ABrockwell @aebrockwell@social.cleverlibre.org

I posted a rant about how annoying virtually everything "AI" is (call directors, roombas, LLMs advertised as though they said true things...).

https://ceoln.wordpress.com/2023/03/04/ai-is-terrible-at-almost-everything-a-rant/

#AI #LLM #roomba #intuit #rant

One cool thing about #JonStewart going viral again for another basic, research-grounded interview with a genuinely malice-driven "traditional-values" neo-Nazi cretin is that it gives 98% of journalists another 101 lesson in the actual good work they could do if they didn't have to worry about "losing access" to disingenuous shitsacks they 100% know to be lying in order to make America a shittier, more violent reactionary cesspit than it already is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCuIxIJBfCY

What is consciousness? What is intelligence?

Over the millennia the ink spilled on these two words have produced more smoke than mirrors making all the sturm and drang and pearl clutching and about “artificial intelligence” so incredibly laughable. AI has truly put the “hype” in hyperventilation.

Please read this slightly older opinion that makes the case.

https://science.thewire.in/economy/tech/ambitious-predictions-about-the-future-powers-of-computers-keep-flopping-why/

@aebrockwell

We provide a csv file of fediblock that one can import to block this servers rather quickly. See here if you'd like to use it.

But yes if your getting harassed, report it or we can act.

https://qoto.org/@freemo/109303687938265107

@peterdrake

Has anyone seen this organized anti-trans campaign? I've been seeing a bunch of posts with:

- An anime girl avatar
- A short, violently anti-trans message
- A huge list of unrelated hashtags (which is why I'm seeing them)
- A video

I block the instances as I see them, but that doesn't help much as each seems to come from a new instance.

What defense does Mastodon have against such an attack? The only tactic I can think of is pre-screening instances before federating with them, which would be a problem for all small instances.

#ThisIsWhyWeCantHaveNiceThings

Here is your must-read article for the day, a profile of @emilymbender, and her efforts to deflate the ridiculous hype around large language models such as ChatGPT.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/ai-artificial-intelligence-chatbots-emily-m-bender.html

The reason TikTok is such a threat is because it's not a Chinese platform, it's a global platform controlled by China. Theoretically at any point China could use it to drag foreign users into their sphere of influence. Twitter was a threat for the exact same reason. The difference being it's not a theoretical future problem. Its owner is already actively spreading Russian propaganda, amplifying fascists talking points, and openly admitted to manipulating the algorithm for his own personal gain. You currently have hundreds of millions of international users under the influence of a far-right pro-Russian Autocrat. If I was in charge of banning social media platforms for national security reasons I'd be watching TikTok very very closely, but I'd be holding a Defcon1 five alarm 5 meeting about banning Twitter right now.

Encouraging all supporters of #highered to take a stand against authoritarians dictating who can teach at public universities and what they can teach. Please consider signing this joint statement by the American Association of University Professors, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Coalition Against Censorship:
https://actionnetwork.org/forms/florida-bill-would-destroy-higher-education-as-we-know-it/

#StopHB999 #academia @academicchatter @academicsunite

The Fox "News" documents show a network that inhabits a funhouse non-reality that it created and cannot escape. They've warped people's minds so much that they must play along with blatant lies because otherwise they'll lose viewers who are delusional *because* of their own programs. What a dystopian mess.

"People have been anthropomorphizing AI at least since ELIZA in the 1960s, but the new Bing chatbot seems to have kicked things up a notch.

This matters, because anthropomorphizing #AI is dangerous" #ChatGPT #bingchat #generativeai
https://open.substack.com/pub/aisnakeoil/p/people-keep-anthropomorphizing-ai?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

When I was a boy, I watched all kinds of science fiction the science in which would make me cringe now. (Not to mention writing, acting, special effects ... ) Bad science alone pulls me out of the story and annoys me now. But I sure did enjoy sf on the screen a lot more then. I miss that boyish purity of escape.

Put this up on Twitter over the weekend, but I guess it should go here, too:

Okay, I read it so you don't have to. Here's a reaction thread to OpenAI / Sam Altman's blog post from Friday "Planning for AGI and beyond":

https://openai.com/blog/planning-for-agi-and-beyond/

From the get-go this is just gross. They think they are really in the business of developing/shaping "AGI". And they think they are positioned to decide what "benefits all of humanity".

>>

I love this piece! My favorite advice from it: “Keep an up-to-date and working bullshit detector somewhere handy – you will need it many times” 😂

‘Keep your eyes open – and leap into the future’: 100 centenarians’ 100 tips for a life well lived | #Ageing | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/feb/18/100-centenarians-100-tips-for-a-life-well-lived

This idea that somehow search engines _can_ arbitrate "truth" is just so… not how any of this works or could even conceivably work.

The reason that search engines "backstop" with wikipedia is because wikipedia is a giant curated and mostly-audience-appropriate collection of knowledge.

Knowing what is "true" is so incredibly nontrivial.

The more I think about generative AI, the more I realize the importance of editors in the future. We assumed that information gatekeepers were a problem the internet was solving but in a new age of content floods, proper gatekeepers who vet whether information is true or not are going to be worth their weight in gold.

That is, the very people in charge of building #ChatGPT want to believe SO BADLY that they are gods, creating thinking entities, that they have lost all perspective about what a text synthesis machine actually is.

I wish I could just laugh at this, but it's problematic because these people living in a fantasy world are also influencing policy decisions while also stirring up the current #AIhype frenzy, which also makes it more difficult to design and pass effective policy.

On this one year anniversary of the war in Ukraine, let us call out and condemn the apologists and cowards who would give Putin free reign to invade and destroy other free nations and to slaughter their citizens.

They are on our some of our “news” networks and even in the halls of Congress. They are a threat to liberty, freedom and democracy for all of us.

This war must be won on the home front, too. We must continue military aid until the war is won.

Never back down! Slava Ukraini! 🇺🇦

Florida’s bill to “reform” #highed is right out of a fascist playbook. Attacks on education are attacks on democracy.

“House Bill 999 proposes leaving all faculty hiring to boards of trustees, allowing a faculty member’s tenure to be reviewed “at any time,” and removing majors or minors in subjects like critical race theory and gender studies. It would also prohibit spending on activities that promote diversity, equity and inclusion and create new general education requirements.”

#law

Why to bother learning how to play the guitar while your favorite band can perform better than you?

#ai #ChatGPT

The tragedy of a civilization obsessed with automation, productivity and efficiency, instead of of focusing on what really matters:

Creativity, pleasure and meaning.