My first long-form video is up: Myths Around AI and Productivity! Based on the work we’ve been doing at @dairinstitute.bsky.social with The Luddite Lab, we dispel 5 common myths around AI and labor by looking at what studies actually say about AI’s impact on labor. youtu.be/3BO0iy91lfU

Myths Around AI and Labor

YouTube video by Dr. Alex Hanna

youtu.be

People who continue to pursue a technology under these circumstances are either massive liars or truly believe this and are persisting anyway, and either way they are rotten people who should be removed from all forms of power and access.

Christiaan Triebert@trbrtc.bsky.social · last wk.

Meanwhile on X, from Evan Hubinger, who leads the Alignment Science team at Anthropic.

If a chemical is only supposed to dissolve one thing but dissolves everything, we don't say, "OMG, the chemical has gained a higher intelligence and hates everything and now wants to destroy the world! WHAT DO WE DO?" We say, "This company made a dangerous product that needs to be discontinued."

@whysharksmatter.bsky.social I gave my friend a pocket field guide and we started reading a bunch of different types of sharks. Do you know why a bunch of sharks are just named after other creatures? Like dogfish shark, crocodile shark, cow shark, frog shark, zebra bullhead shark, big-eye sandtiger?

NEW: Flock has said for years its cameras don’t identify or track people. We obtained the code for its police AI and rebuilt parts of it. The tool can find witnesses, surface associates, search people by race or physical description, and flag vehicles by how they move. W/ @dell.bsky.social

Flock Has a Powerful New AI Tool for Police. We Got Its Code

Flock’s surveillance cameras have already sparked outrage. WIRED reconstructed its next-generation AI system, already in use by some police, to confirm it goes much further than tracking license plate...

wired.com

STORIES FROM GAZA: ENGINEERING EDUCATION CANNOT BE APOLITICAL By Fady Alalami, Nada Alrayyes, and Robyn Mae Paul. Gaza University, Gaza, Palestine ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/PC...

AGREED. I can’t understand why there hasn’t been any real innovation in all of those areas since the pandemic began. 3M *still* doesn’t produce Auras in black, despite years of outcry from folks. Why do you think this is? It’s not like companies like 3M are lacking in funding?

"Study links long COVID-19 to surge in new chronic illnesses in Estonia" A study of 210,000 Estonians found a two-way link between Long COVID and chronic illness. Asthma, diabetes and kidney disease increased Long COVID risk, while Long COVID was linked to more sleep apnea, heart and thyroid issues

Study links long COVID-19 to surge in new chronic illnesses in Estonia

A new study based on data from Estonian residents shows that long COVID and chronic illnesses have a direct two‑way connection. Existing chronic diseases prolong COVID symptoms, which in turn paves th...

news.err.ee

Not a single prompt can change the fact that these technologies destruct the environment and our institutions, concentrate power in the hands of a few technofacists, further marginalize already minoritizes communities and invisibilize the human labor and toxic supply chain that sustain the industry

“When you submit to be surveilled, what you are doing is handing over a copious amount of power. So you’d better be very, very sure you can trust the people you hand it to—and even if you do, can you trust their successors, five or ten years from now?”

“AI-Powered” Surveillance Networks are Worse Than You Know

In New Orleans, everyone is being watched with facial recognition cameras and police drones—and your hometown might be next.

currentaffairs.org

Once again, @wolven.blacksky.app's work about magic and AI is vital. It's not just "robo-butler" they want, it's Bound Entity enslaved to master's will, serving their interests over and excluding its own. In such a cosmovision, the magician is empowered by God, and thus becomes God.

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · last mo.

I tried to read it, but one of the first tenets is promising everyone a magic being that will grant all their wishes.

Relatedly, any organization that claims to be taking a "human-centered" approach, but is only asking "How do we use [whatever tech] responsibly?" and not "Should we use [tech] at all" is in fact centering the tech, and not the people. >>

This is great to see - as someone who works in comms, we need more campaigns like this! 👏🏼 We need to rebrand masks as being chic symbols of empowerment against both wildfire smoke & airborne viruses, not symbols of weakness or fear

California Department of Public Health@capublichealth.bsky.social · last mo.

