All LLM output is always dry as fuck quite frankly. At all levels from ideas and concepts through to the actual copy. And that’s dotted with pure excrement.

I think the only reason it’s seen as good anywhere is there are a lot of tasteless and talentless people who can pretend they created whatever was curled out. This goes for code as well.

If I offend anyone I will not be apologising for it.

> I think the only reason it’s seen as good anywhere is there are a lot of tasteless and talentless people who can pretend they created whatever was curled out. This goes for code as well.

This is an oversimplification.

If you have taste and talent, then the LLM output you get is going to reflect that.

So on the one hand, yes: tasteless and talentless people won't know good output from bad output. On the other hand, people with taste and talent can actually get good output.

No it’s not. That’s total rubbish.

You can’t coerce quality creative writing out of it however you attempt to gaslight it into doing so.

Well you're free to disagree but my experience has been counter to your position. I write both code and research / technical documentation. The quality of what the LLM produces is limited by the quality of ideas I give it initially (mind you, this is just a starting point), and the quality of my review of its output.

Agreed! No LLM is producing Pynchon, Calvino, Borges, Castaneda, Le Guin, Vonnegut.

I think that’s an unfair comparison. It can’t even produce Mills and Boon trash.

But can they produce Tom Clancy or James Patterson?

Malcollm Gladwell

> If I offend anyone I will not be apologising for it.

What you said is simply counterfactual, so no reason to be offended.

> curled out

This is the kind of understated yet thoroughly disgusting imagery an LLM couldn't come up with on its own, great example.

Thank you :)

The worst is "Jony Ive said"

A lot of people in the industry work entirely on faith and marketing. It’s a shit show.

Think it’s less respectable than the terms you use. Maybe gaslighting, sycophant crack-head.

There’s no point. The only way you can fix this is to pretty heavily market the situation and publicise and shame the lobbyist scum pushing this. And their associated ties.

People on HN but also criminals will know how circumvent this. But the average person will be completely lost in this surveillance apparatus. It's going to affect the wrong people.

I’ve been eternally surprised at how non technical people work around problems. I mean I have a totally technology illiterate family member who worked out how to torrent films and watch them and install ublock and Firefox.

>People on HN but also criminals will know how circumvent this.

Criminals in question: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Trojan_Shield

It's client side scanning.

You can refuse to use software that does it.

If they force their spyware into Android/iOS you are running out of options.

Pixel and GrapheneOS or something. Already considering it.

Then guess what, criminals will use Linux phones running semi-custom apps for their encrypted business while honest citizens will be spied on.

Gotta get back in time. The Symbian S60/S80 platform will rise again!

Like others said: this is implemented on operating system level, locally.

There isn't much escape other than using messengers which encrypt the data locally. Geogram radio is doing this.

I’d rather use an older or open source OS without it

Encryption is mathematics -- making this an issue of freedom not only of speech, but of thought.

That’s the best answer. But you’re up against paid up lobbyists.

We just got fucked by this today. My 22 year old daughter doesn't have a driving license or a credit card but does have a passport and it didn't work. She's now got a kids phone. I haven't tried the 20 year old yet who is in the same situation...

They have 5 days to unfuck this or I'm literally rolling out Pixels + Graphene to the family.

Exit plan for the Mac is a Linux desktop.

Could you emit a virtual credit card for them that you then cancel after the verification is done?

What "unfucking" looks like though? The law is mandated in the UK. What other way of age verification would work better for them?

That is a possibility but it's a stupid verification method as not everyone has credit cards. It's just cheap for the vendor.

Unfucking looks like a "look what the UK government policy is causing" PR disaster and a rollback and consultation.

Edit: I suspect this might happen when MPs start getting upgraded...

Phones can read biometric information from passports and identity cards just fine. Why didn't you think of a personal ID document as the first step to prove ID?

You are aware that the law applies to Linux desktops and will likely be included in a system update soon?

the law in the UK doesn't require any of that. It didn't even required Apple to do it. Ofcom is praising Apple for doing it even though it was not required. Social Networks need to do it.

This UK law does not apply to OSes. It applies to online platforms. The author ran into this problem because using the iPhone required an Apple account, which could be used for something that the law applies to, but Apple didn't want to implement lazy verification and instead required verification up front.

You do realise I am free to modify it or pick a distribution so that isn't the case too?

How long till that’s illegal?

This situation is being treated like a bad business decision. It’s not. It’s a new set of laws. It’s bigger than just Apple.

That depends on if you live in a jurisdiction that lives or dies by free speech, and if it considers code speech[0]. Forcing you to implement age verification is effectively forcing you to speak things you don't want to say, which isn't free speech.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junger_v._Daley

It's not really bigger than Apple. They could just say "no", and the UK could just go offline until they fixed their laws.

Pretty sure it’s California that’s got the OS law

You'd be surprised at how often I do illegal stuff.

I'm monitoring other discussions about this elsewhere. Apple support cannot help at the moment. They are "aware of the issue".

Sorry but I don't want there to be an issue full stop.

Everyone likes to say the UK is a police state. It’s a bit of a meme. I mean we are literally going through legal reform at the moment to make it less of one while people with a masked presidential police force scream at us for being a police state.

Keep in mind that the UK government is currently locking people up for FB posts. Not exactly a police state but close enough that its a distinction without a difference. Oh, and they are debating if to get rid of jury trials so they can just lock up people for FB posts without a trial. If it quacks like a duck...

This doesn’t really take the computer away. It takes walled addictive social media apps away.

We just didn’t have those back in the day.