James R Kirk

It worries me that there are scientists out there who are making studies based on the assumption that an LLM chat bot is a reasonable stand-in for a human in this context (in any context really but that’s another conversation). It’s just not what LLMs are, it’s not what they are designed to do. They’ve fallen for the marketing.

We address this question using a novel method - generative social simulation - that embeds Large Language Models within Agent-Based Models to create socially rich synthetic platforms. We create a minimal platform where agents can post, repost, and follow others. We find that the resulting following-networks reproduce three well-documented dysfunctions: (1) partisan echo chambers; (2) concentrated influence among a small elite; and (3) the amplification of polarized voices - creating a ‘social media prism’ that distorts political discourse.

1. lmao “generative AI chatbots trained on social media behave like social media users”
2. Shame on ArsTechnica they should be better than to publish a study like this.

That’s all LLM software is, it has no connection to reality, it’s bullshitting 100% of the time. The fact that it is correct mostly, or confident always does not imply that it understands anything it’s saying.

“I can’t recognize something, therefore it’s scary.”

Conservatives will go to war before they go to therapy.

Ah ok, so ignoring Calibre for a moment, what’s the difference between Calibre-Web and Calibre-Web Automated? The ReadMe does not contain a list of the differences.

This is explaining the difference between Calibre and Calibre-Web.

The person you replied to asked what the connection is between “Calibre-Web” and “Calibre-Web Automated”

So to make a bluesky with (for example) two users is available for anyone to create at any time, but is so extremely technically intensive that absolutely nobody besides the one company is capable of doing it? You don’t find that the slightest bit odd? I think the open source and decentralized claimes are straight up lies.

1. Reposting easily attainable public information is not “doxing”

2. Criticizing someone’s political views is perfectly reasonable

3. If you were acting in good faith and truly believed what you were saying then you would not have reposted the “doxing” information

Bluesky isnt decentralized

But if it’s open source what is stopping them from simply creating another bluesky like yesterday?

Jay Graber’s background before BlueSky is in Web3 so take that information how you will.

My bad, I’m not an expert here but it’s weird that it’s open source and yet nobody else can have a bluesky? Like could I download that code and make a bluesky for everyone? If so why has nobody else done it? why is there only one for profit bluesky?

To answer your question though, no nothing has changed.

It’s still for profit, not federated and closed source so honestly I don’t know why it’s being discussed here

From someone waking up from a coma without experience with Windows or MacOS, Linux truly is the most user friendly. It may not have been true five years ago but in my mind it is without question true now.

I hate to admit sometimes that the Chrome experience (especially on mobile) can be a lot smoother and quicker to load, but Firefox wins every time on extensibility. But to your point yes the hate directed Firefox’s way can be well, a bit much.

I believe Firefox is completely FOSS.

Looks like it is! I was under the apparently false impression that it was only partly.

Well, because FOSS apps are usually the best/most user friendly option even if they’re not always the most popular. If you woke up after a 30 year coma and had no prior commitments to using any particular software, there would be absolutely zero question that Linux is the best OS today.

An OS is a complicated thing, yet the FOSS option is the safest, most user friendly, and most versatile. I’m just a little surprised there isn’t a browser that checks those boxes too, since the browser is a widely used thing. But I’m guessing because Firefox exists the number of devs willing to give the time investment just isn’t as many.

I’m not under the impression that a web browser is a simple thing to build but with Linux advancing the way it has in recent years it continues to surprise me that the “best” browser out there isn’t FOSS.

Hopefully that is about to change!

That alt text is just TOO real

The LinkedIn-styled writing here is hard for me to get through, but I think the general gist is that for profit platforms are easier to onboard which I agree with. This line stands out:

And what do we get in return? A worse experience than cloud-based services.

I have to disagree somewhat, it’s a different experience that is absolutely more difficult in many ways, but for those of us who value privacy, control over our data, and don’t like ads, the trade-off is worth it. Also it goes without saying that the usability of selfhosted apps has exploded in the past few years and it will likely become less and less of an issue.