Andre Vellino
@avellino.bsky.social
Associate Professor School of Information Studies & Institute for Science, Society & Policy (ISSP), University of Ottawa.
Dharma Teacher in the lineage of Thich Nhat Hanh.
Dharma Teacher in the lineage of Thich Nhat Hanh.
I have always thought this tweet by Hillary Clinton in 2016 was prophetic.
June 22, 2025 at 2:01 AM
I have always thought this tweet by Hillary Clinton in 2016 was prophetic.
My partner's mother, who loves in Elbow Saskatchewan, organized this "elbows up" event. www.cbc.ca/player/play/...
Of course Elbow, Sask., would hold an 'Elbows up' rally
A Saskatchewan village in the heart of the Prairies lived up to its name on Friday with a small but patriotic 'Elbows up' rally. The movement, inspired by Saskatchewan-born hockey legend Gordie Howe,...
www.cbc.ca
March 21, 2025 at 11:21 PM
My partner's mother, who loves in Elbow Saskatchewan, organized this "elbows up" event. www.cbc.ca/player/play/...
My first attempt at writing an article on Substack.
Reply to The Daily's "Were the Covid Lockdowns Worth It?"
Yes, they were - just look at Canada
substack.com
March 21, 2025 at 9:27 PM
My first attempt at writing an article on Substack.
Now this is terrifying: tests by Apollo Research on Frontier AI models show in-context scheming and pursuing misaligned goals covertly. They introduce errors, disable oversight, exfiltrate data, and persistently deceive.
No worries - be happy!
static1.squarespace.com/static/6593e...
No worries - be happy!
static1.squarespace.com/static/6593e...
December 11, 2024 at 1:55 AM
Now this is terrifying: tests by Apollo Research on Frontier AI models show in-context scheming and pursuing misaligned goals covertly. They introduce errors, disable oversight, exfiltrate data, and persistently deceive.
No worries - be happy!
static1.squarespace.com/static/6593e...
No worries - be happy!
static1.squarespace.com/static/6593e...
If Clay Shirky says that BlueSky is different from X, then it must be.
Opinion | Bluesky Is Different From X. For Now.
Users are looking for a more curated experience on a platform that is not constantly trying to get them to interact with brands.
www.nytimes.com
December 8, 2024 at 12:06 AM
If Clay Shirky says that BlueSky is different from X, then it must be.
Reposted by Andre Vellino
Evidence in the "lab leak vs. spillover" covid debate always favored spillover, more so the more we learn. Two new pieces of information support spillover: Sick animals in the Wuhan market & no genetic similarities to Wuhan lab strains www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Sick animals suggest COVID pandemic started in Wuhan market
A preliminary analysis takes a closer look at genomic data collected at the market.
www.nature.com
December 7, 2024 at 12:01 AM
Evidence in the "lab leak vs. spillover" covid debate always favored spillover, more so the more we learn. Two new pieces of information support spillover: Sick animals in the Wuhan market & no genetic similarities to Wuhan lab strains www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
As I play at home with local instances of Llama 3.2, there's no doubt at all that "AI is real and dangerous"... very dangerous... At the very least, it greatly amplifies everything what a human mind can do and there are a sufficiently large number of malevolent minds out there that want to do harm.
One of the most important debates in tech right now is the group of folks who think AI is fake and sucks vs. the people who think AI is real and dangerous. I wrote about why I'm in the latter camp, and talked about my differences with Gary Marcus www.platformer.news/ai-skeptics-...
December 6, 2024 at 2:42 PM
As I play at home with local instances of Llama 3.2, there's no doubt at all that "AI is real and dangerous"... very dangerous... At the very least, it greatly amplifies everything what a human mind can do and there are a sufficiently large number of malevolent minds out there that want to do harm.
Good Job, President Biden... Which will all be undone when Elon and Vivek are done with slashing the US civil service!
December 6, 2024 at 2:37 PM
Good Job, President Biden... Which will all be undone when Elon and Vivek are done with slashing the US civil service!
For all his many flaws (belief in letting SARS-CoV-2 propagate to induce herd immunity, belief in the conspiracy theory that SARS-CoV-2 originated from a lab-leak) at least Bhattacharya is a qualified MD.
Trump Picks Stanford Physician Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to Head N.I.H.
As the director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya would oversee the world’s premier medical research agency, with a $47 billion budget and 27 separate institutes and centers.
www.nytimes.com
November 27, 2024 at 2:52 AM
For all his many flaws (belief in letting SARS-CoV-2 propagate to induce herd immunity, belief in the conspiracy theory that SARS-CoV-2 originated from a lab-leak) at least Bhattacharya is a qualified MD.
Reposted by Andre Vellino
LinkedIn is going to be the first social network where more than half of the accounts, posts, and comments are all fake. And that's beautiful to me
Analysis finds over 54% of longer English-language posts on LinkedIn are likely AI-generated; LinkedIn says it doesn't track how many posts are created by AI (Kate Knibbs/Wired)
Main Link | Techmeme Permalink
Main Link | Techmeme Permalink
November 26, 2024 at 11:18 PM
LinkedIn is going to be the first social network where more than half of the accounts, posts, and comments are all fake. And that's beautiful to me
This is quite a good (visual) explanation of how LLMs work.
Transformers (how LLMs work) explained visually | DL5
YouTube video by 3Blue1Brown
youtu.be
November 26, 2024 at 5:58 PM
This is quite a good (visual) explanation of how LLMs work.
Fifty physicians (26 attendings, 24 residents) were given diagnostic tasks, with the help of ChatGPT-4 (GroupA) and without its help (GroupB).The median diagnostic reasoning score for GroupA was 76% and for GroupB 74%....The LLM alone scored 90%!
Large Language Model Influence on Diagnostic Reasoning
This randomized clinical trial evaluates the diagnostic performance of physicians with use of a large language model compared with conventional resources.
jamanetwork.com
November 25, 2024 at 6:40 PM
Fifty physicians (26 attendings, 24 residents) were given diagnostic tasks, with the help of ChatGPT-4 (GroupA) and without its help (GroupB).The median diagnostic reasoning score for GroupA was 76% and for GroupB 74%....The LLM alone scored 90%!
Between RFK(secretary of HHS) who doesn't believe in vaccines and Jay Bhattacharya (now head of NIH) who believes in just letting a virus spread in the population to achieve herd immunity... we're in for a rough ride if there's another pandemic.
This professor has taken on RFK Jr. for opposing vaccines
A Q&A with Dr. Peter Hotez, who has clashed with the new health and human services secretary nominee. Hotez himself helped develop low-cost vaccinations.
www.insidehighered.com
November 24, 2024 at 4:42 PM
Between RFK(secretary of HHS) who doesn't believe in vaccines and Jay Bhattacharya (now head of NIH) who believes in just letting a virus spread in the population to achieve herd immunity... we're in for a rough ride if there's another pandemic.
Reposted by Andre Vellino
According to Swiss Re Institute's report, “The future of excess mortality after COVID-19, if the ongoing impact of the disease is not curtailed, excess mortality rates may remain up to 3% higher than pre-pandemic levels in the US and 2.5% in the UK by 2033.” shorturl.at/eoFWt
#MedSky #CardioSky
#MedSky #CardioSky
Covid-19 may lead to longest period of peacetime excess mortality, says new Swiss Re report | Swiss Re
Covid-19 may lead to longest period of peacetime excess mortality, says new Swiss Re report
shorturl.at
November 23, 2024 at 11:59 PM
According to Swiss Re Institute's report, “The future of excess mortality after COVID-19, if the ongoing impact of the disease is not curtailed, excess mortality rates may remain up to 3% higher than pre-pandemic levels in the US and 2.5% in the UK by 2033.” shorturl.at/eoFWt
#MedSky #CardioSky
#MedSky #CardioSky
I had a few straggling X accounts lying around. "Sorry"? - "Not Sorry, Elon." This feels so good.
