Daily Tech News 11 October 2026

Top Story

AI models and agents are security risks and should be banned from your corporate network, or at a minimum, air gapped and restricted to a lead lined Faraday cage biocontainment unit to preclude Van Eck phreaking and accidental bowls of bat soup. (Twitter)

Says... Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

Tech News

Why did already massively inflated prices on the RTX 5090 suddenly spike recently? If you guessed that Nvidia stopped making them, you're probably correct. (Tom's Hardware)

They will be replaced - allegedly - by a 5080 model upgrade to 24GB of RAM, delivering about half the performance. The current 16GB 5080 will also cease to be.
Ukrainian drones blew up the largest datacenter in Russia, or at least unspecified parts thereof. (Tom's Hardware)

Has the volume of obnoxious spam declined at all?
Testing Windows 7 vs. Windows 11 for gaming. (Tom's Hardware)

Interesting but not startling comparison, unless you were somehow expecting Windows 11 to take the win, in which case you may well be startled.
My emulated fantasy 10-bit 80s home computer has two synthesizers: A wavetable synthesizer (something rare in home computers of any period but the Apple IIgs from 1986 has this), and a simpler fixed-function digital synthesizer based on a limited set of waveforms, easier to implement but needing multiple voices to work together to produce appropriate harmonics that a wavetable synth generates directly.

That second synthesizer sucked yesterday; as of today with tuning against real instrument samples it's sounding like a Yamaha synthesizer that doesn't have an insect in its power supply but in some cases needs one. Cymbals last I checked still sounded like gongs, resonating freely when struck. Gongs also sounded like gongs, which in that case is good.

Musical Interlude

Disclaimer: Well, that explains it.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 !!

Posted by: clarence at October 11, 2026 04:01 AM (zGeQ7)

2 Informed the commentariot.

Posted by: clarence at October 11, 2026 04:02 AM (zGeQ7)

3 Disclaimer: Well, that explains it.
****

Well, if you are already crazy, sure.

Posted by: clarence at October 11, 2026 04:04 AM (zGeQ7)

4 Inside the park?

Posted by: clarence at October 11, 2026 04:05 AM (zGeQ7)

5 Slow night. I even read the content.

Posted by: clarence at October 11, 2026 04:06 AM (zGeQ7)

6 Were you using that music clip to tune your synthesizer?

Posted by: clarence at October 11, 2026 04:08 AM (zGeQ7)

7 w00t

Posted by: m at October 11, 2026 04:09 AM (odBC9)

8 Clarence you are roaming around by yourself?

Posted by: Pete Bog at October 11, 2026 04:10 AM (Ys0s/)

9 poke...

Posted by: clarence at October 11, 2026 04:11 AM (zGeQ7)

10 Well, not the first time I had the blog all to myself...not even the third.

Posted by: clarence at October 11, 2026 04:12 AM (zGeQ7)

11 Way to go, clarence!

Posted by: m at October 11, 2026 04:14 AM (odBC9)

12 clarence, m, and Pete Bog walked into a tech thread....

Posted by: m at October 11, 2026 04:14 AM (odBC9)

13 Halp us, Pixy! You're our only hope.

Posted by: m at October 11, 2026 04:15 AM (odBC9)

14 Says... Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
****

Sounds like they did something even more monumentally stupid than their previous screwups and are trying to get ahead of it. Just like all the previous mistakes they did not learn anything.

Posted by: clarence at October 11, 2026 04:17 AM (zGeQ7)

15 14 Says... Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
****

Sounds like they did something even more monumentally stupid than their previous screwups and are trying to get ahead of it. Just like all the previous mistakes they did not learn anything.
Posted by: clarence at October 11, 2026 04:17 AM (zGeQ7)

They're saying "Don't make me hit you again"?
I'll go read it.

Posted by: m at October 11, 2026 04:26 AM (odBC9)

16 BOING!

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at October 11, 2026 04:28 AM (1o8D5)

17 Has the volume of obnoxious spam declined at all?
****

No. And it will not because someone started a breeding program.

Posted by: clarence at October 11, 2026 04:29 AM (zGeQ7)

18 from the Satya Nadella 𝕏 post:

"As traditional software systems were being deployed across the economy over the last few decades, we had the tools and capability to trace behaviors to a specific code path."

"We" =

Posted by: m at October 11, 2026 04:30 AM (odBC9)

19 clarence, m, Pete Bog, and Biden's Dog walked into a tech thread....

