Skip to main content

AI could help turbocharge your SSD’s effective storage by compressing data even further — but just don’t delete 7zip just yet

DeepMind scientists have treated compression technology to a major upgrade thanks to a large language model (LLM) that has achieved astonishing lossless compression rates with image and audio data.

Thanks to the company’s Chinchilla 70B LLM, the researchers used a special compression algorithm to reduce images to 43.4% and audio files to 16.4% of their original sizes, as detailed in their paper - making it better than some of the best compression software out there.

By contrast, standard image compression algorithm PNG reduces images to 58.5% and FLAC compressors shrink audio to 30.3% of their original file sizes. It means storing so much more on any one of the best SSDs.

Although Chinchilla 70B is trained mainly on text, they achieved these results by leaning on the predictive capabilities of the model, and framed the “prediction problem” through the lens of file compression. In other words, they retooled the best qualities of an LLM and found these traits also serve to compress large files.

AI is great at compression – up to a point

The DeepMind researchers showed that due to this equivalence between prediction and compression, any compressor can be used as a conditional generative model – and even the other way around. 

But, they added, they can only achieve such compression results up to a certain file size, meaning using generative AI as a compression solution may not be practical for everyone.

“We evaluated large pretrained models used as compressors against various standard compressors, and showed they are competitive not only on text but also on modalities they have never been trained on,” the researchers noted.

“We showed that the compression viewpoint provides novel insights on scaling laws since it takes the model size into account, unlike the log-loss objective, which is standard in current language modeling research.”

Due to this scaling limitation, the models used in this research aren’t better than, say, the likes of 7zip when you’re looking at files above a certain threshold. They may not compress as impressively as the results show, and they may also not be as fast as conventional compression algorithms.     

More from TechRadar Pro



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Windows Copilot leak suggests deeper assimilation with Windows 11 features

Key Windows 11 features may soon be customizable as Microsoft further integrates its Windows Copilot AI assistant into the operating system. This tidbit comes from tech news site Windows Latest , which claims to have discovered new .json (JavaScript Object Notation) files within recent preview builds of Windows 11. These files apparently hint at future upgrades for the desktop AI assistant. For example, a “TaskManagerService-ai-plugin.json” was found which is supposedly a “plugin for Task Manager integration”. If this ever comes out, it could give users the ability to “monitor or close running apps using” Copilot. In total, six are currently tested and they affect various aspects of Windows 11. Next, there is an “AccessbilityTools-ai-plugin.json” that gives Copilot a way to “control accessibility [tools]. This would make it "easier for those with [a] disability to navigate through the system.” Third is “ai-plugin-WindowsSettings.json” for controlling important Windows 11 set...
Post a Comment
Read more

Google Chrome releases security fix for this major flaw, so update now

Google says it has fixed a high-severity flaw in its Chrome browser which is currently being exploited by threat actors in the wild.  In a security advisory , the company described the flaw being abused and urged the users to apply the fix immediately.  "Google is aware that an exploit for CVE-2023-2033 exists in the wild," the advisory reads. Automatic updates The zero-day in question is a confusion weakness vulnerability in the Chrome V8 JavaScript engine, the company said. Usually, this type of flaw can be used to crash the browser, but in this case it can also be used to run arbitrary code on compromised endpoints.  The flaw was discovered by Clement Lecigne from the Google Threat Analysis Group (TAG). Usually, TAG works on finding flaws abused by nation-states, or state-sponsored threat actors. There is no word on who the threat actors abusing this flaw are, though. Read more > Patch Google Chrome now to fix this emergency security flaw > Emergency...
Post a Comment
Read more

Samsung's ViewFinity S9 may be the monitor creatives have been searching for

Originally revealed during CES 2023 , Samsung has finally launched its ViewFinity S9 5K monitor after nine long months of waiting.  According to the announcement, the ViewFinity S9 is the company’s first-ever 5K resolution (5,120 x 2880 pixels) IPS display aimed primarily at creatives. IPS stands for in-plane switching , a form of LED tech offering some of the best color output and viewing angles on the market. This quality is highlighted by the fact that the 27-inch screen supports 99 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut plus delivers 600 nits of brightness.  Altogether, these deliver great picture quality made vibrant by saturated colors and dark shadows. The cherry on top for the ViewFinity S9 is a Matte Display coating to “drastically [reduce] light reflections.”  As a direct rival to the Apple Studio Display , the monitor is an alternative for creative professionals looking for options. It appears Samsung has done its homework as the ViewFinity S9 addresses some of...
Post a Comment
Read more