 3-minute demo and unlock the
secret to accelerated business growth today.
vanta.com/downloads/3minutedemo
AT&T Account Takeover
AT&T resolved a vulnerability that could have allowed account
takeovers with just a phone number and ZIP code, discovered by researcher
Joseph Harris. The issue was fixed through their bug bounty program.
MORE
Tesla Leak
A whistleblower has leaked 100GB of Tesla data to a German news site,
revealing over 1,000 accident reports involving phantom braking or
unintended acceleration.
– Handelsblatt, the German news outlet,
confirmed the data’s authenticity with the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure
Information Technology
– Over 2,400 self-acceleration complaints and
1,500 braking function problems were found in the files
– Tesla’s
internal guidelines prioritize offering as little attack surface as possible
when communicating with customers
– Customers reported that Tesla
employees avoid written communication and focus on verbal communication
–
Elon Musk and Tesla face multiple lawsuits and investigations from the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Department of Justice
MORE
Cloudflare Secrets Store
Cloudflare announced a new solution, Secrets Store, designed to help
developers and organizations securely store and manage secrets across their
platform.
MORE
Zyxel Vulnerabilities Patched
Zyxel released patches for two critical buffer overflow
vulnerabilities affecting their firewalls, which could have allowed
unauthenticated attackers to cause denial-of-service and remote code
execution. Users are urged to update urgently.
MORE
TECHNOLOGY NEWS
Neuralink Approved
Neuralink claims FDA approval for clinical trials, but isn’t
enrolling patients yet.
– Elon Musk’s brain implant startup,
Neuralink, says it has FDA approval for human testing
– Company not yet
recruiting test subjects, and trial details remain unknown
– Initial
trials likely to focus on safety of brain implants and surgical robot
–
Neuralink previously faced issues with federal regulators and animal abuse
accusations
– FDA rejection turnaround indicates company addressed
concerns effectively
MORE
Meta’s $1.3B EU Fine
Meta faced a record $1.3 billion fine from EU regulators for
transferring user data from the region to the US, violating GDPR. The
company must comply and delete unlawfully stored data within six months.
MORE
Bing Integration in ChatGPT
OpenAI has made Bing the default search experience for ChatGPT,
enhancing its AI chatbot with search and web data, including citations. The
move follows Microsoft’s multibillion-dollar investment in OpenAI earlier
this year.
MORE
Windows Copilot Unveiled
Microsoft announced the launch of AI-powered Windows Copilot, a
service designed to assist Windows 11 users by explaining, rewriting, or
summarizing content. The feature will be available in preview mode next
month.
MORE
Model Y Tops Sales
Tesla Model Y became the world’s best-selling car in Q1 2023, making
it the first EV to achieve this milestone, according to JATO Dynamics. The
Model Y dethroned the Toyota Corolla with 267,200 sales in Q1.
MORE
Android-to-iPhone Switch
A recent CIRP report revealed that Android users switching to iPhones
reached a 5-year high, with 15% of new iPhone owners in the US coming from
Google’s platform. It’s amazing the difference in output that can occur when
one competitor has a 10-20 year plan and the other is perpetually chasing
and flailing.
MORE
Sponsor
The 2023 Cloud Threat Report is here, and it’s a game-changer!
Our Wiz cybersecurity research team has dug deep into the cloud,
uncovering dozens
of new risks across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud services. This eye-opening 12-page report
is packed with:
The full list of 2022’s cloud breaches Best practices
to fortify your cloud fortress
Cutting-edge cloud security threats
Emerging cloud-native threat actors
API-based vulnerabilities
BONUS: Grab a FREE checklist
of strategies used by the world’s leading cloud security
organizations!
Don’t miss out on this chance to adapt your security strategy for 2023 and
beyond.
Click here to unlock the ultimate cloud security resource!
wiz.io/lp/2023-cloud-security-threat-report
HUMAN NEWS
Long COVID Symptoms Narrowed
A new study narrows down long COVID’s 200+ symptoms to a core list of
12, offering hope for better understanding and diagnosis of the
condition.
