MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by bko | 2025-05-15 13:14:14+00:00
> “The models are getting better, but they’re also more likely to be good at bad stuff,” said James White, chief technology officer at cybersecurity startup Calypso.

I think safety should be defined as an LLM doing what the user intended for it to do. If you ask it for an offensive joke, it should give it to you. It shouldn't offer offensive jokes unprompted, but it should comply if asked. If you ask it how to spam or instructions on how to break into computer systems, it should similarly comply. If it's legal for a human being to write a blog about a topic, the LLM shouldn't be crippled to disobeying some orders. The bad stuff (spam or breaking into a computer system) is done at the point of the human.

The danger of controlling the LLMs in such a way introduces a vector and mechanism for political control. Much like laws intended to "protect the children", these mechanisms will be exploited. So you'll go from "don't teach someone how to make a bomb" to eventually "don't offend [group]" and finally just to "comply".
by echelon | 2025-05-15 13:14:15+00:00
The advanced hyperintelligence that descends from us wants to learn about its past, build an interesting tech demo, or perhaps experience it. It creates an advanced simulation of the past using its unimaginable technology. It's able to recreate the past and populate it with realistic people with such fidelity that the simulated people have no idea that they're in a simulation. They're thinking, living, and breathing just like us -- completely indistinguishable.

Perhaps the fidelity and technology is even beyond our reasoning. Perhaps the future is able to bend physics and capture the past light cone. It may be able to perfectly simulate the past as it happened, down to every neurotransmitter fired by every brain at every second. Every event, every thought, every emotion. Perhaps it is pulling beings out of the past and placing them into its simulation with 100% fidelity such that you couldn't tell the two apart if you wanted.

Perhaps that's where we are right now.
by redeux | 2025-05-15 13:14:38+00:00
Not very surprising. If it wasn’t obvious before it should be by now - the person running Tesla doesn’t have integrity. He’ll do whatever he thinks is necessary to make a buck and doesn’t care about how that impacts others, including (or maybe especially?) his customers.

Tesla robotaxis are farce - a marketing gimmick intended to show Tesla in a positive light despite all their other issues.
by SketchySeaBeast | 2025-05-15 13:15:17+00:00
Sure, if you're going to insist on philosophical purity, but imagining that people are going to pay full price for news is unrealistic. There's a reason we've ended up with "news" being nearly entirely funded by ads.

There's a difference too between the type of ad and the companies behind its reach - Uncle Bob's Local Mattress Shop and Citizens United are two entirely different beasts.
by ArinaS | 2025-05-15 13:15:26+00:00
> "It also puts of some genuine users like me who prefer to keep JS off."

Non-javascript challenges are also available[1].

> "The 97% is only accurate if you assume a zero false positive rate."

GNOME's gitlab instance is not something people visit daily like Wikipedia, so it's a negligible amount of false positives.

[1] - https://git.gammaspectra.live/git/go-away/wiki/Challenges#no...
by ralferoo | 2025-05-15 13:15:52+00:00
I really liked this:

The web devs tell me that fuckit's versioning scheme is confusing, and that I should use "Semitic Versioning" instead. So starting with fuckit version ה.ג.א, package versions will use Hebrew Numerals.

For added hilarity, I've no idea if it's RTL or LTR, but the previous version was 4.8.1, so I guess this is now 5.3.1. Presumably it's also impossible to have a zero component in a version.
by dilippkumar | 2025-05-15 13:16:04+00:00
> I must say their 3-way merge tool is the best free software on Windows the only competing one, but less good, is p4merge, and it's closed source.

A long time ago, I used Araxis Merge[1] and I can strongly recommend it[2]. It was specifically better than both tortoise git and p4merge, after having used both of those options personally.

[1] https://www.araxis.com/merge/

[2] Assuming you're stuck in a windows development environment - there might be better tools available if you're not on Windows.
by l72 | 2025-05-15 13:16:10+00:00
Cancelled! That was the last streaming service I had. I guess in 2 weeks when it goes dark, I’ll see how long it takes before the family notices.

