Isn’t Trump more of a Yeltsin?

And since when has CalTech been into econometric modeling?

https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-humanities-schools/california-institute-of-technology-110404

Ranked 14th highest econ department in the country. Math modeling and economics are joined at the hip.

The basic graphing technology used by AI is the same pioneered by Alta Vista and optimized by Google years later. We’ve added a layer of abstraction through user I/O, such that you get a formalized text response encapsulating results rather than a series of links containing related search terms. But the methodology used to harvest, hash, and sort results is still all rooted in graph theory.

The difference between then and now is that back then you’d search “Horse” in Alta Vista and getting a dozen links ranging from ranches and vet clinics to anime and porn. Now, you get a text blob that tries to synthesize all the information in those sources down to a few paragraphs of relevant text.

what if they all come up with that because it has been publicised

Then I’d ask who published and where they got their analysis from. Very possible that we’ve got an AI that’s built up a backlog of Harvard Business Studies and CalTech economics models to reach the ideal hypothetical tariff regime. But it’s just as likely they’re ingesting 4chan reposts of Ron Paul Newsletters and Michael Savage radio transcripts to build up its economic background.

That’s sort of the problem with AI. There’s no specialist-driven guidance on what data is valuable and what data is crap. No litmus test to separate fact from fiction or serious discussion versus trolling. And these western developed models, in particular, are very bad about including the origins of their graphed logical output (because that would make the process of hashing and graphing more expensive, in a system that’s already inelegant and resource intensive).

I just glanced at it and wouldnt know how something like that is even supposed to be, so I dont really know how unhinged the tariff rate thing is.

The problem is less that we don’t know how bad the tariff rate is and more that the people designing the policies don’t know either. They’re fishing for answers in the answer pond, and they don’t even know if they’ve got a fish or a boot at the end of the line.

Bribes to local governments and police, mostly.

Unfortunately, the people pushing AI are the same ones selling recreational flamethrowers

It’s great for getting off the ground in a language you’re unfamiliar with. But a recipe for technical debt when used long term. You’re inviting spaghetti code with some real hair pulling bugs.

Okay, but how do I personally monetize non-honey making bees? Sure, the general ecology needs this, but what’s in it for me, right this instant?

Far more socialism in practice than you’re giving credit. Even setting aside the 1/6th of the global population and economy that is governed by the Chinese Communists, you’re neglecting the plethora of state managed economies across the Middle East (the Kingdoms of Jordan and Saudi Arabia, the Revolutionary Republic of Iran, the theocratic republic of Afghanistan) and the socialist state functions of more traditional capitalist countries - NHS in the UK, the Baltic State sovereign wealth funds, state owned companies like Petróleos Mexicanos and The National Copper Corporation of Chile.

Musk is the kind of creature that crawls out of the swamp only after you’ve turned too much of your economy to private interests. He isn’t a global phenomenon. If anything, his ejection from South Africa and the continued revolutionary anti-colonialism that continues to flare up in opposition to people like him all along the Global South should signal how much of the world isn’t welcoming to his kind.

But that doesn’t mean anyone actually likes AI art

Anyone in the business of churning out media slop at high rates and low quality loves it.

Low budget advertisers, propagandists, and click bait influencers are its primary user base.

One of the things that Americans loothe about the Chinese government is the rule that mainland owned and operated firms require a domestic partner, with legal access to the patents and property used in manufacture. This comes with subsidies and state support. But it creates a rich opportunity for those Chinese domestic partners to begin making fully local competitive alternatives.

The Chinese domestic EV market took full advantage of Tesla, siphoned out the best bits, and now allows the bad fruit to rot on the vine.

he can just fly in and start fucking shit up wherever he wants

In capitalist states, where politicians are explicitly beholden to international credit and industry.

State owned businesses are insulated against vulture capitalists like Musk, because they exist to deliver a service rather than turn steadily increasing profit for shareholders.

State run and independent citizen sponsored media are insulated against the influence of marketing firms and corporate propaganda, because the staff does not rely on a tiny cartel of ultra-wealthy private patrons to fund their journalism.

Elon Musk is a very American problem. He’s a creature of libertarian capitalism and colonial apartheid.

I hear world wars are good for the economy. A sharp increase in demand for instantly disposable munitions combined with a sharp downturn in the global life expectance does amazing things to Per Capita GDP.

Several of the apps traced back to Qihoo 360, a firm declared by the Defense Department to be a “Chinese Military Company." Qihoo did not respond to questions about its app-related holdings.

I have to wonder if this headline would be received the same way if it was “US State Department Accuses Chinese Internet Security Company of Conspiring With Chinese Government”, as all this seems to go back to a claim by Trump’s 2020 department that Qihoo leaked info to the Hong Kong police during the protests five years ago.

Still… Qihoo 360 appears to have been an active investor and developer in Silicon Valley since 2014. Chinese investment in the US isn’t new or even undesireable, as of a decade ago.

But consider how the US has also recently attempted to seize the US branch of TikTok and block domestic sale of Huawei phones. Add in the domestic freak out over Chinese AI companies outperforming their US peers. This could easily be American tech companies trying to freeze out their competition on national security grounds rather than Chinese tech companies posing a military threat to US domestic interests.

Me, a liberal: “You need to understand that gender and ethnicity and religious tradition naturally divide us. But we can overcome all that with meritocracy. If we just stack rank everyone, we can skim the cream and anyone who works hard enough can join the professional class.”

Also me, still a liberal: “Yeah, we’re just firing all the women, the non-Europeans, and any out LGBTQ faculty member from the organization because we need to comply with new Anti-DEI rules. No, I don’t see what that has to do with their economic position or social standing in society. Maybe they all should have just worked harder.”

Is digital art itself bad, because its not the human doing all of it?

It is bad primarily because it plagiarizes historical art in order to undermine the professional trade for future artists.

It forecloses art as a career, thereby depriving future generations of evolution in style and professional craft.

Gate keeping art is silly regardless

The gate being constructed fences off professional artists from the revenue their work produced. And in doing so, it defunds the schools and studios where professionals pass their craft from master to apprentice.

No no no. None of this should be acknowledged, because Whataboutism.

Oh no, the Groypers are here.

Seems to be the intent

attach giant balloons to ships