Favorites: AVs replace human drivers, AI makes radiologists faster
September 24, 2025 — Broadway’s profits lag, Discord drama lingers, and The Argument's comment section AI-doom critique keeps the temperature down.
This is a few weeks old now, but extremely impressive. And if you look at the worst crashes they got into, they’re all caused by an error by the other driver, per a detailed analysis by Understanding AI.
One guy tested with the 24 hour alarm UI (cached) and thought it works there at first but… no, same issue.
I might also label this: “Badge Photo” // “GVC meeting just now”
ffmpeg can be a real pain, I’ve had similar levels of difficulty with HDR encoding, but no LLM has yet offered me a suicide hotline. Maybe I haven’t attempted anything ambitious enough yet. (I sorta assume this post is fake)
Longer Reads
• Almost a decade ago, Geoffrey Hinton said that no one should go into Radiology anymore, given that AI would clearly be able to do it better. And indeed, AI is all over modern radiology, but pay in the field is up. Here’s an article from Works in Progress about why. TL;DR: regulatory/insurance rules require a human in the loop, but those humans are using AI to get way more work done. (src)(cached)
Flotsam and Jetsam
– Good news: the NIH managed to get back on track for research grants, despite the Trump administration throwing a wrench into things. (src)(cached)
– Eli Lilly has a new GLP1 drug that’s a daily pill instead of a weekly shot, with fewer side effects compared to Ozempic. Here’s the paper. (src)(cached)
– The key to moderating is to be like trump on abortion: moderate your substantive position, but do it quietly. Pretty much the opposite of what some democrats do, where they very loudly proclaim their differences from people to their left. (src)(cached)
– I did not realize that part of the reason we can’t have small restaurants in the US is zoning regulations that make it impossible to operate without multiple employees. Here’s the article, Tim Lee quips “Legalize $4 lunches!”. (src)(cached)
– The suburban parts of Japan looks just as unwalkable ugly as the worst US suburbs. (src)(cached)
– Russia entered Estonian airspace, and there was some reminiscing about how when they did that to Turkey in 2015, they were shot down in seconds. (src)(cached)
– If you want to hear more about why I am not particularly worried about AI doom, check out these comments from The Argument’s coverage of the new Yudkowsky book. (src)(cached)
– New reporting that Tom Homan accepted a cash bribe during Trump’s first term, and that Trump shut down the FBI investigation. Generally that’s considered “bad” (src)(cached)
– Ban on new hotel construction in NYC is probably why Broadway shows are struggling to make a profit. (src)(cached)
– $799 for Meta’s new glasses with a display seem like a pretty good deal, per Ben Thompson (src)(cached)
– Waymo’s new safety stats actually undercount the added safety, because the accidents that occurred were essentially always the fault of the other driver. (src)(cached)
"This is a few weeks old now, but extremely impressive. And if you look at the worst crashes they got into, they’re all caused by an error by the other driver, per a detailed analysis by Understanding AI."
Perhaps I've very much missed it, but it seems to me the vast majority of the press (particularly the tech press) has not been making this argument in the last decade and a half of advancement in self-driving technology. The argument is simply "it doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be better than human drivers." Instead they waste time talking about the Trolly Problem.
Extra points for using “fewer.”
Inherent in that is the denial most people seem to go through when trying to assessing risk; they don't understand how dangerous cars are, and they don't understand the kind of danger they're in walking or cycling somewhere. Similarly, they assess the risk of commercial aviation as significantly higher than driving, where the exact opposite is true. I mean, I'm in a county where a sizable portion should have stopped driving at least 15 years ago. I would much prefer a way to get them off the road now without impacting their quality of life (improving it, actually) without waiting two decades for better public transit that may not even be done by then (looking at you HSR).
"One guy tested with the 24 hour alarm UI (cached) and thought it works there at first but… no, same issue."
Exactly, it's pragmatic. I saw a reel of MKBHD showing this to a few podcast hosts, and their contempt for this solution was palpable. It's further evidence MKBHD is not a meaningful tech pundit as he has no real understanding of technology, but he's a dilettante that has gotten outsized influence in the tech press due to his slick videos. I wish he'd be replaced with someone who had something of value to say about tech instead of "well, the phone cameras are much nicer this year than last year, I guess..." I know, old man yells at cloud, but I much prefer the kind of tech coverage of a Digital Foundry or Serve The Home, even a Jay's Two Cents, in place of a MKBHD or a Linus Tech Tips.
"I might also label this: “Badge Photo” // “GVC meeting just now”"
Heh I had that exact situation with a particular team at work that had been together for 20 years. Almost every single member hadn't updated their badge photos in nearly a decade. (Don't tell anybody, but it seems like it was true of the codebase as well... :p)
"ffmpeg can be a real pain, I’ve had similar levels of difficulty with HDR encoding, but no LLM has yet offered me a suicide hotline. Maybe I haven’t attempted anything ambitious enough yet. (I sorta assume this post is fake)"
After trying to use ffmpeg's C API (which is nothing like their CLI, at least at the time, and I don't think it had an interface to pass along CLI args), I think a suicide hotline may not have been out of order.
"The suburban parts of Japan looks just as unwalkable ugly as the worst US suburbs."
While I agree it doesn't look great, in my experience a Japanese driver is much less likely to mow you down because they couldn't see you over their F-150 or that you're perceived to be "in their way." I will also pay money to see a Japanese driver roll coal at other drivers for the lulz.