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News: Ilya Sutskever, the chief scientist deeply involved with last year's board drama, announced that he is leaving OpenAI
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 5:25 PM on May 14, 2024

Ars Technica: Disarmingly lifelike: ChatGPT-4o will laugh at your jokes and your dumb hat

At this point, anyone with even a passing interest in AI is very familiar with the process of typing out messages to a chatbot and getting back long streams of text in response. Today's announcement of ChatGPT-4o—which lets users converse with a chatbot using real-time audio and video—might seem like a mere lateral evolution of that basic interaction model.… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 2:35 PM on May 16, 2024

The first trailer dropped last night and it is a trip and a half. Also increasing to see how much it leans on late Roman Republic history, including references to Crassus and Clodius Pulcher.
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 7:26 AM on May 14, 2024

Reviews are polarized, to say the least:

IndieWire: Wild and Delirious Fever Dream Inspires New Hope for the Future of Movies

The Times: A head-wrecking abomination

The Telegraph: Like Succession crossed with Batman Forever and a lava lamp

Collider: Coppola’s Sci-Fi Is a Big, Bonkers Swing

The Guardian: Passion project is megabloated and… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 1:03 PM on May 16, 2024

Mother's Day is always a little melancholy in my family because my grandmother passed away that day a few years ago -- losing loved ones makes you more appreciative of the people in your life, but it's hard to celebrate with your mom when she's got that memory of losing her own mom weighing on her.

My grandfather was a small-time farmer in northern Alabama -- he kept horses and goats and worked the field with his dog and the house was perpetually the home of at… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 11:37 AM on May 12, 2024

Recently I've been giving the side-eye to that story about the teacher who allegedly framed his school principal with deepfaked racist comments -- according to the police report:

Detectives allege that Darien used his Large Language Models, such as OpenAI and Bing chat, to create the recording. The charging document claimed that Darien has a paid OpenAI account, which gives users more features than the free version.

I'm 100% certain that you… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 3:22 PM on May 11, 2024

a faded photo of their beloved: "One interesting aspect of the partly-self-generated media spheres we find ourselves in is that bad things like Obama's use of drones rightly receive clamorous condemnation, even worse things like Trump's ramped-up use of drones oddly received very little comment, and Biden's having greatly reduced the use of drones only incrementally more."

That's not even a political thing, necessarily, more of an artifact of… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 12:02 AM on May 10, 2024

Pseudonymous Cognomen: "This is seriously a Clown World take. [...] You have to be delusional or living in a bubble to think that this has anything at all to do with "neo-fascist troll farms"."

The provenance of the meme in your first sentence kind of undercuts the argument of your last one there.

The online discourse is marinating in engineered memetic warfare more than most realize.
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 9:50 AM on May 10, 2024

Pseudonymous Cognomen: "I've never been exposed to that meme and was not referencing it. (The phrase "clown world" predates that significantly; see here from 2000, for instance.)"

Not saying you were consciously using it in the alt-right sense, just that spending time in spaces where it's common could be inviting other bad influences as well. (And it may have been said as a one-off phrase in the past but the capitalized version of… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 10:10 AM on May 10, 2024

No, but I've read about the strategies they use. And it's not (just) about spreading fascism explicitly, but also non-fascist attitudes that happen to serve fascist aims, including the kind of fatalistic cynicism that makes people give up on reform.
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 10:33 AM on May 10, 2024

I'd comment on the article, but seeing the author's name triggered a memory of the "Ned! RYERSON!" scene from beloved childhood film Groundhog Day which left me so verklempt that I had no choice but to join my local patriots militia.
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 5:23 PM on May 4, 2024

Why Passkey Implementation is 100x Harder Than You Think – Misconceptions, Pitfalls and Unknown Unknowns

“Ah yes passkeys, pretty cool technology and great that there’s already wide support, plus an open standard that they are built on. I’ll just grab one of the libraries for my framework and that should do the job. I don’t think I need any help or service. I’m a decent coder and have added auth packages dozens of times in the past.”

