Andrew West
@awest.uk
130 followers 720 following 35 posts
IT guy. Photographer. Works for that charity, you know the one.
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awest.uk
So glad we have the nuanced humanities to protect us from dogmatic STEM types
awest.uk
I love the overnight shift from AI is no good to AI is too good
awest.uk
Sonnet 4.5 in Claude Code is *so fast*
awest.uk
Oh you are in for a treat. Go in blind
awest.uk
@lizlutgendorff.bsky.social have you read the Steerswoman books? I am loving them and they seem very much in your wheelhouse
Reposted by Andrew West
emollick.bsky.social
After reading it, this does seem like a big deal

Industry experts outlined important, real-world, hard tasks for AI to do. Other experts were asked to do the tasks themselves (avg time: 7 hours) & yet others graded human & AI output

Models approached parity with humans & AI is getting better fast.
Reposted by Andrew West
awest.uk
Haiku 3.5 is a pretty outdated model, isn’t it? Admittedly it was only released last October, but things move fast! Do Sonnet/Opus 4 have the same issue?
awest.uk
Very excited for this
Kingsmill are going to make a bread giant
awest.uk
Musk for sure. But like, is that it? People who trust Elon on precisely nothing are taking his word at face value on AI stuff?

I don’t think people are doing anything wrong, I’m just fascinated by the ‘hype is massive’ conversation (which I agree feels correct!) that is hard to pin down.
awest.uk
The hype is interesting, isn’t it. Where do you think it comes from? Adverts? Most statements from the ai companies are couched and caveated. You get some overexcited people on Twitter, but do people really believe them? Is it some general reading-between-the-lines of adverts + Spielberg?
awest.uk
“But it can’t count the letters in strawberry!”

Correct. If a human couldn’t do that, it would imply things about their human intelligence.

But this is not a human and doesn’t work like a human. It can do complex maths and strategic analysis without being able to count letters. It just can.
awest.uk
Hey commenters: as children, did you ever wonder how the older generation were so incapable of understanding technological advances, seemed stuck in the past, and were unwilling to learn? Now you know!
awest.uk
Fairness sensitivity is wild. Some people are fine if something’s a bit unfair but works out ok for everyone. Others find the exact same thing violently, pathologically, obsessively upsetting. These are all normal people.
gabrielmilland.bsky.social
Good piece. As a tabloid editor I used to work for once told me, the most powerful phrase in the English language - as it is spoken in this country - is "it's not fair".
robertshrimsley.bsky.social
The central issue for parties now is fairness. For Labour that means cost of living, good public services, social justice. But Farage has defined it on crime, immigration, welfare bills and voters being played for mugs. And right now he is winning that fight
www.ft.com/content/e153...
Reposted by Andrew West
hern.bsky.social
There's a real paucity of policy discussion on the left about the problems we're going to face if AI does in fact carry on getting better.
awest.uk
I love how everyone who learns about induced demand decides it’s a massive secret that nobody else understands
Reposted by Andrew West
emollick.bsky.social
Hopefully things change here, as my big worry about AI talk on this site is that people are being misled about the capabilities of AI by influencers who are telling them what they want to hear.

AI is not going away, it will impact all of our futures, and it needs more voices shaping its direction.
awest.uk
I mean, that’s why I watched it
Reposted by Andrew West
ryannorth.ca
the existence of Mini Eggs implies the existence of "eggs"
awest.uk
I feel like they’re gonna default on the libs
Reposted by Andrew West
scientificdiscovery.dev
Seeing the "shingles vaccine protects from dementia" claim going around again.

Unfortunately the main study it's based on is just not convincing. @epiellie.bsky.social has written a great post about why:
Shingles vaccine & dementia prevention: too good to be true?
A public peer-review
medium.com
awest.uk
Can Labour not, like, hire a PR firm or something
awest.uk
Stupid trees and their stupid pollen. Elsa had the right idea
awest.uk
If you like the #superbowl you should try the #hyperbole. It's a million times better.