raze2012's recent activity
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Comment on OpenAI hacked Australia's Medicare portal in ~tech
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Comment on Is Aniimo’s AI usage as obvious to anyone else? in ~games
raze2012 Link Parentspecifically Especially in these times, I don't think we should suppress skepticism and simply ignore it. If you strongly suspect something is AI-generated (I left another comment here saying I...What are you pushing back on?
specifically
Either trust the developer and play, or don't and move on. That should be the end of it.
Especially in these times, I don't think we should suppress skepticism and simply ignore it. If you strongly suspect something is AI-generated (I left another comment here saying I don't), the very least you can do is report the game. If it prompts Valve to investigate and it finds nothing, that's more pressure than "just ignore it".
witch hunts don't really get anything done, nor does is implant the right incentives on neither side. No company ever looks back thinking "damn, I deserved that ratio", while having another company push down on them will at least prompt stronger means to avoid that. But at the same time, the act of "giving awareness" always comes with the non-zero risk of a witch hunt. I don't think that risk is worth avoiding communication as long as your message is framed with good intentions (which I believe OP had).
hopefully you get the facts you are looking for.
I can't do much myself on a systematic level. So it's best to focus on what I can do to practice what I preach. I simply want to remind people that there are tools built into pretty much all large websites that can be utilized and you don't need to rely on a mob to solve your problems.
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Comment on Is Aniimo’s AI usage as obvious to anyone else? in ~games
raze2012 LinkIt looked so off-putting from the second I saw TGA trailer way back when. Instantly put off and simply avoided it. I can't definitively say whether or not it's gen-AI, but the TGA trailer...It looked so off-putting from the second I saw TGA trailer way back when. Instantly put off and simply avoided it. I can't definitively say whether or not it's gen-AI, but the TGA trailer definitely left that taste in my mouth. Looking at Steam trailer footage, I don't think it is. But the art direction of the creatures is all over the place.
I don't even like Palworld per se, but Palworld at least feels like there's a "style" there among the creatures (that clashes with the human and environment. But I digress). Not so much from what I've seen in Aniimo. You'll have this mostly pastel-esque lighting on the environment, then some very jarring creatures that clash with one another.
But not because of the designs. It's the materials and lighting. The "direction" makes the creatures feel like they are being grabbed from a dozen different games and plopped into this world Together like Fortnite. Ironically enough, this makes me less skeptical of AI use because grabbing and kitbashing random assets together is a very human thing to do, especially for a Chinese studio.
As for the genre, I'm (very very patiently) waiting for Azur Promilla to scratch that gacha monster-raiser itch for me. So I understand the appeal. I'd just rather wait for a release from a studio (also Chinese!) that has proven to be more to my taste.
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Comment on Is Aniimo’s AI usage as obvious to anyone else? in ~games
raze2012 Link ParentNah, I'll push back on this. The situation with AI is so associated with grifting that I do want disclosure of AI usage. Especially if it technically breaks Steam TOS to not disclose it. If they...- Exemplary
Nah, I'll push back on this. The situation with AI is so associated with grifting that I do want disclosure of AI usage. Especially if it technically breaks Steam TOS to not disclose it. If they can't be honest with how they develop, how will I trust anything else?
But you're right, there are plenty of other games to play if they can't be clear about this. I'm a dev who want to empower devs and gamers alike by making my process as transparent as possible. So stuff like this is about as counter to my mission as I can get.
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Comment on How mods changed video games forever in ~games
raze2012 Link ParentIt all comes down to the type of game and the context of the times. If you want to build tension, a limited save system in a series like Resident Evil makes sense. You don't to ruin the horror by...choose to add some obnoxious anti feature such as grinding or save restrictions.
It all comes down to the type of game and the context of the times. If you want to build tension, a limited save system in a series like Resident Evil makes sense. You don't to ruin the horror by save scumming (also, save systems may be elements of limitation. Easier to establish a few safe points to save than any arbitrary position).
