h-bar.

That's called a joke. It's supposed to be funny.

Whether or not I am pro-AI is a question that I can't answer without a spreadsheet and at least four hours of discussion (please see my four hour twitch stream from earlier today that was largely about massive problems with AI and massive problems with the way that people react to and report on AI. There are research papers and citations in it and everything). Define what YOU mean by AI and maybe I can get that down to twenty minutes and some bullet points.

Perplexity's Incognito Mode is a Sham, Lawsuit Says - People don't read ToSs and don't understand how computers work.

OpenClaw gives users yet another reason to be freaked out about security - It is profoundly irresponsible for businesses to be using 'AI agents' that have either elevated access rights or privilege escalation permissions and the fact that they were unaware that the agents would be able to do this is a good indicator that the entire concept is fucked (it is bugshit insane to expect a program given commands in naturalistic language to act like a program given commands through a programming language, we have set up amelia bedilia ass robots and don't realize what permissions we're handing them because it feels like talking to a person who understands norms and expectations but the entity you are theoretically giving instructions to is actually deriving its instructions from a black box process that you don't understand and isn't capable of knowing things so it doesn't know that it's a big problem for you if it emails your boss copies of your nudes. Do not use the malicious genie to get your airline tickets what the fuck)

AI Can now prescribe you psychiatric medication in Utah - El problema es el capitalismo AND that could be a phone tree instead of an AI app why are we calling this "AI" it is literally responding to a fifteen question form, is this even AI or is this calling some basic automation AI and charging patients $20 for access to a tool they don't need that is only being used to paper over the fact that we are dealing with a doctor shortage because of a cartel? In short: AAAAH. But not for the reasons you might have thought! (The robot can only give you prescriptions you already had and can't refill anything addictive, so the ADHD havers among us still have to deal with calling the office or going in and paying a copay and then remembering to do that every month. The AI is not the problem here the everything is the problem here).

Claude Source Code leaked via error, Hackers are taking advantage of claude source code leak to spread malware, people are getting hit with spurious DMCA takedown notices because Anthropic is shotgunning nastygrams into the void in an attempt to get their code taken down. Lol. Lmao, even. In my perfect world none of this is a problem because the shit was open source from the start. Information wants to be free, and life finds a way. (it was a human who accidentally leaked the code). Also fuck the digital millennium copyright act, all my homies hate the digital millennium copyright act.

Really, you made this without AI? Prove it - this is an article about human creatives trying to settle on a way of labeling their work as human made. As a human creative, I think this is just going to fuel anti-AI scrutiny toward all creative work. This is a shit approach, I think people should worry less about whether what they're seeing is AI and more about if what they are seeing is good, or evocative, or true, or compelling. I think that most lazily-made AI art and writing is both obvious and bad, and AI-assisted art and writing that humans put effort into is pretty much just art, but sticking a human-made label on your art feels both performative and futile. Like, on the one hand I don't care, do whatever. On the other hand ugh. This is going to be used to harangue people into accepting the standard or dealing with constant accusations of being AI and IDK i think it's kind of bullshit to spend time counting the fingers on a CGI article header on a facebook post when there is actual shit going on in the world. This is, more than anything, annoying. There's a great line in the article "The machines sure as hell aren't motivated to label their work, but the creators at risk of being displaced most definitely are." Friend. The machines aren't motivated to do anything and the companies that are profiting off the machines will be very much motivated to copy your logo. Stop worrying about being displaced by robots and start worrying about media consolidation and newsroom layoffs, which have been driven by profit-seeking for the last twenty years, not AI.

"Cognitive Surrender" leads AI users to abandon logical thinking, research finds - that's a pretty significant overstatement of what the research found and also the research is largely centered on creating a model of thought systems that is heavily based on a pop science book about decision theory written by an economist that has suffered pretty significantly from the replication crisis but is beloved by baseball scouts so you know it's good. We spent a lot of time trying to be charitable here but basically I'm unwilling to accept the validity of the basic premise of the book (that there are two modes of thought, intuitive and deliberative, and this is in some way meaningful) so I'm unwilling to accept the extension of the premise (there is a third way of thinking, and it is robots, and it makes people intellectually lazy on timed tests but does not make them lazy when you give them prizes for getting individual answers right on tests). Also I think the research was pretty poorly designed because I don't think they demonstrated how the AI assistant used in the study arms was meaningfully different than an encyclopedia or a google search. (the way the study worked was that they looked at people responding to a test either with their brain only or with their brain and an AI, but on one arm of the study they seeded the AI with incorrect answers and then looked at when people relied more on the AI or less on the AI; however the comparison of human+AI to human alone doesn't really tell us anything about cognitive surrender, it tells us about tool use and reliance on tools when tools are available - is it 'cognitive surrender' to not check an incorrect answer from a wikipedia page? It seems like it would have been simple to have a group that was given access to a set of correct articles and a group given access to incorrect articles and compare how THAT group stacked up against the human+AI arm). (also I am DEEPLY skeptical of any paper written on AI that has 80% or more citations from before 2020)

Anyway, I think I have two new rules:

If you are going to implement an AI tool in your workplace, you have to get approval from someone who can demonstrably make a functional calculator in no fewer than three programming languages

If you are going to denigrate AI you have to define AI and limit your complaints to AI that meet only those criteria

I've been talking a lot more about AI than I expected to when I started streaming and so far the things that we keep coming back to are:

Everyone means something different when they're talking about AI

People don't understand how AI works

People keep anthropomorphizing AI and expecting it to behave like people because they don't understand how AI works

People don't know how computers work

Because people don't know how computers work they don't know that most of the stuff that is getting hyped as AI could be accomplished with simple automation or a database

People are, generally, dogshit at fact checking and are easy to mislead with twitter screenshots, let alone AI articles on AI content mill sites, and maybe that it something that needs to be addressed more urgently than concerns about "what if ask jeeves was a stupid robot that hates you?"

So, am I pro AI?

People are exposing insider risk by treating their AI agents like thoughtful adults with decades of office experience that know how interoffice politics work and understand why they can't share HR documents on the company sharepoint and I think at least a portion of this comes from ONLY knowing how to talk to computers like a person using naturalistic language.

Basically i think if you've ever had to read through dozens of lines of code to find where you forgot to close a bracket because without a single closed bracket the computer didn't know what you were asking it you are more likely to understand the need to define parameters and are less likely to give an "autonomous" program admin access to everything on your machine (or if you DO do that, you at least expect that there could be problems and lock some shit down)

making this post because some of us in the diaspora server were having a chat about what Chinese media "Diaspora Chinese" watched in the 90's - 2000's (and even sooner than that) while not having access to satellite chinese media or streaming services - this is in the context of writing modern AU fics based off Chinese media/novels (so your main character's grandpa or uncle is not, in fact, watching an episode of Friends or Shortland Street or something as flavour text because sorry what the hell-)

We generally watched a lot of stuff on VCDs, including bootlegged and non-bootlegged movies, shows, anime/donghua. My household had a whole VCD album of this, and a lot of VCDs (even if they were pirated editions) would have a fancy hardcover box with a magnetic clasp and some artwork representing the show on it.

All of this is Mandarin - so not TVB stuff, because I'm from Northern China and I don't know any cantonese - but Canto friends, please feel free to add to the list! This is mostly stuff my parents liked to watch, or I liked to watch with them, with the exception of a few which I mainly watched with friends/cousins when I was maybe twelve years old onwards. This is a pretty personal list, meant to give people general idea of a possible "ballpark" of sorts, and by no means exhaustive.

Now, for the list of shows which I can confirm I had or someone I know had on VCD or some kind of offline media format lol (I'll try add release year stamps and links to the EN wikipedia where possible):

Period dramas (mostly Qing Dynasty stuff):

Huan Zhu Gege 还珠格格 (1998, April-) This is a classic, so many memes come from this show; hugely popular series, basically cemented Zhang Tie Lin's face as the face of the Qing Emperor for about a decade. Tie Chi Tong Ya Ji Xiao Lan 铁齿铜牙纪晓岚 (2002-2010) - I loved this show as a kid and watched all four seasons on repeat with family... The "trio" in this show are well known and loved.

Amazing Detective Di Ren Jie / 神探狄仁杰 (2004) A very popular and addictive show. Ok now the Big Four:

Romance of 3 kingdoms 1994 / 三国演义 (1994) - a classic that has had many remakes, my older cousin would play this on repeat...

Hong Lou Meng/红楼梦 （1987） - another classic with many remakes, but I think the most recognised by the public one is the 1987 one.

Journey to the West / 西游记 live action (1986) - I think the 1986 version of the live action is the most recognised one. *Shui Hu Zhuan / 水浒传 (1998) - I am not too familliar with the live action of this one in my household tbh bc my mum doesn't like it lol (she keeps saying it's too depressing) but I'm sure it's up there with the rest of the big four, if anyone has an opinion on this one please let me know!

Modern setting shows:

My dad loved all the Sun Honglei (孙红雷 - actor name) stuff, iirc it was a lot of MinGuo period espionage stuff, your shanghai 1920's sxc aesthetic. This actor has been around since 1999? Qian Fu （潜伏）was very famous, and Ren Jian Zheng Dao Shi Cang Sang （人间正道是沧桑）。 These were around '08 and '09.

Chuang Guan Dong - 闯关东 (2008) (Baidu link, sorry - couldn't get an EN wikipedia one). This show was huge when it was airing, everyone was watching it. I was pretty young but even I watched it and got invested ... and I thought it was such an "old person" show at the time lmao. Xiao Bing Zhang Ga / 小兵张嘎 （2004） (sorry, again Baidu link) - yo, anti-japanese war movies set between 1937-1945 were crazy popular - this is one of them and was very popular):

Donghua/Anime (all the stuff kid me watched and some which I didn't but were popular):

喜羊羊与灰太狼 (2005-) Calabash Brothers / 葫芦兄弟 （1986-1987） Black Cat Detective / Hei Mao Jing Zhang 黑猫警长 （1984-2010） Lan Mao Tao Qi 3000 Wen 蓝蓝猫淘气3000问 AKA 蓝猫 (blue cat) (October 1999 - Present) Legend of Ne Zha 哪吒传奇 (2003) Journey to the West/Xi You Ji 西游记 This was truly the Donghua I grew up on, the OP song and ED song are classic bangers all kids know. Slam Dunk/ 灌篮高手 - People truly watched a lot of anime that may or may not have been terribly dubbed into mando (possibly canto too). Late 80s and 90s kids were all over this, and Dragon Ball.

Taiwanese Dramas:

This is mid-late 2000's, I would be remiss to not talk about the Taiwanese dramas of this era. Mike He, Rainie Yang, Wu Zun (amongst many, many others) were huge. Stuff like Dou Niu Yao Bu Yao, it started with a kiss, Hua Yang Shao Nv (Taiwanese version of Hana Kimi) were all pretty popular. Not sure if these shows all hold up in 2023, but boy were they popular at the time.

Note about CNY:

For CNY, people would try to tune into 春节联欢晚会 (the CCTV official CNY show) at that One Friend Who Had China Satellite TV's house. Zhao Ben Shan / 赵本山 was a comedy staple, and the show would often feature people from the music industry to perform. Eventually these people became more and more relevant to my gen and Jay Chou etc started appearing.

Last but not least Xian Jiaaaan 仙剑:

Meteor Garden (2001) aka 流星花園

Meteor Garden is an idol drama starring Barbie Hsu and the boy band F4. This was the first live-action adaptation of the Japanese manga Boys Over Flowers, about a girl who enrolls in an elite high school and encounters a gang of wealthy bullies called F4. (Yes, they did that.) If Boys Over Flowers sounds familiar, that's because there's been a live-action Japanese adaptation (2005-2007 TV series with a 2008 movie), South Korean adaptation (2009), mainland China adaptation (2018, also titled Meteor Garden), and a Thai adaptation (2021). Taiwan did it first, though. 🇹🇼

The Prince Who Turns Into A Frog (2005) aka 王子變青蛙

Another idol drama starring Ming Dao and Joe Chen. Joe Chen (female lead) stars as a poor young hustler who accidentally hits a wealthy hotel heir (Ming Dao) with her car, which causes him to lose his memory. Angst, identity shenanigans, love triangles, social class issues, amnesia, long drawn-out montages with sad pop ballads... This one had it all! And if you'd like to enjoy it in it's campy glory, it's currently streaming on Netflix (at least in the US).

I'd like to add that the VCD struggle was so real. Also, I watched a lot of media dubbed in Mandarin - especially things from Hong Kong - and I never realized that they were originally in Cantonese till much later!

On regular TV, we had one or two channels for each target audience group and for the two Chinese channels, there would be dramas at certain timeslots daily. I usually watched with my parents in the evening at dinnertime and before bedtime. If we liked the drama a lot, we’d look for VCDs locally. I have no idea if they were bootleg or not xD One of my go-to shops is still around - I see outlets in malls and central-ish locations!

