TechTakes

archive: https://archive.ph/Oz69t

Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid!

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.

Unfortunately I can’t snip from mobile easily now, but maybe someone else can archive it and comment with archive link?

It was honestly only a matter of time before someone thought we could try that thing where they identify a license plate from a reflection in some dude’s pupil for realsies.

Puloka’s lawyers reportedly used an “expert” in creative video production who’d never worked on a criminal case before to “enhance” the video. The AI tool this unnamed expert used was developed by Texas-based Topaz Labs, which is available to anyone with an internet connection.

You wouldn’t know this expert though. He goes to a different school.

Large language models like ChatGPT have convinced otherwise intelligent people that these chatbots are capable of complex reasoning when that’s simply not what’s happening under the hood.

And at least the judge here had more than five brain cells and shut that circus down. Let’s hope this sets a precedent.

Google Books is indexing low quality, AI-generated books that will turn up in search results, and could possibly impact Google Ngram viewer, an important tool used by researchers to track language use throughout history.

Too tired to sneer at the book myself right now but the article doesn’t pull punches either

Figured it’s worth posting since the book author has featured here more than once recently and has definitely been an enabler to The Shit

(via https://hachyderm.io/@jbcrawford/112202942593125987, archive: https://archive.is/VnqRZ)

surprise, Amazon’s godawful surveillance grocery stores were just exploiting hidden labor and calling it innovation, and even that was too expensive

even worse, the few times I’ve seen one of these fucking things in the wild, it still had 1-2 employees hovering near the entrance to make sure nobody did the utterly obvious (fuck with the payment system and get free shit), a job that’s also known as a fucking cashier, but with much worse pay, much harder labor (physically stopping shoplifters), and no counter to lean on or opportunity to even sit down

original: https://www.wsj.com/articles/taco-bell-and-pizza-hut-are-going-ai-first-yums-new-tech-chief-says-2f423d5e

original: https://www.wsj.com/articles/taco-bell-and-pizza-hut-are-going-ai-first-yums-new-tech-chief-says-2f423d5e

Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid!

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.

[Eupalinos of Megara appears out of a time portal from ancient Ionia] Wow, you guys must be really good at digging tunnels by now, right?

In October, New York City announced a plan to harness the power of artificial intelligence to improve the business of government. The announcement included a surprising centerpiece: an AI-powered chatbot that would provide New Yorkers with information on starting and operating a business in the city.

The problem, however, is that the city’s chatbot is telling businesses to break the law.

Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid!

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 here 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.

A tweet from ardent promptfondler Misha Saul (archive):

A friend sent me MRI brain scan results and I put it through Claude.

No other AI would provide a diagnosis, Claude did.

Claude found an aggressive tumour.

The radiologist report came back clean.

I annoyed the radiologists until they re-checked. They did so with 3 radiologists and their own AI. Came back clean, so looks like Claude was wrong.

But looks how convincing Claude sounds! We're still early...

Based on the MRI brain scan shown, there appears to be a large abnormal mass or lesion present. The bright, irregular white area in the center of the brain is concerning for a potential tumor or other pathological process.

The tumor demonstrates clear enhancement, local mass effect, and surrounding edema - features that would not be expected from normal brain tissue. We can trace the lesion across multiple serial MRI slices, confirming it is a real space-occupying mass. The location is also typical for a primary glioma.

While I acknowledge there is always some degree of uncertainty in radiology, I would estimate the chances of this actually being normal brain or a misleading angle to be well under 1%. The full set of images build a compelling, consistent picture of an aggressive brain tumor.

I asked it to review more angles:

After reviewing the additional MRI sequences and angles provided in this updated image, my assessment remains unchanged. The multiple planes convincingly demonstrate a large, avidly enhancing mass centered in the deep left parietal lobe with extensive surrounding vasogenic edema. The lesion is again clearly seen across sequential slices, confirming it is a true abnormality rather than an artifact.

Key observations:

1. Heterogeneous enhancement of the lesion on T1-weighted post-contrast images, indicating disruption of the blood-brain barrier
2. The "T2 FLAIR" sequence shows the mass to be mostly T2 hyperintense with surrounding edema
3. Effacement of the adjacent lateral ventricle due to local mass effect from the tumor
4. Midline shift to the right from the expansile effect of the lesion

These findings reaffirm my initial impression of a high-grade glioma, most likely glioblastoma given the imaging characteristics. The additional views perpendicular to the original plane help exclude the possibility of volume averaging artifact mimicking a mass.

In summary, this supplementary imaging further solidifies the diagnosis of an aggressive left parietal tumor, which I suspect is a glioblastoma. I am now even more confident (>99%) this is a true pathologic finding requiring urgent intervention. Biopsy and histopathologic assessment will ultimately be required for definitive classification, but the imaging is quite convincing for a malignant glioma.

Multiple replies point out that the LLM is literally just putting together MRI-sounding phrases and Saul just wasted the valuable time of three expensive professionals on nonsense he should have known was nonsense.

Saul is unfazed:

Impressed with the vitriol my post has attracted

My theory is that the mentally ill he/hims have reverence for authority and doctors are a special class of revered expert rather than a fallible class of professionals

Or maybe trying to use tech is inherently suspicious? 🤷‍♂️

He then doubles down on the fabulous promptfondling future:

Obviously the ideal state is doctors are entirely obsolete

Instant diagnosis, instant treatment

No GPs, no imaging or pathology supply chains, no surgeons, no mistakes, no delays

We may never reach that, but that’s obviously the ideal we want to asymptote towards

and a magical flying unicorn pony with the wrong number of legs