Contained in the Man vs. Machine Hackathon


Then there’s Eric Chong, a 37-year-old who has a background in dentistry and beforehand cofounded a startup that simplifies medical billing for dentists. He was positioned on the “machine” group.

“I am gonna be trustworthy and say I am extraordinarily relieved to be on the machine group,” Chong says.

On the hackathon, Chong was constructing software program that makes use of voice and face recognition to detect autism. In fact, my first query was: Wouldn’t there be a wealth of points with this, like biased information resulting in false positives?

“Quick reply, sure,” Chong says. “I feel that there are some false positives which will come out, however I feel that with voice and with facial features, I feel we might really enhance the accuracy of early detection.”

The AGI ‘Tacover’

The coworking house, like many AI-related issues in San Francisco, has ties to efficient altruism.

In the event you’re not accustomed to the motion by the bombshell fraud headlines, it seeks to maximise the nice that may be achieved utilizing individuals’ time, cash, and assets. The day after this occasion, the occasion house hosted a dialogue about methods to leverage YouTube “to speak necessary concepts like why individuals ought to eat much less meat.”

On the fourth flooring of the constructing, flyers coated the partitions—“AI 2027: Will AGI Tacover” exhibits a bulletin for a taco occasion that not too long ago handed, one other titled “Professional-Animal Coworking” supplies no different context.

A half hour earlier than the submission deadline, coders munched vegan meatball subs from Ike’s and rushed to complete up their tasks. One flooring down, the judges began to reach: Brian Fioca and Shyamal Hitesh Anadkat from OpenAI’s Utilized AI group, Marius Buleandra from Anthropic’s Utilized AI group, and Varin Nair, an engineer from the AI startup Factory (which can be cohosting the occasion).

Because the judging kicked off, a member of the METR group, Nate Rush, confirmed me an Excel desk that tracked contestant scores, with AI-powered teams coloured inexperienced and human tasks coloured pink. Every group moved up and down the record because the judges entered their choices. “Do you see it?” he requested me. No, I don’t—the mishmash of colours confirmed no clear winner even half an hour into the judging. That was his level. A lot to everybody’s shock, man versus machine was an in depth race.

Present Time

In the long run, the finalists had been evenly cut up: three from the “man” aspect and three from the “machine.” After every demo, the group was requested to boost their palms and guess whether or not the group had used AI.

First up was ViewSense, a software designed to assist visually impaired individuals navigate their environment by transcribing reside videofeeds into textual content for a display screen reader to learn out loud. Given the brief construct time, it was technically spectacular, and 60 p.c of the room (by the emcee’s depend) believed it used AI. It didn’t.

Subsequent was a group that constructed a platform for designing web sites with pen and paper, utilizing a digital camera to trace sketches in actual time—no AI concerned within the coding course of. The pianist undertaking superior to the finals with a system that allow customers add piano periods for AI-generated suggestions; it was on the machine aspect. One other group showcased a software that generates warmth maps of code modifications: crucial safety points present up in pink, whereas routine edits seem in inexperienced. This one did use AI.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *