The Rise of Autonomous Code

The idea of code that can fix itself represents a monumental advancement in artificial intelligence (AI) and software development. However, this innovation has a dark counterpart: autonomous AI-generated offensive code capable of attacking and exploiting systems without human intervention. Such a development introduces profound challenges to cybersecurity, as this type of malicious code could operate at speeds and scales far beyond human capabilities, targeting vulnerabilities with surgical precision and adapting almost instantaneously to countermeasures. Generative offensive code poses an existential threat to cybersecurity.

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Assessing the Environmental and Human Cost of AI

The advent of large language models (LLMs) has revolutionized the fields of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing. LLMs, which include tools like OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Bard, and others, have demonstrated remarkable capabilities, from answering complex questions to assisting in creative endeavors. However, training and maintaining these models require substantial computational resources, translating into significant environmental impacts. Chief among these impacts is water usage, primarily to cool the vast data centers that run these models, raising the question: are the benefits provided by LLMs worth the strain on the world's increasingly scarce fresh water supplies?

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Sam Harris, Robert Sapolsky, Dan Dennett, and Rush Walk Into a Bar…

Do We Really Have Free Will?

Ah, free will—everyone's favorite topic for debates that make your brain feel like it's trying to do yoga. The question is: Do we actually make our own choices, or is everything we do already set in stone by forces beyond our control? Here's my not really that deep of a dive into some perspectives on the big question, starting with some serious science guys (Sam Harris and Robert Sapolsky), getting a little elbow room from philosopher Dan Dennett, and then letting rock legends Rush have the last word.

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