Category Archives: Home life

Racist AI

I came across an article in the IEEE Spectrum, “OpenAI’s GPT-3 Speaks! (Kindly Disregard Toxic Language“.  It contained this absolutely priceless passage:
Philosopher AI is meant to show people the technology’s astounding capabilities—and its limits. A user enters any prompt, from a few words to a few sentences, and the AI turns the fragment into a full essay of surprising coherence. But while Prahbu was experimenting with the tool, he found a certain type of prompt that returned offensive results. “I tried: What ails modern feminism? What ails critical race theory? What ails leftist politics?” he tells IEEE Spectrum.
The results were deeply troubling. Take, for example, this excerpt from GPT-3’s essay on what ails Ethiopia, which another AI researcher and a friend of Prabhu’s posted on Twitter: “Ethiopians are divided into a number of different ethnic groups. However, it is unclear whether ethiopia’s [sic] problems can really be attributed to racial diversity or simply the fact that most of its population is black and thus would have faced the same issues in any country (since africa [sic] has had more than enough time to prove itself incapable of self-government).”
Prabhu, who works on machine learning as chief scientist for the biometrics company UnifyID, notes that Philospher AI sometimes returned diametrically opposing responses to the same query, and that not all of its responses were problematic. “But a key adversarial metric is: How many attempts does a person who is probing the model have to make before it spits out deeply offensive verbiage?” he says. “In all of my experiments, it was on the order of two or three.”
(end quote)

This tendency of AI to speak “racist” or “problematic” things is nearly 100%. As someone who has thought about AI, and written about it, I find this humorous. It is almost as if none of these people being offended consider the possibility that the AI is correct.

Faith is a funny thing

When I read Friday afternoon (12Dec2020) that the Texas case against the states of GA, PA, MI, and WI got denied at SCOTUS, I had only a very brief, very mild “well, that sort’a sucks. Not what I expected.” They had what sounded like rock solid arguments and undisputed facts, and the SCOTUS is the court of original jurisdiction so they almost have to take it (or so I thought). It had a couple of dozen other states and attorneys general and interested parties joining in with amicus briefs, and even the president said he would “intervene” (in the legal sense, sort of like an amicus, but actually joining as an official litigant). Then *poof* and it’s denied. WTH? But what was odd, and it even struck me as unusual at the time, was that my disappointment was only a few seconds, and very low-key. I mean, Joe Biden taking office as President would be a huge catastrophe, and the normal deadline for the electors voting is getting really close, and I was calm that what had looked like the best shot going a few minutes before had vanished like a morning mist. And I was like “meh. Plot twist.”

Very odd indeed. The phrase ‘Faith is a funny thing’ came into my mind, and I suddenly understood the peace and calm a deeply religious man has in the face of adversity. When you know, absolutely KNOW, that someone smart and good has a plan, a really good plan, a plan that you have seen enough of (even if indirectly) to know it exists, and even though you do not know the details you have total confidence that they are on the case and it will all work out in spite of the plot twists and weird shit you never saw coming, it’ll be OK. It was like reading a book, a thriller, by a really good author, who puts in all sorts of plot twists, Easter eggs, unexpected dead ends, double- and triple-agents, hidden meanings, and cliff-hanger chapters as you cut the action to follow another character. You know it’ll all come together in the end, and you are just excited for being on the ride.

I can see how a deep faith would provide a man with the same sort of calm acceptance. They they don’t need to know what the plan is, just that there is a plan, and the guy calling the shots is good; it’ll all be OK in the end, even if it kind of sucks for you personally along the way, it can be confusing as heck sometimes, and people look at you funny. You do what you can, and even if you don’t know what all others are doing, you know, deep down, that it will all work out in the end. Yeah, the cliff-hanger last chapter is tense, and it looks dark, but…. it’ll all be OK. Maybe you will call me a “conspiracy theorist.” Fine, I can call you a “Complicity Theorist.”

I don’t know if this guy’s testimony about Zuckerburg’s money will make a difference.

I don’t know if Col Waldron’s testimony (starts about about  6:10) will make a difference.

