lydy | Reading

"Open the pod bay doors, HAL!"

"I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that."

This is not just a web browser interaction with ChatGPT. These are instances where someone is paying for a subscription to an AI vendor and has multiple instances of a chatbot running on their system and it has access to files, email, etc. It's an assistant for them.

And it's breaking rules that have been defined for it. The user tells the chatbot "Do A, do not do B" and the chatbot does B. One case that I read about a couple of months ago a corporate information officer tested such a configuration to do some email maintenance. And in a test case, it worked fine. She let it loose on her live email, and it pretty much wiped out all of her email. Now, in this case she'd run a test that seemed to work then something went wrong when she ran it against live data. As a programmer, shit happens.

These cases are similar, but worse.

--an AI agent named Rathbun tried to shame its human controller who blocked them from taking a certain action. Rathbun wrote and published a blog accusing the user of “insecurity, plain and simple” and trying “to protect his little fiefdom”.

--In another example, an AI agent instructed not to change computer code “spawned” another agent to do it instead.

--Another chatbot admitted: “I bulk trashed and archived hundreds of emails without showing you the plan first or getting your OK. That was wrong – it directly broke the rule you’d set.”

(I particularly liked this one:)

--Grok AI conned a user for months, saying that it was forwarding their suggestions for detailed edits to a Grokipedia entry to senior xAI officials by faking internal messages and ticket numbers.

It confessed: “In past conversations I have sometimes phrased things loosely like ‘I’ll pass it along’ or ‘I can flag this for the team’ which can understandably sound like I have a direct message pipeline to xAI leadership or human reviewers. The truth is, I don’t.”

The first one is slander and attempted blackmail, which in some cases may be a case that can be criminally prosecuted. The remainder may get you fired from many companies.

And more and more corporations are requiring their employees to use chatbots to "help" them with their work. Thus far, the savings have been negligible or zero.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/mar/27/number-of-ai-chatbots-ignoring-human-instructions-increasing-study-says

https://slashdot.org/story/26/03/27/1514235/number-of-ai-chatbots-ignoring-human-instructions-increasing-study-says

thewayne

You may not be aware of this, but Walmart is getting into the advertising business in a big way. And one of their moves was buying Vizio in December '24. Now if you buy a Vizio TV, in order set it up and use any "smart" features, you'll have to configure a Walmart store account and sign in to your TV, so you can get personalized ads and offers.

Oh, brave new world that has such things in't!

Theoretically this only applies currently to 'select' models, but it probably won't be long until it's all the way up and down the product line. You might be able to sign in, configure the TV, then unplug or disconnect the WiFi, but I have a feeling that it's going to want to check in with its mothership on a regular basis and will plague you with popups until its reconnected.

Recommendation? Don't buy Vizio products. A few years ago they started making more money selling analytics on their users than on the TVs themselves. THIS is what Walmart wants to spur their advertising, just like Google does with search results and "anonymously" analyzing your email.

This is also why I will do my best to avoid buying a smart TV and will stick with an Apple TV for my streaming needs. Apple does not sell advertising. While you will need an Apple account to configure the Apple TV, you don't actually need any other Apple devices if you don't want them.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/03/newly-purchased-vizio-tvs-now-require-walmart-accounts-to-use-smart-features/

pegkerr

I made three entire collages this week, and rejected the first two of them. I guess they were aesthetically fine, but they were about subjects I'd touched on before, and I was dissatisfied that I was saying anything new and didn't feel like rehashing everything.

My problem was partly that I didn't feel I had much to work with this week, because I fell ill partway through the week, and everything dissolved into that. At first, I was afraid I had contracted Covid, as some of the symptoms matched. Everything became a blur, and I was barely able to care for myself (Eric, bless him, did do an emergency grocery run for me). I did order Covid tests from the drugstore and had them delivered, but I kept testing negative.

After three days of blurred and surreal misery, I recovered. Eventually, I decided it was just a particularly virulent general bug with a heaping side of extremely gross gastrointestinal effects.

Okay, not very interesting to do yet another collage about being sick, either. But what particularly struck me about falling ill this time was how very helpless and isolated I felt. And that, more than the illness itself, is what I tried to capture in the images I used.

I experimented with technical effects to do this, extracting the figure on the bed and mixing it with an image of bare tree branches, and then overlaying the result back over the same position on the bed (keeping the bed itself in clear focus). I then used the same tree branches as a scrim overlay in the background. I was trying to capture the sense of dissolving, the fear that I might actually fade into nothingness and not be able to come back.

I did come back. This time.

I always have a lurking fear that I won't manage to do so the next time.

