LukeZaz
@LukeZaz@beehaw.org
- Comment on Brian Eno: “The biggest problem about AI is not intrinsic to AI. It’s to do with the fact that it’s owned by the same few people” 4 days ago:
I’m very much in agreement with Eno here, actually. I could imagine a world very easily in which LLMs and image generators didn’t just “have use cases,” but was actually revolutionary in more than a few of those cases. A world in which it was used well, for good things.
But we don’t live in that world. We live in one where it was almost entirely born under and shaped by megacorps. That’s never healthy to anything at all, be it new tech or be it the people using it. The circumstances in which LLMs and generative models were developed was such that nobody should be surprised that we got what we did.
I think that in a better world, image generation could’ve been used for prototyping, fun, or enabling art from those without the time to dedicate to a craft. It could’ve been a tool like any other. LLMs could’ve had better warnings against their hallucinations, or simply have been used less for overly-serious things due to a lack of incentive for it, leaving only the harmless situations. Some issues would still exist – I think training a model off small artists’ work without consent is still wrong, for example – but no longer would we face so much of things like intense electrical usage or de-facto corporate bandwagon-jumping and con-artistry, and the issues that still happened wouldn’t be happening at quite such an industrial scale.
It reminds me how before the “AI boom” hit, there was a fair amount of critique against copyright from leftists or FOSS advocates. There still is, to be sure; but it’s been muddied now by artists and website owners who, rightfully so, want these companies to not steal their work. These two attitudes aren’t incompatible, but it shows a disconnect all the same. And in that disconnect I think we can do well to remember an alternate chain of events wherein such a dissonance might’ve never occurred to begin with.
- Comment on Trump’s Crypto Reserve Is Really Happening 2 weeks ago:
- Comment on Trump’s Crypto Reserve Is Really Happening 2 weeks ago:
There is no “safe” store of value, it always depends on demand
If you don’t think “safe stores of value” exist, why did you pontificate on what you thought would become one?
Bitcoin transfers cost pennies on the Lightning Network […]
Press X to Doubt. Defending Bitcoin in 2025 is certainly a choice.
There is a reason why Chinese people invested […] in the housing market, allowing scammers to build ghost towns they never planned on completing… and then it all went crashing down.
You realize this happens everywhere, right? Housing is an extremely common investment choice, and ghost towns (or at least, a lot of chronically vacant homes) appear frequently as a result. I am once again left asking why problems like this only seem to get noticed when Chinese people do it.
Regardless, none of this changes what I’ve said; China is a superpower with a gargantuan economy that can’t be ignored. And it isn’t! Were it that the dollar died, China would be an enticing replacement for a lot of investors whether we like it or not. Many of whom would happily stomach the risk of government intervention in exchange.
The US sees the Euro as a competitor of the Dollar; for the US to buy a strategic reserve of EUR, it would definitely mean recognizing defeat.
I didn’t realize we were still talking about the U.S. government’s choice in investment alone! I had figured your initial comment had shifted this to being about the dollar’s power writ large, given that the U.S. government’s tactics as of late have been questionable on a good day and therefore not really worth speculating on.
But sure, the federal government is unlikely to give up on the dollar. That won’t stop it from imploding if they keep fucking up, and it wasn’t what I was talking about anyway.
- Comment on Trump’s Crypto Reserve Is Really Happening 2 weeks ago:
I don’t think Bitcoin qualifies as a “safe store of value” when it fluctuates like hell on a day-to-day basis and transferring it anywhere for any reason costs exorbitant amounts of money. Much as you or I don’t trust China, I think the powerhouse of an economy that it has will make it awfully enticing for investment purposes, and I don’t think the U.S. will have to “recognize defeat” for the Euro to replace the dollar, either.
- Comment on While Democracy Burns, Democrats Prioritize… Demolishing Section 230? 4 weeks ago:
The problem I have is that they’re idiots who are going to lose everything they care about
they’ll be mostly fine
?
- Comment on While Democracy Burns, Democrats Prioritize… Demolishing Section 230? 4 weeks ago:
now imagine that scenario with MAGA going in to a liberal gated community…what do you think would happen?
My guess? The couple wouldn’t bring any guns out to begin with, mostly because MAGA protesters would be white.
Liberal communities have plenty of racism. It just happens through ignorance & a lack of thinking instead of direct malice.
- Comment on Elon Musk and Wikipedia are feuding 4 weeks ago:
China is kind of notorious for being the place where you can find internet trolls for hire for cheap.
Reflexively associating people & things you dislike with an ethnicity is a form of hate, and you are doing it. After all, America has plenty of – hell, I’d argue more – easily bought trolls available, and yet I don’t seem to see a whole lot of people bringing up their nationality so much, assuming they mention them at all.