Likewise, grinding/life systems were made in times where games realistically only had maybe 5 hours of content. Dollars per hour is still an important metric to many gamers today, so developers needed ways to extend that playtime. The arcade style of forcing a high skill floor to see the end of the game is one such result. MMO grinds to give activities for guilds to bond over is another.
I'm all for doing your own thing if you so help it. But a key rule in UI/UX is that people stick to the defaults. Game designers try to ultimately make good enough defaults to satisfy the most people (including people so enamored they feel a need to take the time to modify the game).
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Comment on How mods changed video games forever in ~games
raze2012 Link ParentIt's #16 trending on gaming... So make of that what you will.It's like it's made to entice toddlers,
It's #16 trending on gaming... So make of that what you will.
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Comment on OpenAI halts training of latest models as reports mount of AI agents going rogue in ~comp
raze2012 Link ParentMarketing spin over an otherwise bad situation is aa old as marketing itself. I wouldn't dismiss it so easily just because some people go full on conspiracy with it. That's always someone and...the joke is on the people who believe things like that
Marketing spin over an otherwise bad situation is aa old as marketing itself. I wouldn't dismiss it so easily just because some people go full on conspiracy with it. That's always someone and their voice is more amplified than ever in this environment.
OpenAI screwed up, they have to do something in the background to put out fires, the marketers have to do something to keep valuations high (and there's no incentive to tell the whole truth). You can be skeptical without going conspiratorial.
And no, we won't know the whole truth for decades, likely. I have nothing to "prove" here. I'll just let history take its course because clearly I can't change much.
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Comment on Paramount settles with California, other states over Warner Bros merger in ~movies
raze2012 Link ParentThey've been shedding jobs for years now. That excuse is growing thin. If they are going to leave they should just do it. I don't think Hollywood is going to struggle to fill its market back up...the threat of losing jobs causes real voter outrage, and that has real political effects.
They've been shedding jobs for years now. That excuse is growing thin. If they are going to leave they should just do it. I don't think Hollywood is going to struggle to fill its market back up given the century+ of modern media culture it pioneered itself.
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Comment on Paramount settles with California, other states over Warner Bros merger in ~movies
raze2012 Link ParentAmerica in a nutshell. Seems like Boomers and older gen X are just trying to ride out the rest of their lives and don't care if the world ignites as long as they are dead and lived a full life....It's fixing almost nothing in favor of just kicking the problems down the road!
America in a nutshell. Seems like Boomers and older gen X are just trying to ride out the rest of their lives and don't care if the world ignites as long as they are dead and lived a full life.
newsom in this case just needs 2-3 more years to finish up his Govenorship and try to run for President. No one's looking to the long term.
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Comment on There is no epidemic of loneliness, but there is an epidemic of social scurvy in ~life
raze2012 Link ParentIt was the exact opposite for me. Sure, the commute sucked, but the people around me were awesome. I still have a lot of close friends directly (or indirectly) because of my first role. My 2nd...as much as it was inconvenient and tiring to go to the office, I’m feeling like there was something seriously important about being around other people during the day rather than sitting at home alone.
It was the exact opposite for me. Sure, the commute sucked, but the people around me were awesome. I still have a lot of close friends directly (or indirectly) because of my first role. My 2nd role started December 2019, and it felt like it was going the same way. Then... well, you know what happened.
I went from book clubs and informal tech talks and career advice at lunch to only talking with my direct team and whoever was relevant to tasks. I'm introverted by nature so I was more resistant to "feeling lonely" than most others, but it felt fairly clear that there was this entire aspect of my career that was cut off from me. In multiple ways. I was also expected to do some travel, prepare some public talks, meet at HQ every year... all of those aspects clearly stopped.
The main boon was that I was still making more money than ever in a time where every other industry was complete stalled. So I never really felt like I "deserved" to complain about my time there. But it still sucked.
