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OpenAI ditches non-profit board, will spin off as venture capital lottery ticket
  • Oh no! But what happened to We’re not doing it for the money but the good of humanity, and If anybody approaches AGI before us we will shut down and use all our resources to help them instead?

    It’s almost as if all of that has been nothing but a load of bullshit from the beginning.

  • Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending Sunday 29 September 2024
  • Saw it posted on Reddit. It's apparently from clickworker.com which is a weird-ass website by itself at first glance, with great pitches like this:

    People are happier if they are more financially independent. We can help you achieve this.

  • a16z picks the next tech hype after Web3 and AI! It’s … anime?
  • AI is deepening the previously parasocial relationships we had with our favorite anime characters from passive linear media, into powerful new, interactive relationships.

    I think this is legitimately the first time that I've seen someone speak about parasocial relationships not only positively, but also suggesting that, hey, we should remove the human element even more from it because it's not creepy enough as it is.

  • Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending Sunday 29 September 2024
  • I am sure this is totally not sketchy in the slightest and the people behind it have no nefarious agenda whatsoever.

  • Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending Sunday 22 September 2024
  • Im feeling the same way. Ever since my current job began pivoting to AI I’ve been casually browsing listings as well and have had the same experience.

    The worst are those that list ”interest in AI“ or some variation of that as a required skill, lol.

    But hey, try and apply for the kernel position anyway if it sounds interesting to you. Most requirements in listings are overstated anyway so it never hurts to give it a go.

  • Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending Sunday 22 September 2024
  • Yeah, I assume that's exactly what happened when CEO went to Silicon Valley to talk to "important people". Despite being on a course to save money before, he dumped tens of thousands into AI infrastructure which hasn't delivered anything so far and is suddenly very happy with sending people to AI workshops and conferences.

    But I'm only half-surprised. He's somewhat known for making weird decisions after talking to people who want to sell him something. This time it's gonna be totally different, of course.

  • Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending Sunday 22 September 2024
  • TIL that I'm constantly hacking containers when I docker run --rm -it --entrypoint /bin/sh to debug because fucking npm had a stroke again.

  • Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending Sunday 22 September 2024
  • […] the tech giant would buy 100 percent of its power for 20 years.

    I want them to fucking choke on this deal when the bubble bursts.

  • Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending Sunday 22 September 2024
  • Follow up for this post from the other day.

    Our DSO now greenlit the stupid Copilot integration because "Microsoft said it's okay" (of course they did), and he also was on some stupid AI convention yesterday and whatever fucking happened there, he's become a complete AI bro and is now preaching the Gospel of Altman that everyone who's not using AI will be obsolete in few years and we need to ADAPT OR DIE. It's the exact same shit CEO is spewing.

    He wants an AI that handles data security breaches by itself. He also now writes emails with ChatGPT even though just a week ago he was hating on people who did that. I sat with my fucking mouth open in that meeting and people asked me whether I'm okay (I'm not).

    I need to get another job ASAP or I will go clinically insane.

  • Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending Sunday 22 September 2024
  • Oh, I wonder if they are referring to this shit, where somone came to r/lgbt fishing for compliments for the picture they'd asked Clippy for, and were completely clowned on by the entire community, which then led to another subreddit full of promptfans claiming that artists are transphobic because they didn't like a generated image which had a trans flag in it.

  • Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending Sunday 22 September 2024
  • I honestly just use browser bookmarks. That’s always been enough for me. Firefox can sync them too, so that takes care of backups as well.

    For anything that needs special attention, I create a todo item with the link in org-mode.

  • Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending Sunday 15 September 2024
  • Posteo is from Germany and they’re reasonably popular here. Their offer is quite different from Proton, though. If you want full E2E encryption you need to use GPG or S/MIME and handle that yourself (and obviously so does your recipient), so it’s not as batteries included as what Proton offered.

    I like their focus on green energy and sustainability though.

    Another option like that is mailbox.org. They’re presenting themselves as a bit more business-like.

  • Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending Sunday 9 September 2024
  • Am I understanding this right: this app takes a picture of your ID card or passport and the feeds it to some ML algorithm to figure out whether the document is real plus some additional stuff like address verification?

    Depending on where you’re located, you might try and file a GDPR complaint against this. I’m not a lawyer but I work with the DSO for our company and routinely piss off people by raising concerns about whatever stupid tool marketing or BI tried to implement without asking anyone, and I think unless you work somewhere that falls under one of the exceptions for GDPR art. 5 §1 you have a pretty good case there because that request seems definitely excessive and not strictly necessary.

  • NaNoWriMo gets AI sponsor, says not writing your novel with AI is ‘classist and ableist’
  • A while back one of their reps did say somewhere on Reddit that they have no intention of adding any LLM features to Scrivener. Granted, they said that in the context of moving towards a subscription model and talking about features that don't work with their current business model, but still. Unless something has changed recently, they seem to want to stick to being a one-time purchase without any cloud-based services whatsoever, including AI, for their next major version too.

  • Disapproving of automated plagiarism is classist ableism, actually: Nanowrimo
  • I swear if I hear "being against AI is ableist" one more time I'm gonna lose my shit. Disabled artists have existed for as long as art itself, and the only ableism here is AI-brained fuckwits using disabled people as an escape goat by suggesting they are unable to create things from their own effort and need spicy autocomplete to do so.

    Edit: fuck it, I’m keeping the escape goat!

  • Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending Sunday 1 September 2024
  • Our c-suite has announced an “AI workshop” for next Wednesday where we all work towards “increasing productivity in the age of AI”. The email was full of terribad Midjourney too which should’ve flagged it as spam.