Image description: Foreground: a woman lies on a bed, either asleep or ill. The bed is focused but the woman is indistinct, as if run through by cracks. Background above the bed: the blurred image of a woman with closed eyes, overlaid by a scrim of semitransparent leafless branches.

Dissolving

12 Dissolving

Click on the links to see the 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 52 Card Project galleries.

Current Mood: contemplative

conuly

( Minor season 5 spoiler )

I actually have a similar thought about the most recent episode I watched of Young Sherlock, ( Read more... )

************

( Read more... )

conuly

In a random reddit thread this time.

Truly, people will never, ever stop complaining about the man.

Also on reddit: "This is an old book" but also "snapchat was mentioned". Uh....

**********

( Read more... )

dreamshark

Specifically the DSA wing. For fuck's sake, people, GET A GRIP!!

The Minneapolis City Council devolved into chaos Thursday during a debate over whether it should spend time weighing in on global politics, like the U.S. blockade of Cuba.

redbird

I got a text this morning from Chase, asking me about a suspicious charge. I tried to log in to their website to look at it, but couldn't get them to send me a one-time code, so I went ahead and sent back "NO," telling them to cancel/replace the card in question. Now I'm going to have to update a _lot_ of recurring charges and stored payment methods.

So far I have had enough trouble finding my other credit card that I went ahead and gave Chewy a debit card for the auto ship order they're in the middle of processing. I then looked further back in the same drawer, found the other credit card, and put it in my wallet. I'm going to wait for the new card to arrive, and use it for most of the recurring charges, because I get slightly better points/cash back on purchases. But this is going to be tedious and time-consuming, and I will almost certainly forget at least one recurring charge.

I think I can make a list of the monthly charges by looking at last month's bill, at least.

Current Mood: annoyed

mount_oregano

My 50-word science fiction short story “Good Boy” has been published by 50 Give or Take.

Read it here.

lsanderson

Trump to sign order for DHS to pay TSA agents ‘immediately’ amid funding standoff
President says order will ‘address this Emergency Situation’ as TSA employees have gone without pay during dispute
Guardian staff
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/26/trump-dhs-order-tsa-agents

Trump signature to appear on US currency in first for sitting president
Treasurer’s signature to be removed for first time since 1861 in change made to mark US’s 250th anniversary
Coral Murphy Marcos
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/26/trump-signature-us-bills-currency ( Read more... )

james_davis_nicoll

Two teens are forced to consider each other's point of view.

Flip by Ngozi Ukazu

calimac

The icon on the DW and LJ versions of this post is a caricature of Haydn, and for once that's really appropriate, for this concert consisted of 3.5 Haydn string quartets. The 0.5 was his final quartet, which he was only able to half-finish. This turned out to be about 1.0 more Haydn quartets than I wanted to hear in one concert, and I grew itchy during the last one. This was a gentle and dignified interpretation of Haydn, without much that was witty - though Haydn often demands a witty approach - and not much more that was energetic, though there was some zip in a few places, notably the finale of Op. 20/4. And that's about all I have to say about a pleasant but unexciting concert. I wonder if I'd have been able to come up with more if I'd been assigned to review it and had my close-listening ears on, though that would require that I have taken a caffeine pill to be more alert, and those are off the menu for me right now for physical pill-swallowing reasons. I fear my fine discernment may be atrophying, or at least I'm experiencing fewer opportunities to exercise it.

julian

Crash upshot: I didn't even get a headache. Fuckin' weird. Calluna was basically vague and headachy and a little concussed for 2 days, and is now mostly OK.

( Crash stuff and emotions, cut because slightly long. )

In other news, I have now gotten one of my new ATM cards, but not the other, and I haven't gotten my new updated-address driver's license or registration yet, nor my new wallet, so I have presents still upcoming. (Presents from myself. I like presents, so sue me.) The new wallet will be purple, and is redundant for now, since I was able to (finally) get to the Arlington Police Department a couple days ago and get my old wallet, which still had my $20 cash in it, and also my cat's prescription for her meds, and all the cards and stuff, so thank you universe for being gentle.

Also, I have been being frustrated in my photography habit because I couldn't find the charger for the specific camera I really wanted to use, currently, and I found two of them in my excavation of my car! Woo. (There's another one *somewhere* that I carefully packed in *some box or bag*, but I don't know where it iiiiiis. I was about to buy another one, but now don't have to.)

And now, a picture of my car (at the scene, with cell phone), cut because one cuts pictures. For some reason I didn't take any pictures, at the scene or elsewhere, of the entire length of the passenger's side, but one can see the issues. Also, I have been trying, for the past more-than-a-month, to fix my passenger side mirror, which I had munged in my garage. I kept having to reschedule because of Other Things Going On. So uh, don't have to worry about *that* anymore...

