March 2025 - wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Phrase Of The Week: “Vegetative Electron Microscopy”
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 05 Mar '25

05 Mar '25

Amusing summary <https://www.computerworld.com/article/3836728/you-thought-genai-hallucinati…> of research into how bad AIs can get in some of the rubbish results they produce. We knew they could lose their hold on reality and start making things up, but did you know they could also cheat, and tell lies about that cheating when confronted with it? For example, when given charge of doing share trades, and told not to (illegally) take advantage of insider information, they might do so anyway, and then simply deny it when challenged. Oh, and the phrase “vegetative electron microscopy” is complete nonsense; it originated when an AI was processing multicolumn text, and saw words next to each other which were in separate columns, not part of the same sentence at all, and ran them together anyway. From there, the phrase somehow spread to other publications ...

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Blender - Oscar win for Flow
by Peter Reutemann 03 Mar '25

03 Mar '25

'Making Flow – Interview with director Gints Zilbalodis Flow, the animated feature film following the mystical journey of a dark grey cat and his companions, is the manifestation of Blender’s mission, where a small, independent team with a limited budget is able to create a story that moves audiences worldwide, and achieve recognition with over 60 awards, including a Golden Globe for Best Animation and two Oscar nominations. In this interview, Gints Zilbalodis, writer and director (and more!) of the film, shares how Blender was instrumental in the creation of the film.' -- sources: https://www.blender.org/user-stories/making-flow-an-interview-with-director… https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/flow-wins-best-animated-feature-film-osca… Cheers, Peter

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Mozilla Revises Firefox's Terms of Use, Clarifies That They Don't Own Your Data
by Peter Reutemann 03 Mar '25

03 Mar '25

'"We need a license to allow us to make some of the basic functionality of Firefox possible," Mozilla explained Wednesday in a clarification a recent Terms of Use update. "Without it, we couldn't use information typed into Firefox, for example. It does NOT give us ownership of your data or a right to use it for anything other than what is described in the Privacy Notice." But Friday they went further, and revised those new Terms of Use "to more clearly reflect the limited scope of how Mozilla interacts with user data," according to a Mozilla blog post. More details from the Verge: The particular language that drew criticism was: "When you upload or input information through Firefox, you hereby grant us a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to use that information to help you navigate, experience, and interact with online content as you indicate with your use of Firefox." That language has been removed. Now, the language in the terms says: "You give Mozilla the rights necessary to operate Firefox. This includes processing your data as we describe in the Firefox Privacy Notice. It also includes a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license for the purpose of doing as you request with the content you input in Firefox. This does not give Mozilla any ownership in that content...." Friday's post additionally provides some context about why the company has "stepped away from making blanket claims that 'We never sell your data.'" Mozilla says that "in some places, the LEGAL definition of 'sale of data' is broad and evolving," and that "the competing interpretations of do-not-sell requirements does leave many businesses uncertain about their exact obligations and whether or not they're considered to be 'selling data.'" Mozilla says that "there are a number of places where we collect and share some data with our partners" so that Firefox can be "commercially viable," but it adds that it spells those out in its privacy notice and works to strip data of potentially identifying information or share it in aggregate.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/03/01/2111254 Cheers, Peter

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