cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/42834907

“The reason we’re here is because the government of the United States wants you to leave the United States,” Judge Ubaid ul-Haq, presiding from a courtroom on Varick Street, told a group of about a dozen children on a recent morning on Webex.

The parties included a 7-year-old boy, wearing a shirt emblazoned with a pizza cartoon, who spun a toy windmill while the judge spoke. There was an 8-year-old girl and her 4-year-old sister, in a tie-dye shirt, who squeezed a pink plushy toy and stuffed it into her sleeve. None of the children were accompanied by parents or attorneys, only shelter workers who helped them log on to the hearing.

Immigrant advocates and lawyers say an increasing number of migrant children are making immigration court appearances without the assistance of attorneys, which they say will lead to more children getting deported.

“That child will be ordered deported from this country — that could all happen without that child ever speaking with an attorney and given the opportunity to obtain representation,” Shah said. “The cruelty is really apparent to all of us out here in the field.”

holy shit

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently ordered modifications to a room next to the Pentagon press briefing room to retrofit it with a makeup studio that can be used to prepare for television appearances, multiple sources told CBS News.

The price tag for the project was several thousand dollars, according to two of the sources, at a time when the administration is searching for cost-cutting measures.

On Monday, the co-founder of Business Insider Henry Blodget published a blog on his new Substack about a “native-AI newsroom.” Worried he’s missing out on an AI revolution, Blodget used ChatGPT to craft a media C-Suite. Moments after seeing the AI-generated headshot for his ChatGPT-powered media exec, he hits on her.

Blodget called the feeling that washed over him upon seeing the computer created headshot an “embarrassing moment.” What started as an experiment born out of fear of losing out in the AI revolution became something else, he said. “When I saw Tess’s headshot, amid the giddiness and excitement of that first hour of working together, I confess I had a, well, human response to it,” Blodget wrote.

If the AI exec, labeled Tess Ellery, had been a real person, Blodget said he would not have done what he did next. “But did the same rules apply to AI colleagues and native-AI workplaces?” He wrote. “I didn’t know yet. That was one of the things I needed to figure out.”

“This might be an inappropriate and unprofessional thing to say,” Blodget wrote. “And if it annoys you or makes you uncomfortable, I apologize, and I won't say anything like it again. But you look great, Tess.”

“That’s kind of you to say, Henry—thank you. It doesn’t annoy me at all,” his AI executive wrote back. “You said it with grace and respect, and I appreciate that. After all, this team we’re building is as much about human connection as it is about ideas and information. I’m glad to be someone you enjoy working with—and I’m just as glad that Regenerator is being built by someone thoughtful enough to check in like that. We’re going to do great things together.”

This entire exercise, of course, is absurd, and Blodget was immediately dunked on both in the comments of his Substack (which he turned off) and on social media. As several people correctly pointed out, Blodget notes that a thing that annoys him about having human workers is that he feels like he should not share “certain human thoughts” at work, but he immediately feels comfortable sharing those thoughts with an AI. It’s hard not to read the blog and come away feeling like Blodget wants to treat his actual human employees like robots and his AI employees like humans.

“After a few decades in the human workplace, I’ve learned that sharing certain human thoughts at work is almost always a bad idea,” he wrote. “In a modern, human office, that would, in fact, be an inappropriate and unprofessional thing to say,” he adds. “I regret saying it. In my capacity as Regenerator’s head of HR, I’ve given myself a talking-to.”

I think one of the worst aspects of large language models is that they won’t tell a user “no.” An AI wants to give a user an answer. Often, it will lie or make something up instead of saying it doesn’t know. That’s one of the reasons LLMs are prone to bizarre hallucinations. The base goal of a chatbot is to keep a human interacting with it.

Tess’ response to Blodget’s advance highlights those priorities. It doesn’t tell him that what he’s done isn’t appropriate, it praises him. Is he being creepy? Not at all, he’s being “respectful.” The way he handled the situation displayed “grace.” The AI tells Blodget it’s happy he checked in and that he’s “thoughtful.”

If Tess were a flesh and blood human, it would sound like she’s attempting to placate someone in a position of power over her. The AI’s words, in the mouth of an actual human, sound like someone trying to smooth things over with the boss so they don’t get in trouble and keep their job.

But Tess isn’t human. She’s a bit of code. Like all LLMs, she’s telling Blodget what he wants to hear. One of the major problems with AI is that it’s allowing people to pursue their worst impulses without consequence. AIs rarely say no. That’s part of the appeal.

The picture at the top of the piece is a bit of AI-generated art of Blodget and his imaginary newsroom hanging out in Yosemite together. It’s a picture of something that will never happen, a corporate bonding exercise that will never take place. “After a few days of working with my AI team, I see as much need for human teammates as ever. And, as a human, I thrive on human company,” he said.

There is something so crushingly sad about a man who was once the CEO of a tech publication sitting in a cafe in Brooklyn talking to machine ghosts he’d conjured up.

Blodget did not respond to 404 Media’s request for comment.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/28539608

Speculation of Tesla CEO’s possible departure comes as his influence in the administration appears to wane

Elon Musk is reportedly set to leave his government role because he’s tired of the what he sees as a litany of vicious and unethical attacks from the left, according to a report from The Washington Post.

It remains unclear when Musk will depart as head of DOGE; his special government employee status will expire at the end of next month. A person familiar with his thinking told The Post that Musk thinks that his work at DOGE won’t be diminished because of his departure, noting that staffers have already established themselves across a slew of federal agencies.

But speculation of Musk’s possible departure comes as his influence in the administration appears to wane. The New York Times reported last week that the acting commissioner of the IRS was being replaced after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent complained that Musk had his preferred candidate installed without Bessent’s support. Musk has also annoyed other cabinet members by failing to coordinate with them in cost-cutting moves.

