Hallucinations; Handling Elon; Game control
Issue #371
💡Think
Hey everyone, it’s been a while!
Seeing as AI is almost certainly eating the world*, I’d like to offer you two poorly thought through, but hopefully entertaining metaphors for what I feel is going on.
One – Force Majuere
If you have never watched the movie with the same name, I’d encourage you to, but here’s the clip I’m referring to:
Here, tourists at a ski mountain resort watch as a controlled explosion causes an avalanche. At first, they grab their phones, record it, talk about how powerful it looks and admire the beauty of its uniqueness.
As the avalanche advances, they notice its danger, and how it’s not just a pretty picture; it’s there to clear them out.
The tourists are us, the camera phones our efficient knowledge worker demos of its greatness.
Two – Fois gras
It’s delicious, isn’t it? The process to get there is not. We’re the ducks being stuffed, our output commoditised and our investor plates stacked full of the goods.
Have a tasty week,
Luis
*My promise to you is to not talk about AI unless I find it absolutely necessary to share an idea
📷 Look
📖 Read
❶ The real hallucination problem
Every time a new AI thing launches, we all rush to see how bad it is when trying to generate stuff. But, as this article suggests, perhaps those aren’t the hallucinations we should be worried about? Allow me to paste a paragraph:
Some of these firms are, in no uncertain terms, trying to rewrite the rules of society by doing whatever they can to create a godlike superintelligence…Others seem more interested in using generative AI to build tools that repurpose others’ creative work with little to no citation.
❷ How do you fix a problem like Elon?
This is a long read, so buckle up, but is a great insight into just how difficult Twitter’s CEO Linda Yaccarino’s job is. Her decisions are undercut, and she’s effectively playing a game of “corporate Whac-A-Mole”. Devastating given how much I use the damn website.
❸ How game designers secretly run your life
A few learnings here: firstly, dice used to be referred to as an addictive drug. Second, we’re wired to challenge uncertainty and lose interest when things become…certain. Third, apparently Snakes and Ladders was invented to teach us about karma.
—
Bonus round
“A bad system will beat a good person every time.” Fantastic post about process
🎧 Listen
Genesis, or how weird the crypto world is
I added my own flair to the title, because it wasn’t doing itself justice. This podcast was honestly fascinating. The host finds themselves at a Bitcoin convention in Miami, and describes just how bizarre that micro climate is. The “Bitcoin rappers”, the dark corners of the internet, the digs at Wall Street, and how Peter Thiel (yes, that one) speaks about it on stage.
Listen to this podcast (1 hour 6 minutes)
Spotify – Apple
Have a great week,
@disco_lu