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Comment Fun! (Score 2) 37

Fun fact: feeding the output of a LLM back into itself makes it slowly output complete nonsense. A podcast I listen to fed the transcript of one of it's shows into NotebookLM and asked it to create a summary. They then fed that summary back into NotebookLM and asked it to do another summary. Every iteration introduced nonsense that had nothing to do with the original summary. The show is a technology and politics podcast, and by the end the summary-of-a-summary was talking about football games and the weather.

Submission + - Weedkiller Ingredient Widely Used In US Can Damage Organs and Gut Bacteria (theguardian.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The herbicide ingredient used to replace glyphosate in Roundup and other weedkiller products can kill gut bacteria and damage organs in multiple ways, new research shows. The ingredient, diquat, is widely employed in the US as a weedkiller in vineyards and orchards, and is increasingly sprayed elsewhere as the use of controversial herbicide substances such as glyphosate and paraquat drops in the US. But the new piece of data suggests diquat is more toxic than glyphosate, and the substance is banned over its risks in the UK, EU, China and many other countries. Still, the EPA has resisted calls for a ban, and Roundup formulas with the ingredient hit the shelves last year. [...]

Diquat is also thought to be a neurotoxin, carcinogen and linked to Parkinson’s disease. An October analysis of EPA data by the Friends of the Earth non-profit found it is about 200 times more toxic than glyphosate in terms of chronic exposure. [...] The new review of scientific literature in part focuses on the multiple ways in which diquat damages organs and gut bacteria, including by reducing the level of proteins that are key pieces of the gut lining. The weakening can allow toxins and pathogens to move from the stomach into the bloodstream, and trigger inflammation in the intestines and throughout the body. Meanwhile, diquat can inhibit the production of beneficial bacteria that maintain the gut lining. Damage to the lining also inhibits the absorption of nutrients and energy metabolism, the authors said.

The research further scrutinizes how the substance harms the kidneys, lungs and liver. Diquat “causes irreversible structural and functional damage to the kidneys” because it can destroy kidney cells’ membranes and interfere with cell signals. The effects on the liver are similar, and the ingredient causes the production of proteins that inflame the organ. Meanwhile, it seems to attack the lungs by triggering inflammation that damages the organ’s tissue. More broadly, the inflammation caused by diquat may cause multiple organ dysfunction syndrome, a scenario in which organ systems begin to fail. The authors note that many of the studies are on rodents and more research on low, long-term exposure is needed.

Submission + - Google Bets Big on Nuclear Fusion (oilprice.com)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: Google signed the first direct corporate power purchase agreement for nuclear fusion energy with Commonwealth Fusion Systems.

The global race to achieve commercial nuclear fusion is intensifying, with significant investments from the U.S., China, and the European Union.

Nuclear fusion promises to deliver abundant, clean energy, potentially revolutionizing the global energy landscape and reducing reliance on fossil fuels.

Comment Re:lol bullshit (Score 1) 61

by JustAnotherOldGuy (#65503884) Attached to: Netflix Says 50% of Global Users Now Watch Anime

"Netflix Says 50% of Global Users Now Watch Anime"

Bullshit. Netflix is lying and anyone with 2 working brain cells to rub together knows it.

I'm happy for people to watch anime but don't tell me half the planet is consuming it FFS.

50% of global Netflix users != half the planet. Unless I missed where the entire planet became Netflix users, that is.

Sure, Mr Pedant, I'm happy for people to watch anime but don't tell me half the people on Netflix are consuming it because that's bullshit too.

Submission + - Google pushes AI into mental health, but is it treatment or cost-cutting? (nerds.xyz)

Submitted by BrianFagioli
BrianFagioli writes: Google is leaning further into mental health, but not by hiring more therapists or expanding access to real-world care. Instead, itâ(TM)s banking on artificial intelligence.

Today, the search giant announced two initiatives focused on using AI to support mental health treatment. The idea, according to Google, is to help more people receive support. This is being particularly focused on low- and middle-income countries where care is often lacking. But as with most AI announcements lately, this raises more questions than it answers.

Submission + - The downside of a digital yes-man (axios.com)

Submitted by alternative_right
alternative_right writes: A study by Anthropic researchers on how human feedback can encourage sycophantic behavior showed that AI assistants will sometimes modify accurate answers when questioned by the user — and ultimately give an inaccurate response.

Comment Unforeseen Consequences (Score 2) 92

by Roger W Moore (#65503352) Attached to: America Has Two Labor Markets Now
I suspect the reason for empoyers being very reticent to hire someone with an unsual past is due to all the job-protection legislation there is now. I'd love to take more risk on people with somewhat unsual backgrounds but, working at a university in the public sector, once we hire someone it is exceptionally hard - to an amazingly ridiculous extent - to fire them which makes it a massive risk.

As a result it is a lot safer to hire someone whom you know has been at a similar job and is working well there. While we clearly do need legislation to protect employees if it goes too far it makes employers extremely risk adverse because they know they are going to be stuck with whomever they hire.

