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Stéphane Bisinger

@sbisinger.bsky.social

Software Engineer, interested in science, concerned about Climate Change. I like to talk about politics

646 Posts109 Follower171 Folgt
Ketan Joshi@ketanjoshi.co · 2mo ago

This one hurts. I've really enjoyed Tim's work in the past But let's just be totally bloody clear here: every single person using a text fabrication engine to replace their work, research and writing skills: THIS MOMENT IS COMING FOR YOU TOO It is truly just a matter of time. It's inevitable ⏱️

I recently wrote a piece critical of Matt Chun's essay about the shootings at Bondi Beach. In it, I attributed a quote to him that were not his words. This was an egregious mistake and I apologise unreservedly. At his request, I have removed the piece, but I wanted to make sure everyone here was aware of the error. I really have no excuse other than my own carelessness and a degree of hubris. I used AI to search for other examples Of how people had responded to Chun's piece, asking for links and key quotes. It brought up mainly mainstream pieces from Australia but some Reddit links, and links from overseas sources. I also asked it to summarise the piece, not in lieu of reading it but in addition. (I had first read it after reading Guy Rundle's comments about it.) I clicked through on some of the links. I noted down the quote, wrote a drop in paragraph using it, and added it to the draft at some point. That I didn't double-check it or recognise it as not part of the original essay is entirely on me. So, yes, this is a case Of AI generating a false quote, but the issue is that I should've been far more careful in checking it and I am deeply sorry, and embarrassed, that I didn't do it to the extent necessary. Obviously, we are all aware of this issue of falseSo, yes, this is a case of AI generating a false quote, but the issue is that I should've been far more careful in checking it and I am deeply sorry, and embarrassed, that I didn't do it to the extent necessary. Obviously, we are all aware of this issue of false quotes and attributions with AI, but I had enough hubris to think such a thing would never get past me. It did. When Matt Chun first contacted me, I initially responded by saying "It came from a email discussion with people I know and generally trust and I should've been much more careful." I was pretty sure I knew what the issue was, but this was a fob to give me time to think about it. Obviously, I should've just said, let me look into it, but I actually thought that sounded worse, more like a fob than the false reason I gave. That's not an excuse, just the thought process in the moment. I also apologise for this. I will leave further discussion of the the problems with using AI in this way for later. For now, I really want to make clear the error and to apologise publicly to Matt Chun for the false quote and the initially misleading response. As I say, I have no excuse beyond my own carelessness and hubris. B 987x686px, WMatt Chun Subscribe @mattchun Update: After initially lying to me about the source Of the misattribution, Tim Dunlop has now admitted that he used Al to write his article, which generated the entirely false paragraph attributed to me as a 'quote'. The false 'quote' is central to Dunlop's article, and essential to his criticism of me. It's the basis from which he develops a number of defamatory imputations, and from which he invites his readership to conclude that I am frankly, grotesque'. Dunlop has now removed the article and has posted a public apology. However, the article was published for 30 days, during which time it enjoyed wide engagement and shares. It drew a significant number of comments by admiring readers who found his misinformation convincing. The article also remains in the inboxes of his many subscribers. It appears that Dunlop is a journalist for national mastheads, a published author, and a •sought-after' public speaker with a PhD in 'political philosophy and communication'. He has a large audience including hundreds of paid subscribers, and is currently '#45 rising in world politics' on this platform. @ May 26 Matt Chun I did not say the words •quoted' below. I've never seen these words before. and they certainly don't appear in my writing as Tim Dunlop claims. Nevertheless, Dunlop develops a critique of me based on this complete misattribution. In the comments section of his article, Dunlop is congratulated as •clear-sighted and thoroughly informed'.
Dr. Jeroen W.P. Wijnendaele@drdragases.bsky.social · 3w ago

No longer content with pillaging intellectual work and dismembering our environment (already critically weakened), AI companies are now hellbent on destroying books galore including rare editions. Shut down these nefarious enterprises already.

AI labs buy, scan, shred millions of rare books

If you have retreated to physical books because the internet is too full of AI slop, bad news — now they’re shredding the books to feed their AI slop machines.

news.com.au

sebmal@mrdo.pro · 3w ago

WARNING! TACO BELL ADVISES NEW TACO SO GOOD IT IS BEYOND THEIR CONTROL, COULD REPLACE ALL OTHER FOOD BEFORE HUMANS CAN CONTAIN IT. URGES CONGRESS TO GIVE THEM MORE MONEY SO THEY CAN DEVELOP ANTI-TACO SAFEGUARDS

Matt Burgess (WIRED)@mattburgess1.bsky.social · 3w ago

NEW: A glimpse at how AI image generators are used. Researchers set up a fake image editor on Hugging Face and within a week received 1,000 prompts. 73% of them were sexual and 83% of those were asking for people (women) to be “undressed”. Around 6% of the sexual requests also targeted minors

Hugging Face Has a Deepfake Nudes Problem

Researchers tested top image editing models on Hugging Face and found they could easily create explicit deepfakes—and 1,000 image editing prompts show how people use the software.

wired.com

Adam Schwarz@adamjschwarz.bsky.social · 3w ago

When the story of why humanity didn't stop climate change is written, it will feature front pages like this. Even as the skies blacken with climate change-induced wildfires, right wing media continue their relentless crusade against measures to tackle it.

