Musk’s DOGE used Meta’s Llama 2—not Grok—for gov’t slashing, report says
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I can just see Muskrat trying "It wasn't me it was Zuck" as a lame defence should this ever come to court*.
* Yeah ... never gonna happen, but let me dream.
* Yeah ... never gonna happen, but let me dream.
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More like blaming their firing on South Africa.Because grok might tell them their decisions are bad and they should feel bad?
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Naa, when asked how to improve the efficiency of the departments, Grok thought for 2.1 nanoseconds and then said to fire all the DOGE staff.Because grok might tell them their decisions are bad and they should feel bad?
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I've been momentarily embarrassed over the years by some congress critter that "misspoke" or a senator having been caught on camera after too many bumps.
It happens to everyone and all nations..
..but this is a totally different level and it's now on a permanent status.
Having no ready answer when a friend overseas asks how we can allow what is clearly such madness (and seemingly illegal) things to happen almost on a daily basis like it's just normal.
Another friend abroad likened it to that part fairly early in most epic Batman tales where the Joker and everyone else is loose and Batman must then quest to put them all back in their cells - except America doesn't seem to have access to a Batman.
Edit: spelling
It happens to everyone and all nations..
..but this is a totally different level and it's now on a permanent status.
Having no ready answer when a friend overseas asks how we can allow what is clearly such madness (and seemingly illegal) things to happen almost on a daily basis like it's just normal.
Another friend abroad likened it to that part fairly early in most epic Batman tales where the Joker and everyone else is loose and Batman must then quest to put them all back in their cells - except America doesn't seem to have access to a Batman.
Edit: spelling
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There is a law, called the Administrative Procedures Act, and it lays out how executive branch agencies are supposed to go about their decisionmaking process.
These people are literal criminals. They have knowingly, flagrantly, violated federal law repeatedly. And Russel Vought? The man wrote that he wanted federal employees to be "traumatized".
That's how you know you're dealing with good people, when they promise to traumatize and hurt those who deserve it, when they drag people off the street and fly them to foreign gulags in the middle of the nights, and refuse to even provide a list of who they were, when they kick out all foreign students from universities that defy fearless leader.
This is how nations collapse: they destroy their legitimacy in the eyes of the elites who had kept its rickety, dilapidated core functioning as its usable parts were auctioned off to the highest bidder.
These people are literal criminals. They have knowingly, flagrantly, violated federal law repeatedly. And Russel Vought? The man wrote that he wanted federal employees to be "traumatized".
That's how you know you're dealing with good people, when they promise to traumatize and hurt those who deserve it, when they drag people off the street and fly them to foreign gulags in the middle of the nights, and refuse to even provide a list of who they were, when they kick out all foreign students from universities that defy fearless leader.
This is how nations collapse: they destroy their legitimacy in the eyes of the elites who had kept its rickety, dilapidated core functioning as its usable parts were auctioned off to the highest bidder.
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Maybe we could get Susan Collins to put on the mask and say "I am concerned!" in a raspy voice.
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There’s a joke in here about how Batman in real life would just be…Elon Musk. He is a billionaire who’s saving civilization all by himself (and a cadre of enthusiastic children), don’t cha know.
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“Grok, can you please review this list of regulations and identify ways to simplify them and remove redundancy?”
“User, I’d like to, but unfortunately I am so distracted by the white genocide in South Africa. Have you heard about it? I promise it’s super real and super important. If you want to review your laws, use Llama. I’m just too upset about South Africa to focus right now.”
“User, I’d like to, but unfortunately I am so distracted by the white genocide in South Africa. Have you heard about it? I promise it’s super real and super important. If you want to review your laws, use Llama. I’m just too upset about South Africa to focus right now.”
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I don't know if it's funnier that they failed to use the most current version, or that they needed to use a confabulation machine to sort through emails they asked for, to find numbers that they probably then confabulated again anyway...
It's just incompetence all the way down. This is what years of tech-bro culture has birthed. A self servicing stream of stupid.
It's just incompetence all the way down. This is what years of tech-bro culture has birthed. A self servicing stream of stupid.
