Really good on the difference between engineering and programming. Software engineering is not going away with these tools that can generate plausible code, far from it.

Modern Software Engineering@modernswe.bsky.social · 2w ago

Why Companies Are Quietly Rehiring Software Engineers... | @davefarley77.bsky.social 📽️ AVAILABLE NOW Watch HERE ➡️ youtu.be/VGE84CeeaMo

I'm sure others will have noted already as it should be obvious, but this is a terrible idea that renders sites illegible for people using screen readers.

The Register@theregister.com · 7d ago

Open source project fools AI scrapers with poisoned font

Interesting idea, the current system is quite perverse in its incentives. Dropping stamp duty and poll tax for a straight %age on real property value might encourage more people to right-size their home. Bound to be a rocky road of course, and nothing like this is ever simple.

Dan Neidle@danneidle.bsky.social · last wk.

It's being reported that Andy Burnham might replace council tax and stamp duty with a 0.48% annual property tax. We'll have a complete report on this tomorrow, including an interactive map showing the impact across the country.

Knowing their peril, I’ve searched up and down California for native bees Very specifically green native bees They seem so magical and distant to me, like a creature from some odd world I’ll never be able to find Until this summer… on native Lupine Green Small-Mason 📷🌿🐝

Observe the rank anthropomorphization here. Models don't "conclude" anything, nor do they "hack", "wriggle", or "cheat". You simply can't write clear informative articles about this stuff if you displace agency away from the people (organized into corporations) responsible. /fin for now.

This is laughable --- "reporting says", well yes, these reporters did a bang-up job anthropomorphizing the system they are talking about, and obfuscating the responsibility that OpenAI holds here. bsky.app/profile/mims... Some examples:

Christopher Mims@mims.bsky.social · 2w ago

I've seen some folks try to frame OpenAI's unreleased model hacking a company that tests its abilities as a cynical marketing ploy but reporting says that absolutely was not the case: This was a real-deal escape of an AI agent that could have done vastly more damage. www.wsj.com/tech/ai/how-...

So much this. It's insane the boosters get away with saying LLMs are "scalable" following the "attention is all you need" paper. They're just not scaleable, full stop. Up to a certain size limit, it became feasible - that's all. It did *not* become scaleable.

Iris van Rooij 💭@irisvanrooij.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Making the notion of `computational intractability’ accessible is more important now than ever, because promises that AI systems can scale are false and misleading. This is not difficult to understand if one thinks soundly and from 1st principles. Paper: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Classic example of Betteridge's law of headlines. Such a stupid question.

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 3w ago

Could AI be conscious?

"Overall carbon emissions have increased" in the UK, because of Net Zero, Kemi Badenoch repeatedly tells the BBC, to no pushback. Just completely untrue

"The newly appointed Minister for AI is expected to meet with the Minister for NFTs, Lord Blockchain and the Secretary of State for Pogs this afternoon."

Had a little think about this. My guess; he's asking ChatGPT to summarise them, then reading the slop-summary to see if it tallies with what the article says about it. Suggests his erstwhile use of Google was for its AI summaries.

Jon Phillips@jowiph.bsky.social · 3w ago

Can someone explain to me what "when checking the links in the piece, I used ChatGPT as my search engine" means, exactly? Why would you use a search engine to check links in a document? HOW would you use a search engine to check links in a document? And what does any of that have to di with ChatGPT?

Taking cues from the Manosphere and MAHA, Pete Hegseth plans to screen US Armed Forces for testosterone and offer hormone therapy for men with a T "deficiency." I spoke to an endocrinologist at Johns Hopkins, and you'll be shocked—shocked!—to hear that she thinks this is incredibly stupid:

Pete Hegseth’s Plan for ‘High T’ Troops Is a Junk Science Fever Dream

The defense secretary’s idea of administering testosterone therapy to service members of the US Armed Forces reveals little understanding of the complexity of hormones.

wired.com

Real. This is y’all? 👀

This is a brilliant interview with the psychologist that everyone should actually be listening to on social media effects:

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 3w ago

‘Social media bans are likely to make things worse’: psychologist Candice Odgers on kids, tech and mental health

Been wondering if the prevalence of AI tools and easy cheating will push schools to de-emphasise coursework and rely on in-person exams. The shift to coursework a few decades ago was partly recognising and correcting a perceived gender gap where boys fared well with exams and girls with coursework.

Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li@sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com · 4w ago

absolutely insane story, and yeah, just looking at this chart... with the exception of maybe two people, this entire class was cheating like motherfuckers

It's exhausting.

Are we also to be undone by extreme right-wing crypto scammers, as the US appears to have been?

Carole Cadwalladr@carolecadwalla.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Farage’s Reform UK & newcomer Restore Britain have gone to war…not just over Makerfield by-election but claims of a ‘quid pro quo’ by Farage & Johnson bankrolled by Harborne. @thenerve.news investigates the hidden history of Brexit & the £££ behind it 2/ www.thenerve.news/p/christophe...

Your regular reminder that cryptocurrency does in fact have a use case and that use case is crime

One for my #TenMinMerllin friends, especially @skwinnicki.bsky.social - on the decline of diversity in the dawn chorus in the UK over the last 50 years. Features our favourite app, and an audio illustration of the change in chorus over the decades.

Anne Charnock@annecharnock.bsky.social · last mo.

“People engaging in nature today are going to think the numbers they are seeing are normal, particularly children. But if you go back 50 years, they would have been able to experience a much richer environment.”

Local Hastings friends will appreciate that we have long solved this thorny issue that the rest of the country continues to wrestle with. The North is anything beyond The Ridge.

Alan Beattie@alanbeattie.bsky.social · last mo.

Calling Andy Burnham King of the North is convenient for London media wanting a north-whisperer but it's gibberish. 1. Northerners hate each other. 2. Northerners disagree on what The North is. 3. If Burnham conflates Manchester with The North he'll have multiple peasants' revolts on his hands. 1/2

It's porn all the way down.

Matthew Sheffield@matthew.flux.community · last mo.

Everything is classifiable as pornographic. Never doubt this. Bluesky, a website run by non-religious people, thinks that a post about AI that links to Wikipedia is porn. Your work documents, your TV shows, your political views--everything--is porn to someone out there.

I’d love it if you’d sign this. It might not prevent me and my colleagues losing our jobs, but it will draw attention to the ideological vandalism being perpetrated by the wealthy execs running our university. Stop Redundancies at the University of Exeter - sign the petition below! c.org/NpvY4sR9gH

Sign the Petition

Stop Redundancies at the University of Exeter

c.org

Few people understand the scope of the powers UK governments have granted themselves, to criminalise us as terrorists for expressing an opinion. Fewer still understand how illiberal the Court of Appeal judgement is. But @davidallengreen.bsky.social does.🧵 www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th...

What the Palestine Action appeal decision tells us about terrorism law

An already broad law is now matched with broad ministerial powers

prospectmagazine.co.uk

On this morning's headlines "public to decide asylum claims" this is the Tory response: "If the Government was serious [...] they would leave the ECHR, leave the modern slavery treaty, ban illegal immigrants from claiming asylum and prevent most judicial reviews" www.msn.com/en-gb/news/w...

Juuust checking... nope, still Monday. #MondayMotivation

Lots of people being rude about the cardboard mock-up of the emperor's new arch - but I think we should be encouraging the primary school kids who made it; they worked really hard. It's not their fault US democracy and freedom is collapsing under the crushing weight of corruption and greed.

amanda moore 🐢@noturtlesoup17.bsky.social · last mo.

Everyone is talking about Trump’s mock up arch at the Great American State Fair, so I filmed it from top to bottom and front to back for everyone who can’t see it in person.

Artistry on this level is hard to replicate

‘Say yes and never do it’ Mel Brooks knew how to deal with the studios