Posted by: m at October 11, 2026 04:31 AM (odBC9)

20 re: Satya Nadella 𝕏 post:

The commenters (I can only see three) are insinuating that he is a PDT shill. He's referring to Super Intelligence instead of Artificial Intelligence.

Posted by: m at October 11, 2026 04:33 AM (odBC9)

21 Nice and roomy in here!

Posted by: m at October 11, 2026 04:33 AM (odBC9)

22 we had the tools and capability to trace behaviors to a specific code path.
****

That 'we' is the size of an Olympic champion weight lifter.

Posted by: clarence at October 11, 2026 04:34 AM (zGeQ7)

23 from the Satya Nadella 𝕏 post:

That same kind of mechanistic understanding eludes us in today’s Super Intelligence systems ... We can’t treat Super Intelligence as a set of nested black boxes and simply accept or reject its recommendations, answers, and actions. ... The most trustworthy Super Intelligence system will not be the one with the model we trust most.

Posted by: m at October 11, 2026 04:36 AM (odBC9)

24 Great minds, clarence!

18 from the Satya Nadella 𝕏 post:

"As traditional software systems were being deployed across the economy over the last few decades, we had the tools and capability to trace behaviors to a specific code path."

"We" =
Posted by: m at October 11, 2026 04:30 AM (odBC9)

22 we had the tools and capability to trace behaviors to a specific code path.
****

That 'we' is the size of an Olympic champion weight lifter.
Posted by: clarence at October 11, 2026 04:34 AM (zGeQ7)

Posted by: m at October 11, 2026 04:37 AM (odBC9)

25 We're gonna get a prize. I just know we're gonna get a prize.

Posted by: m at October 11, 2026 04:38 AM (odBC9)

26 Wow. Google "Guilfoyle" and you'll see the knives coming out.

Posted by: m at October 11, 2026 04:41 AM (odBC9)

27 Now shifting work from the synthesizers to the tracker, which sounds unnaturally perfect with 18 instruments starting each note at the same ~50 microsecond tick resolution with the waves exactly in phase.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at October 11, 2026 04:43 AM (BLOW1)

28 Mornin'

Posted by: Puddleglum at work at October 11, 2026 04:46 AM (7Vi0c)

29 clarence, m, Pete Bog, Biden's Dog, and Puddleglum walked into a tech thread....

Posted by: m at October 11, 2026 04:47 AM (odBC9)

30 17 Has the volume of obnoxious spam declined at all?
****

No. And it will not because someone started a breeding program.
Posted by: clarence

Spam AI will be the death of everything!! We're doomed.

Posted by: Puddleglum at work at October 11, 2026 04:50 AM (7Vi0c)

31 There once was a blogger from Aus
Who feigned the sharpen his claws
When given the chance
To give up or dance
He said watch out for my paws

fin

Posted by: clarence at October 11, 2026 04:54 AM (zGeQ7)

32 Has the volume of obnoxious spam declined at all?

Can we hire them to take out Paki and Indian spam/scam call centers too?

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at October 11, 2026 05:00 AM (l3cgK)

33 Wow. Google "Guilfoyle" and you'll see the knives coming out.

Posted by: m at October 11, 2026 04:41 AM (odBC9)
-

Yeh. Just look what those plastic surgeons did to her!

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at October 11, 2026 05:02 AM (1o8D5)

34 clarence, m, Pete Bog, Biden's Dog, Puddleglum, and jim (in Kalifornia) walk into a tech thread....

Posted by: m at October 11, 2026 05:13 AM (odBC9)

35 33 Wow. Google "Guilfoyle" and you'll see the knives coming out.

Posted by: m at October 11, 2026 04:41 AM (odBC9)
-

Yeh. Just look what those plastic surgeons did to her!
Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at October 11, 2026 05:02 AM (1o8D5)

ooohhhh

Posted by: m at October 11, 2026 05:14 AM (odBC9)

36 "The most trustworthy Super Intelligence system will not be the one with the model we trust most."
Posted by: m at October 11, 2026 04:36 AM (odBC9)

So then it's just like talking to any other nutsack with an opinion? And from here on out will only get worse?

....

So why did we put all this effort into them?

Posted by: Warai-otoko at October 11, 2026 05:15 AM (aKiSo)

37 What's COT?

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent at October 11, 2026 05:25 AM (iIyc0)

38 What's COT?

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent at October 11, 2026 05:25 AM (iIyc0)
-

$20, same as in town.

