Vibe coding is the creation of large quantities of complex AI-generated code. Executives push lay-offs claiming AI can handle the work. Managers pressure employees to meet quotas of how much of their code must be AI-generated... yet results are far from what was promised 1/ “When [I first got] hooked on Claude, I did not sleep. I spent two months excessively prompting the thing & wasting tokens. I ended up building & building & creating a ton of tools I did not end up using much...” @mitsuhiko described his experience of "agent psychosis" 2/

For a long time, catching frequent viruses was considered both inevitable and harmless. But it turns out that common, seemingly-mild viruses have disturbing long-term health impacts. 1/ Viruses can...
- increase risk of heart attacks & strokes
- linked to Dementia & Alzheimer’s
- re-awaken cancer cells that were in remission
- accelerate aging
- trigger life-long autoimmune diseases 2/

The human immune system is impressive, but so are the mechanisms pathogens use to evade it. In my new post, I cover 5 surprising and ingenious ways that viruses & bacteria can subvert our defenses. 1/ Our cells contain microscopic motor proteins that transport cargo along microtubules. The virus (HSV-1) that is increasingly being linked to Alzheimer's Disease uses our motor proteins to transport its viral DNA to the nucleus, so that it can start replicating faster. 2/

My daughter is constantly creating– her passions include making art, writing fiction, coding interactive games, and composing music. Some might say my husband & I are terrible parents… because she does all these things on screens 1/ I am concerned by how these false interlocking points are being repeated by politicians & pundits: that screentime is very harmful for children, that it is essential for kids to attend in-person school every day (even when sick), and that workers must return to the office. 2/

There is much confusion about the "hygiene hypothesis" (what kind of microbes are beneficial vs. harmful?)-- a clearer refinement of it is the framing of "old friends" vs. "crowd infections"

Our immune systems evolved in a different world, without 100,000 flights per day 1/ Some people compare the immune system to a muscle that gets stronger with use. Yet some infections leave lasting harm. Viruses are increasingly linked with multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's, type 1 diabetes, cancer, & more...

My new post: 2/rachel.fast.ai/posts/2024-08-…

Friends with no previous interest in AI ethics have been asking me about it recently, so I want to share several underlying concepts about AI & power that are important to understand. 🧵 1/ AI and Power: The Ethical Challenges of Automation, Centralization, & Scale

Based on 20-min talk:

Blog post version: rachel.fast.ai/posts/2023-05-…
2/

Viruses: The Silent Triggers of Autoimmune & Neurodegenerative Diseases (how a simple cold can lead to life-changing disease) 1/

My new post: rachel.fast.ai/posts/2023-03-… Rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease, Multiple sclerosis, Type 1 Diabetes, Lupus, Hashimoto's, & Psoriasis impact a range of body systems, but all are autoimmune diseases.

Developing a lifelong autoimmune disease is often first triggered by an infection. 2/

Even common viruses can have long-reaching, surprising, & devastating consequences. Fortunately, there are simple steps we can take to reduce transmission. 1/

My new post: rachel.fast.ai/posts/2023-03-… The idea that a common childhood virus can quietly hang out in your nervous system, reactivate decades later to cause shingles, and then months AFTER shingles blisters clear up cause blood clots & strokes is mind-boggling to me 2/

theconversation.com/chickenpox-and…

After 12 years working as a data scientist & AI researcher, I have gone back to school for a Masters in Immunology. When I become fascinated by a topic, I want to learn as much as I can. 1/

rachel.fast.ai/posts/2023-02-… My ultimate goal is to apply my machine learning & data ethics skills to immunology, but I want to make sure I fully understand the underlying domain & relevant context first. (With ML, it’s important to not just be a hammer searching for a nail). 2/

I made a mastodon account a few weeks ago: @math_rachel@mastodon.social (in case twitter falls apart)

I haven't used it yet and have mostly been taking a social media break prior to this. 1/ I used to post a lot on twitter (about machine learning, working in tech, algorithmic harms, & later covid). I loved this place and I learned a lot from others here. Thank you to those I met & learned from. (I plan to stick around, but who knows what will happen.) 2/

This is a thorough, incredibly well-researched explanation of the Qld government's unscientific & unethical pursuit of a "wall of immunity", which was doomed to failure before it had even begun. by @ColinKinner

medium.com/@ColinKinner/l… 1/ Please watch the embedded video of Chief Health Office Dr. Gerrard. Note that when he repeatedly says that it is inevitable & necessary for us to all catch covid, he is speaking as someone with significant political power. 2/

