@KeithD@lemmy.nz

comments

• No, that’s just them signalling not to land there.

  on FAA tees up $875M AI tool to help manage air traffic congestion in c/technology@lemmy.world · 3d ago

• Ah, so that’s the context on that video. I ignored it due to the clickbait title and thumbnail. I’ve been ignoring a lot of his videos lately.

  on We Could Get Sued for This - Gamers Nexus in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 5 Sep 2026

• I don’t think that’s true in the way you appear to mean (sorry if I misunderstood). People who are already experts on the subject matter might be able to use better keywords and discard hallucinatory material quicker, but I don’t believe that you can generically “be good at prompting” outside of an area where you have substantial domain knowledge.

  There are ways of phrasing LLM requests that can actively induce them to give you made-up bullshit that confirms your pre-existing assumptions. Which is fine if that’s what you want it to produce, but often not what people actually want. For (possibly poor, given I don’t actually use LLMs) example “give me the transcripts for five court cases for assault with a deadly fish” would likely result in five-ish almost-certainly made-up court transcripts. Someone who knows what they’re doing could phrase the prompt to be more likely to say that no such cases exist (assuming no such cases actually exist) instead of just hallucinating them as per the request.

  And you might be right about domain knowledge being required for good prompting. But it’s possible to have domain knowledge and still be terrible at asking for what you actually want it to produce.

  not to mention that they’re an “intern” who actually costs the same in computing power as two senior engineers’ salary.

  Don’t expect me to defend the moronic economic decisions of companies that have jumped on this stupid band-wagon without regard for the actual value (or lack thereof) to their business.

  on Linus Torvalds used AI to fix a Linux bug, and now LLM critics on Linux face an uncomfortable choice in c/technology@lemmy.world · 2 Sep 2026

• I especially like his most recent use of LLMs.

  Specifically as a threat to induce someone else to step up as a maintainer of the debug tool sparse.

  on Linus Torvalds used AI to fix a Linux bug, and now LLM critics on Linux face an uncomfortable choice in c/technology@lemmy.world · 2 Sep 2026

• Good point. I probably should have stated “using LLMs for technical tasks that anyone cares about the results of”.

  I’m not going to claim LLMs are trustworthy, but I am saying that there are ways to ask things that either reduce the odds of it giving you false things or actively cause it to provide wrong answers with misstated or hallucinated context. People who know what they’re doing can get better results out of them. This doesn’t stop them from being the equivalent of a nepo-hire intern, but it could be said to change whether they’re a malicious, apathetic, or semi-eager nepo-hire intern.

  And one of the big risks with LLMs is staff who can recognise bullshit or questionable results being replaced with staff who unquestioningly accept whatever results they get. And people reading an “AI summary” of something and assuming it’s actually accurate.

  on Linus Torvalds used AI to fix a Linux bug, and now LLM critics on Linux face an uncomfortable choice in c/technology@lemmy.world · 2 Sep 2026

• Writing an appropriate prompt is a skill. Many (most?) people using LLMs aren’t using prompts that give them what they actually want, in many cases because they don’t understand the thing they’re trying to ask for, but also in many cases because they don’t know how to ask for it while avoiding the many possible pitfalls that come with uncareful prompts (including, but not limited to, hallucination and bias).

  Personally I haven’t bothered learning that skill yet, largely because I don’t want that crap shoved in my face all the damned time, and have little use for it anyway. But it’s still a skill.

  on Linus Torvalds used AI to fix a Linux bug, and now LLM critics on Linux face an uncomfortable choice in c/technology@lemmy.world · 2 Sep 2026

• I propose they compromise by going out of business after deleting all data and removing their cameras from everywhere.

  on Flock CEO calls for ‘compromise’ as surveillance company faces growing backlash | TechCrunch in c/technology@lemmy.world · 24 Aug 2026

• I played it in one of their free play weekends, and it had so many glitches. I spent an afternoon and evening trying to play it and have never bothered with it again.

  on What are some cool/decent PC games that are not on Steam? in c/games@lemmy.world · 18 Aug 2026

• It’s close enough to already be in use in some chinese cars. But definitely better for stationary use cases where density matters less.

  on New sodium-ion battery skips mechanical cooling with 97.9% efficiency in c/technology@lemmy.world · 10 Aug 2026

• Or gallium hydride? GaH.

  on New sodium-ion battery skips mechanical cooling with 97.9% efficiency in c/technology@lemmy.world · 10 Aug 2026

• Not sure about them, but some banks have more features on the phone app than on the web. Bloody annoying.

  on GrapheneOS says Revolut is blocking its users over Google Play checks in c/technology@lemmy.world · 8 Aug 2026