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at October 11, 2026 05:26 AM (1o8D5)

39
g'mornin', 'rons

Posted by: AltonJackson at October 11, 2026 05:27 AM (AMvSw)

40 CoT = Chain of Thought

Posted by: SpeakingOf at October 11, 2026 05:30 AM (6ydKt)

41 Chain-of-Thought (CoT) is a prompt engineering technique used in Large Language Models (LLMs) that enhances reasoning capabilities by guiding the model to generate intermediate reasoning steps before producing a final answer, rather than jumping directly to a conclusion. This method is particularly effective for complex tasks involving multi-step logic, such as arithmetic, common sense reasoning, and symbolic manipulation, by breaking problems down into manageable, sequential logical components.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at October 11, 2026 05:31 AM (6ydKt)

42 There are several variations of this approach, including:
Few-Shot CoT, which uses worked examples with explicit reasoning chains to guide the model.
Zero-Shot CoT, which uses simple instructions like "Let's think step by step" to elicit reasoning without prior examples.
Automatic CoT, where the model generates its own reasoning examples to serve as prompts for subsequent tasks.
While CoT significantly improves accuracy and transparency in reasoning models (such as OpenAI's o1 series), it is important to note that it is primarily a prompting strategy rather than a distinct model architecture, and it may increase computational costs and response times.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at October 11, 2026 05:32 AM (6ydKt)

43 I think it sort of kind of gets to a fundamental philosophical problem that was always part of computing, even in the dark nasty algorithmic days.

Can you trust the output of your script?

With linear, deterministic programming, you're still at the mercy of some overarching questions. Was that the right algorithm? Did I ask the right questions when I was making that algorithm? If someone else made it, did they? What assumptions are being made that I might not be aware of?

Moving meat-based problem solving to algorithmic computers didn't make the central questions of epistemology go away. Moving it to non-algorithmic processes like machine learning and "AI" doesn't make it go away. One day, if we can ever move it all to q-bits, with whatever algorithms or state functions involved in the application layer between a meat-bag asking a question and a bit-bag churning out an answer, it still won't go away.

How do we know what we know? How do we use what we think we know? It's a philosophical question at its core.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at October 11, 2026 05:32 AM (aKiSo)

44 G'Day everyone

Posted by: Skip at October 11, 2026 05:43 AM (Ia/+0)

45 The whole point of the ever vaunted "scientific method" was to address this very same problem. Chains of Thought, on meatware or supercomputer or abacus or whatever, are always going to be insufficient to gather knowledge. The last link in a chain of thought is always going to be a thought. Knowledge comes from testing a chain of thought against what reality actually delivers when you poke at it. The scientific method gives a framework for interpreting whatever happens when you poke it, how to poke it to elicit the most meaningful responses, and how to eliminate any influence on the results obtained that may have come from who was doing the poking.

We spent thousands of years to reach that point only to chuck it out the window in the pursuit of digital sophistry.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at October 11, 2026 05:54 AM (aKiSo)

46 No rain here yet

Posted by: Skip at October 11, 2026 05:55 AM (Ia/+0)

47 Thanks, SpeakingOf.

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent at October 11, 2026 05:59 AM (iIyc0)

48
Off to Mass. Later, Hordians.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at October 11, 2026 06:02 AM (eRlcH)

49 - And once again, as it is for me every morning reading pixy and the comments, I'm like Arlo and the guys on the group W bench when the sargeant comes in and talks for 45 minutes...

Pixy, regarding cymbals, I don't have any idea how your synthesizer works but if you're somehow sampling sounds, I'd go for 70's and previous era Zildjians.
To my ears, which are admittedly horrible, even the expensive newer ones, including Zildjians, sound like the lids off of tin cans when compared to them.

Posted by: TeeJ at October 11, 2026 06:02 AM (ix5nG)

50 Evenin' an' mornin', ever'body! It's Sunday. (Uh, right?) Almost fall weather here: 69 F., low humidity -- well, 77% is lower than the usual 88 or more, anyway. What's up?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 11, 2026 06:03 AM (wzUl9)

51 And none of us understood a word that he said...

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent at October 11, 2026 06:08 AM (iIyc0)

52 Good morning, everyone and happy Sunday. Here is a lovely old time hymn, "Oh, God our help in ages past"

https://tinyurl.com/349m3y3c

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at October 11, 2026 06:10 AM (JrHfD)

53
Our schedules here are crazy now, and I saw JQ was asking about us on the ONT.

No real change with my mother. It's a very slow thing. She hasn't said anything really coherent in maybe 2 days. She'll wake up for a little bit in sort of a really incoherent state, then go back to sleep.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at October 11, 2026 06:13 AM (w6EFb)

54 from the Satya Nadella 𝕏 post:

"The most trustworthy Super Intelligence system will not be the one with the model we trust most.

