Dan Dyer
@dandyer.uk
Software developer @rectangularsoftware.com #iOS #Android #Java #Python #Django · Touch rugby player/referee · Bicycle roamer
"chatbots are “always hallucinating,” ... “It’s not a malfunction. A predictive model predicts some text, and maybe it’s accurate, maybe it isn’t, but the process is the same either way. To put it another way: LLMs are structurally indifferent to truth.”"
AI Is Inventing Academic Papers That Don't Exist -- And They're Being Cited in Real Journals
Academic articles from authors using large language model are creating an ecosystem of fake research that threatens human knowledge itself.
www.rollingstone.com
December 21, 2025 at 9:30 PM
"chatbots are “always hallucinating,” ... “It’s not a malfunction. A predictive model predicts some text, and maybe it’s accurate, maybe it isn’t, but the process is the same either way. To put it another way: LLMs are structurally indifferent to truth.”"
Here you go, have some 21st century alternatives to all the overplayed 70s and 80s tunes on your Christmas playlist. Merry Christmas.
Half Man Half Biscuit - It's Cliched To Be Cynical At Christmas (2000)
Half Man Half Biscuit - It's Cliched To Be Cynical At Christmas (2000)
Its Cliched to be Cynical at Christmas by Half Man Half Biscuit
YouTube video by richardj5
youtu.be
December 20, 2025 at 10:50 PM
Here you go, have some 21st century alternatives to all the overplayed 70s and 80s tunes on your Christmas playlist. Merry Christmas.
Half Man Half Biscuit - It's Cliched To Be Cynical At Christmas (2000)
Half Man Half Biscuit - It's Cliched To Be Cynical At Christmas (2000)
🤔 The Red Roses have been the most dominant team in world sport for the last 6 or 7 years, are world champions, and are on an all-time record unbeaten run for men's or women's teams. The golf lads narrowly won a two-horse race.
December 18, 2025 at 9:12 PM
🤔 The Red Roses have been the most dominant team in world sport for the last 6 or 7 years, are world champions, and are on an all-time record unbeaten run for men's or women's teams. The golf lads narrowly won a two-horse race.
Surprised Meg Jones and Lucy Bronze didn’t make this list (the shortlist used to be much longer). I’ll go Kildunne from the options available.
December 11, 2025 at 10:56 AM
Surprised Meg Jones and Lucy Bronze didn’t make this list (the shortlist used to be much longer). I’ll go Kildunne from the options available.
Reposted by Dan Dyer
AI. The new Virtual Reality.
Billionaires digging bigger holes, and filling them in again.
Billionaires digging bigger holes, and filling them in again.
Meta to slash spending on metaverse as it shifts focus to AI on.ft.com/3Mj7yPh
Meta to slash spending on metaverse as it shifts focus to AI
Mark Zuckerberg’s social media company considers cutting unit’s budget by as much as 30%
on.ft.com
December 4, 2025 at 6:38 PM
AI. The new Virtual Reality.
Billionaires digging bigger holes, and filling them in again.
Billionaires digging bigger holes, and filling them in again.
Reposted by Dan Dyer
It's Friday, and apparently bluesky is ready for this fun revelation:
Dinosaurs lived on the other side the Galaxy.
Dinosaurs lived on the other side the Galaxy.
November 21, 2025 at 5:11 PM
It's Friday, and apparently bluesky is ready for this fun revelation:
Dinosaurs lived on the other side the Galaxy.
Dinosaurs lived on the other side the Galaxy.
I'm not sure this needs much expert analysis. Don't put sensitive documents on your website before you're supposed to and, if you do, don't use easily guessable file names. Where do I send the invoice?
OBR calls in cyber expert over botched release of Budget analysis
Rachel Reeves's statement was thrown into chaos after journalists were able to access the document early.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 1:48 PM
I'm not sure this needs much expert analysis. Don't put sensitive documents on your website before you're supposed to and, if you do, don't use easily guessable file names. Where do I send the invoice?
