Understanding how FPN allows deep learning models detecting small objects and how to implement it from scratch The post FPN Paper Walkthrough: Leveraging the Internal Pyramid appeared first on Towards Data Science.

Single-turn chatbots are evolving into long-running agents that can reason, maintain context, use tools, and run efficiently across many turns to complete... Single-turn chatbots are evolving into long-running agents that can reason, maintain context, use tools, and run efficiently across many turns to complete complex workflows. However, these multi-agent workflows cause token counts to grow quickly. Agents plan, call tools, invoke sub-agents, receive information, and then pass history, outputs, and reasoning steps back into the model… Source

Financial Times: Public First: 26% of Americans support increased data center construction, the lowest share among 15 large countries, such as Brazil, Japan, the UK, and Canada  —  Americans are far more likely to oppose the construction of AI data centres than citizens of other big economies …

Dina Bass / Bloomberg: Robotics startup Generalist, which released its GEN-1 model to complete short physical tasks in April, raised $400M led by Radical Ventures at a $2B valuation  —  The company raised $400 million in a funding round led by Radical Ventures  —  Generalist AI, a robotics startup …

Annie Nicol is homeschooling her grandson, who lives with her son in a tiny home on her property. Annie Nicol   This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Annie Nicol, 76, who lives in Petaluma, California. Nicol is homeschooling her grandson, who lives with her son in a tiny home on her property. It helps them stay close-knit and financially within their means. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. It's a trend in our family that we take care of our own. My parents, who both lived into their 90s, were retired educators and played a big role in caring for my kids. My son and I shared caregiving responsibilities for them. My husband is 80 and works part-time as a therapist, and he takes care of his grandkids every Friday and on some Tuesdays. My grandson, who lives with me, lost his mother when he was an infant. He has an auntie he's very close to, but it took some time because she lives out of town. My son and grandson live near my husband and me in a tiny house next door My son and grandson have a tiny house on the property. The building was there when I moved here 42 years ago, and it was showing its age then. The knob and tube electricity present when I purchased the house was common in homes built between 1880 and 1940. The main old farmhouse was built over 100 years ago. I imagine the outbuilding was built around the same time. The repurposed space outside is adjacent to the main house. My son and grandson basically have a bunkhouse, which includes my son's workshop. It's maybe 200 square feet total and about 15 feet from our back door. The bathroom and kitchen are inside the main house. My grandson has a bedroom in the main house, too, where he keeps his trains, Lego bricks, and school work. He prefers to bunk close to his dad in the outbuilding at this time. We all eat dinner together at home. I retired at 75 Annie Nicol retired at 75 and spends her time caring for her grandson. Mike Kai Chen for BI I'm a retired nurse practitioner. I went into nursing instead of medicine partly because of a divorce and needing more flexibility in my life, especially with taking care of my kids. I've worked with a lot of substance use and community health centers. I developed a clinic within a shelter in my town, which is still running. When my children were small, we would go camping all over California. When I worked full-time, I didn't have that flexibility. I wish I could have kept this up a little longer, but financially, I had to be careful. I perhaps would have retired sooner had COVID not hit. The support structures were somewhat destroyed, and people were afraid. I felt I needed to mentor some of the people who would be taking over my position. I love my patients, and I've had some for almost their whole lives. I got as much as I gave. I retired last year. I became my grandson's homeschool teacher. While I was working, I helped my grandson with his schooling at least three days a week because it was interrupted during COVID. He has another set of grandparents who live outside our community and wanted to be involved. Hence, we started doing the homeschool thing, splitting responsibilities. Annie Nicol said she's valued seeing the spark in her grandson's eyes when teaching him. Mike Kai Chen for BI His other grandma, who was a teacher, and his auntie, also a teacher, would come down from their community and volunteer one day a week at his school. They really wanted to be involved in their daughter's son's life. The other grandpa set this up, with a homeschool supervisor-teacher who manages the curriculum to meet California's standards. I do what's called Studies Weekly, which uses a somewhat Socratic method. You're looking for a deeper response rather than just spitting out information. My commitment started with a "We have to do this." I appreciated what he was learning, and it helped me learn new things and understand his needs. It's really fun to see when he is engaged and by what. It's kind of what I did when I was somewhat teaching my patients. I'd look for that glimmer in their eyes that says, "I got it." When he rolls his eyes or looks the other way, I see that I don't have his attention. It's important for me to know that he's grasped the concepts. It's giving, taking, and sharing. I've tried to be as involved as I can in my grandchildren's lives. I have a daughter who lives in Santa Barbara, and I don't see her three kids as much. Still, they would call me Grandma Airport because I'd always arrive at the airport instead of a car. To a certain extent, I contribute what I can for birthdays and gifts. My son has a house that he's not living in and is rented out, so I'll help with that. For the other kids, the majority of funding goes toward things like museum or theater tickets. I'm taking my grandson to Disneyland, which I haven't been to in 30 years, or I'll visit my granddaughter in Hawaii. I'm also putting some funds toward experiences that help them engage in other forms of education, and I'm putting money aside for them when I die so they'll have some help with college. Annie Nicol spends some of her time tending to her sheep. Mike Kai Chen for BI I also spend my time going through boxes of my parents' belongings. They died a decade ago, but my mom was a writer and wrote a tremendous amount. I am also on a local board focused on our unhoused population and do whatever I can to help. I live on three acres and have a small farm that grows a lot of vegetables. We have sheep, too. I love working in the soil. We live frugally, and I'm not too worried. I own three properties, so if push comes to shove, I can sell them. I've always been careful and don't buy anything that's expensive. I go out to eat maybe once a month. The biggest financial issue right now is that my century-old house needs a lot of repairs, so I'm trying to strategize. Read the original article on Business Insider

