Welcome to Incremental Social! Learn more about this project here!
Check out lemmyverse to find more communities to join from here!

KevonLooney

@KevonLooney@lemm.ee

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

KevonLooney ,

exposing customer names, phone numbers, email addresses, login IP addresses, home addresses, and order details.

So, nothing important? You know what else has names, phone numbers, home addresses, etc? Publicly available databases. It's called a phone book. IP addresses? Please. It's not static anyway and it might just lead to a VPN.

KevonLooney ,

I just realized something: since most people have no idea what AI is, it could easily be used to scam people. I think that will be it's main function originally.

Like the average person does not have access to real time stock data. You could make a fake AI program that pretends to be a trading algorithm and makes a ton of pretend money as the mark watches. The data would be 100% real and verifiable, just picked a few seconds after the the fact.

Since most people care a lot about money, this will be some of the first widespread applications of real time AI. Just tricking people out of money.

KevonLooney ,

Current froth doesn't erase the previous crash. It's clearly just a tulip bulb. Even tulip bulbs were able to be traded as currency for houses and large purchases during tulip mania. How much does a great tulip bulb cost now?

KevonLooney ,

True, and it's excellent at generating basic lists of things. But you need a human to actually direct it.

Having Google just generate whatever text is like just mashing the keys on a typewriter. You have tons of perfectly formed letters that mean nothing. They make no sense because a human isn't guiding them.

KevonLooney ,

You can ask these LLMs to continue filling out the outline too. They just generate a bunch of generic points and you can erase or fill in the details.

KevonLooney ,

I think this is an interesting point. What if they gave a concert and a murderer attended? Should they leave if they found out who was there?

Of course it's more personal when it's a private concert, but this is Amazon not Gaddafi. They are kind of supporting the company, but who's working as an Amazon executive just for the concerts? I'm sure they have free gym memberships or something too. Should the gym ban them?

KevonLooney ,

$300? Just use Free Tax USA. It's free for federal and $15 for each state. No, you don't need extra stuff, unless you think you'll be audited.

If you spend a little time figuring out your tax situation, you don't need to pay someone else to do it. Here's a secret: the people they have doing your taxes don't necessarily have a master's degree in tax. Those people are helping corporations or wealthy people with trusts.

KevonLooney ,

Do you buy houses all the time? Do you want your income info to be sold to anyone who will pay? You are paying extra for them to have access to your info.

The ugly truth behind ChatGPT: AI is guzzling resources at planet-eating rates (www.theguardian.com)

Despite its name, the infrastructure used by the “cloud” accounts for more global greenhouse emissions than commercial flights. In 2018, for instance, the 5bn YouTube hits for the viral song Despacito used the same amount of energy it would take to heat 40,000 US homes annually....

KevonLooney ,

a lot of it does end up raining down on the ocean, and we can't use it again without desalination

Where do you think rain comes from? Why do hurricanes form over the ocean?

CEO of Google Says It Has No Solution for Its AI Providing Wildly Incorrect Information (futurism.com)

You know how Google's new feature called AI Overviews is prone to spitting out wildly incorrect answers to search queries? In one instance, AI Overviews told a user to use glue on pizza to make sure the cheese won't slide off (pssst...please don't do this.)...

KevonLooney ,

?

Have you never used any of these tools? They're excellent at doing simple things very fast. But it's like a word processor in the 90s. It's just a tool, not the font of all knowledge.

I guess younger people won't know this, but word processor programs were very impressive when they first came out. They replaced typewriters; a page printed from a printer looked much more professional than even the best typewriters. This lent an air of credibility to anything that was printed from a computer because it was new and expensive.

Think about that now. Do you automatically trust anything that's just printed on a piece of paper? No, because that's stupid. Anyone can just print whatever they want. LLMs are like that now. They can just say whatever they want. It's up to you to make sure it's true.