They finally got round to reading my spoiled ballots.
Police and crime commissioners to be abolished, government to announce
Police and crime commissioners to be abolished, government to announce
System introduced in 2012 across England and Wales has faced criticism from police chiefs
*
UK politics live – latest updates
The controversial system of police and crime commissioners is to be abolished by the government, the Guardian has learned.
Under the system, introduced under the Conservatives, all 43 police forces covering local areas across England and Wales had to answer to an elected official. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
November 13, 2025 at 12:46 PM
They finally got round to reading my spoiled ballots.
Reposted by Dan Dyer
“F***ing hell…” Is this the scariest near miss you’ve ever seen?
“Buy a lottery ticket!” Cyclists “nearly flattened” after speeding driver loses control and crashes into oncoming car in horrifying footage
“Everybody walked away – just,” said cyclist George Fox, a record-breaking time triallist who avoided the “flying” sideways motorist “by a matter of centimetres”
road.cc
November 7, 2025 at 11:45 AM
“F***ing hell…” Is this the scariest near miss you’ve ever seen?
Daylight Saving Time
Write your developer horror story in 5 words or less. 🎃
We'll go first: Remote code execution.
https://github.blog/open-source/inside-the-breach-that-broke-the-internet-the-untold-story-of-log4shell/
We'll go first: Remote code execution.
https://github.blog/open-source/inside-the-breach-that-broke-the-internet-the-untold-story-of-log4shell/
October 31, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Daylight Saving Time
Isn't this sort of thing usually followed by the King's exiled brother allying with France or Spain and attempting to seize the crown?
October 31, 2025 at 12:06 AM
Isn't this sort of thing usually followed by the King's exiled brother allying with France or Spain and attempting to seize the crown?
I'm not a biblical scholar but I'm pretty sure this contravenes at least one of the Ten Commandments.
Virtual Jesus? People of faith divided as AI enters religion.
One app, which is called Text with Jesus, has thousands of paying subscribers. It lets people ostensibly ask questions of Mary, Joseph, Jesus and nearly all 12 apostles
u.afp.com/SmoK
One app, which is called Text with Jesus, has thousands of paying subscribers. It lets people ostensibly ask questions of Mary, Joseph, Jesus and nearly all 12 apostles
u.afp.com/SmoK
October 3, 2025 at 1:40 PM
I'm not a biblical scholar but I'm pretty sure this contravenes at least one of the Ten Commandments.
Reposted by Dan Dyer
I am starting a new service where I slash the tires of expensive cars in Silicon Valley unless their owners specifically opt-out.
Exclusive: OpenAI is planning to release a new version of its Sora video generator, which creates videos featuring copyrighted material unless copyright holders opt out of having their work appear.
OpenAI’s New Sora Video Generator to Require Copyright Holders to Opt Out
Executives at the startup notified talent agencies and studios over the last week.
on.wsj.com
September 30, 2025 at 1:55 AM
I am starting a new service where I slash the tires of expensive cars in Silicon Valley unless their owners specifically opt-out.
Reposted by Dan Dyer
Sources: the UK Home Office issued a new order to Apple in early September to create a backdoor into its cloud storage service, this time focused on UK users (Financial Times)
Main Link | Techmeme Permalink
Main Link | Techmeme Permalink
October 1, 2025 at 12:46 PM
Sources: the UK Home Office issued a new order to Apple in early September to create a backdoor into its cloud storage service, this time focused on UK users (Financial Times)
Main Link | Techmeme Permalink
Main Link | Techmeme Permalink
Reposted by Dan Dyer
Want to know how the new digital ID system will work?
Good news! I’ve explained how it will almost certainly work here:
takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/britcard
Good news! I’ve explained how it will almost certainly work here:
takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/britcard
The "BritCard" digital ID proposal is a good idea
Why I've changed my mind on ID cards
takes.jamesomalley.co.uk
September 25, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Want to know how the new digital ID system will work?
