HN user
Enemy of the State predicted this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EwZQddc3kY&t=11s
It's only a matter of time before it's in use by law enforcement: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48520807
Archive now, make public after X amount of time. So, maybe both publisher and archiver are happy (or less sad).
This answer is the most important one.
The future of state LLMs is not censoring subjects - it's slowly but surely persuading people using your LLM that your version of events - or your spin on that event - is the truth.
Core of the article: the cathedral, the bazaar, and the workshop - https://jamesmunsch.com/words/2026-01-18-the-atelier--craft-...
Apologies if this is against the rules.
I linked to a sub-heading of the article (which I think is the core and most important part of the article) and named the link after that.
Re-submitted here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46761556
Also, what is their USP? "Join our social network so we can train our models on your data!"
I've invented a replacement for the PDF format.
It's called Locked Markdown. `*.lmd`.
It provides 98% of the functionality most people use PDFs for, without all the extra bullshit.
The Spec:
- The most popular Markdown Spec (git flavour?)
- At the top of the page place a hash sum of the markdown below a marker on the page.
LMD Reader:
- Prevents editing the markdown.
- Warns user if the hash sum is not valid.
Example:
```lmd
sha256 77ec0f678315f8a207c3501137e1dfc9642b79a9c93e21807df7b5242846c05c
-------------------------------
# Header 1
Paragraph of text about how bloated the PDF format is.
```
Zip .lmd together with images/videos if required.
Cory Doctrow goes into the reasons behind the rise of playlists and the control it gives the platform over their users/artists. Worth a read.
What is modulex: https://www.newelementary.com/2017/11/old-bricks-what-are-mo...
You should be embarrassed by the obviousness of this spam.
Nice 'Holy Mountain' vibes in the promo video.
Maybe you would never misuse this technology, but if it becomes widespread and normalized then plenty of people are going to be walking into public toilets (other previously private spaces) with this tech on. We're creating the conditions for total surveillance of the physical world.
Is this the future you want to live in? It's not too late to back down.
EDIT: As pointed out by those below, these glasses don't have cameras. Which I think is much more preferable to the alternative.
Maybe "contactcode" would be better in this situation, as it doesn't imply any specific relationship between participants.
Complaints about TailwindCSS always remind me of this quote:
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” ― Upton Sinclair, I, Candidate for Governor
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/21810-it-is-difficult-to-ge...
These companies are not designed to last forever. Many wrappers can make decent amounts of money for their creators for months and then die. Under these conditions a company can close down and still be considered a big success.
I will have to update my belief that LLMs would not be practical for use by citizens of authoritarian regimes.
What happens when you ask about Tiananmen Square?
(Asking for redwood, who's comment was inexplicably flagged).
This is assuming you are trying to create a perfect system. The "good enough" version of this solves most Sibil Attacks[1].
This seems like an Innovator's Dilemma (adjacent) trap. The actors will prevent hollywood or the mainstream studios from using synthetic actors, writers, etc. so it will be left up to some completely new entity to create that infrastructure. It will happen anyway because it is so compelling, and there are tens of thousands of actors who never make a living who would happily become digital.
* The Innovator's Dilemma - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Innovator%27s_Dilemma
I wonder if the Signal app would be automatically uninstalled from existing iOS and Android devices?
Hopefully the signal ban will demonstrate to enough people that they don't really own the phone in their pocket - if they don't control what's on it, they are just renting it.
I didn't think it was that vague. But if you're looking for ideas.
1. High quality LLM made free for commercial use.
2. LLM is used in many places as it is the best.
3. LLM is aligned to subtly promote the interests of the threat actor.
There is no 'compromise'. It is not hacking software, only wetware.
A concrete example...
LLM created by Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) is used in educational software aimed at kids. Over time as the kid interacts with it the LLM promotes a way of thought that either aligns with the APT or undermines the ideology of the society they are in. There is no moment that can be pointed to that says: "look they are trying to hack us!", but decades later you have adult members of a foreign society more open to your way of thinking.
i.e. Soft Power.
HN hating on something doesn’t guarantee success but it is a prerequisite.
There is a great opportunity for totalitarian and authoritarian regimes (China and UAE so far) to create commercially usable and free LLMs that work significantly better than alternatives (backed by large amounts of government money).
Over time, as they get used in more and more products, these LLMs can become more 'aligned' to these regimes way of thinking.
There are no Chinese companies that are not part of the Chinese government.
This is a new kind of cultural soft power.
But doesn't an engineer's authority come their skill-set and not from peoples perception of them or their job title?
When you say diminished, are you are talking from a societal point of view?
Prompt Engineering is a fun title in a fast moving and interesting field. Everyone's taking it far too seriously.
I'm going off to become a Clay Engineer, that sounds fun!
Bluesky - https://blueskyweb.xyz/blog/6-02-2023-beta-update
" Roadmap and Growth
A few weeks ago, we intentionally slowed our invite roll-out while we built more moderation tooling and capacity for users on the app. We staffed a content moderation team with shifts that cover a 24/7 schedule, and consulted with trust and safety experts to establish new processes and policies to support a growing userbase. We’ve resumed sending out daily invites to the waitlist, which is where the majority of users already on Bluesky received their invites. For those who don’t know someone personally with an invite code, the waitlist is the fastest way to receive a code, though please be patient as we work through the list. "
Why would it get flagged?
Although reading the article, it seems like click-bate, which is disappointing from the BBC.
You may not ever be able to persuade a bot, but you can identify if it is capable of repudiating your points or not. You can ascertain if it is arguing in good faith and chose to end an argument if it isn’t.
When you say “find an argument that works” isn’t this just saying that they’ve said something you find persuasive?
What’s wrong with this? How is this different to any other argument in good faith?
at the bottom of the article is says "Solid support for MMS"
One solution to the profitability problem might be to remove all the non-profitable users.
When I browse the home page all I see is anti-work, anti-capitalism, nuance-less politics, etc.
As people have mentioned, the free money decade is over - users are going to have to start becoming Customers if they want their voices to be listened to.