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gkolli commented on Corporation for Public Broadcasting Statement Regarding Executive Order   cpb.org/pressroom/Corpora... · Posted by u/coloneltcb
hadrien01 · 7 months ago
I suppose this is in response to this executive order: ENDING TAXPAYER SUBSIDIZATION OF BIASED MEDIA https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/05/endi...

I would add that PBS has this to say about public media funding:

> The U.S. is almost literally off the chart for how little we allocate towards our public media. At the federal level, it comes out to a little over $1.50 per person per year. Compare that to the Brits, who spend roughly $100 per person per year for the BBC. Northern European countries spend well over $100 per person per year.

> And it really shows in the health of their of their public broadcasting systems. They tend to view those systems as essential democratic infrastructure. And, indeed, data show that there is a positive correlation between the health of a public broadcasting system and the health of a democratic governance.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/a-look-at-the-history-of-p...

gkolli · 7 months ago
This part of the EO is peculiar: “The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall determine whether “the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio (or any successor organization)” are complying with the statutory mandate that “no person shall be subjected to discrimination in employment . . . on the grounds of race, color, religion, national origin, or sex.” 47 U.S.C. 397(15), 398(b). In the event of a finding of noncompliance, the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall take appropriate corrective action.”

Why is the Secretary of Health and Human Services the one responsible for this?

gkolli commented on How is π.com a valid domain name?   xn--1xa.com/... · Posted by u/gkolli
gkolli · 8 months ago
The startup Physical Intelligence has a domain of π.com, which redirects to/from https://www.xn--1xa.com

How is this character represented in the domain name?

gkolli commented on Waltz's team set up at least 20 Signal group chats for crises across the world   politico.com/news/2025/04... · Posted by u/mdhb
chatmasta · 8 months ago
The CIA director - excessively biased as he may be - testified last week that Signal is a CIA-approved application that was preloaded onto the device he was issued on his first day. He said this practice extends back to at least the Biden Administration.

Given this, and assuming it’s true, I wonder to what degree a controversy can be predicated on usage of an approved application on an approved Government device. I’m sure there is plenty to nitpick around the edges (“classified vs. top secret,” “managed device vs. personal device,” “expiring messages,” etc.), but the fundamental transgression cannot be “using Signal.”

More importantly, I just don’t think people care — beyond pearl-clutching, tribal narratives and palace intrigue — about the safety of “classified data.” And the sad part is that it’s obfuscating the real story, which is the federal government’s seemingly indiscriminate bombing of Yemeni residences in an attempt to execute a mildly infamous terrorist. It’s the banal tone with which the government officials discuss it – like it’s a new product launch or a weekly check-in meeting – that we should find disturbing. Nobody cares about the communication medium; if anything, we should wish for _more_ transparency and visibility into discussions like this…

(Also, it’s quite an endorsement of Signal.)

gkolli · 8 months ago
I'd say the 'nitpicking around the edges' is actually incredibly important, but as you also said, people don't care. Yes, all the attention is on the use of Signal, and not the bombing/killing innocent Yemenis to score some political points.
gkolli commented on Ace: Realtime Computer Autopilot   generalagents.com/ace/... · Posted by u/huerne
sherjilozair · 8 months ago
I'm the founder and CEO of General Agents. Happy to answer questions!
gkolli · 8 months ago
Hi! Looks pretty interesting - few questions/thoughts:

1. Could you talk a bit more about your behavioral-training? If ace-control is trained on behavioral recordings, would it choose the most efficient path for the agent to take to complete a task? I'm guessing humans choose naturally take less-optimal steps.

2. What causes the huge speed increase? I'm guessing there were a lot of optimizations made, especially since this behavioral-training seems very different from vision models. I'm guessing the model is smaller, so it's interesting that accuracy is highest. I'd be interested to see a comparison vs. 4o-mini

3. Would be neat for it to handle instructions offline/locally - like "connect me to wifi" ;)

4. Would be cool if agent could work in the background so I can do something else in the meantime. ;)

u/gkolli

KarmaCake day1264March 15, 2019
About
So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

Code: github.com/gkolli Contact: narengkolli@gmail.com

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