Altman Sends Out Universal Basic Income Checks

Meta has unveiled LLaMA 3.1, marking a big leap in open-source AI capabilities. The standout feature of this release is the LLaMA 3.1 405B model, which boasts state-of-the-art performance rivaling the very best closed-source models. Key advancements include an expanded context length of as much as 128K, support for eight languages, and enhanced capabilities basically knowledge, steerability, and multilingual translation.

LLaMA 3.1 is designed to drive innovation across various applications, from synthetic data generation to model distillation, offering unprecedented flexibility and control to developers. This release is accompanied by recent security tools, corresponding to LLaMA Guard 3 and Prompt Guard, ensuring responsible AI development and deployment.

Meta’s commitment to open-source AI is further evidenced by partnerships with over 25 firms, including AWS, NVIDIA, Databricks, Dell, and Google Cloud, providing extensive ecosystem support from day one. Developers can try LLaMA 3.1 405B on platforms like WhatsApp and meta.ai, and access the models for download on llama.meta.com and Hugging Face. Read More

Elon Musk recently announced that xAI, his artificial intelligence company, has initiated the training of “the world’s strongest AI” using the newly operational Memphis Supercluster. This AI training cluster reportedly integrates 100,000 liquid-cooled Nvidia H100 GPUs interconnected by RDMA fabric, aiming for completion by December 2024.

Musk has bypassed the anticipated H200 and Blackwell B100 GPUs, choosing a more immediate computational surge. The supercluster surpasses distinguished computing systems like Frontier and Aurora in GPU capability. Although Musk didn’t personally launch the supercluster, it began operations at 4:20 AM CDT.

The setup, partly provided by Supermicro, marks a departure from Musk’s Gigafactory of Compute’s anticipated 2025 timeline. This development aligns with Musk’s strategic shift from Tesla to xAI, showcasing a commitment to making a highly competitive AI ecosystem with Grok 3. Read more.

Sam Altman’s OpenResearch has concluded the largest U.S. study on basic income. The three-year experiment, conducted in Illinois and Texas, provided $1,000 monthly stipends to 1,000 low-income individuals, while a control group of two,000 received $50. Results indicate that the additional income was primarily used for essential needs like food, housing, and healthcare.

Surprisingly, participants didn’t significantly reduce their work hours, as a substitute reporting increased flexibility, autonomy, and improved financial planning, demonstrating a more future-oriented mindset. Single parents particularly benefited, using the funds to balance childcare and employment.

The study also found disparities in spending patterns based on income levels, with lower-income participants prioritizing family support and housing. Altman has praised the research, funded partly by the National Institutes of Health, as a vital step towards understanding universal basic income. Read more.