TikTok has an open computational chemistry position • Hacker News Board

Re: TikTok has an open computational chemistry position

#91

Post by spiffytech » Fri, Oct 14, 2022, 5:18 PM UTC

marcosdumay wrote: post #22

bismuthcrystal wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More like: “We choose to do these things not because they are easy but because they are profitable”

Hum... That's clearly not the case. That's why there isn't a lot of it around.

There are a lot of things that would be profitable, that are held back by either belief that they can't be done or by failure of imagination on their ramifications. Or because people profit from the status quo remaining unchanged.

Non-scientific example: I just read The Box, a history of container shipping. It's remarkable how many transportation incumbents tried to put the kibosh on containerization because they believed it was either not practical or not profitable.

In the end containerization hurt many existing power structures, but it reinvented global commerce and opened unfathomable financial doors for the world as a whole, creating financial empires that were impossible before.

Re: TikTok has an open computational chemistry position

#92

Post by drooby » Fri, Oct 14, 2022, 5:22 PM UTC

tenebrisalietum wrote: post #86

drooby wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not that cringe to me. Tiktok and the like are highly addictive for some people and the dopamine kicks are real and unhealthy. Reading books does not give the same release of dopamine as TikTok/Instagram.. hence why most people don’t read for 2 hours a day but many people easily spend that much time on insta/tik. Modulating behavior can cause physical withdrawals.. you don’t need a pill. I.e lovers, gambling addicts,…

Should we require prescriptions for porn magazines then?

Porn was perhaps a bad example because I don’t think evidence suggests conclusively that it is addictive.

But take gambling.. gambling is considered addictive and its disorder classified in the DSM-5. (Gambling is probably also most like TikTok/Instagram in terms of activating reward seeking and pleasure in the brain). In the US we do heavily regulate gambling and some legislations have required warning labels for the risks involved with gambling.

So no, if would not be unreasonable to me if we as a society discussed potentially regulating social media in some way.. be it as non-invasive as warning messaging.

Re: TikTok has an open computational chemistry position

#93

Post by goethes_kind » Fri, Oct 14, 2022, 5:22 PM UTC

chazeon wrote: post #57

chazeon wrote: post #54

Tiktok/bytedance already have large ML infrastructure in place (GPU clusters), and since quantum chemistry simulation is moving towards ML based simulation, they have an edge there. Open source ML simulation software such as DeePMD-kit is already seeing contributions from Tiktok employees.

In case HN readers doesn’t know, ML based MD scales O(N) and traditional DFT based simulation O(N^3) where N is number of atoms. From first hand experience: what used take weeks with traditional DFT MD on CPUs are only taking few minutes with GPUs right now if you have trained a good ML potential. They achieved near DFT accuracy.

Can you point me to some papers? I'm quite curious since I do something adjacent but with fluids.

Re: TikTok has an open computational chemistry position

#94

Post by omoikane » Fri, Oct 14, 2022, 5:23 PM UTC

Maybe they already have a list of individuals that they want to hire, and they are trying to write the job requisition to fit those individuals' backgrounds.

Re: TikTok has an open computational chemistry position

#95

Post by SuoDuanDao » Fri, Oct 14, 2022, 5:25 PM UTC

VirusNewbie wrote: post #84

blululu wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure if these people are overqualified as much as the fact that people who check the box on paper are generally unqualified. Generally good people can only really do math up to a few years below the highest level that they learned in school. If you actually need someone to do basic linear algebra you probably want somehow who took classes that went well beyond the freshman/sophomore level that everyone has.

Is this something unique to math? I've never taken computer science courses in school, but I'm fairly good at it...

I'd suspect someone who was self-taught in mathematics wouldn't have a disconnect between apparent and actual ability either; teaching math to people who primarily need it to pass an exam is a very different process from learning the same material out of personal interest.

Re: TikTok has an open computational chemistry position

#96

Post by whymauri » Fri, Oct 14, 2022, 5:46 PM UTC

czl_my wrote: post #47

It's probably a cross-hire for one of their Parent company's biotech arm. https://techcrunch.com/2020/12/23/bytedance-ai-drug/

Most likely answer, I think.

Re: TikTok has an open computational chemistry position

#97

Post by ggpsv » Fri, Oct 14, 2022, 5:51 PM UTC

otabdeveloper4 wrote: post #85

amelius wrote: post #31

"Our brightest minds are making people click ads" ...

"Making people click ads" is just applied computational sociology. Which is a good thing, since the sociology we had before clickable ads was unequivocally less scientific and useful.

"good" and "sociology" are surely carrying a lot of weight in that statement. What does "good" mean applied in this context?

I'm not sure I see the connection to sociology though, do yo mean behavioral economics?

Re: TikTok has an open computational chemistry position

#98

Post by paxys » Fri, Oct 14, 2022, 5:55 PM UTC

goatcode wrote: post #52

api wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few generations ago many of our brightest minds were building doomsday weapons to incinerate all life on Earth, so maybe this is progress.

Is it? Would you rather be dead or a zombie?

I'd rather have the choice to do whatever I want with my life instead of a bomb dropped on my head.

Re: TikTok has an open computational chemistry position

#99

Post by powerapple » Fri, Oct 14, 2022, 5:57 PM UTC

ackbar03 wrote: post #65

c7b wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's really about material science and biology, just read further in the ad: Responsibilities • Follow the latest progress in computational science such as material and biology. • Solve real-world problems in material and biology, with computational approaches such as molecular dynamics, quantum chemistry, and machine learning. • Optimize and speed up classical molecular dynamics and quantum chemistry algorithms…

That will be cool if their really looking to expand into something useful like biochemistry r&d, similar to Google with deepmind.

I am pretty sure they are exploring AlphaFold, potential growth opportunity. ByteDance has been exploring games, education, online office suites and many more.

Re: TikTok has an open computational chemistry position

#100

Post by powerapple » Fri, Oct 14, 2022, 6:03 PM UTC

tsjackson wrote: post #25

I'm really curious about this. Hypothesis 1) Tik Tok believes AI/machine learning algorithms themselves are converging across fields, and the company is finding that its internal AI innovations can be applied to biology and materials sciences algos and, possibly, vice versa. We'll call this one the "data are data" hypothesis. Hypothesis 2) Tik Tok has decided that it's an AI company, not a content platform company. T…

ByteDance, as a company, it actively looking to expand to new growth area. The original product was a news reader, then TikTok, also other video platform, it also publishes games, acquired a VR headset company Pico, developed the most popular Google Works clone. I think it is looking into something similar to AlphaFold, it is a big market. It is the never end mission of Internet companies with lots of money, where is next growth.