You can understand it but you can’t interpret the value. How much movies is a CD? Or a DVD? Or a 1TB SSD? Or even Avatar in 3D (presumably not 1)? How many movies have even been released in total/last year?

The number awes non-tech savvy folk but it doesn’t really inform them of anything. You could just as well write “more movies than you will ever need”.

And besides that, I personally think that news should try to educate folk. I’m completely fine with a comparison in the article. But why in the headline?

Fair point. I personally think that AI lives up to enough parts of the hype so that there won’t be another AI winter but who knows. Some will obviously get disillusioned but not enough.

There are quite a lot of AI-sceptics in this thread. If you compare the situation to 10 years ago, isn’t it insane how far we’ve come since then?

Image generation, video generation, self-driving cars (Level 4 so the driver doesn’t need to pay attention at all times), capable text comprehension and generation. Whether it is used for translation, help with writing reports or coding. And to top it all off, we have open source models that are at least in a similar ballpark as the closed ones and those models can be run on consumer hardware.

Obviously AI is not a solved problem yet and there are lots of shortcomings (especially with LLMs and logic where they completely fail for even simple problems) but the progress is astonishing.

Absolutely! Unfortunately, we are talking about the US. The article even says explicitly:

“Various U.S. presidents considered and approved billions of dollars in arms sales to controversial nations during his tenure — for instance, to Saudi Arabia in its ongoing war in Yemen.”

So it’s not the first time he’s about to make a very questionable choice. Though I guess he knows some details that blur the lines.

It does sound a bit weird. On the other hand, if he can influence the choices positively, he does have a point. If not him, someone else would take the job. I would have drawn the line somewhere else but I can understand where he is coming from.

And the fact that he resigned means that he has and likely had some moral compass guiding him.

I meant what actually happened is illogical to me. So I’m simply a bit confused and understand that there might be some nuance that I’m missing.

And I think an accidental leak is absolutely possible, it’s only that a conscious effort by China and the USA is unrealistic.

Just so you know, not only them are reading your response. I appreciate your response.

And as someone that isn’t working in the field, I have to admit that it is very illogical that they would conduct gain-of-function research on coronaviruses in a country previously hit by a coronavirus outbreak while violating safety standards. Obviously that’s hindsight but shouldn’t this be very obviously a bad idea? It’s not like the existence of a virus like COVID-19/sarscov-2 was completely unexpected.

Totally agree, though I haven’t really participated that much on Reddit. Seems like any disagreement is quickly framed as trolling over there.

Sure, no worries! I haven’t been disappointed yet by responding to downvoted comments so I will keep doing it :)

Just another similar metaphor: Power hungry. Not the stove kind but the dictator kind. To be honest, there are quite a lot of body related metaphors, e.g. drowning in trouble, blinded by ambition. I guess it comes down to evoking some strong emotion.

Consider another association with thirst: Desperation. In the mind of the author porn consumption is negative so anyone consuming porn is doing this out of desperation, despite knowing better. It essentially describes people being controlled by their base instincts. And thus this site is a trap, luring people against their will.

That is how I would interpret the word thirst in this context anyway. It’s not about a critical need, it’s about thirst being irrational and highly compulsive.

The economy isn’t looking that great in Spain right now AFAIK. With high unemployment it could at least be somewhat attractive.

3,400€/month to be part of some special forces doesn’t seem like a good deal? Like, sure. It’s a good salary. But for joining a war where about a third of the soldiers already are casualties it seems a bit low. At least if you view them as mercenaries. For volunteers I guess that the ideological reasons play a huge part. But why does the company emphasize that they are only called volunteers to avoid legal issues? The whole thing seems quite sketchy.

My comment was intended to highlight how fundamentally our views differ and not to start a discussion. I’m aware that my view is not completely neutral but I feel like your view is too different from mine to productively discuss them.

Yes, the Russian economy is doing better than expected but, obviously, a country at war with embargoes and large amounts of the workforce at the front will suffer. And yes, the current counter-offensive is not going as well as planned but the fact that Ukraine even started it and is making, albeit small, gains shows that they are at least on approximately even footing.

You’re right, our views differ quite a lot. In your comment I disagree with basically every conclusion. The Russian economy is worse off, the war will end with Russia getting at most Crimea and a coup in the US is completely unrealistic as of now.

Time will tell.

TBH, I haven’t read that much about the aftermath. I only heard some parts (e.g. the secret services) kept quiet for quite some time which suggests for me that they didn’t really care either way. If everyone really supported him it does make a coup/collapse less likely. The impression I got was simply:

• The support for Putin was cautious, especially in the beginning
• Putins handling and Lukashenkos involvement do not convey strength thereby making everyone with power more likely to support a future coup

I also don’t think the gang of eight is that diectly relatable because the SU collapsed. Here, it would simply mean replacing one president for another. In theory, a coup is as simple as a successful assasination (ignoring the successor question).

For me, it doesn’t look like there is any way out for Putin. Winning the war is unrealistic at this time, would take a long time and would result in a long embargo from the west, destroying the economy even further. Losing the war will probably result in extreme protests with all the casualties that already occurred. We will see whatever happens. I assume that Prigozhin failed not because the elite support Putin but because they are even more afraid of him. I assume everyone with money wants the war to end.

And about the USA, yeah that’s a bit of a whataboutism. There is a lot of division there and I think they are one bad president away from significantly worsening the situation. We will see about that too I guess.

First things first, the US is going to deny involvment either way. So this means nothing TBH.

Lukashenko being involved is quite weird to me and makes me wonder if there is something going on there. Does Prigozhin really think that his life is safe now? Or was it simply delayed (e.g. because of assistance by Lukashenko in a future coup?). It doesn’t really make sense either way.

I mean, I agree with your points here. Honestly, I’m wondering why he started in the first place as his life still is in danger.

I just don’t agree that this strengthened the state/Putin. In a way, if someone like Prigozhin without any realistic chance tries a coup and gets away with his life (at least for now) doesn’t this show how weak Russia currently is?

But did the coup really fail? Prigozhin simply called it off after !another! country negotiated a solution. The coup in Turkey failed because of, seemingly, Erdogan being too powerful and the people loving him. In Russia it failed because of Lukashenko intervening and Prigozhin calling it off. Putin does not look strong currently.

Okay, sure. Still a bit skeptical about point 2 but we will see.

1. What do you mean? Progress is already slow so any additional slow down will seriously harm the fediverse precisely because of the limited resources IMHO.
2. I’m not quite as optimistic as you but yeah, I don’t think it will be easy for Facebook and if they misjudge it they will end up making a competitor stronger by bringing more attention to it.