James Downes

**NEW POST**

LLMs hallucinate, & they hallucinate WORSE on topics we don't already know/write a lot about. This creates a huge accuracy gap.

This week I tested ChatGPT on Beethoven & Smyth to show how big this gap is & why it matters. It made up a LOT.

leahbroad.substack.com/p/chatgpts-a...

"make chess sexy again"

Picture of Marjane Satrapi alongside a quote from her. The quote reads: The world is not divided into countries. The world is not divided between East and West. You are American, I am Iranian, we don't know each other, but we talk together and we understand each other perfectly. The difference between you and your government is much bigger than the difference between you and me. And the difference between me and my government is much bigger than the difference between me and you. And our governments are very much the same... - Marjane Satrapi, Iranian-French graphic novelist

Thinking about this quote from Persepolis creator Marjane Satrapi again.

Breaking news: the ‘Today’ programme is broken The BBC radio show is the perfect illustration of just how unserious we’ve become

Hard agree. 😕

giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

I have to say that as someone who watched the 1st Iraq war live on TV, this one is less "shock and awe" and more "shock and bore"

And what about all those "buggy whip" manufacturers?

I love the Bakerloo line, and am immensely glad that I don't use it every day

Can't we just preserve it and build another one just to the left of it?

Oh great, time to crack open the second identity again

John Davidson Gives First Interview and Explains Tourette’s Tics After Shouting N-Word and Other Slurs at BAFTAs: ‘I Felt a Wave of Shame’ (EXCLUSIVE) John Davidson's explains Tourette's tics and the BAFTA N-word incident in his first exclusive interview with Variety.

Fantastic interview. Everyone should read it:

This is now getting worrying

Not only that, but I hear that they are sending their only functional Hospital ship to Greenland

Definitely, I always stock up with cassoulet, duck confit and soupe de poisson in jars/cans when I'm in France. This one was paysan/artisan from Gers (I think you were there recently) where brother lives.

Cassoulet (from a jar), side salad, Cremant de Bourgogne

The strongest version of this illusion I’ve seen! Absolute head-wrecker!

That looks perfect

I’ve found it, I’ve found the worst take

Well that's told me

James?

The Disintermediation of Databases The database has been the center of gravity in data architecture for decades. It owned the storage, the query layer, and the interface. That center of gravity is changing. We’re seeing this structural...

if you're in data infrastructure you should read this by my excellent colleague @rstephens.me redmonk.com/rstephens/20...

Imho there is a very strong commercial reason. The tech giants need the promise of massive tech disruption akin to the internet/iPhone/social media to keep their status as "growth"stocks, without which their valuations tumble, and due to their influence on the US stock market, investors pile into AI

Ooh, I know where that is

This is so true

I agree the backstory was so good it really did put you right back in there

The exhibition is pretty faithful, it brought back loads of memories, but then again Chris Sullivan who was heavily involved was absolutely there.

Hope you enjoy it. For my sins I was one of the few Coming from the Louise's, Billy's background, not St Martins. We didn't think we were changing anything, just having fun and being apart from the mainstream, and making fashion Still have most of the membership cards from the end of the exhibition

I shall be eating Pizza at Rudy's in Leeds, where most other restaurants are closed on a Monday (yes, this is a thing)

My view is that a social media ban is wrong because the issue is one of editorial control.

Tech platforms hide behind a "we are just carriers" defence,when imho the algorithms are effectively editorial choices, for which they should be held to account like other publishers

This is so brilliant. you can pop your postcode in and see if the pubs/bars near you are likely at risk. As I suspected, none of the 120+ within 1.5km of my flat are. But I’m in central-ish London.

As we say, it's a feature not a bug.

That's not to say LLMs are no use, but are unreliable in regulated environments.

For example, I trust one telling me the current state of a nuclear reactor.

NGL, looks like Bowie in a wig