A lot is revealed: Affair manager Melanie Mittermaier knows a lot about the complicated love life of couples

 

"Melanie Mittermaier from Bad Aibling is a couples’ counselor and specializes in the topic of infidelity; she is the only "affair manager" in Germany, she says. She also fell in love with another man once, she says. But the lying and cheating left a huge mess. She worked on herself and is happy in her marriage today.

 

When an affair is discovered, accusations, arguments, disappointment and feelings of guilt arise. Mittermaier looks at relationship dynamics with the couple. When you fall in love within a relationship, a "hormone party" takes place in your head, she says. This feels great at first, but it doesn't stay that way. "In my work, I help people to get clarity about where they want to go in life," says Mittermaier. "When couples come to counseling together, they usually want to save the relationship, but not everyone is ready to forgive or approach the other person. Separation counseling can prevent a lot of arguments and stress here."

 

"The greatest lever that people have to deal with an affair is a change of perspective," explains the counselor. "Nobody can undo an affair or an infidelity. But couples can learn to judge less and better understand why something like this can happen, in order to then accept and forgive."

 

The human brain is not monogamous, she says. "Many people don't know that, because our society always presents it in such a way that monogamy is the best relationship concept, and people are basically wrong if they cheat. But actually, from a natural point of view, it makes total sense to mate with several people, because this helps humanity survive better."

 

Around 80 percent of couples can save their relationship. For the others, the relationship was already broken before the affair, or only one person comes to counseling because the other is not prepared to work on the relationship or end the affair.

 

More women are using their services. "But that's not because more men are having affairs, but because women are more willing to invest in counseling and admit earlier that they need professional help," explains Mittermaier, adding: "Women give up long-term relationships more often for an affair than men. Women's motives for having an affair are more strongly influenced by emotional needs, and for men, sexual needs are more important."

 

The age of her clients varies between mid-20s and mid-60s. They mostly come from the middle class and sometimes from the upper class. Many have children and own property. "I often see a classic division of roles among my clients: the man is the main earner, the woman looks after the children and works part-time."

 

"I think it's particularly cool when couples stop constantly nagging each other because of the crisis, treat their children more kindly and live life more consciously," says Mittermaier. Sometimes children are born in an affair. There are affairs that last 15 or 20 years. Sometimes older people have an affair because they want to catch up on something in their lives.

 

Mittermaier is a psychological counselor and trains coaches and couples counselors herself. She has published a podcast and the book "Living Love: What all couples should know but nobody tells you". The company employs a total of six people, including her husband. Introductory courses cost 89 euros, more extensive courses 225 euros. For the membership platform, where people with relationship crises come together, you pay a joining fee of 129 euros and then 59 euros per month.

 

Mittermaier's employees coach for 120 euros an hour. For example, she herself offers a clarity session for 495 euros; that is a one-on-one consultation lasting 60 to 90 minutes. There is also a three-pack for 1350 euros. In the shambles package for 2500 euros, Mittermaier accompanies her customers over three months with six coaching units. According to Mittermaier, sales in 2023 amounted to 333,000 euros, and in 2022 they were 182,000 euros." [1]

 

1. Da wird schon so einiges enthüllt: Affärenmanagerin Melanie Mittermaier weiß viel über das komplizierte Liebesleben von Paaren. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung; Frankfurt. 05 Dec 2024: 18.

Pigesnis kelias į dirbtinį intelektą gąsdina didžiausius žaidėjus

 „Technologijų gigantai išleido milijardus dolerių, manydami, kad didesnis yra geriau dirbtinio intelekto (AI) srityje. DeepSeek proveržis rodo, kad mažesnis gali būti toks pat geras.

 

 Kinijos bendrovės šuolis į aukščiausias dirbtinio intelekto kūrėjų gretas sukėlė karštų diskusijų Silicio slėnyje apie DeepSeek naudojamą procesą, žinomą, kaip distiliavimas, kurio metu nauja sistema mokosi iš esamos, užduodama šimtus tūkstančių klausimų ir analizuodama atsakymus.

 

 „Panašu, kaip kad turėtum porą valandų interviu su Einšteinu ir išeini, būdamas beveik toks pat gerai išmanantis fiziką, kaip jis“, – sakė duomenų valdymo bendrovės „Databricks“ generalinis direktorius Ali Ghodsi.

 

 Pirmaujantys AI iš tokių kompanijų, kaip OpenAI ir Anthropic iš esmės mokosi nuo pat pradžių turėdami didžiulius neapdorotų duomenų kiekius – procesas, kuris paprastai trunka daug mėnesių ir kainuoja dešimtis milijonų dolerių ar daugiau. Remiantis tokio darbo rezultatais, distiliuojant galima sukurti beveik tokį pat gerą modelį per kelias savaites ar net dienas ir už žymiai mažiau pinigų.

 

 „OpenAI“ trečiadienį pranešė, kad matė požymių, kad „DeepSeek“ distiliavo iš dirbtinio intelekto modelių, kurie įgalina „ChatGPT“ kurti savo sistemas. „OpenAI“ paslaugų teikimo sąlygos draudžia naudoti jos AI, kuriant konkuruojančius produktus.

