#031: 'Her' Becomes Reality, Robot Prosthetics, Learn Music Theory Visually

Hi All!

We are pleased to welcome you to this week's edition of Undiscovered, a newsletter with exclusive resources and insights expanding from the material found on our main site - becketu.com.

This edition is helped in part by the support of Boot.dev. Be sure to check them out in the P.S. for a special signup offer and more information. Let's jump into this week's finds:

Turning 'Her' Into Reality

11 years ago, the movie Her introduced us to the idea of an AI companion that is constantly with us. The film had a more dramatic and romantic tone, but the technology and concepts touched upon by the film are slowly becoming a reality. This is all thanks to the new GPT-4o model from OpenAI.

It's not surprising that this new AI model sounds eerily similar to the AI character Scarlett Johansson plays in the film. In fact, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman tweeted the simple word 'her' on the day of the release.

The voices, real time translation, and tutoring abilities of the model seem promising, and we're guessing this will become the new baseline Siri after the rumors of a deal between Apple and OpenAI.

A Guide to Statistics

Andrew Huberman recently made a math error on his podcast and came out with an official statement on the correction. It was a moment of humility for the neuroscientist as the event quickly became a meme.

Helpful individuals surfaced after the fact, offering up resources for learning statistics and probability. @svpino on Twitter stated that The Cartoon Guide to Statistics is 'fun', 'easy to read', and 'accessible to anyone regardless of their background'.

We would also humbly recommend Huberman check out one of the newest resources in our Math Resources section, Seeing Theory. It's a visual introduction to probability and statistics, and covers everything from basic probability all the way through regression analysis.

Making a Robotic Hand

I have always been fascinated by robotic limbs and the promise of helping those who need them. I am also amazed when individuals find ingenious solutions to the obstacles they face.

Naturally, when engineer Ian Davis found that his insurance did not cover the cost of providing him a prosthetic limb, he took the challenge of building one himself. You can learn all about the process here.

Along with Davis' invention above, another company pioneering in the space is Open Bionics. They recently partnered with Disney to provide kids with Hero Arms that look absolutely super.

Learning Music The Visual Way

The connection between math and music is one that most of us probably overlook in our daily lives. When we're listening to our favorite artists, it's usually not registering that sounds are waves and musical notes are defined by the frequencies of those sounds.

If you're like me and have always wanted to learn music theory, you need to check out the website Lightnote. It teaches you the basics in a visual way, so you can see the notes and waveforms interact with each other.

My favorite thing is that it provides a clear explanation as to why certain notes sound nice together. Let out the frustrated artist inside of you and see the site for yourself!

An Immersive Book on Linear Algebra

In the middle of writing this, we became distracted by one of the games you can find in the new immersive linear algebra book published by J. Ström, K. Åström, and T. Akenine-Möller. Instead of just reading about vectors, you can experience what difference it makes to have different velocity, direction, and speed.

It's a super fun, unique way to engage with math concepts we haven't seen before. Big shout out to Danielle Fong for sharing this on Twitter.

P.S. Have you heard of Boot.dev? One of my friends showed me this recently and when I started to demo it, it blew me away! It's a site that teaches you back-end development in a fun, gamified way. It's helped over 70,000 students learn in-demand technologies like Python, SQL, Go, and a bunch of other advanced topics.

If you're interested in a membership, use the code BECKET at checkout for 25% off your first payment (either first month or yearly depending on the plan you like).

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Always wishing you the best,

J.B.