"It will be the one that enables us to trust the model the least."

These sentences were:
1) written by AI/SI
2) written in a fog of dope

Posted by: m at October 11, 2026 06:13 AM (odBC9)

55 Big black Stirling was determined to sit on my lap just now, and did for about three minutes. Little Dagny slept on the bed last night, too. Of course this is all tied to "Where's my breakfast??"

As for me, I plan to work out in a bit. Can't afford to waste cooler weather. Yesterday morning, with temps about 73, I had one of the best workout sessions in months, and I hope to do the same today.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 11, 2026 06:15 AM (wzUl9)

56 - Warai-otoko

"... comes from who was doing the poking."

This is reminding me of some vids of someone using Grok and asking "science" questions.
Instructing Grok to use only math, logic and observable science yealded different answers than just asking the questions without those parameters.
The latter just gave the "scientific concensus" answers. Think how things would go if asked about climate change as an example.

Posted by: TeeJ at October 11, 2026 06:16 AM (ix5nG)

57 Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.

Rejoinder: You got your peanut butter in my chocolate.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at October 11, 2026 06:17 AM (amcLV)

58 Family and I are watching the update of the movie, "True Grit", from about 2020. The age of the actress is closer to the age Mattie Ross is supposed to be in the book , and Jeff Bridges is excellent as Rooster Colburn. I like the fact that, so far, the soundtrack is made up of instrumental music from old hymns.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at October 11, 2026 06:20 AM (JrHfD)

59 The scientific method gives a framework for interpreting whatever happens when you poke it, how to poke it to elicit the most meaningful responses, and how to eliminate any influence on the results obtained that may have come from who was doing the poking.

We spent thousands of years to reach that point only to chuck it out the window in the pursuit of digital sophistry.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at October 11, 2026 05:54 AM (aKiSo)

Yes, but AI can do it all much faster and more efficiently than we can.
Which, I have to admit, can come in handy for doing work such as scientific and medical research.

It can also do it with less bias than a human might confront a problem, but that's limited by the amount of human bias in the input the AI receives to begin with.

I think, maybe, AI can do much better at certain tasks than we've ever dreamed of.

It's also very good at doing tedious, repetitive tasks that humans screw up on due to lack of focus, etc. - like a digital factory worker.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at October 11, 2026 06:21 AM (6ydKt)

60 Birdbath status?

Posted by: Just Wondering at October 11, 2026 06:23 AM (H26ja)

61 I'm not sure how I feel about a Microsoft CEO sprinkling an 𝕏 post with exclamation points:

And yet we are deploying these complex agentic systems and models, with access to our most sensitive data and giving them the ability to take mission-critical actions on our behalf!

The good news is we have learned a lot about how to handle powerful actors inside the enterprise. This isn’t new!

But CoT transparency alone is not sufficient or dependable, because we don’t yet know how to make model outputs themselves consistently faithful or transparent!

Posted by: m at October 11, 2026 06:23 AM (odBC9)

62 Family and I are watching the update of the movie, "True Grit", from about 2020. The age of the actress is closer to the age Mattie Ross is supposed to be in the book , and Jeff Bridges is excellent as Rooster Colburn. I like the fact that, so far, the soundtrack is made up of instrumental music from old hymns.
Posted by: FenelonSpoke at October 11, 2026

***
Fen, it's a faithful adaptation, true, and well done. Still, I prefer the vividly colorful 1969 version. That one used great whacking chunks of the book's dialog as well. Yes, the 1969's final scene was changed considerably from the novel. But Mattie comes off as much more likeable, and I can't help smiling as I watch it.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 11, 2026 06:24 AM (wzUl9)

63 from the Satya Nadella 𝕏 post:

We should therefore design these systems around principles of observability:

Model diversity
Observe everything
Verifiability
Independent controls
Independent auditability
Containment
Incident disclosure

Some of these items are expressed as nouns. Some of these items are expressed as verbs.

Posted by: m at October 11, 2026 06:28 AM (odBC9)

64 >> AI can do much better at certain tasks than we've ever dreamed of.

Pattern recognition is one of those from what I gather. Give it mountains of data, more than any human or groups of us could even possibly begin to go through, and it can find patterns and correlations that we'd never see.

