the specific term is ‘latent space’.

What? No, that’s wrong. Latent space is a way to reduce dimensionality in the dataset, but it still originates from the underlying data.

Of course a model can predict what a yarn monkey should look like if it knows what yarn is and it knows what monkeys are. It is still only combining things it knows, But in the context of this thread, the model has to be trained directly on children or told what children look like in these contexts, both of which raise serious ethical concerns to me.

If AIs could only reproduce their training data they would be completely useless.

And yeah, I think that pretty much sums up the AI bubble.

AI models only know what they are trained on. Inherently, that means real children are harmed in the production of AI-generated CSAM.

My bad - next time I have an unexpected but non-emergency medical issue I’ll be sure to plan it in advance.

It’s not like I’m not already asking for the first available. The only reason I’ve ever had any of them call me is to tell me my appointment has been pushed several weeks to a time I can’t make and moved to a town an hour away.

92% not going and yet I still have to wait 6-8 weeks for a visit with my PCP, to be mostly ignored and referred to a specialist, then 6+ months for a specialist to be told I need to go back to my PCP to redo all the diagnostics they did at referral because the results are too old now…

In the US, there is the “85th percentile rule” that says the speed limit can’t be lower than the speed 85% of the traffic travels on that road. It’s not always followed, but is a factor I’ve heard cited in speed limit discussions several places I’ve lived, mostly as an argument against traffic calming measures for pedestrian safety. But to my understanding, the law implies that if enough people decide not to follow the speed limit, it could theoretically be deemed legally too low and would need to be increased.

Figuring out ways to look understaffed so they can get more officers…around that time their call volume “doubled” over a year because they changed how they tracked calls. (Accounting for that, it was roughly the same.) But they used that to ask for another officer…and I assume they probably even need another one if we want them to do speed enforcement.

Figuring out ways to look understaffed so they can get more officers…around that time their call volume “doubled” over a year because they changed how they tracked calls. (Accounting for that, it was roughly the same.) But they used that to ask for another officer…and I assume they probably even need another one if we want them to do speed enforcement.

Yeah, I live in small-town US where many residents have complained about speeding in areas with heavy pedestrian use. In response, the local PD was quoted on the front page of the paper saying they don’t have time to enforce speed limits. A few years later and they were again on the front page saying that they don’t have time or equipment to enforce parking regulations. So here they’re somewhere between suggestion and completely ignored, but the next town over is filled with speed cameras and highway patrol sitting in wait to meet their quota…both towns on the same road.

And in optics, the “real” portion of a material’s refractive index represents scattered light and the “imaginary” part represents absorbed light.

For every person who has heard about it, there are many more who have not. It’s important to have these conversations so that we as a society can make decisions about what we value; only when a critical mass of individuals have awareness can we work together toward common goals.

There are numerous ways cancelling shows and removing them from the platform saves streaming services money, including not having to pay residuals and the ability to write off production costs as a loss on taxes. And, like others have pointed out, streaming services are historically driven by subscription fees instead of ads, and many viewers tend to binge watch shows rather than watch nightly throughout a full season. So all combined, the profit motive tends to push services toward many new short series suitable for binge watching that will keep people subscribed, but that can be quickly cut and taken as a loss.

This Marketplace article provides some other reasons, too.

Why, as an American, do I have to navigate an internet full of pop ups designed to make sites GDPR compliant?

We have vastly increased our ability to produce food.

And it has been largely the (petro)chemical industry responsible for this. The Haber-Bosch process transformed agriculture, but accounts for percent-level quantities of global energy consumption and carbon emissions. And it requires raw materials that are typically produced from hydrocarbons (although admittedly there are renewable options). And other nutrients typically come from mining (even organic options) - which displaces many species of all sorts. And this does not account for pesticides, etc., that others have mentioned.

Prior to the development of modern chemistry, our best sources of fertilizer were often animal manures - which require breeding, raising, and ultimately usually killing animals.

Sure, there is a lot we can do to minimize harm, and generally we should, and I try to myself as much as possible. But I’m not fooling myself into thinking that eating vegan or growing my food organically means nothing or no one suffered. Until we all go back to pre-agrarian societies, we will continue to cause large-scale destruction in some way. But of course this in itself would cause massive population decline and resultant suffering in humans.

The question does not state that anyone is guilty, it merely asks, “Is there evidence that could prove this person guilty that maybe we should consider?” Presumption of innocence does not mean you can’t investigated or accused, it means you can’t be convicted.

I honestly don’t know the full extent of the accusations against Gates. But more generally, even if the people involved were adults, how do we know it wasn’t criminal? How do we know the women were involved consensually? And for those that did “consent”, how do we know it wasn’t due to coercion and the enormous wealth and power imbalances at play? The pictures of Gates released with one of the previous dumps sure don’t make it look like everyone was happy to be there with him… obviously a lot of this is speculation, but I’m weary of using the logic of adult = not criminal activity.

For me, it was buying CA glue from hobby or woodworking shops instead of those tiny packs of “superglue”. Comes in all different thicknesses and with activator usually for a lower cost per gram, and in bottles designed to last until the glue is gone.

Several posts are saying this would be a good thing. Maybe, if implemented like the meme shows, but I worry ads in LLM chatbot output have the potential to be the most insidious and persuasive form of advertising we’ve ever seen. Chatbots are – by their nature – conversational and pushed in forms that are meant to eliminate any sort of thinking on the part of the user. And more and more, people are using them as their closest, most trusted confidants. Who’s to say a (e.g.) political candidate won’t pay to control the narrative of a chatbot, and have their propaganda (“ads”) appear as a private conversation between an individual and their trusted “friend” or “partner”?

To add to this, the Phillips screw was designed to be self centering for use with motorized screw drivers on assembly lines, with an added benefit of easy cam out that prevented over tightening by said screw drivers. All that is kinda obsolete now and actually disadvantageous, so Phillips is probably the most entrenched and enduring corporate propaganda screw.

For a slightly different take, I was mesmerized watching New Yankee Workshop and the old This Old House seasons as a kid and often wonder how much they contributed to practical skills and hobbies I have as an adult.

The rest of the band isn’t a whole lot better:

Then, Balzary and Smith jumped into the crowd. Balzary picked up the woman and began to spin her around on his shoulders, while Smith pulled her bathing suit to one side and began to slap her bottom, Grasso said. Officials said Balzary got on top of the woman, asked her to perform a sex act, then began to simulate the act.

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1990/03/17/Two-members-of-Red-Hot-Chili-Peppers-arrested/7434637650000/