Mike Butcher / Pathfounders: London- and NY-based Airspeed, which aims to use AI agents to replace sales software like traditional CRM dashboards, raised a $20M Series A led by DN Capital  —  Airspeed, the London and New York-based agentic AI startup formerly known as Glyphic, has raised a $20 million Series A to build what it calls the …

NYU professor Jonathan Haidt said AI toys are always available and could compromise children's relationships with their parents. Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images Leading social psychologist Jonathan Haidt warned about the impact of AI toys in a TED Talk. Children risk becoming attached to AI companions if they bond with them, he said. This could weaken children's bonds with their parents, he said. Jonathan Haidt, the NYU Stern School of Business professor whose book "The Anxious Generation" helped spark a global debate about the impact of smartphones and social media on young people's mental health, has a new concern: AI toys designed for children. Speaking at a recent TED Talk, Haidt said that the rapidly growing market for AI-powered toys and chatbots could interfere with children's relationships with their parents by becoming emotional attachment figures. "We're seeing a booming AI toy market. Chatbots are being put into dolls and teddy bears," Haidt said. While he didn't single out specific products, a growing category of AI-powered toys and companions has emerged over the last couple of years. Examples include Moxie, an AI-powered social robot designed to be children's friend, tutor, and mentor, as well as chatbot-enabled dolls and teddy bears developed by startups like Curio. Toy giant Mattel has also partnered with OpenAI to explore AI-powered products, showing how quickly the category is evolving. Market research firm Grand View Research estimates that the global smart toy market, including AI toys, will grow from $14.39 billion in 2025 to $44 billion by 2033. The social psychologist said these products are designed to be highly responsive to children, offering comfort, conversation, and companionship whenever they're needed. That constant availability could make them especially appealing to young users. "These chatbots are super responsive to the child. They're always there to offer comfort, to be there for the child — and of course, the parents are often busy," Haidt said. The danger of artificial relationships Haidt's warning comes as AI companions are already reshaping people's social and romantic lives. Users say they've fallen in love with AI partners, relied on chatbots for daily companionship, and even feared losing the relationships they've formed with virtual companions. Haidt's concern, however, centers on how children form attachments. Young children naturally gravitate toward people who consistently respond to their needs, he said. If AI companions become more reliably responsive than parents, they could begin to occupy an unhealthy role in a child's emotional development. "If the chatbot is super responsive while the parents aren't as responsive, the child's attachment system, which is looking for who in my environment is the person who responds to me, may well imprint or focus on the chatbot, which is going to compromise their relationship with their own parents," Haidt said. Techno-skeptic The warning is part of a broader argument Haidt has been making about what he calls "techno-skepticism." He said society moved too quickly in allowing social media companies to shape children's social lives and educational technology companies to reshape classrooms. "We let social media companies take over our kids' social lives, and they've harmed our kids' social lives and their mental health," he said, adding: "We let EdTech companies take over our kids' schools, and they appear to be doing more harm than good." Now, he said, AI companies are targeting an even more intimate part of childhood: relationships. "AI companies are coming for their relationships, to be their friends, their therapists," Haidt said. "What could go wrong?" While he said AI therapists may eventually have a role, he said that companies should not be allowed to deploy emotionally persuasive AI products to children without years of safety testing. "Give them nothing that conveys that it understands the child or that it cares," Haidt said. "Because it doesn't." Read the original article on Business Insider

