It hurts, to lose your job. Especially when you’re 50 years old, and you know that the scrapheap is the most typical place of employment for people of your age. Especially when you really love what you do. Especially when, after years of working towards it and having just about overcome the imposter syndrome that all kids from my sort of background feel. And especially when you’re responsible for children, and you’re on your own.

The racial reckoning of the past several years has altered the way we think about and use language, often for better but occasionally for worse. And sometimes, as John explains in this episode, what we tend to believe is at odds with what is most likely true. ncG1vNJzZmikla22pLvNr5ilpJWue7TBwayrmpubY7CwuY6pZqKrXaOyqL7OZphmq5yqv2670WahrqukYq6vwMiqrJqslZk%3D

Reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF) is one of the key reasons behind the success of LLMs such as ChatGPT. RLHF enables LLMs to follow user instructions and align their answers with user goals. However, RLHF has some fundamental challenges that reduce its efficiency and make it inaccessible to organizations with limited resources. SteerLM, a new technique developed by researchers at Nvidia, promises to solve the challenges of RLHF and provide better results at lower complexity.

More than a decade ago, my office at work was situated next door to the office of a former IDF Chief of Staff, who was then working with us. The way my desk was situated, I could see down the hall while sitting at my desk, and thus saw the comings and goings of many of the people on that part of the floor. It turns out, not surprisingly, that former Chiefs of Staff have many contacts in the army.

Happy New Year! Symbolic of a long, happy life, noodles are traditionally eaten at Chinese New Year—which begins late this year on February 10. But why wait? As you know, I love noodles. I eat them all the time. And this weekend, just before the Gregorian New Year, I made a version of cold Chinese sesame noodles for lunch that were so delicious I’m sure they augur a very good 2024.