I hate the fatalism & false logic of “everyone’s going to get covid many times, so just give up; it doesn’t matter how often (or how close together infections are); no point in trying to keep hospitals, schools, or pharmacies safe.” 1/ First, this becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you tell people there’s no point in avoiding infection (or worse, that they are building a “wall of immunity”, masks are opposite of smiles, etc) and abandon protective policies, that is going to discourage cautious behavior. 2/

My daughter & I had fun together decorating our elastomeric respirators with paint & gemstones. Mine is a GVS Elipse P100 and hers is a @flo_mask. Many thanks to the amazing @nickelpin for her inspiration! 1/ Why wear an elastomeric respirator? They work and are comfortable! A Texas hospital used Elastomeric Respirators to eliminate Health Care Worker infections, and save $40,000 per year. 2/

kens5.com/article/news/h…

It is urgent that we implement community-wide mask wearing in public indoor settings to protect Australians from infections, reinfections, & chronic disability caused by Long-COVID. Please sign the petition 🇦🇺. More in🧵 1/

chng.it/NLK2cCKZpW Having spent year 1 of pandemic in USA & then moving to Aus, my perspective is that understanding of airborne spread is even worse in 🇦🇺 than 🇺🇸. Because covid was so successfully managed via border closures, many people never had to learn about masks, airborne spread, etc 2/

A public health academic saying non-fit-tested N95s are "useless", and that those w/out public health credentials can’t disagree/engage.

This sort of elitism & gate-keeping causes so much harm.

(screenshot: red is PH academic, blue is other person) 1/ First, there is previous evidence that non-fit-tested N95s can still be effective 2/

fast.ai/2022/07/04/upd…

Why masks are still important:
- vaccines offer limited protection from long covid
- unconstrained transmission → more variants evolve, faster
- keep essential, public spaces accessible to high-risk ppl, babies, & immunocompromised
- constant reinfections → mass absenteeism 1/ Being vaccinated & boosted reduces an individual's chance of hospitalization or death, but does little to stop infection (& even initially mild infections can lead to a host of complications later on) nor transmission at this point 2/

https://twitter.com/Bob_Wachter/status/1543780610920947712

Why leaders can’t be honest, direct, & clear about long covid, risk of reinfections, waning immunity, airborne spread, & importance of N95s 🧵 1. Extreme short-term thinking: some people would *choose* to go out less if they knew the risks, which is bad for economy in the short-term (of course, constant sickness, absenteeism, & disabling part of the workforce is also bad for the economy, in both short- & long-term)

I really enjoyed our @DiagnosingML discussion yesterday on algorithmic bias in healthcare AI. I will link to some of the research & ideas I mentioned in this 🧵 1/

https://twitter.com/DiagnosingML/status/1539861823200976897

@yvessj_aquino shared results from interviews w/ 70 different stakeholders in healthcare AI, including software devs, doctors, & startup founders, to explore different conceptions of algorithmic bias. Here is a previous lightning talk he gave on this 2/ fast.ai/2022/03/14/ADS…

The video from our 3rd @AustralianData Ethics Workshop is up. Here are a few highlights 🧵
australiandatascience.net/data-ethics-wo… The current status quo on AI governance often involves harmful silos.
System owners wrongly assume bias metrics have removed ethical risk.
Model design & validation decisions uninformed by system impact.

@lmccalman1 @GradientInst

Recent writing:
- The problem with metrics
cell.com/patterns/fullt…
- Qualitative research is crucial to AI fast.ai/2022/06/01/qua…
- AI harms are collective, not just individual fast.ai/2022/05/17/soc…
- No such thing as not a "math person"
fast.ai/2022/03/15/mat… Reliance on metrics is a fundamental challenge for AI, with David Uminsky @DSI_UChicago @Patterns_CP

https://twitter.com/math_rachel/status/1526040262782636032

6 months ago, Australia largely went all in on a vaccines-only strategy, with > 90% of adults double-vaxxed. Since then:
6,000 deaths
7 million cases
likely 600k - 1 million cases of LongCovid

In response, we are going to double down on vaccines-only... 1/

https://twitter.com/AlboMP/status/1532258784684277760

Even back when masks were being worn (almost nobody does now), I never heard mainstream messages about benefits of N95s (instead of loose-fitting or cloth masks) nor explaining airborne spread. 2/

https://twitter.com/AnnastaciaMP/status/1496000157246451719?t=hDYS4Z9oRge1ad4MHEKt1A&s=19