"Tensor Templar" lmao. Hey buddy, what did the Knights Templar do, besides banking?
"My heavens, our self-regarding supremacist ideology can't possibly imply violence... can it???"
The eventual war crimes trials will very likely reveal that "AI targeting" has already been used as an accountability sink for a premeditated ethnic cleansing policy in Gaza.
Two posts in two weeks about professors using ChatGPT has me questioning my desire to go back to school
It doesn't even fit with the axioms of market logic! If the platform in question has terrible content moderation, primarily generates revenue from profoundly repulsive people, and was intentionally bought out to be used as the central propaganda organ for a destructive political movement... why wouldn't you leave?! Dude just doesn't want to admit he's too lazy to redo his follows elsewhere
Atlantic writer: "better dubble down on Twitter huhuhuhhuh"
Calls to disengage from X, now that Elon Musk has turned it into a white-supremacist haven, certainly have a moral appeal. But if this election showed how difficult it is to meaningfully “deplatform” speakers you disagree with, it also demonstrated the danger of ignoring the platforms where they speak. Unfortunately, the only way to change what’s happening in an echo chamber may be to add your own noise.
This is your periodic reminder that Steve Jobs' widow owns that toilet-paper factory. And that they still pump out hot new singles from hitmakers like David Frum and, occasionally, my personal favorite, Eliot "GW Bush Did Nothing Wrong" Cohen.
Promptfondler DLC for Disco Elysium is a big disappointment so far
twitter gon' have nothin' left but the cranks
This causes me to reflect on contrasting currents in tech culture. I remember growing up with the Apple/Mac rumor culture around the time Steve Jobs came back, and how people had conditioned themselves to get hyped for any little tiny leak about upcoming products. A culture which obviously persists now, albeit in streamlined, advertiser-friendly blog spaces. By contrast, MacWeek magazine had a columnist calling himself Mac the Knife who claimed to have clandestine rendezvous with shady trenchcoat-clad characters in the back alleys of Cupertino... And somehow the new product reveals were almost always somewhat less whelming than the rumormill had built them up to be. Part of the Jobs idolatry that still dominates Silicon Valley is the clear strategy among empty-suit grifters like Altman that such hype is vital but Apple didn't do enough with it; that you should always be marketing what's around the corner rather than keeping it hidden away under lock, key, and NDA.
Contrast this with open-source culture, warts and all. What's in the repository is the basis of what comes next. You think superintelligence is imminent? OK, where's the code stubs that will serve as the foundation? Make a pull request for your mega-brain's medulla, let's review it. It's also a big reason why the current round of AI doesn't fit with open-source culture, no matter how many people are trying to force it. It is inherently an obfuscatory technology. Not just due to the sheer size of the data sets and weights involved, but also through the weird non-deterministic practice of configuring software through natural-language prompts. GIGO at scale, but you can keep the hype going by promising a lower percentage of garbage in the future.
It could also be swapped out for nothing. The people in charge could figure out that this stuff is costing more than it's making, turn the servers off, and deactivate the user-facing features or leave them as vestigial stubs.
There's more evidence right now for that scenario, and it would generate an awful lot of e-waste. Tell me, are you up to date on process improvements for recycling or repurposing that much e-waste?
This holiday season, treat your loved ones to the complete printed set* of the original Yudkowsky for the low introductory price of $1,299.99. And if you act now, you'll also get 50% off your subscription to the exciting new upcoming Yudkowsky, only $149 per quarter!
*This fantastic deal made possible by our friends at Amazon Print-on-Demand. Don't worry, they're completely separate from the thoughtless civilization-killers in the AWS and AI departments whom we have taught you to fear and loathe
(how far are we from this actually happening?)
istewart
joined 4 months ago
The British elected a guy who wears a mop on his head. You cannot convince me that is his actual hair.
I still have occasional intrusive visions of Johnson busting into an unattended supply closet in the Palace of Westminster to steal a fresh mop head, shouting, "BLOODY LABOUR NICKED ME TOUPÉE!"