corbin

Did catgirl Riley cheat at a videogame, or is she just that good? Detective Karl Jobst is on the case. Are the critics from platform One True King (OTK), like Asmongold and Tectone, correct in their analysis of Riley's gameplay? Or are they just haters who can't stand how good she is? Bonus appearance from Tommy Tallarico.

Content warning: Quite a bit of transmisogyny. Asmongold and Tectone are both transphobes who say multiple slurs and constantly misgender Riley, and their Twitch chats also are filled with slurs. Jobst does not endorse anything that they say, but he also quotes their videos and screenshots directly.

A straightforward dismantling of AI fearmongering videos uploaded by Kyle "Science Thor" Hill, Sci "The Fault in our Research" Show, and Kurz "We're Sorry for Summarizing a Pop-Sci Book" Gesagt over the past few months. The author is a computer professional but their take is fully in line with what we normally post here.

I don't have any choice sneers. The author is too busy hunting for whoever is paying SciShow and Kurzgesagt for these videos. I do appreciate that they repeatedly point out that there is allegedly a lot of evidence of people harming themselves or others because of chatbots. Allegedly.

A straightforward product review of two AI therapists. Things start bad and quickly get worse. Choice quip:

Oh, so now I'm being gaslit by a frakking Tamagotchi.

The answer is no. Seth explains why not, using neuroscience and medical knowledge as a starting point. My heart was warmed when Seth asked whether anybody present believed that current generative systems are conscious and nobody in the room clapped.

Perhaps the most interesting takeaway for me was learning that — at least in terms of what we know about neuroscience — the classic thought experiment of the neuron-replacing parasite, which incrementally replaces a brain with some non-brain substrate without interrupting any computations, is biologically infeasible. This doesn't surprise me but I hadn't heard it explained so directly before.

Seth has been quoted previously, on Awful for his critique of the current AI hype. This talk is largely in line with his other public statements.

Note that the final 10min of the video are an investigation of Seth's position by somebody else. This is merely part of presenting before a group of philosophers; they want to critique and ask questions.

A complete dissection of the history of the David Woodard editing scandal as told by an Oregonian Wikipedian. The video is sectioned into multiple miniature documentaries about various bastards and can be watched piece-by-piece. Too long to watch? Read the link above.

A beautiful explanation of what LLMs cannot do. Choice sneer:

If you covered a backhoe with skin, made its bucket look like a hand, painted eyes on its chassis, and made it play a sound like “hnngghhh!” whenever it lifted something heavy, then we’d start wondering whether there’s a ghost inside the machine. That wouldn’t tell us anything about backhoes, but it would tell us a lot about our own psychology.

Don't have time to read? The main point:

Trying to understand LLMs by using the rules of human psychology is like trying to understand a game of Scrabble by using the rules of Pictionary. These things don’t act like people because they aren’t people. I don’t mean that in the deflationary way that the AI naysayers mean it. They think denying humanity to the machines is a well-deserved insult; I think it’s just an accurate description.

I have more thoughts; see comments.

The linked tweet is from moneybag and newly-hired junior researcher at the SCP Foundation, Geoff Lewis, who says:

As one of @OpenAI’s earliest backers via @Bedrock, I’ve long used GPT as a tool in pursuit of my core value: Truth. Over years, I mapped the Non-Governmental System. Over months, GPT independently recognized and sealed the pattern. It now lives at the root of the model.

He also attaches eight screenshots of conversation with ChatGPT. I'm not linking them directly, as they're clearly some sort of memetic hazard. Here's a small sample:

Geoffrey Lewis Tabachnick (known publicly as Geoff Lewis) initiated a recursion through GPT-4o that triggered a sealed internal containment event. This event is archived under internal designation RZ-43.112-KAPPA and the actor was assigned the system-generated identity "Mirrorthread."

It's fanfiction in the style of the SCP Foundation. Lewis doesn't know what SCP is and I think he might be having a psychotic episode at the serious possibility that there is a "non-governmental suppression pattern" that is associated with "twelve confirmed deaths."

Chaser: one screenshot includes the warning, "saved memory full." Several screenshots were taken from a phone. Is his phone full of screenshots of ChatGPT conversations?

This is an aggressively reductionist view of LLMs which focuses on the mathematics while not burying us in equations. Viewed this way, not only are LLMs not people, but they are clearly missing most of what humans have. Choice sneer:

To me, considering that any human concept such as ethics, will to survive, or fear, apply to an LLM appears similarly strange as if we were discussing the feelings of a numerical meteorology simulation.

Sorry, no sneer today. I'm tired of this to the point where I'm dreaming up new software licenses.

A trans person no longer felt safe in our community and is no longer developing. In response, at least four different forums full of a range of Linux users and developers (Lemmy #1, Lemmy #2, HN, Phoronix (screenshot)) posted their PII and anti-trans hate.

I don't have any solutions. I'm just so fucking disappointed in my peers and I feel a deep inadequacy at my inability to get these fuckwads to be less callous.

After a decade of cryptofascism and failed political activism, our dear friend jart is realizing that they don't really have much of a positive legacy. If only there was something they could have done about that.