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nucleative

@nucleative@lemmy.world

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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....

nucleative ,

I think we'll improve this a lot. Now it's a race to be first, later it will be a race to be profitable and keep costs low.

Plus the sun outputs a lot more energy than earth can ever consume so we just need to get better at collecting it without creating waste on the side.

nucleative ,

Interesting concept. Like if you could upvote/downvoted the SERP and it actually mattered and wasn't easy to manipulate.

nucleative ,

Icq was bought a while ago and the buyer nuked the original user database. Not long ago I found my login info saved on an old zip drive and tried it. Was hoping my old buddies might still be there, hahahah.

Nope, icq as most remember it was toast maybe a decade ago.

nucleative ,

Well thought-out and articulated opinion, thanks for sharing.

If even the most skilled hyper-realistic painters were out there painting depictions of CSAM, we'd probably still label it as free speech because we "know" it to be fiction.

When a computer rolls the dice against a model and imagines a novel composition of children's images combined with what it knows about adult material, it does seem more difficult to label it as entirely fictional. That may be partly because the source material may have actually been real, even if the final composition is imagined. I don't intend to suggest models trained on CSAM either, I'm thinking of models trained to know what both mature and immature body shapes look like, as well as adult content, and letting the algorithm figure out the rest.

Nevertheless, as you brought up, nobody is harmed in this scenario, even though many people in our culture and society find this behavior and content to be repulsive.

To a high degree, I think we can still label an individual who consumes this type of AI content to be a pedophile, and although being a pedophile is not in and of itself an illegal adjective to posses, it comes with societal consequences. Additionally, pedophilia is a DSM-5 psychiatric disorder, which could be a pathway to some sort of consequences for those who partake.

nucleative ,

This whole thing happened 30 years ago now. Wow. These two must be in their 50s now. It was such a media circus at the time.

nucleative ,

Well stated and explained. I'm not an AI researcher but I develop with LLMs quite a lot right now.

Hallucination is a huge problem we face when we're trying to use LLMs for non-fiction. It's a little bit like having a friend who can lie straight-faced and convincingly. You cannot distinguish whether they are telling you the truth or they're lying until you rely on the output.

I think one of the nearest solutions to this may be the addition of extra layers or observer engines that are very deterministic and trained on only extremely reputable sources, perhaps only peer reviewed trade journals, for example, or sources we deem trustworthy. Unfortunately this could only serve to improve our confidence in the facts, not remove hallucination entirely.

It's even feasible that we could have multiple observers with different domains of expertise (i.e. training sources) and voting capability to fact check and subjectively rate the LLMs output trustworthiness.

But all this will accomplish short term is to perhaps roll the dice in our favor a bit more often.

The perceived results from the end users however may significantly improve. Consider some human examples: sometimes people disagree with their doctor so they go see another doctor and another until they get the answer they want. Sometimes two very experienced lawyers both look at the facts and disagree.

The system that prevents me from knowingly stating something as true, despite not knowing, without some ability to back up my claims is my reputation and my personal values and ethics. LLMs can only pretend to have those traits when we tell them to.

nucleative ,

Damn, I'd even works on mobile

nucleative ,

There are a few things humans (and thus a healthy society) require for survival. Water, food, shelter.

When we start to point unadulterated VC backed capitalism at those resources, I think we give up something in our society and culture that we don't actually want to give away.

I travel a lot worldwide and have used Airbnb quite a few times. However I'm now on the side of "Airbnb is evil".

A couple years ago had a horrific experience in a villa and Airbnb customer support didn't give a rats ass. Fortunately, my bank did and my credit card chargeback for $4,000 was successful. While I was going through that experience I came across a multitude of communities of travelers who have had equally horrific, oftentimes more horrific experiences with Airbnb where they've failed to step in and assist in any way.

Random dudes who own houses are on average unqualified in the hospitality business and not incentivized by maintaining a brand reputation. There are so many issues caused by shitty Airbnb hosts that hotels - real hotels - just don't suffer from.

So now we have this situation where a lot of spaces are allocated to hotel businesses, more space is allocated to residential housing, And any random dude who can qualify for a mortgage can take a house off the market, fill it for 10 or 15 days out of the month, and keep both a domicile unused for a resident and a hotel room empty.

This is one of the few areas where I think hotel regulations are smart.

nucleative ,

I've heard a lot of people having this problem. Airbnb is next to useless, even with their guarantee.

Prices goes up, other hotels are booked solid, there are fewer options and travelers are left in the cold.

A big brand would be less likely to risk their reputation over $50 or $100/night difference if there's some new big event in the area

nucleative ,

Will be interesting to read the arguments and hear what experts have to say.

There is some precedence that corporations do have first amendment rights.

A hypothetical argument from TikTok is they think they are allowed constitutional rights, in this case to publish whatever they want, in the act of doing a commercial activity and that the law which was passed to force a sale to a local owner is a violation of their right to speak freely.

I suspect TikTok operates in the USA under an American registered entity that is wholly owned by a foreign entity. Whether that grants or removes any such constitutional rights seems unclear.