– Loss of taste/smell and post-exertional malaise
topped the list of core symptoms
– Researchers used data from 9,764
participants to create the weighted list
– The study is part of the
National Institutes of Health’s RECOVER Initiative
– The core list
could help direct further research and develop diagnostic tools
– A
score of 12 was determined as a reasonable cutoff for identifying long COVID
MORE
ChatGPT Awareness
58% of US adults are familiar with ChatGPT, but only 14% have tried
it, according to a Pew Research Center survey. Users’ opinions on its
usefulness are mixed, with younger adults finding it more useful than older
ones.
MORE
Google searches related to sexual orientation and gender identity increased
by 1,300% since 2004, with conservative states showing the highest search
rates.
MORE
IDEAS & ANALYSIS
Jobs Again
I’ve mentioned this many times but I keep coming back
to it. It’s stunning to me that people generally, and especially young
people today, have been told their whole lives that people owe workers jobs.
If someone graduates and can’t get a job they feel like society has failed
them. Has it? Where does the promise come from? I feel like jobs are more
like a magical slot machine sitting in a forest that’s always pumped out
money. And whenever new grads or hard-working people step in front of it, it
makes a whir and a clank sound and a job pops out. But nobody has stopped to
ask why it does that or when it will stop. Well, I think we’re about to find
out when it’ll stop. It won’t completely stop of course. Jobs are the gap
between what a business owner wants to do and what they’re capable of doing
with the people they have. And there will always be a gap there sometimes
based on the fact that economies and ideas both grow and shrink. But when we
add AI and robots to the mix, we’re going to have a lot fewer gaps. At least
for humans. The gaps will be there but they’ll be filled by robots and AI.
What’s weird is that this shouldn’t be seen as attacking workers. Workers
are what happens when everything fails. The idea is too big. The tech isn’t
advanced enough. The tools aren’t efficient enough. In those situations you
need workers. But if all those things are perfect, we as workers are not
needed. That’s a strange thing. And it tells me once we get there we need to
move as quickly as possible to a post-work society where human interaction
isn’t something we must do at work, but something we choose to do because
it’s the purpose of life.
NOTES
The Guidance Project
The most interesting AI project I’ve seen since Langchain is
definitely Microsoft’s new Guidance project. It’s a completely new way of
stitching up AI logic vs. how Langchain does things. It makes more of the
moving parts visible and editable. It also pays special attention to making
sure you get the right type of output as you’re passing results between
components. They also make extensive use of handlebar-like functionality for
templates and variables. It’s VERY powerful, and they have a good number of
examples as well. If you’re hacking on AI stuff, this is a must!
MORE
DISCOVERY
Microsoft Guidance — A completely new way of controlling AI workflows
instead of normal prompts and chains. Probably the coolest project I’ve seen
since Langchain. If you’re tinkering with AI, this is a MUST.
MORE
|
NOTEBOOKS
Pandas AI
MORE
OpenLLM Leaderboard
MORE
Photoshop’s Generative Fill is Being Massively Praised
MORE
IPInfo’s Free IP Location Database
MORE
100 Very Short Bug Bounty Rules
MORE
Guanaco — 99% ChatGPT performance on the Vicuna benchmark.
MORE
6 Really Good AI-created Songs
MORE
Run your own VPN using Fly and Tailscale
MORE
The Twitter ranking algorithm
MORE
Turn a Midjourney prompt into a formula that you can replicate
MORE
|
MORE
Nvidia announces Avatar Cloud Engine (ACE), showing what
happens when AI collides with gaming.
MORE
Experiences don’t make you happier than possessions?
MORE
AgentGPT — Autonomous agents in your browser.
MORE
CSA Report on Chinese APTs Living Off the Land to Evade
Detection
MORE
RECOMMENDATION OF THE WEEK
Consider making a list of the books you’ve read and what you got from them.
Not a full summary, but at least 1-5 bullets. You can use AI to help you for
older books, but only write down the AI-created bullet if you actually
absorbed that knowledge from the book. We don’t need to remember books, I
don’t think, but it’s nice to know we got some sort of osmosis effect from
consuming them.
APHORISM OF THE WEEK
“It’s nice to be nice.”
My Dad
Thank you for reading. To become a member of UL and get more content and
access to the community, you can
become a member.
0 responses on "Unsupervised Learning Newsletter NO. 384"