We already see this within algorithmically managed workplaces. In Cyberboss I call it managerial distantiation; all the while employees and supervisors are actively told to "just trust the system".
Craig Gent
@vivaharehills.bsky.social
Author of CYBERBOSS. Work at LSE. Part of StreamArtNetwork. Critical algorithm studies, livestreaming, solidarity, labour, hybrid media. Co-host Heart Reacts. Previously Novara Media. http://c-gent.net/ https://shop.novaramedia.com/products/cyberboss
"when you design these systems, you're building a pinball machine for words, with different levers interacting to bounce the steel ball of language moving against other levers and mechanisms…you have to be aware of how your levers interact with each other and the people pulling them" Great metaphor
Models Don't Go Rogue
Stochastic Flocks & Cybersecurity 'Pandemonium' 💡This essay was drafted from my appearance on Mél Hogan's podcast, The Data Fix, discussing the OpenAI / Hugging Face hack. Embedded below or find it o...
mail.cyberneticforests.com
The "AI" could XX & hack XXX, well that's called creating a virus, if you create a virus yes you can use your virus to hack XXX. That's not because its "super intelligent" its because you created a virus which you shouldn't be allowed to do.
Every half-ass plan for our extinction that they provide just turns me on. No internet, you say? No online banking?? No 2FA to use the bathroom at my job??? Baby I was a latchkey kid in the 1980s. You’re describing my platonic ideal. Extinct me.
Ben Collins@bencollins.bsky.social · 5d agoOnce again, there's a reason they won't spell out how we'd go extinct. Are we getting Jurassic Park'd because the AI is reinventing dinosaurs? Are they getting access to the nuclear codes and hypnotizing the president into using them? They are referring to bank/infrastructure hacks and exaggerating.
This is why we had a whole open access movement. You can't leave this stuff up to the good will of organisations who may take access away at a moment's notice.
emily sunshine@threnody.northsky.social · 2w ago“we have chosen to cut services for heavy users because, bitch, you had it worse before the plague that very briefly brought people together & improved access to many things for everyone—so don’t complain, it could be worse” is absolute fucking bullshit.
“I will now focus on other things and that will be international affairs including defence, security, trade and technology in a fast-changing world.” Which of the multinational death-cult companies is your money on?
Financial Times@financialtimes.com · 2w agoBreaking news: Keir Starmer has announced he is stepping down as an MP, just weeks after resigning as prime minister. ft.trib.al/XWzO8OO
This is the letter kids got at the end of Dolly’s Imagination Library. I defy you to read this and not cry.
New Heart Reacts in your podcast feed, in which @sarahljaffe.bsky.social and I talk men, masculinity, the World Cup and feeling sexy 👇 www.patreon.com/HeartReacts/...
Episode 43: Looking at Men | Heart Reacts
Welcome to HEART REACTS, an advice podcast for all of us trying to remain emotionally functional through the collapse of late capitalism. T
patreon.com
A24 is issuing takedowns for all sorts of backrooms content on social media, as well as merch elsewhere right now, that have nothing to do with the movie. I feel like a lot of people were afraid this would happen. They just... own the backrooms concept now I guess. Frustrating
In an excerpt in @wired.com, the authors of "Inventing ELIZA: How the First Chatbot Shaped the Future of AI" examine one of ELIZA’s earliest interactions and how it laid the groundwork for human relationships with computers for decades to come. www.wired.com/story/invent...
The Chatbot That Foretold Why People Share Secrets With ChatGPT
In the 1960s an MIT professor named Joseph Weizenbaum created a chatbot called ELIZA. The conversations people had with it set precedents for the chatbots to come.
wired.com
Exclusive: Vice-chancellor George Holmes among those arrested on suspicion of fraud. It marks an unprecedented moment in British higher education - the first time a university vice-chancellor has ever been arrested in the UK as part of a criminal investigation. manchestermill.co.uk/exclusive-vi...
Exclusive: Vice-chancellor George Holmes among those arrested on suspicion of fraud
The Mill understands the suspended university leader was held for questioning on Wednesday - along with his wife and a colleague
manchestermill.co.uk
there is infinite money for weapons, non-educator vice chancellors of nothingness, and tech-grift corporate welfare but zero money for teachers, libraries, tuition
profchander@profchander.bsky.social · 2mo agoi quit.
Excellent educators and researchers at the University of Exeter are at risk of redundancy. c.150 job roles will be cut across Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences, Climate Science and more. Please share & sign the petition here: www.change.org/p/stop-redun... @exeterucu.bsky.social #DefendExeterUni
Sign the Petition
Stop Redundancies at the University of Exeter
change.org
Ends today!