Being kinda chic is subjective, but COVID-19 doesn't care. - it's kinda chic to keep up with your vaccines - it's kinda chic to wear a mask in crowded indoor public places - it's kinda chic to cover your cough or sneeze Schedule an appointment at myturn.cdph.ca.gov

Yup. I think this fits their trajectory, indeed. Part of a wider attempt at claiming that we should just find ways to use these "tools" through some pragmatic acceptance. See: doi.org/10.5281/zeno... bsky.app/profile/oliv...

Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ@olivia.science · 2mo ago

Anyway, back to the work itself (from the abstract): > Critical discourse on large language models (LLMs) has bifurcated between epistemic dismissal [...] and pragmatic accommodation that treats LLM capability improvements as grounds for updating the critique. doi.org/10.5281/zeno... 3/

This is one of the most catastrophic developments imaginable for US media and the country. I don’t even have the words for it.

Federal Communications Commission scraps limit on broadcast TV ownership

The move sets the stage for more corporate consolidation in the media industry.

nbcnews.com

Rahawa Haile@rahawahaile.bsky.social · 3y ago

A fun fact about me is that I have a degree in telecommunication and will die on the hill that media—all of it—has never recovered from the deregulation and consolidation made possible by the Telecom Act of 1996. Don’t get me started on what it did to minority-owned radio and TV stations.

At libraries around the country, "Avoiding AI" workshops have elicited unprecedented demand.

Librarians are hosting viral 'Avoiding AI' workshops for people who are fed up with Big Tech | TechCrunch

At libraries around the country, "Avoiding AI" workshops have elicited unprecedented demand.

techcrunch.com

Someone in DC set up a “little free blockbuster” with DVDs inside instead of books lol

“A.I. Movies” www.tiktok.com/@americanbar...

I’m putting together a 20 min training on accessibility in presentations for scientists. If you have any tips/resources you love please feel free to share!

This morning in Biddeford, Maine, a 26-year-old man said goodbye to his wife and daughter and left for work. Moments later he was dead, shot in the head by ICE agents, the second man ICE has killed in six days. ICE is killing our neighbors. ICE cannot be reformed. Abolish ICE.

Live from Hadrian’s Library, it’s “Disability Washing & Surveillance Tech!” I had a most interesting exchange today with the artist @gadzooksbazooka.bsky.social (notice new backgrounds in my short films)

No matter how hard I try, my Elvis impersonation will always be more Johnny Bravo than Elvis.

Following the Madison Square Garden facial recognition debaucal? Tell all your favorite artists to sign this pledge to boycott venues that use facial recognition (they'll be in good company! Rage Against the Machine, Deerhoof, Mannequin Pussy already signed) banfacialrecognition.com/venues

Ban Facial Recognition at Live Events

Artists and venues take the pledge: no facial recognition at shows.

banfacialrecognition.com

The reception of my talk at DDD Europe yesterday, critical of DDD and of the field of software development in general, was truly magical and heartwarming! Hope there will be a recording online soon!!

Jaap Coomans@jaapcoomans.nl · 3mo ago

@felienne.bsky.social closing keynote at @dddeu.bsky.social blew me away. First time ever I witnessed a minutes long standing ovation after a talk at a tech conference. She painfully exposed what is wrong in the software industry through her personal story. #dddeu

Our statement on the UK gov't's demand that all content on all devices sold or used in the UK be scanned, on the presumption of nudity, using a dystopian combination of age verification & content scanning. This proposal will not safeguard children. It endangers us all. signal.org/blog/pdfs/20...

So, even though the data privacy bill just passed the Massachusetts House, keep calling and emailing your MA lawmakers and tell them you want them to adopt the strongest possible language, and resist efforts by industry lobbyists to water down this otherwise rad legislation. FFTF.link/madataprivacy

Location Shield Act & MDPA

fftf.link

Oh hell yeah @amnesty.org comes out swinging: "Amnesty International finds that standalone generative AI systems... are fundamentally incompatible with IHRL. As such, Amnesty International is calling for a prohibition of such systems." www.amnesty.org/en/documents...

Here's the serious bit for anyone who'd rather skip the 4000 words of jokes