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Agentic pelican on a bicycle

robert-glaser.de

21–30 of 77 posts

Re: Agentic pelican on a bicycle

#21
post #12
post #9

This wasn’t just “add more details”—it was “make this mechanically coherent.” The overall text doesn’t appear to be AI written, making this all the more confusing. Is AI making people write this way now on their own? Or is it actually written by an LLM and just doesn’t look like it?

I assume this was written by a human and then "improved" by an LLM.

It's going to become the "MP3 sizzle" that young people at the time started to prefer once compressed audio became the norm on iPods and other portable music players, along with film grain and the judder of 24fps video. Artifacts imposed by the medium themselves become desirable once they become normal an associated and in fact signs of "quality", when, in fact, they are introduced noise and distortion to an otherwise more pristine or clean signal.

See also the "warmth" that certain vinyl enthusiasts sought after from their analog recordings which most certainly was mainly dust and defects in the groves rather than any actual tangible quality of the audio itself.

Re: Agentic pelican on a bicycle

#23

> Some models (looking at you, GPT-5-Codex) seemed to mistake “more complex” for “better.” That's what working with GPT-5-Codex on actual code also feels like.

YES, and the sad truth is that the only person who can write good, simple code is likely the one who doesn't need an AI helper. ;(

Re: Agentic pelican on a bicycle

#25
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume this was written by a human and then "improved" by an LLM.

It's going to become the "MP3 sizzle" that young people at the time started to prefer once compressed audio became the norm on iPods and other portable music players, along with film grain and the judder of 24fps video. Artifacts imposed by the medium themselves become desirable once they become normal an associated and in fact signs of "quality", when, in fact, they are introduced noise and distortion to an otherwis…

In some cases, the artifacts of the medium can be desirable -- especially when consuming media that was created with those artifacts in mind.

Take a look at pixel art on CRTs vs LCDs [0] and Toy Story on film vs. digital [1].

[0]: https://wackoid.com/game/10-pictures-that-show-why-crt-tvs-a...

[1]: https://animationobsessive.substack.com/p/the-toy-story-you-...

Re: Agentic pelican on a bicycle

#26
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume this was written by a human and then "improved" by an LLM.

It's going to become the "MP3 sizzle" that young people at the time started to prefer once compressed audio became the norm on iPods and other portable music players, along with film grain and the judder of 24fps video. Artifacts imposed by the medium themselves become desirable once they become normal an associated and in fact signs of "quality", when, in fact, they are introduced noise and distortion to an otherwis…

What most people think of "vinyl sound effects" are not what the "warmth" is about. That's just playback instability and waveform aliasing caused by shoddily made players.

Good vinyl is "wait, did we have this back in 1970s" good(the recorder yes, the player not exactly, hence the prevalence of vinyl sound effects)

Re: Agentic pelican on a bicycle

#27
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume this was written by a human and then "improved" by an LLM.

It's going to become the "MP3 sizzle" that young people at the time started to prefer once compressed audio became the norm on iPods and other portable music players, along with film grain and the judder of 24fps video. Artifacts imposed by the medium themselves become desirable once they become normal an associated and in fact signs of "quality", when, in fact, they are introduced noise and distortion to an otherwis…

With vinyl warmth is the result of a deliberate process. Professional masters are done specifically for vinyl to accommodate its quirks which truly changes the sound. They have to clamp down the dynamic range and tidy low frequencies or the needle will skip. Recordings with lots of busy high frequency information also can’t be physically captured properly in the cut. The resulting master is a version that purposefully doesn’t have as many volume swings and harsh highs or boomy lows. Smooth, cohesive, warm. There are also track ordering strategies which is why ballads tend to be at the end of one side and the high energy stuff up front where there is “resolution” to serve it. The mastering engineer is adjusting each song with all this in mind.

Re: Agentic pelican on a bicycle

#30
I don't have all the most recent models but I've found image generation to be terribly disappointing in most that I've tried in that it doesn't seem capable of understanding directions or fixing mistakes.

"Create a drawing of a cliff in the desert."

Get something passing.

"Add a waterfall."

Get a waterfall that has no connection or outlet.

"Make the waterfall connect to a creek that runs off to the left."

Get a waterway that goes by the waterfall without connecting and goes straight through the center of the image.

Give up on that and notice that the shadows go to the left but the sun is straight behind.

"Move the sun to the right so that it matches the shadows more accurately."

Sun stays in the same spot, but grows while exaggerated and inaccurate shadows show up that seem to imply the backside of the cliff doesn't block light.

...

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