And of course, just like us, it's prone to see patterns that aren't really there, like seeing a cow in the cloud shapes.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at October 11, 2026 06:29 AM (w6EFb)

65 One of these items is ambiguous as to part of speech. Until you read on.

Model diversity

... No one model should become the sole dependency for an important outcome or be responsible for verifying its own work.

Posted by: m at October 11, 2026 06:30 AM (odBC9)

66 - "... limited by the amount of human bias..."

Thank you for stating it much better than I did.
No shock there.

Posted by: TeeJ at October 11, 2026 06:32 AM (ix5nG)

67 Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 11, 2026 06:24 AM (wzUl9

We will see if we can get the 1969 version (if I still can on DVD) , which I don't recall even though I did not see in in 1969, but later. I don't really think of Mattie Ross as exactly "likable" although she does show "true grit." I don't know if I've seen anything else directed by the Coen brothers. My son told me- and I was glad to hear - that they are not the same brothers as the "fake transgendering" Wachowski brothers.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at October 11, 2026 06:32 AM (JrHfD)

68 53
Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at October 11, 2026 06:13 AM (w6EFb)

My wife did that. On a Friday morning, I made her the breakfast she asked for, said she was tired, and went to the bedroom to sleep. She never left the room alive after that. She would wake up and try to do things, then would just go unconscious. I had to watch her 24/7 to make sure she didn't hurt herself. Sometimes she would try to get up, I'd help her, she'd grab me in a hug and go unconscious. By Sunday evening, she didn't get up anymore. I gave her pain meds and anti-anxiety meds that Hospice gave me. Dabbed her lips with a small amount of water from time-to-time. On Tuesday, we brought in cake and sang happy birthday for my younger one (who had turned 17). I read to her, held her hand, talked to her. Called her friends to talk to her on the phone. On Thursday, her breathing went from slow and deep to quick and shallow, so called her brothers and father to quickly come and see her. Her breathing went very quick and shallow and then stopped; her Dad didn't make it until after she passed.

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at October 11, 2026 06:33 AM (l3cgK)

69 58 Family and I are watching the update of the movie, "True Grit", from about 2020. The age of the actress is closer to the age Mattie Ross is supposed to be in the book , and Jeff Bridges is excellent as Rooster Colburn. I like the fact that, so far, the soundtrack is made up of instrumental music from old hymns.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at October 11, 2026 06:20 AM (JrHfD)

I still like the original just because John Wayne.

But the remake is different enough, much darker and realistic, that I enjoy it a lot, too.

If you like the Rooster Cogburn character, John Wayne made a sequel film a few later appropriately titled Rooster Cogburn which also stars Katherine Hepburn as a very Christian lady (daughter of a preacher) who Rooster helps after her church mission in Indian territory is destroyed by a group of outlaws.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at October 11, 2026 06:33 AM (6ydKt)

70 May you have a blessed day, folks, and know that you are a blessing to others . Have to see if spouse and I can get in a walk before we get the remnants of the storm.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at October 11, 2026 06:34 AM (JrHfD)

71 Clear sky and beautiful stars this morning.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at October 11, 2026 06:34 AM (H26ja)

72 by: SpeakingOf at October 11, 2026 06:33 AM (6ydKt)

Thanks. I think I've seen the movie with Katherine Hepburn and John Wayne, but it was quite some time ago.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at October 11, 2026 06:36 AM (JrHfD)

73 Jim,

That's exactly we are here with Mama.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at October 11, 2026 06:36 AM (w6EFb)

74 And of course, just like us, it's prone to see patterns that aren't really there, like seeing a cow in the cloud shapes.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at October 11, 2026 06:29 AM (w6EFb)

Yes, which is why I think AI will come in very handy for, say, exoplanet research and other astronomical research.

It can at least help separate the wheat from the chaff.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at October 11, 2026 06:37 AM (6ydKt)

75 "Mr. Rat, I have a writ here that says you are to stop eating Chen Lee's cornmeal forthwith. Now, It's a rat writ, writ for a rat, and this is lawful service of same!"

Posted by: R at October 11, 2026 06:38 AM (H26ja)

76 75 "Mr. Rat, I have a writ here that says you are to stop eating Chen Lee's cornmeal forthwith. Now, It's a rat writ, writ for a rat, and this is lawful service of same!"

