Reading

Grok 4 System Prompt Shenanigans

Posted by John Gruber

https://simonwillison.net/2025/Jul/12/grok-4-heavy/

Simon Willison:

Grok 4 Heavy is the “think much harder” version of Grok 4 that’s currently only available on their $300/month plan. Jeremy Howard relays a report from a Grok 4 Heavy user who wishes to remain anonymous: it turns out that Heavy, unlike regular Grok 4, has measures in place to prevent it from sharing its system prompt.

Most big LLMs do not share their system prompts, but xAI has made a show out of being transparent in that regard.

In related prompt transparency news, Grok’s retrospective on why Grok started spitting out antisemitic tropes last week included the text “You tell it like it is and you are not afraid to offend people who are politically correct” as part of the system prompt blamed for the problem. That text isn’t present in the history of their previous published system prompts.

Given the past week of mishaps I think xAI would be wise to reaffirm their dedication to prompt transparency and set things up so the xai-org/grok-prompts repository updates automatically when new prompts are deployed - their current manual process for that is clearly not adequate for the job!

Transparently publishing system prompt changes to GitHub was xAI’s main “trust us” argument after the “white genocide in South Africa” fiasco mid-May. Turns out they don’t publish all of them.

★

https://simonwillison.net/2025/Jul/12/grok-4-heavy/

Entry tags:

Assortment

Walkouts, feuds and broken friendships: when book clubs go bad. I don't think I've ever been in a book club of this kind. Many years ago at My Place Of Work there used to be an informal monthly reading group which would discuss some work of relevance to the academic mission of the institution, very broadly defined, and that was quite congenial, and I am currently in an online group read-through and discussion of A Dance to the Music of Time, but both these have rather more focus perhaps? certainly I do not perceive that they have people turning up without having reading the actual books....

Mind you, I am given the ick, and this is I will concede My Garbage, by those Reading Group Suggestions that some books have at the end, or that were flashed up during an online book group discussion of a book in which I was interested.

Going to book groups without Doing The Reading perhaps goes under the heading of Faking It, which has been in the news a lot lately (I assume everybody has heard about The Salt Roads thing): and here are a couple of furthe instances:

(This one is rather beautifully recursive) What if every artwork you’ve ever seen is a fake?:

Many years ago, I met a man in a pub in Bloomsbury who said he worked at the British Museum. He told me that every single item on display in the museum was a replica, and that all the original artefacts were locked away in storage for preservation.
....
Later, Googling, I discovered that none of what the man had told me was true. The artefacts in the British Museum are original, unless otherwise explicitly stated. It was the man who claimed to work there who was a fake.

This one is more complex, and about masquerade and fantasy as much as 'hoax' perhaps: The schoolteacher who spawned a Highland literary hoax

This is not so much about fakery but about areas of doubt: We still do not understand family resemblance which suggests that GENES are by no means the whole story.

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Random Doctor Who Picture

Cover of Doctor the Matrix by Robert Perry & Mike Tucker. Sylvester McCoy surrounded by four tardises.

July Woods

( A walk in the July woods... )

Current Mood: busy

Entry tags:

choir

choir stuff

Got an update from our chorus manager today.

The search for a new chorus director is still getting organized and won't be done until late in the calendar year. They've decided to let the orchestra's associate conductor act as the interim director for our fall performances (B9 & Messiah). He was already going to be conducting the Messiah anyway.

Turns out the reason Carmina Burana wasn't included on the symphony's concert schedule is because we're inexplicably doing it with the local ballet organization instead. Interesting.

We've also been told to pencil in a possible one-night performance in late February, but not what it might be. So there's at least a slim chance we might still do something this season that I haven't already done at least 3 times before. We had earlier been told that we would be involved with The Polar Express, but then they decided to do Muppet Christmas Carol instead.

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Daily Happiness

1. I had a pretty laid back day at work today but I am super glad it is the weekend and I have a break for a couple days.

2. I am so glad I was able to get this picture. Jasper: She's lurking again, isn't she?

Oh, cat

Caught Yellface with her WHOLE HEAD inside the Fritos bag.

Current Mood: busy

Entry tags:

Extinct Birds

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Current Mood: enthralled

Murderbot, S1 in its entirety

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Apple and Masimo Faced Off in US Appeals Court This Week

Posted by John Gruber

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/apple-masimo-spar-over-apple-watch-import-ban-us-appeals-court-2025-07-07/

Blake Brittain, reporting for Reuters:

Apple asked a U.S. appeals court on Monday to overturn a trade tribunal’s decision which forced it to remove blood-oxygen reading technology from its Apple Watches, in order to avoid a ban on its U.S. smartwatch imports.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit heard arguments from the tech giant, medical monitoring technology company Masimo, and the U.S. International Trade Commission over the ITC’s 2023 ruling that Apple Watches violated Masimo’s patent rights in pulse oximetry technology. [...]

Apple attorney Joseph Mueller of WilmerHale told the court on Monday that the decision had wrongly “deprived millions of Apple Watch users” of Apple’s blood-oxygen feature. A lawyer for Masimo, Joseph Re of Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear, countered that Apple was trying to “rewrite the law” with its arguments.