Next, it doesn't seem like the law intends to block TikTok's "speech", rather it specifically allows the executive branch to block this particular type of foreign entity from doing business on American soil on the grounds of security, enforced most likely by blocking it from doing business with the app stores. This also has precedence - a lot of it, in fact - when it comes to security. The US blocks all kinds of foreign businesses from trading with American businesses. Like arms dealers and drug dealers.

So TikTok will need to defeat the idea that even as a foreign businesses they don't need to be subject to the whims of the executive branches power to block foreign businesses AND that even congress doesn't have the power to write a law that gives the executive branch this power (because, ya know, they just DID write that law).

And then TikTok will need to win on the idea that somehow their rights have been suppressed.

Seems like a long shot to me and the precedence that would be established by making it difficult for Congress to write laws that give the executive power to block foreign entities because it risks their unlikely right to speech in the US seems a bit whack.

nucleative ,

Missing the days of Consumer Reports. I think the velocity of new products is too high for them to be relevant for more than a few months once they release a report anymore.

nucleative ,

I saw a website that was selling Reddit bot services to companies that want to review their products. They would just send a swarm of bad accounts in there and make nice comments. Even replying to their own comments.

After that I stopped trusting almost every Reddit review (⁠╯⁠°⁠□⁠°⁠）⁠╯⁠︵⁠ ⁠┻⁠━⁠┻

*Edit: meant to say bot accounts but leaving it

nucleative ,

TikTok hasn't shown themselves to be particularly politically savvy so far.

As popular and as well loved as their platform is, they are getting kicked in the ass by the powers that be.

I think their survival now is predicated on them finding more powerful allies.

nucleative ,

Wonder how this works with car insurance. Os there a future where the driver doesn't need to be insured? Can the vehicle software still be "at fault" and how will the actuaries deal with assessing this new risk.

nucleative ,

Wow I hope we see some regulation about that kind of thing.

nucleative ,

You're probably right. Another decade or two and human driver controlled cars might be prohibitively expensive to insure for some or even not allowed in certain areas.

I can imagine an awesome world where that's a great thing but also imagine a dystopian world like wall-e as well. I guess we'll know then which one we chose.

nucleative ,

That makes perfect sense. If the driver looks up to notice that he's in a dangerous, unfixable situation, slams the breaks, disconnecting the autopilot (which have been responaible for letting the situation develop) hopefully the automaker can't entirely say "not our fault, the system wasn't even engaged at the time of the collision"

nucleative ,

I wonder if a P2P ride-sharing system could be made to work. Or if it would be rife with scams and dangers.

nucleative ,

No, no, no, you misunderstood. Essential doesn't mean highly paid. They are the suckers who are left doing the dirty work that keeps high society moving but of course they'll get the lowest possible wage if they can be replaced easily.

nucleative ,

Solution in search of a problem.

I guess a mobile alert that lets you know the cycle is finished could be handy? Ability to schedule a load to start later? Maybe a maintenance or problem alert? Depleted detergent and fabric softener reservoir?

Possibly an energy usage chart for the nerds out there who like that kind of thing?

But damn, all of that shouldn't need more than a few kb a day max.

nucleative ,

Yeah, I was reaching for really extreme cases. Maybe an IOT wash machine with a smooth app is easier to program than a machine with a control panel itself.

Who knows, the tech could hypothetically be useful.

Any why don't we have reservoirs with measured doses of detergent anyways? That would be kinda rad.

nucleative ,

TLDR: browser developer consoles let you see the code that runs a website. Also some sellers redirect to other sites for payments.

Bit of a warning though: Stripe JS loads when the plugin is installed whether the site is configured to use it for checkout or not. Also redirecting to other sites for checkout is not in itself nefarious just that it does happen to be a technique to hide the sellers product from the payment gateway.

nucleative ,

My solution is a bit old school: A raspberry pi connected to my network and running miniDLNA. It has an externally powered USB hard drive. My TV runs Android and I have VLC installed. Any DLNA client works including Xbox and mobile phone apps too.

I don't think mini DLNA is even updated anymore so eventually my solution might stop working but it's been running solid for 10 years

nucleative ,

Imagine you're a government lawyer working on the US case and you show up to a deposition and pull your iPhone out set it on the table.

What are the chances that your Apple ID and iCloud are mysteriously banned for violations of the terms of service for which Apple can't share the specific reason because of "policy related security reasons" before the week is out?

nucleative ,

Ooh. Imagine the content of the investor calls if there is another blackout.

There would no longer be any hesitation to ban or censor everybody involved.

nucleative ,

Didn't spez also say that Reddit was a side project that just got out of hand?

Being a tech nerd does not mean you have what it takes to lead a company to profitability.

nucleative ,

I haven't seen that "you broke reddit" message in a while. Maybe they bought more servers?

