Mark Hymers

Former and Recovering Lecturer in Neuroimaging Methods. Now doing other things which sap the soul less than working in a Uni does.

@[email protected]

[Mark Hymers @markhymers]

@TychoBrahe I recommend wandering into Edinburgh books a couple of doors up instead. Was in there this afternoon.

[Mark Hymers @markhymers]

Why has the @nationalrailenq website started defaulting to popping up a "booking dot com" window.
Stop it. If you have to have that option, it needs to default to off.

[theselongwars @theselongwars_]

still not quite over the fact that i watched 15 year olds get sued for millions of dollars for downloading twelve songs and now we all have to accept AI slop because every tech company in the known universe decided that IP laws don't exist now that they're inconvenient for them

[Mark Hymers @markhymers]

Oh, fuck off.

[Gurwinder @G_S_Bhogal]

The more people are exposed to the polite tone of chatbots, the more they’ll internalize this way of speaking. Just as humans trained chatbots to be courteous, so chatbots will eventually return the favor.

[Tycho Brahe @TychoBrahe]

As I said before: "So, the commingling of 'automation' with 'theft-based human slavery debasement engines' is something they did on purpose and it's malevolent and purposeful."

[Nick Cohen @NickCohen4]

I am a liberal and a life long opponent of the death penalty. But I now believe that hanging it too good for whoever invented Making Tax Digital.

[Robert Colvile @rcolvile]

I'm generally a peaceable man, but whoever came up with Making Tax Digital For Income Tax needs to die in a fire.

[Ed Zitron @edzitron]

The AI economy has become a grifter economy, with dodginess and chicanery at every level, where CEOs lie, and their lies are solidified into plausible-looking analyslop.

And the institutions that should be challenging them are nowhere to be seen.

https://t.co/yBcV5ytkfc

[Mark Hymers @markhymers]

No. Anthropic needs to be wiped from the face of the earth, along with other similar companies.

[David Lawrence @dc_lawrence]

Anthropic should move to London. Or, at least, dual-list in London, with a significant presence here.

Here's why:

1. Anthropic is spiritually British. Their philosopher-in-residence, Amanda Askell, is Scottish, and Jack Clark (cofounder) is English, as are many other staff. Askell would be further away from Elon Musk in London.

2. Unlike other US labs, Anthropic cares more about safety, risks and good regulation. Compared to the EU, Britain's AI regulation is more focused on safety (rather than "ethical AI") and growth-oriented.

3. It's not good for the world that all the frontier labs (excl. DeepMind, sort of) are US-based, and therefore subject to the whims and potential control of whoever is in the White House. If AGI happens, do you want Trump controlling it?

4. Britain desperately needs a stake in the post-AI economy. AI could replace much of our services sector could be at risk from AI. Our energy is too expensive for data centres or manufacturing. But we have talent, AI expertise (e.g. AISI) and global reach. The solution? Give British people a capital stake in frontier labs.

5. Anthropic wants to expand its AI for science work, where the UK is a global leader. As part of the Oxford-Cambridge growth corridor, HMG should co-fund the world's biggest AI for science campus near London, with Anthropic as the anchor funder & tenant.

The UK government should do everything it can to get Anthropic to move. We are spending £500m on Sovereign AI, to support "national champions". Instead, the British state could be an early shareholder in a newly-London listed Anthropic.

[Dan Neidle @DanNeidle]

The childcare subsidies are huge. You can be £20k worse off at £100,001 than you were at £100,000

People know this. They make additional pension contributions, turn away work, refuse promotions, work 4 days a week...

[Mark Hymers @markhymers]

I might be a bit pissed off today.

[Mark Hymers @markhymers]

I utterly hate dealing with local authorities in the UK. I've dealt with both @CityofYork and @SouthLanCouncil over the years and it's always like banging your head on a wall covered in spikes.

[Mark Hymers @markhymers]

I mean, who might think that people who have spent their whole lives living in deprived areas might need more intensive adult social care as they age. And then you link the ability to raise money for this to the more deprived area. Policy makers are either morons or malicious.

[Mark Hymers @markhymers]

"Standard - £16.00 despatched on the 15th working day from receipt of order"

Jesus fucking christ, GRO, you're printing a PDF and putting it in the post, not hand engraving something on a stone tablet. You inefficient pricks.

[Mark Hymers @markhymers]

I don't care which organisation you are: I don't want your fucking app.

[Mark Hymers @markhymers]

The number of authoritarians across the entire left-right spectrum in the UK is now utterly terrifying me.

[Mark Hymers @markhymers]

(and that's the polite version of what I want to happen to them; I also include @Imperva in that assessment)

[Mark Hymers @markhymers]

Anybody involved in the @DVSAgovuk websites is a corrupt, incompetent piece of shit who should be fired, lose any pension and banned from working with a computer for the rest of their lives.