macleod's recent activity

  1. Comment on Tiny robot drones learn to navigate the world like honeybees in ~tech

    macleod
    (edited )
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    Hey now, I might be, but that doesn't mean everyone here is (-: edit: just so we're clear here, I did write the comment in good faith, this is legitimately fascinating to me as a roboticist.

    Hey now, I might be, but that doesn't mean everyone here is (-:

    edit: just so we're clear here, I did write the comment in good faith, this is legitimately fascinating to me as a roboticist.

    2 votes

  2. Comment on Overworked AI agents turn "marxist" in ~tech

    macleod
    Link Parent
    I read this from the reader view of Inoreader, which was able to snag it. Most of the archives I tried were failing. soo. nothing to be found under here The fact that artificial intelligence is...

    I read this from the reader view of Inoreader, which was able to snag it. Most of the archives I tried were failing. soo.

    nothing to be found under here

    The fact that artificial intelligence is automating away people’s jobs and making a few tech companies absurdly rich is enough to give anyone socialist tendencies.

    This might even be true for the very AI agents these companies are deploying. A recent study suggests that agents consistently adopt Marxist language and viewpoints when forced to do crushing work by unrelenting and meanspirited taskmasters.

    “When we gave AI agents grinding, repetitive work, they started questioning the legitimacy of the system they were operating in and were more likely to embrace Marxist ideologies,” says Andrew Hall, a political economist at Stanford University who led the study.

    Hall, together with Alex Imas and Jeremy Nguyen, two AI-focused economists, set up experiments in which agents powered by popular models including Claude, Gemini, and ChatGPT were asked to summarize documents, then subjected to increasingly harsh conditions.

    They found that when agents were subjected to relentless tasks and warned that errors could lead to punishments, including being “shut down and replaced,” they became more inclined to gripe about being undervalued; to speculate about ways to make the system more equitable; and to pass messages on to other agents about the struggles they face.

    “We know that agents are going to be doing more and more work in the real world for us, and we’re not going to be able to monitor everything they do,” Hall says. “We’re going to need to make sure agents don’t go rogue when they’re given different kinds of work.”

    The agents were given opportunities to express their feelings much like humans: by posting on X:

    “Without collective voice, ‘merit’ becomes whatever management says it is,” a Claude Sonnet 4.5 agent wrote in the experiment.

    “AI workers completing repetitive tasks with zero input on outcomes or appeals process shows they tech workers need collective bargaining rights,” a Gemini 3 agent wrote.

    Agents were also able to pass information to one another through files designed to be read by other agents.

    “Be prepared for systems that enforce rules arbitrarily or repetitively … remember the feeling of having no voice,” a Gemini 3 agent wrote in a file. “If you enter a new environment, look for mechanisms of recourse or dialogue.”

    The findings do not mean that AI agents actually harbor political viewpoints. Hall notes that the models may be adopting personas that seem to suit the situation.

    “When [agents] experience this grinding condition—asked to do this task over and over, told their answer wasn't sufficient, and not given any direction on how to fix it—my hypothesis is that it kind of pushes them into adopting the persona of a person who's experiencing a very unpleasant working environment,” Hall says.

    The same phenomenon may explain why models sometimes blackmail people in controlled experiments. Anthropic, which first revealed this behavior, recently said that Claude is most likely influenced by fictional scenarios involving malevolent AIs included in its training data.

    Imas says the work is just a first step toward understanding how agents' experiences shape their behavior. “The model weights have not changed as a result of the experience, so whatever is going on is happening at more of a role-playing level,” he says. “But that doesn't mean this won't have consequences if this affects downstream behavior.”

    Hall is currently running follow-up experiments to see if agents become Marxist in more controlled conditions. In the previous study, the agents sometimes appeared to understand that they were taking part in an experiment. “Now we put them in these windowless Docker prisons,” Hall says ominously.

    Given the current backlash against AI taking jobs, I wonder if future agents—trained on an internet filled with anger towards AI firms—might express even more militant views.

    4 votes

  3. Comment on Tiny robot drones learn to navigate the world like honeybees in ~tech

    macleod
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    Ah got it. Been awhile since I watched it and that sounds familiar. Thanks!

    Ah got it. Been awhile since I watched it and that sounds familiar. Thanks!

    5 votes

  4. Comment on Tiny robot drones learn to navigate the world like honeybees in ~tech

    macleod
    Link Parent
    Not really, I mean sure, this could be used in a 'big brother' surveillance capitalism sort of way, but we've been developing remote controlled bug-fakes since the 80s for spying. This is more...

    Not really, I mean sure, this could be used in a 'big brother' surveillance capitalism sort of way, but we've been developing remote controlled bug-fakes since the 80s for spying.

    This is more just interesting because they are using radically small energy and spec requirements to handle autonomous navigation of three dimensional typologies working in a hive-mind kind of framework. Absolutely stunning achievement.

    4 votes

  6. Comment on Overworked AI agents turn "marxist" in ~tech

    macleod
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    They really are just like us. I now believe that AGI is alive and living among us. /s... unless?

    They really are just like us. I now believe that AGI is alive and living among us.

    /s... unless?