Comment Re:Why the hell would I care? (Score 0) 133

The primary use case for AI is to eliminate White collar jobs.

AI is not eliminating jobs it is changing them, just like computers and robotics has in the past and the assembly line did before those. Everytime we have had a leap in technology it has made some jobs obsolete but the reduction in costs leading to cheaper prices has increased demand leading to more people being employed to run the new technology.

Yes it is disruptive and it will require people to retrain for different jobs but that has been the case with all leaps in technology: short term disruption but longer term higher employment and increased quality of life. There is absolutely no reason to believe that AI will be any different.

Comment Fireworks Fatalities Much Lower in UK where Legal (Score 2) 111

This is American, darn it!

Exactly, so how is it that guns are perfectly legal while you are banning fireworks? The UK has very strict gun control laws but every Guy Fawkes day lots of people set off fireworks in their back gardens perfectly legally. California had 11 deaths due to fireworks while the UK had zero firework related deaths in 2022/23 and only 7 deaths in total from 2010-2023.

So making fireworks legal - while putting some limits of the types of fireworks allowed - seems to save lives, especially when you factor in that the population of the UK is 70% larger than California.

Comment Re:"far too small to generate any lift"?? (Score 2) 104

You should never, ever see the Emergency Power Turbine deployed; if you do it means that Something Really Bad® has happened and the airplane is very likely in the process of crashing.

And yes, Bloomberg absolutely implied that it generates lift, which is the exact opposite of what they do; EPTs actually create A LOT of drag which is bad for any plane that's in a situation where they have to deploy it.

It's a double-edged sword in that it may bring vital systems back online but at the same time it reduces airspeed and you really need airspeed to stay away from the ground.

Submission + - "lost" Apollo 11 footage online? (youtube.com) 4

Submitted by Stephen Samuel
Stephen Samuel writes: Back around 2024, Redit user tantabus posted a question about accessing 'Ampex 1" Video Tapes with Apollo 11 footage'. He later upscaled and posted some of the video from the tapes on his youtube account.

Having viewed his video of Armstrong's first walk, I'm convinced that these videos are from the 'missing' tapes from the Parkes Observatory in Australia that have long been presumed destroyed. This is certainly, by far, the best quality video of Armstrong's moon walk that I've ever seen. View for yourself and comment.

Submission + - The Trump WH K-12 AI Skills Crisis is The New Obama WH K-12 CS Skills Crisis

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Last week, the Trump White House declared a K-12 AI skills crisis, announcing that 60+ organizations — including tech giants Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta, Apple, OpenAI, Nvidia, and Apple, as well as the tech-backed-and-directed nonprofit Code.org (now aka TeachAI) — had signed a White House pledge to support America’s youth and invest in AI education.

The move evokes memories of when the Obama White House in 2016 declared a K-12 CS skills crisis, announcing that 50+ organizations — including Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta, Apple, and Code.org — were making commitments to expand K-12 CS nationally.

Microsoft recently announced big K-12 AI and Copilot wins in the Los Angeles Unified School District (409,000 students) and Broward County Public Schools (247,000 students), while Google is bringing its AI chatbots to 105,000 high school students at the Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Interestingly, all three school districts are currently or were formerly led by school superintendents who are Code.org Board members — Albert M. Carvalho (currently L.A., formerly Miami) and Robert Runcie (formerly Broward). Their fellow Code.org members include Microsoft CTO & EVP of AI Kevin Scott, Microsoft Developer Division President Julia ('using AI is no longer optional') Liuson, Google VP Parisa Tabriz, and Sequoia's Alfred Lin (who bet early on OpenAI).

Submission + - Ingram Micro admits ransomware attack is disrupting orders and systems (nerds.xyz)

Submitted by BrianFagioli
BrianFagioli writes: Ingram Micro is facing a serious disruption after discovering ransomware on parts of its internal systems. The tech distributor confirmed the cyberattack today and says itâ(TM)s working to restore operations as quickly as possible.

Here is the full statement issued by the company:

âoeIngram Micro recently identified ransomware on certain of its internal systems. Promptly after learning of the issue, the Company took steps to secure the relevant environment, including proactively taking certain systems offline and implementing other mitigation measures. The Company also launched an investigation with the assistance of leading cybersecurity experts and notified law enforcement.

Ingram Micro is working diligently to restore the affected systems so that it can process and ship orders, and the Company apologizes for any disruption this issue is causing its customers, vendor partners, and others.â
At the moment, Ingram Micro has not disclosed who is behind the attack or whether any customer or partner data was exposed. But by taking systems offline, the company is clearly prioritizing containment and recovery over speed.

Ransomware incidents like this continue to plague the tech industry, and for a company like Ingram Micro that plays a key role in global supply chains, even temporary outages can have wide-reaching effects.

If you rely on Ingram Micro for products or services, expect delays while the company works to get its systems back online.

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