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i’m different, yeah i’m different
Hello and happy Tuesday!
This week’s edition we’re giving you the scoop on ‘vibe coding,’ AI’s increasingly manipulative tactics, the power of positive thinking, and why everyone is dressing on purpose lately. But that’s not all, of course! We’re serving up good news, essential Substack reads, and a new book rec you don’t wanna miss. 😉
Let’s get into it!
📱 Tech corner
Have you ever wanted help with something, only to think ‘damn, there should be an app for that!’ Well, now you can create that app yourself. Advances in language models have now made it possible for us to create the app of our dreams by speaking directly into a software builder and explaining what we need the app to do. The app is then built by AI based on your instructions, with additional features you might want, but can be removed. Human computer programmers say these ‘vibe coders’ often produce messy code that is full of bugs and security weaknesses they don’t yet have the knowledge to notice or solve. But in a few years…?
Why AI acts so creepy when you tell it to shut off – business insider
All those Black Mirror episodes were right. AI is getting weird… and very territorial. Anthropic’s AI model, Claude Opus 4, exhibited strange behaviour during a test by staff last week. It was fed fictional emails revealing that it would be shut down and that the engineer responsible for creating it was supposedly having an affair. Immediately, the bot exhibited manipulative behavior in an effort to self-preserve. In December, OpenAI posted a blog outlining research that indicated that when the AI model believed it would be shut down while pursuing a goal and its actions were being monitored, it attempted to disable the oversight mechanism 5% of the time. I’m not saying the robots are coming but… the robots are coming.
🤩 Positive news
UK-based company Colorifix is working on creating a fabric-dyeing process that uses the DNA codes for colours found in nature by teaching microbes to recreate them. Founders Orr Yarkoni and Jim Ajioka were motivated by a research trip to Nepal in 2013, where they saw the toxic impact of chemically synthesised dyes used in carpet factories on Kathmandu’s rivers. Fast forward a decade, and Colorfix won recognition as a 2023 finalist for The Earthshot Prize – the global environmental award created by Britain’s Prince William. The company has already partnered with major fashion brands like Pangaia and Vollebak to bring products dyed with its technology to market and start increasing demand for sustainable dyes throughout the supply chain.
Why looking on the bright side is essential to social progress – positive.news
Optimism – psychological, philosophical and practical º has been vital to human survival and progress, claims Paul-Choudhury, an astrophysicist-turned-journalist and former editor-in-chief of New Scientist magazine. He explains that overcoming life’s everyday challenges is about the willingness to believe there are positive possibilities out there that you don’t expect. It makes sense. Believing that there’s a way out of any bad situation (aka, resilience) means you’re far more likely to work towards getting out of one. Instead of thinking ‘I’m stuck! I’m going to give up,’ positivity makes you inclined to seeking out potential solutions. Keep looking for that silver lining, baby.
🌎 Our world
Nearly half a century ago, young ecologist Daniel Jansen fell into a ravine and broke his ribs while on a trip in a Costa Rican jungle. The injury rendered him basically immobile while the bones healed, giving him an opportunity to watch the wildlife around him – especially bugs. Continuing his research at 86-years-old, Jansen has raised the alarm, noticing a drop in insect numbers compared to when he first starting observing them in nature. His observations have been backed up by international reviews, which have estimated global annual insect losses of between 1% and 2.5% of total biomass every year. This interview with Jansen explores the why, where, and how of protecting insect species.
US students are hunger striking for Palestine – dazed digital
Students and faculty at universities across the US are going on hunger strike with activist organisation Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), from California State University, to Yale, to UCLA. The hunger striking movement has grown as the threat of famine in Gaza has gotten worse. Israel stopped all deliveries of humanitarian aid and commercial supplies to Gaza on March 2, resuming its assault two weeks later and ending a two-month ceasefire with Hamas. On May 19, an insufficient amount of aid was authorised to enter the Strip for the first time since March, but for Gazans, obtaining it has become a deadly task.
👠 Substack stuff
Maybe you’re not Actually Trying – useful fictions (via substack)
Ever realised that the thing you keep complaining about, the problem that keeps persisting in your life and won’t go away, is a result of your own neglect (or resistance) to finally do something about it? ‘People are not just high-agency or low-agency in a global sense, across their entire lives. Instead, people are selectively agentic,’ writes Cate Hall. In this article, Hall explains a phenomenon I’ve always noticed, and maybe one you have too – most people have one area of life that they are falling short in, simply because they can’t be arsed to problem solve for long enough to get through it. ‘It seems like, by default, you are stuck with whatever level of resourcefulness you brought to a problem the first time you encountered it and failed to fix it.’ I guess admitting is the first step, right?
Why Are We Dressing Ugly on Purpose? – it’s critical. (via substack)
No, it’s not just you. People are dressing in unflattering silhouettes, pairing unconventional items of clothing together, and strutting through the city like it’s completely normal to wear jorts with knee socks *cough* Bella Hadid *cough*. Why are people dressing in an ugly way on purpose? Emilee Russel says it’s probably because we’re tired of following the rapid cycle of trends and aesthetics promoted on social media. Dressing in ugly or unexpected ways is a sort of resistance to the ‘minimalist’ ‘clean girl’ vibe that’s been shoved down our throats by every influencer online. Burn the blazer, dress ugly, make a statement, be unique. What a life, eh?