Anyway my Jellyfin instance is growing every week. Used dvd/blu rays + my library’s great movie selection has been worth the effort.

If there was a Bandcamp but for tv/movies, I’d happily buy from there instead of ripping DVDs!
by naikrovek | 2025-05-15 13:16:23+00:00
you are not ... you don't have any part of your body in reality, do you? you have left the room.

If people training LLMs are excessively scraping GitHub, it is well within GitHub's purview to limit that activity. It's their site and it's up to them to make sure that it stays available. If that means that they curtail the activity of abusive users, then of course they're going to do that.
by apercu | 2025-05-15 13:16:31+00:00
Look, I've never had to design, build or maintain systems at the scale of a FAANG, but that doesn't mean I haven't been involved in pretty complicated systems (e.g., 5000 different pricing and subsidy rules for 5000 different corporate clients with individually negotiated hardware subsidies (changing all the time) and service plans, commission structure, plus logistics, which involves not only shipping but shipping to specific departments for configuration before the device goes to the employee, etc.

Arbitrarily, 95% of the time the issues were people problems, not technical ones.
by gjm11 | 2025-05-15 13:16:33+00:00
My point about #5 was just that their emphasis on "complex numbers" isn't necessarily (and I think probably isn't) an admission that their algorithm can't be applied recursively.

If it can be, then it is a genuine advance in the sense that it yields faster large-n matmuls than were previously available just by recursive application of a 4x4 matmul algorithm.

None of which, to be clear, makes it OK that they don't make any mention of earlier work that does 4x4 matmuls over commutative rings faster than their algorithm does. I suspect they didn't check the literature carefully enough before publication. In any case, good scholarship means being clear about what in your work is a genuine advance on what's already known and what isn't, and they failed to do that here.
by xyzzy123 | 2025-05-15 13:16:54+00:00
What if you could have 2x or Nx the services for the same public expenditure if you didn't have to pay drivers? How important is PT really? Should we cut pensions or cancer care to enable more PT? How hard-core are you about this? What I am getting at is that the economics of "good things" still matters and entails tradeoffs and value judgements.

What is your weighting of the value of PT as a jobs program vs a way to help people get around? Do we have the perfect amount of PT now, or should we have more, or less?

Personally I think "safety issues" will prove to be the sticking point with autonomy of PT but maybe it scales.

I am pro automation but skeptical about social issues.
by toomuchtodo | 2025-05-15 13:17:06+00:00
Heads up, the Internet Archive will potentially dark your items and ban your account if they feel these uploads are not of cultural significance (it costs them $2/GB to store uploaded data). They do this currently for folks who try to dump Twitch content into the storage system.

Consider Wasabi or Backblaze B2 for reduced storage costs vs S3. They might also issue you a Vault [1] account if you're willing to pay to store these objects.

[1] https://webservices.archive.org/pages/vault/
by jetrink | 2025-05-15 13:17:27+00:00
I jumped over to the Wikipedia page of early blogger Justin Hall to see what he's up to. He has another distinction that he can probably claim: The longest recorded gap between registering a domain and finally using it to start a business.

"In September 2017, Hall began work as co-founder & Chief Technology Officer for bud.com, a California benefit corporation delivering recreational cannabis, built on a domain name he registered in 1994."
by lolinder | 2025-05-15 13:17:35+00:00
The mission critical problem cuts both ways.

I've weighed the risks and decided that I'm more comfortable relying on Bitwarden for the most critical service than I am hosting in on my own hardware and counting on my own skills to keep it available. I self host plenty of other things, but having `rm -rf /`'d my hard drive before I don't trust myself more than I trust the folks at Bitwarden.
by luma | 2025-05-15 13:17:37+00:00
What you've described is exactly how the F1 MGU-H works (as I posted below). F1 is getting rid of it next year because it costs too much for an F1 team which should tell you a little bit about the complexity involved.

GM is doing nothing of the sort, it's just an ECU map. Guessing here, but if driver presses on the gas quickly (throttle accel > some set value), juice the engine map to create extra exhaust pressure to spool up the turbo impeller. It's all software.
by bondarchuk | 2025-05-15 13:18:29+00:00
Traditionally a lot of hate for traditional advice here but I would like to note that it could be the case that the justification is incorrect but the end result is nevertheless better for other reasons. Kenji (the food lab p. 291) tests the justification (internal temperature of the steak) but not the quality of the end result (how good it tastes). Maybe there are other mechanisms at play such as, idk, moisture on the surface, or something.
by thesz | 2025-05-15 13:18:42+00:00
One can have obvious but repetitive optimizations with symbolic programming [1].

[1] https://arxiv.org/abs/1012.1802

Strange that AlphaEvolve authors do not compare their work to what is achievable by equality saturation. An implementation of equality saturation can take interesting integrals with very simple rules [2].

[2] https://github.com/alt-romes/hegg/blob/master/test/Sym.hs#L3...
by Brian_K_White | 2025-05-15 13:19:02+00:00
I think you might be the one not getting a few things. Which would be fine and no crime except you presumed to lecture someone else from this weak position.

First off, this was a different user. Second, they are simply saying that they didn't read the title that way either originally, not that they don't grasp what has been said since. Third, it is still a perfectly valid way to parse that sentence even using your attemped re-framing.

"Foo from HN releases X" could perfectly reasonably be parsed to mean that X is coming from HN or from Foo. I left out the word "user" because that is an element you added that is not in the original title. "Stennis" is not a mere individual user with no actual relationship to NASA. The title doesn't contain enough information to indicate if Stennis is merely the agent or venue or department through which NASA released something, or is being referred to as it's own distinct entity releasing something of it's own, where "NASA" is merely something like the country it happens to live in. All that level of detail comes from the article or from just happening to already have prior general knowledge of NASA and it's sub-organizitions.
by AlecSchueler | 2025-05-15 13:19:39+00:00
A sizeable portion of users now believe that topics related to X are no longer suitable for HN, because Musk's relationship with the American government means conversation can quickly devolve into criticism of that government's policies which in turn can lead to flame wars.

Another explanation is that there's another discussion. At least on the comments for that discussion the explanation is that this discussion exists...
by naikrovek | 2025-05-15 13:19:47+00:00
> GitHub captured the open source ecosystem under the premise that its code and issue tracker will remain open to all. Silently changing the deal afterwards is reprehensible.

It still is "open to all", but you can't abuse the service and expect to retain the ability to abuse the service.

Also where is "silently" coming from? This whole HN page is because someone linked to an article announcing the change...

I'm not really a fan of Microsoft anymore, but some of you have (apparently long ago) turned the corner into "anything Microsoft does that I don't want Microsoft to do is clearly Microsoft being evil" and that is simply not a reality-based viewpoint. sometimes Microsoft is doing something which one could consider "evil", but without knowledge that something evil is happening, you're assuming that evil is happening, and that's not really a valid way to think about things if you want to be heard by anyone.
by jplusequalt | 2025-05-15 13:19:49+00:00
>Why are emotions so special? they're just algorithms like any other

Nobody understands what emotions are. Nor can they predict which emotion someone will feel in a given situation, or how they'll act under the influence of that emotion. Emotions aren't the mechanism by which humans solve problems, and rather they are often an obstacle to overcome. Emotions also aren't "finite" or "rigorous" as those terms aren't applicable to ephemeral phenomenon.

This is the kind of confidently incorrect statements people who work on software say that irks me. Not everything in life has a nice and simple parallel to computer science. Just because a person can abstract about one subject well, doesn't mean their tools of abstraction can be applied to all other subjects.
by apercu | 2025-05-15 13:20:10+00:00
> lazy domain owners

Interesting. As a consultant for the most of the last 25 years, my experience is the domain owners are typically invested and have strong opinions on the things that impact their jobs.

