ariana

i've been working on chatbots for 14 years; computers have been stupid the whole time. when they work, it seems like magic. when they don't, their stupidity used to be more obvious. the reason people are so taken by LLMs is that their failure modes still bear a resemblance to human language.

Regular reminder that when you go to things while sick, you are giving those germs to people with autoimmune disorders, you’re passing them to someone’s newborn, to someone’s elderly parents. It’s “just a cold” to you but it can and does severely impact countless people.

Verbal poll! 1) Where you live, do most people say “coyote”, or “brush wolf”? 2) Did your older relatives say “brush wolf”? (Skip this one if you don’t remember.) 3) Where do you live? I’m a 2nd-gen Torontonian. I’ve never heard “brush wolf” in the wild (heh). How about you? 📷: Kira Gunderson.

This time on Live Like the World is Dying we have a rerun of a classic episode, which feels more relevant than usual. Struggle is a struggle. live-like-the-world-is-dying.pinecast.co/episode/472f...

FRIEND: we love an appellation wine ME: it's from Appalachia? FRIEND: no, it's from France ME: you said it was from Appalachia FRIEND: it's French appellation ME: *nodding* French-Appalachian FRIEND: no,

This is horrifying.

I swear to god the administration is going down the list of reasons pundits said it wasn’t fascism and doing them all one by one

These AI guys really just want slaves

Goddamn but "AI" boosters are some credulous dipshits. You're the ones making the outlandish claims. That puts the burden of evidence on *you.* We don't have to debunk your fantasies. That should be your therapist's job.

There’s a certain glib response to warnings of harm from powerful AI that is “they’ll only do that if you tell them to do it”. Which - yes. That’s my concern. Have you seen people?

trying to explain to my fellow political communicators that capitalization and punctuation are for frickin nerds

Sad news for cinephiles: Tilly Norwood has been killed in a Ukrainian drone strike.

all those people who called me "irresponsible" for advocating air strikes against specific data centers better be eating crow.

My latest @newscientist.com cartoon

🙅🏻‍♀️

well, if he'd quit because of "rogue" agents, his story would have received massive media attention

uhh i was digitizing a box of old VHS tapes for my uncle... you guys ever hear of something called "The Mayonnaise Channel"??

the tech industry is about to invent books

it can be said clearly enough: it resulted in multiple deaths.

Why is Home Depot selling a Mumford and Sons skeleton

In which @timnitgebru.blacksky.app and @emilymbender.bsky.social remind us that the risk of AI is not "superintelligence gone rogue," but human reliance on flawed systems in high-stakes situations: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

i wholeheartedly, enthusiastically recommend this harrowing book to anyone who wants to understand the current state of US politics. 🍎🐍

Was a bit confused when I got this alert this morning but thanks 2021-me for recognising that I’d get a good post out of it

important announcement: trainspotters / railfans in Australia are called "gunzels"

a common misogynist pattern we've seen from oldschool twitter and of course offline misogyny: they seem to strip us of our job titles, degrees, even names and genders in some cases to help buoy their claims we're not experts nor scholars... I don't care that much personally, but it's a useful tell!

Seriously, just do not use muse

I can tell you're not from around here by the way you pronounce "shibboleth"

Agreed that this is a vous situation, unless the reader is a child. But mostly I came here to share this guide, which is 100% correct and also hilarious for its weird specificity: www.talkinfrench.com/wp-content/u...

Friend who works at meta: “Do not use the muse agent, it’s like inviting a Vampire inside”

so excited to read this!

🤷🏻‍♀️

Hire 👏 outside 👏 ethicists Break the "AI safety" cartel. Most of what they fret about is stuff that is very unlikely. Most of the problems that ARE happening due to AI, they are ignoring as unglamorous. If making sure AI doesn't kill people is their prime mission, they're fucking it up pretty bad.

A.I. and corporate lingo are dragging language ynto drugged realmes of vague, airy, plastic nothingnesse: glitz and hyperbole wythout meaning. Language must have fur and clawes, make the floorboardes creake and leave wet dirtye footprintes. Wordes are rayne and fyre and stone. Wielde them. Save us.

Learning requires unlearning