I suspect that Anthropic wanted the govt to ensure they would not use Claude for mass surveillance or autonomous weapons even if it does become legal in the future. OpenAI was comfortable with the agreement because it's currently illegal and they can make a public statement that they still side with Anthropic on the ethics side.

I also believe that Anthropic's CEO just didn't get along with the DoW in negotiations. So much of these big contracts comes down to relationships.

Still pretty sleazy how the govt is being so aggressive about it. I wish they would have just denied the contract and picked another vendor.

China already has such legislation. They have placed restrictions on social media and internet use for children, and they censor content on these platforms.

Personally, I'm against government intervention for this sort of thing. I prefer government to be constrained to securing my liberties, rather than restricting my behavior "for my own good".

As a parent, I talk to my kids about social media like I talk to them about junk food. I want them to recognize that it's bad for them - it's addictive, and provides short term pleasure that results in long term misery. Avoiding it, or making good decisions about how you interact with it, is a personal responsibility issue.

Is it possible that the current form of social media is actually contributing to the erosion of your liberties because it is so widely used in society and is likely contributing to polarization and antisocial behavior?

I see this (and, honestly, most problems) as much more than a personal responsibility issue. To me, it’s an issue of misaligned incentives and unpriced downside costs. It’s clear that market forces push companies to build an addictive service that produces long term misery. It’s also clear that social media has a cost on its users (producing long term misery, reducing acute productivity) But this cost is not paid by the social media company.

I’d argue that widespread use of the social media that today’s market incentives create is bad for society as a whole, not only for any one individual. Correcting market incentives that don’t align with social good is, in my opinion, one of the most essential purposes of legislation.

> A little less than half will go to taxes...

:sad:

The people in this community are more qualified than most people in my social circles for debating this topic, and tend to be less motivated toward bias. People here tend to be better at referencing source material, facts, and statistics that support their thoughts.

Although I don't usually seek out this topic in this community, I find these discussions here helpful from time to time.

App Store gatekeeping needs to burn. It may be helpful for the tech-illiterate who want simple and safe apps, but it's not a viable for a healthy ecosystem of broad ranging applications. It's crazy to think I can't install an app from a developer I trust from their website.

You can disable Gatekeeper.

I like your wording on this - outrage cycle. I agree that social media algorithms promote that, which is why I have largely withdrawn from twitter, facebook, and instagram. They're nowhere near representative of my real life social networks. While platforms like instagram have the capability to keep friends connected and inspire people, they've turned into toxic waste sites.

That said, their effect on society hasn't been limited to raging twitter tirades. Companies, governments, and other institutions seem to be bending the knee to their outrage, which has led to not only our cancel culture, but to things like the CHOP situation which went on for far too long. Leaders are scared of making the mob angry.

I feel pretty strongly that the vocal "majority" on the internet isn't at all representative of our local, national, or global communities. Both government and business leadership need to stand up to the bullying that these online mobs are doing, and employ reason instead.

This isn’t how life as a software engineer has to be. I work for a small software company, which hasn’t taken any investment money, and is experiencing slow growth. The entire company is remote, and I love my coworkers, who I see daily, but only see in person a few times a year. I make enough money to live very comfortably with my family.

A lot has to do with your perspective on life. If work is life and it is what you get your value from, you’re bound to be disappointed if you work for someone else.

I can’t finish up this comment without mentioning that I’m a Christian, and I find value not solely in the work I do (what if I get injured and can’t work) or in my family (they’re human and far from perfect), but in being loved by God. Most people are gonna call that stupidity or the result of brainwashing or naïveté, but it’s a comfort few people have when the world turns upside down due to global pandemic and recession. I’m not here to argue religion with anyone, just to say that a Godless life can be a hopeless one.

I was actually looking to move from one urban center to another, and switch jobs accordingly. During my job search, my current employer found me on hired.com. They're an entirely remote company. Taking this job has turned out way better than I ever expected, especially considering I wasn't looking for remote work. I was able to move closer to family, get a house with a separate office, and live surrounded by woods, all while staying on track with retirement savings and living comforts.

I was weary of doing remote work initially. I always felt like the remote workers at my last job were a little more disconnected than the office workers. I also turned down the opportunity to work remotely at my last job. Working at a fully remote company has been an eye opener though. I feel more connected to my coworkers now than I did when working in an office. It all depends on the company's culture.

In the future, if I had to look for another remote job, I would look for remote-only companies. Their culture is likely to befit remote work much better, and the people making salary and benefit decisions are able to better sympathise with the employees because they are remote also.

Definitely not impossible. I got married at 21, and it's one of the best decisions I ever made. We just celebrated our 8th anniversary, and we've got two kids to enjoy it with. No, it wasn't to my high school sweetheart either. I was blessed to meet someone that fit me, and we made a commitment to each other. I know others who did the same and have thriving marriages.

I think it's really dependent on personal maturity. My wife-to-be and I both knew what we wanted families, so we looked at our financial situation, and decided we could responsibly get married while I was still in college. A couple generations ago, that was pretty normal. Not so much now, but that doesn't make it impossible.