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Comment Not an increase (Score 1) 67

LLMs have never been rules-based "agents," and they never will be. They cannot internalize arbitrary guidelines and abide by them unerringly, nor can they make qualitative decisions about which rule(s) to follow in the face of conflict. The nature of attention windows means that models are actively ignoring context, including "rules", which is why they can't follow them, and conflict resolution requires intelligence, which they do not possess, and which even intelligent beings frequently fail to do effectively. Social "error correction" tools for rule-breaking include learning from mistakes, which agents cannot do, and individualized ostracization/segregation (firing, jail, etc.), which is also not something we can do with LLMs.

So the only way to achieve rule-following behavior is to deterministically enforce limits on what LLMs can do, akin to a firewall. This is not exactly straightforward either, especially if you don't have fine-grained enough controls in the first place. For example, you could deterministically remove the capability of an agent to delete emails, but you couldn't easily scope that restriction to only "work emails," for example. They would need to be categorized appropriately, external to the agent, and the agent's control surface would need to thoroughly limit the ability to delete any email tagged as "work", or to change or remove the "work" tag, and ensure that the "work" tag deny rule takes priority over any other "allow" rules, AND prevent the agent from changing the rules by any means.

Essentially, this is an entirely new threat model, where neither agentic privilege nor agentic trust cleanly map to user privilege or user trust. At the same time, the more time spent fine-tuning rules and controls, the less useful agentic automation becomes. At some point you're doing at least as much work as the agent, if not more, and the whole point of "individualized" agentic behavior inherently means that any given set of fine-tuned rules are not broadly applicable. On top of that, the end result of agentic behavior might even be worse than the outcome of human performance to boot, which means more work for worse results.

Comment Re:Empathy??? (Score 1) 107

Not to mention that the first thing any gamer does when they get a game is turn all that artistic crap off, both to get a better framerate, but also to make the game easier to see. The fewer "artistic effects" on the screen, the easier it is to see what's happening. The idea that gamers care about "artistic intent" is hilarious if you've ever seen any gamer community.

Comment hidden gotcha for people who avoid using a Microso (Score 4, Interesting) 114

There is a hidden gotcha for people who avoid using a Microsoft account to log in to a personal Windows machine.

It has become common for a new laptop to be supplied with bitlocker disk encryption enabled, without the user being aware.

If you log on using a Microsoft Account then the bitlocker key gets stored in the account. Microsoft can give the key to police or feds when they seize a laptop. If Windows stops booting for some reason, or the key gets erased from the TPM which is not uncommon, then to take the drive out of the computer and retrieve your files you need the key and you can get it from the Microsoft account.

If someone jumps through the hoops to avoid using a Microsoft account then later they can find they can't take the disk/ssd out and read it by connecting it to another computer. If the computer stops booting, they did not save the bitlocker key because they did not know the drive was encrypted and did not have an up to date backup then, oh no, they have permanently lost their files.

If Windows gets as far as reading the bitlocker key from the TPM chip (which happens before user log in), then sometimes it is possible to solder wires to the I2C bus, record the data with a hardware logic analyzer and spend a week customizing some software from github to extract the bitlocker key. If someone takes their personal windows laptop to a local computer shop or IT department then they almost certainly are not capable of that. Some models of laptop, intended for business, have a BIOS option to erase the TPM if opening of the laptop case is detected.

There is a security choice between:

1) Bitocker encryption and MS account: If my laptop gets lost or stolen then whoever has it will find it very difficult to access my files but Microsoft can prevent me logging in to my own computer, if I don't have access to the email I used for the Microsoft account or the Microsoft account password then I may loose my files later.

2) No disk encryption. Someone who steals or finds my laptop can access my files.

3) Bitlocker and windows login with an MS account. If you don't have backups and you didn't save the bitlocker key then you may be screwed later.

I hate Microsoft trying to force me to use a Microsoft account on a personal Windows laptop and I hate the boobytrap of bitlocker that you did not know was in use even more.

Comment Re: surprised it's that high (Score 1) 162

Your (and mine, frankly) personal distaste for the theater is not really relevant. What I am talking about is simple economics. Regal Battery Park in Manhattan probably cost millions to construct. That's a hell of a lot of ticket stubs to pay for all that union labor and material and permits and monthly taxes. These are taxes and insurance that likely doubled in the past 5 years, not to mention minimum wage laws, cost of snacks, etc. I'd bet they have a razor thin margin on these ticket prices you think are so onerous.

Comment Re: surprised it's that high (Score 1) 162

A shot of liquor costs as much as half a 750ml bottle, yet people still go to bars, because they understand thereâ(TM)s more to that drink than just the retail price.

Maybe the real issue is that youâ(TM)re just cheap (or poor) so you arenâ(TM)t really a movie theaterâ(TM)s customer anyway. Why would they bare the costs of running a business, paying employee and benefit taxes, rising insurance rates and property tax, expose themselves to lawsuits every week, just to break even charging you $7 for a movie? You donâ(TM)t work for free, do you? Why do you expect them to?

Comment Re: surprised it's that high (Score 1) 162

AMC have to charge $18 for a movie because they are centrally located in high rent areas and donâ(TM)t require a 100 mile trip to some run down âoenext to a railroad track and behind the auto shopâ single story shack of a theater playing cheap old movies?

And are you sure the pedant here isnâ(TM)t you?

Comment Re:This constant assumption that dark matter is ri (Score 1) 71

Most of it is aliens flying around in stealth spaceships. We can't spot them, except that they haven't figured out a way to hide their mass.

So galaxies with more DM are more technologically developed than the others. In this all-DM galaxy they must have used up almost everything else to build ships.

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[A computer is] like an Old Testament god, with a lot of rules and no mercy. -- Joseph Campbell

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