Questions I asked this week...
Gravotropism, loneliness, AI girlfriends, and the future of women's basketball
(1) What does gravotropic mean in terms of trees?
I recently came across a TikTok featuring Myron Golden on the Social Proof podcast discussing the power of the tongue. One idea that resonated with me was the nature of life – that if you're unwilling to go down, you can't go up. Golden emphasized this point with the quote, "the root system is very similar to the fruit system". This made me curious about the concept of gravotropism in trees. Gravotropism refers to the growth response of plants to gravity. In trees, this is most evident in the root system. Tree roots exhibit positive gravitropism, meaning they grow downward in the direction of gravitational pull.
(2) What are the recent numbers around loneliness in America?
I recently read an article about Renate Nyborg, the former CEO of Tinder, and her new venture, Meeno, which aims to combat loneliness and help people build healthier relationships using AI. During her time at Tinder, Nyborg encountered many users who shared their negative experiences with the platform, often stemming from feelings of isolation and loneliness. The article made me realize that I wasn't fully aware of the scale of the loneliness problem in the United States. Today 36% of Americans, including 61% of young adults, feel "serious loneliness." Loneliness has been linked to numerous health issues, including depression, anxiety, heart disease, and cognitive decline.
(3) Tell me more about Xiaoice in China.
In the same article about Renate Nyborg's new venture, Meeno, which aims to combat loneliness using AI, I came across a mention of Xiaoice, a female AI chatbot in China that had reportedly captured the hearts of 500 million "boyfriends." The article suggested that men were choosing virtual girlfriends over real-life relationships because these AI companions always said exactly what they wanted to hear. As someone who closely follows AI, I was surprised that I had never heard of Xiaoice before.
(4) What is a Recurrent Temporal Restricted Boltzmann Machine?
I came across a tweet by Boris Power, OpenAI's head of applied research, discussing an alternative approach to the Sora model for simulating videos of bouncing balls. Power suggested that transformers and diffusion models, like those used in Sora, are too parameter-heavy to be practical. Instead, he proposed using a simple temporal sequence Boltzmann machine, which he claimed could simulate the videos 100,000 times more efficiently. Intrigued by this idea, I decided to investigate further and ask the question: What exactly is a Recurrent Temporal Restricted Boltzmann Machine? A Recurrent Temporal Restricted Boltzmann Machine is a type of neural network designed to model sequential data, such as videos or time series. It combines the principles of Restricted Boltzmann Machines and recurrent neural networks to capture the temporal dependencies in the data.
(5) When can women college basketball players go to WNBA?
I recently watched the women's national championship game between Iowa and South Carolina, which drew a record-breaking 18.7 million viewers on ABC and ESPN. The game showcased incredible talent, with Iowa's Caitlin Clark shining as the standout star. Seeing Clark's exceptional skills on the court made me wonder: Why is she still playing in college, when top male players often leave for the NBA after their freshman year? The answer lies in the different rules and opportunities for men's and women's basketball. In the NBA, players can be drafted straight out of high school, while the WNBA requires players to be at least 22 years old or have completed their college eligibility.