UL NO. 438: Confusion is a Muse

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SECURITY | AI | MEANING
:: Unsupervised Learning is my continuous stream of original ideas,
analysis, tooling, and mental models designed to help humans thrive in a
world full of AI.

TOC

• NOTES

• MY WORK

• STORIES

• IDEAS

• DISCOVERY

• RECOMMENDATION OF THE WEEK

• APHORISM OF THE WEEK

NOTES

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• Fabric now supports Anthropic’s Sonnet 3.5. It’s really damn good. Just
  update and then run:

  fabric —listmodels

  echo "what’s the meaning of life " | fabric -sp create_5_sentence_summary -m claude-3-5-sonnet-20240620


• One note though,
  Sonnet and Haiku throw a lot of copyright failures. I guess
  they’re trying to push people towards Opus? Not sure why they do that,
  but I frequently can’t use extract_wisdom with Sonnet
  because it won’t summarize a podcast.

• I’m gearing up for Vegas / Blackhat / DEFCON. Hope to see you there!
  Come see me. I’ll have stickers, but that’s about the limit of swag I’m
  comfortable with. I might make UL shirts at some point, but it won’t say
  Unsupervised Learning on them. It’ll just be the UL logo by itself on
  the center front, like a superhero decal.

—

• I’ve been feeling quite grateful for my life lately, and somehow
  superpowered. Not just because things are going well, which they are,
  but most importantly because I feel I’m living an authentic life.

  I feel like this newsletter has been 300% better—at least in
  my eyes—because it’s lost its form and taken on the form of
  authenticity. It’s taken on the form of me, and what I’m thinking and
  doing and learning.

  It’s no longer a newsletter in which I must do newsletter things.
  It’s now just a list of what I’m seeing and reading and learning,
  which I send out in something called a newsletter.

  The difference is tiny and monumental, and I hope you’ve 1)
  noticed the difference, and 2) have enjoyed it.

  Let me know.  

Ok, let’s get to it…

MY WORK

This is a stream-of-consciousness style collection of thoughts on US
politics, the upcoming election, and I guess politics in general. Skip it if
you don’t like politics.

My View on The State of US Politics

Member Post: A set of thoughts on how I currently see US politics and the
upcoming election…

danielmiessler.com/p/view-state-us-politics

Hey there!

I would like to move more to a model where I support my work with
memberships, courses, and revenue from the apps that I build—rather than
sponsorships.

To help me realize this, I’d like to invite you to become a UL
member.

Here’s what you get:

• Entry into the best online community I’ve ever been a part of

• We’re voraciously curious, constantly reading, constantly learning,
  and we share what we learn with others. But most importantly, we’re kind. We’re a community of helping
  people become their best selves.

• An insanely great Book Club, which has been running for like 5 years
  straight!

• Additional monthly meetups where we share tools, routines, personal
  challenges, and lots of other stuff you can’t get anywhere else

• Significant discounts on my paid offerings

• Access to private UL events

• And more…

Honestly there are lots of benefits to being a member that make it worth
more than the price, but at basically $8/month the community is worth it just by itself.

Become a Member

Thank you. I truly appreciate your support of the work that I do.

-Daniel

STORIES

CISA held its first AI security tabletop exercise with over 50 experts
from government and industry to simulate responses to AI security
incidents. The exercise, led by the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative
(JCDC), aimed to improve operational collaboration and information sharing
for AI-related threats. | CISA

Extremists in the US are using AI to spread hate speech, recruit, and
radicalize faster than ever. Examples: President Biden using racial slurs
and Emma Watson reading Mein Kampf. |
WIRED 

The U.S. has banned the sale of Kaspersky antivirus software, citing
security risks from Russia. If you’re using it, switch to another provider.
|
TECHCRUNCH 

There’s a new set of high-severity vulnerabilities in Asus routers that let
hackers take control without any user interaction. Patch these ASAP. | CVSS
9.8 |
ARSTECHNICA 

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Dmitri Alperovitch imagines a detailed scenario of China invading Taiwan in
2028, focusing on an air assault strategy due to the rough Taiwan Strait
waters. | by
Dmitri Alperovitch |
WIRED 

The U.S. is moving to limit investments in China’s AI, semiconductor, and
quantum computing sectors to curb China’s tech advancements. The new rules
will impact private equity, venture capital funds, and U.S. limited
partners’ investments in foreign-managed funds and convertible debt. |
TOMSHARDWARE 

Cool, but we need to be building a lot more energy production like them
as well.