You Don’t Need to Use Airplane Mode on Airplanes | Airplane mode hasn't been necessary for nearly 20 years, but the myth persists. (gizmodo.com)

You Don’t Need to Use Airplane Mode on Airplanes | Airplane mode hasn't been necessary for nearly 20 years, but the myth persists.::Airplane mode hasn't been necessary for nearly 20 years, but the myth persists.

nucleative ,

A lot of things are annoying about flying but one of the top is when phones are ringing and beeping unanswered (or worse, answered) non-stop.

I think airplane mode is more for the sanity of the crew than anything having to do with safety any more.

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    nucleative ,

    If there's anyone who wasn't sure Trump is for sale....

    Now you can buy an almost-US President, just 500 million bucks. Chump change for a handful of billionaires who could get it back double with a few policy changes in their favor.

    nucleative ,

    Do you think a public IT staffer would be immune to fuckups?

    nucleative ,

    Google almost killed Gmail for me - I'm on a deprecated google apps free family plan they tried to kill recently. It was going to cost over a hundred dollars a month to move everyone on my personal family domain to a professional plan to keep it, and at the last minute they retreated and kept it free.

    But for me that was a warning shot I can't ignore. Way back I ran a Microsoft Exchange server for the family, before that postfix with squirrelmail. But I'm tired of all the tech support that came with it, so some kind of permanent, relatively spam free email option that we call rely on for decades would be welcome.

    ajsadauskas , to Fuck Cars
    @ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

    What can you get to within a 15-minute walk of your house?

    A recent YouGov survey asked Americans what they think they should be able to get to within a 15-minute walk of their house.

    Of these choices, I can currently walk to all of them from my apartment, aside from a university (no biggie, I'm not currently studying, although there is a Tafe within walking distance), a hospital, and a sports arena.

    How many can you get to with a 15 minute walk from your house?

    @fuck_cars

    nucleative ,

    I live in a big city and every single one of these things is within 15 minutes walk from my door except a sports arena, although if you substitute that for a gym with a pool and basketball court there's half a dozen.

    I love it because I never need to use my car. Although there are consequences... Heavy traffic, loud music at night, unruly people in my neighborhood, ambulance sounds, people who rev their cars and motorcycles, trash on the street sometimes, etc.

    I grew up a bit far outside of any neighborhood which meant every single trip involved the car and 20 plus minutes of driving. That lifestyle is perfect for some people because they appreciate the isolation. But it also meant planning well ahead and if you needed a quick run to the hardware store or some convenience item it would take half a day. The percentage of my childhood life in the car was too damn high.

    nucleative ,

    For a lot of people the bar serves as a "third place" as well which is an important part of many communities.

    nucleative ,

    Welcome to the club my friend... Expert after expert is having this experience as AI develops in the past couple years and we discover that the job can be automated way more than we thought.

    First it was the customer service chat agents. Then it was the writers. Then it was the programmers. Then it was the graphic design artists. Now it's the animators.

    nucleative ,

    OpenAI's existential problem is that they'll eat their own lunch and then have nothing left. The reason people make useful content now and give it away for free is because they can get paid for the traffic.

    Take that traffic away and all the content goes behind paywalls and login screens where OpenAI can't touch it.

    nucleative ,

    I live in a place where its just $2.50. No YouTube ads ever is great.

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    nucleative ,

    Anecdotally everyone has an anecdote about this topic because it concerns a basic function of the human body. It's too bad that so many people believe it's a moral character problem making the topic nearly impossible to talk about openly.

    nucleative ,

    I use it as an answer engine. Queries like: what's that css property for xyz, or please summarize this email, or give me the top 25 most commonly used color words in English in a json schema like this.

    All of that could be found with a normal search engine but I'd have to work harder and sort through a lot of trash along the way.

    ChatGPT just understands what I'm looking for almost no matter how poorly worded my query is and just answers the question.

    PayPal to Cut Around2,500 Jobs as Rivals Snag MarketShare (www.bloomberg.com)

    PayPal to Cut Around2,500 Jobs as Rivals Snag MarketShare::PayPal Holdings Inc. will reduce its workforce by about 9% as Chief Executive Officer Alex Chriss, who took over in September, grapples with rising competition, profit pressures and a raft of analyst downgrades.

    nucleative ,

    Gee, I wonder why they have rivals who are taking market share.

    nucleative ,

    If the group doing the spying is ideologically in the same "tribe", people don't seem concerned. It's both a survival mechanism and our Achilles heel.

    nucleative ,

    I don't really know either but my son definitely knows.

    Somehow Mr. Beast vacuums kid's brains into a mind sucking vortex that has landed Mr. Beast as one of, if not the #1 most subscribed YouTuber in existence.

    Perhaps that also makes him the highest earning YouTuber as well, because the guy is seemingly just giving away insane $ figures at every turn yet always has more.

    nucleative ,

    Yeah that seems like a smart business model. Something about his style makes this work... I don't think most people could pull it off.

    nucleative ,

    Giant infrastructure projects are a weakness of democracies. It's tough to get everyone to agree and pay for huge projects that take long term vision and planning.

    Or you could call it a strength because it's stable and can't be changed too fast by one guy with a short term bad idea.

    nucleative ,

    Hahaha yes you're right. This is an example of ill-advised big infrastructure.

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