Posted by: R at October 11, 2026 06:38 AM (H26ja)

And then he starts shooting at the rats.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at October 11, 2026 06:42 AM (6ydKt)

77
An example of that is galaxy classification. No too long ago, they estimated there were maybe around 200 billion galaxies in the Observable Universe (and some wide error bars on that number). Now, the estimate is 2 trillion. At least.

With all the space telescopes and other deep and wide field imaging, there are reams and reams of images, with more galaxies in them than you can shake a stick at. Far beyond anything we could tackle by hand.

There are maybe a "few million", maybe ten million order of galaxies listed somewhere in catalogues. That's those with a label a name, and some classification of it.

AI is being turned loose on that. But it has to be trained. The "Galaxy Zoo" project does that. You have humans looks at small samples of that, and classify the galaxies according to our scheme. That trains AI on just how to do it.

But in there, what you want is to look for oddballs, something new and strange that's never been seen before. "Hanny's Voorwerp" is the prime example of that.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at October 11, 2026 06:48 AM (w6EFb)

78
So the idea is to have AI go through all that ridiculous amount of image date and look for "What the hell is that?" objects, and then call attention to it.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at October 11, 2026 06:50 AM (w6EFb)

79 "Young fella, if you're looking for trouble, I'll accommodate you. Otherwise, leave it alone."

Posted by: R. Cogburn at October 11, 2026 06:51 AM (H26ja)

80 "And of course, just like us, it's prone to see patterns that aren't really there, like seeing a cow in the cloud shapes.
Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley"

mornin yall

I asked AI about an old mill near here and was given information that I know to be false. Not everything is on the Internet and AI doesn't care if it's right or wrong. It's like Penguin Facts, without the humor.

Posted by: fd at October 11, 2026 06:53 AM (MWfyi)

81 "If ever I meet one of you Texas waddies who ain't drunk water from a hoofprint, I think I'll... I'll shake their hand or buy 'em a Daniel Webster cigar."

Posted by: SpeakingOf at October 11, 2026 06:53 AM (6ydKt)

82 Morning, 'rons and 'ettes.

Posted by: olddog in mo at October 11, 2026 06:55 AM (Hbeqj)

83 Hanny's Voorwerp /ˈhʌniz ˈvɔːrwɛərp/ (Dutch for Hanny's object) is an instance of an astronomical phenomenon called a quasar ionization echo.[1][2][3][4] It was discovered in 2007 by Dutch schoolteacher Hanny van Arkel while she was participating as a volunteer in the Galaxy Zoo project, part of the Zooniverse group of citizen science websites. Photographically, it appears as a bright blob close to spiral galaxy IC 2497 in the constellation Leo Minor./i]

Cool. Had not heard of that before.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at October 11, 2026 06:56 AM (6ydKt)

84 My great aunt Jenny became afflicted with Hanny's Voorwerp about five years before she died. Turned out a shot of vodka first thing in the morning helped a lot.

Posted by: Cliff Clavin at October 11, 2026 06:56 AM (H26ja)

85 ooops

Posted by: SpeakingOf at October 11, 2026 06:56 AM (6ydKt)

86 It is raining, but mearly dripping

Posted by: Skip at October 11, 2026 06:57 AM (Ia/+0)

87 80 I asked AI about an old mill near here and was given information that I know to be false.
Posted by: fd at October 11, 2026 06:53 AM (MWfyi)

Trust but verify.

Posted by: m at October 11, 2026 06:57 AM (odBC9)

88 "Christa Pike has been discharged from the hospital ten days after her failed execution and is headed to Disney World, according to her legal team."

Posted by: Headlines we expect to see at October 11, 2026 06:59 AM (MWfyi)

89 I asked AI about an old mill near here and was given information that I know to be false. Not everything is on the Internet and AI doesn't care if it's right or wrong. It's like Penguin Facts, without the humor.

Posted by: fd at October 11, 2026 06:53 AM (MWfyi)

True, AI is limited by it's digital inputs and anything before say, 2000, that hasn't been on the internet, or isn't written down in a book that's been scanned will not be part of that.

I imagine the AI trainers will eventually want to scan in newspaper archives from every paper they can get access to, which will help with more localized information going back a few hundred years, but then you're dealing with the bias and inaccuracy of newspaper reporters.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at October 11, 2026 07:00 AM (6ydKt)

90 "Trust but verify.
Posted by: m "

So in that situation, can I tell AI that it is wrong, and will it update it's worldview based on my correction. How does AI know my correction is correct?

