I was trying to keep my (interactive) run-ai job running instead of being “succeeded” and realized that I could use “sleep infinity” as the entry command.
https://www.behance.net/gallery/210033783/SleepInfinity
I was trying to keep my (interactive) run-ai job running instead of being “succeeded” and realized that I could use “sleep infinity” as the entry command.
https://www.behance.net/gallery/210033783/SleepInfinity
Saw this broken train station display showing intriguing patterns caused by the interactions between the surrounding light and display structure, and got some inspiration to create abstract art from it.
This is an excellent overview of the evolution of biological intelligence and the relationships to the progress of artificial intelligence so far, covering the five major stages of steering, reinforcing, simulating, mentalizing, and language. Perhaps the major takeaway is the hierarchical structure of different brain components specializing in different tasks, analogous to the computational higher-order and global workspace theories as surveyed in https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.08708.
The text is very easy to follow and the illustrations are nice to look at.
There are several aspects of scientific research that excite me: solving a challenging problem, publishing a paper, shipping a product, creating a demo/artwork, presenting a talk, reviewing a submission, serving on a committee, attending a conference, meeting people with shared interests, working with collaborators.
But what excites me the most is discovering new ideas and insights, especially those that are surprising or unexpected.
Looking back at my research career, here are some examples:
In retrospect, I tend to have more focus, and likely as a consequence, more innovation during the earlier stage of my career, and more breadth (in terms of topics and applications) towards the later stage.
But it is really the unexpected intellectual discovery that keeps me excited, which I missed.
This is an experiment to create motion graphics from the original poster image (in the event email), which, upon looking at it, prompted me to want to animate the cupcake topping.
I started by twirling the topping via Motionleap, selecting the candy particles via Photoshop and animating them via Fresco Motion, followed by generative stylization via a comfyUI workflow (using the MotionLeap + Fresco video as control and its first frame as style input for IP-adapter). The challenge is that the output background won’t be completely black/transparent (which hopefully will be fixed soon in standard generative video workflows), and thus for now I did some masking and keying in After Effects as a workaround for proper compositing.
https://www.behance.net/gallery/207181031/CupcakeWars
The conductor on my evening train came to me and joked that “Adobe should lower the price”.
https://www.behance.net/gallery/186107513/PortraitsMotoGStylus/modules/1176410825
There was an employee event for cupcake decoration competition on Thursday afternoon. I took a few bases, which seemed healthier than the toppings, and decorated them virtually via company products.
https://www.behance.net/gallery/206803773/CupcakeWars
I received an invitation for a “chat” from a reporter with a major media company for a story he is currently working on about my current employer.
Per company policy I forwarded the inquiry to our PR (public relation) partner, who told me that the reporter is indeed legit but tends to try to โcatchโ employees unawares to speak to them on the side without PR.
On one hand I am all for the freedom of press and I have enjoyed their reportings, but on the other hand trying to trip employees up is probably not the most ethical way to obtain information.
So I just ignored the reporter and let the PR handle the situation.
While driving back home on August 22, 2024 evening around 8:30 PM, I saw this impressive pale blue sky with dark clouds. I did a quick drawing the next evening and planned to refine it later. Then I realized that there are many fleeting moments in life that were better captured without further delays.
https://www.behance.net/gallery/206362211/ImpressionOf22Aug2024EveningAround8PM
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