Author of Times Bestseller, The Khan. Award-winning journalist. Worked for the BBC, The Guardian, The Times, The Independent. Rep'd by @DHHlitagency
England
Joined April 2009
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You can pre-order Vengeance, the sequel to The Khan here:
amazon.co.uk/Vengeance-Khan-…
Saima Mir retweeted
Physical vibe coding is here.
@Machenta_ brings instant learning to robots: show a robot a task once and it gets to work. You prompt it with a demonstration the way you prompt ChatGPT with text.
While most of robotics races to collect more real-world data, @Ed__Johns and @vitalisvos19 spent the past years at @imperialcollege on the opposite bet: a model trained entirely in simulation that learns how to learn.
That means it’s bounded by compute, not data, and it will only get better as it scales.
We believe the hardest problems are often solved by people who bring a different lens. Ed is a true polymath: after his PhD, he spent a year as a singer-songwriter, playing gigs with a then still unknown Ed Sheeran. In a band, when someone shows you a chord, you rarely need to see it twice. Perhaps that’s why Ed asked a different question from most of his field: not how to make robots learn more, but how humans learn so fast.
At @creandum, we're proud to co-lead Machenta’s $40M seed with @usv, backing Ed, Vitalis and the team.
Today we’re out of stealth, and we’ve raised a $40m seed round co-led by @creandum and @usv, to bring Instant Robot Learning to life.
For the past few months, we‘ve been busy building a new company.
Machenta.
This follows results from a new kind of robot foundation model we’ve built, which I’m so excited to share with you today!
Usually, it takes hours/days of data collection and training to teach a robot.
We’ve built a model that learns tasks instantly: one demonstration, no further training.
A model trained entirely in simulation, without a single pixel of real-world data.
A model where teaching robots is so quick and easy, it feels like physical vibe coding.
A model for robots that learn like humans do, from someone like you.
Welcome to the era of Instant Robot Learning.
Thank you @Kathi_Wilhelm, @rebeccakaden, @hkanji, @jonno_evans and all of our angels for your support!
@Machenta_
Learn more: machenta.com/blog/instant-ro…
See below for what you can do with Instant Robot Learning!
Saima Mir retweeted
A new AI lab has just emerged from London and it has raised a $40m seed.
It is the largest ever robotics seed in the UK and the company has built a foundational model designed to achieve instant learning.
i.e. show a robot something ONCE and it will learn how to do it.
It was founded by a Professor of Robot Learning at Imperial College London (@Ed__Johns)
Their model is trained entirely in simulation, so instead of learning specific tasks, it learns how to learn. Then when you give it one real demonstration, on objects it’s never seen, it picks the task up instantly.
This is VERY COOL and it is amazing to see more and more frontier AI companies coming out of London.
Huge congrats to the whole @Machenta_ team
Saima Mir retweeted
Arab science giants:
* Ibn al-Haytham – father of optics
* Al-Kindi – invented cryptanalysis
* Al-Zahrawi – father of surgery
* Ibn al-Nafis – mapped pulmonary circulation
* Al-Battani – measured the solar year
* Ibn al-Shatir – pre-Copernican astronomy
* Ibn Khaldun – father of sociology
Nobel science laureates of Arab heritage:
* Peter Medawar 🇱🇧 – Medicine '60, transplant immunology
* E.J. Corey 🇱🇧 – Chemistry '90, organic synthesis
* Ahmed Zewail 🇪🇬 – Chemistry '99, femtochemistry
* Moungi Bawendi 🇹🇳 – Chemistry '23, quantum dots
* Omar Yaghi 🇯🇴🇵🇸 – Chemistry '25, MOFs
Saima Mir retweeted
Our November event 🙌
We're thrilled our next guest will be @SaimaMir. Saima will be talking about 'Deliverance', 11th November (7pm).
It's free to attend @hull_libraries (Central) or via the online stream. All the info below 📚
Saima Mir retweeted
What will the crime thriller hero
Look like in 5 years' time?
By @SaimaMir
aspectsofcrime.com/what-will…
Read The Khan
link.amazon/B02KJxnLE
@OneworldNews
#crimefiction #bynr #bookrecommendations
Saima Mir retweeted
What will the crime thriller hero
Look like in 5 years' time?
By @SaimaMir
aspectsofcrime.com/what-will…
Read The Khan
link.amazon/B02KJxnLE
@OneworldNews
#crimefiction #bynr #bookrecommendations
Meet Tony the padel-playing robot. He also dances and does martial arts.
thetimes.com/article/113a7a5…
Saima Mir retweeted
Two #JournoRequest s from me today!
1 – South Asian authors (fiction, non-fiction) for a new podcast, filmed in London before the end of this year.
2 – Products for a Diwali gift guide for @GlamourMagUK.
For both, EMAIL me at isabella.mk[email protected]
Saima Mir retweeted
Last few tickets for tonight's mega event at the brilliant @Wimbookfest ... A lot of people are going to be killed - in our books, of course! I can promise a lively chat with Harriet Tyce @SaimaMir and @theJeremyVine ... Book now: wimbledonbookfest.org/events…
Saima Mir retweeted
What will the crime thriller hero
Look like in 5 years' time?
By @SaimaMir
aspectsofcrime.com/what-will…
Read The Khan
link.amazon/B02KJxnLE
@OneworldNews
#crimefiction #bynr #bookrecommendations
Saima Mir retweeted
Extremely grateful to the email spammer-scammers who contact me several times a day to tell me what my books are about.
Saima Mir retweeted
We're thrilled our next guest will be @SaimaMir. Saima will be talking about 'Deliverance', 11th November (7pm).
It's free to attend @hull_libraries (Central) or via the online stream. All the info below 📚
'Here it is, the revenge to the tune. "You're no good
You're no good, you're no good, you're no good."'
"What emerges is a three-dimensional portrait of a funny, infuriating, sweet, angry, principled, self-absorbed talent"
Read @kittyempire666's book review of Jamie Fisher's biography of Elliott Smith
bit.ly/47iysOx
I'm in Sheffield on Thursday for Off The Shelf Festival of Words. Tickets here>>
offtheshelf.org.uk/events/de…
Saima Mir retweeted
Moms are far more effective than riot control police!
Saima Mir retweeted
Princeton didn’t consider Anne Carson worthy of a recommendation for tenure, and she couldn’t continue teaching at McGill after its Department of Classics was shut down.
Now, everyone wants to claim her as their own …
Saima Mir retweeted
“I’m trying to reverse into an influencer space.”
At Truth Tellers, @London_Centric editor @jimwaterson spoke about making independent, subscriber-funded journalism pay, and why his background in traditional media matters.
Watch Journalism on a Credit Card: tinyurl.com/w7tacjeu
Saima Mir retweeted
I'm giving away 25 copies of #VIBE. To enter, repost and comment by October 13.
adamgrant.net/vibe
Saima Mir retweeted
I’ve crossed paths with Musa Okwonga @Okwonga professionally over the years. He was kind, courteous and extremely bright. His reply to @JakeWSimons who has chosen to egregiously misrepresent him is, as the youth say, a mic drop.