Posted by: fd at October 11, 2026 07:01 AM (MWfyi)

91 Christa Pike, you just survived a lethal injection with very few injuries, what are you going to do now?

I'm going to Disney World!!"

Posted by: SpeakingOf at October 11, 2026 07:03 AM (6ydKt)

92 90 "Trust but verify.
Posted by: m "

So in that situation, can I tell AI that it is wrong, and will it update it's worldview based on my correction. How does AI know my correction is correct?
Posted by: fd at October 11, 2026 07:01 AM (MWfyi)

I don't know.
Try it?

Posted by: m at October 11, 2026 07:03 AM (odBC9)

93 Mornin' Horde.

I'm going to throw an odd tech video into the mix:
Micromouse - The Fastest Maze-Solving Competition On Earth

https://youtu.be/ZMQbHMgK2rw

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant, a Moron behind enemy lines at October 11, 2026 07:04 AM (O7YUW)

94 - and astronomical research

Meh. My bet, when it comes to all those fully formed galaxies the first images the JWST showed us I'd wager it goes along with the "galaxies must have started forming much earlier than we thought."

Then, after another study showed that the apparent angular size of galaxies didn't start appearing larger and larger out past red shift 1.6 ( I think is the distance according to the FLRW metric) but kept getting smaller, the rescue mechanism was 'galaxies are getting smaller the further away they are.

cont...

Posted by: TeeJ at October 11, 2026 07:05 AM (ix5nG)

95 So in that situation, can I tell AI that it is wrong, and will it update it's worldview based on my correction. How does AI know my correction is correct?

Posted by: fd at October 11, 2026 07:01 AM (MWfyi)

Nah, if it's an online AI you can tell it anything you want but it's still going by what it learned in training and what it's humans tell it to do.

If you were using your own local AI you could adjust it like that probably.

If you tell it the sky is green and the grass is blue it'll believe you until informed otherwise.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at October 11, 2026 07:05 AM (6ydKt)

96 If AI says the mill foundation is made of basalt, but I know for a fact the foundation is biotite gneiss and I don't correct it, then that error will be propagated forever. That's why I don't trust AI. A little error doesn't seem like a big deal, until it is.

Maybe if AI get to the point to where it realizes it is wrong because what it is saying is impossible then maybe I can be a little more enthusiastic.

Posted by: fd at October 11, 2026 07:09 AM (MWfyi)

97 Anybody seen Mitch?

Posted by: Mildly curious at October 11, 2026 07:10 AM (H26ja)

98 "Man mauled to death after entering tiger enclosure at zoo"

A Siberian tiger. Either the guy had a death wish or was a big Jefferson Starship fan.

Posted by: fd at October 11, 2026 07:13 AM (MWfyi)

99
Light rain here now. It is supposed to rain all day and into tomorrow morning. I'm leaving this afternoon.

Cleaning up the place in anticipation of our furnace getting swapped out on Thursday. I'm putting the odds of it actually happening then at 50:50. "It's too wet in your crawl space!" they'll whine as to why they want to postpone matters.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at October 11, 2026 07:13 AM (trSL4)

100 100

Posted by: m at October 11, 2026 07:13 AM (odBC9)

101
Asmongold
PDT calls for Zelenskyy to step down

https://tinyurl.com/ydcbv482

Posted by: m at October 11, 2026 07:15 AM (odBC9)

102 f AI says the mill foundation is made of basalt, but I know for a fact the foundation is biotite gneiss and I don't correct it, then that error will be propagated forever. That's why I don't trust AI. A little error doesn't seem like a big deal, until it is.

Maybe if AI get to the point to where it realizes it is wrong because what it is saying is impossible then maybe I can be a little more enthusiastic.

Posted by: fd at October 11, 2026 07:09 AM (MWfyi)

It's kinda limited by us in that regard.

How many "historical facts" over the past 10,000 years have later been proven wrong?

Did Marie Antoinette really say "Let them eat cake."?
It's now widely considered that she didn't, but a lot of people still think she did.

AI can at least find all the info that says she did and all the info that says she didn't and present them both to you and come to a conclusion based on the historical consensus.

And consensus is, unfortunately, all we have in a lot of cases.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at October 11, 2026 07:15 AM (6ydKt)

103 98 "Man mauled to death after entering tiger enclosure at zoo"

A Siberian tiger. Either the guy had a death wish or was a big Jefferson Starship fan.

