rowyourboat (u/rowyourboat)

rowyourboat commented on Claude is a space to think anthropic.com/news/claude... · Posted by u/meetpateltech

JohnnyMarcone · a month ago

I really hope Anthropic turns out to be one of the 'good guys', or at least a net positive.

It appears they trend in the right direction:

- Have not kissed the Ring.

- Oppose blocking AI regulation that other's support (e.g. They do not support banning state AI laws [2]).

- Committing to no ads.

- Willing to risk defense department contract over objections to use for lethal operations [1]

The things that are concerning: - Palantir partnership (I'm unclear about what this actually is) [3]

- Have shifted stances as competition increased (e.g. seeking authoritarian investors [4])

It inevitable that they will have to compromise on values as competition increases and I struggle parsing the difference marketing and actually caring about values. If an organization cares about values, it's suboptimal not to highlight that at every point via marketing. The commitment to no ads is obviously good PR but if it comes from a place of values, it's a win-win.

I'm curious, how do others here think about Anthropic?

[1]https://archive.is/Pm2QS

[2]https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/05/opinion/anthropic-ceo-reg...

[3]https://investors.palantir.com/news-details/2024/Anthropic-a...

[4]https://archive.is/4NGBE

rowyourboat · a month ago

Remember when OpenAI was about not-for-profit AI development for the betterment of humanity?

rowyourboat commented on When children become caregivers, who cares for them? csmonitor.com/World/Makin... · Posted by u/Tomte

pjc50 · 2 years ago

> 1 in 3.5 children aged 9 to 18 spends 50+ hours caring for family members.

Surprising, but you can't just dismiss statistics on the basis that they're surprising to you. A lot of people lead very different lives, invisibly.

15-20% of people are disabled: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthan...

Not immediately clear if "caring for family members" includes older children caring for younger children, but that would certainly bring up the numbers.

It is possible that the "50+ hours" is not accurately counted.

rowyourboat · 2 years ago

Disabled does not mean you need a caregiver

rowyourboat commented on Flowers for Algernon (1965) [pdf] sdfo.org/gj/stories/flowe... · Posted by u/xNeil

mangamadaiyan · 2 years ago

Do I hear the librarian going "Ook"? Sir Terry must be turning in his grave.

Edit: Note -- I confused Ringworld with Discworld, as pointed out by rowyourboat below.

rowyourboat · 2 years ago

I think you are confusing rings with discs. Larry Niven is the one doing the spinning

rowyourboat commented on How Automated Content Moderation Works (Even When It Doesn't) themarkup.org/automated-c... · Posted by u/atg_abhishek

rowyourboat · 2 years ago

> There is also a parallel legal reality - that people have the right to free speech.

The right to free speech only means you can't be prosecuted for what you say. It does not compel any private entity to distribute everything that you want to say.

rowyourboat commented on Air Canada is responsible for chatbot's mistake: B.C. tribunal bc.ctvnews.ca/air-canada-... · Posted by u/brrrrrd

CaptainZapp · 2 years ago

Not necessarily so.

A couple weeks ago Oman Air cancelled the return leg of a long distance flight due to a change in schedule.

They offered to reroute me with the Qataris via Doha.

I preferred to cancel the (in principle non-refundable) flight and make different arrangements.

The money,~2'500$, was credited to my card 4 days later. Including fees paid for preferred seats.

It's a shame that they stopped service to my city. Beause it's a great airline, which always provided stellar service.

rowyourboat · 2 years ago

Those are your basic rights: You entered into a contract with the airline, and the airline failed to deliver. Of course you get your money back if the alternative solution is not satisfactory - whether or not the ticket was refundable doesn't even enter into it, as it was the airline that failed to deliver in the first place. That's not stellar service, that's just fulfilling their legal obligations.

rowyourboat commented on The dating app paradox npr.org/sections/money/20... · Posted by u/zwieback

leach · 2 years ago

Dating apps by and far are quite useless. If you ever want to know how insidious they are, just download one, finish your profile, and swipe for 10 minutes a week.

Since you are not an "active user" they will give you the most attractive people to swipe on. Every couple of days they will give you a "limited time" discount on gold or platinum or whatever. The push notifications are my favorite part, "you could be missing out on the love of your life!!!".

Not to mention the interactions with the UI are littered with casino like visuals. The whole purpose of the app is to get you addicted and spending time and money on it.

It's much easier to naturally meet people in real life through work/school. If you can't there, go hang out at coffee shops or bookstores or something and just hang. Strike up conversation with people, just live. You'll get rejected and some people will be rude but it's all real. You could also always pick up hobbies and meet people there. Just be social, don't spend time and money on these machines of misery.

rowyourboat · 2 years ago

I'm always so confused by the advice to go to bookstores to meet people. What kind of bookstores do you guys go to where the customers talk with each other?

rowyourboat commented on The Apple Vision Pro stratechery.com/2024/the-... · Posted by u/allenleee

refulgentis · 2 years ago

The same argument (who is it hurting if its notreal and viewed by a singular person?) is commonly used by organizations who would like to see the age of consent lowered / widespread legalization of child pornography.

I don't want to discuss it too much because there's enough nuance here for people to hang you with no matter what you say, but, a brief parable: I spent exactly 1 sentence pointing out to someone you could make porn with Stable Diffusion and they started hosting a SD instance for deep fakes in our non-technologist community with girls in it, and also started what I still think of as a "porn dungeon" chat room.

It was immensely frustrating trying to verbalize why this was antisocial and why there was a set of people who were legitimately upset by it. They never really understood fully.

But I'm sure they had moment with the Taylor Swift deepfake stuff from last week.

There's isn't really a 100% logical Spock reason why it's bad, other than other humans find it deeply distasteful.

rowyourboat · 2 years ago

Count me among those who don't see the problem. I believe that there are people who are upset by it, but that alone does not justify prohibiting it.

rowyourboat commented on The Apple Vision Pro stratechery.com/2024/the-... · Posted by u/allenleee

refulgentis · 2 years ago

No, but that is a very, very, slippery slope, and there's a supermajority against enabling it.

rowyourboat · 2 years ago

Slippery slope to where, exactly? I genuinely don't see it

rowyourboat commented on DEF CON 32 Was Canceled. We Un-Canceled it forum.defcon.org/node/248... · Posted by u/Spodera

GuB-42 · 2 years ago

Do they still exist? They have closed most of the gaps previously exploited by card counters, and continuous shufflers are everywhere.

I think the only ones who can make money are those playing poker and are really good at it. That's because they are playing against other players and not the bank. They still have to beat the rake.

I'm not even sure comp players, that is those who play to get non-cash rewards like travels, restaurant and hotel stays while minimizing their losses can still have an advantage. I heard that casinos calculate comps by expected losses, making sure they stay on top (statistically).

And they are cheaters, but it is like saying thieves can make money.

rowyourboat · 2 years ago

Card counting isn't cheating, it's how you play card games.

rowyourboat commented on Western firms are quaking as China's electric-car industry speeds up economist.com/briefing/20... · Posted by u/j-a-a-p

api · 2 years ago

This is what they get for investing in anti-EV FUD instead of investing in EVs.

It’s also what they get for enshittifying cars. China might sell me the car I want: simple, ultra reliable, long range, no infotainment system, no tracking, no subscriptions, no attempts to foist software on me, and made of standard parts making it cheap to repair. Just a motor, battery, wheels, and basic car comforts.

I don’t want to see China win this one but I’ve felt it coming for a while.

rowyourboat · 2 years ago

All Chinese cars I've seen for sale here so far had infotainment systems and pointless use of touch screens.