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Comment Re:They can, but you can never trust it (Score 1) 144

and if you don't approach the LLM wit a borderline adversarial level of suspition and mistrust

I've actually outsourced the first iteration of that to AI. :-)

At the end of coding sessions, I generall ask it to spin up an adversial agent whose task it is to find flaws, inconsistencies, mistakes, bugs, etc.

I'd still strongly recommend to anyone shipping AI-generated code to have a thorough human code review, but for a first pass at surface level, the AI can check itself if it has some kind of separation between the generator and the reviewer.

Comment explored domains (Score 1) 144

Personally, after some experimenting, I've concluded that:

  • AI is good at implementing known algorithms.
  • AI is good in creating code that flows straightforward from a design document.
  • AI is good at code reviews and finding bugs.
  • AI (unlike me) doesn't mind writing a few hundred tests.
  • But, it tends to over-engineering simple tasks to the point of "why does Hello World need enterprise-software levels of abstraction?"
  • It struggles with code that doesn't have a known solution.
  • It's difficult to get it into a different lane once it started going down the wrong way.

What I use it for these days is rapid prototyping. Using AI I can make a functioning prototype of an idea I have in a few days instead of a few weeks. I can quickly test out an idea for a feature or change in my existing codebase.

What I also have been using it for a while is as a code-reviewer and for someone like me who is mostly working solo, that's an insanely valuable thing. Not just the bugs themselves, but also the ability to discuss code with someone. Basically, AI is a rubber ducky that replies.

Comment oh dear... (Score 1) 8

Mickeysoft lost the plot again.

The game-changing element of LLMs and agents is that they have a non-computer-language interface - you can talk to them in plain English (or Chinese or whatever). This makes complex computer interactions available to a much wider audience than any previous computing invention. Adapting humans to the AI is getting that backwards. It's a sign you don't understand the first thing about why AI is so widely successful.

I predict this will be an abject failure and a year from now will quietly be pushed to the very back of the bottom-most drawer, never to be spoken off again (though it is getting crowded in there for M$).

Meanwhile, in the real world, everyone I've talked to about these things already has a skills file to teach the AI about their personal coding style. This is what actual humans came up with, independently several times, and it works: Adapt the AI to you. Plus we've been writing coding style guides for humans for a long time now, we've got plenty of experience doing that at least somewhat right.

Comment Re:Who is eMudhra (Score 5, Interesting) 18

This discussion on their inclusion in Mozilla is quite revealing:

https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbugzilla.mozilla.org%2Fs...

Elsewhere it's claimed that they used a FIPS HSM to generate their keys.

I did not see who their auditor was.

Did eMudhra lie?
Did the auditor lie?
Are FIPS HSM's backdoored?
Do we have another Dual_EC_DRBG situation on our hands here?

If nobody is lying we could have just seen a huge cyberwar or false flag averted. Essential crypto gear could be totally buggered still.

PS Remember when Mozilla gave CACert absolute hell for years when they were tremendously more competent?

Comment Re:In short ... (Score 3, Insightful) 24

Birds are pretty smart, full stop. They're the only group that has a method of creating and using their own hooked tools (Caledonian Crow) other than humans.
They are excellent problem solvers overall. Given their size relative to comparative intellects (Crows are comparable in intellect to monkeys and gorillas), they're absolute marvels.

Comment At the end of the day, it's people. (Score 1) 46

Bioware may well be a shadow of its former self, but at the end of the day, love or hate what they produced in their latter days, it's all people that worked every day to do their best to bring about what management and the employed script writers specified.
There are many posts about graphics being superb, but gameplay lacking. That's a decision by game designers, rather than all the team, many of who are lumbered with knowing it could be better but constrained to produce what the spec and story said.

I feel for the team, each of who would be trying to make a living, and hope that some of the other studios may be able to wrangle increasing head count to absorb some of the EA fallout. Or that some kickstarter will be set up by the now unemployed members to rebuild some of what the old Bioware (and others) were once known for.

Good luck out there, ex EA employees. We'll be cheering you on for a path back to stability!

Comment Re:You cannot destroy data, harmless or not ... (Score 1) 329

Yepp, as I said: The system is built first and foremost to defend itself.

Personally, I don't think that police should have any right whatsoever to enter your digital devices. Yes, including for terrorism and kiddie porn. And I am 100% for us nerds developing defenses against this overreach. This case is a lesson that teaches us distress PINs are a good thing, but we need to improve on them, make it less obvious they were used, etc.

Comment Re: Yes (Score 1) 202

It's not a question of "Germany for the Germans". It's a matter of allowing people who are openly opposed to your culture to become a sizeable minority, while at the same time putting pressure on society in every way in order to extract wealth for the "elites", while at the same time replacing everyone among the "elites" who is actually capable of something with incompetent, corrupt egomaniacs.

If one of these factors were absent, we might yet manage. Competent leaders might be able to keep things together. Not maximizing profit for the few while returning the populations' lives back to peasantry would give ordinary people breathing space to cope with everything and solve issues at the base. Not importing culture war would keep society more cohesive and able to fight back against the exploitation.

Comment damn (Score 1) 135

As a (small) shareholder of both companies, I'm against this move. Not that my opinion counts for much, but these are two companies that are strong each for their own reasons and a merger would muddle that. But maybe that's the point.

We thought the Megacorporations would emerge as vertically integrated all-consumer-products giants. Turns out that a tech bubble beats that.

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