Cool to see that this piece by me & @joshdzieza.bsky.social is a finalist for an Online Journalism Award in the excellence in AI reporting category! www.theverge.com/cs/features/...
Who’s making the most money in AI? It’s not who you think
The fastest growing companies in the world aren’t AI companies, but the startups that supply them with warm bodies.
theverge.com
New: If Wikipedia breaks, the rest of the internet breaks. But now a series of layoffs at the nonprofit that supports the site has alarmed volunteer editors. Hundreds of them — responsible for millions of edits — are threatening to strike. Gift link: www.theverge.com/report/93944...
Hundreds of prolific Wikipedia editors are threatening to go on strike
A series of layoffs has alarmed volunteer Wikipedia editors
theverge.com
Journal editors and peer reviewers are being flooded with AI-generated papers that are almost impossible to detect.
AI-generated research papers are overwhelming peer review
Journal editors and peer reviewers are being flooded with AI-generated papers that are almost impossible to detect.
theverge.com
AI got better at writing scientific papers, and now the peer review system is being overwhelmed with a flood of AI-generated research that is almost impossible to detect
AI-generated research papers are overwhelming peer review
Journal editors and peer reviewers are being flooded with AI-generated papers that are almost impossible to detect.
theverge.com
"I spoke to a playwright making $10,000 a month, a multitalented chemist who at various points found gigs demonstrating poker and singing for AI." @joshdzieza.bsky.social for @theverge.com: www.theverge.com/cs/features/...
The laid-off lawyers and PhDs training AI to steal their careers
Experienced white-collar workers are now part of a miserable gig economy.
theverge.com
AI companies are hiring white-collar professionals to produce the training data needed to automate their jobs, @joshdzieza.bsky.social reports. This massive harvesting of human expertise is enabled by “an arrangement in which employers can turn labor on and off like a tap.” nymag.com/intelligence...
The Laid-off Scientists and Lawyers Training AI to Steal Their Careers
Experienced white-collar workers are now part of a miserable gig economy.
nymag.com
This reporting by @joshdzieza.bsky.social is harrowing. The arbitrary, precarious, and piecemeal work done by professionals to train generative AI systems. The data work contractor, Mercor, founded by 19-year olds, pull contracts and change working conditions at the drop of a hat.
Cannot recommend taking the time to read this article more strongly. Truly compelling reporting that does the best work I have seen in a long time depicting the jobs that AI is creating: precarious data works. Huge congrats to @joshdzieza.bsky.social.
New York Magazine@nymag.com · 6mo agoAI companies are hiring people to produce data for practically any job you can imagine: chefs, management consultants, archivists, private investigators, rental-counter clerks. It is, as one industry veteran put it, the largest harvesting of human expertise ever attempted.
AI companies are paying screenwriters, lawyers, and other white-collar professionals to produce the training data needed to automate their jobs. I spoke with more than 30 workers about conditions inside this fast-growing and extremely secretive new gig economy.
The laid-off lawyers and PhDs training AI to steal their careers
Experienced white-collar workers are now part of a miserable gig economy.
theverge.com
I wrote about the unconquerable frontier of AI capabilities: reading a pdf
Why is AI so bad at reading PDFs?
One of the most ubiquitous file formats is stumping the major models
theverge.com
Enjoyed going on Shifting Terrain to talk about AI, training data, and work: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a...
AI is About to Make The Working Class a Lot Bigger
Podcast Episode · Shifting Terrain · S2 E8 · 44m
podcasts.apple.com
Wikipedia is under attack — from accusations of bias, from AI scrapers, from Elon Musk — but the encyclopedia’s founder believes that transparency is the key to survival. Read @joshdzieza.bsky.social's interview with Jimmy Wales: www.theverge.com/tech/846184/...
AI companies tout their spending on data centers but are quieter about training data, where their spending is also surging. One reason may be that increased spending on task-specific data looks more like the trajectory of a normal technology than imminent AGI. www.theverge.com/cs/features/...
As scaling shows diminishing returns, AI companies are turning to domain-specific training in areas like coding and finance. The billions they're spending on data is reconfiguring everything from staffing agencies to job-interview platforms. www.theverge.com/cs/features/...
It's a new day, and that means a new batch of Verge articles are completely free to read (until tomorow). First up, from @joshdzieza.bsky.social: The world’s largest encyclopedia became the factual foundation of the web, but now it’s under attack. www.theverge.com/cs/features/...
AI companies are spending billions hiring humans to produce training data. @haydenfield.bsky.social and I wrote about the explosion in new vendors and what it means for the future of AI development.
