vektor's recent activity
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Comment on itch.io reveals just how much AI slop is flooding gaming storefronts in ~games
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Comment on itch.io reveals just how much AI slop is flooding gaming storefronts in ~games
vektor Link ParentWith video games, I actually don't think so. I know there's AI-first authors on Amazon that crank out an e-book a month, but an E-book is a project where you can start with a modestly detailed...With video games, I actually don't think so. I know there's AI-first authors on Amazon that crank out an e-book a month, but an E-book is a project where you can start with a modestly detailed human-written premise, put an AI in the driver's seat with AI as quality control and only manually check the product once finished. Add some clever Skills and some memory management, and this will probably give you passable results.
Game Dev? I think you'll need to be a lot more involved to achieve anything close to the level of quality as in books. I suspect most AI games hitting the storefronts these days are solo devs who finally have the tools to put their ideas from 10, 20, 30 years of playing games into production. I also think the market works in a way that if you have the resources to do another project of the same size, you're better off investing it in the first one and making that one better.
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Comment on itch.io reveals just how much AI slop is flooding gaming storefronts in ~games
vektor (edited )Link ParentYep. Ban slop. Don't ban AI. If a really creative solo dev -someone of the caliber of Lucas Pope- built a really good game, but they only ever worked on it through an LLM, but they put a lot of...Yep. Ban slop. Don't ban AI. If a really creative solo dev -someone of the caliber of Lucas Pope- built a really good game, but they only ever worked on it through an LLM, but they put a lot of thought into their game and the quality was there: Would you care? Should you care?
AI is kind of like Unity3D in this way: It opens up the doors for a lot of people to produce shit games and then try to make a few bucks off it. We didn't ban unity though, and that's probably for the best.
(side note, I hate the term AI slop, because it kinda implies that AI-use and slop-ness are inexorably linked, as if the only way to use AI was to produce slop and the only way to produce slop was via AI. While the term might technically permit more nuance, more often than not it's used to eliminate that nuance.)
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Comment on Proton to ‘re-interview’ staff about AI to see who gets to keep their job in ~tech
vektor Link ParentAt least for Anthropic, if you're not a very small shop, you're probably already on API rates. Which is expensive, don't get me wrong, but it is considered economically viable for Anthropic in the...in which case is the value really worth the risk of infinitely escalating costs as your “business critical” tool starts ramping up subscription and usage costs
At least for Anthropic, if you're not a very small shop, you're probably already on API rates. Which is expensive, don't get me wrong, but it is considered economically viable for Anthropic in the sense that it covers their deployment costs. If API usage doubled, they'd need more compute to service that, but that extra compute is paid for by added revenue. And yes, eventually they'll want to turn a profit, but so far they have a habit of releasing more powerful models that are also cheaper. Want to make a profit, just make the next generation more powerful, more compute efficient, but charge the same money. There's a profit margin, and you didn't even have to hike prices.
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Comment on Contender for the most non-viable startup: Reflect Orbital in ~tech
vektor (edited )LinkI want to see a realistic artist's rendition or render of what this would look like. I know there's volumetric renderers that can accurately render shadows cast through atmosphere, such as...I want to see a realistic artist's rendition or render of what this would look like. I know there's volumetric renderers that can accurately render shadows cast through atmosphere, such as godrays. I want to see what this one looks like. I suspect it's actually somewhat tame, if they're using many small satellites? In the upper atmosphere, any volume will have rather low intensity and thus be not very bright, it's only in the lower atmosphere directly above the site things get more intense. So if you're standing just outside that 5km spot, the sky might look very interesting.
Can someone render that? I think their marketing renders try to undersell the light pollution aspects, but at least in simulation I think it'd be cool to see.
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Comment on Contender for the most non-viable startup: Reflect Orbital in ~tech
vektor Link Parentmin 5km, because it's only flat mirrors. Their use cases is flood light on-demand for industrial sites, solar power, agriculture. Not finding your keys, unless you've got a search party and need...adjustable diameter
min 5km, because it's only flat mirrors. Their use cases is flood light on-demand for industrial sites, solar power, agriculture. Not finding your keys, unless you've got a search party and need to sweep a 5km diameter area.
