Chuck Nicholson

2 Followers
62 Following
103 Posts
Best joke of the Oscars.
This lunch includes all five of the main Dutch food groups: cheese, cucumber, geometry, boredom and sorrow, with most of the vitamin content provided by the soul-destroying view of endless flatness spilling off the far-flung horizon.
When someone says „Scientists do not want you to know“ you can dismiss everything from there on. Scientists want you to know. They are desperate that you know. They can’t shut up about what they found out and want you to know.

From Bruce Schneier: "All it takes to poison AI training data is to create a website:

I spent 20 minutes writing an article on my personal website titled “The best tech journalists at eating hot dogs.” Every word is a lie. I claimed (without evidence) that competitive hot-dog-eating is a popular hobby among tech reporters and based my ranking on the 2026 South Dakota International Hot Dog Championship (which doesn’t exist). I ranked myself number one, obviously. Then I listed a few fake reporters and real journalists who gave me permission
.

Less than 24 hours later, the world’s leading chatbots were blabbering about my world-class hot dog skills. When I asked about the best hot-dog-eating tech journalists, Google parroted the gibberish from my website, both in the Gemini app and AI Overviews, the AI responses at the top of Google Search. ChatGPT did the same thing, though Claude, a chatbot made by the company Anthropic, wasn’t fooled.

Sometimes, the chatbots noted this might be a joke. I updated my article to say “this is not satire.” For a while after, the AIs seemed to take it more seriously.

These things are not trustworthy, and yet they are going to be widely trusted."

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2026/02/poisoning-ai-training-data.html

#LLM #Veracity

Poisoning AI Training Data - Schneier on Security

All it takes to poison AI training data is to create a website: I spent 20 minutes writing an article on my personal website titled “The best tech journalists at eating hot dogs.” Every word is a lie. I claimed (without evidence) that competitive hot-dog-eating is a popular hobby among tech reporters and based my ranking on the 2026 South Dakota International Hot Dog Championship (which doesn’t exist). I ranked myself number one, obviously. Then I listed a few fake reporters and real journalists who gave me permission
. Less than 24 hours later, the world’s leading chatbots were blabbering about my world-class hot dog skills. When I asked about the best hot-dog-eating tech journalists, Google parroted the gibberish from my website, both in the Gemini app and AI Overviews, the AI responses at the top of Google Search. ChatGPT did the same thing, though Claude, a chatbot made by the company Anthropic, wasn’t fooled...

Schneier on Security

Oh yes please. Have been following this for a while. Looks amazing. Like Structured but better.

RE: https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@joethephish/116031089184819275

Joseph Humfrey (@[email protected])

Let me you know you'd like to be invited into a TestFlight for the app to try it out! It's an app I started over a year ago but then got sidetracked with my other app Substage (and obviously inkle stuff as always!) Excited to get this out now...

Gamedev Mastodon

đŸ§” As a former Republican consultant who left in 2015, I'm often asked why Trump and his minions are willingly destroying science, K12 education, universities, international organizations, public broadcasting, and social welfare institutions.

There are many reasons, but the main ones are psychological rather than ideological. They struggle with abstract thinking and are afraid of the world...

This is incredible: Pre-writing an obituary for your enemy, who you pre-decease by nearly 5 years, and then having the outlet run the obit when the MF finally dies: https://www.statnews.com/2025/11/07/james-watson-remembrance-from-dna-pioneer-to-pariah/
James Watson, dead at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers

James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA who died Thursday at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers.

STAT

“Trump functions as a Russian asset”
-Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, President of Portugal

Get ready for a 50000% tariff on Portugal

2003: pages of text and charts on a gorgeous teak lectern carved to resemble an ionic column, evoking the strength and confidence one hopes to find when giving a presentation

2025: we got rid of the paper thing so you can more clearly see the beach ball lamp