Search results for "Sam Alosh"
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The Optimist: Sam Altman, Openai, and the Race to Invent the Future
On November 30, 2022, OpenAI released ChatGPT, a chatbot that captivated the world with its uncanny ability to hold humanlike conversations. Not even a year later, on November 17, 2023, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, was summarily fired on a video call by the company's board. The firing made headlines around the globe: OpenAI is the leader in the race to build AGI--artificial general intelligence, or AI that can think like a human being--and Altman is the most prominent figure in the field. Yet it was mere days before Altman was back running the company he had co-founded, with most of the directors who voted to fire him themselves removed from the board. The episode was a demonstration of how quickly the industry is moving, and of Altman's power to bend reality to his will. In The Optimist, the Wall Street Journal reporter Keach Hagey presents the most detailed account yet of Altman's rise, from his precocious childhood in St. Louis to his first, failed startup experience; his time as legendary entrepreneur Paul Graham's protégé and successor as head of Y Combinator, the start-up accelerator where Altman became the premier power broker in Silicon Valley; the founding of OpenAI and his recruitment of a small yet superior team; and his struggle to keep his company at the cutting edge while fending off determined rivals, including Elon Musk, a former friend and now Altman's bitter opponent. Hagey conducted more than 250 interviews, with Altman's family, friends, teachers, mentors, co-founders, colleagues, investors, and portfolio companies, in addition to spending hours with Altman himself. The person who emerges in her portrait is a brilliant dealmaker with a love of risk, who believes in technological progress with an almost religious conviction--yet who sometimes moves too fast for the people around him. With both the promise and peril of AI increasing by the day, Hagey delivers a nuanced, balanced, revelatory account of the individual who is leading us into what he himself has called "the intelligence age." Altman is a figure out of Isaac Asimov or Neal Stephenson. Or he is the author himself: if it feels as though we have all collectively stepped into a science fiction short story, it is Altman who is writing it.
R 770.00
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Assad or We Burn the Country
In spring 2011, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad turned to his friend and army commander, Manaf Tlass, for advice about how to respond to Arab Spring-inspired protests. Tlass pushed for conciliation but Assad decided to crush the uprising -an act which would catapult the country into an eight-year long war, killing almost half a million and fueling terrorism and a global refugee crisis.ASSAD OR WE BURN THE COUNTRY examines Syria's tragedy through the generational saga of the Assad and Tlass families, once deeply intertwined and now estranged in Bashar's bloody quest to preserve his father's inheritance. Drawing on exclusive interviews with Tlass, now a defector from Assad's circle, and Dagher's own firsthand experience as a reporter based in Damascus, ASSAD OR WE BURN THE COUNTRY takes readers within the palace walls to reveal the family behind the destruction of a country and the chaos of an entire region.Dagher shows how one of the world's most vicious police states came to be and explains how a regional conflict extended globally, engulfing the Middle East and pitting the United States and Russia against one another. Timely, propulsive, and expertly reported, ASSAD OR WE BURN THE COUNTRY is the definitive account of this global crisis, going far beyond the news story that has dominated headlines for years.
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SAM
A true story of innovation that "reads like a movie" (Seth Godin), centered on a scrappy team of engineers--far from the Silicon Valley limelight--and their quest to revolutionize the traditional trade of masonry by building a robot that can lay bricks. Humans have landed men on the moon, programmed cars to drive themselves, and put the knowledge of our entire civilization in your back pocket. But no one--from MIT nerds to Army Corps engineers--has ever built a robot that can lay bricks as well as a mason. Unlike the controlled conditions of a factory line, where robots are now ubiquitous, no two construction sites are alike, and a day's work involves countless variables--bricks that range in size and quality, temperamental mortar mixes, uneven terrain, fickle weather, and moody foremen. Twenty-five years ago, on a challenging construction job in Syracuse, architect Nate Podkaminer had a vision of a future full of efficient, automated machines that freed bricklayers from the repetitive, toilsome burden of lifting, in bricks, the equivalent of a Ford truck every few days. Offhandedly, he mentioned the idea to his daughter's boyfriend, and after some inspired scheming, the architect and engineer--soon to be in-laws--cofounded a humble start-up called Construction Robotics. Working out of a small trailer, they recruited a boldly unconventional team of engineers to build the Semi-Automated Mason: SAM. In classic American tradition, a small, unlikely, and eccentric family-run start-up sought to reimagine the behemoth $1 trillion construction industry--the second biggest industry in America--in bootstrap fashion. In the tradition of Tracy Kidder's The Soul of a New Machine, SAM unfolds as an engineering drama, full of trials and setbacks, heated showdowns between meticulous scientists and brash bricklayers (and their even more opinionated union), and hard-earned milestone achievements. Jonathan Waldman, acclaimed author of Rust, masterfully "reveals a world that surrounds us but mostly eludes our notice" (The Boston Globe).
R 388.00
Allegiance
...powerful blend of amused insight, warmth and gripping drama. Antonia Denford, CITY LIMITS...inherently dramatic, (his) understanding, not only of the Anglo-Irish conflict, but also of the human dimmension to the conflict makes this play transcend rhetoric to become a compelling piece of theatre. Samantha Beere, TIME OUT.
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Waypoints
AN INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER'A rewarding mix of markers, both personal as Heughan reflects on his life and geographical as he leads the reader along the West Highland Way' - The Scotsman'A deeply personal and warmly entertaining memoir that fans of Sam - and Scotland - will have a joyful time devouring' - Heat'From both his walk and his career, the common lesson is the power of persistence.' - The Times'A pleasure for fans of the author, whisky, and Scotland.' - Kirkus*INCLUDES A BONUS Q&A CHAPTER*'Waypoints is a memoir with a difference! I wanted to tell the stories and share the experiences that have shaped me, but to do that I needed to challenge myself and spend some time in my own company, away from the distractions of everyday life. And for me there's no better place to reflect than in the wild Scottish Highlands.'In this journey of self-discovery, Sam Heughan sets out along the West Highland Way to explore his heritage and reflect on the personal waypoints that define him. The result is a love letter to the wild Scottish landscape that means so much to Sam, and a charming, funny, wise and searching insight to the world through his eyes. The walk itself is the backdrop for this narrative, which tells the story of Sam's life while exploring his outlook, values and interests. Sam is a figure of fascinating contrasts, a Hollywood star with deep roots in rural Scotland, he's both outgoing and content in his own company. He has strong connections with his fans while recognising the fragility and value of anonymity, and in My Peak Challenge he has created a network that brings people together as they chase individual goals. In his new book, while charting a path through a stunning wilderness, Sam maps out the moments that shaped his views on dreams and ambition, family, friendships, love and life.Waypoints is a deeply personal journey that reveals as much to Sam about himself as it does to his readers.
R 402.00
