ceoln @ceoln@social.cleverlibre.org

Couple years back I wrote an article for Wired arguing that AI-generated text had far greater potential for undetectable, persuasive propaganda than a deepfaked video. Now that the technology is democratized and low-cost, empirical studies seem to be bearing out that theory. This NPR piece covers 2 very interesting papers:

http://npr.org/2023/06/29/1183684732/ai-generated-text-is-hard-to-spot-it-could-play-a-big-role-in-the-2024-campaign

#digitalart Messing around with #AI via #Midjourney... An awesome Art Nouveau town next to the sea.

CNC milling a PCB 🧙‍♂️

Courtesy of https://www.reddit.com/user/skrglywtts

A really brilliant article with outstanding video clips

How to sign ‘gay’ or ‘queer’? American Sign Language users don’t agree.

Finding a visual way to represent an inner identity can be complicated, and the Deaf community hasn’t reached consensus on many signs.

#Language #ASL #LGBTQ #Gay #Lesbian #Queer

(gift article)
https://wapo.st/3raDpHl

ChatGPT detection and algorithmic bias:

Today James Zou told me directed me to a recent pilot study from his group in which they looked at the performance of seven different GPT-detectors that are sometimes used to flag cheating in educational settings.

They found that these detectors commonly misclassify text from non-native English speakers as being written by an AI. A primary driver appears to be the lower perplexity (exponent of model's loss) of such text.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.02819

"I'd hate to see
a bright young
fellow like
you throw
away your
future for a job"

Köln, Universitätsviertel

AI image generators like DALL-E and Stable Diffusion have received a ton of hype over the past year, but what do they mean for artists?

On #TechWontSaveUs, I spoke with Molly Crabapple about how the generators are a threat to illustrators’ careers, and how they serve to disempower labor like so many supposed innovations before them. They should be opposed.

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1004689/13124065-why-ai-is-a-threat-to-artists-w-molly-crabapple

#tech #ai #dalle #aiart #midjourney

mind your own business — not everything is about you, Cheryl

Found something remarkable (and also quite sad).

In 1997, Wired published "The Long Boom", a hyper-optimistic article about how we'd achieve Utopia by 2020.

The authors included notes on some "scenario spoilers"—negative events that might send is in a worse direction.

...and those spoilers turned out to be almost spookily accurate.

https://www.wired.com/1997/07/longboom/

To Be Continued! Just realized I should hashtag this thread too: #ThePushcartWar
Also, my new book THE MIMICKING OF KNOWN SUCCESSES comes out tomorrow!!! It is fun and genre-bending and getting great reviews, please ask your fave indie bookstore and/or library for a copy!

Industry propaganda disguised as community paper and pushed by industry funds -> mainstream news covering an entirely invented "menace."
Sound familiar?

I'm rereading The Pushcart War for reasons and am reminded again how it is not only science-fiction (set in the future!) and formally inventive, but also is a manual for collective action, resistance, protest, that is very relevant today. So here's a thread:

Steam mods reportedly blocking games that use AI-generated artwork

Valve cites unclear legal status, copyrighted training data in rejection message.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/06/steam-mods-reportedly-blocking-games-that-use-ai-generated-artwork/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

LetMeSpy, an #Android phone monitoring app, suffers a major security breach, compromising sensitive data of thousands. Personal information, messages, and more accessed by unauthorized third-party.

https://thehackernews.com/2023/06/android-spy-app-letmespy-suffers-major.html

#cybersecurity #malware #privacy

This is awesome -- a site that tracks end-of-life for many major software products... Great way for the IT/security team to stay on top of software life cycles.

https://endoflife.date/

This young hawk has been making a racket in the pine for weeks, I hope it’s planning on moving out soon 🙄

The media is tripping over itself because Pres. Biden wears a CPAP machine. Meanwhile, Mitch McConnell randomly shows up to work with purple bruises all over his face and the former guy nearly died when he got COVID, and Clarence Thomas was hospitalized for several days within the last year. The absence of editorial perspective is contributing to the destruction of American democracy

Nearly 6pm. You know what time that is? It's crime time.

Orcas attacking yachts.

Sharks cutting undersea cables.

Sea lions using plastic explosives to demolish bridges.

Dolphins hacking into the mainframes of international fisheries.

This is your periodic reminder that, unless you buy and download the music you love, it will absolutely disappear out from under you at some point.

I failed to heed my own advice! This album is pretty obscure, sure, but now it's grayed out on Apple Music, and totally gone from the iTunes Store, so too late there. Bummer.