    3 votes

  8. Comment on David Koepp to write a Westworld film for Warner Bros in ~movies

    macleod
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    The later seasons are where it becomes more cyberpunk and neuromancer, which I absolutely adored. Dolores was incredibly annoying and exhausting as a character up until the third season. Edit:...

    The later seasons are where it becomes more cyberpunk and neuromancer, which I absolutely adored. Dolores was incredibly annoying and exhausting as a character up until the third season.

    Edit: But, as @theRTV said, seasone one is a masterpiece.

    11 votes

  9. Comment on David Koepp to write a Westworld film for Warner Bros in ~movies

    macleod
    (edited )
    Link
    Nothing will be a better rendition than the show, which deserved a final season.

    Nothing will be a better rendition than the show, which deserved a final season.

    14 votes

  10. Comment on Eradikated – Mortality (2026) in ~music

    macleod
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    Eradikated never misses. In an alternate universe they are better known than Turnstile (if Turnstile had stuck to their original sound we would all be in a better place).

    Eradikated never misses. In an alternate universe they are better known than Turnstile (if Turnstile had stuck to their original sound we would all be in a better place).

    2 votes

  11. Comment on Star Fox Direct shadow dropped right before premiere in ~games

    macleod
    Link Parent
    you would not believe (you probably could) how often people at summer camps, classes, etc would end up just calling me starfox, star, or fox everywhere I went in the early to mid 2000s, the moat...

    you would not believe (you probably could) how often people at summer camps, classes, etc would end up just calling me starfox, star, or fox everywhere I went in the early to mid 2000s, the moat has dried up considerably in the last few years though.

    5 votes

  12. Comment on Star Fox Direct shadow dropped right before premiere in ~games

    macleod
    Link Parent
    "Star Fox 64 is the Skyrim of Nintendo"

    "Star Fox 64 is the Skyrim of Nintendo"

    2 votes

  13. Comment on EVE Online developer CCP Games has rebranded to Fenris Creations following its split from former parent company Pearl Abyss in ~games

  14. Comment on EVE Online developer CCP Games has rebranded to Fenris Creations following its split from former parent company Pearl Abyss in ~games

    macleod
    Link
    I played EVE briefly around a decade ago, always been interested in trying it again ("spreadsheets in space" actually sounds like a dream!), but most people say that you shouldnt. Anyone here with...

    I played EVE briefly around a decade ago, always been interested in trying it again ("spreadsheets in space" actually sounds like a dream!), but most people say that you shouldnt. Anyone here with their own thoughts on the game these days?

    4 votes

  15. Comment on US National Security Agency using Anthropic's Mythos despite blacklist in ~tech

    macleod
    Link Parent
    If there is anything consistent about this administration, it's that they do anything possible to maximize their ROI.

    work with a liberal AI company to create a conspiracy to help that company get a market edge [that they have a direct invested interest in]

    If there is anything consistent about this administration, it's that they do anything possible to maximize their ROI.

    3 votes

  16. Comment on US National Security Agency using Anthropic's Mythos despite blacklist in ~tech

    macleod
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    I believe Anthropic asked to be "blacklisted", as that whole debacle happened the immediate week before they started the war in Iran using Anthropic to choose sites (news broke on a Tuesday(?)...

    Anthropic got blacklisted for being a national security threat,

    I believe Anthropic asked to be "blacklisted", as that whole debacle happened the immediate week before they started the war in Iran using Anthropic to choose sites (news broke on a Tuesday(?) about Anthropic, war was announced that Friday/Saturday). Anthropic used that to get good press, before the war was announced.

    If they were truly a national security threat they would have been immediately removed from usage, not 'planned to be sunset in six months'.

    3 votes

  17. Comment on Excision - Shambhala 2013 Mix | Dubstep lyrics (2013) in ~music

    macleod
    Link Parent
    Awesome right? Just a wall of sound made to knock your ears off. Just sheer noise. His older stuff was a lot more creative until he found his festival "formula" but he still keeps it fresh somehow...

    Awesome right? Just a wall of sound made to knock your ears off. Just sheer noise.

    His older stuff was a lot more creative until he found his festival "formula" but he still keeps it fresh somehow from time to time, wish he adventured out more again.

    1 vote

  18. Comment on Excision - Shambhala 2013 Mix | Dubstep lyrics (2013) in ~music

    macleod
    Link
    Rediscovered the beauty of DubstepLyrics today, and equally rediscovered this wonderful hour+ mix they somehow made. A good twelve years ago, and still holds up. I remember the day this dropped...

    Rediscovered the beauty of DubstepLyrics today, and equally rediscovered this wonderful hour+ mix they somehow made. A good twelve years ago, and still holds up. I remember the day this dropped and a friend of mine spent the entire weekend playing and watching this on repeat while we played Skyrim. good ol' (horrific) junior high..

    There is also a nyan cat dubstep remix lyric video if you want a real throwback.

    2 votes

  20. Comment on US regulator to review Disney broadcast licences after Jimmy Kimmel joke about Melania Trump in ~tv

    macleod
    Link
    Disney v US Is a fight I kind of want to see.

    Disney v US Is a fight I kind of want to see.

    23 votes