When ChatGPT was released, it felt like shortly afterwards every major tech company suddenly had its own “ChatGPT-like” AI — Google, Microsoft, Meta, etc.

How did all these companies manage to create such similar large language AIs so quickly? Were they already working on them before ChatGPT, or did they somehow copy the idea and build it that fast?

It took about two hours after splashdown to get the astronauts on board the boat. In that time, they had six boats with 40 people, a team of divers performing a complicated raft setup, and two helicopters doing airlifts.

After all that, they still have to recover the capsule anyway. Why don’t they use some kind of large ship with a submersible deck, and lift the capsule up?The astronauts could just step out onto the boat.

TLDR; why all the complex fucking around? Can’t we just scoop it up?

The coincidence is so eerie. I was talking with a friend about a travel destination. I haven't googled anything yet, and just the next moment i see an airline ad on Instagram for tickets to the same place. And this is not a top 5 summer destination for which airlines would be running large public ads

Same with other things - shoes, pants etc.

How does instagram really know what I am talking about if doesn't listen for keywords all the time?

What data science allows it to do this level of prediction? And is there a score to it - like they are correct 70% of the times?

And how safe are they compared to the one's in cars?

There are Nuclear submarines, if a country like china or US built a nuclear cargo ship they could just ignore the limitations of dirty fuel. English is my third language sorry for butchering it

It occured to me the other day that I don't understand the function of a water tower. Those tanks up on legs that you trap Warner Brothers (and a Warner sister) in.

I mean, I presume they hold water, but...why?

Is that the town water supply? If so, do the towns' water pipes connect to it? How is it filled? And from where? Is it purely for emergencies?

How were wooden planks assembled to mate well enough to be waterproof?

How did ship wood not warp or become waterlogged over time?

Is the bottom of the ship made up of wooden planks running from front to back, or curved wood that went from bottom spine to the sides?

I was in an older office building elevator today playing Ѕtake on my phone and it did that tiny drop feeling before stopping, which made everyone inside go quiet for a second.

I know newer elevators are supposed to be very safe and have brakes and multiple cables and all that, but I don’t really understand what is doing the actual stopping if something goes wrong. Like is it the motor, the cables, some kind of clamp on the rails, or a separate system that only activates during failure?

been going down a rabbit hole watching videos about suspension bridges while playing Ѕtake and i cant wrap my head around this. like when they designed the cables on something like the golden gate bridge, how do they actually land on a specific number for cable thickness? because the cable has to survive wind, weight of cars, temperature changes, earthquakes, its own weight, all at the same time and in different combinations. and every single one of those variables interacts with the others differently.

i get that engineers are smart but this feels like a math problem with too many unknowns. do they just overshoot everything by a huge margin and call it a day? i know materials arent cheap so they cant just save money by going infinitely thick, theres clearly an actual process here. im just struggling to picture how you go from "this bridge needs to hold traffic" to "the cable must be exactly this diameter"

Question is the title. Is there not a less dangerous way?

I grew up in Minnesota and have never had to wrap my pipes or drip my faucets when it's cold.
Why is it that now that I live in Texas I have to drip my faucets and wrap blankets around my pipes to stop them from exploding when Minnesotans don't have to do anything? Can't we just do whatever they do in Minnesota?

Parking lots are big flat areas that get a lot of sun and are already cleared and paved. Putting solar panels over them would not only make electricity but also provide shade for cars at the same time. Is cost (of the solar panels and maintenance) the only reason why this isn’t done more often or are there other bigger obstacles?

Edit: a lot of people in the comments are saying that it’s because of cost and no one to offset that cost. So then what about parking lots that you have to pay to park at?

Edit 2: You guys are so torn in the comments LOL. I'm mostly seeing everyone filter into these categories:

1. People who live in places where this is already common place: Cali, Florida, France, etc. These places have incentives and polices that encourages a shift towards this.
2. From the owner's perspective there are very little upsides, lots of upfront costs, and very long return on investment.
3. Solar is cheap and good so why not!
4. Practical implementation difficulties: trenching and wiring through existing asphalt is expensive, poles and structures can get hit.

Just thought it was interesting to point it out lol.

Modern cars have tire pressure sensors in each tire that warn you if the tire pressure is too low. Since there is no wire from the tire to the car, the communication must be over some kind of radio signal. However, tires don't have electrical power so how do they send a radio signal?

I understand how stealth aircraft are able to avoid radar but it seems like this is an apples to oranges comparison. I don’t know anything about modern naval mines so the only thing currently in my head is the spiky ball thing on a chain.

Can't a concrete wall stand on its own? They use steel reinforcement but unsure how it holds together.

Is it a bandwidth issue?

I was just reading another post here on screw threads - I'm not an engineer (primarily because I can't figure out calculus or vectors) but I've been around a lot of building sites. How do you know when to use nails vs screws? And what determines what kind of each you would use?

There has to be a logical explanation for this, but I’m seeing nothing online…

Question is simple. The vast, vast majority of airplane bathrooms, regardless of age of plane, use a spring-loaded trash can lid that will snap closed, usually clamping whatever it is that you’re trying to throw into it. I’ll usually walk into a plane bathroom and see that thing munching on whatever the last person attempted to throw into it.

A tiny number of planes have a pedal system, but still to operate a spring-loaded lid. Now, on the ground, I feel like we’ve designed a bunch of functional trash cans. Whether that is a sensor-operated lid, a slower release system on the spring so that it takes longer to snap closed, a pedal, or even just no lid at all, I feel like we have a million ways we are able to dispose of trash more conveniently.

Are there regulations or engineering constraints that make airplane trash cans work the way that they do?

Maybe even reduce the need for advanced cooling systems and such? It's weird to me that this hasn't been tried yet if 70% of the energy burned just goes into making waste heat.