Jake Lang, a January 6 rioter, has organized a nationwide armed militia from
prison. Lang’s militia has thousands of members and uses Telegram for
coordination. | by
Leah Feiger |
WIRED 

A study says directly at the camera during online job interviews can
significantly boost your evaluation scores. | by
Hiroshima University
|
PHYS.ORG 

AI Agents and The RaaS Revolution (Results As A Service) — Discusses the
evolution from SaaS to RaaS, emphasizing the role of AI agents in delivering
results.
MEDIUM 

Sam Lijin has a new post on how to get structured output from LLMs, covering
various frameworks and their pros and cons. The post dives into why
converting English to JSON is tough and compares different methods like
parsing malformed JSON versus constraining token generation. | by
Sam Lijin |
BOUNDARYML 

Laura Kipnis got invited to join an AI project called Rebind, where AI
versions of authors interact with readers about classic books. She thought
it was a scam at first but found the idea intriguing. The project aims to
make high-level, interactive reading experiences accessible to everyone,
using AI to simulate conversations with authors. | by
Laura Kipnis |
WIRED 

Fabian Both from Octomind explains why they stopped using LangChain for
their AI agents, highlighting how its rigid high-level abstractions made
their codebase more complex and less productive. Instead, they now use
modular building blocks, which simplified their development process and
increased team happiness and productivity. | by
OCTOMIND
|
OCTOMIND BLOG 

My buddy Evan and long-time ULer, Evan Oslik, argues that our obsession
with convenience is making us less human, disconnecting us from real-life
interactions and essential skills. | by Evan Oslik | SNAKE EYES SOFTWARE

Solar generated a fifth of global electricity at midday on the summer
solstice. | EMBER-CLIMATE

Using SSH as a sudo replacement is an interesting idea. The author
suggests that SSH can be used to execute commands as another user,
potentially replacing sudo in some scenarios. | WHYNOTHUGO

Apple is renaming Apple ID to Apple Account. The change aims to simplify the
naming but expect to see both terms used interchangeably for a while. | by
Adam Engst |
TIDBITS 

A group of 17 secondary schools in Southwark, London, are going
smartphone-free to combat the negative effects of phone use on students’
well-being and education. |
THE GUARDIAN 

I love how Jonathan Haidt’s work is spreading so fast.

I think the vibe of “social media is the new smoking” has some merit to
it.

It’s not quite that clear, though, because in moderation social media can
be useful, whereas smoking is always bad for your health. Although I guess
you can argue for a pro if you do it socially?

Gavin Newsom wants to ban smartphones in schools to improve student focus
and reduce distractions. More impact likely from Haidt. | by
Gavin Newsom |
POLITICO 

House prices are surging again, with a global index (excluding China) up
over 3% year-on-year. American prices are up 6.5%, Australian by 5%, and
Portuguese prices are soaring. |
ECONOMIST 

Insufficient sun exposure is now a serious public health issue, potentially
causing hundreds of thousands of deaths annually in the US and Europe, and
increasing the risk of various diseases like cancer, cardiovascular disease,
and multiple sclerosis. The study suggests that while vitamin D has been
considered the main benefit of sun exposure, other mechanisms like nitric
oxide release from the skin might also play significant roles. |
NCBI 

I can’t wait for Huberman to cover this topic. Seems like getting sun
early in the morning is super good for you (but that could be vibes).

My question is how much of that is circadian rhythm stuff, i.e., through
the eyes, or how much is from like sun hitting the skin? And if it’s
early, and the UV index is still low, does that mean it’s net-good?

Can’t wait to see more science on this. And in the meantime I’m going to
treat very early and very late sun as kind of net-good.

Having more positive experiences in life is linked to lower odds of brain
disorders like Alzheimer’s and slower cognitive decline. A new study from
Columbia suggests that brain mitochondria play a key role in this. | by
Columbia Medicine |
MEDICALXPRESS 

Secret Ted Cruz Fundraising Documents (Slightly Redacted) — A look at Ted
Cruz’s fundraising events and the redaction of personal information to
comply with social media policies. The documents were found in the Senate
Refectory and went viral on X before being taken down for containing
personal information. | by
Pablo Manríquez |
CAPITOL PRESS 

One thing AI is going to bring us—and that I’m personally building—is the
ability to gather intelligence continuously from thousands of sources, and
then craft that into timelines and narratives.

