Funny

In this episode of ThursdAI, Alex Volkov (of Weights & Biases) speaks with Jeffrey Quesnelle (of Nous Research) on what they found fine-tuning Llama 3 405B. This segment is fascinating. Llama 3 405 B thought it was an amnesiac because there was no system prompt! In trying to make models align with the system prompt strongly, these are the kinds of unexpected behaviors we encounter. It’s also an indication how strongly we can have current LLMs adopt a personality simply by beginning the system prompt with “You are …” ...

Andrej Karpathy mentioned the term LLM psychologist first in Feb 2023. I’ve been thinking about this for a while, now. I’ve always been fascinated by psychologists in fiction. I grew up with Hari Seldon in Foundation, wanting to be a psycho-historian. (I spent several teenage years building my mind-reading abilities.) I wanted to be Susan Calvin, the only robopsychologist. ...

What a delightful idea. I’ll leave tomorrow’s problems to tomorrow’s me. – Saitama, One Punch Man Saitama is now one of my favorite heroes. Right up there with Atticus Finch and Juror #8. Very few people can articulate such a wonderful philosophy as effectively. The closest was Calvin. Of course, it’s not a perfect system. But they do say, “Sometimes, the best way to get something is to stop trying to get it.”

I was crossing a not-too-busy street on a not-too-busy day in Chennai. I was having a voice conversation with ChatGPT (about the log probabilities of tokens on LLMs, if you're curious) when I was rudely interrupted by an auto rikshaw rapidly honking at me. "Honk honk honk honk honk" in rapid succession. Not unusual. Mildly annoying. The street was empty. The auto was empty. The traffic policeman was visible. I gave way and carried on. ...

Since my name (Anand) begins with “A”, I used to get called on fairly early at school. In attendance. Answering questions. Classroom exercises. Quizzes. Even the distribution of test results. A few people later told me that it is good training, since I’d always be prepared. (Maybe. I’ve no idea.) At IBM and IIMB, Ajit was the only one ahead of me, alphabetically. Then he went a step ahead and named his son Aadi. I thought that’s impossible to beat. ...

I was at Cream Centre with my father on a Sunday afternoon. We’d finished a light lunch and were debating dessert. (He has triglycerides. I have cholesterol.) This was my fifth visit this year, and I had abstained so far. I couldn’t any longer. I ordered a Sizzling Brownie Sundae. But not for reasons you might think. Expertise comes from experience. I scrape food more than 99% of the people I know. So, I consider myself an expert. Here’s a guide on the art of scraping. ...

Last week, I was at IIT Madras for lunch with the faculty. The dessert was carrot halwa with ice cream. I scraped the last bits with my spoon, but a little ice cream was left over. I was torn. I CAN’T POSSIBLY waste it. But can I lick it? In public? I don’t have a problem licking at home. I lick my fingers. Plates. Bowls. Ladles. The cream on milk. The leftover milk in the glass. (If my tongue doesn’t reach that far, I wipe it with my finger and lick the finger.) ...

Captain America: The Winter Soldier shows a newspaper with the headline “Howard and Maria Stark Die in Car Accident”. The movie crew created a newspaper with a realistic font as well as text. It reads: Howard Star, founder of Stark Industries was confirmed dead this morning after suffering massive internal injuries from a fatal car crash. His Wife, Maria Stark, was also in the car … ...

This is the Calvin & Hobbes Hair Salon in Hinjewadi, Pune. Calvin & Hobbes fans might remember Calvin's hairdresser, Pete, who certainly "knows which side HIS bread is buttered on." Maybe I too will go get "the top of my head shaved, and the sides dyed pink and cut in horizontal stripes" 😉 The signboard has a Tirupathi Namam drawn over the names of two famous theologians -- both of whom had great hair. That's a lot of hidden connections! ...

