Red Lights, AI Models & Cider

As I sat at a red light waiting for it to turn green, I noticed the opposing traffic get their yellow light and I was excited for my turn to come. Like most repeated drives home you'll pretty quickly identify the worst lights on your journey. The very first light I hit on the way home is the longest light I'll sit commonly sit at.

When my turn comes I normally lose the first few seconds of the light every single time to people running a red. This light is smart so when cars don't move from the direction I'm sitting - our cycle is very short. So this week when 1 car, then 2 cars and then a 3rd car ran their red I smashed my horn down for a good solid few seconds.

Now once I could re-watch the tape an eager eye would probably notice the cars inching closer into the intersection in their turn lane. However, at the moment my light turns green the 3rd car has not yet passed the white line into the intersection so my horn feels completely validated. As I know their light has been red for a few seconds at that point. I wonder if that car was just blindly following the car ahead of them unaware of the status of the light.

I arrive home after an annoying drive and check my phone for a crazy headline.

Statement on the US government directive to suspend access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5
https://www.anthropic.com/news/fable-mythos-access

I couldn't really believe what I was reading. The brand new AI model from Anthropic of Fable & Mythos were being suspended on a request from the US government. The exact wording called out foreign nationals whether inside the US or out being blocked. Knowing implementing that was impossible Anthropic disabled these models for all users shortly after.

Depending how you look at this is insane:

• The US Government has decided these AI's are too dangerous for public consumption, giving a massive boost of credit to Anthropic.
• Frontier models from all providers are probably in same bucket as Fable so it doesn't seem fair to target Anthropic.
• Anthropic told people how dangerous Mythos was in terms of discovering software vulnerabilities and maybe the government listened.
• Companies left with an integration no longer working may move onto foreign models.

We are in such a weird time in technical history that its difficult to understand exactly how this will unravel. I may work in the field and leverage AI daily for my job, but I haven't taken a step back to look at humanity in whole and what this era of AI might actually mean.

Thankfully every once in awhile we can take a break from technology and visit a farm for some cider and food.

Alyson and I visited Keel Farms on Saturday because we heard from a bar we visit that Keel Farm ciders were being reduced to one flavor. We had to go straight to the source to get to the bottom of this while enjoying hopefully some ciders.

Sure enough after sitting at the bar they confirmed the cans they produce and ship out would be reducing to just the Elderberry flavor. This was a bit sad to hear because my favorite flavor is Strawberry-Lime and that would no longer be available at bars. So the only way to experience the flavors we prefer must be in person at the farm. So I did a flight with:

• Strawberry-Lime
• Pineapple
• Irish Dry Cider
• Elderberry w/ Serrano Pepper

The modified elderberry with the pepper was an interesting taste I probably wouldn't order again. It wasn't bad, but it just was a level of heat I wasn't in the mood for in a drink.

As were enjoying drinks we noticed some cats show up and it turns out the farm has a few ferals that walk around. I guess they noticed the AC enclosed outdoor area and snuck in under the tarp and chilled. Bartender mentioned the grey one was pretty friendly and indeed it would just brush by our legs and sit under us. I'm sure there is one human a day there that'll make some reason to hate it, but it was cool to have some feline visitors while dining.

A day later Fable & Mythos are still not available, so maybe we will have to wait till Monday for some news. Until then we can take advantage of the real world with food & cider.