#news

What this server has with the tag: posts by people here, and posts from elsewhere that reached it. There's more of it on mastodon.social, newsie.social.

Frankie ✅@Some_Emo_Chick@mastodon.social

“Ram Altman” Is Now a Linux Script That Emails Sam Altman Daily to Report How Much Unused RAM Is in Your PC

respawnfirst.com/linux-script-

RespawnFirst"Ram Altman" Is Now a Linux Script That Emails Sam Altman Daily to Report How Much Unused RAM Is in Your PCDeveloper builds Ram-Altman, a Linux script that automatically emails OpenAI CEO Sam Altman daily progress reports on idle desktop memory.
Zhi Zhu 🕸️@ZhiZhu@newsie.social

"I find the prospect of predicting the incredibly dismal – even offensive. A predictable future is set in stone, immune to human agency. A predictable future runs on rails, and we're the prisoners of , tied to the tracks...

My intention isn't to demoralize you into tying yourself to history's tracks – I'm here to show you how to grab the wheel and steer off the rails altogether."
- @pluralistic

pluralistic.net/2026/10/27/tie

Headline and text from article: History is something you do (permalink) Prediction is hard. Especially about the future. That Yogi Berra gem proves that you don't have to be a science fiction writer to get irritated with people insisting that you must know what's going to happen tomorrow, but (as a sf writer), I can tell you that this is one of our main occupational hazards. Obviously, this is a self-inflicted injury. Our genre is full of big names who self-mythologized as scientific Nostradamuses. From the "future history" bar-charts in Heinlein's books (I was once on a panel with Robert Silverberg where he referred to RAH as "Robert A Timeline") to the McGuffin of Asimov's Foundation series: a "scientific" discipline that could predict the trajectory of human civilization for millennia into the future. But me, I find the prospect of predicting the future incredibly dismal – even offensive. A predictable future is set in stone, immune to human agency. A predictable future runs on rails, and we're the prisoners of history, tied to the tracks.
Zhi Zhu 🕸️@ZhiZhu@newsie.social

"Despite massive investments & widespread hype around , the technology has delivered zero financial payoff to corporate America outside of tech...

there are still no signs of AI boosting productivity growth... With no impact on the bottom line, mainstream corporate America is pulling back & starting to view token spending not as a source of growth but as a cost center that weighs on margins."
apollo.com/wealth/insights-new

ht: @pluralistic

Headline on left, and text from article on right. Headline: Macroeconomic Indicators & Trends October 24, 2026 No Signs of AI Payoff Outside the Tech Sector by Torsten Slok Partner, Chief Economist Text: Despite massive investments and widespread hype around artificial intelligence, the technology has delivered zero financial payoff to corporate America outside of tech. Revenue per worker is rising for the Mag 7 but is flat for the S&P 493, see the first chart below. Profit margins are rising for the Mag 7 but are flat for the S&P 493, see the second chart below. And there are still no signs of AI boosting productivity growth, see the third chart below. With no impact on the bottom line, mainstream corporate America is pulling back and starting to view token spending not as a source of growth but as a cost center that weighs on margins. VC-backed companies are spending more and more on tokens, but mainstream corporate America does not need the latest model and is unwilling to pay for it. As long as agentic AI and token spending are confined to a small part of the economy, the macroeconomic effects of AI will be very limited, see the fourth and fifth charts below. The question looking ahead is whether, even as models become commoditized, mainstream corporate America can turn increasingly cheap intelligence into higher revenue growth and higher profit margins. That may be harder than it sounds. AI may be a great calculator, but in business, intelligence is mostly judgme
DrALJONES@DrALJONES@mastodon.social

Report: Palantir Targets UK MPs With ‘Intimidating’ Letters

"British MPs who criticised Palantir in parliament received 'intimidating' letters from the US spytech firm".

Eg, Palantir warned Clive Lewis that it "was surveilling his activities relating to Palantir last month", a letter that Lewis described as “very Big Brother” & an “implicit threat”. 

novaramedia.com/2026/10/22/pal

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Novara MediaPalantir Targets MPs With ‘Intimidating’ LettersExclusive: The US spytech firm sent letters to British MPs who made critical comments or asked difficult questions in parliament. Harriet Williamson reports.