The long-overdue-hence-long issue
ChatGPT Is a Blurry JPEG of the Web – now, that I agree with.
“Computers enable fantasies” – On the continued relevance of Weizenbaum’s warnings. An interesting read on the work of an individual who is even more relevant in the day and age of “dazzle” of AI.
Some examples of people quickly accomplishing ambitious things together and a page of impressive things accomplished by small teams.
Do large language models understand us? Blaise Aguera y Arcas (Google’s AI group lead in Seattle) on what is means for language models to understand what they claim to be answering.
I, Pampa Kampana, am the author of this book.
I have lived to see an empire rise and fall.
How are they remembered now, these kings, these queens?
They exist now only in words.
While they lived, they were victors, or vanquished, or both.
Now they are neither.
Words are the only victors.
What they did, or thought, or felt, no longer exists.
Only these words describing those things remain.
They will be remembered in the way I have chosen to remember them.
Their deeds will only be known in the way they have been set down.
They will mean what I wish them to mean.
I myself am nothing now. All that remains is this city of words.
Words are the only victors.
— Salman Rushdie, Victory City
The Defiance of Salman Rushdie, long exhaustive profile in New Yorker and another good one is Quillette’s Words Are The Only Victors.
“The Good News”
They don’t publish
the good news.
The good news is published
by us.
We have a special edition every moment,
and we need you to read it.
The good news is that you are alive,
and the linden tree is still there,
standing firm in the harsh Winter.
The good news is that you have wonderful eyes
to touch the blue sky.
The good news is that your child is there before you,
and your arms are available:
hugging is possible.
They only print what is wrong.
Look at each of our special editions.
We always offer the things that are not wrong.
We want you to benefit from them
and help protect them.
The dandelion is there by the sidewalk,
smiling its wondrous smile,
singing the song of eternity.
Listen! You have ears that can hear it.
Bow your head.
Listen to it.
Leave behind the world of sorrow
and preoccupation
and get free.
The latest good news
is that you can do it.
— Thích Nhất Hạnh
