Ron Lancaster

Big update from Meta on an advancement to a general purpose learning algorithm:

Meta AI is excited to announce data2vec, the first high-performance self-supervised algorithm that works for multiple modalities. We apply data2vec separately to speech, images and text and it outperformed the previous best single-purpose algorithms for computer vision and speech and it is competitive on NLP tasks.

In a previous post from March of last year, then Facebook AI asserted:

We believe that self-supervised learning (SSL) is one of the most promising ways to build such background knowledge and approximate a form of common sense in AI systems.

This feels like a big leap going from an idea of how to generalize self-supervised learning to releasing working models, in less than a year.

We’re encouraged by the progress of self-supervision in recent years, though there’s still a long way to go until this method can help us uncover the dark matter of AI intelligence. Self-supervision is one step on the path to human-level intelligence, but there are surely many steps that lie behind this one. Long-term progress will be cumulative. That’s why we’re committed to working collaboratively with the broader AI community to achieve our goal of, one day, building machines with human-level intelligence.

Cumulative, but with big leaps along the way.

There are parallels to Sam Altman’s recent essay, “Moore’s Law for Everything”, with the well-known essay by Marc Adreessen, “Why Software is Eating the World”, shared in 2011.

Perhaps in a decade, we’ll look back with reverence on this latest essay in the same way we view the 2011 entrant. With the continued advances in AI, it does seem like he has it right.

The Information shared a new report which seems to corroborate Bloomberg’s from a couple of weeks ago. However, ArsTechnica is skeptical:

For Apple to launch a VR headset this soon (or at all) would be a surprising move, to say the least.

The company has no developer APIs for VR beyond nominal support for the SteamVR SDK in its custom Metal graphics API, even as it has spent years building up very robust AR APIs. CEO Tim Cook has also been publicly dismissive of VR in the past, citing its tendency to isolate users from those around them, among other factors. He has repeatedly pointed to augmented reality as Apple’s future focus.

Apple has been building up tools for the creation of augmented reality content since 2017. That’s when the company started using the iPhone and iPad—and their AR-enabled rear camera arrays—as a spawning ground for AR developers who could create experiences for a future app marketplace for AR glasses. As a result of that groundwork, Apple’s AR glasses could see an immediate wave of high-quality apps on release.

It’s harder to picture that situation with VR, so one is left wondering why Apple would focus on VR instead of AR to start when the groundwork is there for AR. And Apple is way behind in VR. The company made a half-hearted foray into VR with barebones HTC Vive support within Final Cut Pro and some other tools alongside the launch of the iMac Pro, but little was heard of that feature again.

Apple has surprised us before. But it is clear the tooling, partners, and ecosystem around a product are often just as important as the product itself.

It is likely, even expected, that Apple is prototyping VR headsets alongside AR ones. However, prototypes aren’t required to be shipped. Instead, the R&D effort is to explore the space and the focus is still on launching an AR offering.

Bloomberg is back again with a story about Apple that is almost certainly wrong - claiming that Apple will release a VR headset in 2022.

Apple isn’t looking to create an iPhone-like hit for its first headset. Instead, the company is building a high-end, niche product that will prepare outside developers and consumers for its eventual, more mainstream AR glasses.

As a mostly virtual reality device, it will display an all-encompassing 3-D digital environment for gaming, watching video and communicating. AR functionality, the ability to overlay images and information over a view of the real world, will be more limited.

Almost everything about VR is unlike what Apple represents:

• The most common case for VR is gaming. And while Apple excels at mobile gaming; VR is more similar to a desktop gaming experience - which Apple lags in.
• VR is an individual, but isolating experience. Almost everything Apple offers today is personal, but personal in a way that helps the individual more fully interact with their world.
• And most importantly, VR induces sickness in more than 20% of women and around 10% of men. It seems very unlikely for Apple to sell a device that makes so many people sick.

The article continues with more incredible ideas:

The company has also designed the headset with a fan, something the company usually tries to avoid on mobile products, the people said.

No, they will not sell a headset that has a fan.

To further reduce the device’s weight, Apple is planning to use a fabric exterior.

No.

By developing a less mainstream initial headset, Apple can invest in the underlying technologies, consumer education, content development and developer relations to give its eventual AR glasses the best opportunity to be successful — when they are ready.

Apple has already been doing this for years, by building AR into the iPhone and iPad. They don’t need to release a less mainstream headset to accomplish these goals.

Industry people talk about SOC2 a lot, and it’s taken on a quasi-mystical status, not least because it’s the product of the quasi-mystical accounting industry. But what it all boils down to is: eventually you’ll run into big-company clients demanding a SOC2 report to close a sale.

I heard this during our board meeting yesterday, and to me, it perfectly captures what we’re all experiencing right now: distance learning and remote working, micro-mobility, and a massive tech adoption across every demographic.

As Covid-19 impacts every aspect of our work and life, we have seen two years' worth of digital transformation in two months.

-Satya Nadella

In an alternate timeline, leadership passed universal healthcare. The President, marking the signing of this historic bill, tweeted, “Access to quality health care is a basic human right!”

The United States was the last developed country that failed to offer health care coverage for all of its citizens.

I’m thinking about investing in business casual sweatpants. Any suggestions?

Looks like the future.

Over the weekend, my good friend and mentor, Steve Nordberg, passed away.

Early in my career, Steve took a chance on me to become a software developer. I had no experience and not much in the way of credentials, but despite the early stage VUE was at (few customers and building a testing system in nine months), he was willing to take me on as an intern.

Steve provided guidance and counsel to me as I took on challenges and increasing responsibility. But, it wasn’t just me. For many, he was a person that you could call to get clear advice on almost any business challenge.

This is because Steve’s superpower was the ability to identify the simplest solution possible. He had this incredible ability to get to the heart of the problem. To take a complex problem, and identify the crux of the issue - and to make it understandable for others.

Steve was a terrific friend and someone I could count on throughout my career.

But most of all, I will forever be indebted to him for believing in me - in the beginning and beyond.

Steve, you will be missed.