Posts by Smeagolberg

England keeping pen and paper exams despite limited digital expansion

Re: Waste of time and money?

"Really is about time that academic heads were banged firmly and repeatedly together to improve both teaching and assessment using the technologies we've had for some decades now"

You've shown a very limited understanding of mathematics at univeristy level if you think that the technologies we've had for some decades now come even close to assessing a prospective candidate's ability or aptitude. As someone has already pointed out, it is the understanding of and approach to problems that is fundamental to serious assessment.

Doing sums, on the other hand, or even choosing a the appropriate geometric formula and plugging the values in, yes, such can be assessed by current automated methods.

Intel hires ex-Trump fixer as Washington whisperer

>It takes a special set of skills to fail under those conditions

But a skill-in-waiting that always surfaces before long: the skill of upsetting the man-child-in-chief.

US freezes $42B trade pact with UK over digital tax row

Re: re: avoiding wasting UK power resources on AI data centres

"The sad fact that our useless bunch of idiots in power (the Starmer crew)"

A more comprehensive and accurate version:

The sad fact that our useless bunch of idiots in power (the Westminster crew)

IBM unleashes CUGA, an open-source AI agent that actually completes more than half its tasks

Aspires

"IBM researchers have released an open source AI agent called CUGA that aspires to automate complex enterprise workflows and get it right about half the time"

"Aspires". Humans have aspirations. Have they achieved AGI?

AI superintelligence is a Silicon Valley fantasy, Ai2 researcher says

Quickly enough?

"This is because AI infrastructure is no longer advancing quickly enough to keep up with the exponentially larger number of resources needed to deliver linear improvements in models."

The first part of that sentence is credible.

The last part about "deliver linear improvements" makes an unsubstantiated, and almost certainly incorrect, assumption about LLMs continuing to improve noticably simply as a result of throwing more data at them. Many problems are not susceptible to that approach.

E.g., an experiment to find the probability of a coin landing on Heads.

Toss the coin 10 times. Maybe get 7 heads. Experimental estimate: 70% heads.

Now toss it 100 times...

Then 1000 times...

(By now the estimate is probably getting very close to 50%...)

A million times...

A google times (original meaning)...

Result: the experimental estimate improves less and less as you throw more and more data at it even though it gets extremely expensive to process more data. Any improvement is, eventually, effectively imperceptible / noise regardless of how much raw data the model can process.

I suspect that compute-resource-based improvememts in LLMs are already reducing similarly.

UK watchdog urged to probe GDPR failures in Home Office eVisa rollout

Re: Lousy engineering 101

But, but... didn't JLR and M&S keep doing business seamlessly when their systems were hacked? Didn't they...?

Yep. But not just Starmer. Politiancs of all parties have been puching for this for years.

Interesting to read about the intent to make providing 5 years of social media history part of the US "e-visa" application.

Re: Well

'Wanting to bring in ID cards has nothing to do with illegals'

BBC, 26 Sep, 2025:

'Ministers say that "by the end of the parliament" digital ID will be compulsory when checking someone's right to work. They claim that this will in turn reduce on of the "key pull factors" for people arriving in the UK in small boats.

"You will not be able to work in the United Kingdom if you do not have digital ID", the prime minister said. "It is as simple as that."'

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c740vjrp81po

Perhaps someone should have told those ministers that ID cards have nothing to do with "illegals", because some of them were boasting about the connection at the time.

Or, The Independent, 26 Sep, 2025:

"Ex-MI6 boss backs calls for digital ID cards to help deter small boat crossings"

"The prime minister is expected to announce his backing for the “Brit card” scheme, which would verify an individual’s right to live and work in the UK, in a speech on Friday.

The plan, which would require a law change to implement, comes amid mounting pressure on ministers to take more drastic action to tackle migration"

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/starmer-digital-id-brit-card-uk-labour-illegal-migrants-b2834065.html

'Wanting to bring in ID cards has nothing to do with illegals''. Really...?

