Week of November 24, 2024
If you had spoken with me in the last few weeks, you might have experienced my version of recency bias - frequently referencing my recent read of Malcolm Gladwell's Revenge of the Tipping Point. The book focuses on how small numbers of people or ideas can provoke change, for better or worse. In diverse areas, such as Medicare billing fraud, bank robberies, shifting the cultural zeitgeist through TV programming, or how about 1200 physicians drove the bulk of the U.S. opioid crisis, the book illustrates the potency of an influential minority. While I may be over-indexing on this book, the analysis feels timely and comforting. And, of course, if there is intellectual pornography for data/social science people, Gladwell's writing is it.
The GoodReads reviews of the book are more mixed than my take.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/213924056-revenge-of-the-tipping-point
As we head into Thanksgiving, I hope you have a peaceful holiday. I am grateful for the comments, ideas, and friendship. And, remember, giving thanks makes you happier.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/giving-thanks-can-make-you-happier
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Listen to a Google Notebook LM A.I.-generated podcast of the newsletter with two virtual "hosts." This week, the male voice speaks as though it prompted Claude and ChatGPT to generate some of the content I posted below (see the Living with AI section). The voices know more about Fraggle Rock than I would have guessed. I am still not sure how I should feel about having my AI work appropriated by an AI voice.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/17GQyjU2kh85InaBKLhbcdeGZJPdzYSo1/view
About NotebookLM: https://blog.google/technology/ai/notebooklm-audio-overviews/
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Science and Technology Trends
A cross-functional group of scientists and medical researchers have validated a natural language multi-modal medical imaging LLM, Biomed Parse. The LLM can segment, detect, and recognize normal and abnormal findings in CT scans, MRIs, X-rays, Ultrasounds, microscopic tissue samples, eye exam images, skin exam images, and endoscopy images. Think of this as ChatGPT for almost any type of medical image.
While not yet commercialized, it is easy to see how this tech will disrupt medical care.
https://microsoft.github.io/BiomedParse/
and
https://x.com/erictopol/status/1859239938820051151?s=57
Neuralink will be testing its brain-computer interface in Canada.
https://www.newsweek.com/elon-musks-neuralink-green-lit-first-brain-chip-trial-outside-us-1989625
Welcome to 21st-century problems: "DNA testing company vanishes along with its customers' genetic data."
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz7wl7rpndjo
Mark Johnson, a virologist from the University of Missouri who explores wastewater data trends, identified a likely immunosuppressed, persistently COVID-infected person in my home county, Anne Arundel County, Maryland. "Wastewater genomic data indicates an infected individual has been shedding the same Delta variety of SARS-CoV-2 for three (3!) years. They probably don't know they are infected. This person is shedding a ton of viral material in wastewater." Until otherwise identified (and to be petty despite no evidence), I will operate under the assumption that my grumpy neighbor Irma is the high-volume viral shedder.
https://x.com/solidevidence/status/1859298009299013653
Anti- Anti-Science Articles of Note
If it comes up at your family gathering, I found this framework to understand "the clusters of basic mental processes that can explain when and why people ignore, trivialize, deny, reject, or even hate scientific information." (For the sake of holiday tranquility, I suggest deploying this intellectual weapon only as a last resort.). Be sure to Check out Table 1 in the paper.
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2120755119
Living with AI
This a great example of how cascading AI agents can work toward a singular task. In this instance, a Github project uses agents with different skills (settings, character, plot, etc.) to write a book.
https://x.com/venturetwins/status/1859298925930479998
Related - a commercial AI tool to generate sequels to famous stories.
https://bookengine.xyz/
I would not purchase this service - Claude does well with this today:
"Pitch me a dark plot twist to Fraggle Rock in which the Dozers rise up and take political control of the Fraggles."
https://claude.site/artifacts/d108e3ce-5249-4b3c-9b33-bc9e45df183d
Since April 2023, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has prohibited the use of generative AI for official tasks and activities - which reflects a reasonably conservative approach to avoiding hallucinations, corruption of archival materials, and other known problems of AI. This article is a good reminder of the risks we have not yet fully appreciated - especially in maintaining the integrity of historical records.
https://www.wired.com/story/us-patent-trademark-office-internally-banned-generative-ai/
I had ChatGPT summarize the article about not using AI for quick consumption:
https://chatgpt.com/share/67433786-6ea8-8013-bef0-661563f75aec
Some interesting research on how brainstorming with an LLM to solve employee management problems introduces various types of bias.
"Our latest research suggests that when managers interact with GenAI tools to help make decisions, the tools may inadvertently nudge them toward a more rigid and mechanistic approach. ecifically, our study reveals that when managers used ChatGPT to assist with solving a problem related to employee behavior and working conditions, they were more likely to propose control-oriented rather than people-oriented solutions." "Our research suggests that managers should take extra care with generative AI when the problem-solving issue has implications for working conditions and employee well-being. such cases, interacting with GenAI might create psychological distance between managers and the employees involved."
https://www.removepaywall.com/search?url=https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/genai-tools-and-decision-making-beware-a-new-control-trap/
Infographics
Here is an interesting interactive infographic on "the power of various passports." It illustrates the number of other countries each country's passport permits access to with and without visas.
https://www.passportindex.org/byRank.php
Things I learned this week
I learned that jazz musician Charles Mingus wrote a guide to toilet training cats (as in how to get them to use a toilet instead of a litter box, Meet the Parents-style). While I don't often look to celebrities for pro tips and other guidance, Mingus had a passion for this topic and (I guess) is as qualified as anyone to offer such advice.
https://www.openculture.com/2024/11/how-to-potty-train-your-cat-a-handy-manual-by-jazz-musician-charles-mingus.html
In another example of "this needs no comment beyond the headline," I offer, "Neuroscientists taught rats to drive tiny cars. They took them out on 'joy rides.'"
https://www.livescience.com/health/neuroscience/neuroscientists-taught-rats-to-drive-tiny-cars-they-took-them-out-on-joy-rides
AI art of the week
(A visual mashup of topics from the newsletter, now using ChatGPT to summarize the newsletter, suggest prompts, and make the images).
I may or may not have specifically chosen the "Things I Learned this Week" articles when thinking about the images I could generate. ChatGPT summed them up: "Here is the combined whimsical illustration featuring a jazz musician cat and brain-chipped rats driving mini-convertible cars in a colorful jazz club setting."
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-m10rj-ZzYl45peImcja9rZYG4-RxhKa/view
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Holiday travel and gatherings will likely increase COVID rates starting next week. There are minimal tradeoffs to providing your Thanksgiving guests the gift of good air exchange (air filters and open windows). Likewise, you will be grateful if you wear a mask on a plane ride and consider prophylactically using iodine or saline nasal spray before your group gatherings.
Some data on the efficacy, safety, and types of nasal sprays in pre- and post-exposure prevention of respiratory viral infections.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=iodine+nasal+spray
and
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-72262-w
The Pandemic Mitigation Collaborative (PMC) website uses wastewater levels to forecast 4-week predictions of COVID rates.
https://pmc19.com/data/
based upon https://biobot.io/data/
Wastewater Scan offers a multi-organism wastewater dashboard with an excellent visual display of individual treatment plant-level data.
https://data.wastewaterscan.org/
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Clean hands and sharp minds,
Adam
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