Four short links: 1 August 2016
Text to VR, Fixing Government, World Models, and Robots Won't Take Our Jobs
- GuriVR — turns textual scene description into a VR environment.
- How Not to Fix Government IT (Simon Wardley) — I’m all for GDS over time becoming distributed with departments providing services. But why not carve up GDS into the departments right now? UK Gov doesn’t have the maps, we don’t have the analysis functions, and we don’t have the capability within departments.
- World Models (Liza Daly) — One way to address this is to layer on a world model: an additional representation of what words mean. Rather than relying solely on how words relate grammatically or probabilistically, it’s possible to guide systems toward producing text that is internally consistent and stylistically coherent.
- How Computer Automation Affects Occupations: Technology, Jobs, and Skills — Occupations that use computers grow faster, not slower. This is true even for highly routine and mid-wage occupations. Estimates reject computers as a source of significant net technological unemployment or job polarization. But computerized occupations substitute for other occupations, shifting employment and requiring new skills. Because new skills are costly to learn, computer use is associated with substantially greater within-occupation wage inequality. (via Gavin Kelly)
