@datarama@hachyderm.io
@datarama@hachyderm.io avatar

datarama

@datarama@hachyderm.io

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mcc, to random
@mcc@mastodon.social avatar

Remember: They're not AI PCs, they're Surveillance PCs https://mastodon.social/@arstechnica/112475611939997391

datarama,
@datarama@hachyderm.io avatar

@mcc I hate it so much. I don't even use Windows, but I know that the things they'll be building using this will be deployed against me nonetheless.

datarama,
@datarama@hachyderm.io avatar

@mcc Of course it won't be kept local. Same with the "we'll listen in on your phone calls to check for scammers!" features Google is hawking.

"We're running out of high quality language data!" ... "It's a total coincidence that we've made this decision right now, but we've decided to listen in on every phone call / watch every software interaction anybody ever makes ever again".

They're after more training data.

datarama,
@datarama@hachyderm.io avatar

@mcc Short-term: I am personally lucky that I live in a country that has some fairly restrictive regulations on workplace surveillance. I'm sure that this will spawn even worse spyware, but there are upper limits to how much of it I can legally be forced to use.

Longer-term: The end-goal of all the AI training is of course to build the Mass Layoff Machine, and that's going to fuck people here over too, if they can just get enough data from people in countries without a history of strong unions.

datarama,
@datarama@hachyderm.io avatar

@mcc Remember when people were saying "you're not the customer, you're the product"?

You're not even that. You're the raw material for the product.

datarama,
@datarama@hachyderm.io avatar

@garrett @mcc And again: The end-goal of all the AI training is Mass Layoff as a Service. Even those of us who opt-out (perhaps by not using their product at all) will be screwed by that, inasmuch as they succeed.

inthehands, to random
@inthehands@hachyderm.io avatar

Less about tools that boost productivity, more about tools that reduce total workload.

datarama,
@datarama@hachyderm.io avatar

@inthehands I don't think tools can reduce total workload. That is not what tools can do, so the people selling tools are necessarily selling increased productivity. It only functionally leads to reduced workload when a tool has become so effective at increasing productivity that the human has been automated away almost entirely. (Eg. a washing machine).

What reduces total workload when total automation isn't possible or desirable isn't tools - it's social processes.

eniko, to random
@eniko@peoplemaking.games avatar

my advice to anyone who wants to make a hobby programming language would be to make a lisp, except to simultaneously not worry at all about being anything like the big lisps in terms of design or syntax

so basically what i'm saying is use s-expressions

datarama,
@datarama@hachyderm.io avatar

@joshg @eniko I vote for guillemets! Who wouldn't love:

«define «factorial n»
«if «= n 0»
1
«factorial «- n 1»»»»

Bonus if you use a font that kerns groups of guillemets tightly together!

datarama,
@datarama@hachyderm.io avatar

@abucci @joshg @eniko We want opening and closing to be syntactically evident.

Spanish to the rescue!

¿defun fibonacci ¿n?
¿if ¿< n 3?
1
¿+ ¿fibonacci ¿- n 1?? ¿fibonacci ¿- n 2?????

datarama,
@datarama@hachyderm.io avatar

@abucci @joshg @eniko @abucci @joshg @eniko You've heard of lisping. Are you ready for shouting?

¡defun fibonacci ¡n!
¡if ¡< n 3!
1
¡+ ¡fibonacci ¡- n 1!! ¡fibonacci ¡- n 2!!!!!

molly0xfff, to ai
@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io avatar

"it's all stored locally" is not a panacea for these alarming privacy-invading products!

what exactly is stored locally? what data is extracted from that local data and sent to the company's servers? is that local data being backed somewhere?

datarama,
@datarama@hachyderm.io avatar

@molly0xfff I think we can be absolutely sure that they extract whatever they can use as training data from it.

That is, without a shadow of a doubt, what this is for: Gathering more AI training data.

hrefna, to random
@hrefna@hachyderm.io avatar

"But you will be using AI in…"

Possibly! I don't dispute that it may happen! I've seen a lot of thoughts in that direction for other technologies that never panned out, but I've also seen it go the other way.

Finding a use for the generative AI tools in the development process won't surprise me. Especially if the cost comes down.

What I balk at are replacement narratives or the idea that somehow it will invalidate human engineers.

Also: you should unionize to fight them trying.

datarama,
@datarama@hachyderm.io avatar

@Jackiemauro @hrefna I'm a union member and a software developer. Lots of developers (and engineers in pretty much every engineering discipline) in my country are.

Unions are a defense against all sorts of labour abuse and every worker should be in one, but if full-on replacement actually becomes possible, I don't get why people think the union can protect them. The union can threaten to withhold labour, but what good is that if that labour has just been rendered valueless?

datarama,
@datarama@hachyderm.io avatar

@hrefna @Jackiemauro Right. But the WGA wasn't operating under conditions where their labour had lost all value (and neither were those game devs). Counterexamples include the garment workers in that very book (which is so far my favourite book for the year) - and, in more recent times, typesetters. Typesetters here had a very strong union (they had the power to literally stop the presses and not start them again!) - but when their work was rendered valueless, they were screwed nonetheless.

datarama,
@datarama@hachyderm.io avatar

@hrefna @Jackiemauro Sorry for the latency. Perhaps ironically, I had a long and tough day at work.

I'm not at all arguing against unions. I'm a member of one and have been so for my entire working life. There are many, many important things unions do (and, in countries where they've historically been strong, they've played a part in creating legislation that protects workers, too).

lauren, to microsoft
@lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org avatar

Imagine what an anti-abortion red state or a fascist Trump administration (or some other future evil administration) would do with features like 's "recording everything you do on your PC" and the and Microsoft plans to listen in on your private phone calls.

