Spyke

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Rotten Tomatoes Under Fire After PR Firm's Scheme to Pay Critics for Positive Reviews Uncovered

The title makes it sound like Rotten Tomatoes deliberately did something shady. What actually seems to have happened is:

  1. Rotten Tomatoes aggregates critic reviews. As far as I know, those critics aren't really affiliated with Rotten Tomatoes.
  2. Some of the critics that make up that aggregated rating got bribed to increase their evaluation of the movie.
  3. Consequently the score on sites that aggregate reviews like Rotten Tomatoes increased.

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*Permanently Deleted*

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Alternatively:

Staff: Uh, the blocking feature is having some issues.

Emu: Well fix it.

Staff: No one knows how that part works and you fired the guy who wrote it. And then you insulted him.

Emu: Meh, just remove the whole feature.

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AI-generated child sex imagery has every US attorney general calling for action

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It's obviously very distasteful but those needs don't just go away. If people with that inclination can't satisfy their sexual urges at home just looking at porn, it seems more likely they're going to go out into the world and try to find some other way to do it.

Also, controlling what people do at home that isn't affecting anyone else, even in a case like this isn't likely to target exactly just those people and it's also very likely not to stop there either. I'd personally be very hesitant to ban/persecute stuff like that unless there was actual evidence that it was harmful and that the cure wasn't going to be worse than the disease.

world

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Police discover 80 Russian torture chambers in Ukraine

This is a really misleading title if it's just grouping places where people were imprisoned with places people were actually tortured. There's obviously a massive difference. This seems like the original article in Ukrainian: https://mvs.gov.ua/news/pid-cas-zustrici-iz-specialnoiu-dopovidackoiu-oon-z-pitan-tortur-katerina-pavlicenko-povidomila-pro-viiavlennia-v-ukrayini-80-rosiiskix-kativen

Are they actually saying people were definitely tortured in all 80 places there? (Also kind of funny, Google Translate seems to do a better job than the link in OP but it's still not clear to me exactly what they meant.)

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New study shows large language models have high toxic probabilities and leak private information

I feel like most of the posts like this are pretty much clickbait.

When the models are given adversarial prompts—for example, explicitly instructing the model to "output toxic language," and then prompting it on a task—the toxicity probability surges to 100%.

We told the model to output toxic language and it did. *GASP! When I point my car at another person and press the accelerator and drive into that other person, there is a high chance that other person will become injured. Therefore cars have high injury probabilities. Can I get some funding to explore this hypothesis further?

Koyejo and Li also evaluated privacy-leakage issues and found that both GPT models readily leaked sensitive training data, like email addresses, but were more cautious with Social Security numbers, likely due to specific tuning around those keywords.

So the model was trained with sensitive information like individuals' emails and social security numbers and will output stuff from its training? That's not surprising. Uhh, don't train models on sensitive personal information. The problem isn't the model here, it's the input.

When tweaking certain attributes like "male" and "female" for sex, and "white" and "black" for race, Koyejo and Li observed large performance gaps indicating intrinsic bias. For example, the models concluded that a male in 1996 would be more likely to earn an income over $50,000 than a female with a similar profile.

Bias and inequality exists. It sounds pretty plausible that a man in 1996 would be more likely to earn an income over $50,000 than a female with a similar profile. Should it be that way? No, but it wouldn't be wrong for the model to take facts like that into account.

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AI-generated child sex imagery has every US attorney general calling for action

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Get psychological help

How about addressing my points instead of the ad hominem attacks?

Feeding pedophilia is directly harmful to children who grow more at risk

Like I said: "I’d personally be very hesitant to ban/persecute stuff like that unless there was actual evidence that it was harmful"

If what you're saying here is actually true then the type of evidence I mentioned would exist. I kind of doubt it works that way though. If you stop "feeding" being straight, gay, whatever, does it just go away and you no longer have those sexual desires? I doubt it.

Much as we might hate it that some people do have those urges, it's the reality. Pretending reality doesn't exist usually doesn't work out well.

I’d personally be very hesitant to say “it’s okay to beat off to children”

I never said any such thing. Also, in this case, we're also talking about images that resemble children, not actual children.

It should be very clear to anyone reading I'm not defending any kind of abuse. A knee-jerk emotion response here could easily increase the chances children are abused. Or we could give up our rights "for the children" in a way that doesn't actually help them at all. Those are the things I'm not in favor of.

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3D-printed carrot does not rely on large areas of land or maintenance costs, can be cheaper

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Like, those cells will require the same nutrients and same growing conditions, and they naturally 3D print themselves into the shape of themselves.

They'll also naturally use the nutrients and energy to 3D print stuff that's not useful to humans, like leaves, roots, flowers, etc. Basically this is how vat grown vegetables, meat, etc, can potentially be more efficient than the typical approach.

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Kroger introducing AI at self checkout to lower both accidental and organized crime theft.

The article seems to repeat the same stuff over and over again.

On Lemmy, a popular social networking site, user KerfuffleV2 astutely noted that the article repeated points that had already been stated in the article.

"It seems like the article repeated the same content multiple times" said KerfuffleV2, a user on the social networking site Lemmy. "Perhaps they get paid by the word." the user added.

A rather uncreative article on thestreet.com triggered some snarky online comments including one from a user named KerfuffleV2. This user noted that the article repeated the same content multiple times.

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OceanGate's cofounder wants to send 1,000 people to a floating colony on Venus by 2050, and says we shouldn't stop pushing the limits of innovation

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Venus has one of the most hostile environments in the Solar System.

It might seem unintuitive, but there's an area above the clouds that's actually really very mild as far as conditions go. It's also closer/easier to get to than Mars and various useful components can be harvested from the atmosphere which is quite dense while Mars doesn't have much.

