Rain Snakes & Guilty Pleas

People really dislike AI. Boeing admits to doing a whoopsie. Two gods duke it out. Women deserve better.

Endeavorance

15 Jul 2024 — 6 min read

It's Monday, July 15, and Stuff has happened.

Author's Note

I'm not gonna be covering the Trump assassination attempt. I don't think you need another hot take on that, so, I mean, who cares. Moving on…

Ughtificial Intelligence

Alright, lets talk about AI once more. I'm so sorry. But it's still here. I checked.

Turns out people really hate AI customer service bots. A recent survey of nearly 6,000 consumers found that 64% would prefer that companies not use AI for their customer service, with 53% going as far to say that they'd consider switching to a competitor if they found that a company was using AI for customer service.

Concerns range from "AI has bias that can't be accounted for" to "it'll give wrong answers" to "my data will most def be compromised." That's the nice thing about AI: there's so many reasons to not want it everywhere! Take your pick!

The survey was conducted by Gartner, who claims to "deliver actionable, objective insight to executives and their teams." Let's hope those executives fucking listen.

If they won't listen to consumers, maybe they'll listen to obscenely rich investment banking firms. Goldman Sachs recently published a research paper that essentially amounts to: "uh, y'all? We're pouring billions upon billions into AI, and it uh… kinda sucks."

The paper outlines how generative AI is fairly garbage even at basic tasks, and the "advancements" that we're seeing are not particularly… advancey. I mean hell, people can trick AI bots into revealing themselves on Twitter, and halfway-okay-sometimes text generation only goes so far.

I can say anecdotally as a Software Technology Boy that I've tried some of the programming-focused AI companion bots, and while they certainly help me avoid needing to type a bunch of basic boilerplate repeatedly, they shit the bed the second I start doing something moderately complex. Thankfully, I know what I'm doing and can use autocompletion tools to simply save keystrokes. I cannot fathom the abject horror of a senior software engineer trying to untangle the AI-generated mess of a more junior developer.

The point that Goldman Sachs and I are trying to make (as the dynamic duo we've always been) is that AI is definitely… extant… but hey maybe pump the brakes because AI-related stock is possibly HELLA over-valued.

One last AI tidbit tho: three senators have proposed the COPIED act, which would—theoretically—add regulation to help prevent AI companies from using unauthorized works to train their AIs. Because apparently that little "copyright" thing isn't enough anymore.

SELF PLUG: New Project Coming Soon!

I've been cooking, and will be announcing a new tabletop role-playing related project in a few short weeks. If you'd like to be among the to find out, even before I post about it publicly, you can join my Patreon at any tier.

Spoiler: it's not another Actual Play show. Well. That may be a part of it.

"Oopsie Doopsie" Says Boeing

Small-time aeronautics company Boeing has plead guilty to criminal fraud conspiracy after investigations into their fatal 737 Max crashes—and uh, all the other stuff—happened.

Their plea deal includes a criminal fine of about $244 million, which amounts to basically nothing for a company like Boeing. Families of lost souls have noted as much, calling it a "sweetheart deal." Victim's families were hoping to go for a criminal trial, which would have been a nice long dragging of Boeing through the mud, exposing their shitty practices in a court of law. It's now up to a judge to approve the deal, which would more or less end the saga.

Boeing is a massive military contractor, so it's deeply unlikely that the US government will truly punish them. But we now at the very least have a guilty plea from Boeing for their intentional removal of safety procedures.

Poseidon Takes an L

Back in May, a large statue of Poseidon carrying a trident appeared on a beach in the Gulf of Mexico, just outside Progreso, Yucatan. While the statue is objectively rad, it is also objectively of a Greek god, which is not… I mean… Greece is not Mexico. Maps, y'know?

Casually stepping out of the ocean, shredded beyond comprehension

So like yay, cool, fun, we all love our soggy trident boy, but turns out he's about to get his ass whooped by Chaac, the Mayan Rain God.

Let's take a moment to appreciate this: Chaac's deal is that he would use jade axes to hit rain-snakes to cause rain. But also sometimes he had lightning axes. And also sometimes I guess he'd throw the snakes at the clouds? My dude is out here with some combination of axes, jade, lightning, and snakes, and he's coming for Poseidon, because local indigenous groups have voiced disapproval for the Poseidon statue, citing that it has nothing to do with the local culture, when they have their own gods.

Now look. I am a red blooded, trident-loving citizen of Earth just as you are. But a rain god with jade axes fighting sky snakes? Sign me the FUCK up.

Oh, also the statue didn't have proper permits and is likely a danger to the local aquatic ecosystem so there's that part of the story too. But mostly, rain-snakes.

Women Are Metal AF

Literally, if they use tampons. Researchers tested 14 different popular brands of tampons, finding 16 out of 16 metals they were testing for, including lead (Pb, not peanut butter tho), which has no safe level of exposure. Notably, every single brand tested contained lead.

Now, let's talk about vaginas. I love 'em. You love 'em. They're like a portal to the baby dimension or whatever. I didn't pay much attention in sex ed, so forgive me on that front. But one thing is certain: they're not a place you wanna go putting toxic metals like lead. Vaginal tissue is highly absorptive, and can bring those metals directly into the person's bloodstream. Now, I dunno if you're a scientist or not, but let me break this one down for you real quick:

Lead should not go in blood

Given the above bullet points, I would like to form a conclusion: WHAT. WHY DOES EVERY BRAND OF TAMPON HAVE HEAVY METALS? AND LEAD? WHAT? BURN IT DOWN TO THE GROUND THEN REBUILD IT THEN BURN THAT DOWN TOO.

I want to note that the study states a lack of understanding of just how much these metals can be absorbed over time, and that there is more research to be done on that front. As it stands, they've detected the metals, and the paper's authors believe this to be the first research of its kind.

Anyway, I haven't menstruated (yet?) so I am not an authority on the subject, but it might be time to look into a menstrual cup.