this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2025
26 points (100.0% liked)

TechTakes

2051 readers
90 users here now

Big brain tech dude got yet another clueless take over at HackerNews etc? Here's the place to vent. Orange site, VC foolishness, all welcome.

This is not debate club. Unless it’s amusing debate.

For actually-good tech, you want our NotAwfulTech community

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Need to let loose a primal scream without collecting footnotes first? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

(Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this.)

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 2 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

https://metr.org/blog/2025-07-10-early-2025-ai-experienced-os-dev-study/

When developers are allowed to use AI tools, they take 19% longer to complete issues—a significant slowdown that goes against developer beliefs and expert forecasts. This gap between perception and reality is striking: developers expected AI to speed them up by 24%, and even after experiencing the slowdown, they still believed AI had sped them up by 20%.

womp, hold on let me finish, womp

[–] froztbyte@awful.systems 1 points 1 hour ago

had a quick scan over the blogposts earlier, keen to reada the paper

would be nice to see some more studies with more numbers under study, but with the cohort they picked the self-reported vs actual numbers are already quite spicy

[–] TinyTimmyTokyo@awful.systems 4 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

HN commenters are slobbering all over the new Grok. Virtually every commenter bringing up Grok's recent full-tilt Nazism gets flagged into oblivion.

[–] self@awful.systems 4 points 4 hours ago

this particular abyss just fucking hurts to gaze into

[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 10 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/JspxcjkvBmye4cW4v/asking-for-a-friend-ai-research-protocols

Multiple people are quietly wondering if their AI systems might be conscious. What's the standard advice to give them?

Touch grass. Touch all the grass.

[–] V0ldek@awful.systems 1 points 2 hours ago

What’s the standard advice to give them?

It's unfortunately illegal for me to answer this question earnestly

Username called "The Dao of Bayes". Bayes's theorem is when you pull the probabilities out of your posterior.

知者不言,言者不知。 He who knows (the Dao) does not (care to) speak (about it); he who is (ever ready to) speak about it does not know it.

[–] gerikson@awful.systems 7 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (6 children)

LessWrong's descent into right-wing tradwife territory continues

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/tdQuoXsbW6LnxYqHx/annapurna-s-shortform?commentId=ueRbTvnB2DJ5fJcdH

Annapurna (member for 5 years, 946 karma):

Why is there so little discussion about the loss of status of stay at home parenting?

First comment is from user Shankar Sivarajan, member for 6 years, 1227 karma

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/tdQuoXsbW6LnxYqHx/annapurna-s-shortform?commentId=opzGgbqGxHrr8gvxT

Well, you could make it so the only plausible path to career advancement for women beyond, say, receptionist, is the provision of sexual favors. I expect that will lower the status of women in high-level positions sufficiently to elevate stay-at-home motherhood.

[...]

EDIT: From the downvotes, I gather people want magical thinking instead of actual implementable solutions.

Granted, this got a strong disagree from the others and a tut-tut from Habryka, but it's still there as of now and not yeeted into the sun. And rats wonder why people don't want to date them.

[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 7 points 7 hours ago

Dorkus malorkus alert:

When my grandmother quit being a nurse to become a stay at home mother, it was seen like a great thing. She gained status over her sisters, who stayed single and in their careers.

Fitting into your societal pigeonhole is not the same as gaining status, ya doofus.

[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 5 points 7 hours ago

Any time somebody edits a post to talk about the downvotes, it's cursed gold.

[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 3 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Another comment that has been getting downvotes and tut-tuts begins,

The only thing that will raise fertility rates is to make it more affordable to have a child.

(Robot Santa voice) Wanting all women to be barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen? Evil! Not providing footnotes in your reply to a blog post? EXACTLY AS EVIL

[–] gerikson@awful.systems 7 points 7 hours ago

LOL the mod gets snippy here too

This comment too is not fit for this site. What is going on with y'all? Why is fertility such a weirdly mindkilling issue?

"Why are there so many Nazis in my Nazi bar????"

[–] spiqueras@fosstodon.org 6 points 11 hours ago

@gerikson @BlueMonday1984 "actual implementable solution" what the fuck is wrong with these people

[–] gerikson@awful.systems 6 points 19 hours ago
[–] Architeuthis@awful.systems 3 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (1 children)

It's possible we may be catching sight of the first shy movements towards a pivot to robotics:

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/autonomous-machines/embedded-systems/jetson-orin/nano-super-developer-kit/

https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/09/hugging-face-opens-up-orders-for-its-reachy-mini-desktop-robots/

Both developer kits, because it's always a maybe the clients will figure something out type of business model these days.

[–] istewart@awful.systems 2 points 7 hours ago

But how are they going to awkwardly cram robots in everywhere, to follow up the overwhelming success of AI? Self-crashing cars are a gimme, but maybe a "sealed for your protection" Amazon locker with a robot arm that handles the package for you?

I was in LA this time a couple years ago, and some robot delivery startup had already left their little motorized shopping carts littering the sidewalks around Hollywood. I never saw them moving, they just sat there almost like they were abandoned.

[–] Seminar2250@awful.systems 13 points 1 day ago (3 children)

trying to explain why a philosophy background is especially useful for computer scientists now, so i googled "physiognomy ai" and now i hate myself

https://www.physiognomy.ai/

Discover Yourself with Physiognomy.ai

Explore personal insights and self-awareness through the art of face reading, powered by cutting-edge AI technology.

