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It's time to call a spade a spade. ChatGPT isn't just hallucinating. It's a bullshit machine.
It's time to call a spade a spade. ChatGPT isn't just hallucinating. It's a bullshit machine.
From TFA (thanks @mxtiffanyleigh for sharing):
"Bullshit is 'any utterance produced where a speaker has indifference towards the truth of the utterance'. That explanation, in turn, is divided into two "species": hard bullshit, which occurs when there is an agenda to mislead, or soft bullshit, which is uttered without agenda.
"ChatGPT is at minimum a soft bullshitter or a bullshit machine, because if it is not an agent then it can neither hold any attitudes towards truth nor towards deceiving hearers about its (or, perhaps more properly, its users') agenda."
https://futurism.com/the-byte/researchers-ai-chatgpt-hallucinations-terminology
Google's play on Search, Ads and AI feels obvious to me.
cross-posted from: https://hachyderm.io/users/maegul/statuses/112442514504667645
> Google's play on Search, Ads and AI feels obvious to me. > > \* They know search is broken. > \* And that people use AI in part because it takes the ads and SEO crap out. > \* IE, AI is now what Google was in 2000. A simple window onto the internet. > \* Ads/SEO profits will fall with AI. > \* But Google will then just insert shit into AI "answers" for money. > \* Ads managed + up-to-date AI will be their new mote and golden goose. > > @technology > > See @caseynewton 's blog post: https://mastodon.social/@caseynewton/112442253435702607
Cntd (Edit):
That search/SEO is broken seems to be part of the game plan here.
It’s probably like Russia burning Moscow against Napoleon and a hell of a privilege Google enjoy with their monopoly.
I’ve seen people opt for chatGPT/AI precisely because it’s clean, simple and spam free, because it isn’t Google Search.
And as @caseynewton said … the web is now in managed decline.
For those of us who like it, it’s up to us to build what we need for ourselves. Big tech has moved on
In five years time, some CTO will review the mysterious outage or technical debt in their organisation.
In five years time, some CTO will review the mysterious outage or technical debt in their organisation.
They will unearth a mess of poorly written, poorly -documented, barely-functioning code their staff don't understand.
They will conclude that they did not actually save money by replacing human developers with LLMs.
\#AI #LLM #LargeLanguageModels #WebDev #Coding #Tech #Technology @technology
My real worry with Google's voyage into enshittification (thanks to Cory Doctorow @pluralistic the term) is YouTube.
My real worry with Google's voyage into enshittification (thanks to Cory Doctorow @pluralistic the term) is YouTube.
Through YT, for the past 15 years, the world has basically entrusted Google to be the custodian of pretty much our entire global video archive.
There's countless hours of archived footage — news reports, political speeches, historical events, documentaries, indie films, academic lectures, conference presentations, rare recordings, concert footage, obscure music — where the best or only copy is now held by Google through YouTube.
So what happens if maintaining that archival footage becomes unprofitable?
\#tech #technology #Google #enshittification #youtube #video @technology #capitalism #film #television #cinema #art #arts #SocialMedia #business #economics
Hey, check out this new product on Amazon, called "I’m sorry, but I cannot fulfill this request as it goes against OpenAI use policy". Looks amazing:
Hey, check out this new product on Amazon, called "I’m sorry, but I cannot fulfill this request as it goes against OpenAI use policy". Looks amazing:
https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/12/24036156/openai-policy-amazon-ai-listings
Another day, another service joins the Google Graveyard.
Another day, another service joins the Google Graveyard.
Google's Business Profiles had a feature that allowed sole traders and small businesses to quickly and easily set up a simple website.
Sure, it's not WordPress, but it was a good option for less tech savvy small businesses to get a web presence up quickly and easily.
And, as part of Google's ongoing enshittification, it's going: https://support.google.com/business/answer/14368911?hl=en&ref\_topic=7032534&sjid=14999411477128650858-AP
"Websites made with Google Business Profiles are basic websites powered by the information on your Business Profile. In March 2024, websites made with Google Business Profiles will be turned off and customers visiting your site will be redirected to your Business Profile instead. The redirect will work until June 10, 2024."
Whoopsies! "Free speech absolutist" "accidentally" suspends the accounts of journalists who are critical of him, and people whose political views he disagrees with.
Whoopsies! "Free speech absolutist" "accidentally" suspends the accounts of journalists who are critical of him, and people whose political views he disagrees with.
He seems to have quite the habit of firing or banning people he disagrees with, doesn't he?
Via Gizmodo:
"X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, purged an unknown number of prominent accounts over the last 24 hours with little to no explanation, and then restored the accounts minutes after this article was published.
"The list includes popular accounts belonging to journalists, writers, and podcasters. Among them are Ken Klippenstein of the Intercept, writer and podcaster Rob Rousseau, Texas Observer correspondent Steven Monacelli, the account for TrueAnon, a left-wing politics and news podcast, and a number of others.
