I'm mortified that I have let so many people down and I think I understand how that happened.
I'm going to change things about how i make stuff.
Complexly's AI policy is public and well-considered and adhered to by the whole team, I think it's worth reading! (Complexly is the non-profit that makes Crash Course and SciShow and a bunch of other shows that I do not write for.)
The thing that everything we do is based on is that you know that what I'm saying are my thoughts coming from my brain in the way I decide. I have made that harder and I'm sorry. I have been relying too heavily on AI as a research aid. It can be very useful for this task, giving me access to a lot of papers I didn't know existed really fast, but I think that has been to the detriment of my work because it has not given me the freedom to find all of my own ways into and around a topic.
But, for clarity, the origin of claims in my videos are not "ChatGPT's said this." I have been using AI to locate papers and other resources for learning about topics. You are still getting my takes based on what I read, know, and learn.
I think what people have said in this thread about me diluting myself is spot on. Ultimately, what I am most scared of is ruining myself for people, but I have not been managing my impulses well. You need to know that my words are mine. I don't think that this hasn't been true, but I've been moving so fast that my own process isn't actually clear to me and I want to have it be a guarantee moving forward.
What I can't guarantee, though, is that we will agree about this technology or what to do with it. I think that's good. We need a lot of kinds of folks critiquing this technology.
I'm not a pure AI-hater, which people in the AI industry know, so when I say that the way these models were trained deeply disturbs me, that lands differently.
When I say that I think that the speed at which these companies are trying to consolidate economic power should freak out everyone in the world, that's coming from someone who has "nuanced takes."
When I say I worry about the climate impacts of this rollout, that is not me saying, "I don't think this tech should ever exist" it's me saying, "for god's sake please don't make our biggest problem worse."
It is very likely that you (the reader) and I disagree on how or even whether AI should be used. I think it makes sense for that disagreement to exist. But I have also always believed that my audience is more likely to be right than I am. You know what this feels like in a way I can't. And I am so sorry for diluting myself in this way and harming the thing that we have all built together.
As for the "why don't you just make less! No one is making you do this!" I'm not sure that's how I work. I've been feeling the pressure of "Oh, I have this little video idea, I need to get it out real fast so I can get to the more important stuff" and I create when I feel that pressure.
But making more things does not make me make better things. It does not make the big thing that we've been doing for 20 years better. I know that I can manage myself more effectively.
I want to make videos like the one I made yesterday on hankschannel where the writing was the whole thing and I felt it all the way down and have been so enriched by people's responses to it. And sure, I'm probably going to make dumb unscripted straight to camera thoughts videos sometimes. And then I'll play connections.
But mostly I need to come to terms with the fact that the level of dopamine I've been getting from interacting with LLMs...with doing more and more and more and more...is not healthy for me or good for the world. It is careless, and has disconnected me from where people are on this.
I was talking about this with Katherine last night and she did not pull any punches. Frankly, neither did John. Neither of them think I've been being healthy. I need to readjust.
SO - what changes.
Expect less hankschannel. It may need to pause for a while.
It may be that Hankschannel comes back with writing and research support. It may be that it comes back with just way fewer videos. I am going to spend this time finishing a video I've been working on for ages that I think really really matters.
2. SMUSH and 4x3 are getting paused as well. If there are bugs, there are bugs. I have backlog of 4x3 boards right now and, frankly, writing them is usually a solace to me, but if we run out, I am not going to worry about that...so if it just reverts to a static board one day...that'll be that.
I do deeply want to support good store and complexly in whatever way I can, so there may be some stuff on that front. But the reliance on me has always been risky, so we need to build for that as well.
I'm very sorry for harming the thing this is all based on.
Chernobyl could be argued to be worse, at least from a theory perspective, because in an idealized Soviet/Communist system where the working classes are actually looking out for worker interests, the plant operators would have known about RBMK reactor flaws (and probably also would have built a containment building like Western reactors have) which likely would have prevented the disaster. At some point there was some breakdown for whatever reason that prevented this. On the other hand, at Bhopal, there was essentially no hope of worker control at all because it's built within a capitalist system. Profit at the expense of lives is the expected outcome in this system.
tl;dr, it would be nice to see Communists et. al. hold their societies to a higher standard than simply not being as statistically bad as capitalism
I'm not religious anymore and I'm not making a defense of Christianity, but before all of this the Bible explains that when Jesus comes and starts teaching, he's going to teach in parable (metaphor) so most of his teaching needs to be seen through that lens. So this should more properly be seen as a teaching saying to take your gifts (compassion, love, wisdom) out into the world and use them to become a better person. There's also some deeper meaning here that usury was frowned upon at the time so this would have been a very provocative thing to use as a metaphor.
