We hope you enjoy this week's hand-picked selection of essential and exciting stories from the frontiers of tech.
Portfolio ⇨ OwnHome creates alternative to the Bank of Mum and Dad
With homeownership out of reach to a growing number of Australians, it is unsurprising that OwnHome has a waitlist of potential customers. In the past 12 months it has received applications that would amount to $14 billion in property purchases. (read)
Portfolio ⇨ Game Jolt helps creators monetise their work
Through all of the change and turmoil [in social media], one platform is trying something different. Game Jolt is introducing a new way for creators to make money. (read)
AI ⇨ ChatGPT: Optimizing Language Models for Dialogue
OpenAI trained a model called ChatGPT which interacts in a conversational way. The dialogue format makes it possible for ChatGPT to answer followup questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests. (read)
AI ⇨ Turns out diffusion models can design proteins too
A team led by Baker Lab scientists Joseph Watson, David Juergens, Nate Bennett, Brian Trippe, and Jason Yim has created a powerful new way to design proteins by combining structure prediction networks and generative diffusion models. The team demonstrated extremely high computational success and tested hundreds of A.I.-generated proteins in the lab, finding that many may be useful as medications, vaccines, or even new nanomaterials. (thread) (pdf)
Web3 ⇨ Stripe launches a fiat-to-crypto payments onramp
“It’s been a difficult few weeks in the crypto ecosystem. However, despite recent events, we remain excited about the underlying prospects for innovation. Just a few months ago, for example, Ethereum successfully transitioned to a proof-of-stake consensus model—an incredible demonstration of the power of open-source development—and many other projects continue to make impressive technical progress. Overall, we maintain fundamental optimism about how crypto can help to facilitate a more globally accessible financial services ecosystem.” (read)
Web3 ⇨ Skiff launches decentralized IPFS storage
Instead of stashing your documents with a major cloud storage provider such as Amazon Web Services, Skiff is letting its users choose a decentralized alternative called Interplanetary File System, or IPFS. For users who opt in, Skiff will encrypt their documents, split them into pieces, and distribute them across a network of potential hosts, keeping them out of the hands of big tech companies. Doing so would protect against government requests for data, and because the documents are end-to-end encrypted, only the actual user would be able to see their contents. (read)
Interesting adjacencies:
Scientists used a quantum computer to explore the ultimate escape route from a black hole (link)
France joins ASAT weapons testing moratorium (link)
IndieBio announces NY Class 5 (link)
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