matheusd (u/matheusd)

matheusd commented on When ChatGPT turns informant futureofbeinghuman.com/p/... · Posted by u/laurex

tptacek · 2 months ago

How so? You'd have a very, very good understanding of my political viewpoints from the log of my Google searches. I'm asking sincerely, not simply to push back on you.

matheusd · 2 months ago

(Not op)

Maybe not you in particular, but I expect people to be more forthcoming in their writing towards LLMs vs a raw google search.

For example, a search of "nice places to live in" vs "I'm considering moving from my current country because I think I'm being politically harassed and I want to find nice places to live that align with my ideology of X, Y, Z".

I do agree that, after collecting enough search datapoints, one could piece together the second sentence from the first, and that this is more akin to a new instance of an already existing issue.

It's just that, by default I expect more information to be obtainable, more easily, from what people write to an LLM vs a search box.

matheusd commented on Why do LLMs freak out over the seahorse emoji? vgel.me/posts/seahorse/... · Posted by u/nyxt

llamasushi · 2 months ago

So it's not really hallucinating - it correctly represents "seahorse emoji" internally, but that concept has no corresponding token. lm_head just picks the closest thing and the model doesn't realize until too late.

Explains why RL helps. Base models never see their own outputs so they can't learn "this concept exists but I can't actually say it."

matheusd · 2 months ago

> Explains why RL helps. Base models never see their own outputs so they can't learn "this concept exists but I can't actually say it."

Say "Neuromancer" to the statue, that should set it free.

matheusd commented on DeepMind and OpenAI win gold at ICPC codeforces.com/blog/entry... · Posted by u/notemap

LunaSea · 3 months ago

Power is one thing, efficiency is another.

Humans are more efficient watt for watt than any AI ever invented.

Now if you were to limit AIs to 400 watts we could probably thinks it's fair.

matheusd · 3 months ago

> Humans are more efficient watt for watt than any AI ever invented.

Indeed they are. For now. The long term trend is not in our favor.

matheusd commented on Nepal moves to block Facebook, X, YouTube and others aljazeera.com/news/2025/9... · Posted by u/saikatsg

fzeindl · 3 months ago

Apart from the reasons for this block: Why do these decisions always have to be black and white. I believe it would benefit mental health if Facebook was blocked one day per week so people are forced to live a day without it.

Same with combustion vehicles and the climate: block cars in cities a couple of days per week, individually selected per person.

matheusd · 3 months ago

> block cars in cities a couple of days per week, individually selected per person.

The net result in São Paulo (Brazil) for (something that approaches) this is that people end up buying a second vehicle.

matheusd commented on AI’s coding evolution hinges on collaboration and trust spectrum.ieee.org/ai-for-... · Posted by u/WolfOliver

biophysboy · 4 months ago

YouTube has the lowest quality ads of any online platform I use by several orders of magnitude. AI being used for belly fat and erectile dysfunction ads is not exactly good for its creative reputation

matheusd · 4 months ago

Local governments in BR have already made ads using generative AI that were shown during prime time TV hours[1].

You can argue that is a bad thing (local designers/content producers/actors/etc lost revenue, while the money was sent to $BigTech) or that this was a good thing (lower cost to make ad means taxpayer money saved, paying $BigTech has lower chance of corruption vs hiring local marketing firm - which is very common here).

[1]https://www.cnnbrasil.com.br/tecnologia/video-feito-com-inte...

matheusd commented on Chinese astronauts make rocket fuel and oxygen in space livescience.com/space/spa... · Posted by u/Teever

DanielHB · 4 months ago

We literally make ethanol from corn and sugar cane. And biodielse from soy.

It doesn't make economic and enviromental sense in most parts of the world (especially corn). In some places they are net-positive on carbon emissions compared to oil-derived gasoline. Tilling the fields, growing, harvesting, processing and transporting often emits more CO2 than the equivalent gasoline produced. Especially the initial tilling of the land to convert it to farmland releases A LOT of CO2 into the atmosphere (this is a one-time thing though).

In the US all (ground vehicle) gasoline sold needs to have 10% ethanol (corn-based), in Brazil it is 20% (sugar cane based). In Brazil almost all cars support 100% ethanol fuel and it is quite common to fuel with ethanol only.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel_in_Brazil

The whole bio-fuel industry is a very complex mix of economics (often requires subsidies to make sense), geopolitical (less imported oil), environmental concerns (mass scale farming soil degradation and CO2 emissions derived from it) and logistical (completely different transportation and refining process).

