Rossman posted a video a while ago about how Microsoft updated their site without noting they updated it to gaslight their customers into thinking it's always said that.
There's a reason these companies are trying to kill the archive sites, it lets people call them on their bullshit.
Even as a Linux evangelist, I had to switch one of my systems back from Linux to windows because I couldn't get a couple specific games to run on it because it was an old HP business box and hit that lovely trap of the system being too old for the current OS, but the graphics card isn't supported on the couple older OSes I tried. So I installed windows 10 and called it good.
Probably could have kept trying and found something that worked, but at a certain point it's just easier to deal with windows than constantly tinker with a secondary box for my kid who just wants it to work.
If they're not insulting Linux users, they have to deal with copilot shoving its nose into whatever they're working on.
Like, how many days in a row do I have to dismiss the fucking AI prompt asking me if I want to have my data mangled? I'm not sure the actual answer, I just ignore the fucking banner because I can't be assed anymore. I'm sure there's a setting somewhere, but MicroSlop will move and re-enable it again later so ¯(ツ)_/¯
Maybe I'm showing my age here, but I remember when Macs used to boast about being virus free (because hackers couldn't be bothered to write malware for it).
They should and are doing something about it, because libraries are being flooded with digital slop books that they end up having to pay the distributor for when a patron checks it out.
404Media had some stories last year I think where librarians were removing books from the catalog to save money for real authors and to cut down on the number of complaints received about the obvious slop the books contained.
Yeah, then they have to limit the entrance to the school, add wait times to get in because of processing, and it gives a convenient mass of students for wannabe shooters
That makes more sense, thanks for expanding on your point.
Like I said, I mainly take issue with describing it as 'understanding' due to the connotations it gives off. I'm used to AI glazers using the same wordings and actually try to make the argument there is an understanding behind the statistical probabilities.
My point is that saying an LLM understands anything is anthropomorphizing the LLM and leads people into thought patterns that give it an inordinate amount of authority because people equate the simulacrum of understanding/comprehension with actual understanding.
I think we just fundamentally disagree on the concept of llms a being able to understand a topic rather than it being a shallow statistical prediction if the correct answer, and I just can't equate understanding with statistical predictions. The fact that the underlying math is able to generalize the prediction in novel ways lends weight to the misbelief that it understands concepts, but the decoherence that happens over long conversations should shatter the illusion.
While I agree on the second paragraph, I'm gonna argue about the first, partially because I think the second invalidates the first.
These models do have some form of understanding though. There are features for bugs and typos, and general features that map descriptions and pieces of code.
The models don't understand anything, they have rules that allow for finding tokens that don't belong and fuzzy match to correct tokens (typos) and the ability to find code that breaks known rules for a language. That is no more understanding the problem than my spelling or grammar checking understands the comment I'm writing. 'Understanding' something requires intelligence and the ability to learn something and incorporate that knowledge into itself and use it to better process that information, not just finding tokens that break rules.
It understands the code in so far it helps with next token prediction.
And this is the crux of my beef, I think, because stochastic pattern matching is not understanding, it's a mathematical representation of how the model processes your input tokens. The fact that it has to start over every time you provide it input, and uses the previous input/output tokens as context is why this is not 'understanding', it's just fancy token prediction that gives a middling-to-passable facsimile to intelligence and understanding things.
The problems you note in your second paragraph fundamentally undermine the argument that there is any form of understanding to the AI, because those are basic mistakes that a trivial understanding of the problem would prevent.
You have to schedule an appointment and have a professional remove it, and who knows how long they might make you wait. It’s probably not that common, but I’ve heard of them becoming slightly displaced and “stabbing” people.
Yeah..... as a dude who has broken two of them (different partners), I've been told its not a pleasant experience. Thankfully, both partners were able to get in to see their providers pretty quickly, so they didn't have to deal with it for very long.
Does a dev really need to understand the code if the AI understands it?
That if is doing a lot of lifting here, because AI doesn't understand anything, it only finds mathematical responses to your question. There's a reason the AI can't give you the same script twice (or it constantly rewrites the fucking thing instead of just fixing the thing I told it to)
Could this be like the BS we were seeing earlier in the year on one of the meme comms (I think) where users would post something, then delete their account afterwards, nuking the whole thread.
Sure, but their point still stands. You can easily make the argument that the backlash against AI and datacenters is specifically driven by people with
jobs to keep, bills to pay, groceries to buy and perhaps even think of the environment
And I don't see how the backlash is inorganic. You have a new tech being shoved down peoples' throats that is dog shit at most tasks and passable at some, which is being used to justify layoffs, make workers that keep their jobs work harder, drives up electricity costs, made computer parts unreasonably expensive, uses stupid amounts of power and water to train and outright takes any digital data not nailed down to increase the training data so it can generate shit like revenge porn, deep fakes and CSAM on major social media sites.
If anything, I'm honestly surprised the backlash isn't stronger and more widespread. But given the politicians this country is electing, I can only assume it's because a large fraction of us are dumber than fucking bricks and brainlessly parrot anything their media daddies tell them.
Rossman posted a video a while ago about how Microsoft updated their site without noting they updated it to gaslight their customers into thinking it's always said that.
There's a reason these companies are trying to kill the archive sites, it lets people call them on their bullshit.
Edit: YouTube source