This is a… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 7:29 PM on May 2, 2024

Well, this is timely! YouTuber noodle (previ-ously) is out with a new, characteristically well-produced video exploring the connections between Hillenburg, SpongeBob, and 90s alt-rock band Ween, who it turns out wrote the Loop de Loop song and supplied the music for the movie's closing credits... from the album that arguably helped inspire Hillenburg in creating the show in the first place.
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 5:04 PM on May 2, 2024

Update: CBC Radio's "As It Happens" tracked down and interviewed the original artist. tl;dl: His 6-year-old son broke the news to him after school, he barely remembered recording it but was moved to tears when he realized the breadth of interest around the world, it was not created with a porn film in mind, and he committed to combing his back catalogue to see if he can find the original recording -- or to re-record it if not.
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 4:59 PM on May 2, 2024

He's done some good work through the Intercept, but the tone of the piece, with its ire for media elites while saying nothing about the rising tide of authoritarian populism, the charming mention of a woman "shrieking" about an HR violation, and its contempt for longstanding journalistic norms (not to mention the whole Substack thing) make it seem like he's about to take a hard turn into Cranksville. The kind of thinking where allying or at best overlooking Qanon… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 1:27 PM on April 30, 2024

hippybear: "Because somehow you feel this is still under copyright?"

They could mean "theft" as in "heisted from the private collection of the Lord Archduke", which, maybe! It first popped up at a German auction house in 2007, with no provenance before then. Tbh, if this marvel had to be pilfered from some millionaire's secret stash in order for it to become public knowledge, I wouldn't cry about it. (It's actually in… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 4:46 PM on April 29, 2024

Documents found on a North Korean server suggest US studios may have unknowingly outsourced animation work

South Korean studios have long been involved with popular US animated shows, including The Simpsons, Family Guy, SpongeBob, and Rick and Morty, I assume because SK studios are lower-cost and have a faster turnaround time. It's incredible that it's still not enough for some companies and they feel fine to illicitly hop the border to a brutal dictatorship.… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 4:23 PM on April 28, 2024

There's something fascinating about the fact that after over 150 years of use, we still don't know how general anesthesia works. There is still so much for us to understand about our own brains.
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 7:49 PM on April 26, 2024

Also reminiscent of fellow Clarkesworld story "The Things" by Peter Watts, though given the author and inspiration that one is a bit more... not-pleasant.
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 10:42 AM on April 26, 2024

Really disappointed by all the thoughtless kneejerk takes in this thread.

...because given his capital-V Villain status and Rowling's penchant to project her current views onto longstanding characters retroactively, Voldemort is likely the greatest trans ally in the wizarding world! 🏳️‍⚧️🧙🏻
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 12:20 PM on April 24, 2024

They did appear to change the color, the strength of the eraser, and the pressure behind the lead, which are small but pretty important details for a pencil. But as the post says, it's not really about the pencil itself, more about how enthusiasts form unexpectedly emotional bonds with their favorite tools (see his aside about the stolen Stanley Workmaster screwdriver handed down from his dad) and how even seemingly minor reductions in quality can feel surprisingly painful, especially if they… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 1:49 PM on April 17, 2024

Thanks, Nelson -- I was posting from my phone and didn't even notice the difference!
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 5:56 PM on April 14, 2024

If you don't mind video, YouTube channel Historia Civilis has a very interesting explainer on how the Confederacy worked politically.
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 6:06 AM on April 13, 2024

Rhaomi: "If you don't mind video, YouTube channel Historia Civilis has a very interesting explainer on how the Confederacy worked politically."

Whoops, just realized this was a broken link; this one should work.
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 11:03 AM on April 14, 2024

GenjiandProust: "Entertaining and garbage. Garbage."

If you're talking about the social or economic downsides, I won't argue with you (though I do tend to think it's more a problem with capitalism writ large -- the technology itself is fascinating and borderline-magical). But if you mean the quality, well, I just can't agree.

Jukebox was the first real foray into this space, and even at its best it's like tuning into… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 10:44 PM on April 13, 2024

Nelson: "OpenAI isn't respecting robots.txt correctly. It seems to be following links on pages that robots.txt is telling them to ignore."

