I spend most of my time trying to get machines to learn from watching people. The basic problem is this: a human demonstrates a task (pick up the can, sort it into the right bin, place the lid on the container) and the machine has to figure out how to …
As the light comes down through the House in long yellow columns, the way sunlight catches the mourning dove's iridescent patch at the throat, shifting a still pink to the most beautiful green, reminds me of a field I have never seen.
The field is in Fujian Province. Rice paddies …
My mother used to walk me up to Sunset Park on summer evenings, when the laundry closed early and the air in our apartment had gotten too thick to breathe. I waved at the old Chinese man who would sell lychees out of a cardboard box in a small grey …
We all have this kind of urgency we inherit before we even understand what it's costing us.
It doesn't announce itself loudly. It starts as a soft ticking in the background, and we see ourselves rushing through deadlines and our childhood with the grown pre-mature adult life of career readiness …
The first time I remember feeling really angry, I was probably seven.
After obediently listening, bargaining, and not screaming at the dentist under my mom's wishes, I could finally download Minecraft on a cracked iPad with a laggy Wi-Fi signal. As I watched what others had done on YouTube, I …
I used to be the unusual kid in class who would count how many ceiling tiles were above me. One, two, three, and I'd lose track when the teacher called on someone else. Then, I'd move on to counting the holes in the ceiling tile itself, those tiny, crater-like divots …
It was somewhere near 32nd Street and Herald Square, close to midnight. A cold New York evening in December. I'd just left earlier with the ambition to explore more of the city as my friend recommended places like Koreatown, MoMA, and Soho to me. I had no idea what I …
There's an obstacle in the road that no map could properly prepare you for.
It doesn't come with a highway sign, notification alert, or the millions of self-help gurus available. You don't recognize it in the moment, only in hindsight, after your thoughts settle. It's the kind of fork you …