Curious_Canid

@Curious_Canid@piefed.ca

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Turns out Generative AI was a scam⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I write software for a living and I have worked directly with LLM backend code. You aren’t wrong about the exceptions, but I think they actually reinforce my main point. If you play with the parameters you can make all kinds of things happen, but all of those things are still driven by the existing information it already has or can find. It can mash things together in random new ways, but it will always work with components that already exist. There is no awareness of context or meaning that would allow it to make intelligent choices about what it mashes together. That will always be driven by the patterns it already knows, positively or negatively.

  It’s like doing chemistry by picking random bottles from the shelf and dumping them into a beaker to see what happens. You could make an amazing discovery that way, but the chances of it happening are very, very low. And even if it does happen, there’s an excellent chance that you won’t recognize it.

  I’m in favor of using LLMs for tasks that involve large-scale data analysis. They can be quite helpful, as long as the user understands their limitations and performs due diligence to validate the results.

  Unfortunately what we are mostly seeing are cases where LLMs are used to generate boilerplate text or code that is assembled from a vast collection of material that someone who actually knew what they were doing had previously created. That kind of reuse is not inherently bad, but it should not be confused with what competent writers or coders do. And if LLMs really do take over a lot of routine daily tasks from people, the pool of approaches to those tasks will stagnate, and eventually degenerate, as LLMs become the primary sources of each others’ solutions.

  LLMs may very well change the world, but not it in the ways most people expect. Companies that have invested heavily in them are pushing them as the solutions to the wrong problems.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Turns out Generative AI was a scam⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  LLMs are not capable of creating anything, including code. They are enormous word-matching search engines that try to find and piece together the closest existing examples of what is being requested. If what you’re looking for is reasonably common, that may be useful. If what you’re looking for is obscure, you may get things that don’t apply. And the LLM cannot tell the difference. They can be useful but, unlike an LLM, you need to understand the context to use them safely.

  I think the most interesting thing about LLMs is actually what they tell us about the repetitive nature of most of what we do.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I don't actually read the news. I surmise the news based on memes that begin popping up for which I have no context.⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  That approach makes up a large part of the world in which we now live. It is also one reason why things are as messed up as they are. On the other hand, whether or not to read the news has become a major mental health issue, so I’m not going to blame anyone who avoids it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I went back to Linux and it was a mistake⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Whether or not this particular person should know better, migrating to Linux is unlikely to be a seamless transition for most people in the real world. I think the article emphasized the problem and understated the benefits. Let’s just not pretend there aren’t compromises to be made, even if they are reasonable ones.

  I have to use a Windows machine for work. I use both Windows and Linux for personal use. And I still miss OS/2. :-)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YSK About Resilience Targeting⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m seeing a lot of articles about how to defend yourself against being overwhelmed by the awful things going on. This is one of the most useful. It is short, informative, and has good suggestions.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘In the end, you feel blank’: India’s female workers watching hours of abusive content to train AI⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t think that is a characteristic of our species. It is not universally true across other cultures.
  And studies strongly suggest that the characteristic that was most important to the early survival of humans was altruism. There are always a lot more people who are basically good than basically bad. Only around 4% of the population are sociopathic.

  Unfortunately, promoting sociopaths is a built-in characteristic of capitalism. Without controls, it rewards managers who are willing to sacrifice other people for profit (or power). The people who do that the best are those without empathy. So we end up with the worst of us making the decisions about how the world should work.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why I Don’t Believe in a Lost Advanced Civilization...Yet⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m not sure why either. He didn’t even say those things can’t exist. He just said there is no clear evidence for them yet, which is true enough.

  I find Hancock entertaining, and he may even be right, but don’t find any of his evidence sufficient to support the claims he is making. That could always change, in either direction. It is fun watching new evidence emerge.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨if ai had a face, it would be punchable⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Sam Altman is the face of AI, and it is certainly punchable.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YSK the four rules of firearm safety⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  We were fortunate to have a producer/director who felt strongly about safety and was willing to spend the extra time necessary. A lot of the time, especially for productions that are running on a shoestring, everyone is pushed very hard to reduce the time and cost to an absolute minimum. The low pay selects for inexperienced armorers and the time constraints means that the armorer is constantly being pressured not to “waste” any time. An armorer who is believed to have “slowed down” a production may be fired and will have trouble finding more work. That is what happens everywhere when money is more important than people.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Nova Launcher gets a new owner and... ads⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  You’re right, but a lot of apps work the same way, and only serve ads to unpaid users. I’m hoping for the best.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YSK the four rules of firearm safety⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Some years ago I acted as crew on an ultra-low budget film. We didn’t have the budget for simulated firearms so we had to use real ones. Everyone involved in the project agreed that extreme care was warranted. We made certain that there was no live ammunition anywhere near the set. Firearms were locked up unless they were being held by a trained crew member or an actor. The actors were all taught the basics of how their firearms operated and how to check the chambers. The prop handlers and actors checked every firearm every time it changed hands, even when they had just watched the person who handed it to them check the chamber.

  With all of that in place, we still insisted on following the other rules as well. Trigger discipline was maintained at all times, including while filming scenes. Camera angles were adjusted so that firearms never had to pointed at anyone or anything that we were not willing to damage. Actors were careful to keep their firearms pointed in the safe directions that had been arranged, even when simulating their use.

  It was a fair amount of trouble and it added time to a very tight operation, but there were absolutely no incidents, or near incidents, or concerns that there might be an incident. That is how everyone who handles firearms should treat them in real life. It takes a little time and attention, but it isn’t difficult. And following even one of the safety rules makes it impossible for anyone to be hurt accidentally.

  Learning and following the safety rules is a cheap investment for the benefit of not accidentally killing someone.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Nova Launcher gets a new owner and... ads⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  If they stick with ads only for unpaid use, I’m okay with that. Software authors need to make a living.

  Overall, I’m happy to see Nova Launcher getting support again. I’ve tried a half-dozen other launchers without finding one that really does everything I want.