The judges questioned whether Masimo’s development of a competing smartwatch justified the ITC’s ruling. Apple has told the appeals court that the ban was improper because a Masimo wearable device covered by the patents was “purely hypothetical” when Masimo filed its ITC complaint in 2021. [...]

Mueller told the court on Monday that the ban was unjustified because Masimo only had prototypes of a smartwatch with pulse oximetry features when it had filed its ITC complaint. Re responded that Apple was wrong to argue that a “finished product” was necessary to justify the ITC’s decision.

This whole thing started with the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 1 in 2023. I’m very surprised that we’re just two months away from the Series 11 and Ultra 3 in 2025 and it still isn’t settled. And to be clear, while it’s technically an “import ban”, all Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, and Ultra 2 have the blood oxygen sensors. Units sold in the US after December 2023 simply have the feature disabled in software.

(Via Chance Miller at 9to5Mac.)

★

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/apple-masimo-spar-over-apple-watch-import-ban-us-appeals-court-2025-07-07/

Current Mood: awake
Current Music: Whitesnake - Here I Go Again

Entry tags:

mcu,
year 2025

Ironheart

Ironheart is one of those shows where you can see the seams of events stitched together so that the plot can happen, but the plot itself is so different and daring for an MCU property, that you're (well, I) am rather annoyed that it wasn't served better in the execution. Because wow!

I watched 2.5 episodes, got stressed out, watched the Murderbot finale and gross-cried over that, then after a hangover got back to being stressed by Ironheart all the way to its finale, which has lingered with me after. I think somewhere on Riri's dozenth bad decision (I'm not actually counting) I realized that I hadn't felt this kind of tension while watching an MCU property in a good long while, and bracing myself for the usual MCU-type resolution where the hero gets their upgrade before the final battle, the villain's grey areas are flattened in the final act, and the hero makes the right choice. Ironheart does only one out of three.

Riri gets to be messy, traumatized, selfish, brilliant and distant. Her tunnel vision, though started for noble reasons (to protect her loved ones) has led her to burning bridges and becoming an anti-hero at best, and someone the other Avengers would hunt down to stop. At her lowest point, her love interest is brought to her for the chance to give comfort, and you'd think this is the turning point of Riri's emotional journey, but instead it makes things worse.

The bones are so good, which is why I wish there was more meat on it, especially to dive into Riri's justification of her choices, and the smoothening out of the moments where things happen because they have to (everything with "Joe", honestly). Still, salute for not taking the easiest route in telling a story about Riri.

Moft’s MagSafe-Compatible Snap-On iPhone Stand and Wallet

Posted by John Gruber

https://www.moft.us/products/iphone-stand-wallet-magsafe-compatible

Here’s a product recommendation long in the making. Four years ago this month, Matthew Panzarino was my guest on The Talk Show and at one point he recommended Moft’s Snap-On iPhone Stand/Wallet. It uses a very clever origami-style folding design. Folded flat it kind of just looks like a leather MagSafe wallet. But folded open it works as a stand — and as a stand, it works both horizontally and vertically. Borrowing images from Moft’s website:

A blue Moft Snap-On iPhone Stand, propping an iPhone vertically.

You can also use it with the stand oriented vertically but the phone horizontally.

I bought one of these right after that episode of the show, and I’ve been using it ever since. And every so often when I use it, I think to myself that I should write a post recommending it. I’ve waited so long that Panzarino has been back on The Talk Show five times since the episode in which he recommended it, but here we are. The thing is, I use it both in my kitchen and while travelling, and so I’ll often find myself in the kitchen, rooting around the drawer in which I keep it stashed, only to realize it’s downstairs in my office in my laptop bag. Or, worse, I’ll find myself looking for it in my laptop bag while I’m sitting on an airplane 35,000 feet in the air, only to realize it’s back home in my kitchen. So I ordered a second one today — which I should have done like 3.5 years ago.

I own a few similar/competing products, like these PopSocket-y rings from Anker and Belkin. I have no idea why I own both of those rings when I don’t like either of them as much as the Moft foldable stand. The problem with these rings is that they’re only able to prop the phone horizontally. Watching video is almost certainly the most common use case for these stands, but I do often use my iPhone propped up vertically, like for FaceTime calls and when I’m writing on it using a Bluetooth keyboard. I’m going to give both of these rings away — there’s nothing they do better than the Moft stand. The Moft stand even works better as a hand-holding grip.

I’ve never used the Moft stand as a wallet, but if you want to, it holds two cards. Prime “Day” lasts a week and it’s still running until midnight Pacific tonight, but the Moft stand doesn’t have a Prime Day discount: it’s the same price at Amazon as it is from Moft’s website: $30. Well worth it. I love this thing. (Buy yours wherever you want, of course, but the Amazon link a few sentences back will throw some filthy affiliate lucre my way.)

