Taughannock Falls
There was a lot of water roaring over Taughannock Falls on Wednesday.
Artificial intelligence and licensing 🤖
I am very concerned about proposals to require licensing and regulations on artificial intelligence and all that might fall under that umbrella – machine learning, natural language models. Look who is putting forward proposals to regulate artificial intelligence – it’s the big incumbent players like Chat GPT and Facebook.
Maybe commercial products for sale should be regulated but free, open source projects should not be. Frameworks should be widely available to the public for any purpose they want, good or bad. Let the people play and innovate. If harm exists, go after the harmful commercial users, not the everyday people experimenting with the technology for non profit purposes to see how they can innovate.
Stopping bad actors seems like a good idea but you can’t stop a technology from moving forward in a global internet. If the US bans innovation, another less regulated country is likely to move it forward – China, Switzerland or some other place. I’m okay with regulating Meta and Open AI but not what goes on inside people’s basements.
Artificial intelligence, machine learning and natural language processing
There is a a lot of confusion and hype on this topic, so I thought it best to clarify this point. You probably use artificial intelligence and these related subsets every time you use a computer not it’s not as scary as you might think. Indeed, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Large Language Models (LLMs) are related concepts in the field of technology, but they have distinct differences:
- Artificial Intelligence (AI):
- Definition: AI refers to the broader field of creating machines or systems that can perform tasks that typically require human intelligence. It aims to replicate human-like thinking, reasoning, problem-solving, and decision-making.
- Scope: AI encompasses a wide range of techniques and applications, including natural language processing, computer vision, robotics, and more.
- Examples: Virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa, autonomous cars, and AI-powered recommendation systems.
- Machine Learning (ML):
- Definition: ML is a subset of AI that focuses on developing algorithms and models that allow machines to learn from data and make predictions or decisions without explicit programming.
- Approach: ML algorithms use patterns and statistical analysis to improve their performance over time as they are exposed to more data.
- Examples: Spam email filters, image recognition software, and predictive text suggestions on smartphones.
- Large Language Models (LLMs):
- Definition: LLMs are a specific type of ML model designed for natural language understanding and generation tasks. They are massive neural networks trained on vast amounts of text data.
- Functionality: LLMs excel at tasks like text generation, translation, summarization, and question-answering. They can understand and generate human-like text.
- Examples: GPT-3, GPT-4, and BERT are examples of LLMs that have gained prominence for their text-based capabilities.
In summary, AI is the overarching concept that aims to create intelligent machines, while ML is a subset of AI that focuses on learning from data. LLMs, on the other hand, are specific ML models designed for natural language processing tasks. They are powerful tools within the field of AI and ML, capable of understanding and generating human language at scale.
Labrador Pond
Not the nicest weather today, but so be it.
Taken on Wednesday September 14, 2011 at Labrador Hollow Unique Area.Below Sunset Rock
Autumn shadow
Not sure what to do today 💭
Going to be a great day but I’m feeling lazy. I could go for a bike ride down through Perkins Clearing or I could go for a paddle on Indian Lake. Maybe both. But the hammock and a good book is nice too. Or sit and stream a video from the hammock. I don’t know!
Good morning! Happy Sunday. Mostly sunny ☀ and 69 degrees at the Perkins Clearing. There is a west breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 59 degrees.
So many options but first the morning to enjoy. 🌅 Oatmeal banana 🍌 pancakes 🥞 milled perfectly 👌 in the food processor. It worked fine with the inverter. Lazy start to the day in the hammock while I chew over my plans for the day. Going to be a hot one especially at this campsite that’s fairly high elevation. I’m leaning towards kayaking 🛶 later on this afternoon but I’m not set in stone. Floating in the Jessup River would be fun too. Or Indian Lake. I’m just worried the lake will be choppy with that breeze.
Today will be sunny 🌞, with a high of 80 degrees at 4pm. One degree above normal, which is similar to a typical day around August 31st. Maximum dew point of 61 at 2pm. West wind 5 to 8 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. The high last year was 83 degrees. The record high of 100 was set in 1953.
Soaked red lentils 🥞 will try again with more water 💦 to make wraps rather than pancakes with the lentils. I’ve had trouble getting them thin enough after they cook but they are so delicious and rich in stomach filling protein. 😋 There not the kind of thing you’d want with a sweet meal but with salt in the batter they are remarkably tasty. Then chicken 🐔 with zucchini and lemon spice, garlic and onions should be so delicious. Since eating healthier my camp meals 🍴 taste so much better. Food really is the key to a good life. Been reading a lot of cookbooks and things on food science and I’m learning an awful lot of interesting things. Plus this time of year the farm markets are packed with good eats. 🍆 Tonight I plan to roast egg plant over the fire 🔥.
Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:58 pm with sun having an altitude of 54.1° from the due south horizon (-15.8° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 4.3 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 6:54 pm with the sun in the west (275°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-northwest (281°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 7:32 pm after setting for 2 minutes and 59 seconds with dusk around 7:59 pm, which is one minute and 45 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 8:36 pm. At sunset, look for mostly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 74 degrees. The dew point will be 61 degrees. There will be a west breeze at 6 mph. Today will have 13 hours and 9 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 52 seconds over yesterday.
Last night watched the fire tower lighting in Spectulator and explored the US 66 village that was lit up after dark. 🗼 Tried to spot Snowy Mountain off NY 30 Tonight lit up – may have hard to tell with headlights and my eyes mostly on the road watching for deer. But Makotis lighting in Spectulator was fun, big crowd there. Jessup River Road has been recently patched, it’s not to bad either on the bicycle 🚲 or driving it even after dark.
Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌤, with a low of 58 degrees at 4am. One degree above normal, which is similar to a typical night around September 2nd. Maximum dew point of 61 at 6pm. West wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening. In 2022, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It became sticky as the night progressed. It got down to 61 degrees. The record low of 37 occurred back in 1946.
Stayed up to midnight last night 🌕 under the moonlight which was not quite full but still very bright. By midnight things were covered with moonlight. 🎶 Some music and podcasts it was a nice relaxing evening 🌃.
As previously noted, next Sunday is 6:30 Sunrise 🌇 when the sun will be setting at 7:19 pm with dusk at 7:46 pm. Days are getting short quickly. Not really any time left for an evening bike ride but I can still walk 🚶 then g et to bed early. On that day in 2022, we had mostly sunny, patches of fog and temperatures between 83 and 56 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 77 degrees. We hit a record high of 96 back in 1931.