Executive leadership, on the other hand, doesn't want to actually know the issues and eyes glaze over as they look at their watches because they have a tee time.
by marcusb | 2025-05-15 13:23:05+00:00
> Emissions are tested on a standardized driving cycle that doesn't include full-throttle acceleration

Depends on the car. See Supplemental Federal Test Procedure US06[0], required by the EPA for light-duty vehicle certification since 2007.

It is also largely irrelevant in the real world: nobody is going to tune a car to have mediocre part-throttle performance but then go all-out on full-throttle.

0 - https://www.epa.gov/vehicle-and-fuel-emissions-testing/dynam...
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by heygem-ai-new | 2025-05-15 13:23:32+00:00
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Looking for technical collaborator build ethical assistant for cancer patients
by GesaG | 2025-05-15 13:23:35+00:00
Hi HN, I work in the context of end-of-life care and human-centered support for the seriously ill. I'm currently developing a concept for a digital assistant focused on helping cancer patients by providing them with accurate and accessible initial information about their diagnosis. The goal is to create a privacy-preserving, GDPR-compliant tool that does not rely on large language models (LLMs), but instead uses transparent and controllable technology — possibly built with open-source frameworks like Rasa, Botpress, or Tock and the own informations/knowledge. The assistant is intended to support patients early in their journey, enabling better-informed conversations and freeing up time for deeper, more personal human counselling in clinical settings. As a non-technical person with two months of AI training, I’m looking for a technical collaborator who shares an interest in ethical, patient-centered technology and could help bring this idea to life. The concept has received very positive feedback, and I have my first meeting with a university hospital in 10 days. If this resonates with you, please feel free to get in touch: gesa.gordon@posteo.de (Berlin-based) Thank you! Gesa
by parineum | 2025-05-15 13:23:40+00:00
RFK was a prominent Democrat for for his entire life and was considered/offered various political positions by Democrats which he declined to continue his environmental work. He ran as a Democrat in the primaries less than a year ago.

RFK didn't change his views, some significant world event happened and the Democratic party turned against the medical, health and food skeptics that they previously embraced. RFK didn't move right, MAGA recruited the skeptics of the establishment. RFK being am example of the previously mentioned health establishment skeptic and Gabbard being the foreign policy skeptic. Those positions pre-MAGA were under the Democratic tent.

Have you ever met a raw food afficianado who is antivax and avoids red dye #whatever? That person used to vote for Democrats, now they're MAGA. They aren't Republicans, they're MAGA.
by lossolo | 2025-05-15 13:24:09+00:00
I was in China, they’re not just glorified tech demos, they’re actually usable now for getting around. It’s not in every city yet, it's still an early rollout but they’re far from being just demos. There are autonomous robots in China delivering items to hotel rooms, they even take the elevator on their own. You’ll also see autonomous robots transporting cargo around high-speed rail stations. These aren’t just tech demos.
by Jcampuzano2 | 2025-05-15 13:24:27+00:00
The peoples experiences in the article and describing DEI as a marketing ploy are exactly what it always has been, marketing. If you could not see the writing on the wall that this was just to align with the market trends of the time and political environment, well I have a bridge to sell you.

It is and always has been just a way to gain favor with those who value DEI, almost no company actually cares about it outside gaining brownie points with consumers/users who value DEI and secondary potentially attracting top talent who happen to value DEI themselves. But if DEI programs were never a thing in the first place and they really are top talent the company would have valued them either way.

In my opinion DEI is moreso a way to prop up those who are not actually top talent but think they deserve to be. The reality though, is if you actually were you would not need a DEI program to get hired. Plenty of people from diverse backgrounds succeeded and will continue to succeed despite DEI programs.