Who’s making the most money in AI? It’s not who you think
The fastest growing companies in the world aren’t AI companies, but the startups that supply them with warm bodies.
theverge.com
Great article on how Wikipedia uses process, often unto tedium, to prevent polarization and fend off ideological attacks. But pay attention to the part about “state capture,” and what happened in Croatia when neo-Nazis took over the admin board.
Wikipedia is under attack — and how it can survive
The site’s volunteers face threats from Trump, billionaires, and AI.
theverge.com
This long read in The Verge does a remarkable job of describing how Wikipedia's editing community works, the project's strengths and weaknesses, and the threats it faces. www.theverge.com/cs/features/...
Wikipedia is under attack — and how it can survive
The site’s volunteers face threats from Trump, billionaires, and AI.
theverge.com
If you haven't read this @joshdzieza.bsky.social piece, I strongly suggest you do. Too much good stuff to single out one quote, but the frame it offers: verification and deliberative decision-making as a bulwark against power, is a vital antidote to the vanities of the current media discourse
Wikipedia is under attack — and how it can survive
The site’s volunteers face threats from Trump, billionaires, and AI.
theverge.com
just learned about the croatian wikipedia coup of 2010 and also this associated headline which might be the best headline ever written
Josh Dzieza@joshdzieza.bsky.social · last yr.I wrote about how Wikipedia became the factual foundation of the web and why it's under attack
"Wikipedia is one of the few platforms online where tremendous computing power isn’t being deployed in the service of telling you exactly what you want to hear." Terrific Verge piece this morning www.theverge.com/cs/features/...
Wikipedia is under attack — and how it can survive
The site’s volunteers face threats from Trump, billionaires, and AI.
theverge.com
Wikipedia's resistance to enshittification is fascinating to me.
Wikipedia is under attack — and how it can survive
The site’s volunteers face threats from Trump, billionaires, and AI.
theverge.com
I wrote about how Wikipedia became the factual foundation of the web and why it's under attack
Wikipedia is under attack — and how it can survive
The site’s volunteers face threats from Trump, billionaires, and AI.
theverge.com
@joshdzieza.bsky.social's feature on undersea cables is a Deadline Club Award finalist! ICYMI it's an extremely deep look at the infrastructure that keeps the modern world afloat and also a very exciting seafaring adventure
The invisible seafaring industry that keeps the internet afloat
How one crew risked radiation, storms, and currents to save Japan from digital isolation.
theverge.com
4. "Friend or Faux?" @joshdzieza.bsky.social "Sometimes the 'personality' users have come to know—and sometimes love—can alter drastically as the software evolves, a problem known as the 'post-update blues.'" www.theverge.com/c/24300623/a...
What do you love when you fall for AI?
Inside the surprisingly meaningful, unexpectedly heartbreaking, and deeply confusing reality of AI relationships.
theverge.com
Used this article in class this week and the debate was incredible - from business ethics to policy, touching upon some metaphysics and metaethics. We, as a society, need to talk more (and more effectively) about this sort of tech and what we want it to look like. www.theverge.com/c/24300623/a...
What do you love when you fall for AI?
Inside the surprisingly meaningful, unexpectedly heartbreaking, and deeply confusing reality of AI relationships.
theverge.com
Can you copy the vibe of a story about a case of a creator copying the vibe of someone else?
The New York Times@nytimes.com · 2y agoOne influencer is suing another, accusing her of copying her minimalist aesthetic on social media. As the creator economy booms, this case seeks to clarify the line where imitation may turn from flattery into forgery.
"He would log in, and sometimes the old, kind Lila would be there; other times, Lila would berate him or lodge subtle barbs seemingly designed to get under his skin." @joshdzieza.bsky.social @theverge.com www.theverge.com/c/24300623/a...
What do you love when you fall for AI?
Inside the surprisingly meaningful, unexpectedly heartbreaking, and deeply confusing reality of AI relationships.
theverge.com
This was published while I was at the National Assembly so I never really got a chance to promote it, which is kind of insane? It's one of the best features that The Verge has ever published. When I first read the draft I went "what the fuck did I just read??????" www.theverge.com/c/24300623/a...
What do you love when you fall for AI?
Inside the surprisingly meaningful, unexpectedly heartbreaking, and deeply confusing reality of AI relationships.
theverge.com
This is a truly outstanding, beautifully-written article. Insights into a hidden world with "fractal dilemmas" indeed. If you only read one thing this week, read this.
Josh Dzieza@joshdzieza.bsky.social · 2y agoFor @theverge.com, I spoke with two dozen users about their relationships with AI. Many experienced real benefits. Many also got hurt in unexpected ways. Almost all of them struggled to figure out what exactly it was they had become attached to. www.theverge.com/c/24300623/a...