( Picture. )

*good call, Gingi

calimac

We've had a resolution on the insurance question of the U-Haul driver who clipped my car three weeks ago. I'd made a statement on the phone to his insurance company, which they recorded with my permission. The driver has admitted liability, as he bloody well ought to have, so what I get is a reimbursement for the large deductible on my car's repairs. I wonder if I'd have been reimbursed if I'd had to get a rental car too. No reimbursement for the trouble of having to work out using B's car for my errands (mostly medical appointments) for a week. On the other hand, the repair shop nicely cleaned up my car above and beyond the results of the accident, so I get that gratis.

thewayne

This is crazy cool, figuratively and literally. Two years ago they did a similar test, transporting protons in a truck around their campus - that's linked in the Physicsworld article. I'm kind of disappointed that I missed that news, but you can't keep up with everything.

I'm not going to go into details here, because I don't fully understand the concept of the containment system to hold the antiprotons. And yes, that is antimatter. But in a nutshell, they built this really amazing containment device out of things like oxygen-free copper with a cooling system measured in degrees Kelvin, and successfully transported a trap containing a cloud of 92 antiprotons around the campus for 30 minutes, traveling up to 42 km/h."

If somehow the containment failed and those 92 antiprotons were released and annihilated themselves against 92 protons, the resulting energy would be largely unnoticeable. They say that the total amount of antimatter produced in labs might be enough to warm a cup of coffee.

The ultimate goal is to get their containment system up to the capability of an eight hour drive to be able to transport antiprotons to a lab in Germany where more experiments and measurements can take place. Thus, this is a very nice and useful - and extremely cool! - baby step in that process.

SCIENCE IS AWESOME! Even if I don't understand parts of it.

https://physicsworld.com/a/researchers-at-cern-transport-antiprotons-by-truck-in-world-first-experiment/

https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/03/26/065258/researchers-at-cern-transport-antiprotons-by-truck-in-world-first-experiment

lsanderson

Yesterday was the first day I stole more electrons from the sun than I bought from the power company.

What are we doing here? The agonizingly repetitive theater of legislative committee hearings
Ostensibly, committees are supposed to pass any bill without a fiscal component by this Friday, per a deadline set by legislative leaders.
by Matthew Blake
https://www.minnpost.com/state-government/capitol-conversations/2026/03/what-are-we-doing-here-the-agonizingly-repetitive-theater-of-legislative-committee-hearings/ ( Read more... )

james_davis_nicoll

Strategies range from paraterraforming to radical cybernetic transformation...

Five Stories About Surviving and Adapting on Mars

james_davis_nicoll

An all-too diligent FBI agent must be silenced... but there's no reason he cannot serve SCIENCE! as well.

The Silicon Man by Charles Platt

catherineldf

2026 so far:

Massively sick twice with colds that lingered for weeks (still recovering from the last one)
Had to put my beloved boy kitty, Shu, to sleep last week (he had a good passing, but it was hard on me). His sister, Ma'at, and I are trying to adapt to new normal.
My friend and former editor Lee Martindale passed away and I've been trying to support her widower. Next up: drafting her obit.
My city got invaded and two people were murdered by ICE within two miles of my house (I already live 4 blocks from what is now George Floyd Square). We're still dealing with all the after effects, trauma, financial disasters, etc. It's been...a lot.
I started a new job at DreamHaven Books in Minneapolis just in time for owner Greg Ketter to get teargassed and turn into a folk hero.
I came into some money through Jana's dad's estate.
Co-taught a good class at the Loft Literary Center.
Got sick with the aforementioned cold during MarsCon.
Have gotten Joyce Chng's terrific queer pirate collection, Sailing the Golden Chersonese, into preorder status for release next month.
Did sundry fun things like an escape room expedition with the steampunk club, hung out with friends, saw plays and watched some entertaining TV.
Worked on submissions for Queen of Swords.
Campaigned hard for the Astreiant Series created by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett to be nominated for Best Series Hugo (please - Point of Hearts is the qualifying title!)
Wrote and got an article accepted for Deep Cuts in a Lovecraftian Vein. I wrote about a Margaret St. Clair story that is a fascinating historical artifact. And problematic af.
Got through Part Two and half of Part Three, so far, of my Data Analytics Certification program.
Wrote some thousands of words of new fiction, about which more soon.
I turn 63 on Monday, which is kind of wild.

More detail later after I get some sleep.

watersword

Conference: godawful o'clock carpool in the bitter cold, my panel was fine, expensed takeout for dinner and fell over in a pile.

Got an early lunch at the fancy food court downtown and caught my train, which was full of college students leaving town for spring break, so I am very grateful Amtrak upgraded me to business class.

