It’s Tuesday. Time to clean out last week’s browser bookmarks, and get ready to not get around to reading this week’s browser bookmarks.
I think this will place an upwards pressure on originality and novelty. Now that both the technical barrier to entry and the cost of producing unoriginal work is so low, society will start to value original ideas more than ever–doubly so if we reduce the rewards of the journey towards becoming original and skilled. If the world becomes flooded with less original, less technical users of AI, the value of technical competence and originality will skyrocket.
You’d think wrong. Original thinkers will give up and do something else. Have you seen the best seller list lately?
FinTech Company Klarna Fires 700 in AI Shift, Now Desperate to Hire Humans After $40B Loss
Siemiatkowski had publicly celebrated AI’s ability to handle tasks typically managed by humans. However, that optimism has not aged well. After the AI-driven revolution, Klarna went through a series of operational and reputational issues. Complaints from customers skyrocketed as users complained about robotic and frequently unresponsive interactions with AI interfaces, particularly in customer support. Although automation helped cut short-term costs, it seems to have impacted user satisfaction and loyalty, two major factors for any consumer-facing company.
In the real world, a loan shark that loses money by the billion would end up behind a dumpster with a .38 caliber headache. On the internet, he’s a captain of industry.
Japan, which now has substantially more inflation than the US – 3.6% overall CPI and 3.2% core CPI – is watching in astonishment as its very-long-term bond yields spike in a dramatic manner, while the Bank of Japan has accelerated QT this year, which it started in mid-2024.
Japan should let the owner and the staff of the tool store we featured yesterday run the government. And no, I’m not joshing one iota.
OpenAI Wins Libel Lawsuit Brought by Gun Rights Activist Over Hallucinated Embezzlement Claims
In this specific interaction, ChatGPT warned Riehl that it could not access the internet or access the link to the Ferguson complaint that Riehl provided to it, and that it did not have information about the period of time in which the complaint was filed, which was after its “knowledge cutoff date.” Before Riehl provided the link to the complaint, ChatGPT accurately summarized the Ferguson complaint based on text Riehl inputted. After Riehl provided the link, and after ChatGPT initially warned that it could not access the link, ChatGPT provided a completely different and inaccurate summary.
You know, if ChatGPT says it can’t access the internet, the guy is using the free service they offer, instead of paying $20/month for better answers. On top of that, he kept on asking the same question, over and over, until he got the wrong answer. Chad is like that. Chad is like the internet. You have to know more than the internet does to pick any useful information out of the dross.
Spain struck by phone and internet blackout – just four weeks after nationwide electricity outage
The problem apparently came from a major glitch in Telefónica’s system, which is the operator for most of Spain’s mobile networks. The multinational is the second largest company in Spain, and runs telecom operations in 18 countries, making it one of the largest telephone operators and mobile network providers in the world. The telecom giant reportedly ran a network update that didn’t go to plan, and ended up causing a country-wide blackout for millions of Spanish residents.
Ah, cowboy coding strikes again. Or should I say, caballero coding?
Mother convicted of kidnapping and selling daughter, six, in case that has outraged South Africa
A photograph of Joshlin smiling and with her hair tied in pigtails was broadcast by news stations across South Africa, as police launched a nationwide hunt. Smith said she had left Joshlin with her boyfriend on the day she disappeared, but the case took a shocking twist when Smith was arrested. A woman gave evidence during the trial that Smith had told her she and the two men had sold Joshlin for about £750 to a traditional healer who wanted the child for her body parts.
Kinda buried the lede in the headline, there. South Africa sounds delightful. I can’t imagine why anyone would ever leave.
How to check if your boss is monitoring your every keystroke
Using an employer-issued computer comes with its own specific set of privacy risks. The struggle to avoid even accidentally clicking on NSFW material as we go about our busy office lives is, for many, all too familiar. And yet, the true threat often lurks undetected behind the scenes: keyloggers recording your every keystroke and sending them away for upper management review.
I’m self-employed, so I’m fairly certain that since I’m barely paying attention to what I’m currently doing, I’m also barely paying attention to what I was doing.
SEC SIM-swapper who Googled ‘signs that the FBI is after you’ put behind bars
The 26-year-old pleaded guilty in February to conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft and access device fraud after he and others took over the SEC’s X account in January 2024. The crew used the compromised account to post a message that purported to come from then-SEC chair Gary Gensler and falsely announced that the government had approved Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Well, for one, handcuffs are a dead giveaway sign that the FBI is after you. Man, bitcoins are the chicken and the egg conundrum for this century. Does buying them make you silly, or does being silly make you buy them?
An In-Room Mosquito Tracking Device That Lets You Easily Kill Them
The Iris, by tech startup Bzigo, sits on a tabletop and scans your room with an infrared sensor. When its AI-based vision algorithms detect mosquito-like movements (as opposed to moths or other bugs), it fires a laser to mark the mosquito’s location, like a sniper’s spotter. It’s then up to you to swat the thing, which should be easy with the target “painted.”
Just beef up the laser, and throw away the flyswatter. At any rate, it’s $200, so I’ll probably keep using my existing mosquito device: my dermis.
Proton threatens to quit Switzerland over new surveillance law
Switzerland is considering amending its surveillance law, with experts warning against the risk to secure encryption and online anonymity in the country. Specifically, the amendment could require all VPN services, messaging apps, and social networks to identify and retain user data – an obligation that is now limited to mobile networks and internet service providers.
And go where, exactly? Not to worry. Whoever proposed this law will no doubt get pimp-slapped shortly.
Well, that’s it for this Tuesday. Weigh in on these weighty topics in the comments, if you like.
3 Responses
“Just beef up the laser, and throw away the flyswatter.”
Great…now I’ve got a whole bunch of small holes in the house, and even more bugs are coming in, not to mention the rain.
In Minnesota the mosquito is the state bird. They don’t just land on you and suck you dry, they swoop down to pick you up and lodge you in a tree branch for a later snack. Thank the bug-gods we’ve moved to NW Wyoming and don’t have to deal with them any more. I’d rather face a cranky grizzly bear than a swarm of mosquitoes.
Hi Blackwing- Of course there are drawbacks to the laser scheme I proffered, but in my defense, it’s still an improvement on my original approach of hooking up a shotgun.
Well, that’s the Houston cockroach conundrum – step, or shoot?