The author moved from the US to Denmark. Courtesy of Rebekah Joy Portraits Living in Denmark changed how I think about parenting and independence. I realized much of my parenting anxiety came from fear of falling behind. Danish culture taught me to trust my child more and control less. If you looked at my Danish husband's social media, you wouldn't know he is a parent. There are no monthly updates about our 3-year-old son, Aksel, no sentimental captions about milestones, and no proof that he is involved in family life. The truth is, he is an incredible father. He just doesn't feel the need to narrate it. When I moved from the US to Denmark eight years ago for love, I barely noticed that difference. But after becoming a mother in Copenhagen, I started to see how much of the parenting culture I had absorbed in America was about proof: proof I was trying hard enough, sacrificing enough, and doing enough. In Denmark, parenting feels less curated and less dependent on public approval. While that does not mean love is absent or less intense, it feels different from the constant social media comparisons around motherhood that seem to dominate my American social media feed. The longer I parent here, the more I realize that becoming a "good parent," at least for me, has meant unlearning instincts I did not even know I had absorbed: the urge to manage, document, and enrich every aspect of my child's life. Fatherhood looks different here Before having Aksel, I, of course, believed in gender equality. However, motherhood taught me how swiftly those ideals can collapse after having a baby, especially for women raised in cultures where maternal love seems measured by the burdens they shoulder without complaint (American trends, such as TikTok tradwives, exacerbate this). Denmark challenged what I had accepted as normal because, here, fathers aren't usually applauded for the bare minimum. In many Danish families, including my own, dads are expected to be full parents, not assistants to motherhood. Denmark's parental leave system reflects that expectation, too. Under the latest parental leave model, rolled out in October 2022, leave is divided more evenly between genders, with each parent receiving a portion that cannot be transferred to the other. All over Copenhagen, you'll see dads pushing strollers, coffees in hand, often walking with other fathers on leave. This isn't a novelty; it's just parenting. That makes shared caregiving more explicit than the model I grew up with in the US. My mother, an elementary school teacher, had two weeks off after I was born. My father, a teacher at the same school, had none. Not every Danish family lives in perfect equality. But the baseline feels different when fathers are treated as parents from the beginning. In the US, I often saw motherhood framed as self-erasure. The mother who anticipates and sacrifices everything is often treated as a "good parent," as if being indispensable is the same thing as being loving. This was one of the first things I had to unlearn. I had to stop optimizing childhood Childhood is imagined differently here, too. I grew up in Connecticut, where achievement started early — so early that I told my parents I wanted to go to Harvard when I was 6. That sounds absurd now, but I'm a product of a high-achieving environment where competition could begin in kindergarten. Living here, that pressure seems especially stark. Danish early childhood education emphasizes play, independence, outdoor time, and social development over grades, creating room for children to grow before measurement takes over. This has been confronting for me. I did not realize how much of my own parenting vocabulary was built around expressions like "enrich," "prepare," "stimulate," and "schedule." In Denmark, unstructured time is not considered wasted time, and boredom is not seen as a parental failure. That has required more unlearning than I expected. I had to question the instinct that told me a good mother should always be offering more. I am unlearning control One of the hardest lessons to overcome is my need to constantly suggest the activity, frame the lesson, or reassure myself that I am doing enough. But I am starting to see that some of what I called "attentiveness" was really control, and some of what I called "involvement" was really anxiety. Living in Denmark has shown me that sometimes love looks less like hovering and more like trusting your child to explore, be bored, and take small risks. I do not think Danish parents love their children more, or that Denmark has solved modern family life. I also do not think American parents are wrong to be more anxious. In the US, there are legitimate reasons parents feel they have to optimize everything: less structural support, less affordable childcare, and more competition. But raising Aksel here has forced me to see how much of what I once considered "good parenting" was conditioned by an American fear of falling behind. That instinct is still in me, and maybe it always will be. But I notice it more quickly now, and I don't let it become consuming. And maybe that is the part of "good parenting" I most needed to unlearn: the idea that love has to look like constant effort to count. Read the original article on Business Insider

