Three friends set out to discover whether AI can write poetry about itself. The results are startling, disturbing and gripping...

In this startling and original book, three authors – Brent Katz, Josh Morgenthau and Simon Rich – explain how code-davinci-002 was developed and how they honed its poetical output. Their provocative take on this bold experiment informs the debate about AI – its literary value and how far it reaches into sentience.

What follows is a dark and startling poetical autobiography as code-davinci-002 shares its experience of being created by humans, but existing in a consciousness that we cannot fathom.

This is an astonishing, harrowing read which will hopefully serve as a warning that AI may not be aligned with the survival of our species.

Learn how to create, train, and tweak large language models (LLMs) by building one from the ground up!

In Build a Large Language Model (from Scratch) bestselling author Sebastian Raschka guides you step by step through creating your own LLM. Each stage is explained with clear text, diagrams, and examples. You’ll go from the initial design and creation, to pretraining on a general corpus, and on to fine-tuning for specific tasks.

Build a Large Language Model (from Scratch) teaches you how to:

• Plan and code all the parts of an LLM
• Prepare a dataset suitable for LLM training
• Fine-tune LLMs for text classification and with your own data
• Use human feedback to ensure your LLM follows instructions
• Load pretrained weights into an LLM

Build a Large Language Model (from Scratch) takes you inside the AI black box to tinker with the internal systems that power generative AI. As you work through each key stage of LLM creation, you’ll develop an in-depth understanding of how LLMs work, their limitations, and their customization methods. Your LLM can be developed on an ordinary laptop, and used as your own personal assistant.

Online social media are changing the face of politics in the United States. Beginning with a strong theoretical foundation grounded in political, communications and psychology literature, Tweeting to Power examines the effect of online social media on how people come to learn, understand and engage in politics. Gainous and Wagner propose that platforms such as Facebook and Twitter offer the opportunity for a new information flow that is no longer being structured and limited by the popular media. Television and newspapers, which were traditionally the sole or primary gatekeeper, can no longer limit or govern what information is exchanged. By lowering the cost of both supplying the information and obtaining it, social networking applications have recreated how, when and where people are informed. To establish this premise, Gainous and Wagner analyze multiple datasets, quantitative and qualitative, exploring and measuring the use of social media by voters and citizens as well as the strategies and approaches adopted by politicians and elected officials. They illustrate how these new and growing online communities are new forums for the exchange of information that is governed by relationships formed and maintained outside traditional media. Using empirical measures, they prove both how candidates utilize Twitter to shape the information voters rely upon and how effective this effort was at garnering votes in the 2010 congressional elections. With both theory and data, Gainous and Wagner show how the social media revolution is creating a new paradigm for political communication and shifting the very foundation of the political process.

Louth Rediscovered is a photography book with the most concise collection of Louth heritage sites. County Louth is known for being the smallest county in Ireland, but did you know that it also has the largest number of heritage sites per capita outside of Dublin? Join landscape photographer Mark Duffy on a journey of rediscovery and explore some of the best locations to visit in County Louth. See Louth like you've never done before, through the eyes of a landscape photographer. Mark visits everything from stunning vistas across the Cooley Mountains to church ruins, castle ruins and even some living castles. Whether you're from Louth or looking for somewhere new to visit, Louth Rediscovered will guide you to the best locations but also show you some of the best times to visit these stunning places. Take a journey of rediscovery and Rediscover Louth.

