Social media and their engagement maximizing algorithms.

GenZ don’t watch TV or read print media so almost 100% of their news is getting filtered through an algorithm that has the sole purpose to keep them hooked. Hell, even search results are biased. One really has to go out of their way to get facts outside of a personalized feed.

GenZ are definitely not the reason we have a buffoon as a president and a psychopath as his controller. This article about GenZs changing their views says more about their willingness to think critically than all the older voters who have chosen not to despite the 2017-21 hell.

I wouldn’t blame anyone resigning voluntarily over this. Can you imagine the energy, dedication and countless hours they’d have put into building this case only to have it thrown away on a whim?! It would be close to impossible to stay motivated in any job after something like this. Honestly, good on them for prioritizing their safety and mental health over a thankless job.

This is how the Republicans are really gutting the government - by breaking the spirits of the most dedicated employees. This regime is going to be the biggest shock to US government since Reagan and the American people will be suffering from its impacts for decades.

That is indeed a problem that needs to be resolved, and likely through ranked choice voting. But as a country, we tend to focus too much on the presidential election. Change will have to start in the congressional elections - both at federal and state levels. The issue of votes splitting will be a lesser issue in these elections except in a few large districts. That will also be where smaller fundraising campaigns would go further.

In the last 2 decades, the major English bloc of US, Canada, UK and Australia has been in lock step toward the shift to the right. I think it is no coincidence that it aligns with the meteoric rise of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. To satiate his incredible greed, his media organizations have fed into people’s fears and laid down the groundwork for today’s social media companies promoting inflammatory content to maximize engagement. I don’t know if democracy can survive without reining in popular media and significantly reducing biased and false reporting.

Progressives need to start their own party. The establishment DNC is so entrenched with big donors and lobbyists that it is unable to serve the people. Their balancing act of appeasing both the right and the left is just serving to alienate everyone because the final policies get so diluted. They have become too stuck in the quagmire of their own doing. I don’t see the DNC being able to change any time soon and through their inaction, will only enable more devastation of the country.

The new Progressive party should align with the DNC as the opposition during this administration but simultaneously run more like minded candidates in the next elections with their own separate fundraising campaigns. That’s the only hope I have for meaningful change to happen.

He may be an actual villain.

The super rich have only one goal - to become richer.

It always requires labor exploitation.

Sometimes to improve their public perception, their PR teams suggest philanthropy, which they then use for tax evasion.

Other times like now, they don’t give a fuck about public perception because the public has chosen racism and bigotry.

How is the justice department funded? That’s right, our taxes.

Our taxes are going to be used to fight these lawsuits in court and when the department loses, our taxes will be used to pay for the damages to the FBI agents.

There are no real consequences from this to the Justice Department or the buffoon and his lackeys. The only loser is us.

Is that an AI generated hand holding an umbrella?

Wtf is this article? If there’s a doubt about someone’s national security clearance, revoke it immediately until further review. Being anxious means nothing. Do or don’t.

Not the same agency.

The bill excludes holding responsible creators of open source models for damages from forked models that have been significantly altered.

The criticism from large AI companies to this bill sounds a lot like the pushbacks from auto manufacturers from adding safety features like seatbelts, airbags, and crumple zones. Just because someone else used a model for nefarious purposes doesn’t absolve the model creator from their responsibility to minimize that potential. We already do this for a lot of other industries like cars, guns, and tobacco - minimize the potential of harm despite individual actions causing the harm and not the company directly.

I have been following Andrew Ng for a long time and I admire his technical expertise. But his political philosophy around ML and AI has always focused on self regulation, which we have seen fail in countless industries.

The bill specifically mentions that creators of open source models that have been altered and fine tuned will not be held liable for damages from the altered models. It also only applies to models that cost more than $100M to train. So if you have that much money for training models, it’s very reasonable to expect that you spend some portion of it to ensure that the models do not cause very large damages to society.