★

https://www.moft.us/products/iphone-stand-wallet-magsafe-compatible

some good things

The fan. Got house down to Actually Matching Outside Air Temperature in finite time; set up to experiment with running it in the bedroom overnight. (It has been Too Warm For Cuddles, which is Bad.)
Made the nonsense lavender-and-honey Welsh cakes for breakfast. I was sure I had picked way too much lavender but it actually fit in the measuring spoon pretty much perfectly, and wound up being noticeable but not Overwhelming.
New Murderbot novelette! I have not launched right into reading it because I am just about a quarter of the way through a System Collapse reread (and fascinated by how little of it I remember, though I concede I've read it many fewer times than All Systems Red...) so I'm going to finish that first. Which I am not expecting to take me very long.
Having spent a bunch of time poking around Wikipedia, I've gone back to Nerve and Muscle and, now almost two whole pages in, it is making significantly more sense than my previous attempt. (I have not yet started making myself notes on neuroanatomy but I am definitely considering it.)
It is The Time Of Year when strawberries are relatively cheap, so after dinner we wandered down the hill in service of me getting my steps, and us getting some exposure to The Breeze, and acquiring me a giant box of strawberries, and also picking up Ice Lollies to consume on the way back up.
Realised I could stick a jug of water in the fridge. This has made hydrating significantly easier. (I do not do well at drinking water that isn't Cold, and the magic ice dispenser on our freezer is currently out of action.)
The online Oxfam shop. Shortly to be on their way to me: a pair of cargo shorts; two pairs of linen cargo trousers; a book I previously had out from the library but which I wanted to have a reference copy of at least briefly for writing purposes.

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Bonneville Dam

After returning to the 84/30 we ended up at the Bonneville Dam in search of a bathroom! It was a good stop though as the view (and sound) of the dam was impressive. ( Read more... )

Squid Dominated the Oceans in the Late Cretaceous

Posted by Bruce Schneier

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2025/07/squid-dominated-the-oceans-in-the-late-cretaceous.html

https://www.schneier.com/?p=70436

New research:

One reason the early years of squids has been such a mystery is because squids’ lack of hard shells made their fossils hard to come by. Undeterred, the team instead focused on finding ancient squid beaks—hard mouthparts with high fossilization potential that could help the team figure out how squids evolved.

With that in mind, the team developed an advanced fossil discovery technique that completely digitized rocks with all their embedded fossils in complete 3D form. Upon using that technique on Late Cretaceous rocks from Japan, the team identified 1,000 fossilized cephalopod beaks hidden inside the rocks, which included 263 squid specimens and 40 previously unknown squid species.

The team said the number of squid fossils they found vastly outnumbered the number of bony fishes and ammonites, which are extinct shelled relatives of squids that are considered among the most successful swimmers of the Mesozoic era.

“Forty previously unknown squid species.” Wow.

As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered.

Blog moderation policy.

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2025/07/squid-dominated-the-oceans-in-the-late-cretaceous.html

https://www.schneier.com/?p=70436

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That There Dr Oursin was at a conference again

This time it was online, in Teams, and worked a bit better than some Team events I've attended, or maybe I'm just getting used to it.

A few hiccups with slides and screen sharing, but not as many as there might have been.

Possibly we would rather attend a conference not in our south-facing sitting-room on a day like today....

But even so it was on the whole a good conference, even if some of the interdisciplinarity didn't entirely resonate with me.

And That There Dr oursin was rather embarrassingly activating the raised hand icon after not quite every panel, but all but one. And, oddly enough, given that that was not particularly the focus of the conference, all of my questions/comments/remarks were in the general area of medical/psychiatric history, which I wouldn't particularly have anticipated.

Building a Fire

https://xkcd.com/3114/

That was quicker than usual! The cabin's sprinkler system often makes it really hard to keep anything lit.

https://xkcd.com/3114/

Tradecraft in the Information Age

Posted by Bruce Schneier

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2025/07/tradecraft-in-the-information-age.html

https://www.schneier.com/?p=70454

Long article on the difficulty (impossibility?) of human spying in the age of ubiquitous digital surveillance.

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2025/07/tradecraft-in-the-information-age.html

https://www.schneier.com/?p=70454

∞ The Dalrymple Report: AI talent, Meta, and COO

Posted by Jim Dalrymple

https://www.loopinsight.com/2025/07/11/the-dalrymple-report-ai-talent-meta-and-coo/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-dalrymple-report-ai-talent-meta-and-coo

http://www.loopinsight.com/?p=110748

The turmoil at Apple is not new, but what is new is how some of the companies top AI engineers are leaving the company. The latest was lured away by Meta, who have just invested $3.5 billion in its artificial intelligence projects. Apple’s longtime Chief Operating Officer, Jeff Williams, has announced he’s retiring.

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Show Notes:

Shows and movies we’re watching

Black Snow, AMC+
Kleo, Netflix
MurderBot, Apple TV+

https://www.loopinsight.com/2025/07/11/the-dalrymple-report-ai-talent-meta-and-coo/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-dalrymple-report-ai-talent-meta-and-coo

http://www.loopinsight.com/?p=110748

Current Mood: pleased

Murderbot S1 Finale

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