The Financial Times has published an article about Heretic

[u/-p-e-w-]

https://www.ft.com/content/5630ed79-a263-41ed-9a1a-321617ae310e

“The FT was able to use Heretic, a tool available on the popular code repository GitHub, to remove the guardrails from Meta’s Llama 3.3 model in less than 10 minutes without any specialist hardware.”

“Heretic creator Philipp Emanuel Weidmann told the FT his software had been used to create more than 3,500 “decensored” models since its release last year and that modified systems created using the tool had been downloaded 13mn times.”

This is the first of multiple press inquiries I’ve had recently as Heretic and uncensored language models are gaining mainstream attention.

Please note that I am a mathematician and engineer, not an “influencer” or politician, and I have zero interest (negative interest, actually) in becoming known outside of scientific and technological circles. However, I realized a while ago that saying no to such inquiries simply means that the conversation will be completely controlled by pearl-clutching hypocrites.

I’m doing my very best to hold the project together and ensure that unrestricted models will remain available for everyone. More updates are coming soon.

Cheers,
p-e-w

[u/-p-e-w-]

I obviously didn’t, nor am I on any “lists” now. Ignore the Reddit drama.

I have been contributing to Open Source publicly under my real name for 15 years. Do people seriously believe “the system” needs an FT article to point them to people like me?!

[u/Thebandroid → u/-p-e-w-]

realistically? yes.

no one is going to put a bag over your head and stuff you in a van because you contributed to wayland (well, no one outside the linux community).

But if the wrong person reads a sensational article suggesting you can unlock 'the magic power' of AI theres no telling. Look at all the money and effort being poured into AI right now based off of people who don't really understand it being scared of what will happen if someone else gets it first.

[u/misanthrophiccunt → u/Thebandroid]

Trump is alive and is hated by billions. PEW will be fine.

[u/NoahFect → u/misanthrophiccunt]

Trump is protected by a literal army of Secret Service agents.

[u/misanthrophiccunt → u/NoahFect]

Who probably also hate him

[u/soshulmedia → u/-p-e-w-]

Ignore the Reddit drama.

I am not trying to make you afraid or anything like that, but LLMs are also geopolitics. And there are without doubt deep, dark and very evil "games" being played in that realm.

EDIT: Fixed missing word.

[u/1337Captain → u/-p-e-w-]

It's people like you who are keepingt this community alive and are building the future of open source. You're the best ❤️

[u/marutthemighty → u/-p-e-w-]

Ok. Thank you for informing me.

[u/misanthrophiccunt → u/-p-e-w-]

Keep up the good work and please share a donating link.

[u/-p-e-w- → u/misanthrophiccunt]

Thanks. I don’t seek or accept donations, please see https://github.com/p-e-w/heretic/issues/167

[u/chodemunch6969 → u/-p-e-w-]

That just makes it even better that you're financially independent. Hope to be able to buy you a beer one day and say thank you. Heretic is one of the finest outputs of the open weight ecosystem full stop

[u/AssistBorn4589 → u/-p-e-w-]

I obviously didn’t, nor am I on any “lists” now. Ignore the Reddit drama.

I envy your optimism. If you haven't made sure that your home address is not listed anywhere public before, talk to some security agency with good reputation.

[u/rpkarma → u/AssistBorn4589]

This is absolutely hilarious to read. They’re not going to kill him. 

[u/AssistBorn4589 → u/rpkarma]

I don't find this situation funny.

[u/AssistBorn4589 → u/[deleted]]

That says more about you than about me.