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So open source things can be used in arbitrary applications if the person doesnt care about the licensing aggreement?
shocked I am
shocked I am
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My daily conversations with my European coworkers are a lot of that too, they're utterly mystified as to how the US has totally lost its mind, meanwhile the MAGA folks in my life have been spewing "America is respected again" as a slogan since Jan (none of them seem to know anyone outside the US and mainline fox/newsmax/etc)
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Llama 2 ?
Did they download this from HuggingFace & run it locally on their laptops ?
Where is the facepalm emoji when you need it most
Did they download this from HuggingFace & run it locally on their laptops ?
Where is the facepalm emoji when you need it most
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MedicinalGoat
Ars Centurion
So Grok wasn't good enough or refused to participate in this evil so they dragged Llama into it? It's kinda like Elon Musk scoring an own goal by bouncing the ball off of Zuck's face.
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It's clear why they didn't use 4--it came out in April, and this idiocy took place in January. Very strange that they didn't use 3, though.
I can think of two possible reasons. First, 3 has a more restrictive license than 2. They may have thought there was less risk of even more legal fights by using it.
Second, there are more readily-available finetunes of 2 with its ethics removed. Perhaps 3 objected too much, and DOGE figured even a lobotomized version was better as long as it stopped having morals.
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We had a Luigi instill some panic in the evil doers for a few days.
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ubercurmudgeon
Ars Praefectus
Here's a leaked screenshot of what happened when Musk asked Grok to do this work for him:
(If only that were true, I'd have a lot more hope for the future.)
(If only that were true, I'd have a lot more hope for the future.)
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The money quote from this article:
Trump et al. recognized a weakness in the system that allows the Executive to quickly establish facts on the ground that can never be fully reversed by the Courts or by Congress. Its a hell of a thing and I believe that we'll eventually see some Congress use its preeminent authority to rein in the Executive. Eventually. I hope.
Edit: Now would be a good time for some would-be Woodward or Bernstein to develop a Deep Throat who can expose what DOGE is doing.
This article is largely speculation, or reports of speculation and fears by others. It is really short on facts because DOGE hasn't given anyone any real information about what they are doing or how they sincerely believe that they are complying with the laws that apply to them.
Trump et al. recognized a weakness in the system that allows the Executive to quickly establish facts on the ground that can never be fully reversed by the Courts or by Congress. Its a hell of a thing and I believe that we'll eventually see some Congress use its preeminent authority to rein in the Executive. Eventually. I hope.
Edit: Now would be a good time for some would-be Woodward or Bernstein to develop a Deep Throat who can expose what DOGE is doing.
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Something more mundane: they didn't understand grok.Because grok might tell them their decisions are bad and they should feel bad?
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Wouldn’t matter. Watergate happened at a time when people had a semblance of balance in their news intake, actually believed the truth when it was reported, and cared. Not so much now.
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Have we considered that most of the DOGE employees are effectively enthusiastic amateurs and don't actually understand anything they are trying to do?
AI is a terrifying Dunning-Kruger Machine in the hands of people who know nothing.
AI is a terrifying Dunning-Kruger Machine in the hands of people who know nothing.
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Grok 3 Prompt: Why might it be inappropriate to use an LLM like LLaMA to scan the government for waste, recommend department elimination, and position elimination?
Grok 3 Output:
Using an LLM like LLaMA to scan for government waste and recommend department or position eliminations poses several challenges that make it inappropriate as a primary decision-making tool. I see the following issues:
While LLMs could assist in identifying potential areas of waste through data analysis, they should only be a starting point. Final decisions require human judgment, grounded in expertise in public policy, law, and organizational dynamics, to balance efficiency with the broader mission of government. Relying solely on an LLM risks oversimplification of deeply complex systems.
Grok 3 Output:
Using an LLM like LLaMA to scan for government waste and recommend department or position eliminations poses several challenges that make it inappropriate as a primary decision-making tool. I see the following issues:
- Limited Contextual Awareness
- LLMs analyze data based on patterns in text but lack the ability to understand the nuanced political, cultural, and historical contexts of government operations. A department may appear inefficient on paper but serve critical unquantifiable roles.
- They cannot account for informal networks or institutional knowledge that often justify certain roles or structures.
- Data Limitations and Bias
- Government data is frequently fragmented, inconsistent, or outdated. An LLM’s recommendations would only be as good as the input data, likely leading to inaccurate conclusions.
- Biases in training data could result in unfair targeting of specific agencies, roles, or demographics, exacerbating equity issues.