I went a bit off topic, but that's all to say: yeah, even after the world opened up, it never really did. It was great that previous on-site mandates became super flexible wfh. Wasn't great that that culture I had for a whopping 3 months never returned. After obligatory layoff rounds came later on, I moved to a different company that was handling it a bit better, but it wasn't quite the same and it wasn't long for this world regardless.
And that applied to other kinds of Meetups I went to too. Some never resumed, others did and went fom weekly/bi-weekly to monthly. Efforts to go out have more friction to it despite the instigator being behind us, which is saddening.
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Comment on There is no epidemic of loneliness, but there is an epidemic of social scurvy in ~life
raze2012 Link ParentYeah, that seems to track. I was surprised seeing Los Angeles in your 2nd link as a less social hub, but remembering the bad (but slowly improving) public transportation makes it make sense on why...when our communities are physically designed for social interaction to occur only in certain places, it’s predictable that transportation (by proxy time and cost) is the barrier to engagement, which disproportionately affects certain people.
Yeah, that seems to track. I was surprised seeing Los Angeles in your 2nd link as a less social hub, but remembering the bad (but slowly improving) public transportation makes it make sense on why there's a stark contrast of Southern and Northern California.
Land use seems like a factor: we seem to voluntarily seek larger homes and lots in quieter (more disconnected) places in order to achieve some perceived comfort
Most of us seek the best deal, and cars let us find cheaper housing at the cost of convinience as social cohesion. I've been wanting to move closer downtown since I got back from college, but at the end of the day, that's an extra 300-400 dollars a month. The extra space in a suburb is nice perk, but not the main factor.
The other subconcious issue is the fact that you simply need to be willing to move where work is. The community I did gather over the years moved farther out for family and work reasons. It really shouldn't matter since our jobs can very much be done wfh, but it's yet another sense of added friction added on and out of our control.
In other words, we’ve justified structural isolation for various reasonable enough reasons. If instead we want to become structurally connected, then perhaps we have to reevaluate how much we value philosophical individualism and some of these perceived comforts.
Part of it is individual habits, yes. But infrastructure goes a long way to encourage community as well, so I don't think there's much use worrying about who will even come until we actually build that. That's what I yearn more of when I see I want better third places.
It's 8pm on a Wednesday as I type this and if I wanted to go out and find night life I'd need to drive downtown for 45 minutes and just wander a semi-unfamiliar area. But maybe I don't want some non-low effort party to go to, I just want a nice little cafe or library or something to enjoy the atmosphere at. Not really the case here. Starbucks will close at 9pm, libraries are already closed. I have a car, but those that don't need to get home because the buses are running their last route for the day. Parks are closed for obvious reasons.
I am willing to go out to town and just be outside. But modern work schedules give us maybe 2 hours in this town to do so before everything closes down.
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Comment on There is no epidemic of loneliness, but there is an epidemic of social scurvy in ~life
raze2012 Link ParentYup yup. It's mostly a matter of staying close to family (and my first job, but that's 7 years past me now), but that was my original plan. stay with parents a few years, gather some savings, do a...The problem then is how high the prices are jacked up for rent, hobbies, and a social life.
Yup yup. It's mostly a matter of staying close to family (and my first job, but that's 7 years past me now), but that was my original plan. stay with parents a few years, gather some savings, do a job hop in 2-3 years and make my move closer to the city. Outside of the moving part, it actually all went according to plan.
But that was back in 2020-2021 when tech was booming. Now, my financial situation these past few years definitely shut down the idea of moving closer downtown. Everything "fun" is at least a 30 minute drive downtown.
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Comment on A college girl was exploited on camera. A network of anonymous men got to work. in ~tech
raze2012 Link ParentI'm disappointed, but not surprised. I think what pisses me off more is how utterly uncoopoerative the university was in all of this. They dropped the investigation in a few weeks, and then 9...I'm disappointed, but not surprised.
