As someone who also began in the hard syntactic parrot hypothesis and kept up with the progress, here's my take as a linguist and cognitive scientist, and NLP enthusiast since before the age of LLMs: It's syntax all the way down

Colin@colin-fraser.net · last mo.

But this is now quite old news. I’ve been noticing this arithmetic thing since 2023 and posting about it. And of course this is an inefficient way to do arithmetic. I agree! But it’s not an *impossible* way to do arithmetic. If your model implies that it is then you have a problem.

Idk if anyone has written about the interaction of AI and language change, but there's a plausible future where 1) LLMs entrench themselves as integral to society (eg. in coding), 2) Artificial Intelligence doesn't progress past LLMs, and 3) Model collapse makes training better models impossible

The goal isn’t to replace the work of humans. It’s to make a case for its devaluation.

Oppressor classes are great at solidarity with each other, it turns out.

Anti-feminism is what "an injury to one is an injury to all" looks like among people whose idea of an injury is having to respect a woman saying "no."

i know a lot of people really, really want gaza to be a two-sides issue that maps cleanly onto US electoral politics, but it isn't. the mainstream of both parties supports the genocide, because the US as an institution supports the genocide. i know that's uncomfortable but you can't run away from it

This iced coffee discourse is bonkers. Y'all love making rules up to torture people you have power over, don't you? Coffee? the thing that's normal everywhere? I've brought coffee to every work meeting I've ever had, interview or otherwise, because I drink coffee when I work. Wtf are y'all about?

"[i want you to] enjoy the [concentration/ death] camps" = explicitly declared by head of T&S to be acceptable speech "i need him to [get eaten by piranhas]" = explicitly declared by moderator action to be unacceptable violent speech WHAT could the distinction be here

Command Zoe🔜PAX Unplugged@commandzoe.bsky.social · last mo.

Wow its so crazy how this only seems to happen to trans people and not the side wishing LITERAL GENOCIDE on us. #freethebugs is back ig. Let my friend out of mod jail. This is so ridiculous.

My simple take on the electoral discourse regarding trans right:

Max Papillon@maxpapillon.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Listening to moderates over any issue is an affront to MLK's legacy, plain and simple.

My bleak prediction for the future of AI & math is: AI proofs will come first and mathematicians' main job will be to make sense of these proofs. Sort of how pro chess nowadays is making sense of what the computer says and gleaning at its impenenetrable logic. Human mind downstream of the machine.

Kathleen Bachynski@bachynski.bsky.social · 2mo ago

"The paper doesn't explain what parts are important. What parts are routine?” …this episode is a reminder that mathematics is about more than just finding a solution, said Maynard. "It wasn't about only answering this problem, it was about the human understanding behind it," he said.”

...we are *way* beyond sports – we now have Dem Senate nominees calling for BANNING TRANS PPL FROM PUBLIC RESTROOMS! if you're a cisgender Democrat, what are you going to do about it? are you willing to push back against this? or will you be an accomplice to this? bsky.app/profile/erin...

Erin Reed@erininthemorning.com · 2mo ago

New Mary Peltola ad. “No, I don’t want kids getting surgeries to change genders, or men in girls bathrooms.” Dem, (AK-AL)

Yes literally exactly this. Spaghettifying much more rapidly than we can rationalise and consolidate things.

Max Papillon@maxpapillon.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Spaghetti code, expect we're spaghettifying the entire ecosystem of digital communication.

I'm going to be clearer about what I'm saying here. AI doesn't have to beat us on genuine intelligence to cause humanity unending problems. It just has to look vaguely competent, and be able to beat humanity on sheer volume of output. There are 8 billion people.

I sincerely doubt that we will see such a "genuine" artificial intelligence ever created, but I think the more pressing issue is that even without it, the dehumanisation of machine processes is rapidly escalating for the sake of some profit driven interests.

We're running up against the limits of an anthropocentric concept of "intelligence" when we say today's robots do not have "genuine" intelligence but tomorrow's robots might. A robot isn't a human and it doesn't have our interests beyond those a human programmed it with. That's always been the case.

A lot of people keep saying "we don't have genuine AI", and I think there's a big and dangerous misunderstanding here in terms of what AI is doing and being used for in industry.

PSA: "Does a dictionary describe or prescribe meaning" is actually a question about authoritarianism in disguise

Jesse Sheidlower@jessesword.com · 2mo ago

The NYT tells you why people shouldn't use a #dictionary to find out what words mean. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/17/m...

God bless @atherton.bsky.social for this succinct wisdom

Jay @ the deep dive@thedeepdive.bsky.social · 2mo ago

US Energy Secretary says Americans need to drive less to achieve lower gas prices.

a lot freaks me out about AI but 0% of my anxiety is about AGI. i think this is the part that freaks me out the most right now -- the many many indications that no one is at the wheel and no adults are present

"Enjoy the camps" is a succinct summation of the current moment trans people find ourselves in. People who insist they're allies also loudly proclaim they won't lift a finger to help us, will say nothing when we're attacked and even tacitly agree with the attacks, and still claim moral superiority.

Agree with this but with the caveat that "enjoy the camps" is also a straight up revenge fantasy many liberals have about minorities who don't know their place. They want trans people and Palestinians to suffer *because* they blame us for their favourite politicians being bad at politics.

Talia "ATTACK DOGS is out now!" Bhatt ⚢@taliabhatt.itch.io · 2mo ago

"Enjoy the camps" is a succinct summation of the current moment trans people find ourselves in. People who insist they're allies also loudly proclaim they won't lift a finger to help us, will say nothing when we're attacked and even tacitly agree with the attacks, and still claim moral superiority.

It's actually fucked that we ever let white people self-describe as "moderates" without hammering that they are therefore a greater obstacle to racial equality than the KKK according to MLK and treating them as such. Why do we let them get away with it?

Listening to moderates over any issue is an affront to MLK's legacy, plain and simple.

I find it interesting how some of the criticism I've received focuses on Talarico and not, say, Acton or Turek or Davis, whose anti-trans statements, votes, or stances are far worse than Talarico's. Talarico wasn't even in my original article, which was written before he said dumb stuff.

voter abstention this, voter abstention that, the obvious answer here is that Democrats could and should just support trans people. if you're on the left and consider yourself on the left in any capacity you should just be supporting trans folk

Erin Reed@erininthemorning.com · 2mo ago

Some Dems are running away from trans people. Abdul El-Sayed, Dem Senate Candidate in Michigan, is running towards them. When asked, he fully and unequivocally support trans youth care as a matter between parents, patients, and doctors. Subscribe to support our journalism.

i'm not sure if robert kraft quite grasps what he started

Una Mullally@unamullally.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The Irish musician Aaron Rowe has said he is withdrawing as a support act on Ed Sheeran’s tour.

this shit does not work on me. go try it on the centrists who call trans women "biological men."

blues: we are going to move right on trans issues because we have judged the votes of trans voters to be worthless some trans ppl: because our votes are worthless, we will not vote blues: what the fuck? you better provide your worthless votes or we all get screwed

jenny tightpants@jtp.bsky.social · 2mo ago

this shit does not work on me. go try it on the centrists who call trans women "biological men."

My simple take on the electoral discourse regarding trans right:

Max Papillon@maxpapillon.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Listening to moderates over any issue is an affront to MLK's legacy, plain and simple.

Also, it seems obvious to me that MLK's take generalizes: (1) MLK principle: white moderates are a greater obstacle to racial progress than the KKK (2) Generalized MLK principle: moderates over issue X are a greater obstacle to progress over X than even violent organizations fighting X.