I don't give a damn if these firms claim the data is stored on the devices. Devices can be confiscated, stolen, or courts can order pretty much anything done with that data.

These firms are selling us all down the river with this stuff.

datarama,
@datarama@hachyderm.io avatar

@lauren Also, does anybody really believe that they're not going to extract whatever they deem valuable from data and use for more AI training?

"We're running out of high-quality language data" -> "It's a total coincidence, but from now on we're going to be listening in on every phone call and watching every desktop software interaction anybody ever makes ever again".

Craigp, to random
@Craigp@mastodon.social avatar

Ohhhhhhhhh. He stole Scarlett's voice because he saw a movie where she voiced a hot AI assistant.

Nearly all this nonsense is like that. That's the level of genius we're dealing with. The whole thing is driven by an absurd obsession with fiction.

datarama,
@datarama@hachyderm.io avatar

@Craigp Fiction they either didn't bother to see through to its ending, or didn't understand.

datarama,
@datarama@hachyderm.io avatar

@Craigp Or, as I've said elsewhere - they did. They may be fucked-up robot cultists who want to make the AI that dumps humanity.

drahardja, to random
@drahardja@sfba.social avatar

I’ve been so tired and forced into constant emergency mode for so long that I’ve forgotten how to make.

This is bad. I need to start making again. Gotta set some time aside every day to MAKE SOMETHING.

datarama,
@datarama@hachyderm.io avatar

@drahardja I'm in the same boat.

The problem is: The time I set aside to make something gets eaten up by either worrying (constant emergency mode) or doing something passive because I'm too tired from all the worrying to make something.

datarama,
@datarama@hachyderm.io avatar

@drahardja My problem is: I'm mostly good at making things with computers.

And everything we do with computers from this point is either kept secret or stolen by AI bros and used to build the Unemployment Machine.

Both options makes it feel kinda pointless.

baldur, to random
@baldur@toot.cafe avatar

Whenever you see something positive written about Iceland's publishing industry, bear in mind that if it's positive it's very likely the writer belongs—directly or indirectly—to one of the two major oligopolies: Forlagið (over 50% of the market) or Bjartur-Veröld (about 10%)

Those two, the last time I checked, are the only publishers in Iceland with full-time employees. Effectively, Icelandic publishing is two companies surrounded by a constellation of small press managed by sole traders.

datarama,
@datarama@hachyderm.io avatar

@baldur I don't know if I've been unduly emboldened by apparently being better at translating Icelandic (which I don't speak!) than Google Translate, but:

Am I correct that "Forlagið" literally just means "The Publisher"? (If so, that does indicate something about its market status...)

baldur, to random
@baldur@toot.cafe avatar

Making a note of all the “expert” commentators who seem genuinely surprised at the resistance “AI” is getting from the public and regulators. You don’t have to agree with the reasons, but they’re generally obvious with a basic analysis. Anybody surprised probably isn’t worth much as an analyst

datarama,
@datarama@hachyderm.io avatar

@chemoelectric @baldur @pettter A while ago, I read Lars Chittka's "The Mind of a Bee", which is about the study of bee cognition. Not the famous capabilities of a hive of bees - that of individual bees.

It appears even they have individual dietary preferences - as well as "friend groups" (they prefer to hang out with specific other bees while at rest), and all sorts of other consistent individual "personality traits".

And they're eusocial insects with tiny, tiny brains!

datarama,
@datarama@hachyderm.io avatar

@chemoelectric @baldur @pettter These findings were about common European honeybees. (but the idea of a "hive mind" is seriously misleading, anyway)

My point is: Even they have individuality (and individual intelligence). With that in mind, it shouldn't be much of a surprise that snakes and lizards (with brains many orders of magnitude larger and more complex) also do.

mcc, to random
@mcc@mastodon.social avatar

Thinking about how Mozilla is "pivoting to AI" but DeepSpeech, one of the very few "AI" products you could possibly find a positive use for (pure-local speech recognition), is not only a Mozilla product but so abandoned that you actually have to downgrade to Python 3.9 to run it

datarama,
@datarama@hachyderm.io avatar

@ratsnakegames @mcc I was just about to say the same! Though I can't tell exactly which.

(None of the three families of hognoses are pythons, though. Yes, herpetology pedants are fun at parties!)

Craigp, to random
@Craigp@mastodon.social avatar

Listen, I don't think it's clear, but now that the 400 straight days of rain and clouds are over, I'm having a great time working on shit.

I've made so many prototypes you would not believe it.

... I just am fundamentally not good at social media.

Well, I'm enjoying myself and that's what matters when it comes to hobbies.

datarama,
@datarama@hachyderm.io avatar

@Craigp Because I'm pretty burnt-out and overwhelmed, I've sort of transitioned my former creative hobby time to reading books and playing simple, casual video games.

I want to get back to coding on my own stuff, but ... overwhelmed. And I'm not sure I can explain exactly how this makes sense, but tinkering with computers feels shittier than it used to.

datarama,
@datarama@hachyderm.io avatar

@Craigp I have a really interesting book about the historical context of Norse sagas and storytelling in general, though! (both about the Late Medieval context in which they were written down, the pre-medieval setting they take place in (and some are based on stories from), and how they got repurposed and re-imagined in the 1800s nationalist-romantic movement in Sweden and Denmark.)

If you'd told 20 years younger me that I'd prefer this to hacking on a Saturday evening, I'd have laughed. :-D

eniko, to random
@eniko@peoplemaking.games avatar

wait. has the text in the steam app always been this fucking tiny? i feel like it got tinier...

datarama,
@datarama@hachyderm.io avatar

@eniko It did! Text size shrank considerably for me too at the last update. Not sure why.

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