arc

@arc@lemm.ee

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Duolingo CEO tries to walk back AI-first comments, fails⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  What I’d wonder is why it’s such massive expensive for Duolingo to hire 2 or 3 people to cover a language anyway. Presumably most of the work is contractual - hire somebody competent to produce a course, get somebody to say the lines, refine the course based on feed back and that’s mostly it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Black Mirror AI⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve suggested things like this before. Scrapers grab data to train their models. So feed them poison.

  Things like counter factual information, distorted images / audio, mislabeled images, outright falsehoods, false quotations, booby traps (that you can test for after the fact), fake names, fake data, non sequiturs, slanderous statements about people and brands etc… And choose esoteric subjects to amplify the damage caused to the AI.

  You could even have one AI generate the garbage that another ingests and shit out some new links every night until there is an entire corpus of trash for any scraper willing to take it all in.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Common British L⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Stole it? I think adopted is more apt. And loved it so much that there is an Indian (or Pakistani) restaurant practically everywhere. And while Indian / Pakistani chefs have invented new dishes (e.g. chicken chasni is the best goddamned curry ever), I wouldn’t call it cultural appropriation.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Common British L⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  British people love curries and other spicy things. For most people curries, biriyanis are going to be in the rotation. Even “traditional” British food will usually have things like black pepper, nutmeg, mace, ginger, cumin, cloves, mustard, bay leaves, juniper berries in it. More recently cumin, paprika, tumeric, coriander, curry powder might be thrown into dishes.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I use Zip Bombs to Protect my Server⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Probably only works for dumb bots and I’m guessing the big ones are resilient to this sort of thing.

  Judging from recent stories the big threat is bots scraping for AIs and I wonder if there is a way to poison content so any AI ingesting it becomes dumber. e.g. text which is nonsensical or filled with counter information, trap phrases that reveal any AIs that ingested it, garbage pictures that purport to show something they don’t etc.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Fairphone 5 price has been dropped to €499. The phone is designed to be the most advanced environmentally friendly smartphone.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Fairphone don’t sell replacement mainboards, presumably to stop people building phones from parts but they look very serviceable in other respects.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Ubisoft says you "cannot complain" it shut down The Crew because you never actually owned it, and you weren't "deceived" by the lack of an offline version⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  When you “buy” software, you’re buying a license that grants you permission to use it subject to the terms & conditions. The stealing as the law would see it is from using software without purchasing a license or using it in violation of the license.

  It even extends to digital content people “buy” on Steam, or Google Play, or Amazon including books, music, and videos. You didn’t buy that content, even if you think you did. You bought a license to it which is why occasionally Amazon or whoever will just scrub the content from your account without your consent. That’s also why in some countries you pay VAT on e-books even though you don’t pay VAT on real books - because you actually bought a software license which is liable to VAT.

  So the best advice is don’t buy digital media from online services. For games and software it is unavoidable but recognize you don’t legally own squat although most console games can still be sold second hand. But even that is being eroded. Nintendo apparently are planning to sell “physical” games in stores but you open it up and there is a redemption code inside. Sony and Microsoft have both tried to get away from physical media too.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Ubisoft says you "cannot complain" it shut down The Crew because you never actually owned it, and you weren't "deceived" by the lack of an offline version⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I think there is an implication that if you buy a game which is online by nature (e.g. an MMO) that the servers can and will shut down eventually. My cupboard is filled with defunct MMOs. And people do not “own” any commercial software per se, they run it under licence.

  So I don’t see that Ubisoft has any legal obligation here. But as a good will gesture they really should put the server code in escrow, or open source chunks of it so that games can continue to enjoy life after the company itself has no economic incentive to continue running it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨EU considers tariffs on digital services Big Tech⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Should be two pronged - tariffs on cloud and other services while fostering competitive local alternatives. While it’s possible knock up a cloud out of anything there is nothing in Europe as coherent as the offerings by Amazon, Google or Microsoft. And there should be.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨OpenAI's move to allow generating "Ghibly stlye" images isn't just a cute PR stunt. It is an expression of dominance and the will to reject and refuse democratic values. It is a display of power⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  If you need to use AI, be aware that there are MANY free models and training options.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Multiple Tesla vehicles were set on fire in Las Vegas and Kansas City⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Stick to the showrooms and dealers. The one in Las Vegas was just owners who brought their cars in to be fixed.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Starlink is now accessible across the White House campus, which was already served by fiber cable, after service was “donated”, as some cite security concerns.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I do not believe for a second that communications within the Whitehouse are inadequate, or if they were, could not be solved in a secure manner. Slapping a Starlink in a few places sounds like an invitation to backdoor all communications. Not only that, it is an invitation to sidestep obligations to preserve government records.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Cars will need fewer screens and more buttons to earn a 5-star safety rating in Europe | Euro NCAP will introduce new testing rules in 2026 requiring physical controls for the highest safety score⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Tesla doesn’t have that excuse. The original Roadster, Model S and Model X all had fairly conventional controls. They deliberately undermined the safety of their vehicles by aggressively removing physical controls with the model 3 and Y. It probably saved them a few bucks, but at the cost increased risk to human life. If they get penalized in safety tests for their penny pinching then so be it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Cars will need fewer screens and more buttons to earn a 5-star safety rating in Europe | Euro NCAP will introduce new testing rules in 2026 requiring physical controls for the highest safety score⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I think Euro NCAP ratings would have more teeth if it was mandatory for manufacturers of standard passenger vehicles to submit a reference model for testing. Voluntary testing doesn’t work since manufacturers would be averse to submit cars for testing if they thought they’d get a bad score. And while Euro NCAP does sometimes buy cars for testing, they don’t do it for every make and model.

  And if the cheapest dogshit cars on the road (Kia Picantos, Dacia Sandero’s etc) can have buttons, dials, wipers and indicators then so should everything above it. Companies like Tesla remove controls to cheap out on having to make a part, but they attempt to pass this off as innovation when it puts people’s lives at risk.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Bluesky now has 30 million users.⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Maybe it will, but for the time being it hasn’t. The experience is so vastly better than Twitter, that it’s a no brainer to jump over.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Bluesky now has 30 million users.⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Bluesky is like Twitter but with about 1/10th the idiots, and no mechanism that the idiots can elevate their racist, moronic hot takes above other comments.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Tesla pulls out all the stops as Cybertruck sales grind to a halt⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I certainly find it funny that Tesla’s waiting list went from five years down to zero. Even Tesla’s biggest fans who actually stumped money on this thing produced video after video griping about its price & brokenness.

  But frankly it was kind of obvious from the get-go that it would be an expensive, uninsurable, lemony asshole death mobile. I wonder if the next time Tesla announces something and Musk spews lie after lie about it that people will start to cotton on that nothing he says can be taken at face value.