Good news! I’ve explained how it will almost certainly work here:
takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/britcard
Good news! I’ve explained how it will almost certainly work here:
takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/britcard
Reposted by Dan Dyer
Lotta bleak stuff out there today but not sure anything can top 'you can now shop the war in Gaza on TikTok' www.theverge.com/tech/782540/...
TikTok is tagging videos from Gaza with TikTok Shop products
TikTok’s new AI feature automatically looks for products in your videos.
www.theverge.com
September 22, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Lotta bleak stuff out there today but not sure anything can top 'you can now shop the war in Gaza on TikTok' www.theverge.com/tech/782540/...
Reposted by Dan Dyer
“OpenAI admits AI hallucinations are mathematically inevitable, not just engineering flaws”
https://www.computerworld.com/article/4059383/openai-admits-ai-hallucinations-are-mathematically-inevitable-not-just-engineering-flaws.html
https://www.computerworld.com/article/4059383/openai-admits-ai-hallucinations-are-mathematically-inevitable-not-just-engineering-flaws.html
September 21, 2025 at 10:04 AM
“OpenAI admits AI hallucinations are mathematically inevitable, not just engineering flaws”
https://www.computerworld.com/article/4059383/openai-admits-ai-hallucinations-are-mathematically-inevitable-not-just-engineering-flaws.html
https://www.computerworld.com/article/4059383/openai-admits-ai-hallucinations-are-mathematically-inevitable-not-just-engineering-flaws.html
Opt-in by default. If this is legal it shouldn't be.
September 18, 2025 at 11:52 PM
Opt-in by default. If this is legal it shouldn't be.
Reposted by Dan Dyer
Barrister cites fictitious case (from ChatGPT). When challenged by Tribunal, uses ChatGPT to confirm the case exists. This does not go well.
tribunalsdecisions.service.gov.uk/utiac/2025-u...
tribunalsdecisions.service.gov.uk/utiac/2025-u...
Tribunal decisions
tribunalsdecisions.service.gov.uk
September 15, 2025 at 9:31 AM
Barrister cites fictitious case (from ChatGPT). When challenged by Tribunal, uses ChatGPT to confirm the case exists. This does not go well.
tribunalsdecisions.service.gov.uk/utiac/2025-u...
tribunalsdecisions.service.gov.uk/utiac/2025-u...
Reposted by Dan Dyer
Bluesky isn’t perfect but at least its owner isn’t demanding violent insurrection in the UK from thousands of miles away
September 14, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Bluesky isn’t perfect but at least its owner isn’t demanding violent insurrection in the UK from thousands of miles away
Reposted by Dan Dyer
AI Darwin Awards launch to celebrate spectacularly bad deployments
AI Darwin Awards launch to celebrate spectacularly bad deployments
From fast food fiascos to botched databases, there are fresh honors for machine learning misadventures
It was bound to happen. The Darwin Awards are being extended to include examples of misadventures involving overzealous applications of AI.…
dlvr.it
September 9, 2025 at 8:48 AM
AI Darwin Awards launch to celebrate spectacularly bad deployments
"AI-assisted developers produced three to four times more code than their unassisted peers, but also generated ten times more security issues"
AI code assistants make developers more efficient at creating security problems
AI code assistants make developers more efficient at creating security problems
Fixes typos, creates timebombs
AI coding assistants allow developers to move fast and break things, which may not be ideal.…
dlvr.it
September 8, 2025 at 2:51 PM
"AI-assisted developers produced three to four times more code than their unassisted peers, but also generated ten times more security issues"
Reposted by Dan Dyer
UK government trial of M365 Copilot finds no clear productivity boost
UK government trial of M365 Copilot finds no clear productivity boost
AI tech shows promise writing emails or summarizing meetings. Don't bother with anything more complex
A UK government department's three-month trial of Microsoft's M365 Copilot has revealed no discernible gain in productivity – speeding up some tasks yet making others slower due to lower quality outputs.…
dlvr.it
September 4, 2025 at 9:18 AM
UK government trial of M365 Copilot finds no clear productivity boost