What does an AI degree provide? Is it really different than majoring in CS? AI has been pretty standard in CS undergrad programs AFAIK. At least in high school it seems that AI curricula is just learning to use LLMs and understand a few concepts. That does bring value at a society level but I am not sure if this makes sense as an undergrad degree (if that is what they are only teaching).
Readit Newsuriegas commented on US students moving away from CS degrees techcrunch.com/2026/02/15... · Posted by u/rippeltippel
I do agree with his identification of the problem: sometimes agents fail because of the tools around it and not because of the model's reasoning. However, for the failing tests I think he is not making the distinction between a failed test due to a harness failure or due to a reasoning failure. It would be nice if someone analyzed that from the data set.
I wonder how would we react with tools dating back to, say, 5MY ago ...
That would shake our knowledge from the foundations.
I don't think so, have you read 'The Bonobo and the atheist'? Humans are not the only ones using tools and in reality there isn't much difference between humans and animals. The conclusion I get from the book is that the only difference is religion. Although, I have a feeling that humans do have a more developed intellect (problem solving) but this was not explored in the book.
uriegas commented on A flawed paper in management science has been cited more than 6k times statmodeling.stat.columbi... · Posted by u/timr
I'm not sure if you're correct. In fact there has been a revolution in some areas of social science in the last two decades due to the availability of online behavioural data.
Yeah, there is also the work of primatologists which challenges some of our beliefs of what we think is human sciences (like politics). See Frans De Waal.
Yet, I believe there hasn't been much progress as compared with STEM. But it is just a belief at the end of the day. There might be some study about this out there.
There are some research projects out there that use LLMs for health diagnostics. Here's one: https://cs.stanford.edu/people/jure/pubs/med-pmlr23.pdf
They usually require more data It is not a great idea to diagnose anything with so few information. But in general I am optimistic of the use of LLMs on health.
uriegas commented on A flawed paper in management science has been cited more than 6k times statmodeling.stat.columbi... · Posted by u/timr
It's harder to do social/human science because it's just easier to make mistakes that leads to bias. It's harder to do in maths, physics, biology, medecine, astronomy, etc.
I often say that "hard sciences" have often progressed much more than social/human sciences.
I agree. Most of the time people think STEM is harder but it is not. Yes, it is harder to understand some concepts, but in social sciences we don't even know what the correct concepts are. There hasn't been so much progress in social sciences in the last centuries as there was for STEM.
I don’t know anyone in Europe who uses iMessage, everyone is on WhatsApp though.
I believe iMessage is only used in the USA. In Latin America almost everyone uses WhatsApp.
uriegas commented on House vote keeps federal "kill switch" vehicle mandate reclaimthenet.org/house-v... · Posted by u/mikece
Also, federal highways are partially a national security issue, and are designed for quickly moving military equipment across otherwise isolated areas. Guidelines for federal interstates are specified jointly with the DoD to ensure that military transport can fit under bridges, and that bridges can support their weight. Industry is the other most important user, while individual consumers/families are the least considered users.
Everyone always assumes that individual choices and consumer behavior drives this stuff, and then they wonder why nothing changes even though we all started using reusable tote bags and LED bulbs. Stop blaming the consumer!
(The DoD is the largest institutional polluter in the world, by the way.)
That is very interesting. It is funny to see how influential the federal government has been on society, infrastructure and other areas of life. Specially considering that some people opposed to it during the confederation period because they saw it as another centralized authority (anti-federalist papers).
uriegas commented on House vote keeps federal "kill switch" vehicle mandate reclaimthenet.org/house-v... · Posted by u/mikece
Not in Texas, they're not viable for most uses, the parent commenter is completely correct.
The same is true for many states in the US, perhaps even most of the US.
Agree. Texas is pretty bad. In most places you cannot exist without a car. No wonder Mcallen is the most obese city the US.
uriegas commented on House vote keeps federal "kill switch" vehicle mandate reclaimthenet.org/house-v... · Posted by u/mikece
Bicycles are also not a viable replacement for almost all the uses of a vehicle. None of this advice is useful.
Transportation influences urban development. That is why most houses have a garage. There is no such thing as private transport (streets are public). Transportation has been heavily centralized since the New Deal. The bicycle was okay for most people living in cities in the 30s, now it is not because the government has favored the car infrastructure over the last decades. I think we need to start with not letting government develop their big infrastructure projects which are not resilient. Advocating for the use of bicycles might make sense in some places yet bicycle infrastructure is required.