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skillissuer skillissuer @discuss.tchncs.de

i should be writing

Posts 41
Comments 1.9K
Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending Sunday 6 October 2025
  • a lost not very computer literate dude who just got scammed i guess

  • Routledge nags academics to finish books ASAP — to feed Microsoft’s AI
  • fuck this horseshit, half of my publishing is with wiley. is there a shop out there that doesn't feed all of its papers to wisdom woodchipper?

  • under categories "LEADERSHIP -> SAM ALTMAN": making drugs extremely uncool again
  • find the point where the idea of taking psychedelics went from “they’ll make you a better (more egalitarian/antifascist) person” to “they’ll make you a more efficient capitalist monster”.

    i think it happened somewhere around the time when microdosing got popular as an idea since that made psychedelics more palatable for normies. 2015ish i think?

  • Over 30,000 crossed into Syria from Lebanon in 72 hours, says UN
  • ceasefire has been in place for four years at this point. many syrians went to lebanon as refugees, estimates place them at something close to 1.5M. maybe some of them are going back

  • Ship packed with explosive Russian fertiliser floating off Kent
  • if that was mixed with fuel, sure (15kt) but on its own should be a bit less (6.5kt)

  • Ship packed with explosive Russian fertiliser floating off Kent
  • “This is a ship that nobody wants, but that nobody can get rid of.”

    20,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate

    i see something resembling a solution, right there

  • LAPD raid goes from bad to farce after gun allegedly sucked onto MRI machine
  • even if it was quenched the right way: downtime, helium, restarting the entire thing would also cost pretty penny, and maybe replacement of damaged magnet too if that's what they did

  • Urgent update about some war and stuff
  • you have no idea how fucked up middle eastern politics can get. first split by sunni/shia/other religions, then allegiance to syria/iran/israel/iraq/egypt/selection of gulf states, and sometimes by tribe/clan allegiance too just to keep things from getting too easy. then try to make a government out of like 15 parties all with divergent goals funding and incentives

  • Hostage users vs. Hostage killers, what a wonderful scenario the Middle East has gotten itself into this time.
  • i'll make it shorter for you if you don't have attention span for a paragraph of text:

    pagers are probably a war crime, but it's relatively minor compared to airstrikes that happened since (and before)

  • Hostage users vs. Hostage killers, what a wonderful scenario the Middle East has gotten itself into this time.
  • pagers thing is probably illegal pending extra details but it's not the worst thing that happenes there. not like this case will see hague ever so it's probably a bit moot on that ground

    it's middle east, there are no innocent orgs, except civilians, and no one has actual incentive to limit civilian casualties. i'd just wish that both likud and hamas lose because neither is compatible with remotely sane stable politics in region

  • Hostage users vs. Hostage killers, what a wonderful scenario the Middle East has gotten itself into this time.
  • well it's gotta be more about how every lebanese govt since 2006 refused to implement UNSC resolution 1701 (that one about disarming hezbollah) and how it turned out for them

  • Two Russian MT-LBs are destroyed with a "Javelin" ATGM system and FPV drones.
  • that's how everyone does this for two years at this point, yes

    slightly more refined version is crush switch, that is two thin metal shells in front part of missile. when it hits the target one deforms and makes a contact with the other one. used by, for example, french HOT-2 missile but probably many others considering how simple it is

  • Hostage users vs. Hostage killers, what a wonderful scenario the Middle East has gotten itself into this time.
  • you're mixing up hamas and hezbollah, and if you want to go into rabbit hole shitshow that is lebanese politics start with Taif agreement

  • Hostage users vs. Hostage killers, what a wonderful scenario the Middle East has gotten itself into this time.
  • both in absolute terms and especially compared to continuing airstrikes, some with ai-cooked target list and including actual warcrime tactics, pagers were basically spotless in terms of targeting. the more likely illegal part was in booby-trapping pagers in the first place. westpoint lawyer take on the situation https://lieber.westpoint.edu/exploding-pagers-law/

  • Sam Altman: The superintelligent AI is coming in just ‘a few thousand days’! Maybe.
  • 90% of LLM training quits just before achieving sentience

  • Caroline Ellison, who helped convict Sam Bankman-Fried, sentenced to two years for FTX crypto fraud
  • she was stealing from cryptobros which is pretty funny and morally neutral, because cryptobros don't deserve having money

  • Caroline Ellison, who helped convict Sam Bankman-Fried, sentenced to two years for FTX crypto fraud
  • on top of these 11 billion dollars recovered, meaning that these were stolen, she also lived rent free in whatever bahamas mansion was bought with sbf's money, with all their ranked competitive polycule roommates

    it's 100% cooperation with the court that cut down sentence that hard

  • go and apologize

    0

    mopup rule

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    4k ultrahd rule

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    suspicious rule

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    foraged rule

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    pain rule

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    hmmm

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    throw away "do not eat" rule

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    cyberpunk is now rule

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

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    2:28 am rule

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    How Chinese AI turned a Ukrainian YouTuber into a Russian

    www.bbc.com How AI turned a Ukrainian YouTuber into a Russian

    A YouTuber falls victim to generative AI on Chinese social media, but the ramifications stretch beyond China.

