We are hearing the words "war crime" from some quarters for the first time.

We were wondering why they had not cared about war crimes in the region until now.

There seems to have been an update to the concept of a war crime.

I saw a post recently wherein someone used LLM tools to analyze someone else’s software, which eventually led them to a conclusion that was essentially completely wrong. Not only that, the LLM drew conclusions about the *authors* behind the code that were borderline character assassination. Nevertheless, this person posted this output as though it were some kind of deep insight.

These LLM outputs are not independent thoughts. The LLM probably ingested hints of (maybe unconscious) biases in the user’s prompts within its context window, and regurgitated something that confirmed those biases. The user was pleased that their biases were confirmed (Independently! By an impartial LLM!), and they posted the output, maybe as vindication of their insight.

These models’ sycophancy can be subtle. They don’t have to state “You’re absolutely right!” to blow smoke up your ass. Sometimes they seem to confirm your preconceived notion after they supposedly “evaluate” information “independently”.

#ai

To those upset about bombing Iran: You’re upset about bombing a nation who refuses to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, is hiding 200-400 nukes, blocks UN inspectors, & hides their nuclear facility behind human shields in a residential area?

You’re upset about taking out such a threat?

Ok—well everything stated above is true of Israel—not Iran. Remember that as you hear faux outrage about Iran defending itself from Israel’s illegal attack by targeting Israel’s illegal nuclear program.

The US-Israel war on Iran has emitted 5 million tonnes of CO₂ₑ in its first 14 days. The world currently has 0.6 million tonnes of novel and permanent CO₂ removal (CDR) capacity annually.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/21/middle-east-iran-conflict-environment-climate

I keep seeing versions of this post, which imply a bizarre misunderstanding of how we know the world.

Do people imagine that if we'd never observed galaxies or neutrinos or exoplanets or the cosmic microwave background, we could have *imagined* these things & that would be just as real?

Or that we've magically reached the point, just now, where we no longer need to observe the world?

#science #nature #technology