Interesting Links for 22-10-2024

[andrewducker]

1. There's a growth in AI books narrated by AI.A librarian investigates.

(tags:ai writing librarian library )

2. What common items sold in airports after the security screening be used to build lethal weapons?

(tags:weaponry security_theatre airport viaSwampers )

3. A guide to a bit of how LLMs work that I hadn't understood before - Attention. The maths is beyond me, but the concepts are fascinating.

(tags:ai mathematics video )

4. Time: Yes, it's a dimension, but no, it's not like space (and how that insight leads to relativity)

(tags:space time relativity physics )

Comments

[channelpenguin]

1. That is wild! Especially that the AI has real reader fans!

[bens_dad]

Are they fans, or are they just asking for books that have been recommended to them by an algorithm ?

[darkoshi]

It didn't occur to me at first, but I bet the people behind the AI books have something set up to send requests for the books out to various libraries, pretending to be from library patrons. So as to improve their sales and popularity. So some of the "people" requesting the books may not even be real.

Earlier this year my partner was tricked into buying a physical book on Amazon purporting to be by George Washington. What he got had weird & creepy AI-generated content like a children's book but not, with only a small section at the end possibly actually written by Washington.

[hilarita]

4. Malcolm Longair would probably complain about this - it's spacetime! :-)

[azurelunatic]

Oh wow! My main ideas about improvised airport weapons were previously limited to the vodka Molotov cocktail (lighter, cloth, and vodka in the bottle) and a small-point pen as a stabby boi, since I'd drawn blood on myself so often with my own little red marking pen.

[conuly]

2. What common items sold in airports after the security screening be used to build lethal weapons?

Why bother? It's surely just as easy to blow up the security line at the airport as it is to wait nervously until you get on the plane, and then you don't have to improvise your weapon.

[anna_wing]

Changi airport in Singapore and KLIA in Malaysia have security screening at each boarding gate, which would presumably catch this sort of thing. It also makes screening much faster, and avoids having a single security chokepoint.

[andrewducker]

Means I could bring drinks to the airport too!