"At least as safe as a (prudent) human" seems like a reasonable standard to shoot for as a floor, presuming the vendor is willing to accept liability when their "as good as a human" system is at fault in an accident.

This a BMW thing? I've only bought three new cars in my life, but I test drove the exact vehicle I purchased. Why would you drive a different car?

The same place he's been for the last quarter century: dead. You're picking on the wrong Kennedy scion.

Come on, I'm not in any way a fan of Musk, but he appears to have (at least until recently) let the adults run things at SpaceX while he just takes the credit for it, and when Falcon 9 was first flying, his entire net worth was "hundreds of millions" rather than having "hundreds of billions in disposable income."

Oher rich people have played with rockets, too. He's, shockingly, mostly succeeded, and while his actual personal achievements here are far closer to Al Gore's infamous claim about the internet (his real efforts in funding and commercialization while in the senate, not the sound bite we love to mock) than what Musk wants everyone to believe, the whole "other rich people playing with rockets" bit suggests that no, you probably couldn't have done as well or better with his resources.

> I wonder how many problems they tried before they solved one successfully.

Was gonna mod Insightful, but the replies aren't getting it.

"Solving this problem cost $2000."

That may be true.

"We tried to solve 50 problems at $2000 each and one was successfully solved."

This can also be true which means:

"We spent $100K and we solved one open problem."

which is fiscally, but not akshually, the same as:

"We spent $100K to solve one problem."

If Astra is "all that", OpenAI should have a pricing tier, "no charge unless the problem is solved."

Now *that* would be an impressive vote of confidence and everybody should be excited about it.

But insofar as I can tell, that original 404 Media story largely amounts to "my friend heard from another friend that they're doing it with RARE books". Â\_(ãf)_/Â

Why would LLMs benefit from scouring RARE old books? What benefit would the rarity serve, when likely the texts are reprinted in umpteen subsequent editions that - to put it bluntly - nobody wants?
Are they buying an original copy of Samuel Pepys diary (first printings $4000) when they can get the umpteenth reprint for 17 cents? So yes, they're "destroying an old book" but rare? Why would they pay for rare?

You know how I know? Because I've been trying to unload a cache of 'rare old books' for a decade and nobody wants them.

1935 Platt & Munk Indian Series 3 pics â" Iâ(TM)ve only ever seen sets of 8, this is 16
https://photos.google.com/shar...

Maximilian I., der Grosse (2 pics) 1876
https://photos.google.com/shar...

Massive Norwegian Bible 1891?, rough shape, 7 pics gorgeous rebinding candidate, probably 14â x 10â x 4â?
https://photos.google.com/shar...

Worldâ(TM)s Great Classics, The Federalist Papers 3 pics, 1901
https://photos.google.com/shar...

Roman London â" 1926? 1 pic (contents on web at https://archive.org/details/in... )

https://photos.google.com/shar...

William the Silent 2 pics, 1911

https://photos.google.com/shar...

Knightâ(TM)s History of England, 4 vols, first American Edition, 2 pics 1880

https://photos.google.com/shar...

Guizotâ(TM)s Concise History of France 1881? 2 pics (Curiously, different than the version in the Library of Congress in that itâ(TM)s missing the printing date (see pics) â" LoC version here: https://babel.hathitrust.org/c... )

https://photos.google.com/shar...

A Guide to the American Battle Fields in Europe 1927 4 pics great maps.

https://photos.google.com/shar...

England and Germany 1740-1914 3 pics, 1918

https://photos.google.com/shar...

Schillerâ(TM)s Thirty Yearsâ(TM) War â" 3 pics â" 1897?

https://photos.google.com/shar...

History of the United States, vol 1 ,Ridpath 2 pics 1911

https://photos.google.com/shar...

Operation Greenhouse â" briefing pamphlet, 2 pics 1951 âoeRestrictedâ

https://photos.google.com/shar...

Home Life in Far Away Lands (textbook) 1928 clearly loved

https://photos.google.com/shar...

Simondâ(TM)s Travels in Switzerland Vols I and II , 1822

https://photos.google.com/shar...

5000 New Answers to Questions 2 pics 1933

https://photos.google.com/shar...

Union Now With Britain, 1941 4 pics

https://photos.google.com/shar...

