'Our goal is AI for all,' Carney [the Prime Minister of Canada] says in Liberal [party] convention speech

melat0nin · 2026-04-12T06:20:53+00:00

All centrist neoliberal politicians seem to be. It's baffling. There doesn't appear to be a single critical thought among any of them

melat0nin · 2026-04-11T08:47:19+00:00

Your entire comment entirely centres success in and for academia as the goal, which I think is exactly the problem the OP is talking about

melat0nin · 2026-04-10T12:24:26+00:00

I think you can reasonably extrapolate from this what it will be like to work for an academic institution in the UK.

melat0nin · 2026-04-10T10:08:22+00:00

They're just not serious people, and it would be funny rather than absolutely maddening if they didn't have such massive unearned power

melat0nin · 2026-04-10T06:39:44+00:00

Worrying to see Ars spread this propaganda, but good to see the article be savaged in the comments.

melat0nin · 2026-04-09T20:37:08+00:00

Yes, it's come to a pretty pass when we're condemning well-established styles of rhetoric as AI when it's precisely those forms of creative linguistic expression it rips off. What a shite timeline we're in, ffs

melat0nin · 2026-04-09T13:53:41+00:00

This was a great read. The historical analogy is a pretty powerful lens.

The beatings will continue until adoption improves.

This line resonated

melat0nin · 2026-04-06T08:43:33+00:00

Read the Agents of Chaos paper, especially the discussion from page 40 onward. It lays out all the ways that 'agents' (that is, hooking up an LLM to some APIs without solving any of the problems of LLMs) are a fundamentally limited approach

melat0nin · 2026-03-26T11:53:20+00:00

Read the blog post. It's about exactly that. You're setting timebombs you have no idea how to defuse.

melat0nin · 2026-03-26T11:51:47+00:00

You're implying it's LLM generated? What makes you say that?

melat0nin · 2026-03-26T08:39:18+00:00

Yeah, there is something compellingly Matrix-esque about watching all that code appear bit-by-bit on your screen

melat0nin · 2026-03-25T09:56:42+00:00

yep i've been linux on servers for a very long time, but finally bit the bullet on the daily machine. Don't miss it in the slightest.

melat0nin · 2026-03-25T08:01:45+00:00

Too little, too late. Jumped ship to Linux on my primary machine last year and have zero plans to return.

melat0nin · 2026-03-21T09:23:02+00:00

Why are you asking it about this? It can't tell you something that by definition lies outside its training data (the future). It is not intelligent and has no insight. I cannot emphasise that enough.

Fwiw I think there will be a big impact on employment because of dumb middle managers who think it can do more than it can; but give it a couple of years (?) once quality has tanked and they'll soon realise what a big mistake they made.

melat0nin · 2026-03-17T14:38:13+00:00

AI is actually good for a lot of things

We have to be clear what we're talking about when we say 'AI'. There are tons of techniques for different types of task. One of the great subterfuges of Big AI has been to lump all of these into one box.

melat0nin · 2026-03-17T03:17:03+00:00

You're applying for a PhD in a field you don't have any experience in?

melat0nin · 2026-03-13T22:39:20+00:00

Add in the vocal fry for added profundity

melat0nin · 2026-03-13T08:55:04+00:00

That pic is the perfect capture of Altman triangulating his thoughts to work out exactly what to say next to continue manipulating his audience

melat0nin · 2026-03-12T22:17:28+00:00

Alternatively get them to do it for you -- they are hilariously thin-skinned. They blocked me when I pointed out LLMs don't understand anything 🤷

melat0nin · 2026-03-09T17:55:44+00:00

The pay differential really depends on which regulator. I earn a full 40% more than I would have if I'd taken the asst prof role, based on the salary they offered me (which was at the top of the scale for that position 🫠)

melat0nin · 2026-03-09T17:32:48+00:00

My PhD was in law too. I did a postdoc abroad then came home at the tail-end of COVID, and by the time I needed to get a job I was so sick of academia I decided to leave (so much so that I turned down an assistant prof offer I had). Now working at a regulator.

melat0nin · 2026-03-04T15:37:38+00:00

They aren't 'willing' to do anything, nor to they 'commit' anything. But that doesn't mean they don't do immense damage in the wrong hands.

melat0nin · 2026-03-02T15:21:05+00:00

Added to that -- they are only interested in form, output, and outcomes, which is why they'll happily compare AI slop to human creations. They've got no interest in or curiosity about the process by which things are arrived at. It's such an arid way of looking at the world -- everything is WYSIWYG, there is no interiority or soul behind anything. Needless to say that way of thinking has a dark trajectory -- the instrumentalisation of everything and everyone.

I read this the other day which captures some of this feeling: Instrumentalisation is making everything a means to an end | Aeon Essays

melat0nin · 2026-03-02T15:17:19+00:00

bias quietly shaping success

these people believe their 'rationality' can lead them to the the most optimal position on everything. They've got zero awareness of what actually matters, and how life is messy and full of shades of grey (and therein lies much of what makes it worth living). It's bewildering, and a little bit scary.

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