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I love Yandex. They are the best search engine by far for politically controversial topics. They also release a language model to benefit everyone even if it

I love Yandex. They are the best search engine by far for politically controversial topics. They also release a language model to benefit everyone even if it says politically incorrect stuff. They also name their projects "cocaine" probably to perhaps to prevent western competitors from using them. You look at OpenAI and how they don't release their models mainly because they fear "bad people" will use them for "bad stuff." This is the trend in the west. Technology is too powerful, we must control it! Russia is like... Hey, we are the bad guys you're talking about so who are we keeping this technology from? The west has bigger language models than we do, so who cares. Also their attitude to copyright and patents, etc. They don't care because that's not how their economy makes money. Cory Doctorow's end of general purpose computing[1] and locked down everything is very fast approaching. I'm glad the Russians are around and aren't very interested in that project. [1]https://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/resources/tech-talks/cory-doctorow-the-war-on-general-purpose-computing/ https://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/resources/tech-talks/cory-doctor...

abra0 4y ago
>They are the best search engine by far for politically controversial topics. This is an interesting take given the political censorship in Russia (for some ineffable reason much harsher now than it used to be 4 months ago) and cases like https://twitter.com/kevinrothrock/status/1510944781492531208 https://twitter.com/kevinrothrock/status/1510944781492531208.
- narrator 4y ago
  Search Google and Yandex for "2020 election fraud." The results are VERY different. The Zach Vorhies leak shows that Google regularly does blatant censorship for political purposes.[1] [1]https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2021/08/19/google-whistleblower-search-engine-rewrote-algorithms-to-go-after-trump/ https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2021/08/19/google-whistleblow...
  - skrebbel 4y ago
    I don't know man, "thegatewaypundit.com" as a top reputable source? seems to me like it's not "honest two-sided results" but just, well, a rather random mix of result of widely varying quality. Mad Altavista vibes! What I'm trying to say is that even if you believe that "was the 2020 US election stolen?" is worth debating, which it isn't, the yandex results are shit.
    - narrator 4y ago
      If you get all your information through mainstream channels, and you don't want to see anything contradicting those channels then you should continue to use Google because they explicitly implement the algorithms on controversial topics to prefer mainstream news sources[1]. What I mean by "better" in terms of controversial searches is that on controversial matters, it will rank the searches the same way it does for all other searches. I mean yeah, I don't have access to the internal code base of Yandex, but it certainly feels more organic. [1]https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2019/05/12/study-the-cnn-search-engine-google-search-results-overwhelmingly-favor-mainstream-media/ https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2019/05/12/study-the-cnn-sear...
      - zaptrem 4y ago
        Why link to Breitbart of all places instead of the original source? https://www.cjr.org/tow_center/google-news-algorithm.php https://www.cjr.org/tow_center/google-news-algorithm.php Btw Wikipedia’s first few sentences on Breitbart are not inspiring > Its journalists are widely considered to be ideologically driven, and much of its content has been called misogynistic, xenophobic, and racist by liberals and traditional conservatives alike.[10] The site has published a number of conspiracy theories[11][12] and intentionally misleading stories.[13][14]
        narrator 4y ago
        This is the association fallacy, which is, unfortunately, how most people determine what to believe these days. An absurd example of this fallacy would be, Wikipedia, which you cite, has articles that indicate tobacco smoking may cause disease. The nazis were also anti-smoking[1]. Therefore Wikipedia is Nazi propaganda and you should not trust anything on there. [1]https://www.amazon.com/Nazi-War-Cancer-Robert-Proctor/dp/0691001960/ https://www.amazon.com/Nazi-War-Cancer-Robert-Proctor/dp/069...
  - alphabetting 4y ago
    Google: 118M results. Top link is the best resource on verified election fraud cases. Yandex: 9M results. The top two links are pretty suspect. Top link promotes Dinesh D'Souza's 2000 Mules documentary in the banner which at best is a one-sided take on election fraud. At worst, very misleading. https://i.imgur.com/n5a9LOd.png https://i.imgur.com/n5a9LOd.png
    - stainablesteel 4y ago
