ABrockwell @aebrockwell@qoto.org

It's a pity that the term AI got associated with LLMs and chatbots. We need a new term for what the Sci-Fi writers of the past, like Asimov or Bradbury, meant. A machine that can understand context, reason about things, learn from little data, and even have an identity and consistent opinions.

#ai #llm #scifi

Insurrectionist Samuel Alito vows to remake America into a Christian theocracy using his powers as a Supreme Court justice, and says no "compromise" is possible with people who don't want to live in a Christian theocracy. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/samuel-alito-supreme-court-justice-recording-tape-battle-1235036470/

In a misguided effort to be "unbiased," most news media have stopped calling Trump's Big Lie about the 2020 election what it is. Instead they're using terms like "false statements" or "claims without evidence."

Memo to the media: Calling out lies isn't "biased." It's your job.

The New York Times behaved incredibly irresponsibly by not only publishing a piece by a known conspiracy theorist and grifter about the "lab leak" hypothesis, but also doing it on the same day as the Fauci hearings. Not to mention giving it the famed NY Times infographic treatment to make a lot of BS *look* scientific. Here is a good rebuttal:

https://www.respectfulinsolence.com/2024/06/08/the-new-york-times-goes-all-in-on-lab-leak/

The very fact we have to say “vote against fascism” is a damning indictment of the failure of our democratic institutions and the rule of law. You shouldn’t be able to vote FOR fascism. Democracies that lack constitutional safeguards against fascism will, eventually, stop being democracies. When? At the last election. The one that elected the fascists. Democracy cannot tolerate fascism. Tolerance cannot tolerate intolerance. I’m afraid this is a lesson we will learn the hard way. Again.

87-year-old writes to Financial Times. This is a real technological problem also for people with disabilities. Including me. Banking systems (and others) may make people's life miserable. And you know what? In case of an issue, I couldn't even make a phone call (when mandatory).

Receiving lavish gifts from donors and openly supporting insurrectionists aren't typically behaviors we expect of Supreme Court justices. Yet here we are. With no indication the Court intends to actually police itself, it's long past time for reform. Your move, Congress. https://thinkbigpicture.substack.com/p/supreme-court-recusal-reform-alito

The fact that I know more about Fani Willis’ and Nathan Wade’s relationship than I do about the crimes committed by Ginni Thomas and Clarence Thomas shows exactly what is terribly wrong with today’s political mainstream media.

The thing about LLMs/AI that confuses me so much is how is it that these multi-trillion dollar tech companies can't come up with like a single good use case for their AIs.

If my friend came up to me and pitched me on something like Microsoft Recall or LinkedIn AI search bar, I'd ask if they were dropped on their head as a child.

Via Kyle Griffin:

Reps. Jamie #Raskin and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are hosting a roundtable next week on the ethics crisis at the #SCOTUS.

The roundtable will feature panelists — including Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse — to examine how "Justices beholden to right-wing dark money networks and unencumbered by any binding code of ethics are imposing an extremist agenda that undermines American democracy, deprives Americans of basic civil rights, and guts environmental protections."

Jess Piper looks at the Republicans who voted against protecting access to contraception and writes,

"Do you know why I incessantly speak on red state policies? Because they are bleeding into every state in the union. Republican Senators from sparsely populated states are able to hold up our right to contraception. Republican Senators, who are in the minority, can ruin our lives and they do it with ease."

#RedStates #Republicans #contraception #BirthControl

https://jesspiper.substack.com/p/stranded-in-arkansas

Oh, that? That’s just me writing the Windows section of the Kitten installation instructions on Kitten’s¹ upcoming web site.

¹ https://codeberg.org/kitten/app

#Microsoft #Windows #Recall #BigTech #Kitten #SmallWeb #SmallTech #privacy #security #tech #web #dev

While Auto-Correct has long been a staple feature in computing, its counterpart "Auto-Incorrect" or "AI" had remained elusive, until now.

Previously limited to small unreliability prototypes, recent advances in Large Lying Models have enabled deployment of Auto-Incorrect at scale, and technology firms the world over are racing to become market leaders in this exciting new space!

If Fani Willis had a conflict of interest because a man might have paid for a meal, imagine how serious it would be if Supreme Court justices heard cases related to an election their wives had tried to overturn.

I need someone to explain to me why Al Franken had to resign, but Matt Gaetz is still in Congress.

Explain it to me like I’m in kindergarten.

"Trump’s got a criminal record now. Think of it as a Lifetime Achievement Award for having committed so many crimes without previously being indicted. He’s a convicted felon. The Republicans, the alleged 'Law & Order' party, are running a convicted felon for president."

~ Greg Olear

#Trump #felon #criminal #ConvictedFelonDonaldTrump #crime #guilty #LawandOrder #Republicans
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"Better the hard truth, I say, than the comforting fantasy."
— Carl Sagan

@samlitzinger

He's not "clueless."

He has his marching orders: assist the GOP and Trump in any way possible.

Highlighting HunterBiden's legal woes is a way to minimize/ normalize Trump's criminality.

“This investigation of Dr. #Fauci shows that he is an honorable #PublicServant, committed to #PublicHealth & he is not a comic book supervillain. He did not fund research to create the #Covid19 pandemic. He did not lie to #Congress about gain of function research in #Wuhan. And he did not organize a lab leak suppression campaign to cover his tracks. These are outrageous concoctions, fabrications & distortions,” #Democrat Rep #JamieRaskin said.

#HouseRepublicans #ConspiracyTheories #extremism

"Just asking questions" isn't friendly (no matter how civil or polite you are) if the contextual implication is "you must supply an argument sufficiently rigorous to convince me."

That's a demand. It's an assertion that the person "just asking questions" has a greater relevance. It's a behavior of dominance, not of "intellectual rigor" or whatever.