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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: August 1st, 2024

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  • Because it’s not. The base architecture of how it works is by probabilistic word suggestion. That isn’t thought.

    We have a concept of self. We understand our place. We can interpret and respond to entirely new situations. LLMs routinely fail that. They regularly fall into local minima that keep it on the wrong path, and I’ve personally seen them just… Get lost in the weeds and swing back and forth based on what you tell it.

    Give it a protein sequence and tell it to calculate the pI. Then tell it it’s wrong. “Oh my bad yes you’re right it’s {whatever you said it was}.”

    Tell it you lied and that the number you said was wrong, and it turns up saying “Yes, you’re correct, the pI is {original value}” - that is objectively false.

    That is not the behavior of something that thinks. That’s the behavior of a simple probability model updating priors and weighting things differently by the most recent information you gave it.

    LLMs are soulless, brainless, thoughtless word generators. And they have some uses.


  • I have the new pixel fold. The first and most important part is to understand how Google views the warranty on the inner screen.

    Within two weeks I had what seemed to be hairline fractures on the inner screen and a potential artifact in the fold crease. I wasn’t too worried but I was going to have them check on it. Before I could take it in to the Google store, it snapped. The entire screen flooded black within 14 hours when I went back to the store.

    I was informed that this wasn’t covered under warranty, but they’d make an exception because i literally bought it two weeks prior.

    Their stance is that once the screen is that fatally flawed manufacturing defects and misuse damage (i.e. dropping) looks identical. The curvy bendy middle means the outer edges are under more stress and stiffer so when the screen breaks even from defects or creates impact shatter lines.

    Based on this alone, I wouldn’t recommend anyone get the phone. Not without expecting to have to pay for the insurance plan and to budget for replacing the inner screen at least once. It’s significantly heavier and with the fear of breaking, I have a heavy duty dbrand case. So the phone feels like a bloody brick.

    That said, I do love it. And I don’t know if I’ll go back. I don’t know if I’ll stick to the form factor either. I do a lot of home server shenanigans on it. Home assistant. Control my tv. I live multi-tasking on it when taking notes. I could buy a phone and a tablet for cheaper. But there’s something about just having the extra size always handy rather than having to walk around the house with a mini-tablet.

    Just be aware that there are huge, glaring downsides to the form factor before you buy in. It is objectively cool and I love unfolding it. It never doesn’t feel futuristic.