Posted in: ChatGPT maker OpenAI fires CEO Sam Altman for lack of candor with company See in context
I would have been less surprised had OpenAI announced they had successfully created a true Artificial General Intelligence.
Artificial General Intelligence is another chimera, like the famous "cure to cancer".
AGI is an asymptotic result, and cannot therefore be reached in a finite amount of time. That doesn't mean that AI tools won't improve though.
As for "intelligence", ChatGPT passed the Turing test a while ago.
0 ( +0 / -0 )
Posted in: Flying taxis braced for takeoff at Dubai Airshow See in context
The avionics on these devices are so advanced that maintaining control is not really the issue.
I’m more concerned about the possibility of catastrophic structural failures. Given the prices they’re suggesting, they would be out of business before even starting, unless they’re willing to take shortcuts. However, most shortcuts in aviation tend to lead to loss of lives.
1 ( +1 / -0 )
Posted in: Rapid AI proliferation a threat to democracy, experts say See in context
I wonder how many people out of those speaking there have ever trained a model/evaluated it/wrangled data for training. I bet it’s less than 5%.
when one can’t do anything but wants to ride the wave of success, the best they’re left with is talking. And talking. Without no clear understanding of what they’re talking about though. This is a perfect example of that.
-4 ( +0 / -4 )
Posted in: Weak yen forces Japan to shrink historic military spending plan See in context
”BuT a WeEK YeN is GoOd foR thE EcONoMY”, a bunch of idiots would write.
Except that Japan isn’t China, raw materials are imported, processed and then exported. Yes, a week currency is good for the exports but only in a country which doesn’t need to buy raw material.
The Yen is collapsing and it feels like the prime minister is holding the candle hoping to pass it to somebody else before the wax starts falling off.
11 ( +24 / -13 )
Posted in: British School in Tokyo's new campus See in context
Too high for normal families.
per child annual fee of about ¥3 million.
enrollment and special needs another million
https://www.bst.ac.jp/admissions/fees
I guess the rich and corporations paying for their top directors.
it’s an elementary school. What’s the point in spending so much on that?!
better put that money in a trust and save for a good university in the US
1 ( +2 / -1 )
Posted in: Apple's sales fall for fourth straight quarter despite a strong start for latest iPhones See in context
Eer, just a thought, could it be the ridiculous prices they charge for their much over rated product.
while I agree that the latest iPhones are a bit underwhelming, their laptops, especially the MacBook Pro 16 inches is top-notch.
1 ( +1 / -0 )
Posted in: Kishida says he is determined to lead world toward cooperation, not division See in context
I'm not sure if Putin, Xi, Kim and the Gaza Strip war mongers (to name a few) want world peace, order and cooperation.
Kishida can't change such people's minds and it seems the values he mentions are being forgotten about these days. I'm glad someone still had the guts to talk about them.
no villain is a villain in their mind.
What is a foreign policy success of Japan in the last - say - 20 years? Japan has a preferential position as it's an asian country and seen as not aggressive by the other countries in the Middle East. What has been done to smooth over the situation with Iran? Or to get involved to support the people of Syria?
Ok, one could say these countries are far away: how about formally open talks to solve the issues with North Korea? Or to guarantee people's safety during the last of Myanmar's coups?
That's what I am saying: it's easy to say "I want peace and collaboration", the hard part comes with pursuing this endeavor.
I listened to him speak English and it's not too bad.*
Had he spoken Tagalog nothing would have changed: political acumen doesn't depend on the language. Charles De Gaulle could barely speak English and was an exceptional statesman.
4 ( +8 / -4 )
Posted in: Kishida says he is determined to lead world toward cooperation, not division See in context
Cooperation is what we should all try to cultivate. There is too much negativity and competition in the world, leading to fighting and unhappiness. I for one support Mr Kishida in his sentiment.
The problem is not what is says, but how he says it. Everybody wants world peace, order, cooperation and wealth. But these are thoughts that even a 6 y.o. at the first day of elementary school would have.
The issue is that a prime minister needs to bring tangible know-how: what does Kishida know about foreign policy? What does he know about finance? There is no peace without money to sustain it.
8 ( +10 / -2 )
Posted in: Kishida says policies necessary; doesn't care what names he's called See in context
The tax brackets as they are defined are already terrible for low- and middle-income earners (say up to 10 million yen).
Tax rates should be 0%~15% (max) for up to 10 million, and then up to 50% for high-income. Having an entire bracket 9M-18M and 18M-40M with a 7% difference makes me wonder who is really going to benefit from this. Tax 9M-18M at 30% and 18M-30M at 40% and 40M+ at 55%.