Advanced Geography 2 pics textbook 1925

https://photos.google.com/shar...

Christian Stockâ(TM)s Hamiletisches Real-Lexicon 3 pics, 1890s?

https://photos.google.com/shar...

Thoresbyâ(TM)s Letters 4 pics Vol I and II, 1822

https://photos.google.com/shar...

Praediekener 2 pics, 1760

https://photos.google.com/shar...

On the Field of Glory 1906

https://photos.google.com/shar...

A Primer of the War for Americans 1914 2 pics

https://photos.google.com/shar...

Sabotage! The Secret War Against America 1942

https://photos.google.com/shar...

Vore Husdyr 2 pics 1902

https://photos.google.com/shar...

Maori & Settler 1900? 2 pics

https://photos.google.com/shar...

The History of England 2 pics Vol V, 1910?

https://photos.google.com/shar...

Gregg Speed Studies, Anniv Edition 2 pics 1929

https://photos.google.com/shar...

Parallel Source Problems in Medieval History 1912, 2 pics

https://photos.google.com/shar...

Swedish New Testament 1886 4 pics

https://photos.google.com/shar...

A History Of France, Arlington edition 5 pics 1881

https://photos.google.com/shar...

A History of Western Europe 3 pics 1904

https://photos.google.com/shar...

  Auswahl von Predikten 1829 2 pics

https://photos.google.com/shar...

World Politics at the End of the 19th Century â" 1902

https://photos.google.com/shar...

Republic or Empire: The Philippine Question by Wm Jennings Bryan SIGNED BY WM JENNINGS BRYANT 1899 2 pics

https://photos.google.com/shar...

Psalmebog 1833 3 pics

https://photos.google.com/shar...

Danish-English Dictionary 3 pics, 1845

https://photos.google.com/shar...

Collection of New Testament Histories 1805 3 pics

https://photos.google.com/shar...

Slips of Speech 1922 3 pics

https://photos.google.com/shar...

Biblehistorie 1888 no cover 1 pic

https://photos.google.com/shar...

Contes et Recits 1896 2 pics

https://photos.google.com/shar...

A Handbook of the War for Readers, Speakers, and Teachers 1918 1 pic

https://photos.google.com/shar...

FM21-100 Basic Field Manual 1 pic July 1941

https://photos.google.com/shar...

Look to Jesus 1904 2 pics

https://photos.google.com/shar...

Seven Chances (play) 1924 2 pics

https://photos.google.com/shar...

Sherwin Cody Nutshell Collection of Books 1927 3 pics 12 books (2 maps pictures NOT included in this set)

https://photos.google.com/shar...

Minneapolis and St Paul Street Maps including streetcar lines â" year not yet determined

https://photos.google.com/shar...

https://www.science.org/conten...

I guess not.

Astra correctly answers all 10 questions in the $2000 lightning round!

And now on to the final round. To win $32,000 cash, a brand new Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser, and an all-expense paid vacation for two to Puerto Vallarta, all you have to do is answer this single question to the satisfaction of our judges:

The Riemann Hypothesis: True or False?

I see some of these CVE's are fixed in trixie but not bookworm 6.1.177-1 (yet).

Still other CVE's are fixed in bookworm but not yet in trixie. Seems like a few reboots are in the offing.

First time I've seen several fixes in oldstable before stable. It must be a wild week over there. n.b. fixed, not 'not vulnerable'.

Glad the oldstable crew is hard at work!

Is anybody aware of open source hardware/software to do the page turning and photograph/OCR the pages?

Google's rig used a puff of air, IIRC.

I asked somebody in the field and they said, "oh, you want a professional rig - those cost $10K and up.

I was like, "no, I have several rare books I'd like to index and this setup is far less complicated than my $249 3D printer." (I already have a good camera.)

I thought I'd find a hackaday or something but my cursory search wasn't fruitful.

But how long would it take to implement in every supported OS version and then get all the developers to declare a manifest and update their app?

A policy change can be enforced tomorrow (for better or for worse).

The AI bros might even get Samsung to change their mind. Apparently their 'subcontractors' use this technique to scrape all the content they use for training.

Would threatening to cancel a year's RAM order from the chip subsidiary cause a decision to change in the TV subsidiary? I have no idea how dispersed and decentralized Samsung is.