Nah, that's just an artifact of the way the linkfarm is constructed. As Levine says, "rather than being one web site with 6,859,000,000 pages, it is 6,859,000,000 web sites each with one page", each of which has its own robots.txt file. Robots.txt only applies to pages within a domain, not… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 9:46 AM on April 12, 2024

jabah: "Anyone care to bet that this is how Tesla's autopilot system works? Some poor guy in India is trying to drive your car by remote control."

"Answer quickly -- our self-driving car is almost at the intersection."
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 7:44 AM on April 9, 2024

Myself, I drove eight hours yesterday to an AirBnb outside Dallas to meet my mom and my brother and his girlfriend (who flew in from LA). The latest models are still a question mark but we're maxing our chances by going north of I-20 later this morning (traffic permitting). Hoping for an experience as flawless as the 2017 eclipse, but it's been a lovely time either way, though I am dreading the long drive back through heavy weather.
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 5:43 AM on April 8, 2024

After action report: made it up to Greenville, which was 90 minutes due north on the line between "crappy" and "maybe" in terms of forecasted visibility. We pulled into a Walmart parking lot along with a few other eager eclipse watchers with telescopes and lawn chairs. Felt bad for the nearby Red Lobster, bad enough to pop in and make sure everybody was aware* -- turns out the restaurant was empty and all the employees were out on the sidewalk! Clouds were touch-and-go --… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 12:23 PM on April 8, 2024

Thorzdad: "I’m a total eclipse n00b...what was that little star-like point of light at the bottom edge of the disc? It seemed to turn red over time."

I think that was a Baily's bead overtaken by a prominence/solar flare!
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 12:39 PM on April 8, 2024

"Seriously but not literally." Evangelical leaders will make mildly disappointed noises, but they all understand that he doesn't really give a shit and will say anything necessary to get back into power; once safely beyond the reach of voters he won't stand in the way of a national ban and a fresh infusion of far-right judges.
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 5:50 AM on April 8, 2024

Gonna be driving ~eight hours to an Airbnb outside Dallas; my brother and his GF will be flying in from LA. The cloud cover forecast remains extremely iffy depending on what model you ask -- could be nice, could be solidly overcast and rainy. But even if it's a bust, I won't be mad -- the one in 2017 was about as picture-perfect as one could ask for.
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 8:48 PM on April 4, 2024

Would you happily live your life in a simulation? This prescient 1970s thought experiment suggested not

Half a century ago, the philosopher Robert Nozick imagined a world where we could fulfil our desires through an 'experience machine' similar to the Matrix. He assumed we'd prefer reality, but as digital life becomes ever-more simulated, was he right?

posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 10:09 PM on March 24, 2024

Fleebnork: "While I did miss the friends I wanted to see, I did not miss going to the office and having to perform social niceties of small talk and listening to people wish me a "Happy Monday!""

Neo Hides From Lumbergh

Neo Takes the Blue Pill [deepfake]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 9:09 AM on March 25, 2024

New ‘Matrix’ Movie in the Works with Drew Goddard Writing, Directing

Goddard, the fan-favorite writer-director whose credits include The Martian, The Cabin in the Woods and World War Z, has been tapped to write and direct a new Matrix feature for the studio, Warners announced Wednesday.

This will be the first The Matrix film not to directly involve creators Lana and Lilly Wachowski, though Lana Wachowski will act as an executive producer on the new installment.

posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 9:55 AM on April 3, 2024

Judging by the example phrase given in that Economist article, I strongly suspect the "asymmetrical polarization" critique is correct. I'm pretty certain that "Democrat Party" is one of the conservative phrases in their dictionary, for ex, and that "Democratic Party" skews liberal. But that doesn't mean outlets using the latter are showing partisan bias, it means Republicans and their outlets have invented an inflammatory slur that responsible outlets stay away from.… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 4:08 PM on March 30, 2024

A quick 25th anniversary celebration from the cast (including a very special guest)
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 8:39 PM on March 29, 2024

