The brain generates a characteristic signal (from a sub-region of Broca’s area) when it detects grammatical errors—but it generates an identical signal when you’re listening to a grammatical sentence and need to re-parse it partway through. I think this latter case is actually the real purpose of the signal: every time it triggers, your brain is warning you that you need to stop and check the sentence again even if the meaning seems unambiguous. So the “pretending they can’t understand you” reaction could just be a reflexive response to that signal (i.e., the brain is telling them it’s confused even if there’s no logical reason it should be).

I presume the goal was to put the remains in low earth orbit, where they would eventually have reentered anyway—right?

My kingdom for the lord of all horses!

Since 1995, I’ve always associated Ian McKellan with his iconic portrayal of Richard III.

Which colored my impression of Lord of the Rings a bit.

IMO the focus should have always been on the potential for AI to produce copyright-violating output, not on the method of training.

Why would the article’s credited authors pass up the chance to improve their own health status and health satisfaction?

Critical paragraph:

Our research highlights the importance of Germany’s unique institutional context, characterized by strong labor protections, extensive union representation, and comprehensive employment legislation. These factors, combined with Germany’s gradual adoption of AI technologies, create an environment where AI is more likely to complement rather than displace worker skills, mitigating some of the negative labor market effects observed in countries like the US.

“Happy birthday to the ground!”

Or The Game?

My Dinner With André

I think it’s because music enhances the ability to remember accompanying songs, which helped human groups preserve fitness-enhancing oral information.

That makes sense—being raised by ChatGPT might be marginally better than being raised by Sam Altman.

Thanks! I hate it.

Retailers order more plastic bags when their inventories fall below a certain level. If you reuse a bag, their inventories will last longer and they will order bags less frequently; and manufacturers will reduce production due to the decreased demand.

In the limit, all data is either destroyed or made public—privacy is always temporary.

If life is an experiment, and there is a measuring tool

So that’s what keeps causing our wave function to collapse!

How does that compare to the growth in size of the overall code base?

1 877 Kars 4 Kids

Why are you assuming that the fundamental goal is a stable society, rather than (say) a society that promotes the welfare of its members?

I grew up in California near the bay area calling them weed whackers.

Same.