Francis Beaudet

Francis Beaudet

@francisbeaudet.com

I'm a designer, technologist, handyman, gamer, and I occasionally write. I'm retired from my job as a designer and I have been enjoying my time away from the world of big-tech. He/Him https://francisbeaudet.com https://cosocial.ca/@f_beaudet

98 followers351 following34 posts

Francis Beaudet reposted

Feeding the Novelty bias of some people Not for useful or usable things but for magic beans and shiny beads

Quinn Norton@quinn.yoyodyne-it.eu

Does anyone remember when we were going to make an energy transition so we didn't all doom our children to a climate apocalypse, before we just forgot about climate change and just burnt our carbon budget on AI slop? Seems so long ago.

Francis Beaudet reposted

What this has done in fact has simply moved content off the timeline and into private interactions with grok. So deepfake porn is still happening, in a less transparent way

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Francis Beaudet reposted

In 2024, I rose in Senate QP to ask why the Govt of Canada was still using X for official communications. Today, they are still there. What exactly will it take to break the spell?

Francis Beaudet reposted

The only way to win the communications war long term is to stop using the tools owned and controlled by those that hate you and want to stack things against you.

PoliticsHome@politicshome.bsky.social

Government should stay on X despite the Grok scandal, Keir Starmer's former communications director has said James Lyons, who worked at TikTok before serving in Downing St, told PolHome podcast The Rundown that quitting Elon Musk's platform would leave a "vacuum" for Labour's rivals to fill

Francis Beaudet reposted

Francis Beaudet reposted

“We’re very concerned, but we’re going to keep letting it happen for now.”

Dale Smith@journodale.bsky.social

The minister of digital asbestos is committed to doing the absolute least possible about regulating deepfake porn/CSAM machines.

Francis Beaudet reposted

For all that the media has spent years freaking out about what social media does to our brains, I don’t understand why there appears to be little effort to grapple with the fact that these chatbots are, for some not insignificant portion of the population, literally psychosis machines

Francis Beaudet reposted

For my dataviz and flag enthusiast friends, here's a project that analysis flags around the world, their colors, symbols, layout, changes, and so much more (too bad the contrast is meh though, hard to read white on light gray). By Ferdio flagstories.co/

Francis Beaudet reposted

The "liver, fava beans and a nice chianti" line in Silence Of The Lambs is a little joke for psychiatrists in the audience - those foods cannot be consumed with the meds (monoamine oxidase inhibitors) that Lecter is supposed to be taking.

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Francis Beaudet reposted

People do not need "AI literacy". They need a gd intro to statistics and probability course.

T. Greg Doucette@gregdoucette.bsky.social

This crosses my mind every time I see a breathless article about LLMs "developing survival instincts" or "resisting being shut off" or "blackmailing their operator" That's not how this works. It's not how any of it works.

So if you're a MS Office subscriber and got a notice that the price went up. It's because are now charging for Copilot. You can opt-out by cancelling your subscription. When you do, they will offer a Office365 "classic" option which is at the previous price and doesn't include Copilot.

Francis Beaudet reposted

But the company would access all those recordings and data mine them for anything they could sell. No, they don’t tell people that. Yes, everyone does know it. No, there’s nothing you can do about it.

Francis Beaudet reposted

Whenever I see men post this I think about how when women are lonely, it's not pitied. It's used to chastise them for not being nicer to men. Meanwhile, when men are experiencing a "loneliness epidemic" they decide the answer is *also* that women should be nicer to men.

Francis Beaudet reposted

When I was young, old people had trouble double clicking Unrelated, it's gotten so my phone has such nuanced gestures that I do the wrong one as often as the right one to accomplish what I want (eg swipe left to the next tab in the app vs swipe edge left to minimize the whole app)

Francis Beaudet reposted

If a colleague had the reliability rate of an LLM, they would be fired. If ordinary* software did, it would be uninstalled. LLMs require the chat format, because chat makes us party to the conversation. We insert the meaning ourselves - and hold it to a different standard. It's the mirror effect.

Katie Mack@astrokatie.com

If a human told you things that were correct 80% of the time but claimed, flat out, with absolute confidence, that they were correct 100% of the time, you would dislike them & never trust a word they say. All I'm really suggesting is for people to treat chatbots with that same distrust & antagonism.

Francis Beaudet reposted

Replying to @astrokatie.com

If a human told you things that were correct 80% of the time but claimed, flat out, with absolute confidence, that they were correct 100% of the time, you would dislike them & never trust a word they say. All I'm really suggesting is for people to treat chatbots with that same distrust & antagonism.

Francis Beaudet reposted

Replying to @thespaceshipper.com

It's fascinating how much generative AI has become a reflection of climate change. We know what's happening, but we carry on as usual, regardless of the consequences. The important thing is to save money in the short term, and good luck to those who follow.

Francis Beaudet reposted

I mean, we had evidence that physical buttons were better a decade ago, but that wasn’t enough and it was also too late to prevent the years-in-advance line planning delay of most automakers who chased taillights on the touchscreen war without waiting to see whether it was a good idea.

WIRED@wired.com

Amazingly, reaction times using screens while driving are worse than being drunk or high—no wonder 90 percent of drivers hate using touchscreens in cars. Finally the auto industry is coming to its senses. www.wired.com/story/why-ca...

Francis Beaudet reposted

FINANCIAL NEWS: Tesla is a disaster CUSTOMERS: Fleeing company in droves CHINA: Launching cheaper EVs TESLA: Delays in new model production MUSK: Something something robotaxis (giggle) FANBOIS: Shut up and take my money