Chemistry of Spice Melange (from Dune) - Periodic Table of Videos
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 9:42 AM on March 25, 2024

D'oh -- only just noticed that "a wide variety of other fascinating and fun physics web toys" should be linking to this page showing all the demos. >_<
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 3:59 PM on March 23, 2024

"YouTuber videogamedunkey has a whole series of videos of him playing through a slew of various crazymaking Mario Maker levels with running (hilarious) commentary. One of my favorite things on YouTube, highly recommended:"

Note that he's also got a separate series for playing through really difficult challenges from Luigi's Balloon World (a Mario Odyssey DLC where you can hide a balloon somewhere in a level and players have to find it in a… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 4:50 PM on March 22, 2024

I like chewing gum and do find it pretty stress-relieving... until I absentmindedly chomp the inside of my cheek and make a blistery sore that hurts for days afterward. >_<
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 3:56 PM on March 22, 2024

I'm surprised the NYT lawyers have time to go after this while overlooking big-name news aggregators like Drudge and RCP routinely linking to illegal copies of their articles on shady foreign sites like DNYUZ to bypass the paywall.
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 3:27 PM on March 22, 2024

Why did we wait so long for the bicycle?

The bicycle, as we know it today, was not invented until the late 1800s. Yet it was a simple mechanical invention. It would seem to require no brilliant inventive insight, and certainly no scientific background.

Why, then, wasn’t it invented much earlier? [...]

To understand this, I dug into the history of the bicycle...

posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 12:03 PM on March 22, 2024

hippybear, my understanding is that tiki plays a more active role in contemporary Polynesian faith traditions, whereas moai are more of a historical artifact along the lines of the Egyptian Sphinx, Greek and Roman temples, or Viking iconography. The ancestor worship surrounding them died out before first contact with Europeans, and most of the statues were toppled by earthquakes and internal clan wars, only to be excavated much later. Descendants of the original builders obviously value them… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 11:15 PM on March 15, 2024

Ars Technica: Finally, engineers have a clue that could help them save Voyager 1

It's been four months since NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft sent an intelligible signal back to Earth, and the problem has puzzled engineers tasked with supervising the probe exploring interstellar space.

But there's a renewed optimism among the Voyager ground team based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. On March 1, engineers sent a command up to Voyager… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 6:47 PM on March 15, 2024

Still no word on when (or if) Sora will become public beyond "later this year", but there are lots more sample videos posted by employees; here's a quick round-up before the thread closes:

"a computer hacker labrador retreiver wearing a black hooded sweatshirt sitting in front of the computer with the glare of the screen emanating on the dog's face as he types very quickly."

"A giant cathedral is completely filled with… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 4:31 PM on March 13, 2024

WSJ out with a new 10-minute interview with OpenAI CTO Mira Murati on Sora
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 2:32 PM on March 15, 2024

Whelp:

'If anything happens, it's not suicide': Boeing whistleblower's prediction before death

A close family friend of John Barnett said he predicted he might wind up dead and that a story could surface that he killed himself.

But at the time, he told her not to believe it.

"I know that he did not commit suicide," said Jennifer, a friend of Barnett's. "There's no way.… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 2:31 AM on March 15, 2024

Analysis: Donald Trump election win could add 4bn tonnes to US emissions by 2030

A victory for Donald Trump in November’s presidential election could lead to an additional 4bn tonnes of US emissions by 2030 compared with Joe Biden’s plans, Carbon Brief analysis reveals.

This extra 4bn tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (GtCO2e) by 2030 would cause global climate damages worth more than $900bn, based on the latest US government valuations.… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 2:04 PM on March 13, 2024

clavdivs: "ah, the ban is largely for the App not be in goverment employees phone. This shouldn't affect non governmental users use of the platform."

The bill would absolutely ban TikTok for everyone in the US (technically it requires ByteDance to divest, but the app's high valuation plus Chinese laws aimed at barring sale to Western buyers make that a tall order).

clavdivs: "is it true that one cannot… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 1:57 PM on March 13, 2024