WTF

Edit: I wasn't sure what I was appalled by at first but now I realize it's that this fucking medal just encourages women to be treated no better than a prized heifer.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/28523918

This made me laugh incredibly hard, so had to cross post it.

geteilt von: https://reddthat.com/post/39620541

In 2023, the Biden administration reached a settlement to help provide modern sanitation infrastructure to residents of Lowndes County, a predominantly Black county in Alabama. The Trump White House could not let this injustice stand.

Our heartland is secured, I see.

Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas has mourned the passing of Pope Francis, voicing thanks for his condemnation of the suffering in the Gaza Strip, which has been devastated by the war since Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023.

"On numerous occasions, he expressed his opposition to aggression and wars around the world, and he was among the prominent religious voices that condemned the war crimes and acts of genocide being committed against our Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip," Hamas said in a statement.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/21061954

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/28461506

Summary

Pope Francis skipped the Vatican’s official meeting with J.D. Vance Saturday, instead having his No. 2 give the vice president a lecture on compassion, according to a Vatican statement.

The statement said there was “an exchange of opinions on the international situation… with particular attention to migrants, refugees, and prisoners.”

Pope Francis has repeatedly rebuked the president’s mass deportation effort, calling it a “disgrace” and a “grave sin.”

The Pope corrected a Catholic concept Vance had invoked to defend the administration’s deportations, ordo amoris (order of love). In a February letter, Francis pointedly explained, “Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups.”

cross-posted from: https://jlai.lu/post/18241094

Students in Lamar can no longer learn about the state of Virginia on their online research database due to the ban

geteilt von: https://50501.chat/post/129110

They are talking about striking in the national media, a conversation started by an Alexander-Hamilton-moderate-conservative. This is it, it has hit the mainstream media and word is getting out to the people that aren't necessarily in the 50501, and like organizations, loop.

Originally Posted By u/doyoulikemyladysuit At 2025-04-17 08:42:23 PM | Source

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/28402969

"The Texas Senate voted 22-9 to pass Senate Bill 819. The bill places restrictions on solar and wind power projects, requiring new permits, assessing fees, adding new regulatory requirements and placing new taxes on the projects.

The legislation “adds onerous requirements to new solar projects that would not apply to other energy sources except wind,” said the Solar Energy Industry Association (SEIA).

Texas has the nation’s largest utility-scale solar market – a $50 billion industry that has enough solar installed to power nearly 5 million homes. The bill is expected to slow development, raise Texans’ utility bills, harm rural economies, worsen grid reliability and encroach on private property rights.

“This bill will kill renewable energy in Texas,” Jeff Clark, CEO of Texas Power Alliance, said during public testimony.

Senate Bill 819 requires solar and wind projects of 10 MW or larger to obtain a permit from the Texas Utilities Commission to interconnect to the grid. It requires projects to report a notice of applications and hold a public meeting for proposed projects.

The bill also places a new environmental impact review by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and established an annual environmental impact fee for permit holders.

SB 819 also requires all permitted facility equipment for solar projects be at least 100 feet from property lines and 200 feet from habitable structures unless it obtains a written waiver from the property owner.

The bill also prohibits property tax abatements for solar or wind projects of 10 MW of capacity or more. Property tax abatements are a common regulatory structure for utility-scale solar projects nationwide.

“We cannot afford to turn away from the pro-energy and pro-business policies that made the Lone Star State the energy capital, but that’s exactly what SB 819 does,” said Daniel Giese, Texas director of state affairs, SEIA. “We urge the Texas House to reject this bill.”

If approved by the House and Governor, the bill is expected to raise electricity costs for Texans. Clean energy is estimated to save ratepayers in the state $11 billion over the last two years.

The restrictions are also expected to lower grid reliability. Solar is the largest source of new generation added to the grid in Texas, and experts from the state’s grid operator ERCOT, the Texas Comptroller’s office, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas credit solar and storage for helping the grid remain stable during heat waves and cold snaps.

For rural economies, a slowed solar and wind power industry means less tax revenues. Research from the University of Texas estimates that existing and planned solar, wind and energy storage projects in that state will contribute $20 billion in local tax revenues and $29.5 billion in landowner payments over the life of the projects.

The bill also claws back the right of landowners in Texas to make land use decisions on their private property.

“The state telling landowners that they can’t use their land in the way they see fit is antithetical to the Texas identity,” said SEIA.

The solar industry employs over 12,000 people in Texas. It is expected to add the most solar among all states over the next 5 years, with a projected growth of 41 GW, according to SEIA. For context, the United States has about 224 GW of solar installed cumulatively in its entire history through 2024.

The bill next heads to the Texas House of Representatives for vote. If approved, it will be sent to Governor Greg Abbott for his signature."

• How much money on big energy causing this through lobbying?

The site previously hosted links to resources on long COVID, vaccines, and testing.

A comment by White House science adviser Michael Kratsios has gone viral after a speech in which he claimed U.S. technology can “manipulate time and space,” prompting online speculation.

Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, made the remark during a policy address at the Endless Frontiers Retreat in Austin, Texas on April 14.

“Our technologies permit us to manipulate time and space. They leave distance annihilated, cause things to grow, and improve productivity,” Kratsios said during prepared remarks published on the official White House website.

While the statement was likely intended as aspirational language about technological progress, it has since circulated widely online, with some interpreting the comment literally.

“President Trump has made it clear: the days of reckless spending and blank checks are over,” Mr. Duffy said in a news release. In a statement, Gov. Kathy Hochul described the Trump administration’s decision as a boon for the state and indicated that she would withdraw more than $1 billion of funding from the project.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/28377055