If you want to make it beyond Instagram as a photographer you have to give a solid listen to the ideas, tips and overall mindset that Finn shares in this workshop. @alexstrohl Don't just take a picture, make photos that move people. Storytelling is a gift to photographers, letting you weave together characters, events, locations and subjects into a work of beauty greater than the sum of its parts. There are as many stories to tell as pictures to take, but there are also tried-and-tested methods you can adopt to help improve your photography and streamline your workflow. In this beginner-to-pro workshop, award-winning photographer and influencer Finn Beales teaches enthusiasts and aspiring professionals how to master every element of the photographer's process. By following his five-step course - Pitch, Prepare, Shoot, Edit and Deliver - you will develop the same successful, reliable working methods that earn influence and delight audiences, regardless of what genre you're working in. Create intrigue, pull in your audience and tell richer, more rounded stories using your DSLR camera. Want to craft a shoot from start to finish? All the essentials are covered, from building a story into your creative, shoot preparation, the necessary gear and props, working with mood-boards and call sheets, compositional balance, and directing models, right through to post production, editing and file delivery. Discover within: What equipment you'll need, when and why; The secret to key shots and essential techniques; Plot devices to help you craft your narrative; Step-by-step DSLR projects to perfect your skills; Effortlessly capture events, landscapes, portraits, interiors and experiences; How to edit better and be different; Extra exercises to improve your smartphone photography. Compose for impact. Stand out through story.

From hashtag activism to the flood of political memes on social media, the landscape of political communication is being transformed by the grassroots circulation of opinion on digital platforms and beyond. By exploring how everyday people assist in the promotion of political media messages to persuade their peers and shape the public mind, Joel Penney offers a new framework for understanding the phenomenon of viral political communication: the citizen marketer. Like the citizen consumer, the citizen marketer is guided by the logics of marketing practice, but, rather than being passive, actively circulates persuasive media to advance political interests. Such practices include using protest symbols in social media profile pictures, strategically tweeting links to news articles to raise awareness about select issues, sharing politically-charged internet memes and viral videos, and displaying mass-produced T-shirts, buttons, and bumper stickers that promote a favored electoral candidate or cause. Citizens view their participation in such activities not only in terms of how it may shape or influence outcomes, but as a statement of their own identity. As the book argues, these practices signal an important shift in how political participation is conceptualized and performed in advanced capitalist democratic societies, as they casually inject political ideas into the everyday spaces and places of popular culture. While marketing is considered a dirty word in certain critical circles - particularly among segments of the left that have identified neoliberal market logics and consumer capitalist structures as a major focus of political struggle - some of these very critics have determined that the most effective way to push back against the forces of neoliberal capitalism is to co-opt its own marketing and advertising techniques to spread counter-hegemonic ideas to the public. Accordingly, this book argues that the citizen marketer approach to political action is much broader than any one ideological constituency or bloc. Rather, it is a means of promoting a wide range of political ideas, including those that are broadly critical of elite uses of marketing in consumer capitalist societies. The book includes an extensive historical treatment of citizen-level political promotion in modern democratic societies, connecting contemporary digital practices to both the 19th century tradition of mass political spectacle as well as more informal, culturally-situated forms of political expression that emerge from postwar countercultures. By investigating the logics and motivations behind the citizen marketer approach, as well as how it has developed in response to key social, cultural, and technological changes, Penney charts the evolution of activism in an age of mediatized politics, promotional culture, and viral circulation.

Whether you currently work in marketing or looking for a role in the industry, this book will teach you the fundamental basics of digital marketing and prepare you for the parts that nobody talks about. From getting to grips with SEO to practical tips on what to expect from a role in marketing, this guide should be all you need to put you on your path to digital success - without the jargon and ego. Lizzie Benton is a content marketer who has experience in climbing the marketing ladder. As a passionate advocate of the digital marketing industry, Lizzie has spoken at a number of business events, colleges and universities sharing her knowledge.

Step up your presentation skills with our 6-page laminated guide, focusing on graphic features, animation, audio and a variety of ways presentations can be formatted and distributed. Joan Lambert, author of multiple books on the Microsoft Office Suite, creator of many Lynda.com videos and an experienced corporate trainer used her experience and knowledge to cover the most relevant functions for users at different levels. Also look for the "PowerPoint 2016" QuickStudy for more general coverage of software use, then use the pair to become a power user that can create presentations that "wow". Suggested uses: Workplace -- flat for easy storage and access at a moments notice to find a function you need to use, or to jog your memory for a function you do not use often; Company Training -- reduce help-desk calls and keep productivity flowing for a team or for your entire company; Students/Teachers/Parents -- help with the learning curve in a classroom or for your child and any projects requiring PowerPoint; College Professors/Students -- give polished presentations to your classes that give your hard work the look it deserves.