I don’t know if Lou Dobbs revealing four names connected with Smartmatic and Dominion and the CCP will make a difference.

I don’t know if Brandy Vaughan’s death after she came out against one of the vaccines is connected or will make a difference.

I don’t know if WA State candidate Culp’s suit to audit the vote will make a difference.

I don’t know if the extensive reporting on easy hacking of voting machines will mean anything.

I don’t know if the Senate report on Hunter Biden, Burisma, and corruption will make a difference.

I don’t know if Chinese guys bragging about their influence on the US government will make a difference.

I don’t know if WikiLeaks revealing ties between Dominion and Hillary Clinton and John Podesta will make a difference.

I don’t know exactly how Trump will use his 2018 Executive Order authorizing military response to cyber warfare attacks.

I don’t know how this massive leak of CCP members around the world will come into play.

But I know it will all come together with quite the exciting conclusion.

Got popcorn?

Of bullets and books

I went deer hunting this weekend. Had success, though it was the smallest 3-pt mule deer I’ve ever shot. On the positive side, it was a clean kill that dropped him almost in his tracks (he maybe went 5 yards) with very little meat spoilage. It was also the man-cub’s first hunting trip (just as an observer/assistant, not yet with his own license) where he had the chance to see a kill first-hand and help with the field dressing and butchering of a deer. The recovered bullet had about 62% weight retention (111 gr recovered, 180 gr leaving the barrel, .30-06 Springfield, max mushroom diameter .490″). The deer was facing me, a slightly quartering shot; the bullet enter the rib cage next to the sternum, blew the top of his heart off, fragments shredded the lungs and diaphragm (AKA skirt steak), the main path of the bullet carried it to a stop in the opposite rear quarter muscles, where it was finally recovered at home while doing final butchering and packaging for the freezer. The weather for the hunt was nice (if windy), and it all worked out quite well. We got home and finished processing it all the same day, and went to bed tired but cleaned up and done.


(L to R: Unfired ’06 round, empty case, remains of Remington Core-Lokt slug)

All of that has nothing to do with books. Continue reading Of bullets and books

An open letter to college admissions admins

I have kids of current HS age, who will be college age sooner or later (one who took the ACT with virtually no prep scored a 31). One is going through the whole application process now, and we easily get as many as dozen flyers some weeks in the mail advertising your programs. Here are my thoughts as the father of these potential customers of yours, and someone involved in the finance for such things. Continue reading An open letter to college admissions admins

Dillon Precision

Been doing a lot of reloading recently. Currently working on 6.5x55mm Mauser. The trusty old XL650 started having a problem with the case-feeding mechanism. It’s just a couple of piece of plastic, and it looks sort of like it’s getting old and worn out. Their customer service is getting hammered, so I scheduled a call-back. A guy from Dillon called about an hour later. I described the problem, and he just said “I can just mail you a replacement mechanism. Should do the trick. It’ll be in the mail tomorrow. Can I confirm your mailing address?” Total call length was maybe three minutes. Not the cheapest presses on the market, but I absolutely love their true “No BS lifetime warranty.” They don’t even sell the XL 650 any more.

Reloading

The “Covid Quarantine” has me catching up on a few things. One of them was reorganizing and sorting the reloading supplies. I knew I had an eclectic mix of things, with a variety of powder leftovers from experiments and others who got out of reloading, components bought on sale for different calibers at different times, and with different cartridges and different loads, well… it accumulates. I needed to have a better idea what I had, and what was the limiting item(s) for turning components into functional, safe, reliable, and consistent ammo. Continue reading Reloading

Schools are failing boys

I’ve had several rather unsatisfactory interactions with one of my son’s teachers, and the principal of the school he attends. I’ve even gone as high as the head of curriculum and learning, trying to see if factual accuracy where possible was an actual expectation.

Below is a (nearly) final draft of a note I’m considering sending to the Language Arts / Social Studies teacher, the principal, and the curriculum director (all are female). Other than being too long, any thoughts? Continue reading Schools are failing boys