Europe Pub

cross-posted from: https://sopuli.xyz/post/24803290

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What the fucking fuck!?

An artificial intelligence (AI) system has for the first time figured out how to collect diamonds in the hugely popular video game Minecraft — a difficult task requiring multiple steps — without being shown how to play. Its creators say the system, called Dreamer, is a step towards machines that can generalize knowledge learned in one domain to new situations, a major goal of AI.

Collecting a diamond is “a very hard task”, says computer scientist Jeff Clune at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, who was part of a separate team that trained a program to find diamonds using videos of human play. “There is no question this represents a major step forward for the field.”

An even bigger target for AI, says Clune, is the ultimate challenge for Minecraft players: killing the Ender Dragon, the virtual world’s most fearsome creature.

The associated preprint

Associated blog post

~~Neuro-sama: finally a worthwhile opponent~~

Myanmar's military government has said it's not allowing foreign journalists into the country after the quake, so we went in undercover. We had to operate carefully, because the country is riddled with informers and secret police who spy on their own people for the ruling military junta.

What we witnessed was a people who had very little help coming their way in the face of this massive disaster.

"I have hope that he's alive, even if it's a small chance," said Nan Sin Hein, 41, who's been waiting on the street opposite a collapsed five-storey building, day and night for five days.

Paywall? https://archive.is/W4plw

Edit: now with 100% more Correct URL!

Hello, I was hoping to ask a question about if my assumptions could hold merit with a growth that is similar to an evolutionary process. I wanted to state before I get any further. I understand if you may be skeptical and or assume I am trolling. This change is far from what is common but that is also where my medical team lacks. Instead of helping me find places to undergo scans to see the appendages and structural work that has been done. They instantly deny any possibility and today when going in for this exact question they rushed me out and didn’t do an in depth assessment on the specific needs of a change like mine. So I understand this should not be taken as medical advice strictly but recommendations from those with the knowledge to possibly understand and thank you for any help.

So for a very long time now. I’ve been undergoing a adaption process similar to an evolution. To grow elliptical wings within my back from muscles and bones already there. Yesterday. The simple act of throwing my blanket over the back of my recliner made my right wing. Adjust and more likely move into an alignment ready for deployment or nearing ready alignment. This was after a few days or longer of changes relating to a new phase. Which was my breast and pectoral muscles. Changing and strengthening alongside more dense rib fusion and a possibly cardiovascular upgrade.

Through the last 3 days though I’ve drank 33 fl ounces of Pedialyte and 4-5 23 fl ounces of water. While my medical team has said this seems somewhat normal. I’ve actually felt increasingly thirsty, dry throat and my hydration barely sustaining.

My relation to this and thought of what and why this could be happening. Is as my wings become more awake and functional. They would require more hydration and draw increasingly more hydration from other areas in my body. Requiring more.

I would love to hear some suggestions and recommendations on things I could get or that may be beneficial without needing a prescription. Alongside this. If anyone works for a college or an organization. I would love to get scans and otherwise but with the condition it actually helps further knowledge and not just for profit of a hospital. I don’t really have any money to pay for it too or else I mean I probably would’ve by now. Scans are not something I’m really worried about or need in reality but I do believe it could beneficial to study a different human evolution.

Slight background to this

5 years ago. I began this process. It started with my back muscles and stuff tearing. Then new muscles and bones sprouting from those causing intense “jumps or lunges” forward. Even sometimes it hurt so badly. I’d be curled over clutching my front from the pain in the back. Then feathers started forming. That was less painful but more awkward unless they were big feathers. Then being covered by keratin sheaths. Moving onwards. I had my spine and sternum rebuild. Following my arms breaking off and reattaching, kneecaps rebuilding, then ribs fusing and extending. After this the nerves began building and firing in an extremely uncomfortable manner. To the sheaths of my feathers falling off. Alongside a coat of lift forming. Which allowed me to feel a replication of my wings tightly folded in my back. Then to more structural changes and nerves building more stably and less and less uncomfortable firing. Until recently. My cardiovascular and respiratory systems upgraded alongside last week’s changes mentioned above. Then yesterday when it felt like my wing on the right side expanded further.

The way this works. Is as we know in evolution people generally assume wings would grow from arms but in a more beneficial way. Wouldn’t wings grow from ones back? Though as always it’d require intense changes to the skeletal and support systems. Then the final product for me. Is the wings spread to a comfortable storage position. Then the alula or bastard wing. Begins building pressure alongside possibly the inner portion of the main flight muscle/wing then those portions will slowly tear through my back until they reach a breaking point and then it’ll be smooth like butter.