So companies hosting their own models, like openAI and Anthropic, should definitely be responsible for adding safety guardrails around the use of their models for nefarious purposes - at least those causing loss of life. The bill mentions that it would only apply to very large damages (such as, exceeding $500M), so one person finding out a loophole isn’t going to trigger the bill. But if the companies fail to close these loopholes despite millions of people (or a few people millions of times) exploiting them, then that’s definitely on the company.

As a developer of AI models and applications, I support the bill and I’m glad to see lawmakers willing to get ahead of technology instead of waiting for something bad to happen and then trying to catch up like for social media.

Not sure what statistics you are referring to. According to this, India’s GDP per capita has grown from $1400 to $2400 in the last 10 years. Unemployment is lowest in 3 decades. All other economic indicators on the website show non-insignificant improvements.

He has in fact said that. I was by no means promoting Modi but answering the commenter’s question to why so many people are voting for him.

1. The most common response I get from Indians to why Modi is that “there’s no one else to vote for”. The other major political party, Congress, has focused primarily on maintaining power within the Gandhi dynasty, with Rahul Gandhi being its current public face. Rahul Gandhi by his own admission, is not even interested in a leadership role in Congress so he’s seen as a very weak candidate. So it’s not like Trump vs Clinton/Biden but Trump vs a bunch of low profile non-viable candidates.
2. The majority middle class in India is primarily Hindu and has benefited from Modi government policies in the last decade with improved economy, digitization, and ease of setting up and doing business. Modi has also gotten large foreign companies to set up their factories in India, providing employment and contributing to local economy. So despite the minority classes and religions losing their rights in India, it’s fairly easy for Modi to win the popular vote.
3. Modi and the BJP have a phenomenal PR machinery the likes of which I haven’t seen before. Every billboard seems to be promoting Modi and his policies. Every ad break has a Modi ad. There are multiple full page ads in national newspapers for the Modi government. There is almost a complete absence of any other political party in the ad media. You have to go really out of your way, mainly to American and British media, to get a more balanced version of events (like the murder of a Canadian separatist by the Indian government, imprisonment of journalists, preventing Amnesty International from operating in India, etc.). This combined with Modi’s active suppression of dissenting journalists means that all people hear about in India is how great Modi is and the amazing policies he’s implemented. If people are not even aware of why not to vote for Modi, there’s little reason not to.
4. I would also add that Modi’s comparison with Trump stops at his Hindu nationalist policies and suppression of minorities. Modi is disciplined and smart. There’s not a hint of philandering. He’s by no means a buffoon. His base isn’t limited to hardcore fanatics voting on single issues. He’s not an elitist sitting in an ivroy tower unfamiliar with the struggles and lives of the commons. In fact, it’s only the minorities, academics, and people on the extreme left that are most likely to not vote for him.

Real life Jed Bartlet, Mexico edition.

One of the funniest things about most of these companies enforcing RTO is that their “on-site interviews” are still virtual. So you believe being in-person is more effective except when it comes to paying for travel expenses for interviewees.

Just shows the massive hypocrisy behind these RTO mandates.

I reached out to Roku support regarding this. The rep told me “why are you complaining. You are the only one.” He then disconnected the chat. I’ve reached out to my state’s AG to report this. No action so far but waiting. If there are enough complaints, that might help move the needle.

What Roku is doing should be completely illegal - bricking the product after purchasing it for full price if you don’t agree to waiving your rights.

The 2001 Nisqually earthquake was also a different mechanism event than the one that can cause a really large earthquake (intraslab vs subduction). The last major subduction earthquake in the region was centuries ago and these earthquakes can exceed Mw9.0. Luckily they are not very frequent but there are indications that Seattle’s due for one.

From the USGS shakemap and DYFI, it looks like there are some reports of strong shaking but mostly moderate to slight shaking. The depth is reported at 17 km which would have also contributed to relatively lower shaking.

So hopefully the damage will be contained especially compared to the 2015 event.