Tootfinder

Sources: data labeling startup Handshake's gross annualized revenue hit ~$1B, vs. $550M in January; Mercor hit a $1B gross annualized revenue pace this year (The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/handshake-merc…

Handshake, Mercor Revenue Surges on Demand for Human Contractors to Train AI
AI firms’ voracious appetite for more data has lifted sales for obscure startups doing the industry’s unglamorous work: contracting with lawyers, PhDholders and medical doctors who grade the answers AI models generate. The latest is Handshake, a 12-year-old startup that began as a job site for ...

Charity work in Aldon Smith's final hours offers no answers in ex-Cowboy's tragic death https://cowboyswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/cowboys/2026/06/14/cowboys-aldon-smith-final-hours-charity-w…

So to follow up on this, I've caught it in action. Models, when quantized a bit, just do a bit more poorly with short contexts. Even going from f32 (as trained) to bf16 (as usually run) to q8 tends to do okay for "normal" context windows. And q4 you start feeling like "this model is a little stupid and gets stuck sometimes” (it is! It's just that it's still mostly careening about in the space of "plausible" most of the time. Not good guesswork, but still in the zone). With long contexts, the probability of parameters collapsing to zero are higher, so the more context the more likelihood you are to see brokenness.
And then at Q2 (2 bits per parameter) or Q1, the model falls apart completely. Parameters collapse to zero easily. You start seeing "all work and no play makes jack a dull boy” sorts of behavior, with intense and unscrutinized repetition, followed by a hard stop when it just stops working.
And quantization is a parameter that a model vendor can turn relatively easily. (they have to regenerate the model from the base with more quantization, but it's a data transformation on the order of running a terabyte through a straightforward and fast process, not like training).
If you have 1000 customers and enough equipment to handle the requests of 700, going from bf16 to q8 is a no-brainer. Suddenly you can handle the load and have a little spare capacity. They get worse results, probably pay the same per token (or they're on a subscription that hides the cost anyway so you are even freer to make trade-offs. There's a reason that subscription products are kinda poorly described.)
It's also possible for them to vary this across a day: use models during quieter periods? Maybe you get an instance running a bf16 quantization. If you use it during a high use period? You get a Q4 model.
Or intelligent routing is possible. No idea if anyone is doing this, but if they monitor what you send a bit, and you generally shoot for an expensive model for simple requests? They could totally substitute a highly quantized version of the model to answer the question.
There are •so many tricks• that can be pulled here. Some of them very reasonable to make, some of them treading into outright misleading or fraudulent, and it's weirdly hard to draw the line between them.

Some thoughts from Claude about military use of AI in targeting.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYIHIM6ihVJ/?igsh=cmM1ZmdjaDl3bzJ5

George Pickens' Non-Answer on Mandatory Minicamp Status is Ominous Sign for Cowboys https://www.si.com/nfl/cowboys/onsi/george-pickens-non-answer-mandatory-minicamp-status-ominous-sign-cowboys

Friend in Bray was looking to move back into the home she was renting in 2022 for €2,100/month.
The landlord quotes her €3,000/month.
I’m shocked: how can he do that when there’s a 2% yearly cap on price increases? So the most he should be able to charge is €2,273.10.
Can you guess the answer?
Did you say because Irish people elected a majority conservative/neoliberal government?
(Apparently the government just removed the 2% cap for new tenancies.¹ Landlords ca…

Family angry Hegseth, Trump Jr. 'ghosted' them on SEAL's death investigation (Washington Post)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/06/06/family-angry-hegseth-trump-jr-ghosted-them-navy-seals-death-investigation/
http://www.memeorandum.com/260606/p11#a260606p11

Inork Izarkom-ekin (@…) arazoak izaten UDP paketeekin? Adibidez, DNSarekin *baina* UDP erabiliz besterik ez?
Momentuz, ze hauxe partxe bat baino ez da, nire ubuntu makina batean konfiguratu dot DNSak beti TCP erabiltzeko, eta makina hori orain da etxeko DNS zerbitzaria ze, adibidez, PS5an ezin da konfiguratu DNSak erabiltzeko TCP...
Hauxe da adibid…

"...the real question is no longer whether Europe can afford to make the energy transition. It is whether it can afford not to. From a central banking perspective, the answer is clear."
https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/blog/date/2026/html/ecb.…

Europe’s fossil fuel dependence poses risks to price stability
The European Central Bank (ECB) is the central bank of the European Union countries which have adopted the euro. Our main task is to maintain price stability in the euro area and so preserve the purchasing power of the single currency.

Why most politicians are not calling for data center bans despite voters' anger (Washington Post)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/06/07/ai-backlash-coming-key-midterm-battlegrounds/
http://www.memeorandum.com/260607/p15#a260607p15