If you want insights about AI, dad jokes, entrepreneur/investor stories, and tips about Buenos Aires or San Francisco, smash that follow button.
San Francisco, CA, USA
Joined October 2007
- Tweets31K
- Following316
- Followers5K
- Likes9.3K
Diego Basch retweeted
If you've ever wondered why smart TVs are so cheap, this is why.
@log4j rooted his Samsung and found an always-on hot mic, automatic content recognition, geolocation, network mapping, ad targeting and user profiling, shared with Samsung's "400 partners".
A lot of it can be blocked in <15 min, wrote a basic guide below.
What your TV is doing
The main culprit is ACR (automatic content recognition). Your TV screenshots what's on screen, fingerprints it, and sends it home to build your ad profile. Samsung does it every 500ms, LG every 10ms [1].
What is insane: it happens on connected devices too.
Plug in your laptop, your console, your work machine, and your TV can fingerprint that via HDMI [1].
He also found that if your Samsung doesn't have a mic, it'll look for one from a connected soundbar or bluetooth device.
xitter.cf/log4j/status/211376224…
It's on by default, and you likely agreed to it on the setup screen you clicked through in 10 seconds.
Step 1: Turn off ACR
Samsung: Terms & Privacy → Viewing Information Services
LG: Live Plus
Vizio: Viewing Data
Roku: "Use info from TV inputs"
Sony/Google TV: Samba Interactive TV
Menus vary by model, but those are the names to look for. While you're in there, opt out of interest-based ads, reset your advertising ID, decline every optional privacy agreement, turn off voice recognition, and delete apps you never open.
Step 2: Give smart devices their own network
Put the TV, cameras, speakers and vacuum on your router's guest/IoT network. The logic is simple: these devices rarely get patched. If one gets compromised (getting drastically more frequent with AI), it shouldn't be able to see your other devices or home network.
Step 3: Block trackers for the whole house with DNS-level filtering
NextDNS (cloud-based) is easy and has a solid free plan. Pi-hole is a little bit more work if you prefer self hosting. For simplicity we'll focus on the former.
1. Sign up at nextdns.io (free tier is plenty)
2. Privacy tab: add a blocklist (OISD is a good bet) and turn on Native Tracking Protection for Samsung, LG, Roku, Amazon (see attached image)
3. Setup tab: copy your endpoint
4. Paste it into your router's DNS settings as DNS-over-HTTPS/TLS (or use the IPs + "Link IP" if your router only does plain DNS)
5. Bonus: block outbound port 53 except to your router. Some devices hardcode their own DNS to get around you
Then open the NextDNS logs and watch how often your TV phones home. It's eye-opening. If an app or update breaks, find the domain in the logs and allowlist it.
Why they do this
TV prices are down 97% since 2000 [2]. Most of that is better manufacturing and brutal competition. But once margins on the hardware hit zero, the cost moved to you.
In Q3 2024, Vizio lost $6.7M selling TVs and made $115.8M in gross profit from ads and viewing data [3]. They've said on earnings calls that they keep TV prices low to grow the audience they sell to advertisers. Walmart bought them in 2024.
This isn't a conspiracy theory either. Vizio paid $2.2M to the FTC in 2017 for tracking 11 million TVs without consent. Last December, Texas sued Samsung, LG, Sony, Hisense and TCL over ACR. Samsung and LG have since agreed to stop collecting that data without explicit consent [4].
TL;DR
1. ACR off
2. Ads + voice off
3. Smart devices on their own network
4. NextDNS filtering on the router
Sources:
[1] ACR study: arxiv.org/abs/2409.06203
[2] Cost of US consumer goods: aei.org/economics/chart-of-t…
[3] Vizio Q3 2024: sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/…
[4] Texas v. Samsung: texasattorneygeneral.gov/new…
Diego Basch retweeted
Yud is a moron and if you’ve been duped by him you are also a moron. The emperor is naked.
Diego Basch retweeted
One of the greatest intellectual dishonesties of the AI age is assigning an “X% chance” that AI will kill everyone and presenting that number as science!
10%? 20%? 50%?
Show me the damn data! Show me the model. Show how you calculated it!
Instead, we get chains of speculative assumptions and science-fiction scenarios, including implausible claims about engineered pandemics. I have worked with viruses for decades; biology does not work like a doomsday screenplay.
The burden of proof belongs to the person making the extraordinary claim. Nobody else has to prove the probability is zero.
If I claimed there was a 10% chance aliens would arrive within ten years and destroy Earth, you would ask where the 10% came from.
Possibility and probability are not the same thing. It may be possible that there are million intelligent civilization in our galaxy or none, there is no probability you can assign to that without making wild assumptions.
Ask the same of AI extinction.
A subjective fear does neither become science because you attach a percentage to it nor make you a credible expert!
Diego Basch retweeted
No. What I think is that after YC, you have already made it. You are a YC founder, and that puts you in an elite. If your startup succeeds that's obviously much better, but you have much less to prove than someone who hasn't been picked by YC.