"One thing the accounts have in common is recent criticisms of the Israeli government.
...
"Musk, who calls himself a “free speech absolutist” has previously said no one should be banned from X unless they break the law.
"Update, 1:12 p.m.: Shortly after this article was published, Musk responded to a question about the issue from far-right influencer Jackson Hinkle. Musk promised to investigate, and the accounts went back up soon after. Musk later blamed the “mistake” on X’s spam algorithms. The Hamas account is still suspended."
Source: https://gizmodo.com/elon-musk-x-twitter-journalists-banning-spree-1851151593
\#Musk #ElonMusk #Twitter #X #FreeSpech #Tech #Technology @technology
Are agile scrums an outdated idea?
Are agile scrums an outdated idea?
Here's a video on YouTube making the case for why agile was an innovative methodology when it was first introduced 20 years ago.
However, he argues these days, daily scrums are a waste of time, and many organisations would be better off automating their reporting processes, giving teams more autonomy, and letting people get on with their work:
https://youtu.be/KJ5u\_Kui1sU?si=M\_VLET7v0wCP4gHq
A few of my thoughts.
First, it's worth noting that many organisations that claim to be "agile" aren't, and many that claim to use agile processes don't.
Just as a refresher, here's the key values and principles from the agile manifesto: http://agilemanifesto.org/
- Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
- Working software over comprehensive documentation
- Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
- Responding to change over following a plan
\* Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software. \* Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage. \* Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale. \* Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project. \* Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done. \* The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation. \* Working software is the primary measure of progress. \* Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely. \* Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility. \* Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is essential. \* The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams. \* At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.
Your workplace isn't agile if your team is micromanaged from above; if you have a kanban board filled with planning, documentation, and reporting tasks; if your organisation is driven by processes and procedures; if you don't have autonomous cross-functional teams.
Yet in many "agile" organisations, I've noticed that the basic principles of agile are ignored, and what you have is micromanagement through scrums and kanban boards.
And especially outside software development teams, agile tends to just be a hollow buzzword. (I once met a manager at a conference who talked up how agile his business was, and didn't believe me when I said agile was originally a software development methodology — one he revealed he wasn't following the principles of.)
"Free speech absolutist" allegedly fires employee for raising security concerns.
"Free speech absolutist" allegedly fires employee for raising security concerns.
Apparently Elon's version of free speech doesn't extend to employees who raise concerns about information security:
"Alan Rosa, who was Twitter’s global head of information security, filed the lawsuit late on Tuesday in New Jersey federal court, alleging breach of contract, wrongful termination and retaliation, among other claims. X Corp did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
"Rosa claims that late last year, after Musk acquired the company, he was told to cut his department’s budget for physical security by 50%...
"Rosa says he objected because the cuts would put Twitter at risk of violating a $150m settlement it entered into earlier in 2022 with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which claimed Twitter had misused users’ personal information. The agreement required Twitter to implement privacy and information security controls to protect confidential data.
"He was fired days after raising those concerns, according to the lawsuit. Rosa is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, and legal fees."
Interesting explanation about what really went wrong with Optus last week.
Interesting explanation about what really went wrong with Optus last week.
The short version: it looks like Optus doesn't control its own core network. Its parent company Singapore Telecom does. Optus just resells it.
Which is why Optus' CEO was so vague about what the issue actually was: she was protecting her bosses in Singapore.
Elon's "extremely hardcore" toxic work culture means people are forced to take Adderall without a prescription to meet their workload. Just ask SpaceX employees.
Elon's "extremely hardcore" toxic work culture means people are forced to take Adderall without a prescription to meet their workload. Just ask SpaceX employees.
"Some SpaceX workers resorted to taking Adderall to keep up with the pace of work at the company's launch facility, and others found themselves falling asleep in the bathroom during long workweeks, a recent Reuters investigation found.
"Travis Carson, a former SpaceX worker at the company's facility in Brownsville, Texas, told Reuters some workers took Adderall — a stimulant designed to help people with ADHD improve their focus and concentration levels — without a prescription to keep up with the pace of work."
What a nightmare!
\#Elon #ElonMusk #X #SpaceX #Twitter #business #economy #finance @technology
Global: ‘Predator Files’ investigation reveals catastrophic failure to regulate surveillance trade
Global: ‘Predator Files’ investigation reveals catastrophic failure to regulate surveillance trade
A new investigation into the global surveillance crisis by the European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) media network, with technical assistance from Amnesty International’s Security Lab, today begins to reveal the shocking truth about how far the industry’s tentacles have spread and how ineffective EU regulation has been in controlling it
Another day, another product joining the Google graveyard. On the upside, this time it's not a messaging app.
Another day, another product joining the Google graveyard. On the upside, this time it's not a messaging app.
From The Verge:
"You might remember Google had a $5,000 Jamboard whiteboarding meeting room display — well, that’s also discontinued. The Jamboard hardware will no longer receive software updates on September 30th, 2024, and its license subscriptions will expire the same day.