    How AI turned a Ukrainian YouTuber into a Russian

    cross-posted from: https://feddit.de/post/12110745

    > "I don't want anyone to think that I ever said these horrible things in my life. Using a Ukrainian girl for a face promoting Russia. It's crazy.” > > Olga Loiek has seen her face appear in various videos on Chinese social media - a result of easy-to-use generative AI tools available online. > > “I could see my face and hear my voice. But it was all very creepy, because I saw myself saying things that I never said,” says the 21-year-old, a student at the University of Pennsylvania. > > The accounts featuring her likeness had dozens of different names like Sofia, Natasha, April, and Stacy. These “girls” were speaking in Mandarin - a language Olga had never learned. They were apparently from Russia, and talked about China-Russia friendship or advertised Russian products. > > “I saw like 90% of the videos were talking about China and Russia, China-Russia friendship, that we have to be strong allies, as well as advertisements for food.” > > One of the biggest accounts was “Natasha imported food” with a following of more than 300,000 users. “Natasha” would say things like “Russia is the best country. It’s sad that other countries are turning away from Russia, and Russian women want to come to China”, before starting to promote products like Russian candies. > > This personally enraged Olga, whose family is still in Ukraine. > > But on a wider level, her case has drawn attention to the dangers of a technology that is developing so quickly that regulating it and protecting people has become a real challenge. > > From YouTube to Xiaohongshu > > Olga’s Mandarin-speaking AI lookalikes began emerging in 2023 - soon after she started a YouTube channel which is not very regularly updated. > > About a month later, she started getting messages from people who claimed they saw her speak in Mandarin on Chinese social media platforms. > > Intrigued, she started looking for herself, and found AI likenesses of her on Xiaohongshu - a platform like Instagram - and Bilibili, which is a video site similar to YouTube. > > “There were a lot of them [accounts]. Some had things like Russian flags in the bio,” said Olga who has found about 35 accounts using her likeness so far. > > After her fiancé tweeted about these accounts, HeyGen, a firm that she claims developed the tool used to create the AI likenesses, responded. > > They revealed more than 4,900 videos have been generated using her face. They said they had blocked her image from being used anymore. > > A company spokesperson told the BBC that their system was hacked to create what they called “unauthorised content” and added that they immediately updated their security and verification protocols to prevent further abuse of their platform. > > But Angela Zhang, of the University of Hong Kong, says what happened to Olga is “very common in China”. > > The country is “home to a vast underground economy specialising in counterfeiting, misappropriating personal data, and producing deepfakes”, she said. > > This is despite China being one of the first countries to attempt to regulate AI and what it can be used for. It has even modified its civil code to protect likeness rights from digital fabrication. > > Statistics disclosed by the public security department in 2023 show authorities arrested 515 individuals for “AI face swap” activities. Chinese courts have also handled cases in this area. > > But then how did so many videos of Olga make it online? > > One reason could be because they promoted the idea of friendship between China and Russia. > > Beijing and Moscow have grown significantly closer in recent years. Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Putin have said the friendship between the two countries has “no limits”. The two are due to meet in China this week. > > Chinese state media have been repeating Russian narratives justifying its invasion of Ukraine and social media has been censoring discussion of the war. > > “It is unclear whether these accounts were coordinating under a collective purpose, but promoting a message that is in line with the government’s propaganda definitely benefits them,” said Emmie Hine, a law and technology researcher from the University of Bologna and KU Leuven. > > “Even if these accounts aren’t explicitly linked to the CCP [Chinese Communist Party], promoting an aligned message may make it less likely that their posts will get taken down.” > > But this means that ordinary people like Olga remain vulnerable and are at risk of falling foul of Chinese law, experts warn. > > Kayla Blomquist, a technology and geopolitics researcher at Oxford University, warns that “there is a risk of individuals being framed with artificially generated, politically sensitive content” who could be subject to “rapid punishments enacted without due process”. > > She adds that Beijing’s focus in relation to AI and online privacy policy has been to build out consumer rights against predatory private actors, but stresses that “citizen rights in relation to the government remain extremely weak”. > > Ms Hine explains that the “fundamental goal of China’s AI regulations is to balance maintaining social stability with promoting innovation and economic development”. > > “While the regulations on the books seem strict, there’s evidence of selective enforcement, particularly of the generative AI licensing rule, that may be intended to create a more innovation-friendly environment, with the tacit understanding that the law provides a basis for cracking down if necessary,” she said. > > 'Not the last victim’ > > But the ramifications of Olga’s case stretch far beyond China - it demonstrates the difficulty of trying to regulate an industry that seems to be evolving at break-neck speed, and where regulators are constantly playing catch-up. But that doesn’t mean they’re not trying. > > In March, the European Parliament approved the AI Act, the world's first comprehensive framework for constraining the risks of the technology. And last October, US President Joe Biden announced an executive order requiring AI developers to share data with the government. > > While regulations at the national and international levels are progressing slowly compared to the rapid race of AI growth, we need “a clearer understanding of and stronger consensus around the most dangerous threats and how to mitigate them”, says Ms Blomquist. > > “However, disagreements within and among countries are hindering tangible action. The US and China are the key players, but building consensus and coordinating necessary joint action will be challenging,” she adds. > > Meanwhile, on the individual level, there seems to be little people can do short of not posting anything online. > > Meanwhile, on the individual level, there seems to be little people can do short of not posting anything online. > > “The only thing to do is to not give them any material to work with: to not upload photos, videos, or audio of ourselves to public social media,” Ms Hine says. “However, bad actors will always have motives to imitate others, and so even if governments crack down, I expect we’ll see consistent growth amidst the regulatory whack-a-mole.” > > Olga is “100% sure” that she will not be the last victim of generative AI. But she is determined not to let it chase her off the internet. > > She has shared her experiences on her YouTube channel, and says some Chinese online users have been helping her by commenting under the videos using her likeness and pointing out they are fake. > > She adds that a lot of these videos have now been taken down. > > “I wanted to share my story, I wanted to make sure that people will understand that not everything that you're seeing online is real,” says she. “I love sharing my ideas with the world, and none of these fraudsters can stop me from doing that.”