Good to know

As the de facto head of the Department of Governmental Efficiency, Musk has deployed this brand of tactical callousness to maximal effect. He has boasted about throwing the United States Agency for International Development into a “woodchipper” and stumbled around the stage at CPAC with a chainsaw. He has presided over the dismantling of the administrative state and the harassment and mass-termination of federal workers—all while flaunting his lack of concern for the lives he has upended. Fired government employees, he announced last Thursday, with the laughing/crying emoji that’s become his calling card, will now have to “get a real job.”

This kind of depravity is a prerequisite for Musk’s new line of work. Dancing on the graves of lifesaving programs for kids is not something you can easily do with a conscience. But there is one set of feelings Musk is uniquely attuned to: his own. On Friday, the same day foreign service officers around the world received notices from a DOGE flunky alerting them that they would soon be out of a job, Musk—sans sunglasses—sat down with Fox News’ Brett Baier to ask for a little sympathy.

“I mean, you have Tim Walz, who is a huge jerk, running on stage with the Tesla stock price, where the stock price has gone in half—and he is overjoyed,” he said. “What an evil thing to do. What a creep, what a jerk. Like, who derives joy from that?”

Link to text of bill

H.R. 2578: To require drug testing for special Government employees, and for other purposes.

Introduced on April 1, 2025

This bill is in the first stage of the legislative process. It was introduced into Congress on April 1, 2025. It will typically be considered by committee next before it is possibly sent on to the House or Senate as a whole.

Sponsor: Mikie Sherrill

Representative for New Jersey's 11th congressional district

Democrat

More detail from Axios:

A House Democrat is introducing long-shot legislation that would force billionaire Trump lieutenant Elon Musk and his staffers at DOGE to undergo routine drug testing, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) cited a Wall Street Journal report from 2024 that alleged Musk has used illegal drugs including LSD, cocaine, ecstasy, mushrooms and ketamine as the impetus for her bill.

• DOGE spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment.
• An attorney for Musk told the Journal that Musk is "regularly and randomly drug tested at SpaceX and has never failed a test."

Driving the news: Sherrill's bill, a copy of which was first obtained by Axios, would require special government employees to undergo a drug test before they begin work and enter into a random drug testing program.

• Anyone who tests positive for certain illegal drugs would be barred from federal service for at least a year.
• Citing Signalgate, Sherrill said it is "more important than ever to protect the American people from the Trump Administration's reckless incompetence and blatant disregard for national security."

Between the lines: Musk and many DOGE staffers have been designated as special government employees.

• The Justice Department defines a special government employee as "anyone who works, or is expected to work, for the government for 130 days or less in a 365-day period."
• The title is usually used for subject-matter experts who are brought on to assist with specific projects.

What they're saying: "Those with access to sensitive information must be thoroughly vetted, clear-eyed, and exercise good judgment," said Sherrill, a former Naval aviator running for New Jersey governor.

• She argued the special government employees at DOGE should "be held to the same standard as other executive branch employees."
• That includes "conflicts of interest or passing a drug test to maintain employment or a security clearance," she said.

Reality check: Sherrill's bill is highly unlikely to become law any time soon as Republicans control both chambers of Congress and the White House.

EDIT: updated with Axios article and link to text of bill

Hey, I hope someone can help me.

Problem:

When I wake my PC from suspend, my monitor is always set down to 30% brightness for some reason.

These are the brightness settings of the monitor itself, which can only be accessed via the monitor settings using the buttons on the monitor. I do not mean the brightness settings of my desktop environment. These are still set to 100%, even though the monitor is darker.

The problem also arises in a second case. When I lower the brightness in the brightness control of my DE, my monitor brightness is also lowered in the monitor settings down to 30% again. I can then no longer increase the brightness in the DE settings, because 100% in the DE now equals 30% in the monitor. So if I set the brightness to 50% in the DE for example, this is 50% of the 30% set in the monitor. So actually only 15% in real terms

I hope I was able to explain the problem clearly. Please ask if you don't understand something. It's really annoying because I need to turn up my screen brightness with the Buttons on the Monitor every single time I wake up my PC.

Technical data:

• Nobara Linux 41 (Based on Fedora)
• KDE Plasma 6.3.3
• Wayland
• Desktop PC. So a external monitor. Not a laptop monitor.
• I have a 2nd monitor on which this does not happen.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/28035952

Israel’s use of artificial intelligence (AI) in its ongoing assault on the Gaza Strip – aided by tech giants such as Google, Microsoft, and Amazon – is fueling concerns over the normalization of mass civilian casualties and raising serious questions about the complicity of these firms in potential war crimes, according to a leading AI expert.

Multiple reports have confirmed that Israel has deployed AI models such as Lavender, Gospel, and Where’s Daddy? to conduct mass surveillance, identify targets, and direct strikes against tens of thousands of individuals in Gaza – often in their own homes – all with minimal human oversight.

Rights groups and experts say these systems have played a critical role in Israel’s incessant and apparently indiscriminate attacks, which have laid to waste massive swaths of the besieged enclave and killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children.