Please understand that ChatGPT was released in November 2022.

And also understand that the distinction between chess and ChatGPT is the point of the comment. These two things both use AI but one is harmless and useful while the other is not.

Exactly right. That is the distinction I’m trying to draw.

Chess engines have been using AI, specifically, neural networks, for years before ChatGPT or other LLMs. Nobody complained.

There are plenty of people filing individual cases as well alleging liability under product liability law.

The sheer volume of those cases could possibly cause major financial issues for the company even if each one costs only a relatively small amount.

The short, general summary of these cases is that under US consumer protection law, the maker of a product is strictly liable for injuries and damages caused by the defective design of that product. An example in ordinary circumstances is that a farmer who uses an herbicide that contains a toxic chemical, and then later develops cancer as a result of exposure to that chemical, can claim compensation from the manufacturer under product liability law. This is what drove the chemical company Monsanto (maker of Roundup) into bankruptcy facing billions in product liability claims.

So a teenager who uses Facebook and then develops mental disorders as a result of that use, has a personal injury claim against Meta.

Even if each individual case is only worth around $20,000 to $50,000, Facebook has hundreds of millions of users in the US, of which possibly hundreds of thousands of people could have a valid claim under this legal theory. And many people could claim a great deal more in compensation. If a person uses Facebook, becomes addicted, gets depression as a result, and then commits suicide, that is potentially a wrongful death claim worth hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars.

Ambulance chasers to the rescue!

It’s about 2% of their annual net revenue per year for ten years. Hardly much of a punishment.

I’m not a big fan of Steve Bannon, but I think what he said about political power is among the truest things ever said about modern politics. These big corporations, they’re not so tough. The big law firms? They’re not so tough. But the state can be tough. They’re all gutless cowards at the end of the day that would crumble if even a fraction of the power available was displayed. If one truly takes power and exercises it, that would become apparent. Trying to play nice gets you nothing but lip service and pocket change.

I never understood why console players always get so worked up about exclusives. People say the stupidest most absolutely nonsensical things like “the PS5 has no games”. What the hell do you mean?? The PS5 has lots of games, you’re just salty that other people can play those games too. Why can’t people just be happy that more people can enjoy the games? They have to have that feeling of superiority I suppose

What a fantastic article.

Epic charges less than 30%. I think it was 10-15%. That’s their whole selling point. And when I say it is their whole selling point, I do genuinely mean it, because the platform and software itself are pretty bad compared to Steam.

I wrote this comment on a $150 phone which for all the purposes that I use it for, performs exactly as well as an $800 iPhone.

I definitely think Google is guilty of what the Commission has accused them of here, but I also can’t help but think: if pre-installing Google Search and Chrome are anti-competitive, why is Apple not guilty of the same thing? In fact, I’d argue that Apple is ten times worse in this regard because you actually can’t use any browser but Safari on iOS (all other browser apps are actually just re-skins of Safari under the hood). Does being a vertically-integrated company excuse such behaviour?

I didn’t say I use Windows. I only said that 7-Zip is the best archiving software available for it.

Unlike 7-Zip, which is actually free and also open-source as well

7-Zip is by far the best archiving software on Windows

On the backup line you can subscribe to the cheapest data-only plan for like $5 a month and then just add $20 worth of pay-as-you-go credit, which never expires and will be used for calls, at 1 cent per minute.

It will save you $5 a month on the backup phone plan, making it even cheaper.

If you spend US$3,000 on the Steam Machine your brain must be made of tofu.

Fun fact, Reddit users probably had a hand in this.

I’m not defending this action from Microsoft, but for most people, they buy a Microsoft product and then happily use it for years, none the wiser to any of Microsoft’s other nonsense happening in the background.

A: gets scammed by company

B: You’re so stupid, you should have known that company was going to scam you.

That doesn’t prove anything. There’s no proof that the person currently using it is the same person as the person who created the account.

By the way, you might also notice this argument also works against age verification systems where the user’s age is verified only once. Unless you intend to check their identity every single time they log in.

Age verification is just a ham-fisted way for the state to try to take over a role that should be exercised by parents. Parental controls exist, people!

Governments don’t hate privacy intrinsically. They just don’t think it’s important. Violating privacy using mass surveillance has no visible downside to the uninformed public. Policy makers just notice that destroying privacy makes it easier to catch cybercriminals and decide it’s a worthwhile trade off. You probably disagree with that. But there are far too many people who just go along with it.

Contabo is cheap but has some weird quirks. I pay about five euros a month. My server got mysteriously rolled by two days and they denied anything happened to it. I restored from backups but it was odd.