The way our governments try to fund "disruptive innovation" is pure magic thinking. It's just "some all-powerful solution is gonna emerge if we just throw money at a bunch of companies". It's applying the Silicon Valley Startup mentality to innovation and it fails there even worse than in the tech sector. It's a wasteful, dumb way to spend public money.
Your efforts in saving energy matter! "An AI-generated bot account was able to comment “PUSSY IN BIO” on 2.1 million Instagram posts, all thanks to you switching from AC to a big box fan that just kind of pushes the stale, hot air in your apartment around. We’re building a better world—together." https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the-department-of-energy-wants-you-to-know-your-conservation-efforts-are-making-a-difference
LinkedIn is "TikTok" for middle aged people. You know how older people are always scared of TikTok messing up young people's minds with disinformation and bullshit, of influencers getting kids to do dumb shit for their profit? That's exactly what LinkedIn does for middle aged people: A constant stream of weird influencers selling absolute garbage to people who are unsure about what their job means and what they care about.
I want smaller tech companies that focus on a thing they care about, pay a bunch of people and everyone goes home on time.
EU tech policy is gonna get worse (and it wasn't in a good shape to begin with)
Someone Else's Computer
Michael Veale (@mikarv@someone.elses.computer)
Attached: 1 image von der Leyen proposes a new European Commissioner for ‘Tech Sovereignty’ (while the EC defunds FOSS, reframes issue around ...
OpenAI is threatening to ban everyone who tries to research what their new model is actually doing. While OpenAI uses a lot of language about "safeguards" it's mostly about keeping the illusion intact that o1 is a big leap when in fact it is a marginal patch to what they have been doing for a long time now. But they are looking for money right now and need to keep the hype active. (Original title: Ban warnings fly as users dare to probe the “thoughts” of OpenAI’s latest model)
Ars Technica
Ban warnings fly as users dare to probe the “thoughts” of OpenAI’s latest model
OpenAI does not want anyone to know what o1 is “thinking" under the hood.
"A small, cloistered elite of not-especially-bright billionaires have decided that they are very, very special, and that the problem with society these days is that people keep treating them like everyone else. " (Original title: Paul Graham and the Cult of the Founder)
Paul Graham and the Cult of the Founder
"Founder Mode" is such garbage.
This story about video game developers just illustrates how the short term thinking in businesses based on pumping stock value (for example by firing a bunch of people) is cancerous: You lose your teams, you lose so many talented people and their years, sometimes decades of experience. Sure right now everyone hope "AI" will fix things but let's be grown up here: #AI can't really do any of that. (Original title: Video Game Developers Are Leaving The Industry And Doing Something, Anything Else)
Aftermath
Video Game Developers Are Leaving The Industry And Doing Something, Anything Else - Aftermath
From line cooks to bike repairs, people who used to be video game developers are being forced to try something new
The standard in web apps (slow, JS laden things that break browser functionality and eat all RAM) isn't great these days. And I can't avoid to wonder if that is the reasons that all the "AI is gonna write your website soon" people are not laughed out of any room. In a space where quality has been neglected for a long time, "AI" solutions might almost look competitive.
Sound of a bubble popping: "Things got worse for Nvidia on Tuesday, when shares fell 9.5%, wiping $279 billion off its value. That was the biggest loss in Wall Street history. As my colleague David Goldman noted, only 27 companies on Earth are worth as much as Nvidia lost on Tuesday. " https://edition.cnn.com/2024/09/05/tech/nvidia-stock-falling-nightcap/index.html