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barrynorton.bsky.social
He/him. I write queer/speculative fiction, with ND representation, in Denmark. MA in Creative Writing and PhD in Computer Science.
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Posts 16 Comments 34

This conflation of pre-trained LLMs with instruct-tuned LLMs with chatbot systems formed with them (and supplemented, for instance, by retrieval) is a real problem with the discourse here. The fundamental point, though, is correct — there is no notion of factuality in (pre-trained) language models.

submitted 18 hours ago • 0 comments

I've never not learnt something by stepping back from my reflexive reactions and listening to Sam.

submitted 21 hours ago • 1 comment

No kidding

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

This is a vital message: one of the larger reasons BlueSky is refreshingly free of alt-right shitlords is because in the early days we made a gentleperson’s agreement to starve these fuckos out and it worked. No likes, no quotes, no engagement. They got bored and left. Please keep the Old Ways.

submitted 1 day ago • 828 comments

my hottest educational take is that schools should actively, non-punitively teach students how to admit when they don't know something, aren't sure or have made a mistake, with various teaching frameworks adapted to support this ideal, because people who can't admit fault are breaking the world

submitted 1 day ago • 81 comments

If you use enough scare quotes, they'll hear it back in the 1950s #ai It makes a change to see guillemets, though.

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

At the cost of admitting to buying hardware on the basis of bullshit AI claims. I'd rather my dignity than a payout.

submitted 1 day ago • 2 comments

Two saggy men whose tailors didn't tell them that such overcompensating shoulder padding will tell on their upper arms. One of them is wearing fucking cowboy boots; the other did some quick prep on Iran before the recording. And this has repercussions on the world stage.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Why does it take him nearly an hour to drink coffee? Doesn't it go cold?

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

Please consider registering - to me this is the one of the most important literary prizes.

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

And it's *continually* rightward. The BBC could air the exact same programming as GB News and GB News would *still* accuse then of left-bias the next day.

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

Pascal's PPE

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

Another example of why traditional media (which adheres to long-standing journalistic standards) cannot compete w/ the right wing media sphere, which plays by completely different rules. It's a completely asymmetric playing field. The left can't compete by relying on traditional media for messaging.

submitted 9 days ago • 45 comments

Whatever you're parroting (stochastically or organically) about Builder.ai 'secretly' using Indian engineers - and your tell is using the number 700 - just stop. What happened is not what you'd like to imagine — neither what their pitch was, nor what brought them down. Et tu, Abeba?

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

"The DfE says AI should only be used for 'low-stakes' marking such as quizzes or homework, and teachers must check its results."

submitted 10 days ago • 1 comment

submitted 13 days ago • 3 comments