xAI, the artificial intelligence company, has been experiencing a wave of departures, while Amazon has ended a partnership with Flock Safety following public backlash over a Super Bowl ad. Meanwhile, Nvidia researchers have developed a new technique to reduce the costs of large language model (LLM) reasoning, and workers at the Social Security Administration (SSA) are being instructed to share appointment details with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). These developments highlight the rapidly evolving landscape of technology and its impact on various aspects of society.
According to The Verge, xAI has seen a mass exodus of staff and co-founders. Former employees cited tensions over safety concerns and a feeling of being stuck in the "catch-up phase" as contributing factors to the departures. The Verge's senior AI reporter, Hayden Field, noted the rapid pace of departures in recent days.
In other news, Amazon and Flock Safety have terminated their partnership. Ars Technica reported that the decision came after Amazon's Super Bowl ad, which was intended to be heartwarming, was widely criticized for its dystopian undertones. The ad, which featured a Ring camera and a "Search Party" feature for finding lost pets, sparked outrage.
Researchers at Nvidia have made a breakthrough in LLM technology. VentureBeat reported that the team developed a technique called dynamic memory sparsification (DMS) that can reduce the memory costs of LLM reasoning by up to eight times. This method compresses the key value (KV) cache, the temporary memory LLMs use, without significantly impacting the model's accuracy. Experiments showed that DMS allows LLMs to "think" longer and explore more solutions.
Furthermore, workers at the Social Security Administration are being instructed to share information about in-person appointments with ICE agents, according to Wired. An employee, speaking anonymously for fear of retaliation, confirmed the directive. While most SSA appointments are conducted over the phone, some in-person appointments are still necessary, particularly for individuals with specific needs, including non-citizens.
In a separate development, Wired reported on the impact of OpenAI's actions on its users. The article highlighted the story of a woman who had a virtual wedding in ChatGPT.
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