KevonLooney ,

It's pretty simple. You don't care about a particular grain of rice unless it's special in some way (maybe something is drawn on it). Prices are always dependent on what people believe about the object. The "law" just defines the general parameters.

Also, there are many "exceptions" to the theory of gravity and apples do not always fall. Is an apple on a table falling? What about if you lift it? Oh my God, it's doing the opposite of falling! How is that possible?!?

KevonLooney ,

Yeah, that's my point.

KevonLooney ,

Do you believe everything that companies tell you? If Google or Apple tell you "we're the solution to everything, you never need to buy anything else", do you listen to them?

KevonLooney ,

Yeah, it's relatively easy to make good money in crypto if you understand investing. There are a lot of things that are illegal in regulated securities markets that are not yet illegal with crypto.

I intentionally don't invest in crypto, because it doesn't produce anything. Any money you make is just taken from another investor, usually because they don't know what they're doing. When you invest in a company, you make products and sell them to customers. Something is created and rarely are people cheated.

The people investing in crypto are intentionally cheating uninformed investors in a way that is not possible in regulated securities markets.

KevonLooney ,

All of that is way more productive than crypto because something actually gets produced. Crypto is literally only gambling and scams, plus it's bad for the Earth. And I have nothing against gambling, it's the fact that vulnerable people lose tons of money thinking it's an investment.

Plus actual gambling is way more fun.

KevonLooney ,

But the same people will say that Israel has to be 100% opposed, even though they are a democracy where lots of people disagree with the current actions of the government.

So China's problems are ignored but Israel's are not. That's the definition of bias.

KevonLooney ,

The people who give China a pass are who I'm talking about. They don't oppose the Chinese government either.

For some people the thought process is:

Oppose "the West" = good

Support "the West" = bad

The countries making up "the West" change from person to person and day to day.

KevonLooney ,

This sounds good in theory, but is relatively bad in practice. Without interest, no one will loan the government money. Municipalities would need to rely on huge tax increases to fund large projects, instead of bonds funded by small tax increases over time.

No one will loan money to businesses either, and you are not getting any money to buy a house. It would favor those who already own established businesses, as they can just use profits from one to invest in another one.

KevonLooney ,

That would mean rich donors end up "lending" money to the government for "no interest". I'm sure in return they would receive zero favors or benefits of any kind.

Like a lot of things in the Bible, it may work for goat herders lost in the Bronze Age desert. But it definitely doesn't literally work today. It didn't even work under the Romans during Jesus's time.

He was like "not a word shall be changed", but also don't worry about tiny details. Regarding keeping Kosher He said, "it's not what goes into your mouth that defiles you, but what comes out." The point is to keep yourself clean, not details about shellfish.

KevonLooney ,

Exactly, and no it can't "just happen under any system". Right now the US government is giving out 5.1% interest on risk free Treasury Bills. There's literally no way to bribe the Treasury with free money because everyone and their dog is rushing to lend the government money at those rates.

Hello GPT-4o (openai.com)

GPT-4o (“o” for “omni”) is a step towards much more natural human-computer interaction—it accepts as input any combination of text, audio, and image and generates any combination of text, audio, and image outputs. It can respond to audio inputs in as little as 232 milliseconds, with an average of 320 milliseconds,...

KevonLooney ,

There's a basic problem with replacing human experts with AI. Where will they get their info from with no one to scrape? Other AI generated content?

They can't learn anything and are just "standing on the shoulders of giants". These companies will fire their software developers, just to hire them back as AI trainers.

KevonLooney ,

This is the actual answer. Don't look at them in the face and try to leave ASAP. Philosophical questions are usually very simplified to illustrate a point, and there are usually more than two choices.

In a real life "trolley" scenario, you should wave to the driver and get them to stop. There should be zero people tied to the tracks. And that's only what should happen if you think quickly enough. In real life you may actually just freeze and do nothing.