LastPass hammered with £1.2M fine for 2022 breach fiasco

"Information Commissioner John Edwards said: "Password managers are a safe and effective tool for businesses and the public to manage their numerous login details and we continue to encourage their use."

Yeah, right... put all your passwords (in some form) on a computer that someone else owns and controls and that has a giant target on its back labled "Hack me".

Microsoft exec finds AI cynicism 'mindblowing'

Re: He's right, as far as it goes

"The fact you can have a fluent, intelligent-sounding conversation with a computer is mind-blowing and we shouldn't forget how impressive that is."

It's only impressive until you understand that it's predictive text based on statistics and a lot of source data. Once you know that it is neither mind-blowing nor Magic (*).

(*) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarke%27s_three_laws

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"

LLMs are "sufficiently advanced technology" to those who don't understand how they work, which is a large proportion of those who believe they are qualified to spew words about them.

Re: Micro- and Soft- Brain ?

I don't doubt that "AI" is mindblowing to those who are a Bear of Very Little Brain.

UK minister ducks cost questions on nationwide digital ID scheme

Re: > Anybody know when the next predicted apocalypse is? I've had enough.

"The tech billionaire [Musk] warned that 3I/Atlas poses a collision risk with Earth should it deviate from its current trajectory and said that space chiefs must monitor the object."

I'll go out on a space-limb and challenge him for space expertise:

Jupiter poses a collision risk with Earth should it deviate from its current trajectory.

Lawsuit seeks to probe Uncle Sam's role in ICE-tracking app takedowns

TOLotF

The Land of the Free?

It'll be interesting to see how the rulers of TLotF respond to this:

(1) in what would once have been thought of as The American Way, or

(2) in what Americans would once have called the Russian or the Chinese way.

The Ruler in Chief now seems to be besties with Russia. Times change.

The Chinese Box and Turing Test: AI has no intelligence at all

Useful tool

A useful tool that becomes progressively less useful as it feeds on an increasing proportion of what its siblings' have spewed into the global mind-sewer.

Like an intelligent hammer trained on bent nails so eventually it can only bend nails when hammering.

Ex-CISA head thinks AI might fix code so fast we won't need security teams

"I believe if we get this right..."

So-callled AI (LLMs) has produced more true believers than anything else for a long time.

Amazon's AI specs aim to stop delivery drivers getting lost between van and porch

Re: Hmm...

"only operating when it is needed, would both remove your loose dressing gown from being recorded"

Remove it from being recorded? Like you can remove somnething from having been seen?

"But I'd really, really *like* to be optimistic that sensible and useful applications of tech can actually occur."

It wuld be interesting to have a hint about what corporate actions have led to people being optimistic in recent times.

SpaceX is behind schedule, so NASA will open Artemis III contract to competition

Re: Musk and his big mouth

He does exhibit symptoms of artificial intelligence, and he hallucinates. Perhaps his time has come.

AI does a better job of ripping off the style of famous authors than MFA students do

Re: Bright new future

"... arts and music used to be given as prime examples of elevated work from humans that could not be reproduced by soulless machines"

I've heard that Ms Swift produces an imitation of music produced by humans. Not being an aficionado myself I coudn't possily comment.

Microsoft seeding Washington schools with free AI to get kids and teachers hooked

>The price of this "gift"? Our kids become unpaid data-miners, training corporate models with every homework assignment.

Or...

The price of this "gift"? Our kids become ever-more-stupid unpaid data-miners, training corporate models with every homework assignment.

AI gets more 'meh' as you get to know it better, researchers discover

Prior does not mean the same as previous

"... up from 47 percent the year prior."

To what?

Humans flunk the Turing test for voices as bots get chattier

Re: Turing test this is not

>True, this isn't the original Turing test

Clarificatation:

It isn't the Turing test, in the same way that a unicorn isn't either a horse or the original horse.

>but it has the same purpose with a different category.

Clarification:

It has a different purpose: voice recognition / synthesis vs cognition.

