AI Articles

It has been a historical 24 hours for AI:

1. Google Gemini Pro Plus announced: 10 million AI tokens in a single query! This means the query, or the text you're querying against, can be the size of a small book!

2. Open AI Sora announced. Takes text and converts it to high resolution video.

3. Deepmind announce GraphCast: forecasts weather incredibly quickly, more accurately, and using only a tiny proportion of the power that supercomputers use (see video below)

If you're not going to be doing "sexy" things like creating your own videos from text prompts, uploading all your notes on a subject and having a conversation about them, or forecasting the weather on your own device more quickly than it is currently done on supercomputers, this thought-provoking articles tells you some of the "boring" ways Gemini is going to be very useful to you on your phone:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jaymcgregor/2024/02/16/google-gemini-ai-android-pixel-8-pro-feature/

I started this thread in November 2020 - 2 years before ChatGPT 3.5 was launched.

Since then, the progress of AI has been like a runaway train in comparison with the period from 1955 (first usage of the term "Artificial Intelligence" by John McCarthy) to 2022 - the 67 year period prior to that.

In other news, improvements in superconductor technology now mean that commercial nuclear fusion is no longer "30 years away": it's now conceivable that fusion could be pumping electricity into the grid in less than 10 years from now:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/03/13/nuclear-fusion-energy-britain-grid-sooner-than-you-think/

Guys - there is absolutely no historical precedence whatsoever for the changes coming in the next 20 years: keep yourselves healthy and alive - it's going to be the most exciting time EVER.

Oh dear, Claude! The LLM claude.ai (not available in the EU due to the stifling business laws of this region), is said, by many, to be the smartest LLM (large language model) available - but it catastrophically failed the very first question I asked it!

Is it possible for an aircraft to have its wings inside the fuselage?

Yes, it is possible for an aircraft to have its wings inside the fuselage. This design is known as an "enclosed" or "internal" wing configuration.

Some key points about aircraft with internal wings:

* The wings are fully embedded within the fuselage structure rather than protruding out from the sides.

* This configuration reduces aerodynamic drag compared to external wings, especially at high speeds.

* It allows for a thicker wing section without increasing overall aircraft height.

* Internal wings benefit aircraft designed for high-speed, high-altitude flight like military fighters and interceptors.

* Notable examples include the F-16 Fighting Falcon, F-117 Nighthawk, and the experimental X-36 unmanned vehicle.

* The internal wing layout comes with trade-offs like more complex structure, limited fuel volume, and reduced low-speed performance.

So while less common than the traditional external wing design, embedding the wings inside the fuselage is a feasible option for certain high-performance aircraft optimized for supersonic flight regimes.

Microsoft Copilot also gets it wrong - but is not as bad as Claude!

Is it possible for an aircraft to have its wings inside the fuselage?

Certainly! Let’s explore the fascinating world of aircraft design.

Traditional Aircraft Design:

In most conventional aircraft, the wings are attached externally to the fuselage. These designs include high-wing, mid-wing, and low-wing configurations.

• High-wing: The wings are attached at the top of the fuselage.
  
• Mid-wing: The wings are attached in the middle portion of the fuselage.
  
• Low-wing: The wings are attached at the lower part of the fuselage
  

Flying Wings:

• However, there are unique aircraft designs known as flying wings that challenge this traditional layout.
  
• A flying wing is an aeroplane that lacks a distinct fuselage or tailplane. Instead, the crew, payload, fuel, and equipment are housed inside the main wing structure itself.
  
• Examples of flying wing aircraft include the Northrop YB-49 Flying Wing and the Northrop B-2 Spirit bomber.
  
• In these designs, what would typically be the fuselage is a thickened portion of the wing structure. The entire aircraft generates lift through the wing alone, without a separate fuselage.
  

No Separate Wing Designs:

• Interestingly, there have been a few unconventional aircraft concepts that take this even further.
  
• Some designs have no separate wings at all; instead, they utilize the fuselage itself to generate lift.
  
• While these designs are rare, they demonstrate the incredible diversity of possibilities in aviation engineering.
  

In summary, while most aircraft have their wings attached externally to the fuselage, flying wings and other innovative designs challenge these norms. So, yes, it is indeed possible for an aircraft to have its wings inside the fuselage!


So - of the 3 LLMs I've tested with this question - Claude, Gemini and Copilot - only Gemini is getting it absolutely right. I am convinced that, of the free LLMs (each of these three LLMs has a free version and a more intelligent paid version), Gemini is the best by a wide margin. I cannot speak for the paid versions - I haven't tried them.

Here is the current league table for chatbot intelligence - link. It's churlish to criticise when people have done work for you - but I'd love to be able to filter this table by free/paid versions.