Interesting Links for 28-11-2023

[andrewducker]

1. "High" and "low" pitch are not universal; sometimes there are crocodiles

(tags:music society sound metaphor crocodile )

2. Putting the Autumn Statement 2023 in context (Are taxes up? Or down? How much worse off are people?)

(tags:tax uk budget )

3. Judge rules that AI outputs do not automatically infringe on their inputs

(tags:ai intellectual_property copyright law USA )

4. Tea, microwaves, and...Shakespeare?

(tags:tea microwave Shakespeare )

5. Doctor Who | Writers reportedly not receiving residuals after move to Disney+

(tags:money writing TV drwho bbc )

Comments

[simont]

(tags:music society sound metaphor crocodile )

I always suspect that you have a lot of fun writing the tag strings for these.

[andrewducker]

Not a *lot* of fun. But it does regularly amuse me!

4.

[channelpenguin]

Of course the UK / Euro response is "WTF? Use the kettle ...."

Re: 4.

[andrewducker]

Us Europeans and our electrical privilege.

Re: 4.

[errolwi]

Required link to Technology Connections!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yMMTVVJI4c

USAians generally have less need to boil water for things that aren't coffee, so kettles aren't a good use of counter space.

[calimac]

3) I'd think you'd have a straightforward finding of copyright violation by the fact that the AI used a pirated copy of the book. That's regardless of the output. But to prove that the output violates copyright ... you'd need to get the AI to answer a question with a more-than-fair-use amount of material from the book.

4) Clever; reminds me of the translation of Abbott and Costello's "Who's on First" to Elizabethan English. (I'm with those who only boil water in a saucepan or kettle, and complain that it takes too long.)

[andrewducker]

It's definitely a problem for people whose electricity isn't 240v. Having kettles boil twice as fast in the UK was probably part of the design decision :⁠-⁠)

And I agree on the training. I'm sure that bit does violate copyright. But I suspect any fines for that will be a slap on the wrist.

[magedragonfire]

My husband was so annoyed by having to wait five whole minutes for the kettle to boil for his tea on 120v power that when we built a new kitchen, it had a dedicated 240v wall socket in it, and he bought a kettle from the UK for it. He calls it the Turbo Kettle.

[andrewducker]

Get one of these and you can have a cup of boiling water in 60 seconds:
https://amzn.eu/d/4AiNvIA

[magedragonfire]

I can't decide whether to show him this or squirrel it away in my memory and never bring it up.

[andrewducker]

Depends on how much counter space you have!

[mtbc]

I'm surprised it's not more than twice as fast really, if modern kettles are still a bit like a low-value resistor then we can figure that power might follow something more like the square of voltage (if a hotter element isn't enormously more resistive), and I don't remember having had an American kitchen that was fused at a surprising-to-me value, yet a decent UK kettle might be 3kW but a US one easily still half that. I wonder why it's not a bigger difference.

[ninetydegrees]

3) Judge rules that AI outputs do not automatically infringe on their inputs

Now let's see what rulings are gonna be like when the complainant is, let's say, Disney.

[conuly]

5. Doctor Who | Writers reportedly not receiving residuals after move to Disney+

Disney's back to its old tricks, I see.

4. Tea, microwaves, and...Shakespeare?

Nobody tell these people about sun tea.

[hairyears]

2) Is entirely unsurprising: my only criticism is that the authors are unable to estimate the cost of reduction is public services.

It wipes out the 'gains' for people on higher incomes.

This is particularly severe for the elderly, who have spent the last decade discovering that large parts of their healthcare - audiology and chiropody spring to mind - are effectively 'pay or go without' in much of England.

In fairness, the hidden costs in (say) the decay of the legal system and transport infrastructure are probably impossible to estimate.