Former UK prime minister Sunak becomes human Clippy for Microsoft, Anthropic

Technically clueless benefits scrounger gets new job whilst retaining position in club for technically clueless benefits scroungers.

Campaigners urge UK PM Starmer to dump digital ID wheeze before it's announced

"You have to have your DL with you when you drive."

You don't (in the UK), but you may be requested to produce it within 7 days. Search engines are your friend (in this case).

Tech troubles create aviation chaos on both sides of the Atlantic

El Reg used to be the best source around for up-to-the-minute tech news. It has lagged behing more often in recent years.

The story of a cyber attack affecting multiple major European airports has been running on non-specialist news media since Saturday. It made it to El REg on Monday morning.

British spreadsheet wizard will take mad skillz to Vegas after taking national Excel crown

Spreadsheets and non-programmers

I remember a half-page article in the FT about a study done by one of the big consulting agencies (Arthur Anderson?) that reckoned about 50% of spreadsheets in corporate use contained errors / bugs.

A problem with spreadsheets that is different from programming languages is that a cell or region can contain architecturally incorrect formulae but still display 'correct' results. E.g. incorrectly anchored formulae. Such are invisible future errors or bugs waiting to happen, perhaps when cells are copied or moved or rows / columns inserted. People without sound programming backgrounds are easily fooled into believing that if the result looks correct the underlying formulae are correct. With programming there would be many compilation or execution errors / error messages in many such situations.

US tech giants pledge $42 billion in UK investment as Trump tours Blighty

'He warned Britain was being “defanged” by simply fostering a greater reliance on the US tech sector, rather than building its own.'

Is this the same Clegg who took his millions of dollars from Facebook?

'He also revealed former US ambassador Peter Mandelson had asked for his advice on the tech sector before the Trump visit. Clegg said he advised the peer to be cautious about US-UK tech tie-ups.'

The terminally blind leading the terminally lame.

It's time mobile devs started to think seriously about foldable smartphones

"The hardware is now compelling, sales are rising, and there's the chance to create a new experience"

In the world of Newly Created Experiences people are excited by unfolding a gadget.

Jaguar Land Rover supply chain workers must get Covid-style support, says union

"Labour got dazzled by slick salesmen in nice suits and sold for beads the working class and SMEs"

A bit like Tories then?

Power corrupts, absol... etc.

Farage has a long track record of stepping down from any position if actual work loomed on the horizon. I expect he'd find a good reason to pass the baton if PM-ship ever seemed more than something to rant and waffle about.

Experts scrutinized Ofcom's Online Safety Act governance. They're concerned

'He went on to say: "In this case, I would say, if anything, it's the failure of other countries to not protect children.'

So he'd prefer that other countries were successful at not protecting children?

Perhaps he wasn't very good at multiplying negative numbers at school either.

Apple's 'Awe Droppings' fall close to the tree

Why would a pretty girl have a huge donkey around the back?

Use it or lose it: AI may cause you to forget some skills

Re: Misunderstanding the intent...

"Once AI works sufficiently well"

Such faith in the magical dice-rolling statistical engine.

OpenAI reorg at risk as Attorneys General push AI safety

'"We are heartbroken by these tragedies and our deepest sympathies are with the families," Taylor said. "Safety is our highest priority...'

... after profit.

White House nixes NASA unions amid budget uncertainty

Re: I'm not a Yank but...

>I prefer this arrangement because it means the power to restrain governmental misdeeds resides in a predesignated person who can act immediately to correct any abuses as they occur

Did you spot the weakness in that statement?

Hint: Consider the implications when the power to restrain resides with the Perpetrator in Chief, the Abuser in Chief...

>If only this could be applied to all businesses across America.

It might be that many people will agree with you, but not the people you might think or for the reasons you might think. Such actions make scientific, technological and business workplaces less attractive and the gradual loss of high-level skills and expertise will lead to a long, slow, demise.

Making America Weak Again, red hat by red hat.