And I’m not going to ignore racist statements just because pointing it out causes tension.
- Comment on Elon Musk and Wikipedia are feuding 5 weeks ago:
Chinese internet trolls
You know you can hate somebody without associating them with Chinese people, right?
- Comment on Valve releases full Team Fortress 2 game code to encourage new, free versions 5 weeks ago:
I believe it will be added to the official steam store sometime soon
Assuming nothing explodes, yes. The devs have confirmed they’re working on porting TF2C to use the newly-released codebase and plan to release on Steam now that they’re legally allowed to do so.
Might not be “soon” though. I suspect porting will take a lot of work.
- Submitted 5 weeks ago to gaming@beehaw.org | 0 comments
- Comment on How To Fix R2ModMan Request Failed Error with Status Code 504 (Easy Guide) 5 weeks ago:
Uh, this looks an awful lot like a guide written by an LLM posted on an unofficial site intended to hoodwink people looking for the real one. Judging by search results, there’s a few of these sites.
I don’t think we should repost content from them, or encourage them, personally.
- Comment on Tesla Takeover: protests planned at Tesla stores globally this weekend 5 weeks ago:
If you’re suggesting we change the system from within, I’ve got bad news: We’ve been trying that. It hasn’t been working. The purpose of the system is what it does, and what this system does is rob us of representation.
Reckless hate and murder won’t fix a damn thing, you’re correct there. But neither will reliance on voting in a rigged system.
- Comment on China's new and cheaper magic beans shock America's unprepared magic bean salesmen 1 month ago:
These ones:
Yeah, I understand that you personally choose to disagree with reality, maybe you don’t like what reality has become, but unfortunately that doesn’t make it less real. […] None of that is because they’re “magic beans” from which no value sprouts. […] It objectively, undeniably has value. You can staunchly say pretend it doesn’t, but only if you are willingly blind to the voluntary usage patterns of hundreds of millions (possibly billions) of people every hour of every day.
And of course, the entirety of your first comment here.
Nothing of what you’ve stated has proven any of the above. Not that you care; you’ve decided you’re right, and therefore any opinion you hold must automatically be fact. Far as I can tell, you’re here to stroke your ego. Keep at it if you want, I guess — I’m not going to debate someone who only wants to hear themselves talk.
- Comment on China's new and cheaper magic beans shock America's unprepared magic bean salesmen 1 month ago:
Can’t say I’ve seen B anywhere. All I’ve seen is “tech billionaire CEOs want LLMs to take all our jobs and turn us into slaves,” not so much belief that they can. Perhaps you’re misinterpreting?
- Comment on China's new and cheaper magic beans shock America's unprepared magic bean salesmen 1 month ago:
After all I’ve seen LLMs fail to do – including on the occasion that I’ve tried it – I’ve absolutely no interest in even bothering to click on those links. Put your hype elsewhere.
- Comment on China's new and cheaper magic beans shock America's unprepared magic bean salesmen 1 month ago:
Yeah, I understand that you personally choose to disagree with reality
You saying your opinion is objective reality does not make it so. I agree that LLMs have their (few, niche) uses, but you’re just being arrogant here.
- Comment on Deepseek when asked about sensitive topics 1 month ago:
If there’s one thing LLMs are very good at, it’s talking about things their creators don’t want them to with barely any effort from the end user.
This is what we call “good news.”
- Comment on How China Is Advancing in AI Despite U.S. Chip Restrictions 2 months ago:
Sounds like self-sabotage to me.
- Comment on How China Is Advancing in AI Despite U.S. Chip Restrictions 2 months ago:
Personally, I’d rather more countries stop fucking around with LLMs generally, thanks!
This is honestly such a stupid goddamn thing to compete over. Maybe I should be thankful in that regard, then, since it keeps the U.S. and China’s ridiculous dick-swinging contest more focused on areas that don’t actually matter, rather than weapons development programs that are eager to ruin our rights and our lives all the more.
- Comment on Stop Listening to Game Reviewers 2 months ago:
This is exactly what I do, and I think it’s honestly a very healthy way to engage with that kind of content. If you find someone you like, and/or who has a lot of overlap on preferences, then that’s a great way to get an idea for how much you’d like a game.
Hell, even if you don’t tend to prefer the same things, if the person reviewing is sufficiently passionate or entertaining, you can still develop an appreciation for why someone else likes what they do. I’ve absolutely struggled trying to get into Fallout: New Vegas for a variety of reasons, but I still respect it a lot because Hbomberguy had a very compelling video on what he liked about it.