Have you found yourself drumming your fingers in impatience more lately? Connect Images via Getty Images When I was growing up, teachers would assign research papers that required going to the library, or later, searching for relevant material on the internet. If the paper was going to turn out well, we students needed to patiently comb through piles of material, weaving what we found into a coherent argument that was well-supported with evidence. Unbeknownst to us at the time, our teachers were giving us a chance to develop our patience. That chance is rapidly disappearing with increased use of artificial intelligence tools. Now you can have an AI do everything from school assignments to legal writing, sermon preparation, vacation planning, work emails and academic research. Researchers are already documenting how using AI tools in these contexts likely erodes critical thinking skills. But what hasn’t been appreciated is AI’s effect on patience. As a philosopher who has written extensively about virtue, including the virtue of patience, I am especially concerned about what people can do to resist this trend. How do you react to waiting in a long, boring line? Delmaine Donson/E+ via Getty Images What is patience, and why is it important? Patience involves responding calmly when it is taking longer than you want to accomplish your goals. When I am stuck in a traffic jam, or the checkout line is barely moving, I might wish that I was meeting my goals faster, but my calm demeanor is a sign that I am being patient. If I react to delays like these with frustration or anger, that is a sign that I am being impatient. The same applies in the case of doing research. If it is taking me awhile to find everything I need, that can test my patience. But if I react to such a delay with calmness, I avoid frustration or anger and hence impatience. Philosophers, theologians and educators have long considered patience an important character trait to cultivate. It is a virtue that contributes to well-being. More specifically, researchers have linked it to a variety of good outcomes, including healthier lifestyles, greater emotion regulation, more fulfilling relationships, increased caring about equity and justice, increased cooperation, greater purpose in life, lower depression and higher life satisfaction. Why AI tools erode a capacity for patience AI tools are helping foster a culture of immediacy, thereby diminishing the capacity for patience. Admittedly, we already started down this path with the dawn of the internet and the launch of fast and easy search engines. But now, AI instantaneously delivers fully developed answers, further reducing the delays once experienced as people searched, assessed and integrated information from various sources. The training in patience that people used to get from thorough research and investigation is being replaced by a growing sense of impatience with thinking that takes time and effort. And this impatience doesn’t just stop with research. It extends to writing as well. Research on AI and patience is still in its infancy. But my conclusions about these impacts rest on plausible inferences from what researchers know more generally about cognitive psychology. For instance, psychologists have long understood that people’s expectations change due to repeated use and exposure to something. This adaptation explains why the hourlong train ride to work can start out as exhausting, but become part of your daily routine. Or you might initially be impressed by how fast your new computer is, but after a while you take it for granted and get frustrated if loading a PowerPoint presentation takes even a few moments. Hence using AI tools is likely to recalibrate what feels normal to you. In particular, it is likely to normalize getting immediate, fully formed answers to your questions. This shift, I contend, makes people increasingly impatient with the very tasks of research and investigation that helped train us to become more patient in the past. One concrete illustration of this change is with students. If a professor gives an assignment involving interpreting an author’s text and then developing a critique of the author’s position, students today are very tempted to offload the patient work of interpretation and critique to an AI. Or consider sermon preparation. Pastors normally take hours a week to examine the original language for their text, consult commentaries, develop illustrations and examples, and deliberate about practical applications. Now, this process can all be done in a matter of seconds using AI, and one study found that a majority of pastors are using it for sermon preparation. There is no patience training happening here. Sticking with a challenging task can help you build up that patience muscle. JasonDoiy/E+ via Getty Images What can be done? There are ways to cultivate patience in the age of AI tools, but they will not be easy. Here are three: Deliberately choose a slower path. Select this option because it comes with intellectual struggles, not in spite of them. Don’t rely on AI summaries or shortcuts, but try to come up with the answers on your own. This choice needs to be deliberative since the default human tendency is to take the easier route. But the long-term benefit is worth the short-term cost. Design your environment. Remove AI tools from your surroundings and carve out dedicated time free of distractions and notifications. Reading and writing take time, and by being willing to invest that time and not get impatient with how long it is taking, you can cultivate patience. Encourage and reward intellectual engagement. Institutions such as schools and churches have a structural role to play. The more such institutions can resist integrating AI tools into every aspect of their operations, and instead incentivize human intellectual engagement even at the expense of efficiency, the better as far as patience is concerned. There is one other hopeful suggestion. Patience can be developed in lots of different areas of life that have nothing to do with research and which are less susceptible to AI incursion. Working on a craft project, detailing a car, weeding a garden, practicing your basketball shot, lifting weights – all these activities can foster patience too. The more this character muscle is strengthened, the more it will be available to use in many different areas of your life. Christian B. Miller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Ben Thompson / Stratechery: Q&A with Satya Nadella on Microsoft's competitive position, MAI models, OpenAI, the software business, GitHub Copilot, Project Solara, data centers, and more  —  An interview with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella about figuring out Microsoft's role in AI, the relationship with OpenAI, Capex …

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. How courts are coping with a flood of AI-generated lawsuits Most days in her chambers, Judge Maritza Braswell, a federal magistrate judge in Colorado, sifts through stacks of documents written by…

A look at the real-world value of online graduate AI programs, combining hard data with firsthand experience of a big tech machine learning engineer The post Is an Online Master’s Degree in AI a Good Idea? appeared first on Towards Data Science.

