Wait, new "stuff" will come with documentation??? That is actually informative??? I thought the way these days is to make a long winded and rambling Udemy course that only touches the most basic and common theoretical use cases.

On a more serious note, LLMs will probably be able to take said material, either written or audiovisual, as training input.

But I guess in the end it will be just machines talking to each other, so they will make up their own "stuff".

Nicht mein Bier.

Reminds me of the humorous dictionary entry for "Infinite loop: see loop, infinite", while it says there "loop, infinite: see infinite loop".

Why do you think sex and food triggers dopamine?

Glad for you that your solar panels still work after someone used them for shooting/rock throwing targets. Also glad that in your locale, the populace is so well behaved that they won't see all those nice panels exposed overhead for everyone to admire as an invitation to help themselves to some when they are cold, dark and hungry.

I'd say the wetware recording is a lot more flaky and less searchable than the new data center version. And that is what I prefer. Especially, I don't want every moment of my life recorded for marketing purposes (because most lowest-cost/maximum-profit products suck these days), let alone for the class prefect to surveil me so as to keep me in whatever line he (or his headmaster, or the education department) feels is the appropriate flavour of the day.

I'm happy to be called out to my face if I lie or misbehave - society is about human interaction, give and take, negotiation, arbitration and adaption, after all - which I intensely dislike being automated to someone else's parameters.

Just this morning I was reading about a guy in UK who's just been freed after serving almost 40 years for a murder he didn't commit. If he was executed, this could never be put right.

Then again, how do you put 40 years out of someone's life right?

Gates? If the oligarchy want to gain credits in the afterlife while reducing their tax bill, can't we encourage Musk to do the same?

They believe in an afterlife now?? I thought they did it for other reasons purely.

I already got irritated with previous iterations that started of their answers with something like "that is a very insightful question", or perhaps "you are absolutely right that ..." when I corrected one of its hallucinations.

Maybe we can leverage these chatbots as a new tool for previously undiagnosed mental illness?

At work (a well-known multinational) they paid for Copilot subscriptions for the plugin for a (non-MS) IDE. Sometimes it was just brilliant, especially on the code completion front. Other times it was utterly moronic (as one example, it struggles with different versions of 3rd party libraries we use - no comprehension of what version even means). The plugin sometimes stopped logging in after an update to the IDE, and the only way we could get it to work was to uninstall, wipe any remaining directories (with settings), reinstall the newest version, install the plugin, apply settings by hand. Not nice.

We now have an in-house plugin (IE, browser, Jira, Confluence, etc.) that is based on who knows what LLM. Not worse than the previous, although it does have usability warts. But it's more accessible. Does code and general stuff (I used it quite often for multi-language translations, even works well with a certain non-standardized dialect we decided to support. Quite a time saver.)

For private general use, let's just say I detest installing apps and logging in to YET ANOTHER account (any, for that matter). I used ChatGPT for a while on the web, but the then open, then login needed offering, together with the prompt limit, made me look at alternatives. I used copilot.microsoft.com for a while, and even though they would sometimes show the login screen, just going back to the above URL got me chatting. I did like it that it also gave references to websites that it used. Also tried those from X and Meta... couldn't see much of a benefit of any one over the others. However, I've recently started using the chat option at duckduckgo.com. Although it is cumbersome to have to click through a couple of screens before getting to chat, the results are quite OK for my needs.

YMMV. So far, I'm fairly promiscuous regarding LLMs and think loyalty to one company is outdated.

Colon examines are a good idea and can save your life

So much unlike copilot.

without the neural components that allow us to think, be aware, or feel pain.

I'm a computer scientist by training and not well versed in biology, but last I checked my whole body was full of "neural components" that made me "aware" and "feel pain" in all sorts of places outside my head. I think that this is actually inherently necessary for the proper function of the particular body part, be it my toe or my spleen. In fact, I read in a few places that humans' digestive tracts contain more neurological tissue than their brains - and the majority of e.g. neurotransmitters are synthesized there, fulfilling other functions too than just thoughts.

Our bodies can't really be abstracted (that well) into separate, fungible or removable components - it's rather a complex system with closely intertwined subsystems. Yes, of course sometimes we lose some part and can still function afterwards, although sub-optimally (compared to the hale whole) to a greater or lesser extent.

Another ethical question: if an anesthetist puts me under (so that I temporarily - hopefully - lose my thinking, awareness and pain perception, am I also a spare human body during that period? (We do sometimes semi-jokingly refer to surgeons as meat mechanics, after all.)

I can add the fond anecdote of how it used to be. Somewhere around 1994 (I remember the time of that short-distance turned long-distance relationship well) a girlfriend posted a love letter (yes, how old-fashioned) in the morning in the post box on the sidewalk in front of her house in some suburb of the capital; that afternoon around end-of-business it was already in our post box in some rural town 400 km removed. That was really quick, typically it would have reached me only the next day.

The next year I got an e-mail address, and the year after had my first conversation on a mobile, although it took me a few more years to feel the need to get my own.

I live in the backward country of South Africa where the postal service failed many years ago (mismanagement, money pilfered, and lack of service delivery - not due to lack of letters to deliver). I have not received a physical bill in years. My municipal bill, doctor's and dentist's statements, bank statements, university's alumni magazine - all moved to e-mailed by-and-by. In most cases I can also log on to the respective institution's web site and see the material. In case of taxes, again I can log in and fill out my returns online and submit. All the businesses and even some government departments are pushing in the digital direction, since it saves money (less physical space, less personnel, less turnaround time, and cheaper). Also, a multitude of courier services do flourishing business for all the parcels that need to be moved, and so e-commerce is growing. Just yesterday I took delivery of a pair of spectacles with a courier fee of the equivalent of US$ 3. We used to need to stand in long tedious queues to renew vehicle licenses - even that is done online these days, with the document delivered to you. Even in the remotest parts of the country you will see the poorest people with some sort of mobile phone, which usually has some internet connectivity at least part-time. Well, they may not be well-serviced, but still better than the nearest post office (which may be many kilometers away in the closest town).

Sure, it's not all smooth sailing - some web apps are poorly maintained, online banking opens new avenues of being defrauded, or internet may be choppy at times. But the possibilities are there.

Whatsapp is also quite popular and many businesses use it as a cheaper voice/text alternative to phone calls and e-mail (attachments). (So far I've managed to avoid installing it.)