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Comment LLM AI models are compressed knowledge compilation (Score 3) 40

So, basically the weights of an AI model are a compilation of human knowledge, i.e. an encyclopedia - or its equivalent for the XXI century. They don't contain just what human authors select and have the capacity to write, but everything that they're exposed to and that is frequent enough to leave a trace in the weights.

Any content generation of an LLM which isn't guided by a human is merely a random walk through that compressed encyclopedia of everything, following the most well-connected paths more frequently (that's why long generations often get caught in loops btw). There's no real agency in those 'agents'.

Comment Re:AI and slums (Score 3, Informative) 49

Quick fact check - which AI company is making trillions?

None of them. They're borrowing trillions in a triangular scheme of circular lending; the computing platform company invests trillions in the AI company which invests trillions in the energy company which invests trillions in the original computing company, increasing their overall valuation until they're all Too Big To Fail before the bubble pops.

Comment So, expropriate? (Score 1) 49

If a new development is going to leave large numbers of people unemployed, it would make sense for the government to seize it so that the wealth created by it can be invested in supporting those who lost their jobs because of it.

However, for some reason I suspect Anthropic's CEO may be hoping for the opposite result, having the government subsidizing the private company with whatever excuse.

Comment Re:"the headache of memorizing arcane HTML tags" (Score 4, Interesting) 60

It's a lot easier to remember that your asterisks will be converted.

For neurotypical people not trained in programming languages, it actually is easier to use 'symbols' for *emphasis*, because they work as augmenters of the written text (i.e. they take the same role as punctuation, parentheses, question marks and exclamation signs), instead of changing the reading processing mode into a totally different mental context (i.e. as code tags instead of natural text with markings). Markdown was a clever hack to get that natural reading experience to digital text formatting.

For the untrained eye, <i> and <b> look more like alien ships from an Invaders videogame that somehow got stuck in the middle of one paragraph, not as helpful commands to change the behaviour of the computer; you need to have a quite thorough understanding of how a computer processes digital text in order to understand those tags, which is simply not needed to use markdown.

Comment Re:Billionaires are done with paying wages (Score 1) 65

So we are gradually moving towards a feudal system with modern militaries used to enforce everything.
 

We need to organize. All of us who are not billionaires, it's in our best interest to ensure that they don't get that much power; this time there won't be enough marquisates, counties, and baronies to fight over among ourselves for the crumbs they're willing to give us to keep us in line.

This time, socialism won't do; we're not proletarians doing work on a production line. We need to be able to create our work projects without being able to sabotage us or buy from one of these great feudal platforms.

For once we have the necessary tools and knowledge to make it viable. It is true that platforms centralize power, but we have enough free software and open computers to create an alternative that does not depend on that central power. We only lack awareness that it is necessary to achieve it, and the organization to carry it out.

Comment Re:Problem? (Score 1) 83

While what you say is true, I think you're indeed missing the GP's point: that in this market of cheap low quality items, a significant portion of the economic activity is not lead by 'needs' but by 'wants', and those wants are easily manipulated by aggressive marketing.

If that's the case, a reduction of activity in that specific market does not mean a recession nor a reduction in quality of life, as those impulse buys were destined to have little practical use. In this case regulation could result in a more efficient distribution of resources by redirecting that 'waste money' to more useful ends. It can even be argued that such market did not provide an increase in the level of live, as the psychological manipulation to keep the impulse-buy going on has negative mental health effects of their own.

Comment Re:Should've segregated and monetized adult conten (Score 1) 28

UH... humanity *is* about marginalizing other groups. The entire history of humanity revolves around doing just this.

Uh no, that's civilization. Humanity is about caring for the 10 members of your tribe, who also happens to be close family members.

That's how it was for the large majority of time for the human kind; having enough people to be able to marginalize some of them only came about after the invention of agriculture, where groups settled and started to grow large and have different income levels.

Comment Re:Thats like medical doctors (Score 1) 49

Overall, a better approach than the doctor saying "Fentanyl isn't really that bad. You can keep shooting up as long as you have Narcan."

To make the metaphor accurate, instead of Narcan the doctor would be recommending a new novelty drug whose results are untested in the human body, and for which no antidote is known.

Comment There's also a localhost option (Score 3, Interesting) 45

You can turn on a setting in about:config that will add an option to connect to a locally hosted LLM model, typically running in your GPU with something like Ollama, LM Studio or Anything LLM.

I would like that such option was displayed as prominent as those connecting to commercial services, but at least it's there for those in the know.

Comment Re:Morale (Score 0) 68

Wouldn't it be nice if companies treated people well and we didn't need unions?

Companies treated workers well, and Western governments provided a welfare state, because of the menace of the Soviet Union looking as a more attractive option to workers.

Once the Soviet Union imploded ending the Cold War, there were no menace anymore and the ruling class returned to their previous mode of operation, dialling the clock back to the XIX century with it's Dickensian Laissez-faire.

It's only logical that when we go back to the conditions that motivated Socialism, workers bring back the same old techniques of class warfare. Welcome to the New World Order, same as the Old.

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