Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Jon Ayre @jonayre.uk · 4h

Green + LibDem are the biggest "party" according to the polls

#justsaying

1

Jon Ayre @jonayre.uk · 22h

I think you missed my point. It isn't about decentralisation.

Jon Ayre @jonayre.uk · 1d

Early Bluesky proved to be a bit of a clique that reacted badly to people talking of their experiences with racism. There was a strong fingers-in-the-ears, not-listening vibe. IMO this was a driver for the creation of Blacksky. Blacksky is the success story that arises from Bluesky's failing.

3 3

Jon Ayre @jonayre.uk · 1d

The existence of Blacksky is not a sign of Bluesky's success. It is a sign of one of its core failings.

Rudy wants revolution. @rude1.blacksky.team · 1d

I hear and see your concerns. Over the weekend, a couple users hosted on Blacksky's PDS were banned from the Bluesky app and thus the Bluesky API servers. This was a weakness of our system I've been aware of and hoped we had more time to address before any kind of public incident. 1/11

4 2 17

Jon Ayre @jonayre.uk · 1d

Crunchy!

Jon Ayre @jonayre.uk · 2d

If you're really worried about losing all the meaningful things you've said because you have to move to a new social media platform, do what the rest of us do:

Don't post anything meaningful.

1 5

Jon Ayre @jonayre.uk · 2d

New game show format just dropped

Jacqueline Sweet @jsweetli.bsky.social · 2d

I just watched a video of an ICE agent trying to find a costumed frog's rear air hole to stick pepper spray in it, and, like, why are we paying people to do this

Jon Ayre @jonayre.uk · 2d

ChatGPT ftw

1

Jon Ayre @jonayre.uk · 2d

The code is never the product.

Jon Ayre @jonayre.uk · 2d

And how do you fund the development of that software and demonstrate its effectiveness if not without a large user base and the investment that can attract?

To say the user base isn't the product is to ignore the reality of your situation.

"Product" might be clumsy shorthand but it makes the point

1

Jon Ayre @jonayre.uk · 2d

And how do you fund the development of that software and demonstrate its effectiveness if not without a large user base and the investment that can attract?

To say the user base isn't the product is to ignore the reality of your situation.

"Product" might be clumsy shorthand but it makes the point

3

Jon Ayre @jonayre.uk · 2d

And herein lies the problem. By assigning gender you run the risk of amplifying gender based inequalities. Currently most AIs designed to serve you are assigned female names by their creators. This reinforces and potentially amplifies the casual sexism that already exists.

It's not okay.

1 1

Jon Ayre @jonayre.uk · 3d

Yup. It's a bit like saying we don't know how a pile of sand works because we can't predict when and which way a specific grain will fall.

2

Jon Ayre @jonayre.uk · 3d

Laptop sticker game by generation:

Gen Z - goofy cartoon stickers

Millennials - work mission badges and open source logos

Gen X - just the ones put on by the vendor (and they'd remove those too if it didn't leave an annoying sticky patch)

Boomers - Laptop? What laptop?

2

Jon Ayre @jonayre.uk · 3d

No they can't have gender. Gender is something defined by the individual based on their awareness of their own identity.

Machines have no awareness and hence have no gender.

Awareness has to come first and then gender may or may not emerge from that (probably the latter).

1

Jon Ayre @jonayre.uk · 3d

Nope. Not stupid.

bsky.app/profile/jona...

Jon Ayre @jonayre.uk · 3d

There's a small clique on Bluesky who seem to think the AT protocol is the important thing.

The tech is never the important thing and most of your user base will (rightly) never give a damn about it.

You are not the customer.

1

Jon Ayre @jonayre.uk · 3d

Investors don't give a damn about the protocol either. They just want to see a growing user base and increasing activity.

1

Jon Ayre @jonayre.uk · 3d

Saying "shaping a strategy doesn't work" is a bit like a golfer saying "my back swing doesn't work".

Any pro will tell you it's just as likely to be your follow through that's the problem.

Jon Ayre @jonayre.uk · 3d

There's a small clique on Bluesky who seem to think the AT protocol is the important thing.

The tech is never the important thing and most of your user base will (rightly) never give a damn about it.

You are not the customer.

1 1 2

Jon Ayre @jonayre.uk · 4d

Absolutely this. The number of great software developers I've worked with who don't have a degree.

Gergely Orosz @gergely.pragmaticengineer.com · 4d

Unpopular opinion: while these extremely difficult interviews remain, software engineering will be the one of the only high-paying jobs where you can land an amazing position without needing to have had graduated from a top school

Jon Ayre @jonayre.uk · 4d

When babies learn language they use it to convey meaning using minimal words and incomplete grammar.

Want it juice!
Dada make sad 😢

In other words - actual meaning conveyed using incomplete language.

LLMs can't and don't do this.

2/2

1

Jon Ayre @jonayre.uk · 4d

One big giveaway that LLMs don't "learn" language but merely learn sequentialassociations between numerical tokens:

When you train an LLM using language then query it, it responds with full grammatically complete reproductions of that language.

1/2

1 1

Jon Ayre @jonayre.uk · 5d

@garymarcus.bsky.social on BBC news right now giving some balance to the AI hype conversation

Jon Ayre @jonayre.uk · 5d

Are there tumbrils?

1

Jon Ayre @jonayre.uk · 5d

Yup. As a CEO you can't afford to risk looking commercially naive on a public forum (regardless of whether you are or aren't)

Micah @rincewind.run · 6d

you cannot be out here arguing with the whole userbase

even if you hate them and think you’re 100% in the right you cannot do this

1

Jon Ayre @jonayre.uk · 5d

This is a very snarky and tbh very naive comment. The worth to investors and businesses of a social media platform relates primarily to its user and activity numbers. So, no, we're not paying them, but other people are based on our continued existence on the platform.

If we leave, it dies.

Jay 🦋 @jay.bsky.team · 6d

Are you paying us? Where?

2