Craig Gent@vivaharehills.bsky.social · 3mo agoGreat 40/60%-off sale on tech-related books at @versobooks.bsky.social right now. Would readily recommend the titles by @doctorow.pluralistic.net, Georgina Walsh, @parismarx.com, Joanna Walsh and @abenanav.bsky.social. (And, of course, Cyberboss - by yours truly) www.versobooks.com/en-gb/blogs/...
All new Heart Reacts, in which @sarahljaffe.bsky.social and I talk about turning loved ones into NPCs and keeping the flame of communal living alive. www.patreon.com/HeartReacts/... or wherever you listen
Great 40/60%-off sale on tech-related books at @versobooks.bsky.social right now. Would readily recommend the titles by @doctorow.pluralistic.net, Georgina Walsh, @parismarx.com, Joanna Walsh and @abenanav.bsky.social. (And, of course, Cyberboss - by yours truly) www.versobooks.com/en-gb/blogs/...
Announcing: the Verso Books Tech Sale
Through the end of the month, take 40% off select titles on tech, AI, and automation. Ebooks site-wide are 60% off.
versobooks.com
“Artificial intelligence” is often neither artificial nor intelligent. In a 2024 conversation with @vivaharehills.bsky.social and @jamesmuldoon.bsky.social, @sarahljaffe.bsky.social looked at the workers, supply chains and colonial histories Silicon Valley would rather keep hidden.
The Hidden Human Labor Behind AI
A discussion with Craig Gent and James Muldoon about the colonial history of tech infrastructure, its human and environmental costs, and how workers around the world are fighting back.
inthesetimes.com
We’ve now had two nights of violence in Belfast and yet almost nobody talking about loyalist paramilitaries, the marching season etc Look at where violence is. These are very particular parts of Belfast And yet hear more about ‘Protestants and catholics coming together against migrants’ than this
Currently on a massive Luther Vandross kick. If it's been a while for you then I highly recommend it. Pure delight.
starting a list of actual problems actual coders could tackle to make modest but real improvements in work n life mac mail search that actually works scamproofing that isn't freakin' 2 factor for a restaurant res citation format conversion generator reliable synching of bluetooth devices
Benjamin McKean@blmckean.bsky.social · 10mo agoProposal: instead of pouring resources into AI, tech companies first figure out a way for people to be able to copy slides from one PowerPoint presentation to another without the formatting getting all fucked up
Special episode! For our FOURTIETH edition, a crossover with the good people of @thebristolcable.bsky.social! Find it where you get podcasts 🔊
"If these hatreds rise together, feeding on conspiracy theories and the politics of fear, they cannot be defeated apart," writes @open-society.bsky.social's @nowrojeeosf.bsky.social in a must-read op-ed on how anti-Muslim hate and antisemitism are twin crises that must be confronted together.
Anti-Muslim hate and antisemitism are twin crises. We must confront them together | Binairfer Nowrojee
The two hatreds have rarely been seen as related dangers. But they overlap even as Muslim and Jewish communities are pitted against each other
theguardian.com
This time on Heart Reacts we take a letter about a friend who has all the right words but never follows through. Find it wherever you get your podcasts or at patreon.com/heartreacts
All new Heart Reacts, in which we talk friend heartbreak and Dougie MacLean, among other things, and I contribute the episode title in hilaaaaarious fashion 😇 www.patreon.com/posts/157964...
Episode 39: All Talk and No Trousers | Heart Reacts
Episode 39: All Talk and No Trousers by Heart Reacts on Patreon. Join Heart Reacts's community for exclusive content and updates.
patreon.com
This Thursday, Convivial Code: The Politics and Pedagogies of Vibe Coding - a CIM × CDI collab with keynote from David Berry, responses from Janna Joceli Omena and Bernhard Rieder. Livestreaming on May 14, 11:00-13:00 BST: 🎥 www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJkP...
Big tech corporations have finally figured out who is to blame for their crappy products: science fiction writers.
You can currently get 20% off CYBERBOSS on the @versobooks.bsky.social website in celebration of May Day 🚩 Offer ends 10 May and the discount rises to 40% for orders of 4 books or more... www.versobooks.com/en-gb/produc...
Cyberboss
Across the world, algorithms are changing the nature of work. Nowhere is this clearer than in the logistics and distribution sectors, where workers are instructed, tracked and monitored by increasingl...
versobooks.com