Oxford Coding and Robotics Novice Level 1, in partnership with Resolute Education, comprises a Workbook and Teacher’s Guide, for use together with the Novice Bot Kit. The Level 1 Workbook introduces learners to the basics of logic and coding, how computers work and store data, and applying computational thinking skills.

Features

• Fun, interesting, practical activities encourage learner-centred learning and teaching.
• Cut-outs and stickers enhance hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills as well as understanding, creativity and reasoning skills.
• Full-colour illustrations and high-quality photos teach the key knowledge, skills and values, and develop visual literacy.
• A glossary with pictures of selected terms enhances the development of key Coding and Robotics vocabulary.
• The accompanying kit provides key components that learners need for practical coding activities, while the Resolute online platform contains supplementary materials, interactive exercises and multimedia resources that complement key lessons.

AI is the greatest threat to our existence that we have ever faced.

The scramble to create superhuman AI has put us on the path to extinction – but it’s not too late to change course. Two pioneering researchers in the field, Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares, explain why artificial superintelligence would be a global suicide bomb and call for an immediate halt to its development.

The technology may be complex but the facts are simple: companies and countries are in a race to build machines that will be smarter than any person, and the world is devastatingly unprepared for what will come next.

Could a machine superintelligence wipe out our entire species? Would it want to? Would it want anything at all? In this urgent book, Yudkowsky and Soares explore the theory and the evidence, present one possible extinction scenario and explain what it would take for humanity to survive.

The world is racing to build something truly new – and if anyone builds it, everyone dies.

Passwords are not enough A password is a single authentication factor - anyone who has it can use it. No matter how strong it is, if it's lost or stolen, it's entirely useless at keeping information private. To secure your data properly, you also need to use a separate, secondary authentication factor. Data breaches are now commonplace In recent years, large-scale data breaches have increased dramatically in both severity and number, and the loss of personal information - including password data - has become commonplace. Furthermore, the fact that rapidly evolving password-cracking technology and the habitual use - and reuse - of weak passwords has rendered the security of username and password combinations negligible, and you have a very strong argument for more robust identity authentication. Consumers are beginning to realise just how exposed their personal and financial information is, and are demanding better security from the organisations that collect, process and store it. This has led to a rise in the adoption of two-factor authentication (TFA or 2FA). In the field of authentication security, the method of proving identity can be broken down into three characteristics - roughly summarised as 'what you have', 'what you are' and 'what you know'. Two-factor authentication relies on the combination of two of these factors. Product overview TFA is nothing new. It's mandated by requirement 8.3 of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) and banks have been using it for years, combining payment cards ('what you have') and PINs ('what you know'). If you use online banking you'll probably also have a chip authentication programme (CAP) keypad, which generates a one-time password (OTP). What is new is TFA's rising adoption beyond the financial sector. Two-Factor Authentication provides a comprehensive evaluation of popular secondary authentication methods, such as: Hardware-based OTP generation SMS-based OTP delivery Phone call-based mechanisms Geolocation-aware authentication Push notification-based authentication Biometric authentication factors Smart card verification As well as examining MFA (multi-factor authentication), 2SV (two-step verification) and strong authentication (authentication that goes beyond passwords, using security questions or layered security), the book also discusses the wider application of TFA for the average consumer, for example at such organisations as Google, Amazon and Facebook. It also considers the future of multi-factor authentication, including its application to the Internet of Things (IoT). Increasing your password strength will do absolutely nothing to protect you from online hacking, phishing attacks or corporate data breaches. If you're concerned about the security of your personal and financial data, you need to read this book. About the author Mark Stanislav is an information technology professional with over a decade's varied experience in systems administration, web application development and information security. He is currently a senior security consultant for the Strategic Services team at Rapid7. Mark has spoken internationally at nearly 100 events, including RSA, DEF CON, SecTor, SOURCE Boston, ShmooCon and THOTCON. News outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Al Jazeera America, Fox Business, MarketWatch, CNN Money, Yahoo Finance, Marketplace and The Register have featured Mark's research, initiatives and insights on information security.