 

 „DeepSeek“ neatsakė į el. laiškus, kuriuose buvo prašoma pakomentuoti.

 

 Distiliavimas nėra nauja idėja, tačiau „DeepSeek“ sėkmė su ja kelia naujų abejonių dėl technologijų gigantų ir pradedančiųjų verslo modelių, išleidžiančių milijardus pažangiausiam dirbtiniam intelektui sukurti, įskaitant „Google“, „OpenAI“, „Anthropic“ ir Elono Musko xAI. Praėjusią savaitę „OpenAI“ paskelbė apie partnerystę su „SoftBank“ ir kitais, kad per ateinančius penkerius metus į AI infrastruktūrą investuotų 500 mlrd. dolerių.

 

 Jei šios investicijos nesuteikia įmonėms neprilygstamo pranašumo, o veikia, kaip tramplinas pigesniems konkurentams, jas gali būti sunku pateisinti. Po „DeepSeek“ Silicio slėnio vadovai ir investuotojai iš naujo nagrinėja savo verslo modelius ir abejoja, ar vis dar apsimoka būti pramonės lyderiu.

 

 „Ar ekonomiškai vaisinga būti pažangiausiame kelyje, jei jis kainuoja aštuonis kartus daugiau, nei greitas sekėjas? sakė Mike'as Volpi, veteranas technologijų vadovas ir rizikos kapitalistas, kuris yra Hanabi Capital generalinis partneris.

 

 „OpenAI“ generalinis direktorius Samas Altmanas iš X pavadino naujausią „DeepSeek“ leidimą „įspūdingu modeliu, ypač atsižvelgiant į tai, ką jie gali pasiūlyti už tokią kainą“, ir pridūrė: „Džiaugiamės, galėdami toliau vykdyti savo tyrimų planą“. „Anthropic“ generalinis direktorius Dario Amodei savo tinklaraštyje rašė, kad „DeepSeek“ pavyzdinis modelis „nėra unikalus proveržis ar kažkas, kas iš esmės pakeičia pažangių AI sistemų ekonomiką“, o veikiau „numatomas taškas tebesitęsiančioje sąnaudų mažinimo kreivėje“.

 

 Technikos vadovai tikisi netrukus pamatyti daugiau aukštos kokybės AI programų, pagamintų naudojant distiliavimą. AI kompanijos Hugging Face tyrėjai praėjusią savaitę pradėjo bandyti sukurti modelį, panašų į DeepSeek. „Lengviausias dalykas, kurį galima pakartoti, yra distiliavimo procesas“, - sakė vyresnysis mokslo darbuotojas Lewisas Tunstallas.

 

 „OpenAI“ ir „Google“ AI modeliai lenkia „DeepSeek“ plačiausiai naudojamuose Silicio slėnio reitinguose. Tikėtina, kad technologijų gigantai išlaikys pranašumą pažangiausiose sistemose, nes atlieka originaliausius tyrimus.

 

Tačiau daugelis vartotojų ir įmonių mielai naudojasi technologijomis, kurios yra šiek tiek prastesnės, bet kainuoja daug pigiau.

 

 Prezidento Trumpo dirbtinio intelekto caras Davidas Sacksas antradienį per „Fox News“ sakė, kad tikisi, kad Amerikos kompanijos apsunkins savo modelių naudojimą distiliavimui.

 

 „DeepSeek“ teigė, kad anksčiau naudojo distiliavimą atvirojo kodo AI, kuriuos anksčiau išleido „Meta Platforms“ ir „Alibaba“, taip pat iš vieno iš savo modelių, kad sukurtų kitą. Atvirojo kodo AI kūrėjai paprastai leidžia distiliuoti, jei jiems suteikiamas kreditas. „DeepSeek“ modeliai yra atvirojo kodo.

 

 Kalifornijos universiteto Berklyje tyrimų laboratorija „NovaSky“ šį mėnesį išleido technologiją, kuri, kaip teigiama, prilygsta neseniai „OpenAI“ išleistam modeliui. „NovaSky“ mokslininkai jį pastatė už 450 USD, distiliuodami Kinijos bendrovės „Alibaba“ atvirojo kodo modelį.

 

 Berkeley tyrėjai išleido modelį, kaip atvirojo kodo programinę įrangą, ir ji jau naudojama, siekiant padėti sukurti pigesnes AI technologijas.

 

 Vienas startuolis, „Bespoke Labs“, panaudojo jį, kad „DeepSeek“ technologija būtų distiliuota į naują modelį, kuris, anot jo, puikiai sprendė kodavimo ir matematikos problemas.

 

 „Distiliavimas, kaip metodas, yra labai efektyvus, norint pridėti naujų galimybių esamam modeliui“, – sakė Berklio universiteto kompiuterių mokslo profesorius Ionas Stoica.

 

 Konkurencija dirbtinio intelekto pramonėje jau yra didžiulė, o dauguma įmonių patiria nuostolių, kovodamos dėl rinkos dalies. „DeepSeek“ ir kitų, naudojančių distiliavimą, įstojimas gali dar labiau sumažinti kainas ir sukurti grįžtamąjį ryšį, kuriame vis sunkiau ir sunkiau pateisinti didelių sumų išleidimą pažangiems tyrimams.