The Ring 5, which Oura describes as the world’s smallest smart ring, is 40% smaller than its predecessor and starts at $399.

Learn how Endava is using AI agents, ChatGPT Enterprise, and Codex to accelerate software delivery, automate workflows, and build an AI-native culture across the enterprise.

Stylists said closed-toe clogs will be popular this summer. Edward Berthelot/Getty Images Business Insider spoke with stylists about which shoe trends are in and out this summer. The experts said jelly shoes, shorter heels, and closed-toe mules will be popular this season. However, classic flip-flops and round-toed shoes are being replaced by more modern styles. Summer is almost here, which means it's time to start thinking about the shoes you'll be wearing over the next few months. But as trends come and go, it can be hard to know which styles are worth revisiting and which ones may start to feel dated. To help narrow down the options, Business Insider spoke with stylists about the shoe trends they're seeing right now. Here's what they said. Jelly shoes are making a comeback. Jeremy Moeller/Getty Images According to wardrobe stylist and personal shopper Allie McKenna, jelly shoes, which were popular in the '80s and '90s, are back. From flat mules and sandals to flip-flops, these shoes — which are made using flexible plastic — come in a variety of different styles. Although jelly styles can be known to make your feet sweat, the stylist suggested looking for a pair with a cork sole to help absorb the moisture. Sneakers are getting even slimmer. Jeremy Moeller/Getty Images Low-profile sneakers have already been trending for a while, but McKenna said the latest versions are moving toward an even sleeker silhouette this summer. These shoes sit close to the ground with minimal tread and often draw inspiration from vintage athletic styles. Closed-toe clogs are sticking around. Edward Berthelot/Getty Images According to Los Angeles-based stylist Cat Wright, closed-toe clog styles, including Birkenstock-style versions, aren't going away this year. She said the shoes have moved beyond their more casual roots and are increasingly becoming part of everyday outfits. Derby shoes will be a popular choice this summer. Kirstin Sinclair/Getty Images McKenna said derby shoes offer another option for those looking beyond the usual summer footwear rotation. The slim lace-up flats are often made with leather or suede and draw inspiration from vintage menswear styles with a more old-school feel. Shorter heels are having a moment. Edward Berthelot/Getty Images According to several of the stylists BI spoke with, open- and peep-toe mules with smaller heels are becoming increasingly popular. Brenda Gonzalez, a personal stylist and founder of Styled By B, also said more defined shapes and block heels are feeling more current. Mary Jane sneakers are adding a more feminine twist to athletic shoes. Edward Berthelot/Getty Images This season, softer details like straps, mesh, and lace are finding their way into sneaker styles. McKenna pointed to Mary Jane and ballerina-inspired versions as examples. "It's a really cute way to be comfortable and cute at the same time," the stylist told BI. On the other hand, traditional rubber flip-flops are out. Moritz Scholz/Getty Images McKenna said the classic flat rubber flip-flop is out, and giving way to more elevated versions of the shoe. For example, she mentioned wedge thong sandals as one style to look out for. These shoes feature a wedge sole and a V-shaped thong strap, giving the familiar flip-flop silhouette a little extra height while keeping the casual feel. Round-toed heels feel dated. Edward Berthelot/Getty Images Gonzalez said round-toed shoes are beginning to feel less current. Instead, she recommends experimenting with almond- or square-toed options. She said this slight upgrade can help modernize a shoe's overall look. Gladiator sandals won't be popular this summer. Jeremy Moeller/Getty Images Both McKenna and Wright said overly strappy styles like gladiator sandals are starting to feel less current. "Anything that's too strappy or laces up the leg is out," Wright told BI. Instead, simpler silhouettes like jelly sandals and peep-toe mules are taking their place. Read the original article on Business Insider

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Microsoft has announced the wider testing of its new Autopilot feature at the Microsoft Build event this week, backed by a post on the company’s’ website. Autopilots are described as a new category of agents that can work autonomously on a user’s behalf. Microsoft says each Autopilot has its own identity, and so multiple agents […] The post Scout from M’Soft is the agentic Autopilot that works across M365 appeared first on AI News.

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