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Think We're In The Third Act of "AI"

Hilarious.

At Apple's recently concluded annual conference for developers, the company announced that it teamed up with OpenAI to bring its technology to the iPhone and its other devices. It's easy to imagine a huge amount of money changing hands in a deal between a massive corporation and a fast-rising tech firm. But according to a new Bloomberg report, nobody paid anybody in that partnership. Apple is reportedly not paying OpenAI, because it believes that putting its technology in front of hundreds of millions of users is equal to or even better than any kind of monetary payment.

Sure, Jan.

As Bloomberg points out, OpenAI could make money from the deal by convincing Apple users to pay $20 a month for ChatGPT Plus.

Serial Violator

People make mistakes and have momentary leadfoot, but I do not have sympathy for repeat offenders. Driving is dangerous and you aren't just going to hurt yourself!

The accident was the latest example of unsafe driving by Fetterman, according to public records and people with knowledge of the situation. He has received two speeding tickets for violations of at least 24 miles per hour above the speed limit, one in 2016 and one in March, according to Pennsylvania state records. After the ticket this year, when he was driving 34 miles per hour over the limit, he was required by the state to complete a driver’s improvement course, according to a person familiar with the outcome who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the episode. Neither record said exactly where he was driving or how fast he was going.

At other times, aides have said Fetterman has texted and FaceTimed while driving, prompting concern among his staff and fears about riding with him, according to three people with knowledge of staff discussions who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal conversations.

Fetterman’s aides have refrained from messaging him while behind the wheel when they knew he was driving, afraid he would answer them, according to the three people. One aide asked to no longer be required to ride in the car with him after witnessing Fetterman driving unsafely, they said. The concerns sparked an informal practice recently instituted in the office that aides should not be in the car when Fetterman is driving, according to one person familiar with the practice.

Lunch

eat

Standing

Good news, I suppose, but for decades the conservatives on the Court have been inventing higher and higher hurdles for "standing" so this good news is just that there is some limit to their shamelessness.

The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a lawsuit challenging the Food and Drug Administration’s approach to regulating the abortion pill mifepristone with a ruling that will continue to allow the pills to be mailed to patients without an in-person doctor’s visit.

Money Can't Buy You Love

Mostly not, but it can buy you deference, and decades of deference does rot brains.

True of rich guys, true of leading politicians, and certainly true of Supreme Court Justices who have had decades of little aside from press coverage reassuring them of their superior status. Sure "we'd" criticize Scalia's opinions sometimes, but NO ONE CAN DOUBT HE'S A GENIUS. That kind of thing.

Send In Viceroy Bremer

Sure why not.

From think tankers to McKinsey types to Washington bureaucrats, plenty of people are offering proposals. Some focus on the immediate security and governance needs of shell-shocked Palestinians left in Gaza, using terms like “contact group” and “mandate.” Some dream of Gaza soccer stadiums decades from now. The Biden administration, I’m told by U.S. and Arab officials, is coalescing around plans for an interim “Palestinian Council” to govern Gaza and a security coalition in which the U.S. military will play a major role. Even Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — a man accused of deliberately avoiding having a plan, including by a politician who just abandoned his coalition — has, technically, proposed a plan.

"A genocide happened, then everyone got rich."

All just grift and exploitation.

Or maybe it's time for God Emperor Pete Buttigieg I, ruler of Palestine, subsidiary of McKinsey Co.

(joke - Pete seems ok lately)

Morning

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Sure Why Not

Just for fun.

A group of Russian Navy ships, including a nuclear-powered submarine, arrived in Cuba on Wednesday morning in a sign of strengthening ties between the two Cold War allies.

Happy Hour

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Popularism!

I don't think I have to waste my beautiful mind expending effort to explain why this is beyond stupid.

AI could change polling. AI can offer the ability to instantaneously survey and summarize the expressed opinions of individuals and groups across the web, understand trends by demographic, and offer extrapolations to new circumstances and policy issues on par with human experts. The politicians of the (near) future won’t anxiously pester their pollsters for information about the results of a survey fielded last week: they’ll just ask a chatbot what people think.

America's Worst Senator

Rand Paul.

Consensus Dream

I'm not going to listen and maybe it is a perfectly reasonable conversation, but why are issues so often presented in this fashion? As if the goal of politics is to get us to agree rather than a method for resolving disagreements without violence, as a way of choosing policies despite disagreements which always exist?

 

WHY CAN'T JOE BIDEN UNIFY THE COUNTRY??? type of thing. There is never this imagined "unity," just, at times, a desire by the people with the microphones to ignore disagreements, and at times a desire to amplify them.

I Suppose You Have To Have Some Weird Respect For That

I mean it's stupid and it doesn't make him good, but it's certainly easier to fake a bit of contrition for a lighter sentence!

"I have no regrets. I will not say I’m sorry.”

DOJ seeking 7+ years in federal prison for Dale Huttle, a 73-year-old commercial driver who was "one of the more violent participants" in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. pic.twitter.com/CEb1TxQjco

— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) June 12, 2024

There Are Simpler Ways Of Doing These Things

I know this stuff is a bit above my pay grade, but you don't need the computing and power demands of LLMs to consult a recipe database with a pleasing UI, and the latter is likely to give you decent results instead of telling you to use glue as an ingredient because the LLM "read" some reddit shitposts.

Apple struck a deal with OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, to support some of its A.I. capabilities. Requests that its system can’t field will be directed to ChatGPT. For example, a user could say that they have salmon, lemon and tomatoes and want help planning dinner with those ingredients. Users would have to choose to direct those requests to ChatGPT, ensuring that they know that the chatbot — not Apple — is responsible if the answers are unsatisfying. Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, attended the Apple event.

This is Apple putting some distance between themselves and the product, though I don't know they why're bothering at all.

What Is Happening Here

The resolution the UN Security Council adopted yesterday makes clear that the world agrees Hamas should accept the ceasefire-hostage deal on the table.

Israel accepted this deal. If Hamas does not, it will bear full responsibility for prolonging the war. pic.twitter.com/wCglwsa1wE

— Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield (@USAmbUN) June 11, 2024

Full transcript actually does show the absolute absurdity of this.

BLITZER: 14 to nothing with one abstention. That would be Russia. President Biden says this ceasefire plan is Israel's but Prime Minister Netanyahu hasn't publicly accepted it, neither has Hamas. President Biden has said it's time for this war to end. What will this resolution, Ambassador, do to get both sides to accept this deal that's currently on the table?

THOMAS-GREENFIELD: I think the resolution is actually the opportunity to pressure Hamas to accept the deal. Israel has accepted the deal. The president has said that. And now all we need is to have Hamas accept this deal, release hostages that they are required to do in phase one, and move forward on an extended ceasefire. This is an important effort that was made with the support of the Qatari government and the Egyptian government working with us on the ground.

BLITZER: As you say, you say the Israeli government has accepted this deal that's currently on the table, but does the Israeli leader, Prime Minister Netanyahu, need to accept it himself? He's avoided that.

THOMAS-GREENFIELD: Look, I can't speak for Prime Minister Netanyahu. I can only speak what the president has conveyed, and he has conveyed confidence in the Israeli acceptance of this deal. What we need now is Hamas to accept the deal. They welcomed the resolution immediately after it was passed. They need to take the next step and accept the deal and start to release hostages.

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