Need to let loose a primal scream without collecting footnotes first? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.
Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.
If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.
The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)
Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.
(Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this. Also, happy April Fool’s in advance.)
Today on the orange site, an AI bro is trying to reason through why people think he’s weird for not disclosing his politics to people he’s trying to be friendly with. Previously, he published a short guide on how to talk about politics, which — again, very weird, no possible explanation for this — nobody has adopted. Don’t worry, he’s well-read:
So far I’ve only read Harry Potter and The Methods of Rationality, but can say it is an excellent place to start.
The thread is mostly centered around one or two pearl-clutching conservatives who don’t want their beliefs examined:
I find it astonishing that anyone would ask, [“who did you vote for?”] … In my social circle, anyway, the taboo on this question is very strong.
To which the top reply is my choice sneer:
In my friend group it’s clear as day: either you voted to kill and deport other people in the friend group or you didn’t. Pretty obvious the group would like to know if you’re secretly interested in their demise.
I would also like to complain that I have finally started getting AI summaries in Google, and I may have to switch to a different search engine. Neither wanted nor needed!
The url manipulation trick doesnt work for you?
E: this I mean, somebody even made a site for it. My own setup is weird and I have ancient strange habits so I just added it to my search bookmark.
My University Keeps Sending Me Stupid Emails About AI, a continuing series:
From the email:
The debate will be chaired by Michael Pike. Speaking for the motion are Prof. Gregory O’Hare (TCD), Maeve Hynes, Prof. Gary Boyd and Chatgpt assisted by Student Curator Ruan McCabe, all UCD. Speaking against the motion are David Capener (UU), Lucy O’Connell, Peter Cody and Meabh O’Leary, all UCD.
"So, [Elsevier] added an AI question and answer to my article in Computer & Education.
The answers are wrong! They did not ask permission! The answers are WRONG!
How is this science?!"
misread as Eliezer, semantic content unchanged
AI-Powered Wi-Fi 7 Versatile Outdoor/Indoor Mesh AP
we’re at the “the washing machine without a dateclock is marked millenium-bug safe in its marketing brochures” level of stupid
(that might seem like a stupid comparison but it’s one of the things I most viscerally remember seeing from that time (when I was still a youngin who was still largely years away from computertouching))
New video from Jessie Gender, providing one long sneer at gen-AI: How AI is Destroying our Dreams
An AI faceswapper/nudifier’s database got leaked thanks to its nonexistent security - unsurprisingly, its loaded with explicit images, including massive amounts child porn and almost certainly some revenge porn.
WIRED tried reaching out to the company behind the “imagery”, but they nuked everything and closed their doors in response.
NaNoWriMo? Na, No Mo’. Does this have anything to do with their bungled AI policy? Maybe, maybe not, but hey, the news article that I saw this announcement in thought that it was pertinent to mention.
considering their endless history of scandal, good riddance
Not dating your press releases on your own site is a choice. (Lot more places do this and it is driving me slowly mad) So, did they drop this yday? Some weird schrodingers april fools joke deflection attempt?
Why does NaNoWriMo need a nonprofit anyway? What’s next, No Nut November LLC?
As funny as that is, I am sure that there are nonprofits that are aiming to stop fapping.
however they are exactly canceled out by nonprofits aiming to promote fapping
the Effective Onanism movement
Refractorive Altruism
There’s a fucking for profit that does this and it’s used by the god damn USA Speaker of the House so that his son can monitor his fondling
I am familiar. Not a problem!
I am fairly certain that their stupid AI stance at least played a role. I’m part of a largish writing community, where at least several hundred people did NaNo each year, a good part of them donated too. Last year, no one partook, instead we did our own internal thing.
If this happened across other communities too, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it did, they must have felt it financially.
I’ll believe it! I didn’t want to make that claim since I had no evidence.
Their dumb contraction should have doomed the project from the start…
It is a CIA psyop to prevent revolutionary thought from arising in written media, in that it’s a self-inflicted PIP that makes you feel inadequate in your creative writing ability. CIA funding (obviously funneled through NGOs via CIA front USAID) is how it’s survived so long with such a stupid name. Of course, now that government spending on the CIA is going down, so is NaNoWriMo. All that’s left is for it to be supplanted by some benevolent Chinese competitor that people will say steals your data, or something.
/s /s /s
I demand you prove your assertion! preferably using wallspaghetti and alphabet soup, of course. so’s I know it’s totes legit and original!
(/s ofc, and link too (incase anyone didn’t see that))
[This is what tankies actually believe!!2!one!!!]
My favorite meme message board on the internet keeps putting out bangers, but this one is extra good and relevant http://www.b3ta.com/board/11416629
Gamers Nexus put out their April Fool’s joke for this year, and became the first journalistic outlet to break Betteridge’s law of headlines in the process.
they should’ve had an overlay tracking counter in that opening montage, goddamn
(just got to 4min:) “oh! it’s not just opening montage” ahahaha
OK hear me out: they make a new season of Hell Girl, but she only gets people who use gen ai
Prize for least funny, laziest AFJ goes to, no surprise, LW:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/2NGKYt3xdQHwyfGbc/lesswrong-has-been-acquired-by-ea
Additional “points” for the commenting system using local times in the user’s browser, thereby timestamping further unfunny AFJ at 2 Apr in my timezone.
Hey wait a minute we already made that (obvious) joke here on Awful Systems!
On the bright side, Derek Lowe has also escaped containment, which is nice
has he? where?
Lots of politics outlets have been linking his recent work. He’s done a great job documenting the consequences (and gravity) of the ongoing grant apocalypse for the AAAS journal Science. I’ve loved him for years for being the FOOF guy.
tip from a discord:
I’ve been doing some micro tasking to train LLM’s the last few months to earn some extra cash, the last month it’s all dried up, no tasks available. I can’t help thinking that is a sign of a bubble deflating.
Please please please
Ed Zitron breaking out the anime references for April Fool’s:
Jesus, fine, I’ll watch it already, God.
OpenAI: Nah, I’d become profitable
every so often I think of how Rat-brain is just bleach-dyed “the power of positive thinking” for nerds who don’t get out in the world enough
Finally Tim Pool will get what is wrong with AI
