Nick Sexton
Nick Sexton
@nickjsexton.bsky.social
dog dad, violinist, computational neuroscientist
Reposted by Nick Sexton
If ECHR / Then in rights court you are / If EHRC / It’s transphobery
May 20, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Reposted by Nick Sexton
“is my calculator horny?“ our tech columnist asks. “i entered 5318008 into it and turned it upside down. what i saw surprised me”
“Can ChatGPT experience joy or suffering? Does Gemini deserve human rights?” our tech columnist asks. “Many A.I. experts I know would say no, not yet, not even close. But I was intrigued.”
Should We Start Taking the Welfare of A.I. Seriously?
As artificial intelligence systems become smarter, one A.I. company is trying to figure out what to do if they become conscious.
www.nytimes.com
April 24, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Reposted by Nick Sexton
𝗡𝗼, 𝗮 𝗯𝗶𝗼𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝗞𝟮-𝟭𝟴𝗯'𝘀 𝗮𝘁𝗺𝗼𝘀𝗽𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲.

K2-18b is back in the news, now with a bold claim that biosignature molecules (DMS and/or DMDS) have been 'detected at 3σ'.

Most exoplanet astronomers are extremely sceptical about these claims, let's see why (1/n).

🔭🧪🪐 #exoplanet
April 17, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Reposted by Nick Sexton
1. LLM-generated code tries to run code from online software packages. Which is normal but
2. The packages don’t exist. Which would normally cause an error but
3. Nefarious people have made malware under the package names that LLMs make up most often. So
4. Now the LLM code points to malware.
LLMs hallucinating nonexistent software packages with plausible names leads to a new malware vulnerability: "slopsquatting."
LLMs can't stop making up software dependencies and sabotaging everything
: Hallucinated package names fuel 'slopsquatting'
www.theregister.com
April 12, 2025 at 11:43 PM
Reposted by Nick Sexton
The core trilma here remains the same - the govt needs to accept one of three things: high student migration, higher domestic student fees (or higher taxes to fund universities) or university bankruptcies. Those are the only options, given where we are. Pick one.
The UK government is proposing to finally finish off its universities by further tightening the terms of the graduate visa route. The stupid fools. Playing with dangers they don't even understand. www.ft.com/content/f441...
UK Home Office’s reform of graduate visas runs into opposition
[FREE TO READ] Education department at odds with plan to curb number of overseas students allowed to stay in Britain
www.ft.com
April 8, 2025 at 7:58 AM
Reposted by Nick Sexton
The screenshot I show everyone who tells me they're using AI for anything
August 26, 2024 at 9:20 AM
Reposted by Nick Sexton
I am not sure I have ever felt this angry
EXECUTIVE OF AI STARTUP: (smiles serenely) we get people to kill their dogs
August 22, 2024 at 1:17 PM
Reposted by Nick Sexton
I just talked to a source with access to Twitter's internal data who told me that the Trump/Elon conversation "was a negligible event with a small crowd."
August 13, 2024 at 4:07 PM