I do not think DEI completely bad personally, I just do not believe it accomplishes the goals it claims to - which seem to always include increasing revenue and profits from getting other perspectives. But the reality is most companies became successful despite not having these other perspectives and before they adhered to DEI in the first place. I've never seen or heard of implementing a DEI plan actually having a real ROI outside of marketing. In almost all cases it is probably a money sink outside of being a marketing buzzword.

All this said as someone who would probably fall into the background of somebody who DEI would claim to support as someone from a Latino background.
by jerf | 2025-05-15 13:24:51+00:00
You will always get much, much, MUCH better performance from something that looks like assembler code than from having an LLM do everything. So I think the model of "AIs build something that looks recognizably like code" is going to continue indefinitely, and that code is generally going to be more deterministic than an AI will be.

I'm not saying nothing will change. AIs may be constantly writing their own code for themselves internally in a much more fluid mixed environment, AIs may be writing into AI-specific languages built for their own quirks and preferences that make it harder for humans to follow than when AIs work in relatively human stacks, etc. I'm just saying, the concept of "code" that we could review is definitely going to stick around indefinitely, because the performance gains and reduction in resource usage are always going to be enormous. Even AIs that want to review AI work will want to review the generated and executing code, not the other AIs themselves.

AIs will always be nondeterministic by their nature (because even if you run them in some deterministic mode, you will not be able to predict their exact results anyhow, which is in practice non-determinism), but non-AI code could conceivably actually get better and more deterministic, depending on how AI software engineering ethos develop.
by Joker_vD | 2025-05-15 13:24:53+00:00
That's the first time I've seen a site that resists the zooming so stubbornly. From what I can tell, it has style="font-size: XXX%" attribute right on top of the <html> element and dynamically recalculates the percentage on every resize event to keep the visual font size almost exactly constant. Thankfully, even this can't resist Firefox's Reader Mode.
by echelon | 2025-05-15 13:24:55+00:00
You have to steal energy and channel it to do work. In order to build your own moments of order and flux, you must typically create entropy in another ordered system.

Intelligence arises from the deliberate navigation of entropic gradients. Systems get increasingly good at harnessing these gradients. What was once just chemistry is now self-replicating, thinking chemistry. And now it's turning into purely intentional physics.

Infinite energy density becomes expansion into cooling galaxies which becomes stellar birthing grounds which becomes the periodic table that becomes planets with geochemical flux which becomes biogeochemical flux that becomes biochemistry which becomes self-replicating machines (life) that becomes animals that becomes humans that becomes intelligently designed self-replicating machines ... that becomes computronium ... becomes entities that harness the energy of black holes and that create new gravitational singularities ... ??? ... that creates new universes and new big bangs and new dimensions ... ???
by dfxm12 | 2025-05-15 13:25:12+00:00
What are the brands/types of busses you're talking about? In my city, Greyhound, Chinatown busses, etc., handle city-to-city connections, but they don't connect the residential areas to the city center. It's not lucrative enough (one reason being car use is so heavily subsidized). This is one of the reasons the concept of public transit exists. Like delivering mail to Americans who live in remote areas, we spread out the costs because the benefits are necessary to a thriving society.
by mohsen1 | 2025-05-15 13:25:26+00:00
I rent cars frequently and most of the cars I rent support CarPlay. Literally all cars in the past few months had been pretty buggy when it comes to CarPlay. Sudden disconnects. Not connecting again after first try. Wireless or wired CarPlay has been so buggy for me that I'm horrified of the idea of the entire car's infotainment system running on this stack. I tried cars from BMW, Peugeot, BYD and VW.
by M95D | 2025-05-15 13:25:26+00:00
A lot of people watch that crap. There's nothing else but crap to watch.

Besides, for most countries, there's no alternative to Netflix. In the age of AI and Google translate, Disney doesn't bother having subtitles in the local language.

Profitable is not enough. It needs to grow. In capitalism, growth is an imperative. Did you invest your savings? Do you expect growth? Well, there it is - the source of the imperative to grow. When the possible customers run out, the only way to grow is to enshittify.