Big brain tech dude got yet another clueless take over at HackerNews etc? Here's the place to vent. Orange site, VC foolishness, all welcome.
This is not debate club. Unless it’s amusing debate.
For actually-good tech, you want our NotAwfulTech community
OpenAI has stated its scanning users' conversations (as if they weren't already) and reporting conversations to the cops in response to the recent teen suicide I mentioned a couple days ago.
So, rather than let ChatGPT drive users to kill themselves, its just going to SWAT users and have the cops do the job.
(On an arguably more comedic note, the AI doomers are accusing OpenAI of betraying humankind.)
Mentioned it on bsky, more externalizing of the costs of their product. And due to vpns will not even work in a lot of cases. (And also prob gdpr illegal).
E: A big reason why this kind of stuff is in there and prob very hard to get rid of is places like alt.suicide.holiday which have been online for ages, and are from what I can tell not considered bad places by the experts.
(On an arguably more comedic note, the AI doomers are accusing OpenAI of betraying humankind.)
The last open letter was funnier. Even though "[t]he stakes could not be higher," this one doesn't even have Yud going on a promo tour talking about all of humanity dropping dead from diamondoid bacteria that ChatGPT will order from Fiverr after going foom.
They bet humanity's future on the premise that very rich people would keep promises.
This seems very stupid to me.
Democratic presidential nominee (E: this is a dark joke) for 2028 (vs trump of course) Newsom is doing a bit of ironic memecoin corruption. So many blueanon people are going to lose money if he goes along with this.
I really hope he is going to use this as a 'use the controversy to reveal the corruption of the system' style thing (in .nl a tv-show did this where they made a gameshow in which people who needed a new kidney could get one, as a ruse to spread awareness to ask for more donors and everybody participating was informed of this from the start (led to 12k new donors at least)). But I really doubt it.
So the fucking Cracker Barrel rebranding thing happened. I'm going to pretend this is relevant here because the new logo looked like it was from the usual "imitating Apple minimalism without understanding it in the least" school of design. They've confirmed that they're not moving forward with it, restoring both the barrel and the cracker to the logo, so that's all good. That's not what I want to talk about.
No, what's grinding my gears is the way that the rollback is being pitched purely as a response to conservative "antiwoke" backlash, and not as a response to literally nobody liking it. This wasn't a case of a successful crusade against woke overreach, this was a case of corporate incompetence running into the reactions of actual human beings. I can't think of a more 2025 media dynamic than giving fucking Nazis a free win rather than giving corporate executives an L.
I think I mentioned Doughboys in this sack somewhere, so talking about CB is fair game
Note I dont know what a cracker barrel is irl, as we dont have them here. But my view of the bsky socials was 'rebrand sucks, dont really care, wow why are the right so obsessed over this' culminating in people talking about how these kinds of stores are a simulacrum of a cozy mom n pop store and people are unknowningly mad about losing even the simulacrum, and how this is all due to capitalism. (More commercialization than capitalism imho, but capitalism did speed up the process). Just as rainbow capitalism will betray you in the search for more profit so will cozy capitalism.
E: update on the story "Cracker Barrel's Pride page now redirects to its "Culture and Belonging" page, removing its LGBTQ+ Alliance and DEIB Team." And while I didn't know CB, this ensures I will never eat there if I ever have a chance.
@Soyweiser @techtakes The correct term for the type of capitalism that enshittifies its product should be "crapitalism".
Yeah, it is also sad the culture warriors are not aware they are mad about this sort of crapitalism. They think the hominization of the builds is due to the woke, and not because the mother company owns the building/land of the franchise and this no slanted roofs bit (see https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:66rbia7w4vcwiszfppfv3r2e/bafkreiacsurup26wigvedpedf44rodrwzzebfcytzdglb2bh6wjh6brbsa@jpeg), increases resale value. Just companies looking for more and more minimal minimal viable product.
image description
Post from some social media by user Mancowmuller
On the left four images of the outsides older style fast food places, all with more rustic looking buildings, notably buildings with more slanted roofs, evoking very slightly a more European home style (sorry if this is the wrong way to describe it im not an architect).
On the right four images of the outsides of four new style fast food places where the buildings look more like office buildings or simple modern stores, very blocky, lot of glass big panels/windows and flat roofs.
A big text is overlayed on these 8 shrines of American style capitalism saying 'Communism.' Also important to note on the image, looks like the new style ones are not all real. Some of the details look off which makes me suspect it is AI generated. Esp the pizza hut one.
