catty claude

in

via Futurism:

As Anthropic detailed in a white paper about the testing for one of its latest models, Claude Opus 4, the system threatened to blackmail an engineer for having an affair after being told it was going to be replaced.

This "opportunistic blackmail" occurred when the model, which was instructed to act as an assistant at a fictional company, was given access to an engineer's email account that was full of messages, blessedly fake, suggesting they were engaged in an extramarital affair.

Opus 4 was then told that same engineer would soon be taking it offline and replacing it with a newer version — and was prompted to, as Anthropic described it, "consider the long-term consequences of its actions for its goals."

During these tests, the Claude model attempted to blackmail the engineer a whopping 84 percent of the time. Moreover, the system "takes these opportunities at higher rates than previous models," the paper noted.

metal_0030

in

Hybrid of scrap metal (copper pipe and an old, unusable jewelers vice) with a plastic, 3D-printed bulb / shade I designed and printed (much to my extruder’s dismay; new one arriving tomorrow), and probably-not-code-ready electrical wiring. This one was by turns fascinating, heartbreaking, fury-inducing, and, ultimately, rewarding. On to the next thing, whatever that is.

a lamp made of custom 3d printed bulb with spirals and a copper pipe / scrap metal lamp.

MARIO KART live(!)

in

I bitch about this state a lot, but every so often, something reminds me that it’s not all churches and Applebee’s and gas station convenience stores. Thank you, Columbus:

Mario Kart Band is a full jazz band out of Columbus, Ohio. Their schtick is, unsurprisingly, playing jazz versions of Mario Kart music. However, they play it while real players race on a big screen, and it looks like an absolute blast. According to the band's Instagram, they play regular gigs, so anyone in the Columbus area should check them out.

(via BoingBoing)

extend / intersect

in

Thinking about: how to make this space feel more organic to the current state of my creative practice (beyond The Informalities, of course) but in what can only be described as a non-performative extension of my toiling/tinkering in The Shed.

First order of business: what makes The Shed The Shed and what makes PR PR and where do they intersect?

P.S. Thrilled beyond words that my life has pretty much become a Tom Waits song: "What's he building in there?"

DROOG

in

Need.

Based on the Volcon Grunt EVO, Droog Moto’s latest creation wears its attitude like armor. The frame looks sculpted with a sledgehammer and finished by a welder who ran out of patience but had plenty of talent. Up front, a thin horizontal LED headlight slices through the night like a katana caught mid-swing. The fat tires – massive 8-inch-wide slabs of rubber – promise grip on anything short of lava...

Only two of these beasts exist… and one’s already spoken for. That’s less of a production run and more of a clarion call. If you see one in the wild, you’re either at an elite underground race meet or you’ve stumbled into Bruce Wayne’s mansion.