This is the type of thing that required massive skill and headcount
before. Like only journalists and spies were basically doing this, and
there are/were so few of them!

Now, people like me will have AI that can gather constantly and turn that
content into intelligence output.

Kolari Vision’s inaugural solar eclipse photo competition crowned Ryan
Spangenberg’s shot of a plane skimming the eclipse as the winner. | by
Matt Growcoot |
PETAPIXEL 

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IDEAS

Toddler —> Ph.D in around 4 years. Insanity.

ᴅᴀɴɪᴇʟ ᴍɪᴇssʟᴇʀ
@DanielMiessler

So like 3-4 years to go from toddler-level intelligence to Ph.D level
intelligence.

But don’t worry—it’ll probably stop there.

Tsarathustra @tsarnick

Mira Murati: GPT-3 was toddler-level, GPT-4 was a smart high schooler
and the next gen, to be released in a year and a half, will be PhD-level

 

6:02 PM • Jun 21, 2024

  

11 Likes  
4 Retweets  

1 Reply

—

Just don’t call it AI.

Click to read the thread

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DISCOVERY

Web-Check — A free and open-source tool that lets you see everything
about any website. You just enter a URL, click “Scan,” and it gives you all
the available information about the site. | by
Alicia Sykes |
GITHUB 

Haize Labs — Automated red-teaming against LLMs. Interesting stuff going on
here, will be watching closely.
X

Agentic LLM Vulnerability Scanner — An open-source tool for fuzzing and
stress testing LLMs with customizable rule sets. | by msoedov | GITHUB

Incogni — A service that removes your personal info from the web to block
spam calls and protect privacy. | by
Incogni |
9TO5MAC 

Confusion is a Muse — Phil Eaton
argues that confusion is a powerful tool for learning and writing,
especially in software development. He says that embracing confusion and
documenting the journey to understanding can lead to valuable insights and
endless writing material. | NOTES

Complexity Expands to Fill the Space Available — Tom Wilson argues that
complexity tends to expand to fill the space available, much like gas in a
container. He suggests that limiting resources and constraints can actually
drive simplicity and efficiency in systems.
MEDIUM 

The Winter of Content — How Game of Thrones changed media, driving traffic
and homogenizing journalism. |
The Verge 

A niche salary database created from viral videos.  | by
Salary Transparent Street |
SALARYTRANSPARENTSTREET

The Internet is Now for Bots, Not Humans — Chris Butler argues that the
internet is now more for bots than humans, with bots making up nearly half
of all internet traffic. He suggests this shift changes how we design and
interact with information. |
CHRISBUTLER 

An impossibly thin fabric can cool you down by over 16 degrees. This fabric
uses nanotechnology to reflect sunlight and dissipate body heat, making it
ideal for hot climates. |
FASTCOMPANY 

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RECOMMENDATION OF THE WEEK

Get a copy of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius and keep it by your bed.

I find it’s one of the best ways to:

1. Fall asleep

2. Feel grateful for my life as I’m doing so

Purchase:
FANCY PANTS VERSION
|
NORMAL VERSION

APHORISM OF THE WEEK

❝  

Inspired by love, guided by knowledge.

  Bertrand Russell

Hey there,

I would like to move more to a model where I support my work with
memberships, courses, and revenue from the apps that I build—rather than
sponsorships.

To help me realize this, I’d like to invite you to become a UL
member.

Here’s what you get:

• Entry into the best online community I’ve ever been a part of.

• We’re voraciously curious, we’re constantly reading, constantly
  learning, and we share what we learn with others. But most importantly, we’re kind. We’re a community of helping
  people become their best selves.

• An insanely great Book Club, which has been running for like 5 years
  straight!

• Additional monthly meetups where we share tools, routines, personal
  challenges, and lots of other stuff you can’t get anywhere else

• Significant discounts on my paid offerings

• Access to private UL events

• And more…

Honestly there are lots of benefits to being a member that make it worth
more than the price, but at basically $8/month the community is worth it just by itself.

Become a Member

Thank you. I truly appreciate your support of the work that I do.

-Daniel