(cache)Yarrow Bouchard

Yarrow Bouchard

she/they

1.2K followers

“Capitalism”: talking past each other

What pro-capitalists and anti-capitalists might both be missing

Dec 11, 2023

Dec 11, 2023

Full Autonomy is Harder Than I Thought

Woe for Tesla

Nov 25, 2023

An up-close shot of the headlight of a black Model 3 or Model Y.

Nov 25, 2023

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The Age of Auto-Labeling is the Age of Automation

A paradigm shift for AI

Oct 5, 2022

214

The Age of Auto-Labeling is the Age of Automation

Oct 5, 2022

214

A Simple Calculation About Tesla’s AI Data Advantage Over Waymo

Tesla has at least an 50% performance advantage

Feb 21, 2022

233

A Simple Calculation About Tesla’s AI Data Advantage Over Waymo

Feb 21, 2022

233

Published in

Geek Culture

Tesla’s Ace in the Hole: 60,000 Full Self-Driving Beta Testers

The age of AI robots cometh

Jan 30, 2022

167

Tesla’s Ace in the Hole: 60,000 Full Self-Driving Beta Testers

Jan 30, 2022

167

Tesla and the Unreasonable Effectiveness of Data

Why does the size of Tesla’s training fleet matter? It’s well over 1 million cars, with the fleets of all competitors worldwide amounting…

Jun 2, 2021

179

Tesla and the Unreasonable Effectiveness of Data

Jun 2, 2021

179

The Five Pillars of Tesla’s Large-Scale Fleet Learning

How over half a million Teslas help train neural networks for autonomous driving

Dec 10, 2019

188

The Five Pillars of Tesla’s Large-Scale Fleet Learning

Dec 10, 2019

188

Published in

TDS Archive

Why Tesla’s Fleet Miles Matter for Autonomous Driving

Automatic labelling and automatic flagging of interesting training examples obviate the need for human labour and make data valuable

Nov 7, 2019

350

Why Tesla’s Fleet Miles Matter for Autonomous Driving

Nov 7, 2019

350

A Theory About Tesla’s Approach to Imitation Learning

Copying drivers’ behaviour using neural networks

Sep 17, 2019

218

A Theory About Tesla’s Approach to Imitation Learning

Sep 17, 2019

218

Capitalism for Anti-Authoritarian Marxists

Capital markets are needed to invest wealth wisely, even if workers seize the means of production

Sep 6, 2019

Capitalism for Anti-Authoritarian Marxists

Sep 6, 2019

Scientific magic

The universe is magic and magic is science.

Aug 7, 2019

Aug 7, 2019

What If Straight People Can Experience Gay Love?

The science of romantic fluidity

Jun 2, 2019

What If Straight People Can Experience Gay Love?

Jun 2, 2019

The splendour of recognition

“I’m not worthy,” she said, kneeling before God at the exit of the universe.

May 31, 2019

May 31, 2019

Why Tesla, Not Waymo, is the Leader in Self-Driving Car Development

Responding to popular arguments about lidar, disengagements, AI talent, and so on

May 30, 2019

973

Why Tesla, Not Waymo, is the Leader in Self-Driving Car Development

May 30, 2019

973

Simulations can’t solve autonomous driving because they lack important knowledge about the real…

Large-scale real world data is the only way

May 21, 2019

473

Simulations can’t solve autonomous driving because they lack important knowledge about the real…

May 21, 2019

473

Published in

TDS Archive

Tesla’s Deep Learning at Scale: Using Billions of Miles to Train Neural Networks

What Tesla can do that Waymo can’t

May 7, 2019

1.8K

Tesla’s Deep Learning at Scale: Using Billions of Miles to Train Neural Networks

May 7, 2019

1.8K

DeepMind’s AI learned to play StarCraft. Next, Tesla’s AI will try to learn to drive.

Scaling up machine learning with massive training training datasets

Feb 5, 2019

333

DeepMind’s AI learned to play StarCraft. Next, Tesla’s AI will try to learn to drive.

Feb 5, 2019

333

Gooey heart concepts for skeptics and scientists

Explaining the “spiritual” approach to mental health

Jan 21, 2019

Gooey heart concepts for skeptics and scientists

Jan 21, 2019

When is the 21st century going to start getting great?

The world has been riding high on the Internet, computers, and smartphones for a while, but we’re also starting to feel a creeping ennui…

Jan 8, 2019

When is the 21st century going to start getting great?

