Andreas Kontarinis

Lots of people have me as a friend... :-) (Is that good?) Love them all! Love kids and computers... So I am an Informatics teacher! ;-) Also (hope to) love God!

[Jaynit @jaynitx]

Sergey Brin rarely speaks publicly. He sat down for an unscripted Q&A on Frontier AI.

He admits even the people building these models do not fully understand what they have created:

1. All the specialized AI models are converging into one. Google used to need separate models for different scientific problems. Now the main Gemini models are becoming state-of-the-art for math and other scientific questions at the same time. Brin says he would not have predicted this convergence at the outset, and watching it happen has been incredible.

2. Training an AI on one skill mysteriously improves unrelated skills. This is the concept of transfer. Train a model on coding, and its math reasoning gets better, and vice versa. Teaching it to process images can improve its ability to think through geometric word problems. The capabilities bleed into each other in ways nobody fully engineered.

3. Even Sergey Brin does not know how to prompt these models. He says he is genuinely confused about what level to prompt at. Do you tell it to debug a specific chunk of code, or ask it to write a better neural net training algorithm, or just say, " What should I do today. He admits that even at Google, they do not know exactly where the edges of Gemini's capabilities are.

4. One of the biggest leaps in AI came from the dumbest sounding trick. Chain-of-thought prompting is just telling the model to think step by step before giving your problem. Brin says it seemed like the dumbest thing ever, and there was no obvious reason it should work. But it did, and it spurred a significant increase in AI capability. Some of the most straightforward requests turn out to unlock the most.

5. Brin would not modify his own biology for today's AI. Asked how humans can keep up with the accelerating bandwidth of models, he acknowledged neural links and direct brain connections are being pursued. But he said he would personally wait for the technology to mature a lot before doing anything to change his biology. Today's models do not justify it.

6. Super intelligence does not mean solving the impossible. An audience member argued that true super intelligence would mean solving NP complete problems like the travelling salesman. Brin pushed back. Most computer scientists believe P is not equal to NP, which means no algorithm can reliably solve those problems optimally, and it does not matter how smart the AI is. Impossible stays impossible. Super intelligence just means being smarter than humans.

7. Computers mastering a skill has never stopped humans from pursuing it. Deep Blue beat Kasparov at chess in the 1990s, and people kept playing chess. After AlphaGo, the human game of Go advanced dramatically, and the players who lost to it became vastly better. Brin's point: AI does not retire human ambition in an area; it often pushes the state of the art and pulls people up with it.

8. Brin thinks something close to transformers could get us to AGI. Asked directly if transformers are sufficient, he said his guess is yes, largely because they have proven weirdly flexible, working for image and video far beyond their original text purpose. But he was careful to note they have quietly changed a lot along the way and are not the same architecture as the original transformer paper.

9. AGI means two different things, and one requires understanding the physical world. Brin personally thinks of AGI as AI that can improve itself. But he concedes others define it as AI that can do anything a person can, and he thinks they are probably more correct. To do everything a person can, the AI must understand and interact with the physical world, which is why world models, and robotics, become essential.

10. Inside Google, they now use the AI to build the AI. Brin says the team has shifted a lot of energy toward having the AI do things like monitor training runs and generate its own training data. You start to use the tool to build the tool. That is most of what he spends his time on now, what he calls the self-improvement game.

11. Brin is unusually candid about where Google trails its competitors. He admits Google was a little late to focus deeply on coding. He says Gemini 3.0 and 3.1 were on top across the board six months ago, but other labs have since made strides, particularly in coding. He gives a competitor's model the edge now on deep coding and overnight tasks, while pitching Gemini's flash model as far faster for rapid interactive iteration. hindsight, he says, is that they should have focused on code earlier.

12. He sees his own role as a rabble-rouser, not a manager. Brin is honest that delivering Gemini is Corey and Demis's responsibility, not his. he describes his job as poking and prodding the team, asking, are you really doing that, reminding them of priorities they might be missing and ideas they are not paying enough attention to. He admits this is sometimes a little disruptive.

13. Confidence comes from ignoring the monthly temperature. Brin says if he judged Google's position every month by which competitor just shipped a model, he would lose his confidence very quickly. Instead, he watches the longer arc. Things shift around constantly; one lab leads on one thing, another pulls ahead somewhere else, and he feels good about where Gemini actually is despite the day-to-day noise.

