It’s kinda interesting in how it actually roughly parallels the dawn of the nuclear age in some specific ways. Namely, that there’s a clear “purity” line established by the advent of the technology - and I mean that literally, not figuratively. Content on the internet is going to have a very similar dividing line. But it’s also going to be way harder to definitively source data from before that line, unless someone clairvoyant happened to offline and archive a huge storage array with a complete internet snapshot right before ML made its public debut. And I know exactly what the scale of that storage commitment would be, and how much it would cost. So I’m certain nobody has done that.

Uh, good.

As an engineer who cares a LOT about engineering ethics, it is absolutely fucking infuriating watching the absolute firehose of shit that comes out of LLMs and public-consumption ML audio, image, and video ML systems, juxtaposed with the outright refusal of companies and engineers who work there to accept ANY accountability or culpability for the systems THEY FUCKING MADE.

I understand the nuances of NNs. I understand that they’re much more stochastic than deterministic. So, you know, maybe it wasn’t a great idea to just tell the general public (which runs a WIDE gamut of intelligence and comprehension ability - not to mention, morality) “have at it”. The fact that ML usage and deployment in terms of information generating/kinda-sorta-but-not-really-aggregating “AI oracles” isn’t regulated on the same level as what you’d see in biotech or aerospace is insane to me. It’s a refusal to admit that these systems fundamentally change the entire premise of how “free speech” is generated, and that bad actors (either unrepentantly profit driven, or outright malicious) can and are taking disproportionate advantage of these systems.

I get it - I am a staunch opponent of censorship, and as a software engineer. But the flippant deployment of literally society-altering technology alongside the outright refusal to accept any responsibility, accountability, or culpability for what that technology does to our society is unconscionable and infuriating to me. I am aware of the potential that ML has - it’s absolutely enormous, and could absolutely change a HUGE number of fields for the better in incredible ways. But that’s not what it’s being used for, and it’s because the field is essentially unregulated right now.

If this is ML-targeted, frankly it’d be a great test case for making the judicial system decide whether content generated largely or wholly by a machine learning system shall even be considered as “speech” in the traditional sense, since it’s the system doing the “speaking”, not a human, and the Bill of Rights does not offer any protection to non-humans.

Bake him away, toys.

I mean Roberts is a real possibility too tbh given that recent memo leak

The “trust” gap is that Trump will absolutely tax rich people less… but if the pie is smaller because Trump is busy putting the economy in a nosedive, you’re gonna make less money anyways. So it’s better to keep a smaller portion of a bigger pie.

Don’t put words in my mouth. You are a part of the problem that I’m highlighting.

For real, that’s all I’ve been saying whenever people start come in and start bashing on Harris and pushing false equivalence. Like, yeah, Biden is super bad on his policy towards Israel and Gaza; I HOPE Harris will be better; I KNOW Trump will be worse.

That’s it. That’s the whole dynamic. That’s the only two choices we have as members of the American electorate.

Holy fuck, dude. I’m not defending them or their ideology. I never will. I categorically disagree with them on the vast majority of their positions. But right now they and we share an existential threat. If you want to ignore that… welll, you do you, but I’m not going to let perfect (or in this case, deeply flawed in a lot of important ways) be the enemy of objective good. And here, “objective good” is “not letting the fascists win”.

For those unaware of the numbers, the union’s internal vote had members breaking for Trump nearly 2:1. So I guess I hope they have fun when the leopard comes around for some face jerky.

Tangentially, I think Rush Limbaugh and other conservative radio commentators that flooded the airwaves for DECADES across the country are largely to blame. That was one of the “you can always find it anywhere in the US” sections of radio content for a very, very long time, and it corrupted the thinking of a LOT of people. Propaganda works, and it’s often very fucking scary when it does.

One law, which took effect immediately, makes it illegal to distribute “materially deceptive audio or visual media of a candidate”

Genuinely fantastic.

in the 120 days leading up to an election and in the 60 days following an election.

…why would you restrict it like that…?

Stop.

Recognize the tactical political exigencies that exist here. Understand that there actually are a meaningful number of republicans who are NOT, in fact, down with fascism, and that this is them trying to stop the fascists from gaining power.

To be clear: they’re not our friends. But we DO share a mutual enemy that is very likely an existential threat to both of us.

I, too, find stuff like this obnoxiously navel-gazey, given the context.

Think of it like WW2, and the Soviets. They were NOT the good guys at the start of the war - look up the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact and the joint Soviet/Nazi invasion of Poland if you don’t know what I’m talking about. But ultimately, the greater existential threat ended up being the Nazis, so the allies ended up in a straight up military alliance with the Soviets. And then, of course, immediately segued into the First Cold War shortly after the European and Pacific campaigns were fully wrapped up.

The Republicans who are doing this are not really our friends, but they are recognizing a mutual threat, and for now, the correct tactical decision is to let them help the rest of us stop the overt fascists from gaining power.

Seriously - not a bad response per se, but fucking EVERYONE knows these chucklefucks come to negotiate in bad faith, so bringing the receipts as a journalist is absolutely fucking crucial to catch them in outright lies, and actually nailing them to the wall on national television instead of letting them skitter around and avoid the point. I can just about guarantee you a large proportion of the viewership is on that shitass senator’s side, because a large proportion of the viewership is either that wrongheaded, dumb, prejudiced, dogmatic, or some combination thereof.

What the media still gets wrong about Trump supporters is that the vast majority of them are some combination of stupid, racist, or psychopathically greedy. Stop beating around the fucking bush.

Yes, I have a team. It’s called “not a fascist”.

The other team is the fascists.

I know I’m not being civil when I say this, but you’re verging into a category that does not deserve an iota of respect: Do not fucking come in here with that false equivalence. Do not be a fascist apologist.

The way she, her party, and her campaign conduct themselves make it hard to avoid the conclusion that she’s running purely as a Democratic spoiler candidate (that is, with the intent of siphoning support away from the Democratic candidate).

Edit: to be clear, I am a staunch supporter of environmentalist causes in general. I just don’t believe the Green Party actually is an environmentalist cause at the end of the day. I judge these things by actions, not by policy documents.

Eh, don’t care. Literally everything and anything weird or gross about trump is fair game. Dude is a psychopathic fascist pedophile. There are court cases about it that were only dismissed (correction) dropped because he threatened to murder the families of the girls involved. Don’t be an apologist for that.