GoKawiil
Tech News
Amazon has announced it will close Mechanical Turk (MTurk), its long-running marketplace connecting businesses with a distributed workforce for microtasks, effective September 30. The platform allowed companies to outsource work like data validation, content moderation, and survey collection to human workers worldwide, tasks often too subjective or complex for automation.
Andrew Ng, founder of Coursera and a Stanford lecturer, analyzed over 10,000 job postings and interviewed AI experts, hiring managers and recruiters to compile a list of four core skills needed for AI development careers, including building AI applications with LLMs and agentic workflows, plus solid software engineering fundamentals. Some industry observers argue his list leans too heavily on technical building skills and overlooks other necessary competencies.
MIT Technology Review spoke with cognitive scientists comparing how babies and large language models acquire language, finding that infants learn to speak proficiently after hearing only 10 to 30 million words, while LLMs require vastly more data to approach similar fluency. Stanford's Michael C. Frank noted that training a model like GPT-2 on the same word count a toddler hears produces a 'nonsense generator,' not coherent speech.
Vitamix debuted the Nano, a 1,000-watt personal blender that comes with two 20-ounce cups designed to fit car cup holders. The device features SmoothiePilot, a machine-learning program that automatically picks blending speed and time, alongside a manual variable-speed option. It's priced at $200, available now on Vitamix.com and through retailers like Amazon, backed by a three-year warranty.
New employees face a steep learning curve involving unfamiliar projects, clients, and internal processes, often with only an employee handbook and a mentor to guide them. Career advisers suggest that using AI tools thoughtfully during this period can help new hires absorb information and reach competence more quickly than traditional onboarding alone.