DynamoSunshirt's recent activity

  1. Comment on The assistant axis: situating and stabilizing the character of large language models in ~tech

    DynamoSunshirt
    Link Parent
    Well said. It's a thorny subject but I very much like the argument that we should discuss and dissect content like this instead of just ignoring it. I'm glad Tildes is a place where we can talk...

    Well said. It's a thorny subject but I very much like the argument that we should discuss and dissect content like this instead of just ignoring it. I'm glad Tildes is a place where we can talk about this sort of thing respectfully.

    3 votes
  2. Comment on The assistant axis: situating and stabilizing the character of large language models in ~tech

    DynamoSunshirt
    Link Parent
    I did read this article, and honestly it is better than Anthropic's average blog output. But I am mostly commenting on the throughline of Anthropic's blog posts in general, not just this post. It...

    I did read this article, and honestly it is better than Anthropic's average blog output.

    But I am mostly commenting on the throughline of Anthropic's blog posts in general, not just this post. It seems like the community is pretty split on the utility of these posts, though. IMO if we don't have consensus that we want to ostracize Anthropic content, it's better to keep it. But those of you who enjoy Anthropic's content should keep in mind that a lot of smart folks on Tildes think you should consume it with a massive grain of salt!

    2 votes
  3. Comment on What are your favorite home remedies or comforts when you're sick? in ~health

    DynamoSunshirt
    Link
    Not mine, but a friend of a friend keeps a bottle of Jaegermaester in his fridge. Whenever he has a sore throat, he pours himself a little sip of it throughout the day. Alcoholism or brilliant?...

    Not mine, but a friend of a friend keeps a bottle of Jaegermaester in his fridge. Whenever he has a sore throat, he pours himself a little sip of it throughout the day.

    Alcoholism or brilliant? Maybe both?

    5 votes
  4. Comment on Does anyone else find CBS News particularly stressful? in ~tv

    DynamoSunshirt
    Link Parent
    Good to know that I should expect no better from CBS than I expect from Fox these days. I wonder if that purchase explains why more of my previously liberal-leaning CBS-watching relatives have...

    Good to know that I should expect no better from CBS than I expect from Fox these days. I wonder if that purchase explains why more of my previously liberal-leaning CBS-watching relatives have veered far right in the last few years? I previously assumed it was just a part of getting old (I know how ageist that sounds, but surely as dementia and brain cobwebs creep in you become an easier target for brainwashing?), but now I wonder if it's something more insidious.

    7 votes
  5. Comment on The assistant axis: situating and stabilizing the character of large language models in ~tech

    DynamoSunshirt
    Link
    Anthropic's blog posts are basically LLM propaganda at this point. They use FOMO, FUD, and dubious claims to boost their brand. While I'm no fan of censorship, I do wonder if there's truly enough...
    • Exemplary

    Anthropic's blog posts are basically LLM propaganda at this point. They use FOMO, FUD, and dubious claims to boost their brand. While I'm no fan of censorship, I do wonder if there's truly enough signal in the noise of these blog posts that they're worth posting here. Previous Anthropic blog posts have created some of the most inflammatory discussion I've seen on tildes (by design, I would say). Maybe we shouldn't allow blog posts from a known bad actor like Anthropic?

    I feel like I've given them a year+ of good faith, but all they do is post more "research" that always proves how amazing their LLMs are. There is no critical discussion, and the posts don't provide enough information to have a truly critical discussion even on tildes.

    26 votes
  6. Comment on Cory Doctorow | AI companies will fail. We can salvage something from the wreckage. in ~tech

    DynamoSunshirt
    Link Parent
    A tricky sales pitch, though. Right now, most LLM shills are acting like LLMs can replace human labor. But who will be willing to pay the bills for LLMs that merely supplement human labor? Instead...

    A tricky sales pitch, though. Right now, most LLM shills are acting like LLMs can replace human labor. But who will be willing to pay the bills for LLMs that merely supplement human labor? Instead of cutting salary costs, you'd actually add subscription costs on top of your existing salaries. There's grey area here for doing more work with a similar number of employees, but the calculation is a lot more complicated than "one CEO running a company of bots" like the current industry pitch.

