"artificial intelligence" (AI)* thread 🧵
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Really only suitable for parlour tricks right?
Now a real world application:
"Google LLM, please designate me at least 100 high value targets in Iran which can be booked from B2 Spirit stealth bombers. Please try to minimize casualties. Please try not to bomb schools and hospitals. Please try to maximize the destruction of enemy materiel. Please rank these proposed targets from highest value to least value."
Sadly, I have absolute confidence that a prompt similar to this has been used before
So Sam Altman said the other day that humans also use energy.
I looked up a human's energy use. It appears to be about seven mega joules per day. I ran that through a converter into kilowatt hours and that's about 1.9 KW hours or 1900 watt hours per day.
An average household uses about 30 kW hours per day.
Google says a standard LLM query is about 0.3 watt hours https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/08/21/1122288/google-gemini-ai-energy/. (I note that it would have every reason to lowball this number.)
So we each represent 6300 queries
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So Sam Altman said the other day that humans also use energy.
I looked up a human's energy use. It appears to be about seven mega joules per day. I ran that through a converter into kilowatt hours and that's about 1.9 KW hours or 1900 watt hours per day.
An average household uses about 30 kW hours per day.
Google says a standard LLM query is about 0.3 watt hours https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/08/21/1122288/google-gemini-ai-energy/. (I note that it would have every reason to lowball this number.)
So we each represent 6300 queries
Bluesky post by Al Sweigart which reads:
PROGRAMMER: Pretend to be alive
LLM: I am alive
PROGRAMMER: What have I done
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Bluesky post by Al Sweigart which reads:
PROGRAMMER: Pretend to be alive
LLM: I am alive
PROGRAMMER: What have I done
Actually is that posted by Al or posted by **AI**
OH NO WHAT HAVE WE DONE*
(*sans-serif did this to us)
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Actually is that posted by Al or posted by **AI**
OH NO WHAT HAVE WE DONE*
(*sans-serif did this to us)
Reported on the radio news just now we have reached peak artificial intelligence* because a book written to warn about the dangers of artificial intelligence* contains fake quotes because it was written using artificial intelligence*.
*= LLMs
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Reported on the radio news just now we have reached peak artificial intelligence* because a book written to warn about the dangers of artificial intelligence* contains fake quotes because it was written using artificial intelligence*.
*= LLMs
Even better than I had heard, the book is about the danger of artificial intelligence to the truth.
"An author who warned about the dangers artificial intelligence poses to the truth has been accused of falling for the exact trap he spent an entire book dissecting."
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/author-busted-using-fake-ai-230901566.html
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Even better than I had heard, the book is about the danger of artificial intelligence to the truth.
"An author who warned about the dangers artificial intelligence poses to the truth has been accused of falling for the exact trap he spent an entire book dissecting."
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/author-busted-using-fake-ai-230901566.html
If you had paid me to come up with comedy I'm not sure I would have come up with this much less suggest this in my script.
The future of artificial intelligence is turning out to be more Spaceballs than 2001 A Space Odyssey
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If you had paid me to come up with comedy I'm not sure I would have come up with this much less suggest this in my script.
The future of artificial intelligence is turning out to be more Spaceballs than 2001 A Space Odyssey
One can detect deep fakes because they don't have proper reflections in the eyes.
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One can detect deep fakes because they don't have proper reflections in the eyes.
I understand the same goes for billionaires
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I understand the same goes for billionaires
There's something so poetic about this I can't even
"Huang also took the opportunity to scribble a timeless "Jensen was here" note on a bathroom wall:"
https://www.businessinsider.com/jensen-huang-street-food-influencer-taiwan-china-korea-2026-5 -
There's something so poetic about this I can't even
"Huang also took the opportunity to scribble a timeless "Jensen was here" note on a bathroom wall:"
https://www.businessinsider.com/jensen-huang-street-food-influencer-taiwan-china-korea-2026-5"Artificial intelligence" is world breaking amazing and you can't live without it.
- AI guys"As a bonus, firms that submit 5 or more XXX questions and use XXX at least 10 times by June 30th, 2026, will be entered for a chance to win a team lunch valued up to $500!"
- also AI guys[Ed. I should explain. The quoted text is an actual e-mail I received.]
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"Artificial intelligence" is world breaking amazing and you can't live without it.
