From Pine View Farm

Geek Stuff category archive

Executive Ethics 0

Caption:  Phil's struggle to stay on the oliggarch diet continues.   Image:  Two executives stand in front of a food truck labeled

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

At Psychology Today Blogs, John Nosta wonders whether we should stick with “not so much,” or should we (these are my words, not his) continue to invite the singularity over for dinner.

Where is Neo when you need him?

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? 0

A false idol? Sacrifices welcome.

Joe Pierre points out that “(f)or some, deifying AI chatbots as a god-like form of super-intelligence can lead to psychosis.” A snippet:

Anecdotal reports of “AI-induced psychosis”—many of them coming from friends and family—have documented a startling number of people who have developed grandiose and paranoid delusions emerging in the context of conversations with artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots like ChatGPT.

While of the topic of dubious digital deities, check out the discussion about AI on this week’s episode of Le Show. It starts at about the 36-minunte mark.

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Geeking Out 0

Mageia v. 9 with the Plasma desktop. The desktop menu is active. The wallpaper is from my collection.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

Obedient? Good little Grok is always listening to his master’s voice.

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Twits on Twitter X Offenders 0

See foot. Shoot foot.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

A reliable witness? That bridge in Brooklyn is still on the market.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

Susceptible to suggestion? We’ll find out.

Security expert Bruce Schneier reports that “(a)cademic papers were found to contain hidden instructions to LLMs.”

One example he provides is an implanted instruction for “no negative reviews.” Follow the link for more examples and a link to the original study.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

Devolutionary? Quite possibly.

Or you can read the transcript.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

A good listener? Could you repeat that once more all over again, please?

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Facebook Frolics in the Surveillance Economy 0

The EFF explores the Zuckerborg’s latest scheme for assimilating you and suggests some steps you can take to protect yourself from assimulation. (Audio only. Pretend you are listening to a radio show. Remember radio shows? If you don’t, see the OTR category on the sidebar, over there ——>.)

You can read the synopsis here.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

Courting disaster? Why, on bended knee.

Above the Law reports on a “hallucinated” A. I. precedent that, had it not been caught by an appeals court, would have led to a wrong outcome. Here’s a bit:

They cited MORE fake cases to defend their first set of fake cases. Epic. A perpetual motion machine of bullshit, if you will. Seeking attorney’s fees based on a fake case was a nice touch. Probably should’ve thought of that at the trial court level, it probably would’ve worked.

And, in more news of our wandering blithely and stupidly into a singularity of our own making . . . .

Where is Neo now that we need him?

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False Pretenses 0

“A. I.” does not stand for “artificial intelligence.” That misrepresents what it does. It does not think. It assembles.

“A. I.” stands for “automated infringement” of intellectual property.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

A successor to Shakespeare? To be or not to cumquat, that is the merchant of the tempest.

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The Art of the Con 0

Der Spiegel takes a deep dive into the workings of a massive multinational online consumer con.

Just go read it and remember, just because you see it on a computer screen, it ain’t necessarily so.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

Delusional? Darn tootin’.

Susan A. Nolan and Michael Kimball consider the source at Psychology Today Blogs. Here’s a bit of their article:

AI hallucinations are, of course, not limited to science. They occur across disciplines and contexts. Indeed, such errors are a growing problem in court where legal documents increasingly include references to non-exist (sic) legal cases. For example, in less than four weeks in May, judges reported at least 23 made-up legal citations. Moreover, it appears that professionals – lawyers and trained legal staff – are largely responsible for these fake references. Lawyers may be overly relying on AI, yet not checking what AI produces. Reporters noted that the actual number of fake citations is almost certainly higher given that judges may not always catch when it happens.

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Geeking Out 0

Now this is what I call wallpaper.

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Mageia v. 9 with the Plasma desktop. GKrellM is in the lower right; xclock, the upper right.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

Is it keeping a list and checking it twice? Well, it knows if you’ve been naughty or nice.

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Facebook Frolics 0

At the EFF, Lena Cohen and Rory Mir explore the Zuckerborg’s latest efforts to spy on you and offer some suggestions for combating it. A snippet:

Meta’s tracking pixel was secretly communicating with Meta’s apps on Android devices. This violates a fundamental security feature (“sandboxing”) of mobile operating systems that prevents apps from communicating with each other. Meta got around this restriction by exploiting localhost, a feature meant for developer testing. This allowed Meta to create a hidden channel between mobile browser apps and its own apps.

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Facebook Frolics 0

In a column discussing how to deal with fraudulent frolics (in this case relating to Alabama football) on the Zuckberborg, Michael Casagrande makes this observation, which methinks is quite accurate:

The billion-dollar company clearly doesn’t care if it’s growing a field of weeds where a garden once lived.

Follow the link for context.

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