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    unfortunately he was caught

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    Mind your business, citizen. Mystical weapons aren't real

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    the smol bean criminal argues that he absolutely does not deserve 100 years long sentence

    dude argues that he completely didn't intend to steal exchange funds, nuh uh it's all there, there's even an assertion (just like with tether) damages are only whatever fees liquidators took, pinky swear. wire fraud? no wai

    >The lawyer's submission was accompanied by letters of support from Bankman-Fried's parents, psychiatrist, and others.

    his fellow cultists and equally complicit parents even wrote a letter! what do you mean power of friendship is not get out of jail free card? and he has given money to cultists charity that obviously means he's a good man with impeccable moral integrity

    --

    on a slightly unrelated note, on r/buttcoin i've stumbled upon a take on tether that it's used as a device for capital flight from china. allegedly ftx had major role in this

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    i was fourth author in a mdpi paper and now i'm drowning in spam please help

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    somebody gave Thiel idea of methhead olympics

    www.independent.co.uk Paypal billionaire Peter Thiel invests in controversial doped Olympics

    The Enhanced Games promises to lure athletes away from the Olympics with vast payments

    Paypal billionaire Peter Thiel invests in controversial doped Olympics

    cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/11485138

    > > Peter Thiel, the billionaire co-founder of PayPal, has joined a multi-million dollar investment in the controversial Enhanced Games, a proposed Olympics-style mega-event without drug testing. > > ... > > > The idea is the brainchild of Dr Aron D’Souza, the Australian lawyer who helped mastermind Thiel’s proxy war against news media organisation Gawker, which led to Gawker’s bankruptcy in 2016. > > ... > > > But in a recent interview with The Independent, D’Souza was defiant, and outlined how he hoped the Enhanced Games would not only shake up the world of sport, but would provide a public platform for life-extending science to thrive. > > > >“This is the route towards eternal life,” D’Souza said. “It’s how we bring about performance-medicine technologies, that then create a feedback cycle of good technologies, selling to the world, more revenue, more R&D, to develop better and better technologies. > > > >“And what is performance medicine about? It’s not about steroids and getting jacked muscles. It’s about being a better, stronger, faster, younger athlete for longer. And who doesn’t want to be younger for longer?” >

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    Cultists Draw a Boogeyman on Cardboard, Become Afraid Of It

    futurism.com Scientists Train AI to Be Evil, Find They Can't Reverse It

    How hard would it be to train an AI model to be secretly evil? As it turns out, according to Anthropic researchers, not very.

    Scientists Train AI to Be Evil, Find They Can't Reverse It

    cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/11178564

    > Scientists Train AI to Be Evil, Find They Can't Reverse It::How hard would it be to train an AI model to be secretly evil? As it turns out, according to Anthropic researchers, not very.

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    www.404media.co Polish Hackers Repaired Trains the Manufacturer Artificially Bricked. Now The Train Company Is Threatening Them

    After breaking trains simply because an independent repair shop had worked on them, NEWAG is now demanding that trains fixed by hackers be removed from service.

    Polish Hackers Repaired Trains the Manufacturer Artificially Bricked. Now The Train Company Is Threatening Them
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    Troops morale is important, but staying out of enemy's artillery range is importanter

    (they didn't learn their lesson)

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    All quiet in the Middle East

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