Of course the main way that people corrupt Christianity is by taking things literally, and if you do that you can take any meaning away you want. That's how you get a branch that literally only exists to promote the institution of chattel slavery (Southern Baptist) along with pacifist, community-centric, anti-slavery Quakers. And how people are OK with driving BMWs to church and engaging in the crusades and thinking Trump was sent by God. It's all in there if you want it to be, which makes it easy to exploit.
Oh also if you haven't read The Parable of the Sower and The Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler, I highly recommend those
Where? The only one I can think of is Jesus saying there's a place where there's wailing and gnashing of teeth, which could easily be the DMV or the Internet
The good deed doesn't need to be done in secret. But the person doing the good deed shouldn't brag about it. Let the person who got the cake post about it if they want. And omg the writing in this post lol, white knuckles on the purse give me a break. Talk about exploitation
Doesn't matter if it's true or not, what I personally hate about these stories is that it cheapens the act by making it performative or self-congratulatory. If you do a good deed you're not supposed to talk about it, and certainly not in this overly flowery trash prose.
I'm not religious at all anymore but I lived a significant amount of time in the Bible Belt so you have to steel yourself against religious hypocrites or go insane. So IMO this is one of the good lessons in the Bible, for what it's worth.
“When you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret."
The Supreme Court just ruled that it's not racism unless someone specifically points at an action and says "I'd like to do that racism, please!" and so I expect them to use that precedent to target people with disabilities. "They didn't say it out loud, and even though a policy specifically harmed the disabled, it doesn't count"
"The Democrats caused this by not letting the tariffs go to reducing my income taxes"
-Future Americans
Three things to start:
I'm mortified that I have let so many people down and I think I understand how that happened.
I'm going to change things about how i make stuff.
Complexly's AI policy is public and well-considered and adhered to by the whole team, I think it's worth reading! (Complexly is the non-profit that makes Crash Course and SciShow and a bunch of other shows that I do not write for.)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/14E2JfjNoLdQPSlkyZdCN_8scQlxl4CT1PdZ0iE1IEg4/edit?tab=t.0
The thing that everything we do is based on is that you know that what I'm saying are my thoughts coming from my brain in the way I decide. I have made that harder and I'm sorry. I have been relying too heavily on AI as a research aid. It can be very useful for this task, giving me access to a lot of papers I didn't know existed really fast, but I think that has been to the detriment of my work because it has not given me the freedom to find all of my own ways into and around a topic.
But, for clarity, the origin of claims in my videos are not "ChatGPT's said this." I have been using AI to locate papers and other resources for learning about topics. You are still getting my takes based on what I read, know, and learn.
I think what people have said in this thread about me diluting myself is spot on. Ultimately, what I am most scared of is ruining myself for people, but I have not been managing my impulses well. You need to know that my words are mine. I don't think that this hasn't been true, but I've been moving so fast that my own process isn't actually clear to me and I want to have it be a guarantee moving forward.
What I can't guarantee, though, is that we will agree about this technology or what to do with it. I think that's good. We need a lot of kinds of folks critiquing this technology.
I'm not a pure AI-hater, which people in the AI industry know, so when I say that the way these models were trained deeply disturbs me, that lands differently.
When I say that I think that the speed at which these companies are trying to consolidate economic power should freak out everyone in the world, that's coming from someone who has "nuanced takes." When I say I worry about the climate impacts of this rollout, that is not me saying, "I don't think this tech should ever exist" it's me saying, "for god's sake please don't make our biggest problem worse." It is very likely that you (the reader) and I disagree on how or even whether AI should be used. I think it makes sense for that disagreement to exist. But I have also always believed that my audience is more likely to be right than I am. You know what this feels like in a way I can't. And I am so sorry for diluting myself in this way and harming the thing that we have all built together.
As for the "why don't you just make less! No one is making you do this!" I'm not sure that's how I work. I've been feeling the pressure of "Oh, I have this little video idea, I need to get it out real fast so I can get to the more important stuff" and I create when I feel that pressure.