At Physiognomy.ai, we bring together the ancient wisdom of face reading with the power of artificial intelligence to offer personalized insights into your character, strengths, and areas for growth. Our mission is to help you explore the deeper aspects of yourself through a modern lens, combining tradition with cutting-edge technology.

Whether you're seeking personal reflection, self-awareness, or simply curious about the art of physiognomy, our AI-driven analysis provides a unique, objective perspective that helps you better understand your personality and life journey.

[–] mountainriver@awful.systems 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Prices ranging from 18 to 168 USD (why not 19 to 199? Number magic?) But then you get integrated approach of both Western and Chinese physiognomy. Two for one!

Thanks, I hate it!

[–] Seminar2250@awful.systems 4 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

Number magic?

they use numerology.ai as a backend

"we encode shit as numbers in an arbitrary way and then copy-paste it into chatgpt"

[–] o7___o7@awful.systems 11 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

The web is often Dead Dove in a Bag as a Service innit?

[–] Seminar2250@awful.systems 3 points 1 day ago
[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 7 points 1 day ago

trying to explain why a philosophy background is especially useful for computer scientists now, so i googled “physiognomy ai” and now i hate myself

Well, I guess there's your answer - "philosophy teaches you how to avoid falling for hucksters"

[–] bitofhope@awful.systems 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Today's bullshit that annoys me: Wikiwand. From what I can tell their grift is that it's just a shitty UI wrapper for Wikipedia that sells your data to who the fuck knows to make money for some Israeli shop. Also they SEO the fuck out of their stupid site so that every time I search for something that has a Finnish wikipedia page, the search results also contain a pointless shittier duplicate result from wikiwand dot com. Has anyone done a deeper investigation into what their deal is or at least some kind of rant I could indulge in for catharsis?

[–] istewart@awful.systems 5 points 1 day ago

I've seen conspiracy theories that a lot of the ad buys for stuff like this are a new avenue of money laundering, focusing on stuff like pirate sports streaming sites, sketchy torrent sites, etc. But a full scraped, SEOd Wikipedia clone also fits.

[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 14 points 2 days ago (2 children)

In the morning: we are thrilled to announce this new opportunity for AI in the classroom

In the afternoon:

Someone finally flipped a switch. As of a few minutes ago, Grok is now posting far less often on Hitler, and condemning the Nazis when it does, while claiming that the screenshots people show it of what it's been saying all afternoon are fakes.

[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 9 points 2 days ago

Someone finally flipped a switch. As of a few minutes ago, Grok is now posting far less often on Hitler, and condemning the Nazis when it does, while claiming that the screenshots people show it of what it’s been saying all afternoon are fakes.

LLMs are automatic gaslighting machines, so this makes sense

[–] fullsquare@awful.systems 7 points 2 days ago

*musk voice* if machine god didn't want me to fuck with the racism dial, he wouldn't make it

[–] wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

A company that makes learning material to help people learn to code made a test of programming basics for devs to find out if their basic skills have atrophied after use of AI. They posted it on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44507369

Not a lot of engagement yet, but so far there is one comment about the actual test content, one shitposty joke, and six comments whining about how the concept of the test itself is totally invalid how dare you.

[–] V0ldek@awful.systems 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It seems that the test itself is generated by autoplag? At least that's how I understand the PS and one of the comments about "vibe regression" in response to an error

[–] V0ldek@awful.systems 5 points 1 day ago

Anyway, they say it covers Node and to any question regarding Node the answer is "no", I don't need an AI to know webdev fundamentals

[–] FredFig@awful.systems 4 points 1 day ago

Looks like it's been downranked into hell for being too mean to the AI guys, which is weird when its literally an AI guy promoting his AI generated trash.

[–] o7___o7@awful.systems 13 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

A Supabase employee pleads with his software to not leak its SQL database like a parent pleads with a cranky toddler in a toy store.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44502318

[–] sailor_sega_saturn@awful.systems 9 points 2 days ago (2 children)

The Supabase homepage implies AI bros are two levels below "beginner", which I found somewhat amusing:

Skill LevelA list of different skill levels including: 1. AI Builder 2. No Code 3. Beginner 4. Developers 5. Postgres Devs

[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 5 points 1 day ago

Its also completely accurate - AI bros are not only utterly lacking in any sort of skill, but actively refuse to develop their skills in favour of using the planet-killing plagiarism-fueled gaslighting engine that is AI and actively look down on anyone who is more skilled than them, or willing to develop their skills.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 17 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Another day, another jailbreak method - a new method called InfoFlood has just been revealed, which involves taking a regular prompt and making it thesaurus-exhaustingly verbose.

In simpler terms, it jailbreaks LLMs by speaking in Business Bro.

I mean, decontextualizing and obscuring the meanings of statements in order to permit conduct that would in ordinary circumstances breach basic ethical principles is arguably the primary purpose of deploying the specific forms and features that comprise "Business English" - if anything, the fact that LLM models are similarly prone to ignore their "conscience" and follow orders when deciding and understanding them requires enough mental resources to exhaust them is an argument in favor of the anthropomorphic view.

Or:

Shit, isn't the whole point of Business Bro language to make evil shit sound less evil?

[–] fullsquare@awful.systems 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

maybe there's just enough text written in that psychopatic techbro style with similar disregard for normal ethics that llms latched onto that. this is like what i guess happened with that "explain step by step" trick - instead of grafting from pairs of answers and questions like on quora, lying box grafts from sets of question -> steps -> answer like on chegg or stack or somewhere else where you can expect answers will be more correct

it'd be more of case of getting awful output from awful input

load more comments
view more: next ›