The Times: Net zero risks blackouts. Below a photo of French wildfires.
@luigijorio.bsky.social · last mo.

La canicule exceptionnelle du mois de juin en Suisse a mis en évidence les difficultés à faire face à ces nouveaux extrêmes climatiques, affirme Sonia Seneviratne, climatologue à @ethz.ch . @soniaseneviratne.bsky.social

Quand la canicule arrive plus tôt: les leçons à tirer pour la Suisse

La canicule en juin en Suisse a mis en évidence les difficultés à faire face à ces nouveaux extrêmes climatiques, affirme Sonia Seneviratne de l’EPFZ.

swissinfo.ch

Stéphane Bisinger @sbisinger.bsky.social · last mo.

Trump is out of his mind and is throwing bombs left and right in Turkey. Whenever we decide to put a stop to this madman, is way overdue. P. S.: Rutte should resign. His attempts to appease Trump make him look ridiculous. It's a failed strategy, and it's maybe time to have someone with a backbone

Stéphane Bisinger @sbisinger.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Am I the only one bothered by the narrative "7th prime minister una decade"? Two reasons: 1. The count is misleading. Cameron was in office for 6 years and left in 2016.He shouldn't be counted (or we should talk of 16 years, not 10). Liz Truss was PM for what, two weeks?

Jan Rosenow@janrosenow.bsky.social · 2mo ago

NEW SUBSTACK: Europe's best defence against the next energy crisis is the one nobody talks about. The EU pays 29% less for energy today than it would have without the efficiency gains made since 2000. Energy you don't consume can't be withheld or weaponised. open.substack.com/pub/janrosen...

Europe's best defence against the next price shock

Efficiency has already saved Europe a third of its energy since 2000. Treating it as one system with electrification and clean power is how the rest gets done.

open.substack.com

Stéphane Bisinger @sbisinger.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The saddest thing about the AI psychosis is that a pre-requisite for it is to become a climate denier. Not the "climate change is hoax" kind of denier but the "it's not as bad as they say" kind of denier.

Stéphane Bisinger @sbisinger.bsky.social · 2mo ago

We **unlearned** best practices and wisdom we accumulated over **decades**. We threw it all out the window in favor of speed, counted as lines of code per hour. We have books from the 70s and 80s explaining why that is a terrible measure. But we forgot that too.

Patricia Aas 🐢🏳️‍🌈@patigallardo.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I’m watching programmers basically fuzzing themselves to an implementation. Write lots of tests, or specs, then have an LLM generate stuff and test it against the spec, iterate to infinity until it’s «good enough». The implementation is black box. Jesus, our field has digressed decades.

Jason Koebler@jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 2mo ago

New: Researchers have quantified how easy AI search is to manipulate. Just 13 words buried in a random Reddit comment can poison AI search results. They suggest this is not easy to stop: "The way you can attack these systems is so much dumber than you think it is" www.404media.co/it-is-trivia...

It Is Trivially Easy to Use Reddit to Manipulate AI Search, Research Suggests

"We show that a tiny snippet—just 13 words—of retrieved text on a UGC website like Reddit, Wikipedia, Quora, or Facebook can change AI agents to output spam / scam content pretty consistently."

404media.co

Stéphane Bisinger @sbisinger.bsky.social · 3mo ago

I think it's a huge missed opportunity the fact that there isn't a national program to force new buildings to have heat pumps and for old buildings to substitute gas and petrol boilers. It benefits both the environment and the consumer, it just doesn't benefit the big owners who rent!

Jan Rosenow@janrosenow.bsky.social · 3mo ago

The worst heat pump is more efficient than the best gas boiler. A gas boiler turns one unit of energy into less than one unit of heat. A heat pump delivers 3 to 4 units of heat for every unit of input. More in future Substack long read. Sign up here: janrosenow.substack.com

Ketan Joshi@ketanjoshi.co · 3mo ago

"If data centres were a country, they would be the second-largest destination for gas turbines ordered from Q1 2025 to Q1 2026" New IEA report confirms this isn't a normal industry. It is a fossil-fuelled, high-polluting heavy industry producing socially corrosive products at massive climate cost.

a chart shwoing data centre growth
David Roberts@volts.wtf · 3mo ago

At this point, solving climate change is cheaper than not solving it -- not only on some grand 50 year time horizon, but tomorrow, today, immediately. Soving climate change *is* affordability. Maybe Dems should tell voters about that.