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Welcome to the 275th issue of the Data Science Briefing!

This week, we're proud to announce that you can register for the next edition of the LangChain for Generative AI Pipelines webinar on May 28th! There are still a few open slots for next Wednesdays' LLMs For Data Science webinar, so go ahead and Register Now so you don't miss out!

This week’s newsletter brings together a fascinating mix of technological breakthroughs and critical policy debates shaping our digital future. One article examines the unbeliveable scale of AI’s pirated-books problem, highlighting how rapidly evolving algorithms are challenging traditional notions of intellectual property. Meanwhile, OpenAI’s new text-to-speech model sets a new benchmark for natural and expressive digital communication, paving the way for richer, more engaging user experiences. Adding a fresh layer to our understanding of machine intelligence, another piece reinterprets LLM agents as interconnected graphs, prompting us to rethink the architecture underlying advanced language models.

From academia, we cover some recent studies that are redefining our understanding of computational models and network analysis. One paper harnesses global fact-checks to track multilingual misinformation, revealing new insights into its spread and evolution. Complementing this, innovative work using the minimum description length principle offers a fresh take on network reconstruction, while another study demystifies deep learning by challenging longstanding assumptions. Advances in transformer designs without normalization streamline model architectures.

This week's book is "The Complete Developer" by M. Krause. You can find all the previous book recommendations on our website. In this week's video, we have a talk on how to Design Data-Intensive Apps in 2025.

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Semper discentes,

The D4S Team

This week's book is "The Complete Developer" by M. Krause. This is a comprehensive guide that takes readers on a journey through the intricacies of modern full-stack web and API development. With over two decades of experience building websites and leading development teams, Krause offers an indispensable resource for developers at any career stage. The book covers various technologies, including TypeScript, React, Next.js, MongoDB, and Docker, providing a 360-degree view of web development.

One of the standout features of this book is its beginner-friendly approach, breaking down complex concepts into easy-to-follow steps. Krause meticulously covers every aspect of modern web application development, from building a React-driven frontend to constructing a robust backend using Mongoose and MongoDB, and integrating both REST and GraphQL APIs. The book is structured in two halves: one for demonstrating parts of the stack like React, Next.js, and Docker, and another for writing the final application and connecting the stack parts cohesively.

While some readers have found the material challenging for absolute beginners, many developers, including those with experience in other areas, have praised the book for its comprehensive coverage and practical approach. The inclusion of modern development practices and tools like Docker, Express.js, and OAuth for authentication sets readers up for real-world development scenarios. Despite the rapidly evolving nature of web technologies. "The Complete Developer" provides a solid foundation for mastering the modern full stack, making it a valuable resource for those looking to enhance their development skills with the latest Javascript based technologies.

1. ​The Unbelievable Scale of AI’s Pirated-Books Problem [theatlantic.com]
2. ​The new text-to-speech model in the OpenAI API [openai.fm]
3. ​LLM Agents are simply Graphs [zacharyhuang.substack.com]
4. ​Let’s knock down social media’s walled gardens [ft.com]
5. ​What Can We Learn about Engineering and Innovation from Half a Century of the Game of Life Cellular Automaton? [writings.stephenwolfram.com]
6. ​Mojo: Powerful CPU+GPU Programming​ [modular.com]
7. ​Foundations of Computational Agents​ [artint.info]

• ​Lost in translation: using global fact-checks to measure multilingual misinformation prevalence, spread, and evolution​ (D. Quelle, C. Y. Cheng, A. Bovet, S. A. Hale)
• ​Backbone Exponent and Annulus Crossing Probability for Planar Percolation​ (P. Nolin, W. Qian, X. Sun, Z. Zhuang)
• ​Network Reconstruction via the Minimum Description Length Principle​ (T. P. Peixoto​)​
• ​Deep Learning is Not So Mysterious or Different​ (A. G. Wilson)
• ​On the clustering behavior of sliding windows​ (B. Alexeev, W. Luo, D. G. Mixon, Y. X. Zhang)
• ​Transformers without Normalization​ (J. Zhu, X. Chen, K. He, Y. LeCun, Z. Liu)
• ​A Survey on Post-training of Large Language Models​ (G. Tie, Z. Zhao, D. Song, F. Wei, R. Zhou, Y. Dai, W. Yin, Z. Yang, J. Yan, Y. Su, Z. Dai, Y. Xie, Y. Cao, L. Sun, P. Zhou, L. He, H. Chen, Y. Zhang, Q. Wen, T. Liu, N. Z. Gong, J. Tang, C. Xiong, H. Ji, P. S. Yu, J. Gao)
• ​To Compress or Not to Compress—Self-Supervised Learning and Information Theory: A Review​ (R. S. Ziv, Y. LeCun)

Designing Data-Intensive Apps in 2025

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All the videos of the week are now available in our YouTube playlist.

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