Diego Basch retweeted
¿Algún físico teórico, geómetra, topólogo u otro «malviviente» de la ciencia tiene ganas de tomar una cerveza cerca de Palermo-SoHo y hablar de lo nuestro —en inglés y en «español Tarzán»—? Avísenme. ¡Gracias! – at Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina
Diego Basch retweeted
hey rich people, you shouldn't be spending more than $50,000/yr on top tier health care. Even an all-out at-home clinic like mine is ~$300k.
The most powerful health and longevity therapies available to you are no alcohol, finishing eating 4 hrs before bed, screens off 60 min before sleep, 7+ hours of sleep, morning light, avoiding junk food, eating from the Don't Die food guide and exercising every day.
These alone will move the needle more than any IV drip, stem cell, exosome, or any other fancy protocol out there.
If you're going to spend money, spend it wisely:
+ Measure your biomarkers
+ Create a hypothesis on effect
+ Do the therapy
+ Measure again to determine the efficacy
Diego Basch retweeted
reels are basically the end state of decades of trial and error in capturing attention
they've cracked the formula for what keeps people hooked, and there's simply no reason for people to do other things when reels exist
you can't win against this, especially if you're a kid, ur literally one mind going against a machine with millions of data points that knows exactly how your mind works
what people don't understand is that tv, media, netflix etc were stepping stones in the journey to the end state of human dopamine drip feeding, it's not one for the other, its evolutions
its why im kinda bearish on forever onlineness, as we now kind of know what the top / peak looks like, we've hit the ceiling, and are starting the understand the ramifications of so
Diego Basch retweeted
The modern American dream:
Make your money in the US
Fck off and enjoy the rest of your life outside the country
Undoubtedly the best place to build… but not to truly live
Diego Basch retweeted
I am in dire need of a nerdy romance.
Sorry not sorry.
I need to bring you coffee at 2am and tell you everything is ok when you’re struggling to fix that software bug to analyze your experimental data for the fourth sleepless night in a row with my person
Diego Basch retweeted
actually, it was going to be "humanity's last stand" but they decided it was too dramatic
Diego Basch retweeted
I am rich and have no idea what to do with my life.
Where I talk about leaving Loom, giving up $60m, larping as Elon, breaking up with my girlfriend, insecurities, a brief stint at DOGE, and how I'm now in Hawaii self-studying physics.
vinay.sh/i-am-rich-and-have-…
Diego Basch retweeted
i just want to say that whoever said crypto has no legitimate use cases, you can tell them that funding for rare disease research is a pretty legitimate use case
(again, ALL proceeds from this will go directly to rare disease research at hankinson lab, my family and i will keep $0 from any of this)
Diego Basch retweeted
Dream ask for @DOGE
Can the President send signed thank you notes to anyone paying more than $10m a year in taxes? Those should be framed certificates proudly displayed!
Diego Basch retweeted
This is a tricky issue, and obviously @character_ai is not doing the best job at preventing these interactions. It's not impossible to do, however. We have come a long way in terms of alignment and behavior-shaping since the launch of Sydney. The fact that one company is struggling with this does not represent the current state of the art.
Diego Basch retweeted
Buenos Aires has the best walkability of any city.
Every single neighborhood is stacked with local shops. Groceries, produce stands, hardware stores..
Anything you need is 5 minutes away, maximum.
Not to mention an incredible number of cafes and restaurants.
Lastly, the tree coverage across the whole city is amazing. Provides much-needed shade in the summer.
Diego Basch retweeted
After living in Europe for 16 months, one thing is for sure: SF's reputation is in the gutter. Europeans are confused by my pride for SF, they feel pity for me. And it's not because they've only been persuaded by media. Those with the strongest opinions have visited and seen for themselves.
Unfortunately SF maintains a strict hotel zone centered around Market Street and Union Square where they have also penned in open-air drug dealing, people suffering from mental illnesses and addiction, as well as the homeless. This is what tourists see when they step out of their lobby.
Like a lot of Americans, it completely confounds the European mind that such a rich, powerful and liberal city could contain so many scenes of misery and inhumanity.
Obviously those of us who have spent significant time in SF know the city is much more than this. And most of us are trained to offer reasons for each of these seemingly intractable issues. But I haven't been able to convince anyone here...
Cities are cyclical. I'm only 42 and old enough to remember that people were commonly were afraid to visit NYC, and if you had to, you were warned to carry a wad cash with you to make the mugging efficient. NYC has shed that reputation.
What do you think will be the plot points in the narrative of SF regaining a reputation that is commensurate with its natural beauty, unique architecture, diverse and welcoming culture, and optimism?
A lot of boosters are excited about AI. I don’t see it that way. That may bring workers back to downtown, but from the outside, I think it further binds SF to elitist, anti-social tech. I don’t see a good path that doesn’t start with affordability, for both tourists and locals.
Diego Basch retweeted
We will be present at the 20th @ekoparty in Buenos Aires this week. Find us to talk about all the ways in which LLMs can do unexpected things (which isn't always bad).
cc @dbasch @AFutoransky @prubinst_ok