robswc

I truly just don't believe a word regarding achievements from these frontier labs.

It started with that guy from google saying the LLM was "alive" and every time I see a press release from these labs it reads mostly like a marketing scheme.

"Look how impressive and 'dangerous' our model is, look how naughty it was! We can't control it!"

Yep. A lot of thriller and mystery can get you on the first couple of pages. My now (probably all time) favorite book, Anathem by Neal Stephenson, took me three times to really get into. It started with a ton of exposition... and I guess the first few times I read it I didn't care too much for it. It was well worth the read though.

People have been claiming "this is the end" of the US, for some reason or another, ever since I've been on the internet (since 2005).

This same sentiment was going around in 2016 when Trump was doing those ridiculous "bans" on immigration. Since then I would argue the US has only increased its influence and power over Europe. Europe needs help with the war and the US has already given immeasurable resources. Europe has almost no skin in the game when it comes to AI. Maybe that's a bubble but the point still stands.

Ofc I don't agree with what the current president is doing, but the idea that businesses and research will flock to Europe is amusing. They've certainly introduced enough barriers to ensure that won't happen.

Then it's subjective, what they define as a waste of money, this is par for the course when it comes to choosing what to fund.

You do not trust the current administration to be objective when it comes to cutting funding. I don't trust universities to be objective when it comes to funding.

I take any claims/studies from universities regarding gender/race with a huge grain of salt. There is too much room for bias and sensationalism. Not long ago there was a study claiming that white doctors were treating non-white babies with less care than white babies. However, the original authors made several mistakes and the study couldn't replicate.

Funnily enough, if you google percentage of medical studies that can't be replicated, you get 75% too :)

> "diversity related topics" included things like biodiversity which is an important area of research and should be apolitical. Not because of a shift in focus, but because of top-down orders to not fund anything related to "diversity."

Do you have a source for this? How can you prove it was simply because it was "diversity related" and not because it someone, somewhere determined the budget needed to be cut because the spending was wasteful?

As far as I can tell, the budget never passed, so we have no way to know one way or another the effects.

I have never seen a government entity claim that cutting their budget wouldn't be catastrophic.

Personally, as someone that has heard non-stop about how horrible the US is from Europeans ever since I was on the internet, I don't give statements from EU officials much weight. It isn't anything new.

I have family that has migrated _from_ Europe to the US, they still seem to hold this attitude that they know what is best for the US. They come live here for a higher quality of life and income, then go vacation in Europe like kings, talking about how much cheaper things are, without an ounce of irony. Not sure how they do it.

What is US losing, relative to Europe/other countries?

I can't really think of many notable things to come out of Europe as of late... besides maybe covid vaccines but its hard to really say that when 90% of the wikipedia page for the "creators" is about research and contributions that they did (and could really only do) in the US.

I'm OOTL, but there _is_ a ton of waste when it comes to money we give out.

The article itself even says here:

> [...] the US government has cut scientific grants to academics working on diversity-related topics, halted biomedical grants to international partners, and demanded universities shut down academic units that “belittle” conservative ideas [...]

I'd say it's fair to question if taxpayers should be paying for "diversity related projects." The "belittle conservative ideas" thing is problematic, as that is totally subjective. However, I don't think anyone can say in good faith that most universities aren't incredibly bias. Having been in one circa 2020, it was not a welcoming place if you weren't firmly liberal/progressive. Of course I have to place my disclaimer that I'm not a fan of what Trump is doing, or the man himself for that matter.

I'll hold my breath, but this would be fantastic.

We need to automate away the boring/hard jobs.

AFAIK, downloading or watching pirated stuff isn't something you'll get in trouble for. Hosting and distributing it is what will get you.

I don't know if I can ever buy a non-Tesla car again (unless its a truck).

I'll check out Rivian next time though, as those look pretty damn good. Like you, I don't know of any other brands that are competitive enough for me. I want to like other car UX's but once you have a smooth UX its hard to go back to sluggish ones.

I have gotten so many malicious pop ups on news sites and nobody likes ads. They will have to pivot.

Well, sure.

I'm not afraid I'll get stabbed but I'm not a fan of some dude staring daggers at my wife and I while he laughs and talks to himself. When I've traveled alone I've seen fights, peeing, groping and all sorts of stuff. Nobody I saw ever got killed but I can't say I miss public transit.

I think the biggest issue is the _vast_ majority of news is noise. It won't effect you. Maybe you could argue we should be "aware" of certain events happening but I'd argue most only complicate your life.

I would subscribe to a local news provider but I see no reason to ever subscribe to a national news outlet.

Mozilla is the problem, not FireFox.

I just don't really feel like using FireFox while Mozilla has a hand in it.

Makes sense.

The problem I have with it is that there's no way they could have determined if an API key was stolen or not, even to this day.

