At this point it seems the entire AI Safety/Ethics debate was nothing more than a Marketing campaign to hype up the capabilities of the models - get people to think that if they're potentially dangerous that must mean they're so capable and they need to sign up for a subscription.
> the absurd overhiring that they did in 2022 and 2023
The overhiring took place from mid 2020 through mid 2022. The reversal into layoffs started in late 2022 and was in full swing in 2023. While the overhiring problem was real, the correction was largely complete over a year ago. The layoffs we're seeing today have nothing to do with overhiring and everything to do with managing earnings to sustain equity valuations.
> the correction was largely complete over a year ago
I am not sure how to be certain about this case, as the numbers (as far as I remember) still stayed higher than before. Moreover I do not think Blocks fired people back then?
But there is an extra factor, that around covid times hiring became signal for growth thus stocks went up after the hiring rates were announced, now firing is a signal for AI/efficiency, thus stocks go up when they fire people. It becomes easier to mass-fire people when it does not signal that there are problems going on (for the company).
Totally agree. And it goes beyond criminal history. Just because I choose to make a dataset publicly available doesn't mean I want some AI memorizing it and using it to generate profit.
Publishing something publicly means readers can do anything they want with the knowledge they gained from it. They just can't redistribute it verbatim due to copyright.
They really prefer you have a passport now, and the vast majority of people do not. Also, I doubt this admin would mind if there was suddenly an uptick in one way travel into Mexico
It's shocking to me how prevalent this "who needs Salesforce when everyone can just vibe code their own CRM from scratch in a day" narrative has become in the business press. Like, what???
I've had a pleasure of using GIMP recently on Mac. One of the worst UX/UI experiences I've had in quite a while. If that's where vibe coding leads to, then Photoshop is very safe from disruption.
No, the equivalent question that people are seriously asking is "Who needs Photoshop [or graphic designers] when everyone can just vibe paint their graphics with AI?"
Yeah I know a friend (small business owner) vibe coding a feature as a addon for Odoo. He has dreams of selling it (he usually has wild plans), but for now it's just a feature they want and does seem to be good enough for their use.
And the Google AI subscription is cheaper than any of the SaaS offerings.
Oracle is a perfect example of using empty AI partnership announcements to goose the stock price and also a perfect example of how unsustainable of a strategy it is.
Given that they have around 44,000 employees in total and they surely aren't firing all of their managers, it would seem they have a lot of managers. The press release indicates most of the reduction is in IT, so internal operations, not Engineering/Product or Sales/Marketing.
>these modern social media and influencer versions of Stoicism feel like something else entirely
Yes, the pop philosophy folks tend to confuse Stoicism with Spartanism, just like they confuse Epicureanism with Hedonism. It also helps to have a basic understanding of ancient Aretaic (Virtue) Ethics and the context in which some of these works were written (e.g., was one work or school of thought developed in response to some other one that preceded it).
As always, it's best to read the original works, and in the case of the Stoics (Epictetus, Aurelius, Seneca) they're really not difficult reads assuming a decent modern translation.
Also stay away from the manosphere influencers who peddle the weird self help stuff you allude to, whether under the guise of Stoicism or anything else.
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