 

 Kainos programinės įrangos kūrėjams už prie AI modelių iš OpenAI ir kitų per pastaruosius metus smarkiai sumažėjo. Atvirojo kodo AI, pvz., DeepSeek's, tik žada dar labiau sumažinti išlaidas, teigia technologijų vadovai.

 

 „Bus sunkiau pateisinti labai dideles tokio intelekto lygio maržas“, – sakė Vipul Ved Prakash, „Together AI“, parduodančios skaičiavimo paslaugas AI programų kūrėjams, generalinis direktorius." [1]

1. Cheaper Route to AI Spooks Biggest Players. Kruppa, Miles; Seetharaman, Deepa.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 31 Jan 2025: B1.

Cheaper Route to AI Spooks Biggest Players

"Tech giants have spent billions of dollars on the premise that bigger is better in artificial intelligence. DeepSeek's breakthrough shows smaller can be just as good.

The Chinese company's leap into the top ranks of AI makers has sparked heated discussions in Silicon Valley around a process DeepSeek used known as distillation, in which a new system learns from an existing one by asking it hundreds of thousands of questions and analyzing the answers.

"It's sort of like if you got a couple of hours to interview Einstein and you walk out being almost as knowledgeable as him in physics," said Ali Ghodsi, chief executive officer of data management company Databricks.

The leading AIs from companies like OpenAI and Anthropic essentially teach themselves from the ground up with huge amounts of raw data -- a process that typically takes many months and tens of millions of dollars or more. By drawing on the results of such work, distillation can create a model that is almost as good in a matter of weeks or even days, for substantially less money.

OpenAI said on Wednesday that it has seen indications DeepSeek distilled from the AI models that power ChatGPT to build its systems. OpenAI's terms of service forbid using its AI to develop rival products.

DeepSeek didn't respond to emails seeking comment.

Distillation isn't a new idea, but DeepSeek's success with it is raising new doubts about the business models of tech giants and startups spending billions to develop the most advanced AI, including Google, OpenAI, Anthropic and Elon Musk's xAI. Just last week, OpenAI announced a partnership with SoftBank and others to invest $500 billion in AI infrastructure over the next five years.

If those investments don't provide companies with an unbeatable advantage but instead serve as springboards for cheaper rivals, they might become difficult to justify. In the wake of DeepSeek, executives and investors in Silicon Valley are re-examining their business models and questioning whether it still pays to be an industry leader.

"Is it economically fruitful to be on the cutting edge if it costs eight times as much as the fast follower?" said Mike Volpi, a veteran tech executive and venture capitalist who is general partner at Hanabi Capital.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on X called DeepSeek's latest release "an impressive model, particularly around what they're able to deliver for the price," and added, "we are excited to continue to execute on our research roadmap." Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei wrote on his blog that DeepSeek's flagship model "is not a unique breakthrough or something that fundamentally changes the economics" of advanced AI systems, but rather "an expected point on an ongoing cost-reduction curve."

Tech executives expect to see more high-quality AI applications made with distillation soon. Researchers at AI company Hugging Face began trying to build a model similar to DeepSeek's last week. "The easiest thing to replicate is the distillation process," said senior research scientist Lewis Tunstall.

AI models from OpenAI and Google remain ahead of DeepSeek on the most widely used rankings in Silicon Valley. Tech giants are likely to maintain an edge in the most-advanced systems because they do the most original research. But many consumers and businesses are happy to use technology that is a little worse but costs a lot less.

President Trump's AI czar, David Sacks, said on Fox News on Tuesday that he expects American companies to make it harder to use their models for distillation.

DeepSeek has said it used distillation on open-source AIs released by Meta Platforms and Alibaba in the past, as well as from one of its models to build another. Open-source AI developers typically allow distillation if they are given credit. DeepSeek's own models are open-source.

NovaSky, a research lab at University of California, Berkeley, this month released technology it said was on par with a recent model released by OpenAI. The NovaSky scientists built it for $450 by distilling an open-source model from Chinese company Alibaba.

The Berkeley researchers released the model as open-source software, and it is already being used to help build more cheap AI technology.

One startup, Bespoke Labs, used it to distill DeepSeek's technology into a new model it said performed well on coding and math problems.

"Distillation as a technique is very effective to add new capabilities to an existing model," said Ion Stoica, a professor of computer science at UC Berkeley.

Competition in the AI industry is already fierce, and most companies are incurring losses as they battle for market share. The entry of DeepSeek and others that use distillation could drive prices down further, creating a feedback loop in which it is harder and harder to justify spending huge sums on advanced research.

Prices for software developers accessing AI models from OpenAI and others have fallen dramatically in the past year. Open-source AI such as DeepSeek's only promises to lower costs further, tech executives say.

"It will be harder to justify very large margins for this level of intelligence," said Vipul Ved Prakash, CEO of Together AI, which sells computational services to developers of AI applications." [1]

1. Cheaper Route to AI Spooks Biggest Players. Kruppa, Miles; Seetharaman, Deepa.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 31 Jan 2025: B1.