[Φερμίνα @ferminadas85]

Ο Ινδός ηθοποιός Amir Khan έκανε μια πολύ ασυνήθιστη δωρεά.
Από τον λογαριασμό του μοίρασε 1 κιλό αλεύρι
στους φτωχούς.
Και αυτό ήταν όλο;
1 κιλό το άτομο;
Δεδομένου ότι ήταν μόνο
1 κιλό αλεύρι,πολλοί άνθρωποι δεν έφτασαν
καν στο σημείο που μοιράζονταν το αλεύρι.

[Andreas Kontarinis @ankont]

@4fABkkc5xTv2aek @sportis65 @nesgrego @kgiannakidis Μα, αυτό είναι το θέμα. Δεν μπορείς να φορολογείς την ύπαρξη του ακινήτου. Αν το νοικιάζεις, να φορολογείσαι για το ενοίκιο που παίρνεις! Αν δεν το αξιοποιείς, δεν έχει κανένα νόημα να σου ζητάει χρήματα.

[Andreas Kontarinis @ankont]

@S_Tsantilas μια κοινοποίηση; 😍

[Andreas Kontarinis @ankont]

Έμεινε μια βδομάδα για να πετύχουμε το απίθανο! Να μας ψηφίσουν αρκετοί άνθρωποι για να είμαστε κι εμείς ανάμεσα στις 10 δημοφιλέστερες ομάδες (σε σύνολο 388) από ολόκληρη την Ε.Ε.!

https://t.co/jdMJOsMvxc

#imagineeu #ionidios #eucontest

[Andreas Kontarinis @ankont]

• Με μια ιδέα που σκέφτηκαν, σχεδίασαν την παρουσίασή της και υλοποίησαν μόνοι τους οι μαθητές!

Δείτε εδώ το βίντεο και, αν συμφωνείτε με την πρότασή μας, εγγραφείτε στην πλατφόρμα και ψηφίστε μας! 😍😜

https://t.co/yxFOsUDvUC

#imagineeu #ionidios #eucontest

[Andreas Kontarinis @ankont]

Έμεινε μια βδομάδα για να πετύχουμε το απίθανο! Να μας ψηφίσουν αρκετοί άνθρωποι για να είμαστε κι εμείς ανάμεσα στις 10 δημοφιλέστερες ομάδες (σε σύνολο 388) από ολόκληρη την Ε.Ε.!

https://t.co/jdMJOsMvxc

#imagineeu #ionidios #eucontest

[Andreas Kontarinis @ankont]

• Με μια πρόταση για να αισθανθεί ο κάθε επιστήμονας ή ερευνητής που δραστηριοποιείται στην Ε.Ε. ότι η φωνή του έχει σημασία και το κύρος του αναγνωρίζεται!

[Andreas Kontarinis @ankont]

Couldn't have said it better! https://t.co/p6kgNg7aZW

[Andreas Kontarinis @ankont]

Ψηφιακή ταυτοποίηση: Το «θηρίο» ή «πανάκεια»; https://t.co/NwNUPtLOFa

[Petros Van Ripper @PetrosVanRipper]

Ο ΤΑΚΗΣ του Θανάση Πολυζόπουλου
Όταν ήμουν στην Έκτη Δημοτικού έγινε κάτι μαγικό,
γνώρισα τον Τάκη.Ο Τάκης ήταν ένα παιδί με ειδικές ανάγκες, κάποια χρόνια μεγαλύτερος μου.Ήταν η μασκότ της περιοχής με την κακή, κάκιστη έννοια.
Τα παιδιά τον κορόιδευαν. Οι μεγάλοι τον κορόιδευαν

[Andreas Kontarinis @ankont]

@marmcgyver @JohnSac88 Για μένα επένδυση είναι οι φίλοι, η οικογένεια, οι δεσμοί μαζί τους. Η αίσθηση ότι στη ζωή, τη δουλειά σου κάνεις κάτι διαχρονικό, που μένει παρακαταθήκη στο μέλλον (γι' αυτό και έμεινα στην εκπαίδευση).😊

Τα ταξίδια καλά είναι, αν είναι φθηνά.
Το κινητό είναι απλά ένα εργαλείο.