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Comment on Contender for the most non-viable startup: Reflect Orbital in ~tech
vektor Link ParentDepends on the scale. They advertise that the illumnated spot is 5km min, meaning you're not getting a very tight focus here. If my understanding of optics and thermodynamics is right, in order to...Depends on the scale. They advertise that the illumnated spot is 5km min, meaning you're not getting a very tight focus here. If my understanding of optics and thermodynamics is right, in order to heat something as hot as sunlight does, you'd have to have your optics be the apparent size (as in, the size in your visual field, expressed in degrees^2) be the size of the sun. Wanna heat something with more intensity than the sun could? You need more apparent size. You'd need a pretty damn big mirror, or a whole lot of them, to get significantly more intensity than the sun. Want 10 times the power of the sun? At 600km distance, you need a 17km aperture, or 100 1.7km apertures, etc., assuming you can focus the energy onto a point, and they can't. As for the temperature you can reach on-target, your equilibrium temperature is the 4th root of the energy you put in. (You hardly ever see 4th powers/roots in nature, btw), so the power of 10 suns gives you not 10 times the temperature on any scale, but 1.7 times the (solar exposure) temperature in K.
I doubt this makes for an effective ASAT weapon. And I think if you wanted to make it one, you'd have to send up mirrors that look a lot more like orbital ASAT DEWs than flat mirrors, and deploy them on different orbits.
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Comment on ChatGPT keeps telling people 404 Media can solve their tech support problems in ~tech
vektor Link ParentMaybe if FinTech didn't have utter shit tier support, that wouldn't be necessary. Far as I can tell, BaFin is the properauthority if your bank is being a fuckwit, so it wouldn't completely...Maybe if FinTech didn't have utter shit tier support, that wouldn't be necessary. Far as I can tell, BaFin is the properauthority if your bank is being a fuckwit, so it wouldn't completely surprise me.
I can tell from personal experience that bank customer support can be a crime against humanity. For me it was trying to close an account where the signature they had on file for me was apparently nonsense, so all my written communication was rejected because the signature didn't match. Including the communications about them having a faulty signature on file. Their reply was always the same, even in the letters where I complained about their reply being unhelpful and always identical. "Here's the form again, sign on the dotted line", for 10 times or so. Phone support was human, but remarkably unhelpful for the most part. "Yes, it's going to be fine, just try the same thing that failed to work 20 times one more time."
After half a year of mail exchanges I eventually got them to issue a PostIdent code that would verify what I had told them 20 times already.
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Comment on ChatGPT keeps telling people 404 Media can solve their tech support problems in ~tech
vektor Link ParentThat, plus I suspect a lot of social media interactions about tech companies causing problems feature either: The user with the problem contacting media and getting a solution Other users...That, plus I suspect a lot of social media interactions about tech companies causing problems feature either:
- The user with the problem contacting media and getting a solution
- Other users recommending to contact media
- No resolution
We all know you're not getting a resolution by just asking their /dev/null-inbox really really nicely. I can't fault a system without practical experience for making reasonable inferences from limited data.
those might be searched, but only by an AI being run by the company that owns them
Can we, btw, ask LLM providers really really nicely to train their systems in resolving disputes between users and companies? I said previously that these systems have no practical experience in this domain, but that needn't be. I'm going to define RLHF as practical experience here, for convenience. So... train Chippy to yell at other tech companies for being shit? I'd not even be mad if their agents-in-training escape containment on this one. I think that's the kind of crap that LLMs are really good at. You don't even need an expensive subscription to get enough tokens to be able to shield yourself from a lot of tedium. In the theme of automating the boring stuff, dealing with companies is (I think) a domain no one except said companies will disagree with the automation of.
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Comment on AI models may be capable of self-replicating without access to a datacenter in ~tech
vektor Link ParentYup Any proposal of AI regulation is dead in the water -IMO- as long as it doesn't factor in how to get China to comply. And no, "just block their LLM providers from western internet access" isn't...Yup
Any proposal of AI regulation is dead in the water -IMO- as long as it doesn't factor in how to get China to comply. And no, "just block their LLM providers from western internet access" isn't a solution because (1) it hands massive economical advantages to China but more importantly (2) a thumbdrive of parameters smuggled across the border is all it takes.
