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My next trip to the US is to see a Sting show in New York in October. After that, I’m not planning to visit the US for at least five years. I refuse to visit totalitarian states. Fuck #Trump. Fuck those who supports this buffoon and clown.
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Pressure Might Be Mounting on Apple with Apple Intelligence in Unexpected Ways
Warning: Unsettled thoughts: I think many tech pundits are overestimating Apple Intelligence capabilities and influence potential. If Apple fails to deliver, even slightly, it might trigger a crash like the dot com crash. Some tech pundits are fast at expecting Apple to be the gateway to generative AI legitimacy. In this logic, if Apple fails, AI will fail too. I might be over simplifying things here.
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Could Generative AI Content Usage Be THE Biggest Problem?
I’m wondering if the way someone elects to use generated content from generative AI models is way more potentially problematic and subject to debate than anything related to models training using content from the open web.
Also: generative AI content used to train generative AI models is also source of concerns to me. I call that process “knowledge desinfection” or “knowledge toxification” or even better “knowledge asphyxiation”. Or should I replace “knowledge” with “intelligence”?
One more thing: the more I think about generative AI training, the less I think it should be considered plagiarism. More on that one soon.
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Maybe We Should Stop Crying Fool: We’ve Been Trained Ourselves!
Thinking out loud about generative models training.
In a way, we’ve all been trained ourselves in our life by the books we read, the movies we saw, the music we listened. Some people have been trained on very specific knowledge bodies, in very specific fields. People use this accumulated “training” also forming “culture” to create new things and produce new content. Some people might be trained on a specific music style or dancing style. We’ve been trained by teachers. As “trained” creators, do we ask a permission when writing something new or writing music using our training data? Now because it happens at a large scale by large (and “nasty”?) corporations to create products, we cry foul?! Where is the line to be drawn here? I don’t know.
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Comparing generative AI model capacities to a school study level is plain stupid (OpenAI pretends GPT-5 to be PhD level). AI is not about intelligence just like having a PhD. The latter is a mere indicator or proxy, at best.
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We are starting to see some cracks in the AI bubble castle… AI stock market will probably go through the same scenario as the tech bubble in the early 2000. You probably read it first here.
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Claim of the moment: Perplexity AI ignores robot.txt files and crawls websites even when the site owner says no. https://rknight.me/blog/perplexity-ai-is-lying-about-its-user-agent/
Woah, that is not cool, at all. Even if I don’t care too much for AI bots to crawl and ingest my content, I would expect them to respect those author and site owners who decides otherwise. It’s not the best way to build trust.
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Refreshing take also a good reminder:
@stroughtonsmith After seeing WWDC, I’m actually buying a iPad Air M2 next to my mini 6. But I have never seen and expected iPad as anything more than what Jobs used in his introduction. Never replacing my Mac, never replacing my iPhone.
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Two Highly Different Approaches
Microsoft is recalling “Recall” after all, and this makes them look rather bad. This happens on the same week of Apple revealing Apple Intelligence which received a more positive set of reactions.
We are witnessing two different approaches to the challenge of intelligently integrating generative AI prowess to the base operating system. These two events couldn’t be more evocative of how different Apple and Microsoft strategy and culture are. Guess which approach I prefer? I’m excited for Apple Intelligence, but I appreciate the time it will take to make it right.
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Referring to this post from MacStories’ Viticci, I might be living or coming from a different planet, but I do not want to block any of my sites from AI bot crawlers, none of them, even if it is from Google, OpenAI, Apple or even Meta. I want to embrace this new era while being critical to what is happening. More to come soon.
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It seems that we communicate less and less by words… more and more by images and videos. I find it fascinating that GenAI and ChatGPT forces us (for now) to return to written words in order to communicate and interact with GenAI tools1. Just a thought.
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It will probably transition to mostly voice one day, who knows? ↩︎
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Design Is Hard
I’ve been discussing a lot about design in general with my wife recently regarding our home improvement project. Design is hard. The process of redesigning a 3D space (a room, a bathroom) is not trivial but I think we should always try to start from a minimalistic concept from which we can build on step by step later. Also, not everyone has the same ability to visualize something in 3D without first seeing it for real, even with 3D computer assisted design. It will be a long journey.
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Every designer knows this thought:
_"Everything made around me has a form and a function. So everything had to be shaped by a designer. But who are they? Where are they? And why—if they really were designers—why were they so careless?"_
Seeing the rise and fall of the interaction design industry I am beginning to doubt if everything really is designed in the proper sense of design, as a discipline that gives shape in the tension between thinking and acting. Things are simply carelessly produced.
I would say: every designer who really cares knows this thought.
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I just finished a quick Facebook session to see what’s new for my Mac Pro that I put for sale on the marketplace. I switched to my late father’s Facebook account to see if something needed attention. Nothing. Depressing. What the fuck is Facebook now?
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@Denny wrote:
I don’t view myself as a “content creator” and recoil at that phrase. I keep a blog as a way to stay involved in the world. Simply put, my motivation is to write, share, read, engage, learn. My contribution is a drop in the ocean and irrelevant to me beyond it being my tiny contribution to the collective whole.
This thought really resonated with me. So much that I’m considering to replace “compulsive creator” to “compulsive contributor” in my bio. It is so much more meaningful and positive.
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On Writing Inline Links
Each time I write a sentence with an inline link to something else, I’m hesitating. Here are two examples.
V1: When I read this article I simply couldn’t believe it.
V2: When I read Gurman: No iPad Announcement Planned for March 26, I simply couldn’t believe it.
Which version makes better sense? Which version will trigger a click to visit the link? Linking from within sentences (inline) gives great explanations on how to do the latter1. Right now, I’m 99% of the time using the version 1 but I consider changing my writing style to go with version 2 as often as possible.
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It’s a great use of inline link right there! And I think it works great. ↩︎
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Not Everything Should Be "Timeless"
Today, I came across a blog via someone’s else blogroll, and to my surprise, while browsing the blog’s content, I couldn’t find a single post with a publication date. So, let me be clear: I’m not feeling at ease when visiting a blog that don’t display publication date for each post. I can of understand the idea of “timeless” content, but I feel at lost with the author’s decision. I need time references in my digital life so I can better understand the content and the context. Call me old school if you want. I’m ok with this.
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Apple seems to be on a streak of really questionable decisions regarding the App Store and the developer’s community in general that will take years for them before they can say: oh gosh, we fucked up. But it might be too late when they do because developers will be doing their things elsewhere. I’m looking for the day Apple more openly admits it is doing wrong.
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Must Have Public Mental Health Disclaimer
I’ve been reflecting on blogrolls deeply in recent days and started writing an article on that subject. While doing so, an idea came up and I decided to write something that I think anyone who builds and shares a blogroll should add on it as an introduction. I’m reproducing it here.
This is my blogroll. This is a list of blogs that I visit often for different reasons. If you are a blogger and you don’t see your blog in this list, don’t be sad or offended. But I want to say that I’m sorry if you feel that way. Now, why not get in touch with me and share about your blog. I love to discover new things. hello@numericcitizen.me
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Never Tamper Someone's Desire for Creative Tools
My wife gave me a surprisingly mildly negative reaction this morning when I shared with her my intention of getting a Nikon Zf mirrorless camera before going to Croatia this summer. Not because it’s not the best camera for this situation, no, because I already own an iPhone 15 Pro Max and a Nikon D750. 😩 But, I could get rid of my D750 or keep it but bring the Zf with me instead. I find it a bit sad that someone can put a break on someone else’s desire for creative tools. I’ll talk to her tonight after work.
