This edition has 622 words which will take you about 3 minutes to read.
“The future will always be uncharted but it is made by those active enough to explore it, with the stamina and imagination not to give up on themselves or each other.” – Margaret Heffernan.
Data Exchange podcast
- Financial Time Series Forecasting with Deep Learning Murat Özbayoğlu and his colleagues recently wrote two good survey papers on applications of deep learning in finance. Our conversation focused on applications in key areas of investing and asset management.
- A programming language for scientific machine learning and differentiable programming Viral Shah is co-founder and CEO of Julia Computing. Along with his Julia language co-creators, Viral was awarded the 2019 Wilkinson prize, for outstanding contributions in the field of numerical software. We discuss popular applications of Julia, Julia 1.5, and the state of the Julia ecosystem and community.
[Image: Ankara Bridge, schweinalp (pixabay.com)]
Machine Learning tools and infrastructure
- Towards an infinite laptop My article on the recently announced Anyscale platform describes something I’ve long wanted: a tool that offers the ease of development on a laptop combined with the power of the cloud. With Anyscale, I get to keep using my favorite libraries and VS code, and seamlessly scale when I need to.
- Unpacking Software 2.0 With demand for developers far exceeding supply, companies are looking for tools that can boost the productivity of their developers. In this recent post with my friend Assaf Araki of Intel Capital, we examine companies who are building tools for automating various aspects of software development.
- A brief survey of data catalogs from Big Tech data teams
- 2020 State of AI Report
Virtual Conferences
- NLP Summit I’m chair of this ongoing conference dedicated to applications of natural language technologies. It’s a free virtual conference with over 50 sessions on practical applications of leading edge language models and technologies. Register today to watch the sessions live or on demand.
- Live Q&A with Paco and Ben Speaking of NLP, Paco Nathan and I will hold a Q&A on Kindred about our recent 2020 NLP Industry Survey Report. This event is slated for Oct 15th (11 a.m. to noon PT), but you can also post your questions and comments in advance in this thread.
- ACM International Conference on AI in Finance
Work and Hiring
- What’s an industry secret in the field you work in? There are quite a few amusing nuggets within this reddit thread.
- Automation and robotics leads to higher injury rates Physical safety is an aspect of AI and automation that I’m beginning to hear more about. In this episode of Reveal, they highlight data that shows the number of repetitive strain injuries are higher in Amazon warehouses with robots. One possible explanation is that automation speeds things up for those working in those warehouses, and higher volumes leads to more injuries.
- Companies seeking out potential employees with autism According to 60 Minutes “more companies are discovering the unique skills and potential people with autism offer”.
[Image: Reading a newspaper in India by Bo Nielsen]
Recommendations
- The Hype Machine This new book by Sinan Aral is essential reading for anyone wanting to understand social media. It’s a primer on many key topics including personalization and mass persuasion, hypersocialization, and the attention economy. Sinan is an academic, an entrepreneur, and an investor and he is able to bring all these perspectives to bear throughout the book.
- Social Media Analysis Toolkit A new open source tool that uses a series of data visualizations to unpack what’s being said on Twitter, Reddit, 4chan, and 8chan. With the elections right around the corner, this comes at just the right time for those of us based in the U.S.
- Feels Good Man This award-winning documentary about the Internet meme Pepe the Frog follows artist Matt Furie and includes scenes from San Francisco in the mid-aughts. Lovable Pepe was co-opted by the alt right and turned into something Matt never intended him to be. This film also serves as a great introduction to meme culture, message boards, and the world of illustrators. I recommend this highly!
If you enjoyed this newsletter please support our work by encouraging your friends and colleagues to subscribe: