Mike Wacker

Software engineer. Former tech fellow in Congress. Ecclesiastes 1:2. #StlCards, #BroncosCountry fan. Hometown: St. Louis. Views are my own.

[Guy Benson @guypbenson]

NYT Platner piece is out. Hearing it withholds significant allegations & that the paper possesses more than what they published here. Not sure whether this story will be the final word here. Leaks earlier today from DemWorld (see below) suggest they were bracing for accusations that didn't end up in the final version of this article.

What the Times *has* printed includes: (1) Corroboration of CNN's reporting that Platner is lying about his Nazi tattoo ("my Totenkopf")...

[Amber Duke @ambermarieduke]

The NYT did a huge disservice to Lyndsey in how they packaged the story about Graham Platner.

What she describes is physical abuse, and they buried it 22 grafs deep under a headline describing "unsettling behavior."

Platner allies already dismissing this as a nothing burger

[Mike Wacker @m_wacker]

At a certain point, it's not just about whether the App Store Accountability Act is "good" policy or not.

It's a basic question of integrity and honesty. Lying for a "good" cause is still lying, it's still dishonest, and it still shows a lack of integrity.

[Mike Wacker @m_wacker]

.@joellthayer repeatedly said that Apple and Google do not need to collect more information to verify your age.

We now have official confirmation of what was obvious all along: he was lying.
https://t.co/16cWfond9K

[Peter J. Hasson @peterjhasson]

This is abuse. Straight up.

[Mike Wacker @m_wacker]

It could also be an attempt to hype their valuation for an IPO, too.

In short, be careful not to take anything they say at face value.

[Mike Wacker @m_wacker]

Friendly reminder that Anthropic has a known reputation for fearmongering.

And that their goal here is to convince the government to regulate this "dangerous" technology (in a way that benefits Anthropic, not you).

Classic attempt at regulatory capture.

[Anthropic @AnthropicAI]

Our internal data shows Claude is accelerating AI development—a possible path to recursive self-improvement, or AI autonomously building a more capable successor.

It’s happening faster than we thought, and the implications deserve greater attention. https://t.co/OVVPJO7VQx

[Mike Wacker @m_wacker]

@walkingriver At least the latter will encourage smaller, incremental changes, as opposed to the "one big change."

[Diego Areas Munhoz @Dareasmunhoz]

🚨NEWS: The OBERNOLTE and TRAHAN framework would preempt state AI DEVELOPMENT laws for 3 years. It creates ind AUDITING, TRANSPARENCY, SAFETY INCIDENT reporting requirements for frontier models. Codifies CAISI and more

Punchbowl subscribers have access to the TEXT!
w/@BenBrodyDC

[Geoffrey Cain @geoffrey_cain]

David Senra at @FoundersPodcast released a full-throttled episode on Steve Jobs in Exile, looking at how Steve's lost years were defined by failures and how this transformed him into @Apple's leader. https://t.co/BloFkirO33

[Erick Erickson @EWErickson]

The progressive government of Saint Paul has decided that progressive protestors trespassing into a church and disrupting services is permissible. This is a dangerous game the Left is playing.

[Mike Wacker @m_wacker]

I was a proponent of high "readability" for test code before AI, but I'm an even bigger proponent now.

I want to easily tell whether the behavior that tests are verifying is truly the correct behavior. I've seen AI write tests that "correctly" verify incorrect behavior.

[Michael Callaghan @walkingriver]

The linter is green. The types check. The AI is pleased with itself. This is the most dangerous moment in software development.

[Michael Callaghan @walkingriver]

The linter is green. The types check. The AI is pleased with itself. This is the most dangerous moment in software development.

[Mike Wacker @m_wacker]

I have a similar disdain for the "experts" today who claim that AI could be conscious. (Though the COVID "experts" are still much worse.)

I don't care what "expert" tactics you use, you're not gaslighting me into believing that a giant math equation could be conscious.

[NPR @NPR]

Dozens of public health and disease experts have signed an open letter in support of the nationwide anti-racism protests.

"White supremacy is a lethal public health issue that predates and contributes to COVID-19," they wrote.
https://t.co/yFjEN5VlVS

[Mike Wacker @m_wacker]

@cyb3rops Ah yes, because removing the UI is a technique well-known for stopping hackers dead in their tracks.

[Florian Roth ⚡️ @cyb3rops]

The fix for Meta's AI bot vulnerability was apparently:
- remove the feature from the UI ❌
- leave the API endpoint accessible ✅
I wish I was joking.

[CDR Nobody @CdrNobody]

The bar for computer security has never been lower. Well, maybe Windows 98 was lower, but this is still pretty low.

[PoIiMath @politicalmath]

It is not fully recognized, but the "experts" who signed this letter were not really representative of true experts in the field. Lots of PhDs candidates and med school students in this group.

The problem was that the real experts were too timid to object. They didn't want to be called racists so they let this left-wing group take the megaphone and become the voice of institutional public health and science.

[Bethany S. Mandel @bethanyshondark]

This is how the rest of the world operates. You can’t go on offense on your boss publicly and expect to keep your job.

[Erick Erickson @EWErickson]

Every single journalist you see today making Scott Pelley a hero or martyr is complicit in the decline of the American press, which is viewed less favorably by Americans than Ebola.