    Totes looking forward to discussing why I don’t let ChatGPT vomit out production-critical code and instead write it myself like some fucking Luddite with the marketing team next week.

  • Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending Sunday 1 September 2024
  • These are not "Python community guidelines". These are the guidelines of a tyrannical clique who have grabbed power and control the access to the infrastructure.

    Lmao, fucking armchair revolutionaries at it again with interpreting a list of rules which essentially boils down to "don't be an asshole" as the literal end of civilization because it's attacking their assumed right to use slurs and insults free speech.

    Makes you think that it's always the same kind of people who seem to have a problem with not being a racist twat in a public space. Feels like I've seen similar discussions a dozen times in the Rust community too whenever the term inclusivity comes up.

  • Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending Sunday 1 September 2024
  • I love it when I randomly get a DM from some dude on Reddit because of a post I made six months ago mansplaining to me why I'm wrong about clowning on AI doomsters.

  • Devs and the Culture of Tech - Final part
  • Thanks for this series. I really enjoyed reading it (even though it reminded me that Yud's Dust-Spec-vs.-Torture bullshit exists which I had successfully banished from my mind).

    I remember watching Devs a few years back and I think you put everything I felt about that show into words much better than I ever could have.

  • Elon Musk releases Grok-2 AI image generator for edgelords
  • I’m still waiting for even one argument for the usefulness of AI image generation that isn’t fucked up. Just one.

    Grok seems so support nudity and deepfakes too according to some news articles I’ve seen because of course nothing screams more free speech than plastering the face of your favorite actor or political opponent into a porn scene, so now let’s see how long it takes the first bluecheck fucker to try and create CSAM with it, because I suppose that’ll be the point when it gets too hot even for Elon.

  • Sam Altman is full of shit (and totally has a thing for Scarlett Johansson)
    www.wheresyoured.at Sam Altman Is Full Of Shit

    Note: In my last newsletter, I said that my next post would be the second part of my Facebook autopsy. Don’t worry, that’s still coming, but given the recent drama between Sam Altman, OpenAI, and Scarlett Johansson, I felt the need to write something. Don’t worry, I

    Wake up honey, new Zitron just dropped.

    Looks like Sammy boy has a crush on Scarlett Johansson and wanted to model his sexy chatbot after her role in the movie Her. The damage control is actually hilarious.

    > Altman subsequently claimed that the actress for Sky was cast before the company reached out to Johansson.

    “Yeah, I don’t want to go out with you anyway. Also, I already have a girlfriend but she goes to a different school, so you wouldn’t know her. And no, I won’t tell you who it is!”

    I mean, we all knew that OpenAI is a fucking clown show of a company run by wannabe nerd frat boys with way too much money, but I didn’t think we’d get high school level relationship drama this season.

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    Tired of just generating anime girls? How about letting roided Clippy play CSI?
    gizmodo.com Court Bans Use of 'AI-Enhanced' Video Evidence Because That's Not How AI Works

    This AI hype cycle has dramatically distorted society's views of what's possible with image upscalers.

    It was honestly only a matter of time before someone thought we could try that thing where they identify a license plate from a reflection in some dude’s pupil for realsies.

    > Puloka’s lawyers reportedly used an “expert” in creative video production who’d never worked on a criminal case before to “enhance” the video. The AI tool this unnamed expert used was developed by Texas-based Topaz Labs, which is available to anyone with an internet connection.

    You wouldn’t know this expert though. He goes to a different school.

    > Large language models like ChatGPT have convinced otherwise intelligent people that these chatbots are capable of complex reasoning when that’s simply not what’s happening under the hood.

    And at least the judge here had more than five brain cells and shut that circus down. Let’s hope this sets a precedent.

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    When your big tech brain completely fails to read the room.
    variety.com SXSW Audiences Loudly Boo Festival Videos Touting the Virtues of AI

    SXSW audiences all day booed a festival video (played Tuesday in front of screenings) featuring tech pundits touting their enthusiasm for AI.

    It seems like in the proceeds of building their alleged Star Trek utopia with robots and holodecks, tech bros have discovered that they’d rather be the Borg than Starfleet and have begun shilling the pros of getting yourself assimilated at SXSW of all places.

    > “I actually think that AI fundamentally makes us more human.”

    I think it makes us more brain damaged, with this guy being exhibit A, but I guess you could argue that’s a fundamental human property (unless you count hallucinating LLMs).

    > Those folks sure seem bullish on artificial intelligence, and the audiences at the Paramount — many of whom are likely writers and actors who just spent much of 2023 on the picket line trying to reign in the potentially destructive power of AI — decided to boo the video. Loudly. And frequently.

    Stop resisting the tech utopia they’re trying to build for you, or you’re literally doomers. Never mind that the people building said tech utopia are also doomers, but that’s different, because they worry about the real dangers like acausal robot basilisks torturing them for all eternity and not about petty shit like unemployment and poverty.

    Speaking of stopping resisting, another, more critical article about this conference has some real bangers they left out in the other one -- I wonder why. It has some sneers, too.

    > […] tech journo Kara Swisher—saying stuff like “you need to stop resisting and starting learning” about AI […].

    Yep, that's an actual quote. I'm filing that one under examples of being completely tone-deaf alongside "Do you guys not have phones?".

    > […] every company will use AI to “figure out how” to become “more efficient.”

    I’m sure the toxic productivity community on YouTube will gobble that shit up. It reminds me of that clown who made a video on how to consume media more efficiently by watching anime on 2x speed and skipping the "boring parts". I guess when we eliminate all human value from entertainment products, that might become a valid strategy.

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    mii Mii @awful.systems

    I wrangle code, draw pictures, and write things. You might find some of it here.

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