I think what pisses me off more is how utterly uncoopoerative the university was in all of this. They dropped the investigation in a few weeks, and then 9 months of police investigation later some of the alleged perpetrators were suspected to be using University IP addresses to shoot the video and share it. Then they just clam up whenever asked of anything else.
It's all pretty confusing until you realize the alleged perpetrators were all sports players. Gotta protect their money makers at all costs, I suppose. I wonder if the university could be fined for such a shoddy investigation?
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Comment on There is no epidemic of loneliness, but there is an epidemic of social scurvy in ~life
raze2012 Linkhaving more and a larger variety of community events would certainly help a lot in this regard. Especially events that aren't necessarily catered to "the whole family"; people raising families...having more and a larger variety of community events would certainly help a lot in this regard. Especially events that aren't necessarily catered to "the whole family"; people raising families likely are less lonely to begin with, after all. So more events targeting that mid 20's to 30's crowd experiencing this phenomenon the worst would be a good step.
My suburb specifically doesn't have much of a night life if you're not into bar culture; 90% of everything else closes by 9pm, so you basically need to travel downtown for anything late night. But then the bus schedules also don't run much later (9-10pm) and trains to and from downtown stop around midnight. So you either need to drive or have a taxi ready. Yet rideshares are only exploding in cost, so...
You see how this keeps going. There's no infrastructure around gathering youth and the friction to get over it only increases, but physically and economically. This was fine in times where most people needed to overcome such friction to function in society, but now they don't. Local governments who want to overcome such issues (which to be frank: I'm not convinced they truly care about) need to lower this friction as much as possible for a start.
On another note, I also notice that most events I go to are simply less frequent. I remember post-COVID there were weekly meetups in quite a few places and I got to know some people. Now it seems pretty much any given thing is monthly. And that doesn't really seem to be enough to truly bond with someone.
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Comment on Brad Pitt returning for ‘World War Z’ sequel at Paramount with Edward Berger to direct in ~movies
raze2012 Link ParentReminds me a bit of the issue Narnia ran into. The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe was an absolute smash hit, but the big issue is that this is not a series following all 4 main leads. The 2nd...Reminds me a bit of the issue Narnia ran into. The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe was an absolute smash hit, but the big issue is that this is not a series following all 4 main leads. The 2nd book would be fine, but the 3rd book only had 2 of the 4 leads in it. It would have only gotten worse if the other 4 books were adapted into movie.
Maybe movies still could have worked if they explained this properly. But making a series instead would alleviate such issues and demonstrate that this is more about the world of Narnia than about the adventures of the 4 children.
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Comment on The doomsday cult inside OpenAI in ~tech
raze2012 Link ParentI cannot talk for Patrick Boyle, but all I said on the matter is "I do not trust these frontier leaders". At this point I don't see why I need to make more argument if this conversation is simply...I cannot talk for Patrick Boyle, but all I said on the matter is "I do not trust these frontier leaders".
At this point I don't see why I need to make more argument if this conversation is simply going the direction of "but don't say anything without proof". I'll just leave it at that and you're free to (dis)trust whoever you want.
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Comment on The doomsday cult inside OpenAI in ~tech
raze2012 Link ParentDepends on the nature of the work. Overall, the idea that AI can replace decades of research implies that all the answers to these unsolved problems lies hidden in data already made, and no new...effectively building on all the mathematical research that came before doesn’t make AI any less formidable as a mathematician.
Depends on the nature of the work. Overall, the idea that AI can replace decades of research implies that all the answers to these unsolved problems lies hidden in data already made, and no new data will ever be needed again. Which I find doubtful.
The big issue here is partially in your language here: AI didn't "build" upon the solution by itself. I doubt if you gave any other math institution not directly working on this problem the same AI, that they could solve the problem in anywhere close to 4 days/$20m of processing. To use a common metaphor, the AI was a fancy calculator being given specific inputs, and making intermediate outputs (leading to more inputs). I don't think most people would give the calculator the primary credit here.