Fun fact ethanol freezes at a fairly high temperature and mixes with water which makes it not ideal for cold climates and boats. It is quite common for unaware boat owners to f-up their engines by buying car-grade fuel-station gasoline in Brazil.

matheusd · 4 months ago

> in Brazil it is 20% (sugar cane based)

30% in 2025 for cars (from 27%), 15% biodiesel in diesel for trucks (from 14%).

Source: https://www.em.com.br/politica/2025/06/7183470-governo-aumen...

> The whole bio-fuel industry is a very complex mix of economics (often requires subsidies to make sense), geopolitical (less imported oil), environmental concerns (mass scale farming soil degradation and CO2 emissions derived from it) and logistical (completely different transportation and refining process).

Don't forget lobyying by the relevant sectors!

matheusd commented on We’re Not So Special: A new book challenges human exceptionalism democracyjournal.org/maga... · Posted by u/nobet

Drakim · 4 months ago

Are you sure? I'm pretty sure there are types of bacteria that has existed long before humanity existed, and will exist long after humanity is gone.

matheusd · 4 months ago

"has existed long before humanity" isn't relevant for my argument.

"Will exist long after humanity" -> maybe, maybe not. If we're smart, capable and humble enough, we could, in principle, intentionally outlast them.

By "intentionally" I mean: we can design our future lightcone such that, by whichever measure you care to choose, there are still humans around. Yes, bacteria could be still around, but it won't be because they _chose_ to be around, it will be because it just so happened that the universe arranged itself in a way that they are still around.

By "in principle" I mean: if we spent enough resources, energy and smarts and built a civilization around this goal, we could plausibly (given the known laws of physics) do this. Whether we _will_ do it or destroy ourselves first any of the possible various means, is an open question.

Lineages of bacteria that exist today, here, will only keep existing in the _far_ future (billions of years from now, after the sun chars Earth and then spends its energy budget) if it just so happens that a panspermia event kicked some off our solar system and then they just so happen to find a suitable solar system to keep existing.

We can design our future, bacteria can't.

matheusd commented on We’re Not So Special: A new book challenges human exceptionalism democracyjournal.org/maga... · Posted by u/nobet

Drakim · 4 months ago

Are you sure? I'm pretty sure there are types of bacteria that has existed long before humanity existed, and will exist long after humanity is gone.

matheusd · 4 months ago

Pretty sure no bacteria will survive on earth after the sun expands enough to char it, yes.

Even if I'm wrong, and it does survive _that_, then it eventually won't survive the sun spending its entire energy budget.

We're the only ones that could intentionally (as in, actively design our future lightcone) to survive that, so that makes us special in my book.

matheusd commented on We’re Not So Special: A new book challenges human exceptionalism democracyjournal.org/maga... · Posted by u/nobet

matheusd · 4 months ago

> Choosing what traits one considers exceptional, will by definition select what species one considers exceptional.

/Every/ other species that has /ever/ lived will cease to exist (at the latest, in a billion years or so).

Humans are the only ones (so far, anyway) that have any hope of surviving more than that.

That seems pretty exceptional to me :P

Disclaimer: the fact that we're exceptional doesn't mean we don't do dumb things and we shouldn't improve and do better.

matheusd commented on Vera C. Rubin Observatory first images rubinobservatory.org/news... · Posted by u/phsilva

komali2 · 6 months ago

That's the most interesting application of capitalism-as-as-resource-allocation mechanism I've ever seen, that's something I look forward to thinking about more.

My immediate reaction though is to doubt the mapping of dollar to value - e.g., the 10 million dollar valuation of the human life, but also the valuation then of all the things that year-dollar-cost could be spent on. Many of those things probably don't map very well between true value, and dollar cost (my go-to example of this is teachers fulfilling one of the most critical roles to ensure a functioning society, yet the dollar cost paid for their labor being typically far lower than most other jobs).

matheusd · 6 months ago

You're right to doubt it!

And indeed, accounting for externalities (unmeasured or unmeasurable) is a tough economic proposition. If it weren't hard to account for every single variable, creating a planned economy would be easier (ish).

FWIW, there's a whole sub-field just dedicated to determining the value of life for various purposes (a starting link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value_of_life). You may disagree with any specific assessment, but then you have to argue how that value should be calculated differently.