You know how people have been doing those horrible crimes where they destroy datacentres?

I hope people don’t realize the same thing can be done to places like Google’s offices. But if they do, I also hope they’d be responsible enough to make sure no low/mid level employees were in the building. I bet, and this is just too sad, that the executives would be the prime targets 😔

That would be tragic. Super duper tragic.

So tragic.

Tragic.

It certainly is. If you wanna feel like you’ve rewound 10 years in the past, you gotta pony up. And even still everything feels wrong.

But in the interim, before the bubble pops, I do see the value in having no AI as a feature, especially when the immediate alternative is “go fuck yourself”.

One payment for actual slop removal, priced by devs properly to allow them somewhat equivalent revenue compared to if you were being data harvested - that’s basically the only good way to do it if we’re gonna do it.

No micro transactions and no double or triple or quadruple or quintuple or sextuple dipping on larger payments either.

When did everything become a fever dream?

I guess I’m of the mindset that even running this as a local model, it’s a waste of electricity. And the guy posted it on Github, inevitably some other fools will try it with cloud models, especially since it’s made the news. And obviously we know how bad the cloud models are.

And the difference I see between this and playing a videogame is that a videogame is doing something valuable - and yes I will argue with anyone who tells me that art and entertainment don’t hold real value - while this is just akin to running the AC when you go on vacation, it’s just wasteful no matter how I look at it.

Good time to mention,

Check out the EFF’s ‘Cover your tracks’ site.

Lots of us know about traditional tracking methods but one that doesn’t get enough attention imo is canvas fingerprinting.

Its easy to utilize countermeasures and its worth the time. Canvas fingerprinting is awful.

Actually they’re torturing humanity by wasting electricity and water which affects real people in real ways.

I know we’re not stopping foolish use of LLMs any time soon but this is very, very, very, very stupid.

Ok my answer is going to be a little disappointing, but I thought about it for a bit and here’s what I can say…

Usually I read a book or I watch a film, I don’t think I’ve ever done both for the same story. Sometimes there is no equivalent book or film, and when there is, I personally just end up choosing whatever format my gut says to try.

If I’ve imagined a universe and story in my mind (from a book), or had the experience delivered to me (in a film), I don’t want them to conflict so I just choose one. Probably because I see so many debates about this online and I’m just like, “nah I’m not getting involved”.

I’m actually probably the worst qualified person to give an opinion on that!! But I recognize I’m probably a weirdo, as I don’t even watch film trailers or read the synopsis of books before I read/watch them. I just kinda hear about it however that happens, and decide to either skip or jump in. The exception to this being non-fiction or educational stuff, then it matters a bit more.

I guess, I just wanna enjoy (or dislike) a story and leave it at that.

Sorry for the total non-answer. But now you’ve got me curious, what’s your answer? Maybe I’ll make an exception for Grandwolf319 haha

I’ll be back within a day, you’d better have your topic of conversation prepared!

I didn’t know pasta was on the lemonade stand’s menu!

Speaking of pasta, Italy has such a vibrant food culture don’t they? Speaking of Italy, wasn’t Luigi Mangione an Italian American citizen? Boy, what he did sure was a shame… But these streets, they’re just too full of criminals these days…

Lmao judging by those photos he filed a request to blur his property on Google street view. How incredibly ironic.

However I’m sure there are many photos of the street with the public toilet elsewhere if you want to see it in all its shit-covered glory.

Edit: oh perhaps I am mistaken. The Flock CEO’s name is Garret Langley, but my maps app says the address of 2588 Winslow Dr NE, Atlanta, GA 30305, United States is actually Jeff’s Lemonade Shop.

I would love to go try some lemonade!

I shine bright like a diamond, but that requires sunlight

Every three letter agency can suck my tiny little cock

The article says it seems to have been an organized group. I wonder how one gets into such a group?

Like, do they just send somebody a private message on a decentralized platform with a link to some sort of encrypted messaging app or something?

Unrelated, my inbox is open to anyone wanting to just say hi!

No I am not kidding.