These are the dramas I remember from the mid 1990s to the 2000s. 

Wikipedia (w), Youtube (y)

TVB (Hong Kong) Dramas

To a certain degree, all my impressions of mythology, wuxia and historical settings came from this period... the modern dramas also influenced me to take a path in my studies that I didn’t end up pursuing as a career, but it was very fun while it lasted anyway. Also! I wasn't the only one. Met friends in school who told me they had the very same source of inspiration!

(Notice how most of them have fairly normal English names? xD Gosh, those were the days...)

Mythology / Fantasy

西游记 (1996) Journey to the West (w) (y)

西游记贰  (1998) Journey to the West II  (w) (y)

封神榜 (2001) Gods of Honor (w) (y) - Investiture of the Gods adaptation

缱绻仙凡间 (2003) In the Realm of Fancy (w) (y) - The amazing twist at the end has me crying every time. If you do give it a try, don’t spoil yourself on wikipedia (I am SO amused and amazed and delighted by that entry, because it means someone loves it enough to write that much on an obscure drama in another language hahaha) 

人龙传说 (2006) Dragon Love (w) (y) -  Shenanigans between a dragon and an aspiring dragon slayer \o/ I loved this drama so much.

Wuxia

笑傲江湖 (1996) State of Divinity (w) (y)

云海玉弓缘 (2003) Lofty Waters Verdant Bow (w) (y)

大唐双龙传 Twin of Brothers (w) (y) - Adapted from the novel of the same name. I cannot remember any of the plot, but I heard the first line of the opening theme song while looking for another drama one day, and was like WAIT A SEC -

Timetravel 寻秦记 (2001) A Step Into The Past (w) (y) - THE Timetravel back to ancient times drama, based on the novel of the same name

九五至尊 (2003) King of Yesterday and Tomorrow (w) (y) - Yongzhen Emperor goes forward in time with his would-be assassin, another fav!

隔世追兇 (2004) To Get Unstuck in Time (w) (y) - Crime solving across time! (technically no time travelling though) I found this one again when I watched the kdrama Signal and was like !!!!!!!! apparently they were inspired by the same movie.

Historical

洗冤录 (1999) Witness to a Prosecution (w) (y) - My coroner-led crime investigation competence kink had to have come from somewhere right?

酒是故乡醇  (2001) Country Spirit (w) (y) - This drama is its title. There will always be a space for it in my heart. Perfect encapsulation in the Eng title too! (Though it may not be obvious in first glance)

金枝欲孽 (2004) War and Beauty (w) (y) - The Empress Dowager of palace drama, I see shadows of it in so many others of this genre. Only noticed the cool wordplay in the original title after I got re-interested in Chinese things and shoutout to the genius who thought of combining 金枝玉叶 (people of nobility or delicate natures) + 欲 (desire) + 孽 (sin)

Modern

妙手仁心 (1998) Healing Hands (w) (y) - simply iconic

勇探实录 (2001) Law Enforcers (w) (y) - Got distracted watching a bit of this while digging it up (theme song unforgettable!!!!), and it is so weird but I still feel comfortable with this style of acting and script.

争分夺秒 (2004) Split Second (w) (y) - Police vs. Triads & moles on both sides. In hindsight, it makes perfect sense that the character who has stayed rent free in my head for nearly 20 years is... (friends who know my taste can probably guess lmao)

法证先锋 (2006) Forensic Heroes (w) (y) - Probably just as iconic as Healing Hands xD

Taiwanese Dramas

Fantasy

第8号当铺 (2003) The Pawnshop NO.8 (w) (y) - Absolute top fav of all time. What a concept. Excellent execution.

Period

小宝与康熙 (2000) Duke of Mount Deer (w) (y)

Modern

情定愛琴海 (2004) Love of the Aegean Sea (w) (y) - Original tragic fav. My mom was obsessed. I think we watched it at least 4 times. ~ ni shi wo de yi di lei ~

綠光森林 (2005) Green Forest, My Home (w) (y) - I remember watching this because at certain angles, the male lead looked like Ming Dao. Bad time to have this realization, but Huang Xuan has elevated Ming Dao vibes !!!!!! ...Is this why I like him???? LMAO.

