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Bernie Michalik

@berniemichalik.ca

I am a father, consulting IT Architect, former runner, chief cook/bottlewasher, and Cape Bretoner. I work at IBM in Toronto. More here: berniemichalik.ca and smartpeopleiknow.com

5888 Posts493 Follower388 Folgt
Bernie Michalik@berniemichalik.ca · 4h ago

I disagree that training AI is the same as training a person. But I am trying to understand what Anthopic is materially different than books being pulped chireviewofbooks.com/2023/12/07/b... and I say this as someone who loves his physical books.

Book Waste: The Dangers of Publishing and the Ethical Consumption of Books - Chicago Review of Books

An essay about book waste and the ethical consumption of books.

chireviewofbooks.com

Guardian US@us.theguardian.com · 5h ago

The AI company apparently found destructively scanning ‘all the books in the world’ easier than dealing with copyright in its quest for training data

Bernie Michalik@berniemichalik.ca · 4h ago

Agreed. Also from Dec. 2020 > www.cnn.com/2020/12/10/h... Also Jan 2022 www.cnn.com/2022/01/13/h...

200 hospitals have been at full capacity, and 1/3 of all US hospitals are almost out of ICU space | CNN

More Americans who don’t even have coronavirus are suffering from soaring Covid-19 hospitalizations.

cnn.com

Jonathan Howard@joho.bsky.social · 5h ago

MAGA/MAHA sycophants now claim that because mitigation measures worked 6 years ago, this is proof they were unnecessary. The stupid, it burns.

Covid stressed many hospitals but almost everywhere it was a manageable crisis. In the spring of 2020, our system shut down almost all outpatient and “non-emergency” medical care before we had a single covid patient, anticipating a tsunami of cases that never came. Our peak covid census was <150 in a 900 bed hospital. We had hundreds of empty beds, empty clinics, and many laid off staff and sidelined physicians who had their practices closed. Millions of routine vaccinations, cancer screenings and treatments, delayed cardiac procedures. Panicking and terrifying the public was a mistake that made a bad situation much worse.
Bernie Michalik@berniemichalik.ca · 6h ago

I would say it has already morphed into "intentionally annoying person". I get it: if I was young and seeing people get rewarded for recommending things, I'd be tempted. But I am hoping they pivot into useful employ and away from "Hi Guys!" and tapping their fingernails on boxes for ASMR.

Josh Gondelman@joshgondelman.bsky.social · 7h ago

This is such an great feature (Rebecca is great!), and I've been thinking about it for a few days. IMO, "Influencer" in the ten-years-ago sense was really a LOT of jobs (spokesmodel/copywriter/etc.) but now it's morphing, at least in part, into "intentionally annoying person" which feels worse.

Bernie Michalik@berniemichalik.ca · yesterday

I was talking to an American colleague last week about holidays and vacations. Like many Americans I have spoken with on this topic over the years, he talked about how he had weeks vacation but he never used it all. And I don't know about Germans, but brother, I use every day due to me. :)

ryan cooper@ryanlcooper.com · yesterday

"Germany is not poorer than the US. It has just chosen to cash out more of its productivity in the form of free time than the US has. The other Western European countries have made similar decisions." peoplespolicyproject.org/2026/08/04/w...