UBI: The Future of Income, or Just a Pipe Dream? AI of the week and more

Hey there,

I had a crazy week last week and had zero time to sit at the computer and type. But this week is back to semi-regular and your 3 topics are back 😛

Welcome back to 3-in-3!

Thing 1: UBI: The Future of Income, or Just a Pipe Dream?
Thing 2: AI of the week
Thing 3: What happens to your body when you don't sleep enough

Thing 1 - UBI a.k.a. Free Money

OpenResearch lab published their latest findings. Here's what you need to know.

OpenResearch decided to start handing out cash ($1000 per month) to thousands of people and watch what happened. Let’s dive in.

Real People, Real Money, Real Results

For years, OpenResearch turned science fiction into reality. They gave people a steady stream of cash and tracked their every move. No judgment, just data. They wanted to know: Would people work less? Would they get healthier? Would they become reckless spendthrifts?

Participants in the universal basic income (UBI) program were 26% more likely to provide financial support to others compared to the control group. The sense of community and increased social cohesion likely contributed to this positive impact

So, What Did They Find?

1. Less Full-Time Jobs, More Me Time: People traded in some of those long hours for part-time gigs, hobbies, or simplerelaxation. Hitting that snooze button on the rat race.
   I didn’t have to take the first crappy job I was able to find. I was able to hold out for something a little better pay-wise. - Daniel
   Getting to do this job, which is definitely like the type of work I wanted to do, but doesn't pay as much just because, you know, it's a really small non-profit, that definitely was a big change. - Sydney
2. Health: People went to the doctor more often, which indicates they might've cared more for their health. But surprise, surprise, they didn't hit the gym any harder. Looks like cash alone isn't a miracle cure for lazy afternoons.
3. Spending: Many people used the extra cash to pay off bills and catch their breath.
4. Housing and Mobility: Some folks decided to upgrade their living situation or explore new neighborhoods. Freedom to move, freedom to choose.

Thing 2 - AI of the week

• Meta released Llama 3.1 (open-source!), which now powers Meta AI
  It has performance on par with the best closed-source models (128k context length, multi-lingual abilities, good code generation performance, complex reasoning abilities, tool use)
  It was trained on over 15 trillion tokens over the course of several months requiring over 16K NVIDIA H100 GPUs

Source: Maxime Labonne

• With llama-405b-to-8b you can get the quality of Llama 3.1 405B about 30x cheaper for a specific task
• OpenAI is testing SearchGPT, a temporary prototype of new AI search features
  If you don't want to wait for it, try Perplexity, I use it all the time
• Zuck published a sort-of a manifesto for open-source AI, why it's good for the world, for Meta, etc. It's on point, and we share a lot of the same thinking about it
• Stability AI released SV4D - Dynamic 3D Content Generation with Multi-Frame and Multi-View Consistency

Thing 3 - In celebration of sleep

Sleep deprivation is literal drunkenness. Being constantly awake for 18 or 24 hours is equivalent to having a blood alcohol content of 0.05% or 0.1%, respectively. 0.08% is legally drunk in the U.S.

- Bryan Johnson

I don't drink alcohol so lack of sleep is the only way I can experience drunkenness. I try not to, it's work in progress... 😂

Ok, that's my cue...

Cheers, Zvonimir