Neil Turkewitz
@neilturkewitz.bsky.social
I write mostly about the intersection of tech & art/culture which these days means I spend nearly all my time trying to address the exploitation underlying current AI models. A secular humanist interrogating modern religions.
Wow, this “pro-AI screed” as Holly appropriately calls it hits every nonsensical point on the Defending AI Bingo Card. And silence on the fact that current AI models are the product of exploitation of creators, & that their use contributes to the precarity of authors.
Holly Lyn Walrath@hollylynwalrath.bsky.social · 15h agoThere is a lengthy pro-AI screed in the latest HWA newsletter and it is . . . a mood.
“Developing countries must stop allowing unrestricted data extraction.” Indeed. Allowing tech companies (whether foreign or local) to harvest local cultural production without consent for the purpose of training AI models is a cultural & economic death sentence for developing countries. #Resist
Geopolitical realignment and the Global South AI divide
The international community is finalising frameworks for the UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance, but a stark technological cleavage has emerged. The Global North uses advanced algorithmic systems at ...
mg.co.za
“Today’s epilogue diminishes the gravity of that day, denigrates the work of the prosecutors & law enforcement officers who secured these convictions, & excuses criminal acts that caused a centuries-long pillar of our democracy—the peaceful transfer of presidential power—to buckle.” —Judge Mehta
Judge Pained as He Grants Dismissal of Jan. 6 Charges Against Oath Keepers
The judge, Amit P. Mehta, blasted the administration’s request for a dismissal in the case, saying it bestowed “unearned grace” on the Oath Keepers defendants “by wiping their records clean.”
nytimes.com
“People said we were using an unacceptable amount of power, and with these upgraded facilities that require so much more of it, we’ve shown that we took those criticisms to heart,” said Altman.
Technological Advancements Allow Data Centers To Run On Even More Electricity
SAN FRANCISCO—Hailing rapid developments in the infrastructure needed to support artificial intelligence, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced Tuesday that technological advancements were now allowing data...
theonion.com
“I think a lot of the public backlash to AI isn’t explained by people thinking the technology has no use at all…It’s AI as sort of an avatar for a small group of Silicon Valley billionaires’ ability to impose their vision of the world onto everybody else without their consent.” @jasmine.bsky.social
Opinion | The A.I. Giants Weren’t Prepared for This (Gift Article)
Jasmine Sun, a writer covering technology, takes us into the backlash against A.I. data centers.
nytimes.com
More cops have been arrested for using flock cameras to stalk women than there are transgender athletes in youth sports.
“Western labs trained their models on vast amounts of scraped public data & IP. But there’s a BIG difference between training on the internet & deliberately extracting a competitor’s finished model through techniques designed to avoid detection.” WTAF? That BIG DIFFERENCE depends on where you sit.
Opinion | This is the real AI divide
Whether a model is open or closed, the more important distinction is whether it was built through innovation or through theft.
wapo.st
“The goal of academic training is not to solve problems as efficiently and quickly as possible, but to develop skills for identifying and dealing with novel problems, which have never been solved before." bsky.app/profile/oliv...
Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ@olivia.science · yesterdayOpen Letter: Stop the Uncritical Adoption of AI Technologies in Academia It's been a year & people tell me they've changed their mind, feel safer now to sign, etc. So I'm sharing it again for them. We're almost at 2k & anybody from anywhere can add their names. openletter.earth/open-letter-...
“Cease normalising the AI hype and the lies which are prevalent in the technology industry's framing of these technologies.” 1/
Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ@olivia.science · yesterdayOpen Letter: Stop the Uncritical Adoption of AI Technologies in Academia It's been a year & people tell me they've changed their mind, feel safer now to sign, etc. So I'm sharing it again for them. We're almost at 2k & anybody from anywhere can add their names. openletter.earth/open-letter-...
“All of the speculation and hype around A.I. is hiding the fact that the technology isn’t just large language models or agents or data centers. It is the backbone of a superstructure that merges regressive politics with unchecked economic power in the guise of technological innovation.”
Opinion | Want to Fight Back Against Big Tech? Start Here. (Gift Article)
A.I. is a political theory. And it is gobbling up our democracy.
nytimes.com
“this original sin, this theft of every creative work ever created, right? Which is this immense wealth transfer from creators & researchers around the world to the biggest tech companies in the history of humanity, that that sense of impunity that they can just take our stuff.” @nytimes.com
‘We’re Anti-Theft’: Why the New York Times Sued OpenAi and Microsoft
wired.com
“In our capacity as academics, perhaps the most radical thing we can do is our job itself. How can anybody in their right mind notice the growing damage to universities & instead of stand against this, facilitate the destruction of expertise, of learning skills, and of academic integrity?”
Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ@olivia.science · 3d agoIf useful, here's my attempt to process my feelings about how I feel sadly kinda — or rather very — sick from all this AI fascist nonsense as an academic. 😶🌫️ I'd be pleased if even one person finds something useful because there's something to be said for processing this all together, so, um, enjoy?
AI folks seem to love defending the unauthorized copying of creative works to train AI by reference to the fact that AI models don’t store content as such, but transform content into a different form. I addressed that notion in this (pre ChatGPT) 2020 essay. medium.com/@nturkewitz_...
“The central challenge in this project was how to introduce this novel technology to the parenting market while transcending the negative connotations of ‘surveillance.’” —A branding consultancy used by Nanit as noted on its website Truly terrifying! @hypervisible.blacksky.app @knibbs.bsky.social
Nanit and Other Baby-Tracking Start-Ups Eye Collecting Even More Data (Gift Article)
Nanit and other start-ups want to track your children through the night — and soon, for much longer than that.
nytimes.com
A month after Air Force Major Jason Watson was arrested on the Capitol steps calling for Trump and Vance’s impeachment, D.C. prosecutors have declined to pursue the criminal charge against him. He still faces action from the Air Force. Stay critical. Stay informed.
“Things that seem like absolute bedrocks, or even axioms of political thought, can cease to exist.” Like the rule of law in America. Peaceful transfer of power. An independent judiciary. Seemingly stable institutions depend on good faith. Without it, they crumble. There’s a lesson hidden here, no?
Kate from Kharkiv@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social · 4d agoSo it's really striking that all that's solid really can melt into air. The things that seem like absolute bedrocks, or even axioms of political thought, can cease to exist. Breakup of Soviet Union also means that 1990s in Russia happened faster there than here. Time goes faster there than in US.
In light of Trump’s recent (and unintentionally hilarious) comments about being the most abused person in American history, I give you this:
Trump says who he would REINCARNATE as 😂💀
YouTube video by Jake Paul
youtu.be
Individual sovereignty is extremely attractive to those with power. It is less liberating for most of us. Great thread from @jennycohn.bsky.social. These folks are selling a form of freedom that works only for wolves.
Jenny Cohn@jennycohn.bsky.social · 4d agoPeter Thiel has promoted the Sovereign Individual, which says that the shift from “mass democracy” to “individual sovereignty” can happen “invisibly” (and without a shift in public opinion) via tax-free zones & free ports & that the power of nation states will eventually splinter into fragments. 1/
Thanks for sharing. This is why I get so annoyed and angry when I see LIBRARIES launching "AI literacy" programs — sometimes in COLLABORATION with Big Tech 😡 — to address the supposed "digital divide" of "AI access." This isn't an "if you teach a man to fish..." situation; it's PRINCIPLED REFUSAL!
I appreciate this thread, but I feel like you've missed an even more significant dynamic, which is that by using AI as a science communicator, you are risking your audience losing trust not just in you but in science communication more broadly. And that has devastating societal fallout.
“If the D.A. truly believes that exposing bigotry is a personal agenda rather than the duty of every sworn peace officer, we have a profound crisis of leadership. It’s not just terrifying, it is a clear and calculated message.”
Officer Charged With Violating Privacy for Recording Colleagues’ Racism
The charges stem from recordings that Daniel Flores made over the course of 2024, when he was working in a Los Angeles police unit that recruited new officers.
nytimes.com
Wow, the narrative arc of tech VC, to DOGE, to Polymarket is pretty terrifying. That’s an arc that doesn’t bend towards justice, that’s for sure!
Kate Knibbs@knibbs.bsky.social · 6d agoNEW: there are at least *two* DOGE alums in high places in prediction markets. In addition to Elie Mishory at Novig, ex-DOGEr Jonathan Mendelson is a Polymarket exec: www.wired.com/story/doge-v...
Four former FCC chairs — including Reagan’s and Dubya’s own appointees — just called the FCC’s review of ABC’s licenses “an assault on free speech disguised as regulatory process.” Carr ordered the review one day after Trump demanded Jimmy Kimmel be fired. A #SheShed 🧵
Former FCC Chairs Call Review Of ABC Licenses "An Assault On Free Speech"
The former agency officials signed on to a filing attacking the early renewal process ordered by the Trump administration.
deadline.com
