galaxytachyon

You seriously overestimate the average user. There is a reason why 123456 is still a common password. I would not expect a grandma to know how to put a key on her phone and use it reliably.

And my main argument is that corporations can do better. We should not put the burden on the common folks when the ones who are in the positions to do something are not pulling their weight. Sure, this will reduce their profit, and probably their share prices, and as a result, dev's compensation. Maybe that is the hardest part to argue through.

The cost of healthcare is unlikely due to data management cost. That is almost an absurd comment.

The cost to develop a drug is in the billions. Manufacturing costs are in the tens to hundreds of millions. Locking down some server and implement better security would be a drop in a bucket.

And even if it was more expensive, the biggest pharma megacorps are a fraction of the size of the like of tech megacorps. If the chumps down the street can do it as a side job, why can't the big boys whose entire business is supposedly about data and software can't do better?

Maybe we can start with heavy penalties for whoever responsible for these breaches? The users are irresponsible, but at the higher levels, the company can afford to tighten access and guard their data better.

Would these companies leak their own business critical documents? No. So why can't they be forced to treat sensitive customer's data the same way?

Those on HN are considered extremely tech-savvy and security aware and yet we are still concerned about our accounts getting compromised like this. What can a random user like our moms or siblings do? They won't even notice these kind of attack.

It is such a pathetic state of affair where massive leaks like these are expected. I contend this is a result of lax regulation and lack of consequences. In healthcare, patient data are locked down so hard even people who need to work with them have problems getting to them. It is because of regulations. Everything is traceable, recorded, and maintained to the strictest standards possible. It costs a huge amount of money but as a result, we don't see many serious breaches.

Compared it to fintech and regular tech services, these guys make fuckton of profits and yet suffer almost no regulations. What a joke.

You too? I got the same. But then again, my account is constantly under attack anyway. At least previously they were smart enough to not trigger 2FA. Now even the incompetents are trying.

To be honest, if the power and internet go out, not much would be left, including meat-based technologies such as elbow grease. Can't power the amount of bloodsacks we have with enough biofuels once the electricity goes down and supply chains are disrupted.

Massive scaling down would be required, and we would need to "liquidate" a lot of bloodsacks if the loss of power and internet is permanent.

Turn out the ancient wisdom of drinking and bathing in the blood of virgins had some truth to it...

Seriously though, I don't know how effective this is. What they did appeared to be flooding the tissue with "young blood" and observe the changes in epigenetics markers. These markers are basically conditional if/else depending on the environment so maybe there is something in the plasma that cause them to change. One thing that would be interesting to test is how fast for the tissues to switch back to the "old" forms once the plasma treatment stops.

I think sometimes it is good to zoom out a little bit and look at things on a higher level. The LLMs are not an organic creature. It doesn't in any shape or way relate to a human being except the knowledge it was trained on. A bacteria shares over 50% of its genetic sequences with a human and we don't see it as anything more than a glorified bionic automaton. An LLM shares 0% with us. In fact its "genetic sequence" is coded on a completely different physics altogether. It is unreasonable to expect it to understand or think the same way an organic creature do.

But the outcome of its action is irrefutable. It plays and does things better better than us. That is all we need to evaluate it on. I know that the topic is about "sentience" but my point is we are evaluating a complete alien being using human's standards. Of course we will see that it is lacking. It isn't human.

Ok here it is. An LLM with physical senses. They mentioned sense of touch and I think that is a big deal. You can teach me all you want about a new color with all the text description available and it would be worse than just show me that new color.

In the same way, letting an AI actually touch and interact with the world would do wonders in grounding it and making sure it understand concepts beyond just the words or the bytes it was fed during training. GPT4 can already understand images and text, it should not be long until it takes care of videos and we can say AI has vision. This robot from toyota would have touch. We need hearing and smelling and then maybe we will get something resembling a true AGI.

It is their pride, their nation's representative to the global audience. When people speak of Nintendo, they implicitly acknowledge Japan as a global player in the entertainment industry. It is a source of patriotism and advertisement.