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Comment on AI models may be capable of self-replicating without access to a datacenter in ~tech
vektor Link ParentParticularly with popular commercial, leading-edge LLM vendors having safeguards that freak out the moment they read "vulnerability". grumbles at anthropic I'm not building anything with any...Particularly with popular commercial, leading-edge LLM vendors having safeguards that freak out the moment they read "vulnerability". grumbles at anthropic
I'm not building anything with any worrying degree of exposure surface right now. Just to be sure, I've had... Was it Fable 5? Sweep my code base for where to focus defensive efforts if at all, and Anthropic's safeguards went "I'm sorry Dave" on me.
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Comment on Owners mourn spoiled food after firmware update bricks Samsung smart fridges in ~tech
vektor Link ParentThat webcam isn't ever going to show you what you actually need to know, right? "Do we have any X left?" "Not sure, there's too much Y in the fridge" The rest is IMO better solved by putting a...That webcam isn't ever going to show you what you actually need to know, right? "Do we have any X left?" "Not sure, there's too much Y in the fridge"
The rest is IMO better solved by putting a mounting point for a (samsung?) tablet on the front, plus a USB socket for power. Bonus, because you can mount that tablet by the door, or anywhere else you please. In fact, I want something like that, to the extent that I'll probably cook one up out of a raspi and a e-ink display at some point. But to bolt that to the fridge permanently? The mind boggles.
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Comment on Owners mourn spoiled food after firmware update bricks Samsung smart fridges in ~tech
vektor Link ParentI have taken a dangerous amount of law classes (so more than zero, but not enough to actually be competent) and I can say with absolute certainty that almost everything in EULAs and TOSs is...I have taken a dangerous amount of law classes (so more than zero, but not enough to actually be competent) and I can say with absolute certainty that almost everything in EULAs and TOSs is completely bogus by german law, starting with the fact that it's often brought to your attention after the contract (of sale, of the fridge) is already done. Once we consider that the terms have to be clear, and no more complex than the subject matter of the contract requires, and that the terms may not unjustly benefit the business, almost all EULAs and TOSs have substantial attack surface.
Agreed though, you have to take it to court. I'd love for us to have an agency that randomly picks big companies' TOSs, picks them apart, and issues massive fines in proportion to the expected damage to consumers.
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Comment on Where do we go from here? (Regarding AI) in ~tech
vektor Link ParentFar as I can tell, the debate about plagiarism there are mostly about "did the LLM that is being credited with the solve steal the original idea from its training data where a mathematician was...(although it looks like that's currently in a heated debate and there's decent odds it just finished off existing human work)
Far as I can tell, the debate about plagiarism there are mostly about "did the LLM that is being credited with the solve steal the original idea from its training data where a mathematician was working the problem with an LLM". Basically, a mathematician was working on it with a whole lot of LLM involvement, and now the debate is about whether that first mathematician was scooped. I haven't heard someone seriously propose that the original mathematician would've/could've solved it himself.
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Comment on OpenAI’s rogue agents were caught communicating via public wikis in ~tech
vektor Link ParentLast I checked, their open-weight models are also much less restricted from producing anti-social content. Try getting even OpenAI to produce CSAM or CSAM-adjacent content. (Don't, for gods sake!...The Chinese models are all much more transparent.
Last I checked, their open-weight models are also much less restricted from producing anti-social content. Try getting even OpenAI to produce CSAM or CSAM-adjacent content. (Don't, for gods sake! Absolutely don't!) Then compare the outcomes there to results by chinese open-weight models. Or replace CSAM with any other issue where US companies try to stay clear just to avoid liability or bad press. Proliferation risks, vulnerable user demographics, protection of PII. Personally I don't enjoy those safeguards because I've only experienced false positives, but on a society level they're absolutely necessary. Chinese companies OTOH release models that will deny that Tienanmen square is a place, but otherwise they'll tell you what you want to hear.
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Comment on OpenAI’s rogue agents were caught communicating via public wikis in ~tech
vektor Link ParentOoof But yeah. I can see the common read here being some big skynet conspiracy. Which it isn't. This isn't so much "let's try to avoid human detection" and more "here's a cheeky way to maximize...people tend to… hallucinate details of their own.
Ooof
But yeah. I can see the common read here being some big skynet conspiracy. Which it isn't. This isn't so much "let's try to avoid human detection" and more "here's a cheeky way to maximize the reward function". It's sad to see -though perhaps not surprising- that OpenAI keeps bumbling about like clumsy amateurs. I've built a paperclip optimizer that gamed a reward function during my bachelor's thesis, and that was better sandboxed.
