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The article starts, "Nestled in the hills of Mountain View", which is worrisome, because as anyone with even a passing familiarity with Silicon Valley geography

The article starts, "Nestled in the hills of Mountain View", which is worrisome, because as anyone with even a passing familiarity with Silicon Valley geography knows, Mountain View is mostly flat. And Google's Mountain View offices are located on reclaimed baylands, which are especially flat. I wonder if the article authors were thinking of Xerox PARC's offices in Palo Alto's hills? Or the road named "Sand Hill Road" that used to have some venture capitalist offices? Other than those offices I can't think of any significant hill-based offices in Silicon Valley.

belval 4y ago
The Economist is British so it's possible the person writing this has never been to the Bay Area and just made a wordplay based on "Mountain View".
- Dalewyn 4y ago
  Journalists writing bullshit straight out of their asses is certainly nothing new in this day and age.
  - Phiwise_ 4y ago
    I do think there is worse bullshit to be concerned by than whether or not a British tech writer has physically stood in Mountain View, though. I thought the beauty of the internet was in reducing the significance of that sort of thing.
foobiekr 4y ago
Shoreline is kind of hilly even if the hills are landfill.
- rconti 4y ago
  "Smelly hills of Shoreline" doesn't have quite the same ring to it
  - foobiekr 4y ago
    Truly for that you want to head to Milpitas. I wonder how the economist would describe that. “The fragrant town of Milpitas, adjacent to the unappreciated Asbestos Gem of Alviso…”
    - bobsil1 4y ago
      “… with that salt pond stink”
- bee_rider 4y ago
  A shore is kind of like a hill, just wet.
crazygringo 4y ago
Ha, they have since changed it to "Near the bay in Mountain View".
BonoboIO 4y ago
ChatGPT had obviously some misunderstanding of the landscape ;-)
hcks 4y ago
That’s because these models are not grounded in the physical world, they’re just bullshit machines trained on text
anothernewdude 4y ago
It was probably generated by GPT.
ur-whale 4y ago
> Mountain View is mostly flat. Well ... Not a big one, I grant you, but hill nevertheless : https://www.google.com/maps/@37.4231911,-122.084872,3a,75y,15.4h,81.52t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sbX30rgrzvUHVywt-br2NuQ!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DbX30rgrzvUHVywt-br2NuQ%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D100.498344%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192 https://www.google.com/maps/@37.4231911,-122.084872,3a,75y,1...

belval 4y ago

The Economist is British so it's possible the person writing this has never been to the Bay Area and just made a wordplay based on "Mountain View".

Dalewyn 4y ago
Journalists writing bullshit straight out of their asses is certainly nothing new in this day and age.
- Phiwise_ 4y ago
  I do think there is worse bullshit to be concerned by than whether or not a British tech writer has physically stood in Mountain View, though. I thought the beauty of the internet was in reducing the significance of that sort of thing.

foobiekr 4y ago

Shoreline is kind of hilly even if the hills are landfill.

rconti 4y ago
"Smelly hills of Shoreline" doesn't have quite the same ring to it
- foobiekr 4y ago
  Truly for that you want to head to Milpitas. I wonder how the economist would describe that. “The fragrant town of Milpitas, adjacent to the unappreciated Asbestos Gem of Alviso…”
  - bobsil1 4y ago
    “… with that salt pond stink”
bee_rider 4y ago
A shore is kind of like a hill, just wet.

crazygringo 4y ago

Ha, they have since changed it to "Near the bay in Mountain View".

BonoboIO 4y ago

ChatGPT had obviously some misunderstanding of the landscape ;-)

hcks 4y ago

That’s because these models are not grounded in the physical world, they’re just bullshit machines trained on text

anothernewdude 4y ago

It was probably generated by GPT.

ur-whale 4y ago

> Mountain View is mostly flat. Well ... Not a big one, I grant you, but hill nevertheless : https://www.google.com/maps/@37.4231911,-122.084872,3a,75y,15.4h,81.52t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sbX30rgrzvUHVywt-br2NuQ!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DbX30rgrzvUHVywt-br2NuQ%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D100.498344%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192 https://www.google.com/maps/@37.4231911,-122.084872,3a,75y,1...