I'd bet it will stick, though, which is likely for the best. Odds are people aren't running Tor exits on their TV's. Maybe there are legitimate apps I'm not aware of.

Back in the teens we found a couple of instances where political actors were encouraging people to install screen savers or cryptocurrency wallets that turned their phones into reverse proxies. This was thought to be specifically for the sake of giving hostile foreign operations (read: Russia) access to U.S. domestic politics.

The fact that smart TVs are facilitating this is just ... we're going to need home networks that treat IoT stuff as different than our actual systems.

Oh, wait, TP-Link had well over half the U.S. router market, but they're getting banned over national security concerns?

Maybe there's a market for a router with traffic accounting as a service so one can see what's happening?

This is why the only device in my house with internet is a Roku. I simply will not tolerate the rest of that invasive junk.

Millions of books are dumpstered every day. MILLIONS. Ever go to a library used book sale? Ever notice that - in MOST cases - 75%+ aren't purchased, even at 50-cents a book?

Sure, some get donated but a lot of book donation places are filtering as they don't need a 100th set of Encyclopedias from 1981.
I know of at least a couple of organizations that fill 20' containers and send to some associated groups in Africa to provide books for kids, but "Morning Glory Milking Farm" as well as Chilton's 1999 Pontiac Minivan manual isn't going to make the cut there either. It costs $ to ship them and they don't have money to waste.
Largely...they get thrown away/pulped. For some reason I'd once noticed that a local library (part of a county-wide metro association) was dumpstering books. Like... a LOT of books - talking a half-full 5 yard dumpster EVERY WEEK. I'd look and there were dozens of heavy duty black garbage bags FULL of books, and not just shitty old ones, there were multiple copies of popular fiction titles, NEW periodicals, all sorts of good stuff. I recognized the dumps were clearly by section as one night several bags would be "history" for example. In the bags they were totally clean too.
I probably dumpster dived 1000 books over the better part of a year, before my wife drew the line bringing home 1-2 shopping bags (eventually i just left a heavy-duty recycling tub in my car for it...) every week. I'm a big reader but that's a lot.
This was a library in an extremely wealthy suburb of 50,000. So I called them and asked about it. IMMEDIATELY the library *insisted* they only threw away damaged books. When I provided pictures, they claimed they were moving to a new facility and someone was just being a little overzealous in their cull.
Their new building was - I shit you not - MAYBE 50 yards away.

Anyway, the point is, I am saddened by the loss of any book, but let's not cry fake tears over this just because it's AI and people are 'shocked' to find out that the public doesn't give much of a shit about books anymore. Because they don't.

The call centers are going to be decimated ... but so will the AI replacements meant to talk to humans.

I have a number of issues this morning that require calls. First, deal with PG&E about changing the billing for my new house. The I need to talk to my bank about banning Google from ever billing me again. I absolutely HATE changing doctors, but had to do it, because getting to Antioch, then into the city, is just ridiculous from here, so it's time for first appointment.

I would love to be able to just give Claude a list of administrivia like that and let it plow through the work. I see progress on agent related billing, I see Cloudflare doing stuff for an internet dominated by agents ... everyone in the industrialized world is going to have an AI adjutant to handle this stuff. I really hope the old military term "dog robber" gets revived as a way to describe them.

I suspect the Pareto Principle is very much at play here, in that 80% of customer issues can totally be answered by the scripts that human front-line call centre staff typically worked from (that's why the scripts exist in the first place, afterall), and therefore 80% of the calls can be dealt with perfectly well by an AI bot following the same script. It's only the other 20% that are the unique problems that KB articles and scripted/automated agents cannot handle, and - usually after a lot of pointless tick-boxing to get off-script - those are usually the ones that get escalated to a second line support peon that can actually take some initiative, and ultimately the few real corner cases to third-line support.

If AI can let you cull 80% of your support / call centre staff with no practical loss of service (according to the AI agent salesperson, anyway), then who isn't going to jump at that? Of course, they'll probably go for 90% or more and take extra hit on service levels, then have to wind things back a bit when they realise that the AI agents are not quite as good as promised and some people will get really stroppy about being forced to talk a bot, but at that point they'll have been paid their bonus and who cares, right? They're only customers, and you've got think of the shareholders!