But making more things does not make me make better things. It does not make the big thing that we've been doing for 20 years better. I know that I can manage myself more effectively. I want to make videos like the one I made yesterday on hankschannel where the writing was the whole thing and I felt it all the way down and have been so enriched by people's responses to it. And sure, I'm probably going to make dumb unscripted straight to camera thoughts videos sometimes. And then I'll play connections.
But mostly I need to come to terms with the fact that the level of dopamine I've been getting from interacting with LLMs...with doing more and more and more and more...is not healthy for me or good for the world. It is careless, and has disconnected me from where people are on this. I was talking about this with Katherine last night and she did not pull any punches. Frankly, neither did John. Neither of them think I've been being healthy. I need to readjust.
SO - what changes.
Expect less hankschannel. It may need to pause for a while.
It may be that Hankschannel comes back with writing and research support. It may be that it comes back with just way fewer videos. I am going to spend this time finishing a video I've been working on for ages that I think really really matters. 2. SMUSH and 4x3 are getting paused as well. If there are bugs, there are bugs. I have backlog of 4x3 boards right now and, frankly, writing them is usually a solace to me, but if we run out, I am not going to worry about that...so if it just reverts to a static board one day...that'll be that.
I do deeply want to support good store and complexly in whatever way I can, so there may be some stuff on that front. But the reliance on me has always been risky, so we need to build for that as well.
I'm very sorry for harming the thing this is all based on.
Trump will live the same kind of life Kissinger did, because that's the kind of world we live in
Yeah dude, busy playing Metroid and going surfing, not busy completing four hours of unskippable corporate training for the third time this month
Chernobyl could be argued to be worse, at least from a theory perspective, because in an idealized Soviet/Communist system where the working classes are actually looking out for worker interests, the plant operators would have known about RBMK reactor flaws (and probably also would have built a containment building like Western reactors have) which likely would have prevented the disaster. At some point there was some breakdown for whatever reason that prevented this. On the other hand, at Bhopal, there was essentially no hope of worker control at all because it's built within a capitalist system. Profit at the expense of lives is the expected outcome in this system.
tl;dr, it would be nice to see Communists et. al. hold their societies to a higher standard than simply not being as statistically bad as capitalism
I'm not religious anymore and I'm not making a defense of Christianity, but before all of this the Bible explains that when Jesus comes and starts teaching, he's going to teach in parable (metaphor) so most of his teaching needs to be seen through that lens. So this should more properly be seen as a teaching saying to take your gifts (compassion, love, wisdom) out into the world and use them to become a better person. There's also some deeper meaning here that usury was frowned upon at the time so this would have been a very provocative thing to use as a metaphor.
Of course the main way that people corrupt Christianity is by taking things literally, and if you do that you can take any meaning away you want. That's how you get a branch that literally only exists to promote the institution of chattel slavery (Southern Baptist) along with pacifist, community-centric, anti-slavery Quakers. And how people are OK with driving BMWs to church and engaging in the crusades and thinking Trump was sent by God. It's all in there if you want it to be, which makes it easy to exploit.
Oh also if you haven't read The Parable of the Sower and The Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler, I highly recommend those
They've sponsored some really cool sailboats
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Team_USA
Every institutional investor, apparently
Being born literally within the borders of the US is not the only way to be a birthright citizen.
...both his parents were American?
Where? The only one I can think of is Jesus saying there's a place where there's wailing and gnashing of teeth, which could easily be the DMV or the Internet
Dune?
I smoke two joints at night
I smoke two joints in the morning
You have to be wealthy for this to apply to you
Ubuntu? What is this, 2008?
The good deed doesn't need to be done in secret. But the person doing the good deed shouldn't brag about it. Let the person who got the cake post about it if they want. And omg the writing in this post lol, white knuckles on the purse give me a break. Talk about exploitation
Doesn't matter if it's true or not, what I personally hate about these stories is that it cheapens the act by making it performative or self-congratulatory. If you do a good deed you're not supposed to talk about it, and certainly not in this overly flowery trash prose.
I'm not religious at all anymore but I lived a significant amount of time in the Bible Belt so you have to steel yourself against religious hypocrites or go insane. So IMO this is one of the good lessons in the Bible, for what it's worth.
“When you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret."
The Supreme Court just ruled that it's not racism unless someone specifically points at an action and says "I'd like to do that racism, please!" and so I expect them to use that precedent to target people with disabilities. "They didn't say it out loud, and even though a policy specifically harmed the disabled, it doesn't count"
Edit. Louisiana v Callais
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_v._Callais