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ctolsen

473 karma · joined May 21, 2013

[ my public key: https://keybase.io/ctolsen; my proof: https://keybase.io/ctolsen/sigs/geQJO-WFCewgI1BB6lI27iO9CwJ_HzPiB3XtVGdzKUc ]
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ctolsen··on Bonsai 2 27B: Near-Lossless Compression in a 9x Smaller Footprint
Definitely a little better.

https://gist.github.com/ctolsen/b2883e7cbf5e4357fa04366019e6...

ctolsen··on Bonsai 2 27B: Near-Lossless Compression in a 9x Smaller Footprint
If we go with AA's benchmarks Qwen 3.8 27B is already slightly below Luna level which is in itself impressive, but with this compression it should be just slightly more below Luna level and could run on my old GTX 1070 that I'm now tempted to fire up. That's kinda nuts even allowing for small-model problems that I'm sure I'd see quite clearly.
ctolsen··on Xiaomi Mimo 2.6 live post-training dashboard
Their ambition isn't your work being amplified by their model, they want you running fifty autonomous long-running agents.
ctolsen··on Dream-RSI: Recursive Self-Improvement through Evolving Worlds
The systems that train them do.
ctolsen··on Dream-RSI: Recursive Self-Improvement through Evolving Worlds
So few terms in AI are well defined. We will get ASI via AGI because of RSI but neither of those three things have any definition except pure vibes.

I struggle with the argument that RSI doesn't already exist like you say, it's existed since before the term LLM (hey, one that can be defined!) was common parlance. Though the biggest use for those is not superintelligence, it's to serve you ads and get your kids addicted to TikTok.

ctolsen··on Muse Spark 1.3
You gotta keep up. Fable 5.1 came out yesterday and is better so anything else is to be treated as garbage now.
ctolsen··on AI companies are shredding rare books
I'd go for the less complex version: just make copyright last for like 20 years at most.
ctolsen··on How LLMs work
No, it’s definitely not what a human brain is. That makes very little sense. The ways we interact with language (and thus conceptual memory) is completely and fundamentally different.
ctolsen··on Spain to expand internet blocks to tennis, golf, movies broadcasting times
Yeah, if this is stopped, it'll be because of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights or the ECHR.

The Charter and the European Court of Justice is why we don't have blanket data retention in the EU but it took twelve years to strike down the Data Retention Directive (though it was killed off much faster in some national courts).

ctolsen··on Sam Altman's response to Molotov cocktail incident
It's well established that the companies who own the proprietary frontier models complain loudly that open models are distilled from theirs.

There's surely some truth to it (and it's well deserved), but it's happening in every direction.

ctolsen··on Sam Altman's response to Molotov cocktail incident
I mean, I could say the same about Gemini. 3.1 Pro tops a bunch of benchmarks out there but any practical use I've put it to it's underperforming both other proprietary and open weight models. Benchmarks are suspicious in general.
ctolsen··on Sam Altman's response to Molotov cocktail incident
Having worked with both proprietary and open weight SOTA models lately, my view is it's definitely not 6 months, it's less -- and shrinking.
ctolsen··on MoD sources warn Palantir role at heart of government is threat to UK security
It's 100% laziness on the side of procurement, aided by some good marketing and a complete lack of guardrails. Exactly the same mindset that has led to every European government now being tied to US big tech.
ctolsen··on You don't have to
I'd challenge that assertion. LLMs still produce very bad results with greenfield work, so that seed was generated by people who had both creativity and skill a thousand times before. Having a glimmer of an idea that you've probably seen more or less intact somewhere else and getting an AI to take it from that point is much closer to Milli Vanilli than any actual creative work.
ctolsen··on Asahi Linux Progress Report: Linux 6.19
To add to that, they'll continue to be great machines running Linux even after Apple has bloated MacOS to death. Tahoe has made my M1 MBP feel significantly less snappy for no good reason.
ctolsen··on Travel Time London Underground Map (2016)
What would it give you that, say, Citymapper doesn't?
ctolsen··on Atmospheric CO2 levels accelerate upwards
It is comparable, and thinking about agriculture as a closed system is not even close to correct. We're mowing down natural carbon sinks to an insane degree to grow crops to feed animals, one of the major reasons of deforestation and land use change in South America, for instance.

