In thinking about the impact of LLMs on creative fields, one needs to appreciate how tolerance for mediocrity will help to drive adoption: LLMs are great at producing B+ stuff — and the (sad?) truth is that, for many purposes, you just don't need A+ stuff. https://t.co/VBgNHeQ76Q

— Nils Gilman (@nils_gilman) May 12, 2023

Agreed. I’m a much better writer than any version of ChatGPT will ever be — but it doesn’t matter. Only other good writers can tell the difference. The average person has not the first clue.

To back that up, I see ChatGPT stuff all the time where someone asks it to “write like Steinbeck” or “write like Hemingway.” To me, the results never sound very Steinbeckian nor Heminway-esque. The fact, though, that it amazes others means that for them ChatGPT very much does get close enough. I can tell it’s not really Steinbeck or Hemingway in just a few words, though. It always sounds like a drunk sophomore in college trying to come up with a Steinbeck para on the fly, or if Hemingway had hired an inferior ghost writer while on yet another bender.

So, indeed, B+ stuff is good enough for most people. It fools them or pleases them and if getting fooled and/or pleased is the goal, that’s all that matters.

🚁 No crew member of the four russian aircraft that crashed today in the Bryansk region survived.

Have a good weekend. pic.twitter.com/ySGf29C1hB

— Maria Drutska 🇺🇦 (@maria_drutska) May 13, 2023

I wonder if there is some reason that those Russian aircraft crashed…like being hit by a big fucking missile?

(I know she knows what happened and is just being funny. Russia winning all over the place!)

This is one of my favorite songs and also one of my top five favorite covers. That lady has some pipes on her — especially to sing Mick Jagger’s part and Lisa Fisher’s too (which is fantastically hard).

That song is only getting more relevant again (alas for us all).

This is also an excellent version:

It’s nice to see an older woman do it. I’d murder god to bring Big Mama Thornton back so she could sing this song, though.

Great fucking cover. She has the perfect voice for this song. “Boys of Summer” has some of my favorite lines from any song, by the way. This stanza:

“Out on the road today
I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac
A little voice inside my head said
‘Don’t look back, you can never look back'”

So much meaning and allusion in so little space. I’m no Don Henley fan, but he nailed it there.

Passkeys may not be for you, but they are safe and easy—here’s why.

You can tell there’s a huge propaganda/PR push behind this now — there are articles everywhere — and when anyone objects, more are written. I hope it’s clear that like most things these days, this is all in an effort to gain more control of you and what you are allowed to do online.

It’s also to assist with tracking and the ability to essentially nuke you from the internet if you get unruly. Of course, “for your own good.” Just like with the Mozilla Firefox fiasco, I once again wonder, why do people fall for this shit? And so easily too?