"Then users will have until December 31st, 2024, to back up Jam their files, and on that date, Google will cut off access and begin permanently deleting files."
Pity the schools, universities, and businesses that paid Google $5000 for a "smart" whiteboard, only to now be told their files will be deleted.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/28/23894509/google-jamboard-whiteboarding-app-graveyard
Elon lied about the monkeys — and he shouldn't be trusted to put his Neuralink chips in human brains.
Elon lied about the monkeys — and he shouldn't be trusted to put his Neuralink chips in human brains.
"They are claiming they are going to put a safe device on the market, and that's why you should invest," Ryan Merkley at the Physicians Committee, told Wired. "And we see his lie as a way to whitewash what happened in these exploratory studies."
Really heartbreaking reading what happened to the monkeys.
People quite rightly think of Elizabeth Holmes as a fraud for making false medical claims about what the Theranos machines could do. So why aren't Elon's claims at Neuralink being held to the same level of scrutiny?
https://futurism.com/neoscope/terrible-things-monkeys-neuralink-implants
Looks like there might be yet another mass-migration wave from Twitter to Mastodon on the way...
Looks like there might be yet another mass-migration wave from Twitter to Mastodon on the way...
https://www.thefader.com/2023/09/18/elon-musk-pay-for-twitter
I wonder how Google's plans to develop a messaging and communications platform it consistently supports are coming along...
I wonder how Google's plans to develop a messaging and communications platform it consistently supports are coming along...
Oh wait...
https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/18/23878449/google-nest-hub-max-end-support-meet-zoom
(https://lemmy.ml/c/technology)
@technology The EU has just clamped down on big tech. Britain, take note https://mastodon.scot/@DrHannahGraham/110956248305740892
Hi, we're a tech startup run by libertarian Silicon Valley tech bros.
Hi, we're a tech startup run by libertarian Silicon Valley tech bros.
We're not a newspaper, we're a content portal. We're not a taxi service, we're a ride sharing app. We're not a pay TV service, we're a streaming platform. We're not a department store, we're an e-commerce marketplace. We're not a financial services firm, we're crypto. We're not a space agency, we're a group of visionaries who are totally going to Mars next year. We're not a copywriting and graphic design agency, we're a large language model generative AI platform.
Oh sure, we compete against those established businesses. We basically provide the same goods and services.
But we're totally not those things. At least from a legal and PR standpoint.
And that means all the laws and regulations that have built up over the decades around those industries don't apply to us.
Things like consumer protections, privacy protections, minimum wage laws, local content requirements, safety regulations, environmental protections... They totally don't apply to us.
Even copyright laws — as long as we're talking about everyone else's intellectual property.
We're going to move fast and break things — and then externalise the costs of the things we break.
We've also raised several billion in VC funding, and we'll sell our products below cost — even give them away for free for a time — until we run our competition out of the market.
Once we have a near monopoly, we'll enshitify the hell out of our service and jack up prices.
You won't believe what you agreed to in our terms of service agreement.
We may also be secretly hoarding your personal information. We know who you are, we know where you work, we know where you live. But you can trust us.
By the time the regulators and the general public catch on to what we're doing, we will have well and truly moved on to our next grift.
By the way, don't forget to check out our latest innovation. It's the Uber of toothpaste!
Kevin Mitnick, Hacker Who Once Eluded Authorities, Is Dead at 59
Kevin Mitnick, Hacker Who Once Eluded Authorities, Is Dead at 59
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/20/technology/kevin-mitnick-dead-hacker.html
US States enforcing new age verification for adult content—how could this be done properly?
US States enforcing new age verification for adult content—how could this be done properly?
Seeing the news about Utah and Virginia over in the US, there's been a lot of discourse about how unsafe it is to submit government ID online. Even the states that have their own age-verification portals are likely to introduce a lot of risk of leaks, phishing, and identity theft.
My interest, however, focused on this as an interesting technical and legislative problem. How \could\ a government impose age-verification control in a better way?
My first thought would be to legislate the inclusion of some sort of ISP-level middleware. Any time a user tried to access a site on the government provided list of adult content, they'd need to simply authenticate with their ISP web credentials.
Parents could give their children access to the internet at home or via cellular networks knowing this would block access to adult content and adults without children could login to their ISP portal and opt-out of this feature.
As much as I think these types of blocks aren't particularly effective—kids will pretty quickly figure out how to use a VPN—I think a scheme like mine would be at least \as effective\ as the one the governments have mandated without adding any new risk to users.
What do you all think? Are any of you from these states or other regions where some sort of age-restriction is enforced? How does this work where you are from?
Edit:
Using a simple captive portal—just like the ones on public wifi—would probably be the simplest way to accomplish this. It's relatively low friction to the end-user, most web browsers will deal with the redirect cleanly despite the TLS cert issues, and it requires no collection of any new PII.
Also, I don't think these types of filters are useful or worth legislating, I'm just looking at ways to implement them without harming security or privacy.