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Comment Re:Yeah yeah... (Score 2) 31

I don't know anything about comics, but according to Wikipedia (IDW):

It was founded in 1999 as the publishing division of Idea and Design Works, LLC (IDW) and is recognized as the fifth-largest comic book publisher in the United States, behind Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, and Image Comics

Wikipedia also links to IDW Publishing States They Will Definitely Be Around For Another Year

So, it doesn't seem that rosy?

Comment Who owns a virtual being? (Score 1) 99

A more interesting question I think is, does anyone own this AI actress?

That is to say - if a company took her likeness, and used other AI to make porn - could "her" agent sue them?

Or in other words, is a purely AI generated likeness even copyrightable, when technically no human made it?

Comment Re:For those getting pitchforks ready (Score 1) 153

If you have induction, how do you feel about the sound of the range? I still have an ancient gas burner (though I did install a good ventilation fan), but when I've cooked on an induction stove elsewhere, it both made an annoying high-pitched squeal (think old CRTs but louder) and had fan noises kicking on and off. It annoyed the crap out of me.

I don't want to get another gas burner, and technologically induction does seem like the clear winner, but the noise thing is really throwing me off. What's your experience?

Comment Re: AI is designed to allow wealth to access skill (Score 1) 78

Our current automation trends will reduce the GDP because there will be less overall economic activity. Fewer people with fewer jobs will buy fewer things and use fewer services reducing the GDP.

AI has already made just about anyone who knows how to use it vastly richer. You can get (often better) medical diagnosis without taking time off from work, navigate a will and a tax return without having to hire a lawyer, figure out how to structure investments without hiring a financial manager, learn exactly what steps to take and what you need to buy to do a home repair. Have an idea of something to sell? You can offload a lot of figuring out market fit, advertising, business structure, etc. People who want to be entrepreneurs have a lot less holding them back.

As for killing economic activity, I realize you view all of those all as net losses to society since no six or seven figure salary professional gets to send a massive bill in the mail. But for my part I am buying **more things** things because AI is helping me find out exactly what I need - often solutions I hadn't realized were available. And I am engaging **more** services for the same reason - not every home repair is feasible with AI help, but I can use it to find out when and what professionals are needed, expected cost, and who is licensed and well-reviewed.

Effectively having an auto-shopper buy all sorts of stuff for me and hire services I previously didn't have time to verify would be a net benefit is supposed to "reduce" economic activity???

If we even buy into the theory that humans or some group of humans will be completely sidelined by the AI economy, to the point they don't have jobs - might not those extraneous humans still want to eat? And might not they turn to finding ways to produce their own food? And wouldn't some of them need to work on the necesssary equipment? And isn't it conceivable they would start trading skills and material for food, mediated by some agreed upon means of exchange? And if some portion of that food or material might be even the least bit useful to anyone in the AI economy, might not they trade with them as well?

There is not going to be an end to economic activity. Economic activity isn't whatever is leftover for humans to do after the machines finish, economic activity is whatever humans (A) want and (B) can obtain. 'A' is limitless; 'B' only increases over time.

Comment Exactly Forward (Score 1) 39

I don't give a shit if some Russian/Kazakh/Malaysian bot farmer wants to take over my phone.

So you do no banking on your phone? Unlikely.

For the 99% of people that do in fact use a phone for banking, protection from lower level criminals is invaluable. For most people there is real financial loss possible from a phone being taken over, at the very least to monitor banking access mechanisms.

Comment Re:Locked in (Score 2) 80

I think that's a total misread of the situation.

Tesco has a contract with VMware. According to Tesco, VMware/Broadcom is now breaking this contract. The point of litigation is to determine which said prevails in this dispute. Of course, during litigation, Tesco will make many claims to show how important they are, and how insidious VMware/Broadom's actions are, all in support of their position. It doesn't mean that they Tesco could go offline at any second (though that is of course possible).

You later said "Tesco sell groceries, like potatoes. Do you think they only have a single potato supplier?"

That's a good point, but the more direct analogy would be it Tesco signed a purchasing agreement with a particular potato vendor where they paid £1m for a certain amount of potatoes over three years. Now let's say that after the first year this particular vendor fails to supply the agreed upon potatoes and won't refund any money. Tesco would undoubtedly sue that one vendor (even though they have multiple potato vendors). I have no doubt that Tesco would likewise claim that "This vendor's refusal to supply us with potatoes is endangering the food supply for Britain and Ireland!"

You wouldn't say that Tesco was "negligent" for trying to enforce a paid contract with that potato vendor, would you?

Comment Most cities really need this (Score 2) 108

Having a wimpy direct path that just goes from Airport - Downtown - Convention center is perfect for a huge number of cities.

So many places it can be really rough to get from the airport to the downtown area any time around rush hour (which in a lot of cities is around a 3-4 hour window).

Some places with rail kind of have this - like the train that goes from Midway into Chicago. But even THAT has a lot of stops and is not great for travelers, even if it's nice for residents.

I also have to say that a system where you are riding in smaller vehicles I am a big fan of because it eliminates the problem where homeless people are just handing up on the train which create danger, nasty messes, and of course awful smells. Though awful smells is not restricted to the homeless of course, that can be any other passengers also so nice to be removed from them too.

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