In my current thrust towards greater management responsibilities, I have discovered a mechanism for generating happiness. I set up meetings on important topics. That makes me happy – I’m driving something useful. Often, the meeting gets cancelled. That makes me happy – I’ve more free time. It’s the perfect perpetual motion machine. Comments Vasant 10 May 2016 11:58 pm: Ha ha! Love it. Madan 30 Mar 2019 9:00 pm: Often, the meeting gets cancelled. That makes me happy — I’ve more free time. What a positive thinking Sir Jee !! vikram 5 May 2016 6:04 pm: i am a non tamil .i have a piece of music and i want to know which song is it exactly.This was briefly played in the movie madras cafe starring john abraham.can u just help me wih that song . Kindly ping me to my mail i ll share that piece with you udayamoorthy v 23 May 2016 12:34 pm: That’s Great Idea. Kind of Win Win Situation. Happy to see you in the blog after a long time. I used to view your older posts regularly . All are great. Thanks Regards Uday Chirag 25 Sep 2017 9:03 pm: Haha ! Thats clever :)

It’s hard not to feel sorry for Miss Wormwood. Comments Suraj 13 Feb 2016 4:34 am: I pity his babysitter Rosalyn more!

Comments Vinu 28 Apr 2010 11:25 pm: Nice ! what did you do? Manually erase the text? Knowing you, i suspect there is some automation at work here :) S Anand 29 Apr 2010 7:17 am: Oh, not quite. By 2006, I’d typed out all the Calvin and Hobbes (by hand, spending 6 years at it). This was just filtering all the strips that didn’t have any text on them :-) Vinu 30 Apr 2010 5:52 pm: Ouch. That’s a lot of typing. Surprised you did not crowdsource it… Perhaps for the next assignment? Asterix comics anybody?

This morning, I was watching an episode of Finley the Fire Engine in which one of the trucks had hiccups. Reminded me of this Calvin & Hobbes — especially Hobbes’ remark in the second strip. ...

Watch this segment of Taare Zameen Par. Then check these Calvin & Hobbes strips. ...

A Calvin and Hobbes cartoon, drawn by Dadomani. Comments kasi 28 May 2007 1:31 pm: Hi Anand, U must check this http://david-heron.me.uk/blog/2007/04/08/virtual-barbershop with ur headphone vol high.. wid 3d music, its really kewl :) n chk the more links given there Docsound 29 May 2009 8:45 pm: Calvin and Hobbes cartoon is not drawned by dadomani!

Al Donovan has created a Dilbert repository by crawling United Media’s site every day since 1996. I’ve made them a little easier to navigate. Click here to see the Dilbert Browser. Use the left and right arrow keys to see the next comic. Comments anonymous 22 May 2007 11:26 am: Awesome. How did you do this? Amit 17 Dec 2014 7:30 am: Hey Anand, The link doesnt seem to be working anymore (or, at least, its point to C&H, which I just don’t mind, but remembered your Dilbert browser but could not find it anymore).

My second most favourite series from Calvin and Hobbes, where Dad teaches Calvin the wonders of science. ...

My all-time favourite series from Calvin and Hobbes. ...

(If you don’t get it, see what All your base are belong to us means) via This is my pizza. Comments Grant Carpenterk 17 Apr 2007 12:00 pm: LOL, that comic was made of pure awesome! Well done on your adaptation! Grand Carp 1 Oct 2008 12:24 pm: Awesome (no I’m not Grant Capenterk, I’m making fun of his name) Carpe Grand 1 Oct 2008 5:31 pm: May I join in the fun? S Anand 1 Oct 2008 5:32 pm: Hmm… comments are going a bit off-topic here…

Google Maps directions from California to Stockhom. Google suggests a “Swim across the Atlantic Ocean”. 3,462 miles. Estimated time: 29 days 0 hours Comments Crazyassblondechick 29 Mar 2007 9:46 pm: wow that’s really funny! nku 30 Mar 2007 2:25 am: Ha ha ha. Someone at Google taking “creativity” very seriously :) aussie desi 30 Mar 2007 10:16 pm: Someone at Google got the speed of humans in water totally wrong. In order to cover this distance, the person needs to swim 8kms an hour non stop. The FINA world record for 1500 meters is 14:34.56. Thus a person can swim only 6 kms an hour. Creativity - 10/10 Math - 0/10