Nathaniel J. Smith

@njs
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192 Posts
https://vorpus.org · he/him/his

Let’s consider the logic behind these statements for a second: Why would you, a CEO or executive at a high-profile technology company, repeatedly return to the public stage to proclaim how worried you are about the product you are building and selling?

Answer: If apocalyptic doomsaying about the terrifying power of AI serves your marketing strategy.

Because we were looking for more things to do when these clowns decided to write "the letter," and cite our #StochasticParrots paper while saying the opposite of what we write, we @emilymbender Angelina McMillan-Major and @mmitchell_ai wrote a statement in response.
https://www.dair-institute.org/blog/letter-statement-March2023

What hasn't OpenAI found a systematic fix for prompt injection in their models & API?

Because the whole goal of AI safety is to make sure that the model can't escape!

And then, despite how incredibly successful Vanguard has been, guess what? Nobody else on Wall Street has replicated it. Why? Because you can't steal as much money that way. You just can't. Vanguard founder Jack Bogle died with $80 million in the bank. Huge, but his peers are billionaires. So nobody does it. No investors will invest in a model that doesn't allow them to swindle normies. It is sickening.

Just learned set theory and I cannot contain myself.

*edit*
This post hit 500 boosts an 1k likes :D
Trans rights are human rights.
Bash the fash.

@emilymbender It really feels like the New York Times is more willing to believe that LLMs are human than that I am.

Because a friend found this useful yesterday:
Before tackling a problem, figure out whether it's the sort of problem where when you've solved 80% of the problem, you've solved 80% of the problem, or the kind where solving 80% means you've solved 0% of the problem.

This is especially important in security and privacy because that last 5% might be impossible.

Our Developer in Residence (@ambv) wonders what life would be like with two people in the role -- both personally and for the Python community.

https://pyfound.blogspot.com/2023/02/the-case-for-second-developer-in.html

The Case for a Second Developer-in-Residence for Python

As the currently serving sole developer in residence, I’m often asked if there will be more people holding the same position in the future. ...

@danluu same thing that usually happens, they get demoted by a software program they cannot see and don't necessarily know exists and can't understand why their life is so hard.

I have a friend whose ex-boyfriend added her name to a widely used "bad words" filter list. I found it and sent 80 pull requests on Github to try and expunge the entry (somewhat successfully). Similar things will happen with this, but with far less visibility.

Many current events today are reminding me that when I was young the computer was an oasis of agency and control and connection for myself and other nerds like me; cyberspace a small place where, given a little time and some books, we could create things and express ourselves in ways denied to us in physical reality. And now, the experience of “computer” is one of being buffeted about by massive systems completely beyond our control, in fact it is the device which delivers “IRL” coercion *to* us