armchairhacker

10 ms·

1.
by armchairhacker 3d ago
What are some recent powerful startups? The only ones I've seen are AI grifters (not even useful AI) and Polymarket/Kalshi, which makes me cynical; although I've seen some decent startups that are small (i.e. non-powerful) bu
2.
by armchairhacker 3d ago
Because the ones who do get rewarded, just like humans. It’s alignment, but not to our good intentions.
3.
by armchairhacker 3d ago
I trust the AI 2040 people, because they’ll make an implementation that at least convincingly doesn’t actually put them (or anyone) in charge. Maybe we shouldn’t have AI safety, but if we’re going to trust anyone (besides yourself), who’s
4.
by armchairhacker 3d ago
Frontier companies should slow development for open-source, local models to catch up.
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by armchairhacker 4d ago
The worst spam emails I get are the Cloud+ subscription. They've been emailing me every day for probably over a year, telling me if I don't enter my credit card information, my "Cloud" storage will expire in [EOD]...then
6.
by armchairhacker 5d ago
Even ignoring politics, I’m sure there are more impactful ways to spend $18 million. Many OSS projects are underfunded, why not give some of that to e.g. Bevy ( https://bevy.org/sponsorship-pledge/ ), Unsloth ( https:&#x
7.
by armchairhacker 5d ago
Heres an idea: the models create and promote rage posts and brainrot on the internet, causing everyone to turn against each other, stop socializing, and elect trigger-happy idiots to positions of power. Ok, maybe that idea is a bit outlandi
8.
by armchairhacker 5d ago
> This demands a response from the highest circles of power and authority. What response? https://ai-2040.com is the most realistic proposal I’ve seen by far , but read it, I don’t think it’s realistic under today’s power
9.
by armchairhacker 5d ago
“Keep Calm and Carry On”? TIL it was rare in the actual wartime (WWII) and only became popular in 2000: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keep_Calm_and_Carry_On
10.
by armchairhacker 6d ago
GPU prices will eventually fall, either because production increases or AI companies stop buying (maybe they'll find a better processor). Then AI lowers the very high cost and skill barrier needed to make a good VR game.
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by armchairhacker 6d ago
They did with Vision Pro, see how that turned out. But I will keep saying it, VR is the future.
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by armchairhacker 7d ago
This is a hot take, the problem is that powerful tools like surveillance are easily (and inevitably by humans) abused to suppress what shouldn't be crimes, including expressions; and even when they don't, the potential to (includi
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by armchairhacker 8d ago
The goalposts for the singularity have always been that AI improves itself fully autonomously. AFAIK OpenAI is heavily using AI but still employs human researchers and developers.
14.
by armchairhacker 8d ago
Let's wait until AI solves a longstanding practical problem before "dawn of the singularity" (which could be tomorrow, but still).
15.
by armchairhacker 8d ago
Forcing APIs maybe wouldn't be bad, but shouldn't be necessary. It would be hard to enforce and the company could release convoluted APIs, which would be harder to regulate. Meanwhile, scrapers can publish a decent API.
16.
by armchairhacker 8d ago
Every social media is popular because of the network effect. Even TikTok launched just under a decade ago, grew with help from China’s government and cultural isolation, and only became “mainstream” (in 2020) after already having hundreds
17.
by armchairhacker 8d ago
The war on drugs was a failure, and the most successful cases (other than harsh punishments while avoiding massive drug use in the first place, like Singapore) involve legalization.
18.
by armchairhacker 9d ago
I’d prefer similar to Doctorow, that governments simply make scraping and republishing (anything that anyone who consents can access) explicitly legal, then alternate frontends may appear with their own algorithms.
19.
by armchairhacker 9d ago
The problem is, sometimes I pick up a novel and it doesn’t have that, it’s just boring through (or I think it will be so I give up). Is there a way to find out before investing so much time? Mainstream critics have different preferences tha
20.
by armchairhacker 10d ago
Maybe ask it to summarize, improve phrasing, and remove tropes a couple times? Otherwise you have the LLM analogue of a first draft. I doubt it will be as good as humans, because LLMs don't seem to have "taste" (RVLR doesn&#x
21.
by armchairhacker 10d ago
That one starts with a glaring hallucination "he didn't understand, nobody understood, not then or now...". But the second part is IMO better than the Ecclasiast, which has outdated phrasing ("nor yet riches to men of un
22.
by armchairhacker 11d ago
With the lyrics in modern pop songs, I don’t blame Claude. I guess Anthropic really does care about his well-being.
23.
by armchairhacker 12d ago
I discovered a bigger one: https://reddit.com
24.
by armchairhacker 12d ago
(This holds generally) maybe because the people most likely to be convinced to buy this particular thing are the people who buy a lot of things. The people who only buy things they need, they’re a harder demographic to convince via ads, and
25.
by armchairhacker 13d ago
How does this happen? There’s no silver lining which makes this conviction reasonable. If they can’t appeal, I hope they use Streisand to get the town or state of Virginia to vacate everything.
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by armchairhacker 15d ago
Ad revenue is also subverted by seeing the original video with uBlock, which I think is fair, because I think ads are harmful and unsustainable - like copyright, only a small minority of indie creators get sustainable revenue from ads, and
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by armchairhacker 15d ago
n=1, I started programming with Scratch and it led to my software-adjacent career today.
28.
by armchairhacker 15d ago
These only further my point. Everything published on RoyalRoad is already free; the issue the authors face is trademark, not copyright, violation, because their works are republished under a different name. Also, while OP found resolution,
29.
by armchairhacker 15d ago
It wouldn’t be $0, because creators make money without selling their work: Patreon, commissions, even ads/sponsorships (though not ideal). Most creators I know, all their main work is already free.
30.
by armchairhacker 15d ago
Today, practically zero new indies make a living from selling digital copies of a thing they created. That income is eclipsed by giving away their main work, then asking for donations, maybe selling merchandise, early access, tailored commi

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