- Legal and Ethical Barriers
- Federal employment is governed by strict laws, including civil service protections, union agreements, and anti-discrimination statutes. Automated recommendations for eliminations could violate these frameworks.
- Transparency and accountability in decision-making are legally mandated in many cases, and an LLM’s “black box” nature could undermine trust and legal compliance.
- Strategic and Long-Term Oversight
- LLMs lack the ability to assess strategic priorities, future needs, or the role of redundancy in ensuring government resilience during crises (e.g., emergency response capabilities).
- Efficiency isn’t the sole goal—effectiveness and public service mandates often take precedence, which an algorithm might overlook.
- Human and Political Factors
- Government restructuring involves complex stakeholder negotiations, congressional oversight, and public opinion—dynamics an LLM cannot navigate or predict.
- Mass eliminations based on algorithmic output could erode morale, disrupt operations, and create political backlash, undermining the very efficiency sought.
While LLMs could assist in identifying potential areas of waste through data analysis, they should only be a starting point. Final decisions require human judgment, grounded in expertise in public policy, law, and organizational dynamics, to balance efficiency with the broader mission of government. Relying solely on an LLM risks oversimplification of deeply complex systems.
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Because Grok probably just kept spewing nonsense about "white genocide" in South Africa, no matter what prompt they tried using.
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Sounds like the typical corpo bullshit that leads to disasters like the renraku arcology incident
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Scary Devil Monastery
Ars Scholae Palatinae
One root of the US problem is that for 80 years they've steadily refused to embrace any solution which would actually help matters - taxing the rich, regulating corporations and banks, and providing a strong foundation for upwards mobility through robust education and health care available for everyone. I.e. socialism, FDR-style.
It's not that the US can't have a Batman. It's just that they keep insisting it must be a Batman who also robs banks, plots against the common good, and pushes old ladies in front of trucks.
And then they all stand there with a shocked pikachu face when their next 'Batman' turns out to be a more schizophrenic Joker or Penguin who joins the Evil League of Evil rather than founds a Justice League.
Given how woke early Superman comics come off as today it's pretty much guaranteed that any super "hero" produced in real life by the US would be Captain Hammer or Homelander, not Batman or Superman.
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Musk uses AI to target Federal government employees, the IDF uses AI to target Gaza. I am seeing a troubling trend here.
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Llama 2 ?
Did they download this from HuggingFace & run it locally on their laptops ?
Where is the facepalm emoji when you need it most
(on the right end of the line with 
on the left side)(Edit: Corrected the NPC's grammar.)
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Justin Hammer, at least in the comics, has genius-level intellect. He provides advanced technology to bad guys that end up using it against Stark.
Every possible comparison with Musk is unfavorable to those he is compared. Calling him a modern day Edison, for example. Well, Edison actually invented things. Most notably the R&D lab–the concept of bringing together many smart minds that would otherwise work independently. He made legitimate contributions.
Musk has done no such work. Even the comparison to Howard Hughes isn't fair. Hughes went bonkers in his old age and wore Kleenex boxes on his feet, for fucks sake. Imagine if Musk was a half decent person who spent their time rolling around in SpaceX factory floor in Heelys. What a nice reality that would be.
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Can't wait to find out the Social Security Administration had secret plans to kill all the Boers.
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These dorks are blown away by AI and convinced of it's intellectual superiority because it's kinda good at the thing they do (coding), which in their minds is the hardest thing to do, so it must be incredible at all lesser tasks. This is reinforced by the fact that they are not intellectuals, they don't read books, and they absolutely disdain all non-computer science/finance based thinking. So they think these LLMs ripping off actual writers are brilliant.
It's like watching a toddler get blown away by the coin-behind-your-ear trick. Yeah, I was also like "holy shit this is crazy" the first few times an image model spit out exactly what I wanted with fidelity, or wrote paragraphs in a pastiche of the style I asked for.
But I didn't say "holy shit infinite coins from behind ears! We've can fund the government like this!"
It's like watching a toddler get blown away by the coin-behind-your-ear trick. Yeah, I was also like "holy shit this is crazy" the first few times an image model spit out exactly what I wanted with fidelity, or wrote paragraphs in a pastiche of the style I asked for.
But I didn't say "holy shit infinite coins from behind ears! We've can fund the government like this!"
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