17 April 2023

In my 15 April 2023 post,  I highlighted a post the described how one could use prompt injection to poison the results that LLM-using search engines like Bing would retrieve.  Therefore one wonders if we've already reached Peak LLM, that is, whether the easy ability to poison search results and befuddle the search quality of future users already indicates that incorporating Chat/LLM into production applications already has hit a wall.  The success of Chat so far depends on the vast number of documents out on the Web being pristine, and free of hidden "white text" that mischievous writers leave.  But what if a sizeable number of documents had hidden surprises for ChatGPT/GPTx to discover.  Very soon, we will see pranks and jokes, or worse, malevolent instructions that the Chat agent would blindly follow.  What bad outcome might result?  Perhaps a brilliant prompt engineer will come up with a way to defeat these pranks, but then this becomes an onging war of hacker against hacker.  The unwary consumer, just wanting to use the search engine, may be an unwitting casualty.  Perhaps we do need to pause things, despite what some think.

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I was hoping this would be No.  Do looks matter when it comes to advancing a career in economics?  The answer, sadly, is yes
Attractive individuals are more likely to study at higher ranked PhD institutions and are more likely to be placed at higher-ranking academic institutions not only for their first job, but also for jobs as many as 15 years after their graduation, even when we control for the ranking of PhD institution and first job. Appearance also predicts the success of research output: while it does not predict the number of papers an individual writes, it predicts the number of citations for a given number of papers, again even when we control for the ranking of the PhD institution and first job. All these effects are robust, statistically significant, and substantial in magnitude.
I suspect that this is not just economics, but in academics as a whole.  We ugly people have to struggle harder.  But someone else found the real secret to profession success - having wealthy parents.  That's right, coming from a rich family is a major factor in whether or not you will succeed professionally.  And if you are rich and good-looking, well, there is no excuse for failure, is there?

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Why do flying insects seek bright lights and fly around and around them?  The answer is that they think it's the sun, and they are adapting their flight to it.

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Another crazy California idea.  A bill is being considered that will charge Califorians for energy use depending on how wealthy they are.  The richer you are, the more you pay.  Who said "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." 
I don't think it was Milton Friedman.

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Nature is amazing.  Why don't bears get blood clots when they hibernate?  Downregulation of HSP47 is why.  Fascinating.

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REI is leaving the Pearl District.  Another casualty of Portland crime.  Having so much glass in the ground floor windows is clearly a temptation for thugs to break.  The store was designed for times that no longer exist - when law and order was observed and people respected property.  So sad to see the further decline of what was once a fun city.

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