      This is a weird comment because yes, that's exactly what the above person was saying. It shows results that google won't give you. Secondly, I've yet to see any criticisms of 2000 mules data that aren't addressed by the stringency in the analysis they claim to have done. I thought the information they presented was extremely valuable. Are we going to overturn an election at this point? No. But the vulnerabilities to the mail-in ballots were obvious, then lied about, then ignored, then clearly taken advantage of. I want to live in a democracy because voting matters. I especially don't want NPO's destroying this by taking advantage of flawed voting infrastructure. If there are legitimate criticisms of the methods, the data, or anything else coming out of this film I expect a legitimate presentation that can break it down using the actual data in question. All I've seen so far is shilling and gas-lighting.
      - 1024core 4y ago
        > then clearly taken advantage of. If you have any evidence, any evidence at all, of significant mail-in ballots fraud, then you should write it up and publish it; and even present it to the USDOJ, because you would have succeeded where Trump's highly-paid teams of lawyers failed. If you don't have proof, then please STFU.
        jokethrowaway 4y ago
        It's not about whether it happened or not, it's whether it's reported or not. I personally believe (with obviously no proof) there was definitely fraud going on, on both sides. With such an archaic system and such a great economic and power incentive, you would be stupid not to do it. For sure mail in ballots made it even easier than in the past. I've heard about Russian hacking the elections after Trump won for a good 2 years.
  - px43 4y ago
    Totally, just like how if you want to find out what really happened in Tiananmen Square in 1989, your best bet is Baidu. Totally different results than what Google gives you! I sincerely have deep respect for Yandex for releasing this, and Baidu for some of the amazing research they've released over the years, but both are deeply deeply beholden to their local governments in a way that is incomparable to the relationship between Google and the US government. Remember that the NSA was literally digging up and tapping fiber around Google data centers in a secret program called MUSCULAR because they didn't think Google was being cooperative enough when handing over data that they were requesting. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUSCULAR_(surveillance_program) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUSCULAR_(surveillance_program...
chinathrow 4y ago
Is this sarcasm?
risyachka 4y ago
>> They are the best search engine by far for politically controversial topics FYI, they are Russian subject that follows ALL their censorship laws (and oh boy do they have a lot of it). >> probably to perhaps to prevent western competitors from using them The irony here. All yandex products are exact copies of western, adjusted to local market.
- cpursley 4y ago
  Actually they're not, some of the Yandex products are actually better and pretty innovative (ignoring the political stuff). Maps and Go are especially good. Ditto with Russian banking apps, they put American bank apps to shame.
  - jhgb 4y ago
    Wait, so you're saying it's a Russian company breaking Russian laws and getting away with it?
    - cpursley 4y ago
      I could have worded that better. I just mean ignoring the general political situation in Russia, Yandex makes some really good products.
    - Barrin92 4y ago
      > it's a Russian company breaking Russian laws and getting away with it I don't think you've lived in Russia if you need to ask that question. Breaking the law and getting away with it is a way of life in Russia, that goes for all institutions and social strata
      - jhgb 4y ago
        Breaking random laws? Sure. Breaking laws specifically made to enable central government control of independent media? Uh, how do you do that? Have you not noticed for how minor things regarding freedom of expression have been Russian people getting into jail recently?
jhgb 4y ago
> This is the trend in the west. Technology is too powerful, we must control it! I take it that you're either too young or too untraveled to be aware of the level of state control of technology in "the east". Xerographic machines, mimeographs, and other similar reprographic devices used to be highly controlled machinery behind the Iron Curtain. This is absolutely not something exclusive or even peculiar to "the west".
throwaway_1928 4y ago
> Hey, we are the bad guys you're talking about so who are we keeping this technology from? Laughed out loud!
make3 4y ago
It's widely accepted that OpenAi doesn't release its models to make money from them, not because they really think they would be harmful
winddude 4y ago
I feel like you could be paid, or coerced by some country...
Moldoteck 4y ago
They literally have blocklist of sites that kremlin doesnt like and it acts somehow similar to yandex news in this part. The difference here is more that google filters stuff for usa and yandex for russia

