Recent submissions

Comment · 1 month ago
would the answer to that question alter the validity of the statement?
Comment · 1 month ago
51 comments so far, the vast majority panning Astra's coding abilities. An uninformed reader may come away with the impression that this isn't an absolutely revolutionary technology that with coding abilities many of us thought were not even going to be possible with language models as recently as a year ago.

Yeah, it's not perfect, but it's really good and extrapolating this rate of improvement for 6 months is rather terrifying (from a SWE perspective, at least).

Comment · 3 months ago
I agree, the nomenclature is impenetrable, it's like reading software that is not well commented. Perhaps LLMs are very good at "challenging" mathematics because what we perceive as challenging is primarily the language component and not the conceptualization.
Comment · 8 months ago
Yes, we will certainly go that way, probably code already added to gcc has been developed through collaborative AI tools. Agree we don't call that "produced by AI".

I think compilers though are a rare case where large scale automated verification is possible. My guess is that starting from gcc, and all existing documentation on compilers, etc. and putting ridiculous amounts of compute into this problem will yield a compiler that significantly improves benchmarks.

Comment · 8 months ago
> It's not fair to compare them like this!

As someone who leans pro in this debate, I don't think I would make that statement. I would say the results are exactly as we expect.

Also, a highly verifiable task like this is well suited to LLMs, and I expect within the next ~2 years AI tools will produce a better compiler than gcc.

Comment · 1 year ago
From CNN:

"Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told reporters on a call Friday evening that the administration came to the fee of $100,000 per year, plus vetting costs, after talking with companies.

He noted that the payment structure is still under discussion with the Department of Homeland Security, in terms of “whether we’re going to charge the $300,000 up front or $100,000 a year for the three years.”

Comment · 1 year ago
before there was no $100k/year cost to H1Bs, see post title.
Comment · 1 year ago
I found this map a few years ago and had it printed online on canvas, to hang on my wall near my bike area, I recommend doing this with other old maps as well.
Comment · 1 year ago
What is 'UQ', I assume some measure of uncertainty over your model outputs?
Comment · 2 years ago
One thing to keep in mind with BI software is that the users are often very different than, well, those individuals that prefer to use mutt as an email client.

Many, or most, users for a BI tool will be operations, product managers, and business management who simply will not find the interface to be intuitive, responsive, or well designed. At least that's my experience.

Comment · 2 years ago
I agree, learning admissible heuristics will retain worst case performance, which has always been the measuring stick for these algorithms. It's not at all uncommon to find faster solutions for the average or even p99 cases that cannot provide guarantees on the worst case.
Comment · 2 years ago
If there was legislation that required Honda to install certain safety features and they failed to do so, then yes they should be liable.
Comment · 2 years ago
This and other proposed legislation is attempting to hit the ball out of the park on the first pitch. I feel it would be a lot more sensible and effective to legislate clear and present harms, such as holding developing firms liable for deep-fake technology if used for identity theft for the purpose of fraud.
Comment · 2 years ago
Some people say that it doesn't matter if someone dies at age 89 -- after they have lived a full life and contributed all they had to give -- it's still just as sad and shocking.

Personally, I don't agree, to me it's just not as sad or shocking. People don't live forever and Wirth's life was as successful and complete as possible. It's not a "black day" where society truly lost someone before they fulfilled their potential.

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