The GradientProductsSaturday, October 7, 2023

The Artificiality of Alignment

This essay first appeared in Reboot. Credulous, breathless coverage of “AI existential risk” (abbreviated “x-risk”) has reached the mainstream. Who could have foreseen that the smallcaps onomatopoeia “ꜰᴏᴏᴍ” — both...

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Wired7h ago

Your Push Notifications Aren’t Safe From the FBI

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The article highlights a security vulnerability affecting push notifications, which the FBI has apparently exploited or identified as exploitable. This discovery raises significant privacy and security concerns for millions of users who rely on push notifications for communication and app functionality. The vulnerability's specifics and scope suggest that law enforcement agencies may access personal communications through this previously overlooked channel.

Wired7h ago

How the Internet Broke Everyone’s Bullshit Detectors

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The internet's traditional verification systems are failing to keep pace with rapidly advancing technology that can create convincing false content. AI-generated images, manipulated videos, and restricted access to satellite data are outpacing the tools and methods people rely on to authenticate information online. This gap between content creation and verification capabilities has undermined the credibility infrastructure that once helped users distinguish fact from fabrication.

The Verge7h ago

My baby deer plushie told me that Mitski’s dad was a CIA operative

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Two weeks ago, I was getting ready to log off work when I got a text message. "Oh wow, I was checking out Mitski. did you know people are saying her Dad was a CIA operative?" Normally, that kind of out-of-the-blue text from a friend wouldn't faze me. This time, my eyes bugged. The unprompted […]

The Verge7h ago

How Iran out-shitposted the White House

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During recent military tensions between Iran and the United States, Iran's state media achieved significant reach through a high-volume social media strategy, flooding platforms with videos documenting alleged damage from airstrikes over Tehran, including explosions and smoke. Meanwhile, the White House's social media presence focused on entertainment content such as Call of Duty memes and AI-generated videos, creating a stark contrast in messaging approaches.

Simon Willison7h ago

SQLite 3.53.0

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SQLite has released version 3.53.0, which represents a significant update following the withdrawal of version 3.52.0. The release consolidates numerous accumulated improvements affecting both user-facing features and internal functionality. This version addresses long-standing limitations and modernizes core database operations.