sujato

The article assumes that because someone works for XYZ Uni we should listen to them. I'm just flipping that: when institutions get a gazillion dollars from AI and then shill on behalf of AI, why should we listen to them? If someone's criticizing AI, good on 'em, but that's not what's happening here.

Funding RUSI is a registered charity and non-partisan think tank, funding itself independently.

Royal United Services Institute is a conservative defense thinktank, whose "independent funding" includes major donors Google and Palantir.

AI is so expensive that no institute can "research" AI without money from AI companies.

Google DeepMind Scholarships announced for Queen Mary postgraduate students

Queen Mary University of London is affiliated with the Alan Turing Institute, which in 2025 was re-orientated to defense per govt order.

www.turing.ac.uk/science-inno...

QMUL is also connected with NVIDIA and gets funding from Google:

North East universities at heart of £30bn AI investment | UKAuthority

A truly atrocious article, thanks for drawing attention. If you don't mind, here a little follow-the-money for the academics in that article.

Newcastle Uni: key player in a £30bn AI investment, backed by Blackstone, NVIDIA, OpenAI to establish Stargate UK, AI infrastructure platform.

U.S. Troops Were Told Iran War Is for “Armageddon,” Return of Jesus Advocacy group reports commanders giving similar messages at more than 30 installations in every branch of the military

EXCLUSIVE: At more than 30 installations, U.S. commanders told troops the war on Iran is a Christian war.

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation has been “inundated” with more than 110 complaints.

One NCO said they were told the U.S. war is to bring about Armageddon and the return of Jesus…

I was walking over the harbor bridge the other day when one of these monstrosities was shipping out. You could smell the putrid diesel from the bridge.

Albo would volunteer just so as to not be left out.

The article is 17 years old. Nothing broke thru then, less now.

Just one in four Americans supports US strikes on Iran, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds One in four Republicans say Trump is too willing to use military force.

It’s truly baffling. What Albo and Wong are arguing for is supported by almost no Democrats and only the most extreme half of Republicans.

Another bit of info, but no context.

‘This was a man who displayed framed photographs of himself with the Dalai Lama, with the pope, and with members of the British royal family.’
—Virginia Roberts Giuffre, “Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice”

YouTube video by Alex Mc Tony Benn in the House of Commons Iraq Bombing Speech

“What fools we are to live in a generation for which war is just a computer game for our children.”

Nothing is a distraction. Everything is an avalanche.

Those who are desperately clinging to the last shred of hope that there may be goodness in the world are most welcome to skip these talks. Or else just come for the meditation in the first half.

Next week's topic:

The Lizard King: Epstein and the crisis of leadership

- Look at the ways the Epstein crisis characterizes the collapse in moral leadership.
- Define a moral response based on the Suttas
- Contrast the Buddha's leadership style: the importance of character

Dark Week will come knocking on the *first Tuesday* of the month—that's next week. I’ll deliver a mournful jeremiad on the same, devastating, topic on both Tuesday and Friday.

Black clothing optional. Horror, despair, and ennui cold as the ocean depths are all welcome.

Having discussed it with the folks on Tuesday @ Parramatta and Friday @ Crows Nest, I regret to inform you that I will be starting a Dark Week.

Once a month, we will set aside a time full of sorrow and evil, where we grapple with the awfulness around us and maybe, just maybe, find some solace.

Anthropic ditches its core safety promise in the middle of an AI red line fight with the Pentagon | CNN Business Anthropic, a company founded by OpenAI exiles worried about the dangers of AI, is loosening its core safety principle in response to competition.

The "AI with soul" company is soulless.

Exploring Right Relationship with AI Join us for a panel discussion co-sponsored by the Buddhism & AI Initiative.

Not sure why they're holding this event on the "right relationship" with AI, a topic I believe I covered satisfactorily above.

If you're in Sydney, come along to Crows Nest Center tonight, 7pm. It'll be a special talk for Lunar New Year, when I reveal things that have been hidden.

If you're not in Sydney, join on Jitsi (like Zoom)

lokanta.github.io#crowsnest

Really stoked with the new translation webapp for Buddhist texts, Bilara 2.0! We've been working on it for *ages* but it's really coming along. I proposed a new feature a few days ago, and now it's already there. Still lots of work to do, unfortunately, but we'll get there.

Firefox settings showing all AI features turned off.

Thanks for giving us the option @firefox.com.

I’m wondering if you can develop a similar off button for AI everywhere else?

Meanwhile, Israel already has bombs, illegally. Also, fun fact, they got the uranium from the mine near Swakopmund, where Peter Thiel's dad was an engineer.

Vatican to use AI to translate Mass in 60 languages "We wish to serve the mission that defines the centre of the Catholic Church, universal by its very vocation," said Cardinal Mauro Gambetti.

How it's going

Pope Leo tells priests not to use AI to write homilies or seek likes on TikTok "To give a true homily is to share faith," and artificial intelligence "will never be able to share faith," the pope said.

How it started

tf has gender to do with driving?

Pedro Domingos - Wikipedia

who cares, he's just some random on the internet … ohh wait

>Pedro Domingos (born 1965) is a Professor Emeritus of computer science and engineering at the University of Washington.

Say what you will about DJT, at least he knows the correct purpose of "IQ"—denigrating black people.

This is an excellent article. It cites the following study, which details the fact that, while Russian policy is pro-climate change, the reality is it will be massively harmed. Disturbingly, a lot of the things it says about Russia’s denial of climate change apply to Australia as well.

Carbon and the New Imperialism Free and democratic society is not possible when the kings of oil and gas can threaten our stability, pollute our information systems, and poison our politics.

“Russian policy, from Putin down, has been following a consensus for the past decade that climate change would actually be good for the Russian economy.” www.liberalcurrents.com/carbon-and-t...

Under rule banning nazis, Apple removes GOP app. - Newsroom - Search Apple Newsroom Search Results

They’re on a roll, wow.