In a way, everyone know of the US because everyone needs Microsoft, Google, Apple, etc. When you talk about Huawei, you acknowledge China as a powerhouse in phone and tech. When you mention TSMC, you have to remember about Taiwan. etc.

The key is they should also entertain and validate your self-worth.

A relationship should be of give and take. You are expected to put effort into maintaining it but the same thing is asked of your partner. Sometimes, one of you will forget or too busy and neglect it. A good couple will accept that and be positive by still putting in their due for some time while the other should notice it and try to fix their issue. A bad relationship, prone to breakup, will have one of the two demanding or questioning why the other is not showering me with love anymore while doing nothing to deserve that love.

Wonder how likely is it that this is because of AI taking over the jobs. Sifting through resumes, contacting candidates, schedule some interviews, connect the hiring manager to the candidate, even getting some extra information from the candidate via email or phone calls are all things an LLM can efficiently do. They may actually do it even better than a regular human since they might "know" more about the role and the technical requirements than an average HR clerk...

Um, the Mate60 is ok and all but compared to Apple tech, it is years behind. Apple is undisputedly the best phone on the market right now and the Mate60 isn't anywhere close to a contender. I don't understand why all the worry.

China is banning Apple for the government officials. They aren't banning Apple from selling in China. And even when Huawei still had access to US tech, their phones were not a serious threat to iPhone. Apple's ecosystem force its user to basically stay within Apple. Moving out is a really painful process. Not to mention we still don't know how much Huawei can scale this. I doubt they have the capacity of TSMC even on the 7nm

You know, the more I read about these things, the more I realize we are literally getting close to "spells" technology.

This is literally an entire paper about constructing a specific incantation to create an effect. Neither the author nor the LLM maker can completely deconstruct and trace every steps of the process from the input to the output. They only know how to chant a litany, add a request, chant another litany, then look at the output and hope they didn't summon Satan.

This is unfortunately very common. "Icky" topics in science are not likely to get funding or published in a good journal. There is a line one must toe and to step out of it, you need to be someone big first, and often the only way to get big is to walk the line for a long time.

If science is truly and completely uncensored, lots of accepted cultural norms would be completely flipped over, including things that people have long considered "settled" or treated as facts. Alas, people just want to hear what they like and the grants are allocated as such. Part of the reason lots of people are disillusioned with academia and go to the industry instead. You can have strong evidences supporting your hypothesis but the court of public opinion does not care one bit about the science. They only want someone agreeing with them.

Found it, it is a pretty recent paper.

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2308.13449.pdf

I remember there is a study about the alignment cost. Basically the more restrictions and limit you put on a model, the worse its general performance becomes. Things like a ban on violence, race, or any other sensitive topics effectively throttle or change how the model "reason" or connect information within its network of parameters and result in degraded capacity.

I wonder if this is the reason behind all of this.

Edit: the study: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2308.13449.pdf

Am I out of touch? No, it must have been the others who are wrong.

Nice selective quoting. I said in Houston repeatedly and you still try to skip it in the exact same sentence you quoted. If you have to take things out of context to make a point then don't make it.

I said the state government leans right and the local government leans left and they balance out. Which is exactly the case why there is a lawsuit right now which they may win.

Your dishonest argument is just pathetic and honestly made the cause you support looks like trash.

What was the cause of death? Before you start ad hominem attacks, best to get your facts straight. Or maybe you are more concerned with outrage and tribalism than knowing what actually happened.

Food and water and medical attention were provided. Consent was obtained. Nobody was forced on the bus. Autopsy was inconclusive. This happened once in 30,000. Those are facts.

If the child died because she was put in an air-conditioned vehicle with food and water, then not much would have changed if she was to stay at the detainment facility where condition is just the same.

Here is a little-known fact you probably don't know: migrants choose which destination they want to go to, i.e. which bus they will board. Many of them took the bus voluntarily because they want to get to other cities for cheap and the bus is basically free. It is almost a public service for them. At the bus destination, often there will be arrangements to accommodate them, either by connecting them to their family, providing assistance, or routing to other destinations of their choice. Did you know that or you thought they were herded like cattle on a bus and dropped off in unknown locations that they know nothing about?