- Comment on Venezuela fines TikTok $10M for fatal social media challenges that led to the death of 3 teenager, intoxication of 200 others 2 months ago:
Why are you singling out one small part of their comment to the exclusion of the rest?
- Comment on Chinese ebook reader Boox ditches GPT for state-censored China LLM pushing propaganda 2 months ago:
This has two issues with it that are sourced from the fact that most people here are likely from the States or similar. Namely:
- How are we supposed to do anything about China or Russia? It’s anger for its own sake.
- Criticism of the U.S. is unlikely to make Americans racist towards themselves. Sinophobia, meanwhile, is a real risk.
This aside, I, personally, am irritated by the quantity moreso than anything else. As I said elsewhere, it’s the same few users, and I find it obsessive. It stops sounding to me like “I want people to be aware of particular issues from China” and starts sounding to me like “I want to bombard people with all possible negativity about China until they hate everything related to the place as much as I do.”
Thanks to these folks, Beehaw virtually always has at least one post about China or Russia on its front page. Often several. Credit where it’s due; I’ve seen a pro-Palestine post here and there, which I appreciate. But Christ, I’m sick of the rest. Blocks are fair, but I feel like that just hides the issue rather than solving it. I feel like I’m seeing a propaganda mill in action, and I don’t like the idea of just ignoring it.
- Comment on Chinese ebook reader Boox ditches GPT for state-censored China LLM pushing propaganda 2 months ago:
In what way is it meaningfully different? Does the intent of the creators of an LLM – a kind of system notorious for being a black box – fundamentally change the outcomes of what it says? It’s spouting propaganda either way.
Please don’t be deliberately obtuse. You can do better than that.
Condescending attitude aside, don’t bring up an irrelevant scenario if you don’t want me to point out its irrelevance.
- Comment on Chinese ebook reader Boox ditches GPT for state-censored China LLM pushing propaganda 2 months ago:
Are we in a court?
- Comment on Chinese ebook reader Boox ditches GPT for state-censored China LLM pushing propaganda 2 months ago:
Reading philosophy texts that were written a hundred years ago and haphazardly translated 75 years ago can be a challenge.
For a human, at that. I get that you feel it works for you, but personally, I would trust an LLM to understand it (insofar as that’s a thing they can do at all) even less.
- Comment on Chinese ebook reader Boox ditches GPT for state-censored China LLM pushing propaganda 2 months ago:
There’s 2-3 users who post about China/Russia to an extraordinary degree. I could mention them here, but for the sake of avoiding potential harassment (however unlikely) I’d rather not publicly single them out right now. Suffice to say if you spend a decent amount of time here you probably know who they are.
I find it obsessive and obnoxious at best. At worst, I start to wonder if there are more accounts doing it than there are people behind them.
- Comment on Chinese ebook reader Boox ditches GPT for state-censored China LLM pushing propaganda 2 months ago:
That’s a distinction without a difference.
- Comment on TikTok set to be banned in the US after losing appeal 3 months ago:
I agree with you that “free market” standpoints aren’t very good places to criticize this decision from – except to point out the hypocrisy of the right-wing, which I do think the original comment was trying to do – but it has to be said that nobody is obligated to criticize both China and the U.S. equally in order to not be a hypocrite.
One simple example of why would be that most if not all users here have absolutely no say at all as to what China does. There aren’t a lot of Chinese citizenry here. But there are a lot of Americans. It so follows that it makes sense to criticize the U.S. more, because many people on Beehaw can actually do something about it, especially in aggregate.
It doesn’t help to criticize China much either, anyway. China’s bad, yes; we know. Even among honest-to-god capital-C Communist circles, China is controversial. Posts about it tend to do three things: 1) Create a sort of misery/anger circle-jerk, 2) arbitrarily and unnecessarily signal to others that you aren’t a tankie, when nobody should really need to clarify that in most scenarios, and 3) further U.S. propaganda interests by taking people’s time and attention away from issues they’re more likely to be able to do something about.
I’m obviously not in favor of forgetting what China’s done, either, but there’s a happy middle-ground I think a lot of Western-centric sites sail right past, and I don’t think any of it is helpful.
- Comment on TikTok set to be banned in the US after losing appeal 3 months ago:
Some American or other company should just hurry up and make TokTik and rake in the bucks.
Google’s already trying. Let’s not encourage them.
- Comment on The Right Has a Bluesky Problem 3 months ago:
Eh, I’ll take it. Bluesky’s learned some lessons from the past, for what it’s worth. It has more than a few features that make the network lock-in less intense, so while I fully expect it to enshittify, I do think it’ll be less severe of an affair than it was for Twitter.
