"AI models may be developing their own ‘survival drive’, researchers say" - Guardian

The "research paper" was a tweet by an AI company

The "experiment" was asking the LLM to shut down

A model is ~not~ shutdown ~ever~ by asking a model to shut itself down

*The only possible response is a hallucination*

You shut down a model by turning off the deterministic software running it; so works every time w/o fail

Yet Guardian's shill tech writers just report AI industry tweets as if it was fact

Against my better instincts, I have written some notes on how human probability judgements work and what you should expect from surveys that ask people to guess what proportion of the population is transgender. I hope never to speak of this matter again

https://blog.djnavarro.net/posts/2025-09-21_probability-judgement/

So, the proscribing of Palestine Action has now led to the arrests of 100 people since the proscription just over a week ago... all peaceful demonstrators.

This is the chilling effect on democracy Yvette Cooper (aided and abetted by most MPs) has bought about... Cooper & her fellow travellers have demonstrated a contempt for democratic protest, that is going to be become increasingly clear.

#protest #democracy #politics

h/t Observer

Second variation - a cleaner, less painterly surface, with more emphasis on the typographic elements.

#Art #Abstract #GraphicArt #ContemporaryArt

How I found out that Discourse now offers "AI" summaries of threads: in the 400+ post long thread on iNaturalist about the use of LLMs on iNaturalist, one participant clicked the "AI summary" button of Discourse and then cited from it.

Unsurprisingly, that summary was wrong, completely misrepresenting a person's stated opinion by 180⁰, kinda proving a point there! 🤣

Just a reminder that Nobel-prize winning PCR (1983), used in basically any genetic tech today, was only possible because of an extremophile bacterium discovered in 1964 in Yellowstone funded by a small ~$80k NSF grant with no obvious application at the time. The value of basic #science cannot be predicted and often is realized decades after it's done.

How a discovery in Yellowstone National Park led to the development of PCR - Richmond Scientific
https://www.richmondscientific.com/how-a-discovery-in-yellowstone-national-park-led-to-the-renowned-technique-of-dna-amplification-pcr

Martin Kettle concludes that:

'liberal democratic governments are no longer able to command the necessary sustained public confidence, even through rocky times, to deliver what people once instinctively looked to them for';
but the Q. is why?

There are lots of answers, but the capture of the political class by the self-interested wealthy is not insignificant.

When Govt. so transparently serves the interests of the rich what would the rest of us trust them?

#politics
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/05/labour-defence-keir-starmer-polls-liberal-democratic-governments

Think about it.

Who is used to a lifestyle where they get waited on hand and foot? Rich people.

So obviously rich people (and wannabe rich-adjacent people) are the ones pushing this false narrative that the general public is clamoring for “agents”.

We're not.

Honestly, I don't need Digital Jeeves 3000 to plan my kid's party, order my sandwich, check in on my dry cleaning, read my mail, text my friend, or *anything else* really.

What I need is more pay, healthcare, and better bike lanes. 🤨