And not only that, we grow slow-acting carbon and turn it into fast-acting methane.

I strongly doubt Musk would have such a simplistic view of agricultural emissions, they're a big concern for a reason.

ctolsen··on Lyft's Nice-Guy Strategy Leaves It Struggling to Catch Uber
Not the same guy, but I feel like Uber is a pretty cutthroat company, and they are probably not an example of a sustainable model in a more freelance/gig based economy. I like that they're paving the way for a new way of doing things and I use them almost exclusively here in London.

I wouldn't say I want Uber to go under, I really don't. But if another company like Lyft can do it in a way I feel is more ethical, I would easily switch over.

ctolsen··on Canada to introduce legislation to legalize recreational cannabis
It's only a holdup if the government wants it to be a holdup.
ctolsen··on Canada to introduce legislation to legalize recreational cannabis
Well, even if it doesn't change much, you're still stuck with the absolute worst part of drug prohibition – unregulated and unclean drugs, turf wars and violence, and hundreds of thousands of murders in less fortunate countries.

I find decriminalisation to be a pretty egoistic way around the problem. Sure, it makes lives better for people at home, but it completely ignores the massive amount of suffering countries (including Canada) has brought on supply and transit countries.

ctolsen··on NPM and Left-Pad: Have We Forgotten How to Program?
There are tools to include only the stuff you actually use that you can stuff in your build process though.
ctolsen··on NPM and Left-Pad: Have We Forgotten How to Program?
When using a language where

    isArray(arr)
turns into

    toString.call(arr) == '[object Array]'
...then I guess that's more reasonable than if you use something sane.
ctolsen··on NPM and Left-Pad: Have We Forgotten How to Program?
It's interesting to me that people find this convincing. I find it to be complete insanity. People need their libraries, but putting everything in tiny buckets is just not working. Why aren't people working on good utility libraries instead?

There's even some guy calling for a "micro-lodash". To me, as a Python engineer, lodash [1] is already a tiny utility library.

I guess it's also about the fact that JS is a pretty bad language. That you need a one-line `isArray` dependency to `toString.call(arr) == '[object Array]'` is crazy.

[1] https://lodash.com/docs

ctolsen··on What is the real reason we sleep?
I use a mouth guard, it turned out to be sufficient.
ctolsen··on What is the real reason we sleep?
From someone else with apnea: absolutely none at all.

I didn't have to use CPAP to treat it though, so other people's experiences might be different.

ctolsen··on What is the real reason we sleep?
This is an interesting one. I have sleep apnea, the result of which is basically chronic sleep deprivation even though you spend lots of time in bed. I struggled with all sorts of depressive symptoms (depression, anxiety, panic attacks) for years before getting a diagnosis, and 90% of the symptoms vanished overnight after treatment.
ctolsen··on What is the real reason we sleep?
Interesting that you had the similar experience to mine – I had years of depression, panic attacks, and anxiety that vanished virtually overnight with sleep apnea treatment.

I don't use a machine though, just a brace.

ctolsen··on SpaceX Falcon rocket explodes on landing after delivering satellite to space
You're being downvoted because it's a stupid assertion and it's "technically" not even the same craft at that point.
ctolsen··on SpaceX Falcon rocket explodes on landing after delivering satellite to space
This is the an explosion of 5 gallons of petrol: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C72bv2YhZ6A

Doesn't take that much to make an impressive bang.

ctolsen··on Finland’s basic income plan could change everything
Many people tend to think of BI as a solution to a world where scarcity is no longer that much of an issue. In a world where a lot of wealth is created by automation, the picture starts to look different, to the extent that BI becomes not just desirable, but inevitable. At that point, it shouldn't matter too much if those people choose to stay unproductive.

But even now, while those people may not produce, they would certainly still have to consume. So there is some economic activity created. The question, of course, is whether it's enough to support the greater economy and if the incentives to do extra work are good enough.

Also, I sincerely doubt that these people you talk about are the norm. As mentioned in the article, there's certainly evidence that people may tend to get more education, act more creatively, and pursue productivity at a higher rate when they are removed from the fear of poverty – likely because basic needs are met and aren't a primary source of stress.

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