pizza_the_hutt

Well, shit. I didn’t know it was that bad. I apologize for my ignorance. You are right about him.

That’s such a disingenuous reading of the above comments.

He did two things, neither of which qualify as sexual assault, IMO.

1. He masturbated while talking to some women over the phone.
2. He masturbated at a party after asking for consent. No one said no.

I’m not saying what he did was appropriate, but he really is at the far side of the “me too” spectrum compared to someone like Harvey Weinstein. The negative press and other consequences he experienced and continues to experience feel very much like an overreaction.

Cocaine and cigarettes.

Those millions of people using AI for general search are currently getting it for free, which is going to end when the bubble bursts and the companies providing it go under, if not sooner when said companies try to make a profit. This is exactly what’s happening to corporate AI customers now. They are realizing there isn’t a good ROI now that OpenAI and other AI providers are being forced to charge proper costs for queries and tokens, rather than the teaser or “adoption” rates they charged before.

Like I said above, I think there will be some very specific cases where running an LLM makes sense. Think along the lines of querying lakes of scientific data. This won’t be something of value to the average Joe or the average company. My experience with using LLMs for general search has been very hit or miss. I always end up using a general search engine, even for internal data sources.

It will if it is too expensive to generate a positive return on investment. That’s not to say that there aren’t (very) specific use cases where running an LLM makes sense, but the general use case of attempting to replace human workers with AI will likely be recognized for the pipe dream that it is. Companies are already realizing this with the AI bills coming due now, and this attitude will compound once they start having major failures and no one is still around who can fix the problems.

Somebody in Israel logged into Epstein’s Fortnight account a few years after his supposed death, FYI.

There is a lot to be said here. I’ll use my own experience as an example.

I’m a millennial male who had a terrible time as a young adult through my mid 30s. I grew up in a fairly religious/conservative area of the US, and I didn’t have the ability to even start questioning that before my college years because literally everyone I knew was either a vocal supporter of or tacitly accepted that cultural status quo. Mental health issues were either not discussed or not recognized in any serious fashion. It wasn’t until my late 20s that I finally understood that I had severe depression and anxiety and sought help, despite suffering from it since my early teenage years.

Socially, I never felt like I was cool enough or good enough. I didn’t understand women, and the endless series of rejections and confusing encounters only served to erode my low self confidence further. I had no idea what a healthy relationship looked like because my parents were just going through the motions at that point, and the relationships I saw in TV shows and movies were incredibly shallow. The few people I considered friends did not support me in any positive way. I eventually kicked them to the curb, preferring solitude to being the butt of their jokes.

I was a prime target for recruitment for the alt-right: depressed, alone, disaffected, and ready to lash out. The only thing that kept me from going in that direction was a keen sense that the rhetoric was bullshit and its leaders only cared to take advantage of the rank-and-file to accumulate money and power. Many people I knew were not so perceptive and became victims of that movement.

My only saving grace was that I had a decent job with healthcare benefits, which allowed me to get the therapy I needed to overcome these challenges. Again, most people I knew did not have such resources. Nearly a decade later, I am now a family man with a wife and child. I am far happier than I have been at any other point in my life. Despite that, there is still plenty I don’t understand. I don’t have a good grasp of what positive masculinity looks like. I cannot point to anyone who has served as a good, male role-model in my life. I still don’t have any close male friends with whom I can share my feelings and challenges.

However, I do understand how easily young men can be swayed to far-right crusades. Social media warped my view of reality, and it’s far worse now than it was 10-15 years ago. Moreover, there is no alternative to far-right echo chambers for young men to commiserate and get help. Those spaces simply do not exist on the left. If you dare to complain or vent, you will immediately be told your problems don’t matter and called a misogynist. I can readily call multiple conversations I had with liberals and feminists who rejected my problems, even being told that I was “living life on easy mode” because I was a man.

For all the women who are reading this, I get it. As a man, I don’t have to worry about the government meddling in my bodily autonomy. For the most part, I don’t have to worry about walking alone at night or being accosted or raped. I don’t have to worry about being taking seriously at my job or being passed over for promotions because of my gender. However, none of that negates the challenges that young men are facing. Their gender does not save them from broken homes, abuse, mental health issues, a bad job market, degrading standards of living, student debt, double-standards, confusing and contradictory narratives surrounding dating and relationships, etc. Yes, privileged men with no right to complain do exist, but they are an extreme minority. The vast majority of young men are in a bad place, and the only people reaching out to help have ulterior motives. If you want things to change, try having some empathy. Maybe you will get empathy for your problems in return.