Favorites December 4th 2023
To be clear, it didn't surpass GPT-4, which in turn didn't perform as well as actual humans. Also, the researchers note that GPT-4 is specifically fine-tuned *not* to pass a turing test. It seems likely that if it was fine-tuned specifically to pass a Turing test, it might perform even closer to human level.
If you want to see what this absolutely absurd parking requirement does to a real city, look at the satellite photos of Louisville. Check out the full video.
"Guyana’s imperialism" is a new phrase, but that's the official reasoning. In reality this is a naked oil grab, ironically the exact type people accuse the US of doing. The refurendum "passed" with 95% of the vote. The famous dictator's dilema, do you want to win with 99% or 95% of the vote? Either way, continued evidence that and end of Pax Americana is very bad.
Longer Reads
• Congestion in downtown Toronto is making the street cars slower than private cars on some routes, leading to a downward spiral in their quality.
Flotsam and Jetsam
– Meta has an AI translation model that can do voice-to-voice while maintaining the original intonation. (src)
– GPT-4 has become less willing to fully write out scripts, but if you tell it you don't have hands, it'll make an affordance for you and type it all out. (src)
– Bicyclist struck by a car on a road that was supposed to have protected lanes installed, but they were blocked by the CA coastal commission. (src)
– Over a century of gut hormone research lead up to the new GLP1 drugs (src)
– No one believes China's line on what happened in Hong Kong. Is history really written by the victors? Did China actually win the Hong Kong conflict? (src)
– The most common use of a gun is intimidation rather than self defense. (src)
– LOTR meme (src, via)
– Folks arguing against bicycles because they're ableist are probably overlooking multiple counter-arguments. (src)
– Reporting that Arab states are pushing behind closed doors for Israel to continue the war, situation continues to be tragic. (src)
– Kissinger was the first American to lobby for a Hollywood movie to be changed on behalf of the CCP. It was Tomorrow Never Dies, they totally changed the plot, and subsequently had no script on the first day of shooting (src)
– WaPo Opinion: "A Trump dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. We should stop pretending". Yikes (src)
– The opposite of the "Arsenal of Democracy", Ukraine hits railways between Russia and China (src)
– People have been passing around totally made up maps of US military bases. Here's a real one. China isn’t as surrounded as Tankies say. (src)
– I continue to feel that the Canadian MAID program seems to be poorly crafted (src)
– Whichever field AI becomes best at first, Robotics will be last, see Moravec’s paradox (src)
– An idea I had not heard before: the wealthiest feel the most stress from raising children because they have the highest opportunity cost. Seems plausible (src)