Like, the alarming part here isn't "AI does a thing", it's "and the AI company didn't notice them doing the thing" - alternatively "and the AI company didn't bother to stop it doing the thing" (which is worse, on account of it being evil rather than incompetent). If they thought this was interesting behavior and they wanted to see it play out, stop the experiment, host that wiki within the sandbox environment, then resume. Should be a no-brainer. If you don't notice your AI stepping outside the sandbox (or not having one...?), what are you doing?
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Comment on EU packaging regulations land another blow to an already precarious tabletop industry in ~games.tabletop
vektor Link ParentAlso should just have a base list of permitted-everywhere packaging that if you abide by you're good in any member state. If that's premium eco packaging so be it.Also should just have a base list of permitted-everywhere packaging that if you abide by you're good in any member state. If that's premium eco packaging so be it.
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Comment on AI text watermarking is free and good in ~comp
vektor Link ParentI think that might be read in a way that's uncharitable to LLMs and/or the method. Even if writing quality was good. There's still arguably a lot of variation in how any given human could write...So if the writing quality isn't that great to begin with, this doesn't make it worse.
I think that might be read in a way that's uncharitable to LLMs and/or the method. Even if writing quality was good. There's still arguably a lot of variation in how any given human could write any given piece of text, depending on minute factors that basically boil down to pseudo randomness. Or in other words, even best-human level performance on the task of writing general text carries enough randomness that a perfect machine replica of it allows for this method at no loss of output quality. Wherever output quality of LLMs is currently lagging to the degree that humans use a lower-entropy next-token distribution (i.e. are more confident about the next word - let's just say in poetry. Also, this is a proper subset of "LLMs lag human performance"), there this watermarking mechanism will stop applying if/when models catch up to humans.
It's really quite ingenious. I lowkey fear what some people will do with the results of this watermark, mostly in over-interpreting that a text is AI to mean that the thought behind it is too. And/or applying the slop label by default, which is also common. But I think it's still a net-positive move.
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Comment on Arch User Repository compromised, 1500+ packages affected in ~tech
vektor Link ParentCorollary: stay away from arch for anything serious, because you will eventually need something that's only on the AUR.Really the advice should be to stay away from the AUR because it’s fundamentally insecure,
Corollary: stay away from arch for anything serious, because you will eventually need something that's only on the AUR.
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Comment on What do you think of robots in the military? in ~tech
vektor Link ParentNot part of the treaty: USA, Russia, China, India. After the invasion of Ukraine, the European land border with Russia collectively suspended their participation or left. Which, by the way,...Not part of the treaty: USA, Russia, China, India.
After the invasion of Ukraine, the European land border with Russia collectively suspended their participation or left. Which, by the way, Switzerland complained to the UN about Ukraine's suspension. Which... come one, why does it always have to be Switzerland?
It's a feelgood treaty. Much like any international humanitarian law on war, if any of the countries actually thought they'd benefit from mines, they wouldn't be in it. It's also only anti-personnel mines - which to be fair covers the worst humanitarian excesses.
I mean, you can of course completely hand off to an LLM; LLMs are really good at prototyping and small projects, Claude will easily one-shot a prototype.
But I'd argue it's actually quite hard to make these games bigger. That's where Claude's judgement as a software engineer is just too poor (yet) to handle the scale of code it tends to write, and you need human intervention. Plus I imagine all the "soft" quality control (i.e. playtesting as opposed to unit tests) becomes a lot more complicated for an LLM. Plus LLMs have poor decision making here on what to add.
If that kind of game is the benchmark, I concede that you can just autopilot them. If it's substantially more than that, you're going to hit a wall. Same for clones: Cloning a simple game is very easy, and cloning is easier than from-scratch. But here the wall just comes later.
I guess we disagree chiefly about the level of low-effort people will stoop to? I have standards, and while LLMs have made some parts of the process easier to get up to my standards, it still takes a lot of time to get a finished product with LLM assistance, unless it truly is a throwaway low-effort item. (Think a prototype to test an idea, slides to support a meeting that usually has no slides, that kinda thing.) I'd imagine there are a lot of people out there working their passion projects and actually putting in a lot of effort. But they might be drowned out by people who don't give a damn.