theapplefarmer.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

there's this thing in journalism that really gets me mad. the ben smiths of the world will look at you like you're crazy for simply stating what is actually happening all the way up to the moment they report on it themselves with wide eyed wonder, and then its their story that goes megaviral.

submitted 2 hours ago • 33 comments

there's a massive rush to insert AI agents into everything but who is vetting these systems before they're dumped into vulnerable groups like children

submitted 18 hours ago • 5 comments

...holy shit. As part of the experiment, they had the LLM pretend to be a sexual assault victim, a Black man opposed to BLM, etc. I can't believe they approved this.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

The mods of r/ChangeMyView shared the sub was the subject of a study to test the persuasiveness of LLMs & that they didn't consent. There’s a lot that went wrong, so here’s a 🧵 unpacking it, along with some ideas for how to do research with online communities ethically. tinyurl.com/59tpt988

submitted 1 day ago • 54 comments

A Viez MEGATASTING! Barry @barmas.bsky.social tastes through 14 different Viez from around the Trier region, highlighting the range of flavours presented by this cider tradition. #cider #germany

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

"China's foreign ministry urged Washington on Friday to stop "misleading the public" on bilateral tariff negotiations: "The United States and China are not engaged in consultations or talks on the tariff issue" www.reuters.com/world/beijin...

submitted 1 day ago • 215 comments

Call me a fuddy-duddy, but when you have a guy who handed Twitter to the Nazis, bought the US presidency for the fascists, owns one company that makes exploding cars and another that makes exploding rockets, and he wants to put a chip in my brain? I’m going to pass on that one.

submitted 1 day ago • 4 comments

Carl warned us 30 years ago:

submitted 2 days ago • 13 comments

A little test for apple blossom lovers this afternoon, to celebrate full bloom in Irish orchards at the moment. Pictured are blossoms of Discovery and Bramley apples. The puzzle is, which is which?

submitted 2 days ago • 2 comments

This is what AI bloat is right now. Some interfering bastard thing jumping into your document to offer help you don't need towards a purpose it'll never understand. Jumped up paperclip cunt.

submitted 2 days ago • 36 comments

Any radio producer with ambition must first master this control room glide-by glancing technique...

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

This is an incredibly interesting thread about energy and which countries have (and can have) control over it.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

But you better not call it colonization.

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

In Vietnam, the war is called "the American War." The Verge's package commemorating the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon is now fully live: www.theverge.com/cs/features/...

submitted 2 days ago • 31 comments

If you want to double your money in the next month I can highly recommend Tesla, based on market performance in the last five days. * Highly recommended to Magas, Nazis, Brexiteers, Flat Earthers, Anti vaxxers, etc. This is your big chance to make it like in October 1929.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Wondering how far stocks have to fall before Tesla are giving away a free car with every verified account on Twitter.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Nike claims they pay workers 1.9 times the local livable wage. Workers’ pay stubs tell a different story. Spend time with this investigation by @robwdavis.bsky.social and the stories of women I photographed in Cambodia, who worked grueling hours — still not earning enough to make ends meet.

submitted 2 days ago • 6 comments

"But when researchers from Stanford studying young people’s media literacy — the ability to accurately evaluate information in the wilds of mass media — showed the video to 3,446 high school students, only three succeeded in identifying the Russian connection"

submitted 2 days ago • 5 comments

Huge red flag here. Personally-owned self-driving cars would be a societal disaster. 🔹 More miles driven (and more emissions, even if AVs are EVs) 🔹 More sprawl 🔹 Worse congestion 🔹 Wider transportation inequality (think of buses stuck on AV-induced gridlock)

submitted 2 days ago • 15 comments

📢A new study from @uniofbath.bsky.social shows London's low emissions zones have had major benefits for human health and the economy, with a 10.2% decrease in respiratory issues following LEZ implementation, an 18.5% reduction in sick leave, and annual public health savings of over £37 million.

submitted 4 days ago • 20 comments

⚡ One month ago Europe’s largest battery site went live in Scotland! 🔋 300MW/600MWh at Blackhillock 📍 Key grid hub between wind farms 🌍 First in the world to offer grid stability from batteries 💷 £170M in savings 🌱 2.6M tonnes CO₂ avoided Big win for the energy transition.

submitted 3 days ago • 11 comments

“is my calculator horny?“ our tech columnist asks. “i entered 5318008 into it and turned it upside down. what i saw surprised me”

submitted 3 days ago • 171 comments

The Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens (AP), the Dutch Data Protection Authority issued an unusual warning. It is urging Instagram and Facebook users in the Netherlands to take immediate action if they do not want their data and posts used to train artificial intelligence (AI) models. #GDPR

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

LLMs are nothing more than models of the distribution of the word forms in their training data, with weights modified by post-training to produce somewhat different distributions. Unless your use case requires a model of a distribution of word forms in text, indeed, they suck and aren't useful.

submitted 3 days ago • 57 comments

How about they lack integrity and aren’t reliable? The risk of catastrophic error and humiliation that LLMs expose you to, as well as the ethical problems with their creation and maintenance, outweighs any transient utility you might derive from them? Does that hold water or nah?

submitted 3 days ago • 49 comments

VW has overtaken Tesla as Europe's top EV seller: VW sold 66,000 battery electric cars in Q1, that's 157% more than last year Tesla sold 53,000 battery electric cars, that's 38% less than last year, in Europe's strongest quarter for battery EVs on record. www.businessinsider.com/volkswagen-o...

submitted 4 days ago • 8 comments

When I left the Washington Post in 2023, my colleagues and I were worried AI would hoover up our work and enable "zombies" to churn out stories based on our reporting and writing styles. Today WaPo announced a partnership with OpenAI. And here it is: Zombie Gillian Brockell. I DID NOT WRITE THIS.

submitted 5 days ago • 269 comments

For all #speirgorm. Here's a worthy follow for a new accpunt. Aoife from Galtee Honey, whose family were instrumental in reviving the native Irish honey bee from near extinction.

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

For all #speirgorm. Here's a worthy follow for a new accpunt. Aoife from Galtee Honey, whose family were instrumental in reviving the native Irish honey bee from near extinction.

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

PLEASE don’t buy into Amazon’s booksale this week. They are intentionally trying to eat into profits from Indie Bookstore Day this weekend, a really important annual event for our important community institutions. Check out your local fave or bookshop.org.

submitted 5 days ago • 46 comments

I’ve been wanting an article like this for ages. I don’t talk about it on here much, but I’m a lifelong car nerd and an urbanist for almost as long. I used to struggle with the dichotomy until I realized that it’s both possible and correct to separate car enthusiasm from car dependency.

submitted 4 days ago • 5 comments