Tootfinder

Mustafa Suleyman says "Seemingly Conscious AI" is coming but is something to avoid, and that developers must build AI for people, not to be a digital person (Mustafa Suleyman)
https://mustafa-suleyman.ai/seemingly-conscious-ai-is-coming

We must build AI for people; not to be a person

Communication Efficient LLM Pre-training with SparseLoCo
Amir Sarfi, Benjamin Th\'erien, Joel Lidin, Eugene Belilovsky
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.15706 https://

Communication Efficient LLM Pre-training with SparseLoCo
Communication-efficient distributed training algorithms have received considerable interest recently due to their benefits for training Large Language Models (LLMs) in bandwidth-constrained settings, such as across data centers and over the internet. Despite reducing communication frequency, these methods still typically require communicating a full copy of the model's gradients-resulting in a communication bottleneck even for cross-datacenter links. Furthermore, they can slightly degrade perfo…

"Populism, platforms, and the challenges of science communication"
https://elephantinthelab.org/populism-platforms-and-the-challenges-of-science-communication/
"Teresa Völker interviewed Jeanette Hofmann about the rol…

Implicit Communication in Linear Quadratic Gaussian Control Systems
Gongpu Chen, Deniz Gunduz
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.16146 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2509.1…

Implicit Communication in Linear Quadratic Gaussian Control Systems
This paper studies implicit communication in linear quadratic Gaussian control systems. We show that the control system itself can serve as an implicit communication channel, enabling the controller to transmit messages through its inputs to a receiver that observes the system state. This communication is considered implicit because (i) no explicit communication channels are needed; and (ii) information is transmitted while simultaneously fulfilling the controller's primary objective--maintaini…

It Depends: Resolving Referential Ambiguity in Minimal Contexts with Commonsense Knowledge
Lukas Ellinger, Georg Groh
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.16107 https://

It Depends: Resolving Referential Ambiguity in Minimal Contexts with Commonsense Knowledge
Ambiguous words or underspecified references require interlocutors to resolve them, often by relying on shared context and commonsense knowledge. Therefore, we systematically investigate whether Large Language Models (LLMs) can leverage commonsense to resolve referential ambiguity in multi-turn conversations and analyze their behavior when ambiguity persists. Further, we study how requests for simplified language affect this capacity. Using a novel multilingual evaluation dataset, we test DeepS…

Google unveils the Pixel Watch 4 in 41mm and 45mm sizes, with an Actua 360 curved display and emergency satellite communication, starting at $349 from October 9 (Aisha Malik/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2025/08/20/goog…

Google debuts Pixel Watch 4 with domed display, emergency Satellite Communication | TechCrunch
The 41mm Pixel Watch 4 starts at $349 for Wi-Fi and $449 for LTE, while the 45mm version starts at at $399 for Wi-Fi and $499 for LTE.

Aha!!! This is one of the pieces I was trying and failing to think of upthread, from the always excellent @… (and I’m embarrassed that I couldn’t bring it to mind earlier, sorry Jennifer, it’s so good and so important):
https://jenniferplusplus.com/the-free-software-commons/
15/

Ukraine STRIKES BACK! Drones targeting Moscow – war is coming home #shorts: https://benborges.xyz/2025/07/21/ukraine-strikes-back-drones-targeting.html

Jointly Computation- and Communication-Efficient Distributed Learning
Xiaoxing Ren, Nicola Bastianello, Karl H. Johansson, Thomas Parisini
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.15509 https…

Jointly Computation- and Communication-Efficient Distributed Learning
We address distributed learning problems over undirected networks. Specifically, we focus on designing a novel ADMM-based algorithm that is jointly computation- and communication-efficient. Our design guarantees computational efficiency by allowing agents to use stochastic gradients during local training. Moreover, communication efficiency is achieved as follows: i) the agents perform multiple training epochs between communication rounds, and ii) compressed transmissions are used. We prove exac…

Google announces Gemini for Home, a new voice assistant for Google Home, with support for Gemini Live, coming later this year and replacing Google Assistant (Jennifer Pattison Tuohy/The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/news/762370/googl

Gemini for Home is Google’s biggest smart home play in years
Gemini is finally, officially coming to Google Home. The all-new assistant will arrive on Nest smart speakers and displays later this year.