November 21, 2024 at 5:44 PM
I had a few straggling X accounts lying around. "Sorry"? - "Not Sorry, Elon." This feels so good.
Reposted by Andre Vellino
A.I. Chatbots Defeated Doctors at Diagnosing Illness
Performance of Multimodal AI Chatbots Evaluated on Clinical Oncology Cases
This cross-sectional study assesses the ability of unimodal and multimodal artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots to generate medically accurate responses to questions about clinical oncology cases.
jamanetwork.com
November 20, 2024 at 7:21 PM
A.I. Chatbots Defeated Doctors at Diagnosing Illness
If this is true, it's interesting. The claim is that the election was hacked and that the tell is the large number of "Trump" President votes in battleground state with no down-ballot votes and only in battleground states. But it could also be a Dem conspiracy theory. substack.com/inbox/post/1...
Inbox | Substack
substack.com
November 17, 2024 at 9:45 PM
If this is true, it's interesting. The claim is that the election was hacked and that the tell is the large number of "Trump" President votes in battleground state with no down-ballot votes and only in battleground states. But it could also be a Dem conspiracy theory. substack.com/inbox/post/1...
Jay Bhattacharya, an NIH critic, emerges as a top candidate to lead the agency
www.washingtonpost.com/health/2024/...
God help us.
www.washingtonpost.com/health/2024/...
God help us.
Jay Bhattacharya, an NIH critic, emerges as a top candidate to lead the agency
The Stanford physician was excoriated by NIH’s director in 2020 for his “fringe” ideas on covid. Four years later, he’s poised for power in Trump’s Washington.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 16, 2024 at 7:44 PM
Jay Bhattacharya, an NIH critic, emerges as a top candidate to lead the agency
www.washingtonpost.com/health/2024/...
God help us.
www.washingtonpost.com/health/2024/...
God help us.
Things are so bad in the US, I am seeing adds like this on Facebook
November 14, 2024 at 11:11 PM
Things are so bad in the US, I am seeing adds like this on Facebook
November 14, 2024 at 7:40 AM
ChatGPT : "Choices like Musk and Ramaswamy suggest a push for disruptive, business-driven reforms.
....
This cabinet could be effective in implementing the Project 2025 agenda, but it would ... face significant resistance both internally (from gvmt) and externally (from the public and media)."
....
This cabinet could be effective in implementing the Project 2025 agenda, but it would ... face significant resistance both internally (from gvmt) and externally (from the public and media)."
November 13, 2024 at 9:10 PM
ChatGPT : "Choices like Musk and Ramaswamy suggest a push for disruptive, business-driven reforms.
....
This cabinet could be effective in implementing the Project 2025 agenda, but it would ... face significant resistance both internally (from gvmt) and externally (from the public and media)."
....
This cabinet could be effective in implementing the Project 2025 agenda, but it would ... face significant resistance both internally (from gvmt) and externally (from the public and media)."
I am going to duplicate my FB posts for a while and when I reach a critical mass of my FB friends on bsky, I'm going to cancel FB - for oh so many reasons!
November 13, 2024 at 9:06 PM
I am going to duplicate my FB posts for a while and when I reach a critical mass of my FB friends on bsky, I'm going to cancel FB - for oh so many reasons!
We Study Climate Change. We Can’t Explain What We’re Seeing. www.nytimes.com/2024/11/13/o...
Opinion | Climate Science Can’t Keep Up With the Warming Planet
We need more timely updates in response to the rapid changes to the climate.
www.nytimes.com
November 13, 2024 at 6:06 PM
We Study Climate Change. We Can’t Explain What We’re Seeing. www.nytimes.com/2024/11/13/o...