Perhaps Putin is proud of his little baby boy.

LegalPwn: Tricking LLMs by burying badness in lawyerly fine print

>Artificial intelligence is a field of study under computer science, and machine learning is one of the focuses of that field.

Intelligence and learning, Jim, but not as we know them.

No, it is not intelligence, it is not learning. Those are just words used to anthropomorphize statistical dice-rolling games. Why? Because calling them what they are, statistical dice-rolling games, sounds so boring, if factually correct.

"Intelligence" and "learning" used in this currently fashionable context are just marketing bullshit words.

Norway's £10B UK frigate deal could delay Royal Navy ships

"How about it shows you believe in your country and are willing to lay down your life to defend it? "

If people believed in humanity, rather than "their country" (*) there wouldn't be situations such as Ukraine / Russia or Gaza / Israel.

(*) A person's "country" is no more than a roll-of-the-dice accident of where their parents were when the act of procreation occurred, followed by being brought up to believe there is some deep significance to that roll of the dice.

As for laying down your life, that's an emotive phrase used and encouraged by those who conflate being killed with some almost mystical higher destiny, and usually refers to someone else's life being "laid down".

"I'm no fan of Churchill but he did venture on to the roofs of Whitehall,"

Almost first-hand experience of life in the trenches.

If there was an enforced international law that "leaders", be they politicians, military leaders, "leaders" of industry or anyone else in such roles, had to always be at the front of the front line in any conflict I suspect there would be no more wars.

"Farage isn't the one currently escalating the situation with Russia "

No, Putin is.

Five years – that's how long Anthropic will store Claude chats unless you opt out

"As a paid customer (pro plan) I got this pop-up, ensured I hadn't opted in"

Being a bit cynical I'd assume that the only thing you can "ensure" is that you clicked an on-screen option. Good luck with ever knowing what effect, if any, that would have. Data retention "accidents" can happen.

Trump stomps feet, pulls out 't-word' again over China rare earths ban

Re: We have tremendous power over them, and they have some power over us

"But China is not in a stable position and could easily fall into a counter revolution if things got bad economically."

More so the US?

The air is hissing out of the overinflated AI balloon

One useful thing I've gained from all this stuff is the new phrase, AI slop.

I've just realised its descriptive use can be extended.

E.g.

Politics slop

Economics slop

Consulting slop

And all the other areas where "experts" generate questionable, predictive claims that can only be verified with the filtering benefit of hindsight.

Re: A bubble? No...

"Somebody is going to win big[ly]"

By "win" I take it that you mean be the proud owner of the expensive-to-run champion AI slop generating machine that people start to recognise is wearing the Emperor's New Clothes?

A bigly win worthy of the orange purveyor of bigliness. And destined to end up the same way, I expect.

Re: A 'black box' statistical model does have uses, but ...

Upvoted, and mostly an interesting and informative post.

The part where I disagree is this...

"Instead, these automated processes suggest that the nature of human creativity is less mysterious than it's cracked up to be."

It does not take into account that the"AI" approach is dependent on processing a *vast* amount of input, way beyond that which a creative human could encounter. Also, that such information is the product of human creativity, at least it mostly is at present. As an increasing proportion of input material becomes "AI" generated (*) there is a feedback loop resulting in decreasing "creativity" and reliability of the output. And, with the volumes of data involved, a decreasing proportion of AI slop and musak-like uncreativity can filtered out by human intervention.

(*) Until the bubble bursts.

Re: Finally! (sigh)

>how we retired folks are eventually going to outnumber the youngsters if we keep living and the reproductive ratio keeps going down.

Not really a problem in that there is an obvious solution that will always be applied, accompanied by a lot of political abd journalistic whining. (")

The retirement age is adjusted (upwards).

It's exactly the same as when life expectancy increases: people live longer, the extra years are split between more time in retirement and mire time working to pay into retirement funds.

(*) If politicians and journalists couldn't manufacture divisiveness out of anything and everything most of them would be redundant.