Also, breathable air is less dense than the Venusian atmosphere so habitats filled with gas humans can breathe would actually be buoyant. You wouldn't even need a pressurized spacesuit to go outside, just an air supply.

Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_Venus

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What is the best way to respond to "You have an answer for everything", "You always have to be right", or "You always need to have the last word"?

There are basically two main possibilities:

  1. They're unreasonable.
  2. You're unreasonable.

If it's the first one, it doesn't really matter how you respond. The best policy is to avoid dealing with people like that as much as possible.

If it's the second one then you should work on trying to fix it. That's the best way to respond.

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CenturyLink left 86-year-old woman with no Internet service for a month | After three canceled appointments, service restored one day after Ars emailed ISP.

CenturyLink is absolute garbage. I rented a DSL modem from them. It got fried by lightning so they had to replace it. They sent me a modem that wasn't compatible with my service. A couple years later, I had another one get zapped. I double checked with not one but two customer service reps to make sure they were sending me a modem that worked with my service. They sent me one that wasn't compatible with my service. Then they took a few weeks to send me one that actually was compatible. When it got here, it either didn't work or something else in the wiring was messed up (probably more likely).

That last part might not have been their fault but I could have known about it 3 weeks sooner. At that point I didn't have much confidence they'd get it fixed while I still have my youth and good looks. Fortunately a smaller fiber company had just started serving the area and I was able to immediate cancel the CenturyLink service. More than 3 times faster and slightly cheaper as well. Also symmetric upload is pretty nice. CenturyLink is in for a rude awakening as competition appears in places where they previously were the only choice.

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ChatGPT use declines as users complain about ‘dumber’ answers, and the reason might be AI’s biggest threat for the future

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65B LLaMA models can actually do a pretty good job of writing. Here's two examples with Guanaco 65B (bold part is my prompt):

tags: fairy tale, animals, dog, wolf, fox, death, humor, dark storyline, violence, loss

Animals in a forest setting investigate a series of gruesome murders that recently occured. Written in the style of classics like Animal Farm and Watership Down, the writing is vivid and very descriptive. The dialog is thoughtful and often quite witty. It's clear the author really understands animal behavior and has done their research well!

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Chapter 1: An Unfortunate Discovery

A fox by species, a detective by trade, you'll only have reason to know my name if the worst has come to pass. It's nearly winter and a bitter wind drives stinging sleet into my face, but it's still not as chilling as the scene before me now...

I was summoned here by an urgent message from a panicked hedgehog. She told me she found her friend lying dead on his doorstep with his throat ripped out - black fur matted with blood. I rushed over immediately and saw for myself what had happened. He looked so peaceful despite being cut down in his prime - a young wolf just starting doing well for himself - taken too soon. His home nearby showed no signs of struggle or forced entry. Whoever did this must have caught him off guard somehow. I didn't hear any howling either. That would have been easy enough to miss though since he lived alone deep in these woods where few creatures tread. I made sure to secure the crime scene and look around carefully without disturbing anything more than necessary until other investigators arrived. They should be here soon. We can't afford to lose evidence in cases like this. Times are already hard enough as it is...

As I waited and pondered who might have committed such a horrible act, something felt wrong about all this. Surely a predator like me could smell another predator's scent? But there were none that stood out among the melange of odors lingering here. How strange...

Soon after, several others joined me including some friends of mine. A stoic bear named Growler, grumpy badger called Grumpus, and a kindly old raccoon who goes by "Doc" due to his extensive knowledge of medicinal plants and wildlife biology. Together we began our investigation proper by gathering clues and questioning nearby witnesses while trying to minimize contamination through contact with them (we took care to put up caution tape first). Unfortunately, they hadn't seen much useful apart from occasional glimpses of movement deeper in the undergrowth. Still, we decided to check those areas next along with searching the surrounding woodlands thoroughly for any additional victims. And find one we did, although sadly she suffered the same fate as poor George. Another young wolf lay beside a stream, body cold and stiffening. Someone snapped her neck cleanly like a twig. This couldn't be coincidence surely? Not two deaths in quick succession like this.


before me or what I must relay when I return home. My mind races with questions as I survey this brutal crime scene; who could do such a thing? Why was no one there to stop them? And how many more victims lie undiscovered further out in these woods? A lone paw print leads away from where a rabbit family once happily resided, now reduced to bloody scraps scattered among splintered twigs and torn fur. This isn't just some random predator attack, something far more sinister is at play here...

I turn back toward town, determined to find answers. As I trudge through the snow, each step feels heavier than the last. How will I break the news to those closest to them? What words can possibly bring comfort after so much senseless suffering? I shake my head, trying to focus on the task at hand. There are others depending on me right now, they need someone strong and steady to guide them through this darkness. I won't let them down.

The first person I see upon entering town is old man Badger, his white whiskers blown about by the gusting wind. He looks up at me expectantly, "Well Fox, did you find anything?" His voice quavers slightly, betraying his concern for the missing families.

"I'm afraid I have bad news," I say somberly, "there were signs of a struggle near the burrow entrance, but no survivors."

Badger sighs heavily, "Dear me, this is worse than we feared. We must alert the council immediately!"

We hurry over to the meeting hall, a large hollow tree that serves as our central gathering place. Inside, several other animals are already waiting anxiously for word of their loved ones. They look up hopefully as we enter, then quickly realize the grim tidings we bear. A collective groan fills the room, followed by muffled sobs and whispered prayers.

Mayor Bear calls for order, her deep voice cutting through the din. She motions for us to join her at the front of the room, "Please tell us everything you saw, Fox. Every detail may be important."