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Training YOLO to Detect License Plates

The nice thing about ChatGPT and similar systems is that the complexity of AI/ML functionality is hidden behind a friendly natural language interface. This makes it easily reachable to the masses. But behind this easy to use facade is a lot of advanced functionality that involve a sequence of data processing steps called a pipeline. An AI-powered business card reader, for example, would first detect text and then recognize the individual letters within the context of the words they belong to. A license plate reader would be similar. Detection is an important process that you often need in your AI/ML projects. And that’s why we will be looking at YOLO.

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Running Your Own LLM With Ollama

Leveraging the capabilities of Large Language Models (LLM) using APIs such as the OpenAI APIs is an easy way to add intelligence and advanced functionality to your applications. However, token costs add up and they can get quite expensive. Then there’s the nagging question of privacy and security. Finally, you’re limited in your ability to experiment and customize. But if you have a powerful machine with a GPU or two sitting around, wouldn’t it be great to utilize it for running one of those open source LLMs? Here’s how you can do it.

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Amazon Gets Into the LLM Game with Nova

Amazon just got into the LLM arena with Amazon Nova. And they announced not one, not two, but SIX models!

  1. Amazon Nova Micro: Text-only model delivering low-latency responses, ideal for language understanding, translation, reasoning, and code completion.
  2. Amazon Nova Lite: Low-cost multimodal model, lightning-fast for processing text, image, and video inputs, suitable for interactive and high-volume applications.
  3. Amazon Nova Pro: High-capability multimodal model with top accuracy, speed, and cost efficiency for diverse tasks, excelling at instruction following and agentic workflows.
  4. Amazon Nova Premier: Coming soon. Likely a premium version of Nova Pro with more features and/or better performance.
  5. Amazon Nova Canvas: Advanced image generation model for creating and editing professional-grade images from text or image prompts.
  6. Amazon Nova Reel: Video generation model enabling high-quality video creation from text and images, with natural language controls for style and pacing.

The LLM landscape just got bigger and better!

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Conclave

Many people hate on the Catholic Church for a variety of reasons. Ultimately, the reason for the hate can be traced to the failings of people and not the core of faith itself. Despite these failings, we have to acknowledge that the Church accomplished a great deal of good, including guiding Christianity, western civilization even, through some of its darkest periods.

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