Of course this would make him very unpopular among some rich constituents.
0 ( +0 / -0 )
Posted in: About 93% of Japanese firms raised employee wages in 2022: survey See in context
I'm sorry but there is absolutely no validity to a survey like this. 75% of those surveyed didn't respond! That is going to create incredibly biased results. If I had results like that in my own research, I would have to figure out a different testing method because I wouldn't be able to draw any conclusions. Response rates below 50% are generally not acceptable for analysis and reporting.
To say that 93% of companies raised wages based on the results from this survey? Sorry, it's clickbait and completely misleading. We can just as easily assume that all non-responses are 'no increase'. If that is the case, only about 23% of companies actually increased wages.
even with 51% you end up with very low power, which is a worthless statistical test. Honestly the numbers in this survey are a sham.
2 ( +2 / -0 )
Posted in: About 93% of Japanese firms raised employee wages in 2022: survey See in context
poorly designed survey as it's usual in Japan.
If "wage raise" only is specified without an amount, even a company raising the salaries by 1 yen would not be lying declaring to have raised salaries.
Had they been asked "have you raised the salaries by 15'000 yen or more", most of them would have answered "NO". And that wouldn't look good.
6 ( +10 / -4 )
Posted in: JAL announces int'l fare fuel surcharge for tickets issued between December and January 2024 See in context
Traveling overseas from Japan has become completely unaffordable. The same tickets with departure from Europe instead of Japan, are up to 70% cheaper.
I just don’t understand why the public and the Consumer Affairs Agency aren’t complaining about it.
5 ( +7 / -2 )
Posted in: 1st shipment of this year's Beaujolais Nouveau arrives in Japan See in context
Loving all those recommending Eastern European wines.
if French and Italian wines are regarded as the best there’s a reason for that. And no, the reason is not pure and simple discrimination.
0 ( +2 / -2 )
Posted in: All options on table to counter excess currency moves: finance chief See in context
all options have been on the table since last year, and nothing has changed.
We work our asses off to fund inexistent welfare, high taxes and God knows what.
Japan needs to forcefully REMOVE people from powerful positions when they reach the age of 65, and move on.
No new approaches and ideas can be born from old minds.
7 ( +16 / -9 )
Posted in: One in 10 Japanese are older than 80: gov't data See in context
Would rather be 3 meters under at the age of 50 than living an extra 40 years miserably. It’s heartbreaking to see how sad most elderly are in this country.
-14 ( +10 / -24 )
Posted in: All 14 Toyota factories in Japan halt operations due to massive glitch See in context
it’s highly unlikely this isn’t a ransomware.
-2 ( +3 / -5 )
Posted in: North Korea tells Japan of satellite launch plan See in context
North Korea is the ultimate troll country
6 ( +8 / -2 )
Posted in: ANA eyes Southeast Asian market with new LCC brand AirJapan See in context
Nonsense obsession, common in the Japanese market, to create tens of small-sized companies from a large one, with larger management and logistics overhead. They could totally rename Peach to AirJapan or modify Peach to Peach Japan to make the name more palatable to SE Asia, though I doubt they can compete with Jetstar or AirAsia at this point. Too late.
2 ( +3 / -1 )
Posted in: Court finds consultant guilty of taking bribes over Tokyo Olympics See in context
God. If you really need to get involved in nasty business, at least do it for millions of US dollars, not for a few year’s worth of an average middle class salary.
5 ( +5 / -0 )
Posted in: Apple first public company to be valued at $3 trillion See in context
Over-hyped and overpriced.
I use all operating systems. From enterprise to desktop to handhelds. I do not hate Apple. But it's most definitely over-hyped.
wouldn't say so, at least not for the laptops which are amazing pieces of hardware (at least this is the case of the 16 MacbookPro with all the optionals). Of course, for a workstation nobody in their right mind would buy Apple, because of the lack of serious GPU support.
iPhones are great too, and the iPads, although of limited use, are excellent to write and take notes on PDFs (I never managed to get accustomed to other tablet's screens).
Overhyped yes, though, that's for sure.
-3 ( +0 / -3 )
Posted in: Yen weakening may prove debilitating blow to Japan See in context
Never had such a high monthly return since I began trading on the TSE. That being said, unstable currency is not good at all, and saying that this situation is "good for some sectors and bad for others" is rather naive.
1 ( +6 / -5 )
Posted in: Japan enacts watered-down LGBT understanding law See in context
An unpopular opinion is that marriage as an institution is mainly to ensure that generational wealth is passed on to biological heirs. Whether you agree or not or see that as being fair or not, that's pretty much the situation.