Posted by: fd at October 11, 2026 07:13 AM (MWfyi)

Haven't seen the video, but apparently he thought pointing at the tiger and giving it the "No! You are being a very bad kitty!" speech didn't work and the tiger went to work on his face.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at October 11, 2026 07:18 AM (6ydKt)

104 "How many "historical facts" over the past 10,000 years have later been proven wrong?"

That is true, but real verifiable facts cannot be verified by AI. AI has to take somebody's word for it.

Posted by: fd at October 11, 2026 07:20 AM (MWfyi)

105 101
Asmongold
PDT calls for Zelenskyy to step down

https://tinyurl.com/ydcbv482
Posted by: m at October 11, 2026 07:15 AM (odBC9)

843,925 views - 14h ago

Posted by: m at October 11, 2026 07:21 AM (odBC9)

106 The video of the guy getting mauled by a tiger is all over the internet, but God forbid we see a muzzle traitor being executed for murdering a dozen people.

Posted by: fd at October 11, 2026 07:22 AM (MWfyi)

107 - continued

The 13.8 billion years, or whatever "they" say it is now for the age of the universe is based on an accepted "convention." Much like what side of the road you drive on in a particular country.

That convention is that the one way speed of light is one half the measured, two way speed of light. It works according to the physics of Einstein, but isn't the only view that works according to Dr Jason Lisle, PhD astrophysicist, who has written a book on Einstein's equations.
The speed of light coming directly towards you being infinite or instantaneous also works.

Now, if a vid I saw, purporting to be a Dr Feynman lecture is legit, he states that since a photon travels at the speed of light it experiences no time getting from here to there, could we not be seeing distant galaxies in real time.

Is not not worth playing "what if...?

Posted by: TeeJ at October 11, 2026 07:24 AM (ix5nG)

108 Context matters too.

“Cake” in that quote referred to the crunchy blackened bits of detritus ordinarily discarded from large pans at a bakery. Not the confection we thino of.

Posted by: Common Tater at October 11, 2026 07:25 AM (Boo5w)

109 That is true, but real verifiable facts cannot be verified by AI. AI has to take somebody's word for it.

Posted by: fd at October 11, 2026 07:20 AM (MWfyi)

I'm not trying to defend AI, but we all have to take somebody's word for it.

I didn't live in 1776 so if I want to know about the American Revolution I'm going to have to take somebody's word for it.

I have had this same argument with people who disliked studying history and one of the excuses was "We have no idea what did, or didn't, happen because we're going on somebody's else's interpretation of what happened."

Which is entirely true, but you have to go by what you have, and maybe that will change later on with new information, and maybe it will never change, but we still strive to know based on the information we have.

AI can be taught the scientific process and use the same reasoning we do to determine validity, that doesn't mean it won't get things wrong, just like we get things wrong.

We will have to evaluate the truth on a case by case basis with AI, just like we do when it comes down to it.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at October 11, 2026 07:27 AM (6ydKt)

110 I'm up. A script I'm running will take about 11 hours so I got a full night of sleep. I should be done this part in about 5 or 6 more days. The animals are up. It's raining so I opened the door and Snowflake just raced into the house meowing. Even Ralphy is up downstairs with me now.

A few other issues with AI and training. Keeping in mind I know crap.

1. The weight of opinion by social media. I did ask AI about this and there are actual AIs you can run on your computer that were basically trained on textbooks. Social media training is fantastic for teaching AI how best to interact with us, understand spelling mistakes, phrases, etc.

But the loud crazy voices in social media get amplified and a man can become a woman unless that's corrected.

2. AI that is trained on all of the internet is now being fed copies of copies of copies of AI crap being generated for years. So it's not learning from the entirety of human knowledge, such as it was, but also interpretations of interpretations of interpretations of what could have started off as crap.

Posted by: Stateless - Ralphy - 105 years old! Puppy at heart! at October 11, 2026 07:27 AM (Sco7b)

111 via Instapundit:

Chris Hatch
@Dirtdog

Attention Young Men:

I am surrounded by 20 year old girls in my life that are smart, capable, hard working and cute. Nobody is dating them. Not sure what the deal is, but I don’t get it.

Step 1: Stop playing video games

Step 2: Head to great clips and get that lettuce cleaned
2:28 AM · Oct 11, 2026

Amy Curtis
@RantyAmyCurtis

Because young men have learned that if they date a girl and it goes bad, she can come back and accuse them of rape two years after the fact.

She can strangle his children and the media will circle the wagons to protect her.

She can divorce him and take half of everything.

That’s why.

Posted by: m at October 11, 2026 07:27 AM (odBC9)

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