白色巨塔 (2006) The Hospital (w) (y) - I'm not sure how well recieved this drama was, but when I think of hospital drama... it's this one. (And maybe the Korean Good Doctor xD)

愛情魔髮師 (2006) The Magicians of Love (w) (y) - On a lighter note... this is a super fun childhood fav. Hairstylist shenanigans with good acting and a lighthearted script.

Mainland Chinese Drama

Adaptations of Jinyong's Novels

倚天屠龙记 2003 The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber (w) (y)

天龙八部 (2003) Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils (w) (y) - I don't need to say anything. This version is iconic enough! (Also featuring Liu Tao as A'Zhu xD)

射雕英雄传 (2003) The Legend of the Condor Heroes (w) (y)

神雕侠侣 (2006) The Return of the Condor Heroes (w) (y) - by the same director… gods, Liu Yifei is just so iconic in this era of Jinyong adaptations T_T

射雕英雄传 (2008) The Legend of the Condor Heroes (w) (y) - I would say this one is the most idol drama-y out of all of them, but gosh am I soft for this version.

鹿鼎记 (2008) Royal Tramp (w) (y) - I was once dubious, but this production won me over. The ending song OMG.

Period Fantasy / Supernatural / Mythology

赤子乘龙 (2005) The Dragon Heroes (w) (b)

天外飞仙 (2006) The Little Fairy (w) (y) - Led by Hu Ge and Ariel Lin! Two years later, they co-stared again in a Condor Heroes adaptation. Iconic opening song!

聊斋奇女子 (2007) The Fairies of Liaozhai (w) (y) - Beautifully made. I'm thinking of rewatching now that I do know my way around poetry a little better haha.

Of course Chinese Paladin as Ponz mentioned deserves a place here!

Historical

These are the ones I remember:

Princess Returning Pearl ofc also as mentioned by Ponz

少年包青天II (2000) Young Justice Bao (w) (y) 少年包青天II (2001) Young Justice Bao 2 (w) (y) - I finally solved the mystery of why he seemed to have two different faces LMAO there were multiple seasons!!!!

大汉天子 (2005) The Emperor in Han Dynasty (w) (y) - ending song that makes me cry.

刁蛮公主 (2005) My Bratty Princess (w) (y) - not based on real history, but quite cute xD

But also Huan Zhu Ge Ge 3 broke me. I watched the first two series as a child in mainland and the third as a preteen in the US and like … my preteen brain was not ready to comprehend harem drama between Xiao Yan Zi and Zhi Hua.

I feel like my parents watched 大汉天子 when I was supposed to be doing homework and I’ve snuck a few episodes but never watched the whole thing.

I had a journey to the west comic and I think there was a series? That I watched? After school back in mainland.

My household was very pro-historical and anti-fantasy so we watched a lot of serious historical dramas and also the very early modern urban dramas. I've seen Romance of the Three Kingdoms (the OG) at least 8 times.

The other big historical series no one has mentioned so far are the adaptations of Eryuehe's novels, Kangxi Dynasty, Yongzheng Dynasty, and Qianlong Dynasty. Oh and the legendary 1995 TV show about Wu Zetian starring my queen Liu Xiaoqing which has never been surpassed. Back when China still made quality historical dramas, sigh.

(Actual historical dramas are basically no longer made because they cannot pass censorship unless they are 90% accurate to history and that is apparently an impossible bar to clear for investors. I use the term here to distinguish from dramas that are simply set in the past and aren't necessarily concerned with actual history.)

It DOES have a sign. It turns on when it detects something too tall for the bridge. It even flashes. And the traffic lights will go red to get people to stop when it detects an over height vehicle so they read the signs. (note this lovely example where the lights are red, because the truck thought it was better than the lights)

no one is spending enough time complaining about writing

hierarchy is wrong. your grad student TA is not a professor or faculty and might not even be considered an employee. that 32 year old man is not a full professor no matter how talented he is or how old you think 30+ is, and he should be talking more about "the tenure clock"

grad students only ever taking or TAing classes & never doing research or working on their thesis/dissertation. there are masters programs with no thesis component so i'm sure there are ones that have no research requirement, but you can't get a PhD only taking classes

everyone has too much money. but also if it's set in the US there's an obsession with accumulating student debt for positions that generally you would not have to take out loans for

relationship with academic advisor never sufficiently unhinged

graves grow no green that you can use.