#240: arTificial inTelligence

I encourage everyone to watch the Greylock general partner, Reid Hoffman, interview OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. In particular, listen to the audience Q&A section at the end and read the comments. OpenAI’s primary mission is to develop and promote AI technology that benefits humanity. Founded in 2015, the company has most recently been noted for its generative transformer model GPT-3, which uses deep learning to produce human-like text, and its image-creation platform DALL-E.

This interview took place last September during Greylock’s Intelligent Future event, a day-long summit featuring experts and entrepreneurs from some of today’s leading artificial intelligence organisations.

You can read a transcript of this interview here

There is a Parent’s Guide to AI here Have a great weekend and half-term break.

Brian Taylor Assistant Principal, Campus Curriculum Technology Integration

Star G azing at Kaeng Krachan, Phetchaburi province

Saturday, 25 to Sunday, 26 March 2023

with Mr Visanu Euarchukiati Council Member of The Siam Society

Once in a while, a city dweller accidentally ventures into a place so poorly lit at night that life becomes a little too uncomfortable. The location may be remote countryside, all in the middle of the ocean. Still, nature appeases the city dweller with a gift of a starry sky, even when the moon is visible. It gets more confusing on a moonless night when bright dots crowd the heaven confounding a mesmerized spectator. The beautiful sky manifests itself in its full glory.

After the initial confusion, one can see that the stars are not a random collection of dots. Some of these may be official constellations while other chance combinations of several parts from many constellations.

Thailand has developed to the point that the night sky in many locations polluted by light from urban areas or industrial estates. Doc places I found only in remote areas, near the border, or in large national parks and their vicinity

The Siam Society will arrange a 2-day trip to visit Kaeng Krachan, Phetchaburi. This trip will be led by Mr Visanu Euarchukiati, a council member and a freelance astronomy academic/ educator. The programme will include a guided tour of the night sky and a trip to a historic site of the British royal Society total solar eclipse expedition in 1875 (the reign of King Chulalongkorn, Rama V) in Phetchaburi.

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The Association of Siamese Architects under the Royal Patronage In Collaboration with the Siam Society Under Royal Patronage Presents

Beyond Net- Zero: Local Wisdom and Sustainable Architecture at National University of Singapore

A Talk by Johannes Widodo

Making a modern contemporary building which is not only sustainable and green but also net-zero aimed at human wellness is not rocket science. Sustainability, liveability, and resilience depend not on smart technology but cultural wisdom, like the principles of tropical vernacular architecture, human-centred design, and common sense.

The talk is about the architecture of NUS SDE4, the first Zero-Energy Certified building in Singapore and Southeast Asia, the first university building in the world and the first building in Singapore that received the International WELL Building Institute 2019WELL Certified Gold (1st). It will reveal the innovative design of one of the World’s 6 Most Beautiful Buildings That Redefine Sustainable Architecture (according to the Architecture Digest, 2022), based on our tropical Southeast Asian local vernacular wisdom. The building, completed in 2020, is actually an energy-positive building with a low maintenance cost, part of the national water resilience endeavour, promoting natural biophilia, providing better human health, and advocating change in mindset.

D r Joh anne s W

DO D O is the director of Graduate Programs in Architectural Conservation at the National University of Singapore. He is an Associate Member of the Singapore Institute of Architects (SIA), the founder of mAAN (modern Asian Architecture Network), an Executive Committee member of the Asian Academy for Heritage Management, a jury member for the UNESCO Asia Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation, member of ICOMOS International Scientific Committee, a founding member and director of ICOMOS National Committee of Singapore and Indonesia, a founding member of DoCoMoMo Macau and Singapore, the founder and executive director of iNTA (International Network of Tropical Architecture) and a member of TCHS (The Circle of Human Sustainability (Singapore). He is an advisory board member of SEACHA (South-East Asian Cultural Heritage Alliance).

Lecture Room, 4/Floor, The Siam Society

Khun Pinthip at 02 661 6470-3 ext 203 or e-mail pinthip@thesiamsociety.org

The Siam Society is deeply grateful to James H.W. Thompson Foundation for its generous support of the 2022–2023 Lecture Series