    8 votes
  7. Comment on Why America needs fewer bus stops in ~transport

    DynamoSunshirt
    Link Parent
    Lazy for sure, but it's easy to justify that laziness when so much infrastructure is built without any affordances for pedestrians, or unusable affordances, like sidewalks that get blocked by...

    Lazy for sure, but it's easy to justify that laziness when so much infrastructure is built without any affordances for pedestrians, or unusable affordances, like sidewalks that get blocked by roads signs, brush, and that don't get cleared in the winter. Most housing in the USA is literally not walkable to a bus stop, even if the distance isn't that far!

    18 votes
  8. Comment on Curl will end its bug bounty program by the end of January due to excessive AI generated reports in ~comp

    DynamoSunshirt
    Link Parent
    Excellent point, IP law is toxic as hell and one of the worst possible outcomes of LLMs is strengthened IP law!

    Excellent point, IP law is toxic as hell and one of the worst possible outcomes of LLMs is strengthened IP law!

    2 votes
  9. Comment on Curl will end its bug bounty program by the end of January due to excessive AI generated reports in ~comp

    DynamoSunshirt
    Link Parent
    LLM garbage PRs take a surprisingly long time to review. You have to start in good faith, because you never know if they used LLMs for all of it. Could just be an ESL person using LLMs to help...

    LLM garbage PRs take a surprisingly long time to review. You have to start in good faith, because you never know if they used LLMs for all of it. Could just be an ESL person using LLMs to help write English, after all. And security claim validation could take hours to setup, try to replicate, and declare failure.

    11 votes
  10. Comment on Curl will end its bug bounty program by the end of January due to excessive AI generated reports in ~comp

    DynamoSunshirt
    Link Parent
    I don't actually care about IP law, I have violated it plenty in my life. I just mean it's a dick move to train a model on writing and art from independent creators without compensation.

    I don't actually care about IP law, I have violated it plenty in my life. I just mean it's a dick move to train a model on writing and art from independent creators without compensation.

    2 votes
  11. Comment on Curl will end its bug bounty program by the end of January due to excessive AI generated reports in ~comp

    DynamoSunshirt
    Link Parent
    A moral LLM code of conduct increasingly boils down to "just don't," unfortunately. If you weigh in the idea that it's all fed on stolen IP, it always was! Costs are beginning to increase, rate...

    A moral LLM code of conduct increasingly boils down to "just don't," unfortunately. If you weigh in the idea that it's all fed on stolen IP, it always was! Costs are beginning to increase, rate limiting is becoming a big issue, and advertising is coming to most chatbots and APIs this year. Trying to find a reasonable way to incorporate these shifting sands into any real workflows is becoming increasingly problematic.

    11 votes
  12. Comment on Curl will end its bug bounty program by the end of January due to excessive AI generated reports in ~comp

    DynamoSunshirt
    Link Parent
    One potential silver lining: could slop kill the undead corporate social networks? Could it create an opportunity for nonprofit community projects like Mastodon, who have no profit motive and thus...

    One potential silver lining: could slop kill the undead corporate social networks? Could it create an opportunity for nonprofit community projects like Mastodon, who have no profit motive and thus no reason to enable slop? Maybe I'm being too optimistic -- I suspect a lot of social media users will continue to browse Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok looong after the human content evaporates. I don't really consider most influencers "human content" (more "marketing lite"), and that utterly dominates the socials today, but it hasn't driven people away yet.

    8 votes
  13. Comment on Recommendations needed: Favorite “comfort” movies in ~movies

    DynamoSunshirt
    Link Parent
    This is still the best Hobbit adaptation ever made! I listen to the soundtrack regularly. Peter Jackson's version would have been so so much better if they'd cribbed "Roads go ever one" from this...