abra0 4y ago

>They are the best search engine by far for politically controversial topics. This is an interesting take given the political censorship in Russia (for some ineffable reason much harsher now than it used to be 4 months ago) and cases like https://twitter.com/kevinrothrock/status/1510944781492531208 https://twitter.com/kevinrothrock/status/1510944781492531208.

narrator 4y ago
Search Google and Yandex for "2020 election fraud." The results are VERY different. The Zach Vorhies leak shows that Google regularly does blatant censorship for political purposes.[1] [1]https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2021/08/19/google-whistleblower-search-engine-rewrote-algorithms-to-go-after-trump/ https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2021/08/19/google-whistleblow...
- skrebbel 4y ago
  I don't know man, "thegatewaypundit.com" as a top reputable source? seems to me like it's not "honest two-sided results" but just, well, a rather random mix of result of widely varying quality. Mad Altavista vibes! What I'm trying to say is that even if you believe that "was the 2020 US election stolen?" is worth debating, which it isn't, the yandex results are shit.
  - narrator 4y ago
    If you get all your information through mainstream channels, and you don't want to see anything contradicting those channels then you should continue to use Google because they explicitly implement the algorithms on controversial topics to prefer mainstream news sources[1]. What I mean by "better" in terms of controversial searches is that on controversial matters, it will rank the searches the same way it does for all other searches. I mean yeah, I don't have access to the internal code base of Yandex, but it certainly feels more organic. [1]https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2019/05/12/study-the-cnn-search-engine-google-search-results-overwhelmingly-favor-mainstream-media/ https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2019/05/12/study-the-cnn-sear...
    - zaptrem 4y ago
      Why link to Breitbart of all places instead of the original source? https://www.cjr.org/tow_center/google-news-algorithm.php https://www.cjr.org/tow_center/google-news-algorithm.php Btw Wikipedia’s first few sentences on Breitbart are not inspiring > Its journalists are widely considered to be ideologically driven, and much of its content has been called misogynistic, xenophobic, and racist by liberals and traditional conservatives alike.[10] The site has published a number of conspiracy theories[11][12] and intentionally misleading stories.[13][14]
      - narrator 4y ago
        This is the association fallacy, which is, unfortunately, how most people determine what to believe these days. An absurd example of this fallacy would be, Wikipedia, which you cite, has articles that indicate tobacco smoking may cause disease. The nazis were also anti-smoking[1]. Therefore Wikipedia is Nazi propaganda and you should not trust anything on there. [1]https://www.amazon.com/Nazi-War-Cancer-Robert-Proctor/dp/0691001960/ https://www.amazon.com/Nazi-War-Cancer-Robert-Proctor/dp/069...
- alphabetting 4y ago
  Google: 118M results. Top link is the best resource on verified election fraud cases. Yandex: 9M results. The top two links are pretty suspect. Top link promotes Dinesh D'Souza's 2000 Mules documentary in the banner which at best is a one-sided take on election fraud. At worst, very misleading. https://i.imgur.com/n5a9LOd.png https://i.imgur.com/n5a9LOd.png
  - stainablesteel 4y ago
    This is a weird comment because yes, that's exactly what the above person was saying. It shows results that google won't give you. Secondly, I've yet to see any criticisms of 2000 mules data that aren't addressed by the stringency in the analysis they claim to have done. I thought the information they presented was extremely valuable. Are we going to overturn an election at this point? No. But the vulnerabilities to the mail-in ballots were obvious, then lied about, then ignored, then clearly taken advantage of. I want to live in a democracy because voting matters. I especially don't want NPO's destroying this by taking advantage of flawed voting infrastructure. If there are legitimate criticisms of the methods, the data, or anything else coming out of this film I expect a legitimate presentation that can break it down using the actual data in question. All I've seen so far is shilling and gas-lighting.
    - 1024core 4y ago
      > then clearly taken advantage of. If you have any evidence, any evidence at all, of significant mail-in ballots fraud, then you should write it up and publish it; and even present it to the USDOJ, because you would have succeeded where Trump's highly-paid teams of lawyers failed. If you don't have proof, then please STFU.
      - jokethrowaway 4y ago
        It's not about whether it happened or not, it's whether it's reported or not. I personally believe (with obviously no proof) there was definitely fraud going on, on both sides. With such an archaic system and such a great economic and power incentive, you would be stupid not to do it. For sure mail in ballots made it even easier than in the past. I've heard about Russian hacking the elections after Trump won for a good 2 years.
- px43 4y ago
  Totally, just like how if you want to find out what really happened in Tiananmen Square in 1989, your best bet is Baidu. Totally different results than what Google gives you! I sincerely have deep respect for Yandex for releasing this, and Baidu for some of the amazing research they've released over the years, but both are deeply deeply beholden to their local governments in a way that is incomparable to the relationship between Google and the US government. Remember that the NSA was literally digging up and tapping fiber around Google data centers in a secret program called MUSCULAR because they didn't think Google was being cooperative enough when handing over data that they were requesting. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUSCULAR_(surveillance_program) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUSCULAR_(surveillance_program...

chinathrow 4y ago

Is this sarcasm?

risyachka 4y ago

>> They are the best search engine by far for politically controversial topics FYI, they are Russian subject that follows ALL their censorship laws (and oh boy do they have a lot of it). >> probably to perhaps to prevent western competitors from using them The irony here. All yandex products are exact copies of western, adjusted to local market.

cpursley 4y ago
Actually they're not, some of the Yandex products are actually better and pretty innovative (ignoring the political stuff). Maps and Go are especially good. Ditto with Russian banking apps, they put American bank apps to shame.
- jhgb 4y ago
  Wait, so you're saying it's a Russian company breaking Russian laws and getting away with it?
  - cpursley 4y ago
    I could have worded that better. I just mean ignoring the general political situation in Russia, Yandex makes some really good products.
  - Barrin92 4y ago
    > it's a Russian company breaking Russian laws and getting away with it I don't think you've lived in Russia if you need to ask that question. Breaking the law and getting away with it is a way of life in Russia, that goes for all institutions and social strata
    - jhgb 4y ago
      Breaking random laws? Sure. Breaking laws specifically made to enable central government control of independent media? Uh, how do you do that? Have you not noticed for how minor things regarding freedom of expression have been Russian people getting into jail recently?

jhgb 4y ago

> This is the trend in the west. Technology is too powerful, we must control it! I take it that you're either too young or too untraveled to be aware of the level of state control of technology in "the east". Xerographic machines, mimeographs, and other similar reprographic devices used to be highly controlled machinery behind the Iron Curtain. This is absolutely not something exclusive or even peculiar to "the west".

throwaway_1928 4y ago

> Hey, we are the bad guys you're talking about so who are we keeping this technology from? Laughed out loud!

make3 4y ago

It's widely accepted that OpenAi doesn't release its models to make money from them, not because they really think they would be harmful

winddude 4y ago

I feel like you could be paid, or coerced by some country...

Moldoteck 4y ago

They literally have blocklist of sites that kremlin doesnt like and it acts somehow similar to yandex news in this part. The difference here is more that google filters stuff for usa and yandex for russia