[Andreas Kontarinis @ankont]

@ZOK756 @ScroogeKifissia Ο καθένας ας κάνει ό,τι θέλει βέβαια, σε ελεύθερη χώρα ζούμε, απλά σχολιάζουμε. 😉

[Andreas Kontarinis @ankont]

@ZOK756 @ScroogeKifissia Αυτό που θεωρείται πρόοδος από τις γυναίκες να κάνουν ό,τι ηλιθιότητα έκαναν οι άνδρες το 1950 (και κάτω), πραγματικά μου είναι αδιανόητο! Ξεκινώντας από το κάπνισμα. Σήμερα είναι πιο πιθανό να δεις νεαρή να καπνίζει παρά νεαρό. Και αυτό είναι "πρόοδος".

[Andreas Kontarinis @ankont]

@marmcgyver @JohnSac88 Στο ταξίδι περνάς καλά για 5-10 (το πολύ) μέρες, γυρίζοντας μετά στην ανιαρή πραγματικότητα (λέγοντας κιόλας, πού ήμουν πριν μια βδομάδα, ένα μήνα, γκρινιάζοντας πάλι δηλ), ενώ το κινητό είναι μια επένδυση που μπορείς (αν είσαι έξυπνος) να την εκμεταλλευθείς χρόνια! 😉 Γνώμη μου!

[Andreas Kontarinis @ankont]

Blog post μετά από χρόνια! 😁
Η ΤΝ, ο Χαράρι και η ηθική | Οι σκέψεις του Super Mario (https://t.co/RtDzz14ntM)

[Andreas Kontarinis @ankont]

Ξέρω ότι φέρω ένα πολύ σημαντικό όνομα για την Βενετική ιστορία, αλλά δεν ήξερα ποτέ ότι ένας Κονταρίνι έδωσε τη ζωή του για να μείνει ελεύθερη η Πόλη το 1453! Είναι αρκετά συγκινητικό! 😍 https://t.co/TH8xYS8L4K

[Emmanuel Macron @EmmanuelMacron]

Dear Europeans,

Today is Europe Day.

Europe has protected us from crises. And it will enable us to create jobs, security and order in a world full of dangers.

Let’s see how.

During the pandemic, it was our democracies that took the necessary steps to protect our most vulnerable citizens. It was our open societies that looked to science to develop, manufacture and provide vaccines to the entire world.

To tackle the economic crisis caused by the pandemic, Europe took an important step. We developed a joint recovery plan to provide support for our businesses and citizens – one that was unique in history.

Our joint response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a landmark moment. We drew a line under European dependence on Russian fossil fuels. And today, with our help, Ukraine continues to resist and, on the strength of its own courage, will emerge victorious.

While it has sometimes been criticized for being slow or detached, Europe acted swiftly and strongly, in a show of solidarity. And in the decade to come, our Europe will enable us to face the challenges of the future.

It is Europe that now boasts the most ambitious climate plans. By 2030, our carbon emissions will have decreased by 55%. By 2050, we will have achieved carbon neutrality.

Most important, we will carry out this transition in a spirit of solidarity and equity.

With the €59 billion Just Transition Fund to tackle the social repercussions of the transition.

With a carbon border tax, so that foreign manufacturers that export their products to the EU will be subject to the same environmental requirements as our own European manufacturers.

With digital innovations playing an increasingly large role in our lives every day, it was Europe that first took the initiative to regulate this new space.

The EU took the lead in personal data protection, the moderation of online content, the fight against disinformation, the creation of a level playing field and the regulation of cryptocurrency exchanges. It blazed a trail for the rest of the world.

And Europe will champion the critical technologies of the future.

Some 40 hydrogen projects have been launched in Europe. Europe’s share of the global semiconductor market will have doubled by 2030, reaching 20%. Thanks to the European framework, France will export electric batteries by 2027, even though we were completely dependent on imports just 10 years earlier!

France and its neighbors are developing these capabilities, and they are what will guarantee our independence in the future.

For it is together as Europeans that we will preserve our ability to decide for ourselves.

Europe means solidarity, green jobs, protection and leverage in the face of change.

We are in the process of building the most ecological, digitally demanding continent, one that defends our human, democratic values throughout the world. Together, as one.

On this day that we celebrate our Union, I am sharing this message with you as a proud, convinced, steadfast European.

Long live our European Union!

[Andreas Kontarinis @ankont]

Nikoteini and Melisma Ensemble concert in Sydney
https://t.co/5xUtIMmFZ6