Jan 8, 2019

What distinguishes neural networks from humans?

A theory about what makes general intelligence general

Dec 7, 2018

What distinguishes neural networks from humans?

Dec 7, 2018

Does recent progress with neural networks foretell artificial general intelligence?

Astronomically increasing inputs don’t necessarily mean astronomically increasing outputs.

Dec 4, 2018

126

Does recent progress with neural networks foretell artificial general intelligence?

Dec 4, 2018

126

The value of autonomous car companies

In its research report on autonomous vehicles, the investment firm ARK Invest estimates the net present value (using an 8% discount rate)…

Oct 14, 2018

Oct 14, 2018

Merchants of anxiety

How the news fails us

Sep 28, 2018

223

Sep 28, 2018

223

My fateful dinner with Amy (and destiny): a spell-binding recounting

Prelude to a memoir-exposé of a faun

Aug 10, 2018

My fateful dinner with Amy (and destiny): a spell-binding recounting

Aug 10, 2018

The predictable irrationality of Tesla panic

Evolved human psychology and systemic media bias has created false narratives around crashes, fires, and executive turnover

Jun 13, 2018

530

The predictable irrationality of Tesla panic

Jun 13, 2018

530

Tesla can be profitable by the end of the year

Tesla can generate $56.6 million in net profit in Q4 2018 if three conditions are met:

Jun 8, 2018

Tesla can be profitable by the end of the year

Jun 8, 2018

Velocity could make Ethereum a bad investment, but still a great technology

I recently sold 70% of my Ether (the built-in cryptocurrency of the Ethereum platform) after I came to doubt its promise as an investment—…

May 14, 2018

1.6K

Velocity could make Ethereum a bad investment, but still a great technology

May 14, 2018

1.6K

Tesla wants to use AI to create a “manufacturing revolution”

Automating industrial labour is the key to unlocking Star Trek levels of prosperity. In a recent interview, Scott Phoenix, the co-founder…

May 14, 2018

658

Tesla wants to use AI to create a “manufacturing revolution”

May 14, 2018

658

There is no such thing as a “Tesla killer”

The concept of a “Tesla killer” — an electric vehicle that will take sales away from Tesla — rests on the axiom that electric vehicle (EV)…

May 13, 2018

200

There is no such thing as a “Tesla killer”

May 13, 2018

200

The media has higher virtues to uphold than balance

Unceasing criticism should be replaced with empathy and celebration of people who try to do good

Apr 20, 2018

326

The media has higher virtues to uphold than balance

Apr 20, 2018

326

Tesla’s Computer Vision Master Plan

Creating a fully self-driving car with cameras, deep neural networks, and data from customers’ cars

Apr 18, 2018

712

Apr 18, 2018

712

What makes Dungeons & Dragons and Skyrim fun, and MMORPGs disappointing

It’s about player freedom and the game world being an actual world

Mar 30, 2018

What makes Dungeons & Dragons and Skyrim fun, and MMORPGs disappointing

Mar 30, 2018

The thrum of the cosmic mystery

Seeing the universe with your intellect and heart

Feb 6, 2018

164

Feb 6, 2018

164

One Cryptocurrency To Rule Them All

Why most cryptocurrencies could end up worthless

Jan 13, 2018

201

Jan 13, 2018

201

Four metrics that indicate Ethereum could overtake Bitcoin

Ethereum has two fundamental advantages over Bitcoin: one technological and one organizational. Whereas Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency only…

Jan 9, 2018

719

Four metrics that indicate Ethereum could overtake Bitcoin

Jan 9, 2018

719

I want Elon Musk to know about self-compassion

Elon Musk faces “unrelenting stress” and “terrible lows” with his work. He can be really hard on himself, for example calling himself an…

Dec 16, 2017

116

I want Elon Musk to know about self-compassion

Dec 16, 2017

116

What Elon Musk Is Selling: Hope

It doesn’t have to be like this

Dec 7, 2017

1.1K

Dec 7, 2017

1.1K

Searchlight

I thought you were the ocean, but you were just a cove.

Oct 16, 2017

111

Oct 16, 2017

111

Magic is the object of wonder

Wonder is the experience of magic

Oct 1, 2017

104

Oct 1, 2017

104

What if it takes more than deep learning to reach human-level AI?

A recent MIT Technology Review article, “Is AI Riding a One-Trick Pony?” by James Somers, argues for a point of view I’ve long had a hunch…

Sep 30, 2017