    This is still the best Hobbit adaptation ever made! I listen to the soundtrack regularly. Peter Jackson's version would have been so so much better if they'd cribbed "Roads go ever one" from this movie.

    2 votes
  14. Comment on Recommendations needed: Favorite “comfort” movies in ~movies

    DynamoSunshirt
    Link Parent
    My understanding of this movie totally evolved when I rewatched it as an adult and discovered that Tony Shaloub's character is hella stoned for the entire movie. I really wish we could someday get...

    My understanding of this movie totally evolved when I rewatched it as an adult and discovered that Tony Shaloub's character is hella stoned for the entire movie.

    I really wish we could someday get a "director's cut" including all of the scenes that they cut to get the movie down to a PG rating.

    2 votes
  15. Comment on Recommendations needed: Favorite “comfort” movies in ~movies

    DynamoSunshirt
    Link Parent
    While I love Muppet Treasure Island, don't sleep on Treasure Planet. My very favorite adaptation of that story.

    While I love Muppet Treasure Island, don't sleep on Treasure Planet. My very favorite adaptation of that story.

    2 votes
  16. Comment on Recommendations needed: Favorite “comfort” movies in ~movies

    DynamoSunshirt
    Link Parent
    Ghibli films are perfect comfort films! Howl's is my personal favorite, but Nausicaa is also excellent (and Totoro, and Spirited Away, &c &c).

    Ghibli films are perfect comfort films! Howl's is my personal favorite, but Nausicaa is also excellent (and Totoro, and Spirited Away, &c &c).

    1 vote
  17. Comment on US President Donald Trump isn't building a ballroom in ~society

    DynamoSunshirt
    Link Parent
    Agreed, though I'm not sure we can assume that Donald has a lick of sense, which means he's capable of even the most harebrained schemes. Of course, "Donald is a fucking idiot" isn't the most...

    Agreed, though I'm not sure we can assume that Donald has a lick of sense, which means he's capable of even the most harebrained schemes.

    Of course, "Donald is a fucking idiot" isn't the most compelling justification for a conspiracy. You could also use the same logic to explain him starting a war in South America, or annexing a peaceful and quiet foreign country, or renaming longstanding bodies of water for completely random reasons.

    But there is one great reason that they can't put a datacenter in Cheyenne Mountain Complex: the Stargate already consumes a lot of energy and would put the data at risk of extraterrestrial exfiltration.

    21 votes
  18. Comment on What's a culture shock that you experienced? in ~talk

    DynamoSunshirt
    Link Parent
    You might be surprised at how expensive a cat sitter can be in the USA. You might have only earned market rate! I think money don't have to be transactional, though. When I patronize local...

    You might be surprised at how expensive a cat sitter can be in the USA. You might have only earned market rate!

    I think money don't have to be transactional, though. When I patronize local businesses that I love, I sometimes give outrageous tips -- I've hit 100% or more a few times, especially around the holidays, at businesses that routinely give me free beers and where the owners make good chat. It's just my way of saying thank you since I have a decent paying job.

    15 votes
  19. Comment on US withdraws from sixty-six international organisations in ~society

    DynamoSunshirt
    Link Parent
    Curious what would happen if Trump disagreed with Congress and, as Commander-in-Chief, ordered the military to take action. The military is awfully right-leaning, and Trump has immunity for...

    Curious what would happen if Trump disagreed with Congress and, as Commander-in-Chief, ordered the military to take action. The military is awfully right-leaning, and Trump has immunity for literally anything he does using his Presidential role, however illegal. I strongly suspect that if Trump ordered the military to do even something totally awful, at least half would follow him into the dark.

    4 votes
  20. Comment on Calvin Jones' retirement announcement in ~transport

    DynamoSunshirt
    Link Parent
    Love me some Calvin. I'm also (loosely) in the education space and his friendliness, consistency, and attention to detail are absolutely inspiring in my work.

    Love me some Calvin. I'm also (loosely) in the education space and his friendliness, consistency, and attention to detail are absolutely inspiring in my work.