I'm sure while the AI lab folks didn't have the techniques and compute to do ML like we do now, they have thought a lot about the definition of intelligence and what it takes to achieve it, going from the narrow task-specific AIs to truly generic intelligence.

ML/RL allowed us to create systems that given a train/test set, can learn underlying patterns and discover connections in data without a developer having to program it.

Transformers/LLMs are a scaled up version of the approach (I don't want to get into the weeds as it's beside the point)

Stallman asserts LLMs fall short of general intelligence, which I think he has a much better understanding of what that entails than most people give him credit for. Considering his AI past, I'd be surprised if he didn't keep up with the advancements and techniques in the field at least to some degree (or that understanding said techniques would be beyond his ability).

Because of this, I'm running with the theory that he knows what he's talking about even he doesn't elaborate on it here.

Can we accurately simulate a smaller universe in this universe? If I understand correctly, according to this paper the answer is "no". Except how do we determine the simulation is inaccurate, without either knowing what is accurate (and thus having a correct simulation), or being unable to distinguish the inaccuracy from randomness (the simulation already won't perfectly predict a small part of the real universe due to such randomness, so you can't point to a discrepancy)? What does it mean for a simulation to be “inaccurate”?

Also, you don't need to simulate the entire universe to effectively simulate it for one person, e.g. put them in a VR world. From that person's perspective, both scenarios are the same.

Ultimately, effectively diagnosing patients from descriptions is impossible, because two can give the same description, where one has a mild condition and the other serious. More tests would resolve most ambiguity, but most ERs are too overworked, so you only get more tests if you really advocate for yourself (and/or are rich). A stomach bug can have nearly the same symptoms as the initial stages of appendicitis, and Grok (allegedly) told OP he needs to advocate for a CT.

I do see an issue, where LLMs tell too many people they have a serious condition and must go to the ER and order unnecessary tests, where a doctor would say to those people "you're fine" and they really are fine. People would end up anxious and angry at doctors over nothing, and ERs would end up overwhelmed with so many spurious tests and requests, that they would miss necessary ones. I say "would" but this situation has already started, except it's Google that is telling people to panic. Ultimately, there are too many people and not enough doctors and equipment (and too many tests may itself be unhealthy), so people who may have serious conditions aren't tested for them. I don't know the solution, but do want to point out, with people saying LLMs will replace mass sections of the workforce; why don't we as a society train more nurses and doctors?

I don’t see why competitive debate or programming would be different. (But I understand why a fair global leaderboard for AOC is no longer feasible).

A one-person apartment in the local halls of residence costs under €500/month here in DE. A room in a shared flat costs a lot less.

I wonder how long it will last? UK Universities are now for rich foreigners only. It does mean great options for Chinese food near student halls though.

Except some universities may allow foreign students to take on-campus jobs, which would probably pay enough. Or for a PhD, usually the university pays you.

Citation needed, because I'm almost certain not being allowed to work as a foreign student is the exception to the rule. A surface level Google search for Western European countries (BE/NL/FR/DE, typical places to go study abroad) shows me all of them allow non-EU students to get a job. You'll typically see these student workers in bars, restaurants, grocery stores, ...

RE the parent comment stating 500 EUR rent is potentially too much for a foreign student to afford, I can imagine it might be. But it's also too much to afford for plenty of native students, and a large share of them get these student jobs to be able to afford their student housing and the likes.

I looked at other countries and they have much less restrictions, so it seems you’re right and it’s more common than I thought.

I agree that colleges have acted as filters, but the value of degrees has been deflated, even in Ivy leagues, because they’re easier and more common. I think a degree still acts as a filter though; getting a job is hard with a degree but nearly impossible without.

EDIT: There’s the Thiel fellowship, which requires not having a degree, but I’m not aware of other such opportunities. Early work experience looks better to some employers than university, but that requires getting a job in the first place.

Similarly we avoided engineers from the Bay Area due to cost concerns.

The company was also a pioneer in the distributed work environment. A decade before Covid. So that opened a huge market for recruitment at that time.

Yes.

The Ivy grads are often considered over-qualified (rightly or wrongly). Especially for government positions that don’t normally hire elite school grads and smallish local/regional businesses.

I know plenty of people who work in different government positions (federal, state, local) who will not hire grads from an elite schools (Ivy, Stanford, Berkeley, etc.) because they think something must be wrong with them (“why would they apply for this job?”), or they think that the applicant will jump ship at the first opportunity.

I agree that those can both be issues, but I’m not sure those issues are limited to or are more likely in elite school grads.

I’ve certainly seen situations in which elite school grads have worked at an org that didn’t normally hire any of them, and the quality and quantity of work produced caused there to be some tough conversations in terms of standards and evaluations (they basically “crushed the curve”). In the two cases I’m most familiar with, the people in question were relatively non-ambitious female employees who just cranked out high quality work. They took those jobs because they were decent jobs near their respective families. In both cases, the companies had bittersweet feelings when said employees left —- they lost productivity, but they no longer had the manage outlier performers.

One of these ladies left her job to become a stay at home mom. The other joined a more prestigious privately-held company who seemed to know how to harness her abilities (she moved up quickly).

So… it happens.

But bigger issue is in USA where general jobless numbers are lower, with several sectors facing shortages, why is there the issue of grad unemployment at all.

The correct answer is important because politicians are filling the vacuum with false narratives to suit their base.

But there's enough SM comments to make a guess.

Consider the author’s proposed alternative to ‘process.env.MY_ENV_VAR ?? “”’:

    if (process.env.MY_ENV_VAR === undefined) {
     throw new Error("MY_ENV_VAR is not set")
    }

There’s a terser way: define an ‘unwrap’ function, used like ‘unwrap(process.env.MY_ENV_VAR)’. But it’s still verbose and doesn’t compose (Rust’s ‘unwrap’ is also criticized for its verbosity).

TypeScript’s ‘!’ would work, except that operator assumes the type is non-null, i.e. it’s (yet another TypeScript coercion that) isn’t actually checked at runtime so is discouraged. Swift and Kotlin even have a similar operator that is checked. At least it’s just syntax so easy to lint…