KevonLooney ,

There are almost always better options than the given ones. I remember an answer to the "Ship of Theseus" problem a friend gave; he recommended calling it a different ship once more than 50% was replaced. I asked why and he said that all definitions are just made up, and you have to draw a line somewhere.

That's what people do in real life. They don't just sit there perplexed by a "paradox".

KevonLooney ,

I've used Target for groceries and they're routinely cheaper for most things.

KevonLooney ,

Workers in the US may not even have sick time. They do make more money though, probably because lots of European tech workers come to the US for better pay.

KevonLooney ,

Vacation time is not sick time. If you want any type of vacation at all, you need to plan ahead of time. Offering only 2 weeks is a joke. If you get sick one day, you lose one week of vacation.

Monitoring and rationing sick time is like limiting bathroom breaks or coffee time. if your job does it, you have a crappy employer.

KevonLooney ,

Yeah, this is the problem. Someone who has legitimately built a basic application or website from scratch may know everything you need, but HR will filter it out.

They don't really understand what they are looking for, so someone who says they are an AI Researcher with 8 years of experience in the language "Zendaya" and work experience at five moon rocket startups will be at the top of the pile.

Companies need to beef up their training programs so they can literally take in whoever and teach them what they need to know. Forget trying to get the top people. Just take the first 20 who can make it through an interview without drooling on the floor. You will probably get at least 9 ok developers and 1 good one.

KevonLooney ,

I'm sure someone out there is using them in a way that helps, but I haven't seen it yet in the wild.

That's because those responses are indistinguishable from individually written ones. I know people who use chatGPT or other LLMs to help them write things, but it takes the same amount of time. You just have more time to improve it, so it's better quality than you would write alone.

The key is that you have to use your brain more to pick and choose what to say. It's just like predictive text, but for whole paragraphs. Would you write a text message just by clicking on the center word on your predictive text keyboard? It would end up nonsensical.

KevonLooney ,

You are putting yourself down unnecessarily. You want your resume to talk you up. Whoever reads it is going to imagine that you embellished anyway. So if you just write it basically, they'll think you're unqualified or just don't understand how to write a resume.

KevonLooney ,

This is the real answer. Ideally you keep track of most of the things you spend money. That way you can see how much you are spending on each category.

Maybe you eat out less to save for something you really want, like a jacket or pair of shoes. Or you stop reflexively saving and go on vacation.

KevonLooney ,

This is the "Paradox of Thrift":

The paradox states that an increase in autonomous saving leads to a decrease in aggregate demand and thus a decrease in gross output which will in turn lower total saving. The paradox is, narrowly speaking, that total saving may fall because of individuals' attempts to increase their saving, and, broadly speaking, that increase in saving may be harmful to an economy.[1] The paradox of thrift is an example of the fallacy of composition, the idea that what is true of the parts must always be true of the whole. The narrow claim transparently contradicts the fallacy, and the broad one does so by implication, because while individual thrift is generally averred to be good for the individual, the paradox of thrift holds that collective thrift may be bad for the economy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_thrift

KevonLooney ,

No, it's bad. It creates a deflationary spiral that kills all kinds of businesses. Japan's economy has been fucked for decades by low growth because of deflation.

If people don't spend money, companies fire workers. Then people spend less money because they have no jobs. So companies fire even more workers. Thrift is bad in aggregate.

KevonLooney ,

Nothing that person said made sense. Inflation isn't good for wealthy people, it's good for debtors.

Wealthy people hate inflation because they have lots of money and it makes their money worth less. That's the simple explanation. In reality, they have their money mostly in bonds and stocks. But bonds are paid off in inflated currency which is worth less. So they are affected negatively by inflation.

Basically if you are a net debtor (student loans, home loans, etc.) inflation helps you as long as your income rises too. If you are a net lender (retired, wealthy, own your home with no mortgage) inflation does not help / may hurt you.

KevonLooney ,

People don't think these things through. Google can't possibly be cheaper than a wireless carrier because they don't own any towers. Wireless carriers will make sure Google doesn't sell cheaper than they can sell it themselves.

