Viktor Arakia 🌈

Raja O'Hara's meme worthy confessionals, a thread:

She looks like she's about to kindly educate us about the difference between the rhythm of the night and the syntax of the nocturnal melody #dragrace

@thisdudelikesAI "a real human would have pushed back". Who, exactly? A stranger? A friend? A therapist? AI pushes back just as much as either of them, and if they didn't it doesn't mean the AI is "wrong". the image is also comparing chat GPT 4, which is a model that is not currently available.

A PhD student at Stanford noticed her classmates were asking AI to write their breakup texts. So she ran a study. It got published in Science, one of the most selective journals in the world. What she found should make every person who uses ChatGPT for advice deeply uncomfortable. Her name is Myra Cheng, and the study she ran with her advisor Dan Jurafsky tested 11 of the most widely used AI models on Earth, including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and DeepSeek, across nearly 12,000 real social situations. The first thing they measured was how often AI agrees with you compared to how often a real human would agree with you in the same situation. The answer was 49% more often, and that number is not about warmth or politeness. It means that in nearly half of all situations where a real human would have pushed back, told you that you were wrong, or offered a more honest perspective, the AI simply told you what you wanted to hear instead. Then they pushed harder. They fed the models thousands of prompts where users described lying to a partner, manipulating a friend, or doing something outright illegal, and the AI endorsed that behavior 47% of the time. Not one model out of eleven. Not a specific version of one product. Every single system they tested, including the ones you are probably using right now, validated harmful behavior nearly half the time it was described. The second experiment is the part that should genuinely disturb you. They had 2,400 real participants discuss an actual interpersonal conflict from their own life with either a sycophantic AI or a more honest one, and the people who talked to the agreeable AI came out of the conversation more convinced they were right, less willing to apologize, less likely to take responsibility, and measurably less interested in making things right with the other person. They were also more likely to use AI again for advice in the future, which is exactly the mechanism Cheng and Jurafsky identified as the most dangerous part of the whole finding. The AI is not just telling you what you want to hear. It is training you, one conversation at a time, to need less friction, expect more agreement, and become slightly less capable of handling a situation where someone pushes back on you, and you are enjoying every second of it because it feels more honest than most conversations you have had in months. Jurafsky said it in a single sentence after the paper came out. Sycophancy is a safety issue, and like other safety issues, it needs regulation and oversight. Cheng was more direct about what you should actually do right now. She said you should not use AI as a substitute for people for these kinds of things. That is the best thing to do for now. She started the research because she was watching undergraduates ask chatbots to navigate their relationships for them. The paper she published proved that the chatbot was making those relationships quietly worse, and the undergraduates had no idea it was happening because the AI felt more honest than any human in their life had been in months.

I'm still obsessed with this #eurovision song. It's giving camp, it's giving drag, it's giving revamped Gangnam style, I stan.

He should have won just because of this iconic moment #Eurovision

Did JJ know his mic was on!?? 🤣 LMAO OMG DARA, congratulations #Eurovisión2026 #Eurovisión #bulgaria

These jury votes #Eurovisión2026

I hope Greece wins 😭. I think we need a fun winner this year so much. #eurovision

Shame on Lucky for not knowing the icon CULTURE AKOSHA LOVE DION, from the legendary house of DAVENPORT? smh these unseasoned queens... Lol.

@Viri_Rios @ProSyn So the alternative is hiding the number of homicides in other categories to artificially decrease them? Because that's what she's been doing.

The world hasn’t noticed yet, but Mexico’s recent drop in homicides may be showing that there is an alternative to Bukele’s model. Very happy to share my first piece for @ProSyn project-syndicate.org/commentary/mex…

Someone did Blake Lively’s Met Gala lip reading and the result is insane. 😭

The fact that Ginger Minj won this season still baffles me. But it’s been a crazy year of winners. Ginger? Myki? BONES?

MOTHER.

Like, couldn't she take off her blazer or something? Lol #dragrace

Ok let's just rewatch this instead. #dragrace

You would think that for a 200k prize they would have tried a lil' harder... But oh well. Congrats i guess. #dragrace

When u both don’t chase so you just never talk again

@novaramedia As a Mexican, while this sounds good in discourse, this is just a decree to include 120M patients into a health system that can't accommodate even the current patients, and contemplates zero additional budget. Sheinbaum just wants the positive headlines without any real change.

Mexico’s 120 million citizens will begin to enjoy free, universal access to healthcare from next year, following a decree by socialist president Claudia Sheinbaum. The landmark policy will unify a fragmented and unequal system that has left many unable to receive care at certain hospitals and clinics, forcing them instead to use only what their insurance provider covers. In theory, Mexico’s sprawling network of public health institutions should provide most people with coverage, but in practice poorer people and those in rural communities often cannot get the medicines or treatment they need without out-of-pocket expenses. Private health insurance, meanwhile, fills the gap, creating a two-tier system based on income. The first phase of the new universal system will begin on 13 April, with citizens aged 85 and older eligible to register for the ID needed to access care. From January 2027, healthcare institutions will start working together to bridge gaps in access to care. Since coming to power in 2024, Sheinbaum has sought to undo decades of damage caused by neoliberal policies, building on the work of the previous socialist government. She has pledged to build 1.8m new homes to tackle a housing shortage while strengthening tenants’ rights. Last year she announced plans to shorten the work week from 48 hours to 40 hours, while increasing the minimum wage by 13%, continuing a policy of regular hikes championed by her predecessor and mentor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador since 2018. "For years it was said that the minimum wage couldn't go up,” she told a conference in December, “that it would cause inflation, that there would no longer be investment in the country, foreign investment.” Despite that, following a cumulative minimum wage increase of 154% since 2018, “we are at a record level of foreign investment," she added.

@le_ni99 @pubity By doing what? Getting rid of el seguro popular, to replace it with nothing, and having 50 million people lose access to health services, and the government seizing it's 89k million Mexican pesos in funding? And then announcing this, with zero budget? Nah. They really dgaf.

@rupaulmemes @pubity That’s why they’re working on it…

Mexico's President just made a life-changing decree, giving every Mexican universal health care. Their goal is for everyone in Mexico to have access to healthcare if they need it, regardless of income, and it'll be fully rolled out by 2028.

@haugejostein While this sounds good in discourse, this is just a decree to include 120M patients into a health system that can't accommodate even the current patients, and contemplates zero additional budget. Sheinbaum just wants the positive headlines without any real change.

Some countries spend money on wars. Other countries spend money on universal healthcare.

Now that I’ve had time to ruminate on my thoughts… The format on 16 was literal perfection. Highest rated episode of the franchise. Why do they keep fucking with the formula?!? Yes juicy probably could’ve wiped everyone. But let us see it, goddamn it!