Serious News and Media deserting "X". Where will you migrate to? Find me on Bluesky @mcqj.bsky.social thelondoneconomic.com/news/m…

#Youtube has become unusable for free accounts. 30 seconds of adverts followed by 5 seconds of video before another advert. Bug or feature? I'd publish my content elsewhere because nobodys going to watch on this platform

The latest State of the Environment report makes shameful reading for our government and local councils. Overall conclusion is that we are taking a barely enough to get by approach and missing all targets anyway. epa.ie/publications/monitori…

We need a second Dublin airport well removed from the city centre so that people can have a quiet nights sleep and tourists can get to and from the city. Busy airports close to city centres doesn't work

New #DART timetable. Nothings changed. Same random lottery as to when they might turn up and how long the journey might take

What is it with #AWS in China? AWS China just keeps becoming totally unresponsive if you're outside China - probably not the same if you're inside. All services become unavailable regularly.

Totally misleading headline in RTE website article. Average household size is probably about 4, so we might be about breakeven which is still not good enough. But irresponsible sensationalised journalism helps nobody. rte.ie/news/business/2024/08…

Irish road safety is a national scandal. The Road Safety Authority for whatever reason serves no useful purpose and needs to be replaced with an organisation that has powers to act. Cameras can play a major part in saving lives but tiny numbers deployed. rte.ie/news/ireland/2024/071…

Cloud now starting to bite users. #AWS Price increases and free Tier eliminations coming thick and fast at the moment. A good idea to review your usage regularly and consider provider options.

The football at the Euros is mostly a poor watch. Penalty shootouts offer too much reward for negative football. How about deciding drawn games with a countback of shots on target? That would encourage a more positive approach.

If Palmer doesn't get on soon he won't have enough time to rescue it

How on earth can Gareth Southgate believe the same 11 should start the second half?

Government interfering in Dublin City Council decisions. Dublin City needs its own democratically elected Mayor. rte.ie/news/2024/0630/145733…

While the principle of separation of legislative and judicial systems is important, judges should serve the people. The electorate should have the power to eject those who do not serve the public. rte.ie/news/courts/2024/0620…

Anyone else noticed that github copilot has regressed in the quality of the help it provides. I've also found it introducing random "corrections" that break my code, as well as random imports.

Learning lots at Qubits conference in Boston this week.

Got the new ipad Pro. It's like a really early alpha release. Wait six months until they finish it

Last week, I spoke about AI and regulations at an event at the U.S. Capitol attended by legislative and business leaders. I’m encouraged by the progress the open source community has made fending off regulations that would have stifled innovation. But opponents of open source are continuing to shift their arguments, with the latest worries centering on open source's impact on national security. I hope we’ll all keep protecting open source! Based on my conversations with legislators, I’m encouraged by the progress the U.S. federal government has made getting a realistic grasp of AI’s risks. To be clear, guardrails are needed. But they should be applied to AI applications, not to general-purpose AI technology. Nonetheless, some companies are eager to limit open source, possibly to protect the value of massive investments they’ve made in proprietary models and to deter competitors. It has been fascinating to watch their arguments change over time. For instance, about 12 months ago, the Center For AI Safety’s “Statement on AI Risk” warned that AI could cause human extinction and stoked fears of AI taking over. This alarmed leaders in Washington. But many people in AI pointed out that this dystopian science-fiction scenario had little basis in reality. About six months later, when I testified at the U.S. Senate’s AI Insight forum, legislators no longer worried much about an AI takeover. Then the opponents of open source shifted gears. Their leading argument shifted to the risk of AI helping to create bioweapons. Soon afterward, OpenAI and RAND showed that current AI does not significantly increase the ability of malefactors to build bioweapons. This fear of AI-enabled bioweapons has diminished. To be sure, the possibility that bad actors could use bioweapons — with or without AI — remains a topic of great international concern. The latest argument for blocking open source AI has shifted to national security. AI is useful for both economic competition and warfare, and open source opponents say the U.S. should make sure its adversaries don’t have access to the latest foundation models. While I don’t want authoritarian governments to use AI, particularly to wage unjust wars, the LLM cat is out of the bag, and authoritarian countries will fill the vacuum if democratic nations limit access. When, some day, a child asks an AI system questions about democracy, the role of a free press, or the function of an independent judiciary in preserving the rule of law, I would like the AI to reflect democratic values rather than favor authoritarian leaders’ goals over, say, human rights. I came away from Washington optimistic about the progress we’ve made. A year ago, legislators seemed to me to spend 80% of their time talking about guardrails for AI and 20% about investing in innovation. I was delighted that the ratio has flipped, and there was far more talk of investing in innovation. Looking beyond the U.S. federal government, there are many jurisdictions globally. Unfortunately, arguments in favor of regulations that would stifle AI development continue to proliferate. But I’ve learned from my trips to Washington and other nations’ capitals that talking to regulators does have an impact. If you have a chance to talk to a regulator at any level, I hope you’ll do what you can to help governments better understand AI. [Original text (with links): deeplearning.ai/the-batch/is… ]

The UN vote on Palestinian membership exposes once again how broken an organization the UN is. Absolute vetos by any single country render the UN impotent. Maybe the requirement for a veto should be two permanent security council members.

Who ever decided "send on enter" was a good UX in messaging apps and to have no option to disable that functionality? It's such a waste of time recalling accidentally sent messages to re-edit.