Historically marriage has not been about who you love or choose to partner with. In homosexual relationships there aren't any biological heirs related to that bond. So there really is no historical reason or need for gay marriage. It's more about crying that the world is unfair and trying to force new progressive paradigms.
Defending the institution of traditional marriage to foster biological familiar bonds is not about homophobia or preventing people from loving whomever they choose, it's simply society has no need and gains no larger value from same sex marriages.
never read anything so moronic in my life. Are you then supposed to have children first then? Because if you can’t procreate, you would have no inheritance to pass down right?
And when do you exactly get married in such circumstance? What if the child suffers an illness and dies, after a couple got married? Would they then be asked to get a divorce?
-1 ( +3 / -4 )
Posted in: Kishida says he is willing to meet Kim Jong Un over abductions See in context
I understand that North Korea is a totally different country with a different culture... but WHAT THE HELL WITH THAT HAIRCUT?
7 ( +13 / -6 )
Posted in: Japanese people urged to travel abroad to help airlines, tourism industry See in context
Airlines seek trying to recover 3 years of lost revenue in 3 months with these crazy prices. My biz class to USA was 1.1 million yen.
Don’t know how much experience you have traveling biz, but I haven’t flown economy once in the past 5 years and 1.1 million for biz is not expensive, but average, especially for flex tickets.
I’ve paid more than double that in the past for a RT from the US
sadly prices have gone up for the average folk and the families, not for those who buy biz tickets. I’d be ok paying more yet knowing some others could travel home to their families.
1 ( +2 / -1 )
Posted in: Stray cat seen with arrow sticking out of its body See in context
I feel really bad for the cat.
In my old neighborhood, I used to live at the ground floor, and the apartment rules prevented me from keeping a pet. One day, a kitten who couldn’t have been older than 4 weeks showed up on our porch. I felt very bad, because he was there alone, and so I fed him. In the following weeks, the kitten basically made my porch his home. He would hang out there, not bothering anybody, not meowing whatsoever. I couldn’t unfortunately have him stay inside with us. One day, I found my 70-yo neighbor trying to hit shoot the kitten with a slingshot while the kitten was just walking unbothered in the parking lot. I hoped this was just an unfortunate mishap and didn’t call the police, because I was afraid I would be evicted.
The following week we received a letter from the real estate agency demanding that I stop feeding stray cats. 2 days after receiving the letter, I signed the contract for a new apartment, where pets are allowed, and handed my month notice.
That kitten is now a 3 year old 100% indoor cat. In Japan, many people see stray cats as if they are rats, and there is a stigma against them. I promised myself I would refrain from buying cats and try to adopt from shelters instead. Last year I got my second cat (with the approval of the landlord).
I regret not reporting that old man.
17 ( +21 / -4 )
Posted in: Japanese Ferrari designer gets suspended term for speeding See in context
@rcch, nice try. 33% of Japan's population lives in Tokyo or its neighboring prefectures, where the use of cars is limited, in general. Which means that the nation has a lower mileage per year than the US, where literally everyone drives except (maybe) New York City, whose greater area population counts 19 million people, or roughly 5% of the US population.
3 ( +8 / -5 )
Posted in: Coming-of-Age Day ceremonies held across Japan See in context
some people have an obsession with making babies. Do you realize that raising a child (or 2, in order to keep the population constant) on an average Japanese salary is really hard?
please stop pressuring people to make babies, an rather think about how to improve the basic conditions for that to happen. The $1000 the J-gov offered isn’t gonna cut it.
9 ( +13 / -4 )
Posted in: End of Japan COVID curbs triggers surge in visitors to nearly 1 million in November See in context
Yeah, and airlines can’t keep up and prices are ridiculous. A messed up situation nobody is caring to fix
2 ( +3 / -1 )
Posted in: Japan unveils strategy for domestic production of advanced chips See in context
$500M is a micro-investment in the chip industry. Nothing is going to happen and that money will magically disappear.
3 ( +3 / -0 )
Posted in: Matcha improves sleep quality, social cognition, researchers say, and you don’t need to drink it See in context
And scientists in general should stop claiming positive results when there are none. This is a massive problem in scientific research
1 ( +2 / -1 )
Posted in: Trump and Musk's dismantling of government is shaking foundations of US democracy
Posted in: Trump unleashes a supercharged MAGA agenda and Republicans come aboard
Posted in: Trump unleashes a supercharged MAGA agenda and Republicans come aboard
Posted in: Japan, Zambia agree to cooperate on mineral resources, investment