Perhaps you can check the big warning sign on the page about the poverty number:

> Estimates are not comparable to other geographic levels due to methodology differences that may exist between different data sources.

Here is a better source with comparable numbers also by the bureau for 2021, same year we are talking about:

https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publicatio...

Relevant numbers for states can be found on page 77.

As for the "why"...

Officially, poverty level is counted by triple the cost of food compared to income. Of course, that is now obsolete since people need more than just food. They need housing, utilities, etc. Most of those are much higher in CA than TX.

That is why the census bureau has SPM which accounts for these needs. Based on the SPM calculated by the bureau, CA has higher poverty rate than TX, 13.2% compared to 10.4%.

Using the official, i.e. the food cost only, then CA is 11% while TX is 12.9%.

Here is a nice SPM figure by states on reddit:

https://old.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/123s1k3/oc...

Up to you how you want to take it. I was wrong in saying "everything" is double the price so let me take that back. Only housing and utilities are double or more, everything else is still more expensive but perhaps not to the 200% depending on where you live or get them from.

Is it really affordable to Californians though? Or it is affordable only to the upper class there? Not everyone is making 200-300k a year.

If you look at the median household income pre-tax, CA is 84k while TX is 67k. Not that big a difference especially when you consider TX do not have income tax while CA does. Meanwhile everything in CA is nearly double the price. Is everything really affordable to the average Californians or it only affordable to the SWE circle?

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/CA/INC110221

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/TX/INC110221

Because of the job. I took this job thinking the news probably overblow the issues in SF for political reasons, just like how they overblew the issues in Texas from what I experienced there. Turn out there is more truth to it than I expected.

I will move out of CA eventually when an opportunity arrives. Doesn't have to be Houston either. I have been to different places and countries and I am fine with exploring new cultures and new places. Most of the time I found I can tolerate quite a bit unless things go to the extreme. I guess CA is too far on the extreme left for my taste.

I have lived in Houston and the bay area. Comparing the two, I prefer Houston.

Like I said, pay is only ridiculous if you are in software. For the vast majority of other profession, what is ridiculous are the prices and taxes levied on them.

The matter with politics might be subjective. But imo, all the stunts and stupid things the "Christian theocracy" are doing do not affect the majority of people living in Texas. The kind of regulations and political stunts in CA on the other hand directly affect the middle class. Affirmative actions and the DEI overreach have more effects on an average person's life than bussing migrants around and banning children's books. One is an inconvenience. The other potentially involves job loss and large changes in life. That is my view.

Also, before you jump to conclusion. I am a minority in STEM and I consider myself agnostic. The most extreme examples of the "Christian theocracy" you mentioned only happen rarely and personally I was never affected by any of them even though I should by the type of demographic they are allegedly targeting. In SF though, I am directly affected by the taxes and fees to pay for homelessness and DEI issues while still worried on my way home about crimes and whether my car's windows were smashed or not. And homelessness is still an issue even in the suburb like Brisbane and Daly City.

In Houston, owning a car is pretty simple. I pay a registration and insurance online and I am done. Car has problems? There are a hundred car shops around that fix it in a day or two for a fraction of the cost a dealer asks. Gas price is fine. No problem with break in or theft either in the ten years I was in Houston.

And maybe because it is Houston, but there is no problem being LGBTQ here or having progressive ideals. The local government is left leaning but the state is right leaning so they kind of balance out imo. I actually saw true diversity and freedom of expression in Houston compared to the SF's version of it where there are certain types of topic everyone has to tiptoe around. In Houston, even truly controversial opinions are still allowed because for better or worse, there are some people in power who share that opinion, no matter if it is far left or right. IMO, that is better but I understand this can be subjective.

Before SF, I was in Houston. I would say it is a lot better over there, except for the weather.