I want to get off Mr. Bones’ Wild Ride.

Self-hosted is a great way to go for those who can afford the initial cost and can get the setup done. I’d love to see more of it but I also know that most people won’t do that, and I get it because if I asked my mom to self-host right now I think her brain would explode.

Second best we can do is start using and promoting alternatives. Us nerds tend to be some of the earlier adopters. If enough users flock to the right platform, and if the platform is easy for non-nerds to sign up, then the shift may happen. Now is a climate where the desire for change is higher than normal.

No company is too big to dominate the landscape, the momentum and desire just needs to grow. And we should be careful of jumping from one pirate ship to another pirate ship. TikTok to Reels, Twitter/X to Threads, these are not the kind of changes we need to encourage.

But I’m not one for social media overall, so I can’t do much except inform my family and friends in a way that doesn’t drive them crazy. To anyone reading: don’t be that guy either, because if you pester too hard you’re likely to breed resentment and cause people to become further entrenched in their current habits.

When it comes to LLM AI usage, there’s definitely a few things you can consider.

I’ll reference OpenAI as you mentioned but it can apply to others as well to varying degrees

First is that the OpenAI has the goal of making a profit, but the market is getting more saturated, the costs to run data centres increases with model complexity and user base increases.

Funding is being pumped into them by investors, government in the US and other non-AI companies are banking on AI to bolster the economy and profits respectively. For things like ChatGPT they offer paid plans for consumers but this is a small fraction of their revenue.

The stats show they are losing money quickly. Investors want profits, the company wants dominance, the government seems to be approaching it from a “too big to fail approach”.

So we’re slowly seeing shifts; in the US, ads are being experimented with in ChatGPT, models are being chosen that use less tokens and less computing power, etc.

There have also been studies showing the diminishing returns of the thinking that “a bigger model is better”.

There’s also the question of how much they care about correct answers. They are surely aware that most don’t understand how an LLM AI works, that most will not do much research to fact-check answers, that most will consider convenience to be king.

Their token system is a huge balancing act and I’m not fully convinced they know what works and what doesn’t.

AI is being propped up, it shows signs of a bubble. Not to say AI is going anywhere, but when the pop inevitably happens, the LLM AI landscape will leave behind a lot of failure and monetary loss, and a few winners. Think dot com bubble for reference but in a whole new era of computing.

The circular economy going on and the investment from private and US government entities can only keep this train on the tracks for so long.

If I were to subjectively answer your question in a phrase: I don’t think they really do care too much at the moment.

Data sovereignty and social media sovereignty is something I’d love to see worked on more. I mean, the shift is already happening to a larger degree as you know if you’re reading this comment.

It’s a sad state of affairs when the average Joe needs to consider these things - or maybe it’s a wake up call to our relative complacency over the past decades?

I prefer to keep my data outside of the US. Canada for some, specific EU countries for others. But bills like Chat Control are even threatening other nations’ long-standing privacy norms. The burn-out will be real for some, those who didn’t care may not until it directly affects them. Others will hopefully find a balance they believe suits them.

The floor is lava! Have to keep jumping around!

Microsoft has really messed up quite spectacularly. 5 years ago I would never have even considered switching to another OS (especially for a daily driver).

Yet here I am, using LINUX! My experience with Linux has gone from the perception of it as a scary figure, a ghost looming around me that I was trying to ignore. But now, I’m realizing that Linux is more like Casper. Linux is a friendly ghost. So while I still may not know how to totally deal with cohabitating with a ghost, at least it’s friendly, in theory.

But in less obtuse terms: my experience with Linux has definitely had it’s terminal moments and learning to de-Windowsify my tasking, but it’s come to the point where the cons of Windows make it a non-starter.

Maybe it’s not the year of the Linux desktop, but the years of the Linux desktop. Reaching a wider audience and finding a way to make choosing a distro is going to be a task.

I will say that while I’ve never bought one of their systems, System76 is a company I regularly check up on because I think it’s very cool that they’re PC building from the ground up with Linux (and their own Linux distro as well). It’s a trend in the right direction, at least.