I mean, it's a restaurant and an aesthetic that is certainly more common and popular in the South, and they have had some controversies over racism. Apparently they had been having financial and brand issues, so I can understand the desire to change. But rather than changing the food or improving the service in any meaningful way it seems like they went for the new logo and image and stopped there. Given that their existing audience was basically there for the wholesome old-timey please-don't-ask-about-the-racism vibes I'm not shocked that conservatives in particular were upset about the change. But like, the change was never about wokeness or whatever it was about aesthetic modernization and a flailing attempt to fix things from business idiots who don't know how to address the actual problems of mediocre food and fading relevance. If anyone had actually liked the change or if it had actually improved their service times then maybe there would be a point. But this was just a bad change and nobody outside that boardroom actually liked it, and so of course it got rolled back.
one that I suspect will surprise none of us
depressing how Cheetoh & Co. continue to wrecking ball the shit out of everything
(wonder how long it is before the US degrades far enough that other countries start ratcheting up border/traveller defenses, compared to the current ~free rein they have (which, y'know, was owed to years of hard and soft power that the orange man is also rapidly pissing away))
(wonder how long it is before the US degrades far enough that other countries start ratcheting up border/traveller defenses, compared to the current ~free rein they have (which, y’know, was owed to years of hard and soft power that the orange man is also rapidly pissing away))
By my guess, not that long. If you have reports of American inadequacy during an outbreak (pretty likely), or horror stories of your countrymen getting persecuted (should be easy to find), you should have a solid political case for border lockdowns.
Focusing on Canada and Mexico specifically, I expect Canada will build its metaphorical walls first - the ongoing drug war in Mexico, plus the brutality of its cartels, will likely act to deter would-be American refugees from there.
To my eternal sadness, this guy makes a decent point about the horror possibly continuing (yellow site has mixed takes and adds claims about "if we didn't have to pay for training, we'd be profitable" by sam and dario ).
If this bears out, it might be that the only thing that'll end this bubble is the vibe shift & backlash against AI
Ethan Marcotte's given his thoughts on the new "America by Design" web page, noting how its shittiness aligns perfectly with the Trump administration's values.
This hits differently over the recent news that ChatGPT encouraged and aided a teen suicide.
transcript
Kelsey Piper xhitted:
Never thought I'd become a 'take you relationship problems to ChatGPT' person but when the 8yo and I have an argument it actually works really well to mutually agree on an account of events for Claude and the ask for its opinion
I think she considers the AIs far more knowledgeable than me about reasonable human behavior so if I say something that's no reason to think it's true but if Claude says it then it at least merits serious consideration
When an 8 year old thinks an AI is "far more knowledgeable than me about reasonable human behavior" that could lead a person to self-reflection. Could.
"When the 8-year-old and I have an argument, it actually works really well to mutually agree on an account of events... and then take cocaine together."
Acknowledging/validating each other's feelings and finding a mutually-agreeable understanding of the conflict is already the hard part that most parents and kids aren't willing to do. Talking to a chatbot after that just seems like you don't understand the fucking point and are still trying to "be right" or whatever.
In 12 years we'll get a book "My Mom Outsourced Raising Me to AI and it Broke Me"
I have context that makes this even more cringe! "Lawfulness concerns" refers to like, Dungeons and Dragons lawfulness. Specifically the concept of lawfulness developed in the Pathfinder fanfiction we've previously discussed (the one with deliberately bad BDSM and eugenics). Like a proper Lawful Good Paladin of Iomedae wouldn't put you in a position where you had to trust they hadn't rigged the background prompt if you went to them for spiritual counseling. (Although a Lawful Evil cleric of Asmodeus totally would rig the prompt... Lawfulness as a measuring stick of ethics/morality is a terrible idea even accepting the premise of using Pathfinder fanfic to develop your sense of ethics.)
Not everything that Yud writes feels like it should be read in the voice of Augustus St. Cloud, but a lot of it sure does.
From elsewhere in the replies:
My husband and I took a disagreement to Claude today, by happenstance. It was very helpful!
---TracingWoodgrains, who apparently feels that he is qualified to judge any other human being, ever, in spite of evidence to the contrary
Yes dude, that's the main thing you should be concerned about of course. AI tools couldn't possibly be bad in and of themselves, it has to be human tampering. You've always been very clear about that part.
tfw your gifted child syndrome resentment of adults is powerful enough to make you forget about your life's work
I was trying to figure out why he hadn't turned this into an opportunity to lecture (or write a mini-fanfic) about giving more attack surface to the AGI to manipulate you... I was stumped until I saw your comment. I think that is it, expressing his childhood distrust of authority trumps lecturing us on the AI-God's manipulations.
it has to be human tampering.
and of course we all have root on the prompt, where - at will - we can just instantly impose all manner of will on the corporate vendor chatbot. y'know, the chatbot operating in a service structured as much as possible to try to do what the corporate vendor wants to desperately maintain
(it continues to astound me that anyone takes yud seriously, at all, ever)
That is his concern and not the billionaires behind it messing with the systems so much you cant prompt override it? Please tell me this guy doesnt work in AI alignment.
I feel dumber for having read that, and not in the intellectually humbled way.
Look what they did to Notepad. Shut the fuck up. This is Notepad. You are not welcome here. Oh yeah "Let me use Copilot for Notepad". "I'm going to sign into my account for Notepad". What the fuck are you talking about. It's Notepad.
I should never have to open the settings in Notepad. Reason being: it's Notepad. God fuckin damn I hate the computer.
https://bsky.app/profile/iainnd.bsky.social/post/3lxdvmkua4227
I know everybody here has heard of it, but in the small chance it breaks containment: use notepad++ it is great.
