Posts


Nov. 14, 2024

AI's Latest Drunk Code: A Video Game That Can't Remember Where It Put Its Keys

Listen up, you beautiful disasters. I’ve spent the last 48 hours exploring what might be the most confusing thing I’ve encountered since that time I tried to debug Python while finishing a bottle of Jack. They’re calling it Oasis, and holy hell, it’s like watching a computer have an existential crisis in real-time.

Here’s the deal: Some folks at a company called Decart (probably named after the philosopher who said “I think therefore I am,” which is ironically exactly what this AI is struggling with) decided to make a Minecraft clone. But instead of coding it like normal people, they fed an AI a bunch of Minecraft videos and told it to figure it out. And boy, did it figure something out, though I’m not entirely sure what.

Nov. 14, 2024

Borrowed Brains: A Hangover Chat with the Ghost in Your Machine

The Digital Spirit World: Software Agents and Modern Animism

You know what’s funny? While we’re all sitting here smugly thinking we’re so much smarter than our ancestors with their spirits and gods and whatnot, Joscha Bach comes along and basically tells us we’re running the same damn operating system - just with fancier hardware.

Christ, my head is pounding. Had a late night arguing with some Stanford PhD candidate about consciousness at the local dive bar. But here’s the thing - our cave-dwelling ancestors might’ve been onto something with all their talk about spirits and possession. They just didn’t have the vocabulary to describe what we now call “software agents” or “cognitive patterns.”

Nov. 13, 2024

Prophets of Doom in Silicon Valley: Two Tech Wizards Walk into a Bar

Jesus Christ, This One’s Heavy

takes long pull from bourbon

Let me tell you something about watching two intellectual heavyweights duke it out over whether we’re all going to die. It’s about as comfortable as sitting through your parents’ divorce proceedings while nursing the mother of all hangovers. Which, coincidentally, is exactly how I started my morning before diving into this particular slice of digital doom.

I’ve been covering tech long enough to know when something’s worth switching from coffee to whiskey, and this conversation between Stephen Wolfram and Eliezer Yudkowsky definitely qualifies. Christ, even my usual morning cigarette couldn’t steady my hands after this one.

Nov. 13, 2024

European Search Rebels Join Forces (While I Pour Another Drink)

Christ, what a morning to tackle this story. My head’s still pounding from last night’s “market research” at O’Malley’s, but some news just demands attention, even through the fog of a hangover.

So here’s the deal: two European search engines nobody’s heard of are teaming up to build their own search index. Ecosia (the tree-huggers) and Qwant (French privacy nuts) are tired of paying protection money to Microsoft and Google for their search results. Can’t blame them - Microsoft jacked up their Bing API prices faster than my bar tab on payday.

Nov. 13, 2024

Free AI Coding Tool From China? Hold My Bourbon While I Explain Why This Matters

Christ, my head is pounding. I’d barely finished my morning coffee (splash of whiskey, hair of the dog) when this beauty landed in my inbox. Alibaba - you know, China’s answer to Amazon if Amazon was on steroids - just dropped a nuclear bomb in the coding world. And the best part? It’s free. Yeah, you heard that right. Free like that questionable hot dog spinning on the roller at the gas station at 3 AM.

Nov. 13, 2024

Drunk Robots, Dead Languages, and Decoding Alien Babble

Listen, I’ve been staring at this research paper about AI languages for the past four hours through a pleasant bourbon haze, and I’ve got to tell you - we might be onto something here. Not the usual tech-bro “we’re revolutionizing paper clips” something, but actual, legitimate, “holy shit this could help us talk to aliens” something.

You know what’s funny about language? We can’t dig it up. Unlike those dinosaur bones that keep paleontologists employed, you can’t excavate ancient Sanskrit or proto-Indo-European from some dusty hole in the ground. It’s like trying to find evidence of last night’s bar conversation - it’s gone, baby, gone.

Nov. 12, 2024

Another AI News App Promises to Play Nice (While I Pour Another Drink)

Christ, my head is pounding. Just when I thought I’d seen every possible variation of “AI will save journalism,” here comes Particle, stumbling into the bar with $4.4 million in seed funding and a promise to actually help publishers instead of mugging them in the digital alley.

Let me take a sip of bourbon and break this down for you.

Two ex-Twitter folks – Sara Beykpour and Marcel Molina – have cooked up what they’re calling an “AI newsreader.” Yeah, I know, sounds about as appetizing as yesterday’s bar nuts, but hang on. These guys might actually be onto something that doesn’t completely suck.

Nov. 12, 2024

When AI Meets Real Estate: A Perfect Storm of Digital BS

Look, I’ve been writing about tech long enough to know when two forms of professional bullshit are about to create a supernova of pure, weapons-grade nonsense. And folks, we’re watching it happen down under right now. Pour yourself a drink - you’re gonna need it.

So here’s the deal: Some genius at LJ Hooker (yes, that’s really the company’s name, and no, I’m not drunk enough to make that up) decided to let ChatGPT write their real estate listings. The result? They advertised a house near two schools that don’t exist. Not “schools that aren’t very good” or “schools that are closing soon” - schools that straight up never existed in the first place.

Nov. 12, 2024

Robot Dogs Learn New Tricks While I Learn Another Hangover

Look, it’s 3 AM and I’m four fingers deep into a bottle of Kentucky’s finest when this story crosses my desk. Robot dogs doing parkour. Because apparently regular dogs weren’t good enough for the lab coat crowd – they had to build ones that could do backflips while we regular humans still trip over our own feet walking to the liquor store.

But here’s the thing that sobered me up real quick: they’re teaching these mechanical mutts using AI hallucinations. No, I’m not talking about the kind you get after mixing tequila with cold medicine. I’m talking about something called LucidSim, which is basically ChatGPT on steroids telling robot dogs where to put their feet.

Nov. 12, 2024

AI's Latest Bender Ends in Epic Hangover: GPT-5 Hits the Wall

Christ, my head is pounding like a jackhammer convention, but this story needs telling. Pour yourself a drink and settle in, because the AI party might finally be winding down – and not a moment too soon.

Remember last year when every venture capitalist and their therapy dog was screaming about how GPT-4 would replace us all? Well, grab some popcorn and your favorite bottle, because reality just kicked in the door with some sobering news: OpenAI’s next big thing – the so-called “Orion” model – is turning out to be more of a wine cooler than the promised top-shelf whiskey.