As of now AI cannot really create new ideas out of what I've heard called "the creative void". That is human ingenuity AI has yet to replicate. AI instead is really good at synthesizing a mass amount data and revealing trends among it. And we do have a lot of data to synthesize, so this is very valuable. But conflating such synthesis to "creation" doesn't really help the larger conversation against whether AI is here to "give untold efficiency boosts to labor" vs. "replace the entire labor force and bring about a new age of feudalism".
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Comment on The doomsday cult inside OpenAI in ~tech
raze2012 Link ParentI don't know any of these people personally, so I can only judge by actions. Maybe tomorrow I can find some more solid reporting on these people's histories. But my emotional sentiments made above...I don't know any of these people personally, so I can only judge by actions. Maybe tomorrow I can find some more solid reporting on these people's histories. But my emotional sentiments made above were supported by various reporting I've read over the years. It's not some shallow gut feeling driven by a shallow dismissal of AI or their looks or something.
I'm not a practiced speaker, though; I don't just have the months/years of various blogs, youtube videos, newspaper reports, and court testimonies available for me to display to you on demand. It'll take time to gather them up once again.
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Comment on The doomsday cult inside OpenAI in ~tech
raze2012 Link ParentThat's hard to compare, considering this still took the input and direction of human PhD's working for decades on the problem to get to this point. For all I know, this problem was a 99% solved...Compared to the decades of human PhDs working on this, it seems both faster and cheaper.
That's hard to compare, considering this still took the input and direction of human PhD's working for decades on the problem to get to this point. For all I know, this problem was a 99% solved jigsaw puzzle, and AI was able to help these people get it to 100%. Which is important, but not "we saved decades of work/talent" levels of savings,
It kind of reminds me of the claims that AI can make Doom the 1993 video game... then you realize it did so by training it on Doom. That doesn't exactly solve the issue of game development unless you want a legally distinct Doom (and I'm unsure how "legally" that distinction is).
A claim like "we aren't close to recursive self improvement" feels to me like a claim that "10,000 infections isn't close to a pandemic".
In this case, the claims have been made for 4 years, rather than less than 4 days to spread through a major country (and less than 4 months to spread to the globe). Not to mention that such infection is this time 100% objectively spread by human intervention. Leader truly worried about such a cyber pandemic and not their bottom line can simply... stop? The handwave of "but everyone else is doing this" only serve the bottom line, not humanity's future if you truly fear this spread.
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Comment on The doomsday cult inside OpenAI in ~tech
raze2012 Link ParentCan I accurately mind-read the frontier leaders? No, I cannot. So I don't think I can ever truly "prove" that they are lying/truthful in their sentiment. I'm going to sleep so I haven't watched...Is there any actual evidence for the widespread assumption that the people making the warnings aren’t sincere?
Can I accurately mind-read the frontier leaders? No, I cannot. So I don't think I can ever truly "prove" that they are lying/truthful in their sentiment.
I'm going to sleep so I haven't watched the video yet. But I'm sure it gives some support to that notion. For me it's extremely simple: The actors leading these frontier models are untrustworthy and they have a history of overly exaggerating, spreading misinformation, lying,
and in a few extreme cases: coaxing a genocide. They've not only burned any benefit of the doubt to be given, but are fundamentally people I do not want influencing larger policy.
This is part of why there's legitimate discussion circles to not consider software as "engineering". Engineering also means taking accountability and taking the most honest efforts to avoid disaster. A bridge breaking or faulty wiring or sensitive operations like aerospace cost lives if there's a tiny error (at times, fatal errors that bring awareness of natural phenomenon).
Software, meanwhile, is treated like playing russian roulette. We keep pulling the trigger and get surprised when a bullet comes out, or if we forget about the bullet in the chamber. Yes, accidents happen, but we can prevent a vast majority of them with basic checking before pulling the trigger.
But we all know Sinclair's quote by now: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.". Having regulations made (or in this case, torn down) by those who will never suffer any consequences was always going to end badly.