Housing and utilities are not ridiculous. A good 2000sqft house is 400k. PG&E is less than half CA price. The news shows you the anomaly market prices that nobody pays because everybody has fixed pricing which is about 14-15c/kWh. Homelessness and crime are basically unnoticeable. I can park my car almost anywhere and never worried about break in or theft and no I don't live in any special places. In fact the area I live in is actually in the "less safe" area. But I was there for nearly a decade and never had any issue. SF was the first city I was scared of walking outside alone or leave my car unattended.

Also, within Houston, the city kind of lean left but the state government leans right so overall, the political effects balance out. There is no such thing as "no white allowed" playdate in schools or DEI overreach like the ones I saw in SF. There is also no prosecution of LGBTQ people or minority harassment either. It is a very "live and let live" city where if you mind your own business, nobody will interfere.

On the other hand, I moved to SF and tried to stay downtown. Could not afford it after a while and felt seriously unsafe with the homelessness issues and moved to Daly City after. Things are still expensive there even when it is the "suburb". Rent is still 2k for tiny apartment. Utilities are still just as expensive. Car is now a necessity because by bus or train it takes double the time and also my work hours are not fixed, so I need to stay late sometimes. And no way in hell I am taking public transit at midnight. It is guaranteed to end in a robbery eventually.

A house is completely out of reach. I am in STEM, work for a top company in the field, at a very high skill position, and my salary after tax would never allow me to buy a house here unless I live like a student for the rest of my working life. Meanwhile, if I go back to Houston, I can have a house right now at this exact moment using just the cash I have. That is how much different it is. Accounting for taxes and the cost of living, I am living much poorer here in SF than I was in Houston. And I am sure I am not alone in this experience. It is not a coincidence that lots of people are leaving CA to go to Texas. Even the big companies agreed.

I know most people here might not like this, but honest question, besides the fact that there are lots of jobs around the Bay Area and LA, why would anyone want to settle down in California? The place is almost hostile to having a family or to anyone not in the upper middle class.

Housing is ridiculous. Utilities are ridiculous. Political issues are rampant. Homeless and crimes everywhere. Owning a car or anything bigger than a bike is a hassle and full of cost and regulations. Racial and political ideologues are everywhere including in schools and they have tremendous influence. One can lose their entire livelihood if they were found to have "wrongthink" by these ideologues.

Correct me if I am wrong on any of those because that is my impression after living in SF for a while. CA is great for vacations or if you have a stable 200-300k salary (except software, no other career can afford this unless you are in very senior levels). Otherwise imo, it isn't worth it to stay there. The big companies seem to agree and are moving out. The moment CA lose its only lure which is jobs, it will be a death spiral.

There are already laws for that. Like I said, deepfakes and photoshop have been around for a while. The same concerns were raised back then and now it is just another type of porn. Turn out those petty enough to use deepfakes to bully are also often not bright enough to make them good enough. It will be the same with AI. In many ways it is still easier to spot an AI generated image than some photoshopped photos.

So I still don't see any problem.

In term of AI research and development, that was a long time ago. Microsoft is also pivoting hard into AI. They treat it as a cornerstone technology and I am sure they are not skimping on the cost of implementing it into their main products. Yet the only thing they have is Bing. Mind you they have early access to this tech. Bing uses GPT4 before the paper for GPT4 even came out so it is not like they only had it for 4 months.

While I largely agree with this blog, I would like to point out one thing that often come up in HN: an inherent weakness or flaw in the current AI architecture that prevent it from widespread adoption. Right now it is either scaling hardware or hallucination. But there can be something deeper that we yet to see in public, for example, the inability to adapt to some specific, but critical, reasoning logic.

I don't see the post address this possibility even though it is very likely. Microsoft promised AI powered Office a while ago and we are still waiting. GPT4 is supposed to be able to look at images and solve problems but we still haven't seen that yet. Something is preventing these big companies from implementing these features and this is supposed to be a solved problem. How can we be sure that there is no serious roadblocks in the future that plunge the field into another AI winter?