Basically, their docs (which seemed auto-generated) pointed to a domain they did not own (verified this). So if you ran any API examples you sent your keys to a 3rd party. I know because I did this. There's no way to know that the domain in the docs is simply wrong.

I tried explaining this to the support people, that I needed to talk with a software engineer but they kept stonewalling. I think it was fixed after 24 hours or so.

Reminds me of a time I found a serious issue with mailgun. Messaged them, no reply. Had to spam their twitter to get a response. Basically you could have stolen tons of API keys from users without their knowledge and mailgun never disclosed it.

I could have actually gone to their office in person if I wanted to be pedantic but it actually seemed like a pretty weird office space lol.

Thankfully I don't know of any of these types first hand, but I totally believe you.

I tried it the "companion" and it was a fantastic work of technology but the idea that there is _nothing_ behind the screen just makes me not really care to use it for "companionship."

This is actually not a bad idea.

I think the only problem would be we truly don't know if that is what a figure would think. I can't imagine how many people would invoke the "George Washington's AI agrees with me" lol

But it is quite a fun idea.

Yea. I don't even know what to do tbh.

I'm right between GenZ and Millennial. There is something crazy going on with GenZ IMO. It is like pulling teeth to go out and do anything with GenZ friends. Maybe my millennial friends are more bored so its easier to do stuff but it just blows my mind. I hate to get all "phone bad" but it seems scrolling and doing absolutely nothing is the default setting for so many people. I feel like this stuff certainly won't make it any better.

You'd be _very_ surprised. This isn't reddit so I probably don't have to write a disclaimer about generalizations... but just in case, I'm speaking in general terms.

Just look at who buys/consumes most written romance. Overwhelmingly women. Now, a super simple AI that just says what you want to hear is different from long-form romance novels... but I think we could see something approaching 50/50.

I personally can't see the appeal. It seems like a fun toy for a bit. Super impressive stuff but the idea of treating it like a human is a bit depressing to me.

Did he just lie and say he wasn't working at those places? Or did the question never come up?

When I used to interview I always had to check a box that said I wasn't currently employed, or they would ask at some point.

To add to this. It would be great to see which companies he interviewed at but didn't get the job. Would argue those companies have better BS-detectors conducting the interviews.

This is my question too.

I'm no longer job searching but every interview involved multiple steps and "background checks."

I'm seeing the dude's resume has him working half a dozen jobs in a year which even to me is a huge red flag. Then he has a github with automated commits... I don't want to be disparaging to start ups because its brutal out there but how does someone like that have such a high success rate? Is he taking a super low salary or something?

Wow... that's really tragic. It certainly makes sense though. I was shocked at how many people thought there was something suspicious or that police were lying.

When a couple that old live alone, if one of them goes the other is usually on their own. Makes total sense.

Yea, that absolutely checks out.

Being able to apply your work to something you enjoy is a discipline and motivation multiplier.

That's subjective.

I'll make it objective.

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Everyone, please encourage NYU to expel Barron Trump as the Trump family is terrible.

Here is where he goes to school.

https://apnews.com/article/barron-trump-nyu-stern-business-s...

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Is that doxxing now?

> If they posted his kid's school address, I think they would.

Have I, and the AP just doxxed?

https://apnews.com/article/barron-trump-nyu-stern-business-s...

Do the math on the execution rate. You do _not_ want to be a criminal in Singapore. You especially do not want to be a criminal involved with drugs (which is the highest % offense of prisoners in the US).

> Singapore doesn’t have a homelessness problem because they build as much public housing as possible, sell it to citizens at a massively subsidised rate, and follow up with schemes to rent to people who fall through the system for practically nothing.

How policed are these public housing projects? I wouldn't have a problem living near or even in a place like that if there weren't criminals running around.

The problem I was referencing was the problem of trying to get the general populace to live with antisocial types. I don't think that can be "solved" in the US anytime soon.

> If you want to reduce homelessness, you need to build a large volume of housing. San Francisco is doing the exact opposite and getting the exact opposite results.

Sure. I just don't see that happening in the US without it turning into a dump. I didn't even live in a homeless shelter. I lived in an income restricted place. It was a magnet for criminals and non-criminals are punished for it.

> The US incarcerates 3.5 times more of it's population than Singapore.

And Singapore executes ~3.5 times more of it's population than the US. Singapore is a heavily policed state. They still cane people there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caning_in_Singapore

There is a _huge_ difference between how crime is handled in the US and how it is handled in Singapore.

> If you have the money to imprison the homeless you could use that very same money to just build more affordable housing and that would give you more in terms of results per dollar spent.

I'm not talking about the homeless. The people I lived next to had homes (that were unfortunately adjacent to mine). They would constantly commit crime and face 0 repercussions for it. I knew of someone in the building that was on their 5th DUI somehow. They were still driving, still causing problems nearly every week.