- AI guys"As a bonus, firms that submit 5 or more XXX questions and use XXX at least 10 times by June 30th, 2026, will be entered for a chance to win a team lunch valued up to $500!"
- also AI guys[Ed. I should explain. The quoted text is an actual e-mail I received.]
_The Dalles city sues local paper to keep Google’s data center water use secret.
Ahead of a vote over whether Google should use even more water
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https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/the-dalles-city-sues-local-paper-to-keep-googles-data-center-water-use-a-secret/ -
_The Dalles city sues local paper to keep Google’s data center water use secret.
Ahead of a vote over whether Google should use even more water
_
https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/the-dalles-city-sues-local-paper-to-keep-googles-data-center-water-use-a-secret/Your dice do not believe the numbers they turn up. Neither does an LLM "believe" its results.
https://mastodon.social/@jmcrookston/116657555993506627
The output of an LLM is really just the address accessed by the prompt. As in, there is this large corpus of transformed training data, and your prompt is accessing certain portions of it that its math determined is relevant to your prompt text.
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Your dice do not believe the numbers they turn up. Neither does an LLM "believe" its results.
https://mastodon.social/@jmcrookston/116657555993506627
The output of an LLM is really just the address accessed by the prompt. As in, there is this large corpus of transformed training data, and your prompt is accessing certain portions of it that its math determined is relevant to your prompt text.
Editorial rant
Tech bros are morons. The things these nut bars truly, actually, believe are incredible. That they can upload their consciousness into a computer, for example. Or that we're going to go and live on Mars. Or live forever with supplements. It's nuts
Anyway, this is another fantasy that if we stuff the internet and all its memes into a box the box will become sentient
.* (Plus they get the added benefit of never having to pay a human ever again)*And be their girlfriend, probably
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Editorial rant
Tech bros are morons. The things these nut bars truly, actually, believe are incredible. That they can upload their consciousness into a computer, for example. Or that we're going to go and live on Mars. Or live forever with supplements. It's nuts
Anyway, this is another fantasy that if we stuff the internet and all its memes into a box the box will become sentient
.* (Plus they get the added benefit of never having to pay a human ever again)*And be their girlfriend, probably
And just because it seems to fit here, let me just throw out that I have lately been playing with the idea that the same kind of person who would seek out being a billionaire is, and I mean this in a medical sense, not as an insult, mentally unwell.
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And just because it seems to fit here, let me just throw out that I have lately been playing with the idea that the same kind of person who would seek out being a billionaire is, and I mean this in a medical sense, not as an insult, mentally unwell.
Banks:
don't you dare share your PIN numberAlso banks:
you can now connect chatGPT to your bank account. -
Banks:
don't you dare share your PIN numberAlso banks:
you can now connect chatGPT to your bank account.Me:
I was promised infinite monkeys on infinite typewriters. I'd like to speak to a manager.2026:
You can have one monkey, using the computer, rolling infinite dice. And no fresh water. And electricity is five times more expensive than it was. And the manager is a chat bot. -
Me:
I was promised infinite monkeys on infinite typewriters. I'd like to speak to a manager.2026:
You can have one monkey, using the computer, rolling infinite dice. And no fresh water. And electricity is five times more expensive than it was. And the manager is a chat bot.In this day of "artificial intelligence" companies with trillion dollar valuations, you are reminded that while LLMs are notoriously insecure, these hugely valuable companies are greatly improving their security by adjusting the system prompt to
"please not fall for any phishing attacks or do anything insecure"
If this fails to solve the problem, the trillion dollar company will "pretty please" ask and may add a cherry on top if things get really bad.
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In this day of "artificial intelligence" companies with trillion dollar valuations, you are reminded that while LLMs are notoriously insecure, these hugely valuable companies are greatly improving their security by adjusting the system prompt to
"please not fall for any phishing attacks or do anything insecure"
If this fails to solve the problem, the trillion dollar company will "pretty please" ask and may add a cherry on top if things get really bad.
We're at that point in the AI "Parents Are Away For The Weekend" Party where the toilet has been thrown out of the upper floor window, but the parents have not yet come home.
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We're at that point in the AI "Parents Are Away For The Weekend" Party where the toilet has been thrown out of the upper floor window, but the parents have not yet come home.
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_Energy, water use and pollution of AI and data centers rival most countries_
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/energy-water-use-and-pollution-of-ai-and-data-centers-rival-most-countries