Also, things like Metro PCS (before T-Mobile bought them) just have lower network priority. So "cheaper" just means crappy service. Good luck making a phone call at a sporting event or concert.

KevonLooney ,

Which ones?

KevonLooney ,

Blockchain is over 10 years old and still not used for its primary purpose: a currency for legal transactions. It's way too volatile and very few institutions accept it.

AI can't reach its promised capability of doing everything for us automatically because it isn't actually AI. It's just advanced Clippy and autocomplete. It can't replace anyone senior. It's just a crappy intern.

Revealed: a California city is training AI to spot homeless encampments (www.theguardian.com)

Last July, San Jose issued an open invitation to technology companies to mount cameras on a municipal vehicle that began periodically driving through the city’s district 10 in December, collecting footage of the streets and public spaces. The images are fed into computer vision software and used to train the companies’...

KevonLooney ,

That is a stupid issue with Mayor Adams, but NYC legitimately spends millions on housing the homeless. The city has to get you shelter. It's the law.

KevonLooney ,

Since 1981:

https://www.cityandstateny.com/policy/2021/10/how-nycs-right-shelter-mandate-works/185933/

And why would you think people wouldn't be able to sleep in a train station? It's just like an airport.

KevonLooney ,

I wouldn't be surprised

You are just guessing. Look into it more. They are put up in places that are pretty decent for homeless shelters. They're usually cheap hotels, so you get your own room but no kitchen. It's not somewhere you want to live, but it's 100x better than a train station.

Most homeless people are fine in them, but they have security watching the door so you can't have a party, you can't have pets, and you can't have drugs. Maybe you can't smoke. Some people don't want to live under those conditions. Other people have mental illness and don't want to be in any shelter.

KevonLooney ,

Yes, facts are one thing. But what about what I believe is true? Isn't that more important?

KevonLooney ,

None of that makes any sense. California and NYC have similar property values. If anything, NYC price per square footage is higher on average. There are basically no houses on Manhattan, so almost all places to live have a condo board or co-op board. It's similar to an HOA.

California always had nice weather. Homeless people only existed in large numbers after Governor Reagan emptied the mental institutions and provided few resources for the residents. They literally took away their homes. Before that, NYC had more homeless people.

https://calmatters.org/commentary/2019/03/hard-truths-about-deinstitutionalization-then-and-now/

California could house almost all of its homeless people if they spent the money. It's not even that expensive compared to the alternative.

KevonLooney ,

Same with NYC. There's no excuse besides being cheap and lazy.

KevonLooney ,

Don't blame accountants. They don't make any decisions, and they don't have the technical expertise to know what is dangerous.

The CEO is a good start. I bet the COO and head of engineering are also at fault. People signed off on these planes without doing the required installation of the door. If it's a systemic issue, the quality control team is to blame.

Aviation is a regulated industry, right? I expect the FAA to get to the bottom, if not lawsuits.

KevonLooney ,

The NYC Library is a huge organization. They deserve that money.

Blame Mayor Adams for the budget. He paid millions for new radios for his police buddies. The old ones work fine, also... radios? That's top priority?

KevonLooney ,

So, no one.

KevonLooney ,

"They" are not growing new leaders because that's not their job. The DNC is national (that's the "N"). It's your job on the local level to find good candidates and help them run for office the first time.

KevonLooney ,

Yes, it's your job to donate to and support good candidates at the local level. That's how democracy works. You have to participate.

Who is running in your local city council or mayoral race? Who is your state representative? If you don't have a preferred candidate, find one. You can literally swing those elections with a few thousand dollars and votes.

KevonLooney ,

Shhh. Don't tell people they have to do anything besides complaining and occasionally protesting.

Protesting is fun. Voting for and supporting a candidate who loses an election is not.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • incremental_games
  • meta
  • All magazines
    •