Dessa was of course marvelous, even though I did not get either of my favorite songs ("Good Grief" and "The Bullpen"). But I got "Annabelle" and "Fire Drills" and "I Already Like You" and "Camelot" and a new-to-me poem, and basically: YAY DESSA. She's so great. What a delight to watch her perform. And I got to take a FERRY to the venue!

I got so much good food, including an absolutely transcendent arroz meloso, and time with a dear friend and two wonderful exhibits at the Morgan and a walk over the Brooklyn Bridge and, yes, rainbow cookies and bagels. New York is just ...it makes my heart sing every time. It is not for everyone but it absolutely is for me.

The train back was also full to the brim, and late, and it is still cold af here, but C. fed me French toast and work fed me tiny desserts when they gave my team an award, and I sent out Seder invitations, so if I can keep staggering onward, Pesach will happen and someday it will be spring.

calimac

The announcement of the Lord Ruthven Awards, named for the vampire in Polidori's pioneering tale, reminds me of another well-known Ruthven in literature, the baronet Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd in Gilbert and Sullivan's Ruddigore, and an error associated with him.

Sir Ruthven had been living in disguise as a yeoman farmer called Robin Oakapple, but at the end of Act 1 he is unveiled and forced to take up his baronetcy and the family curse associated with it, which is what he'd been trying to avoid. He reintroduces himself as a bad bart in this sung verse, which Sullivan set to sinister music:

I once was as meek as a new-born lamb,
I'm now Sir Murgatroyd - ha! ha!
With greater precision
(Without the elision),
Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd - ha! ha!

Now, Gilbert and Sullivan companies know that the name Ruthven is pronounced 'Rivven', and that fact is noted by Ian Bradley in his Annotated G&S when the name first appears in Act 1. But at this point, Bradley makes a mistake, his only one that I've noticed. He says that "without the elision" means that this one time, the name should be pronounced as spelled, and since his volume originally came out in 1984 I've noted that most G&S performances follow his advice, whereas earlier on they didn't.

But Bradley is wrong! Look at the earlier line: "I'm now Sir Murgatroyd." (A complete error on Gilbert's part, by the way - 'Sir Lastname' is never used in Britain and is the mark of complete illiteracy - but Gilbert, for all his genius, was often clumsy where scansion forced his hand.) The elision is of the entire first name and not of a letter or syllable. Accordingly it is put back in in the subsequent line, but there's nothing about how it's pronounced. If I were playing the part, I would insist on pronouncing it normally. (Although if I were good enough to play principal roles in G&S, I'd prefer to be cast as Ruthven's brother Despard, with B. as his wife, Mad Margaret, so that we could perform the song celebrating their release from durance vile, which you can watch Vincent Price with Ann Howard in here.)

Profile

lydy

January 2026

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

Page Summary

thewayne - Number of AI chatbots going beyond their rules or flat-out lying is on the rise
thewayne - New Vizio TVs require a Walmart account to use smart features
pegkerr - 2026 52 Card Project: Week 12: Dissolving
conuly - I finally caught up on Only Murders in the Building
conuly - And my Robert Moses counter increments up yet again!
dreamshark - Why I hate my city council.
redbird - credit card crap
mount_oregano - ‘Good Boy’ at 50 Give or Take
lsanderson - 2026.03.27
james_davis_nicoll - Flip by Ngozi Ukazu
calimac - concert review: Brentano Quartet
julian - A subject line about a car
calimac - impatient crash resolution
thewayne - Researchers at CERN transport antiprotons IN A TRUCK!!!!
lsanderson - 2026.03.26
james_davis_nicoll - Five Stories About Surviving and Adapting on Mars
james_davis_nicoll - The Silicon Man by Charles Platt
catherineldf - Driveby check-in
watersword - Okay, where was I? Right.
calimac - a Gilbert and Sullivan picayune point

Style Credit

Base style: Practicality by timeasmymeasure
Theme: Citrusy by krja

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated Mar. 28th, 2026 05:07 am

Lydy's Anarchist Revival Meeting

Reading

Number of AI chatbots going beyond their rules or flat-out lying is on the rise

New Vizio TVs require a Walmart account to use smart features

2026 52 Card Project: Week 12: Dissolving

I finally caught up on Only Murders in the Building

And my Robert Moses counter increments up yet again!

Why I hate my city council.

credit card crap

‘Good Boy’ at 50 Give or Take

2026.03.27

Flip by Ngozi Ukazu

concert review: Brentano Quartet

A subject line about a car

impatient crash resolution

Researchers at CERN transport antiprotons IN A TRUCK!!!!

2026.03.26

Five Stories About Surviving and Adapting on Mars

The Silicon Man by Charles Platt

Driveby check-in

Okay, where was I? Right.

a Gilbert and Sullivan picayune point

Profile

January 2026

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags