Joe @twitskeptic@qoto.org
Unprofessional data wrangler and Mastodon’s official fact checker. Older and crankier than you are.
Joined Nov 2022
Joe
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What if, instead of destroying humanity or becoming our god-emperor, all a self aware AI wanted to do was open up a nice cafe and catering outfit?
Joe
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The Rule of Law is violated when the law is applied to everyone
Joe
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What you need to know about the crackpot at the center of the new AI panic cycle
https://twitter.com/xriskology/status/1642155518570512384?s=61&t=Ugdi4XBKf_2ovJ1y9hKs4w
Joe
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@paul Meanwhile, Elon's cash grab API model is going to lead to people dying from severe weather.
Joe
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Connecting AIs / LLMs to the Internet feels like a discontinuity we should be particularly mindful of. The damage caused by an AI gone rogue could be large. Not because of AGI, I don't buy that. Just a program being smart enough to take serious action very fast, and dumb enough to have no idea of the consequences.
In 1975, scientists declared a moratorium on recombinant DNA research, so there could be an open conversation about safety.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asilomar_Conference_on_Recombinant_DNA
Might be time for that in AI.
Joe
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Joe
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This should be headline news:
The main opposition leader in the world's biggest democracy has been sentenced to years in prison for criticizing the authoritarian dear leader
Joe
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A Utah parent says the Bible contains porn and should be removed from school libraries. Here’s their full challenge. The parent writes that the book should be considered indecent under Utah’s new book banning law, after seeing the other titles that have been pulled.
“Incest, onanism, bestiality, prostitution, genital mutilation, fellatio, dildos, rape, and even infanticide,” the parent wrote in their request, listing topics they found concerning in the religious text. “You’ll no doubt find that the Bible, under Utah Code Ann. § 76-10-1227, has ‘no serious values for minors’ because it’s pornographic by our new definition.” https://www.sltrib.com/news/education/2023/03/22/utah-parent-says-bible-contains/
Joe
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Yesterday I had a number of conversations with people working in the scholarly publishing sphere about what happens when AI chatbots pollute our information environment and then start feeding on this pollution.
As it so often, the case, we didn’t have to wait long to get some hint of the kind of mess we could be looking at.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/3/22/23651564/google-microsoft-bard-bing-chatbots-misinformation
Even GPT-4 thinks that Thomas Friedman's NYTimes opinion piece is kind of ridiculous.
"The article is a mix of measured analysis and some hype. It rightly highlights the potential transformative impact of AI technologies like ChatGPT, the benefits they can bring, and the need for collaborative efforts to govern and regulate them. However, the excitement and awe expressed in the piece can be perceived as somewhat hyped, particularly when it comes to the comparison with nuclear energy and the characterization of the current era as a "Promethean moment."
While AI technologies are indeed impressive and transformative, it is essential to remain cautious and critical when discussing their capabilities and potential consequences. A more measured approach would involve acknowledging both the potential benefits and the limitations of AI technologies, as well as the challenges that come with governing and regulating them."
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/21/opinion/artificial-intelligence-chatgpt.html
Deploying LLMs in medical applications is a really irresponsible move by Microsoft. https://newsie.social/@STAT/110062564971170267
Joe
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‘We’re getting much more aggressive’: Microsoft’s Nuance adds GPT-4 AI to its medical note-taking tool https://www.statnews.com/2023/03/20/microsoft-nuance-gpt4-dax-chatgpt/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=mastodon&utm_campaign=mastodon_organic
Gentle introduction to LLM prompt engineering without all of the confusing formalism that many of papers resort to. https://lilianweng.github.io/posts/2023-03-15-prompt-engineering/
Just noticed that the NYTimes quietly decided to drop covid stats from the front page about a week ago. Flushed down the memory hole. #COVID
Joe
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Truly shocking number of iOS users still don’t know they can edit sent text messages now.
This is the oldest story in the tech world - bad actors privatizing open, cooperative development of new tech for private gain. See Steve Jobs and the Apple origin story. Or Marc Andreesen and web browsers. https://www.theverge.com/2023/3/15/23640180/openai-gpt-4-launch-closed-research-ilya-sutskever-interview
While wandering through Y Combinator's list of top companies I stumbled on this very creepy company that claims it will "eliminate crime" with license plate readers everywhere. Good antidote for any tears you may have shed for those poor stressed out SV VCs. https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/flock-safety
Unprofessional data wrangler and Mastodon’s official fact checker. Older and crankier than you are.
Joined Nov 2022
