Sasha Akhavi @sakhavi@social.cleverlibre.org
Reasonably happy almost all the time, somehow. Extremely lucky father & husband; 20+ year software veteran / exec now studying the software industry as Ph.D @York University Science and Technology Studies. Blog at https://sakhavi.wordpress.com
Joined Oct 2022
If you’re in Canada and want to talk to someone who ditched their #fossilbanks for a credit union, hmu
From: @greenpeaceca
https://bird.makeup/users/greenpeaceca/statuses/1670845213013622784
Sasha Akhavi
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Don't take the bait! Debating someone with zero credibility or validity only helps them to gain status and spread lies.
By trying to negate their false ideas, you'll end up activating them. They win by making the difference between lies and truth seem like a matter of opinion.
Sasha Akhavi
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"Reddit represents one of the largest data sets of just human beings talking about interesting things," Huffman said. "We are not in the business of giving that away for free."
You and me, we're just data sets. Years of interaction with fellow human beings, building community, sharing insight and creativity…it’s all just data. Data to be mined and monetized.
Huffman's not mad Reddit was scraped for a chatbot. He's mad he wasn't paid for the privilege. It's his data, you see. His. Not yours.
Sasha Akhavi
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A key part of the enshitification cycle is when a platform permanently takes away user value for itself. Examples include Amazon & Google deciding ads were more important to show as top results and Twitter going to war with 3rd party clients in 2012.
Reddit crosses that line this year.
Sasha Akhavi
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This is beyond chilling.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott bans DEI offices in public colleges, universities https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2023/06/15/texas-gov-greg-abbott-signs-ban-on-dei-offices-in-public-universities/70327387007/ #HigherEd
Sasha Akhavi
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Integrating a chatbot w no connection to truth into search, a service people use to learn new info, is a wretchedly bad call that will likely have serious consequences.
IMO we'll look back at this moment with the same cringe we now reserve for NFTs.
Sasha Akhavi
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I give EU regulators a hard time for being too conservative in tech regulation but I’ll always give them credit for at least understanding the problem space.
The real AI risk is discriminatory algorithms not Skynet becoming self aware and dropping nukes.
US regulators on the other hand are either mouthpieces of lobbyists or regurgitating viral tweets
Some actually epic analysis here from Emily Tucker.
From: @justinhendrix
https://mastodon.social/@justinhendrix/110542856232383897
Sasha Akhavi
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Trump indictment casts shadow over Biden presidency.
Sasha Akhavi
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The best [citation needed] ever.
Sasha Akhavi
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Well, today is the 1st day of three days we’ve all been waiting for… 👇
Are you ready?
Sasha Akhavi
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“but now that you have stung me, we will both surely drown,” said the users to the profit-seeking corporation.
“lol,” said the corporation. “lmao”
Sasha Akhavi
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When I look up at Mars, shining brightly in the night sky, I find myself filled with hope that one day I will be able to point and say "See? That's where all the billionaires died."
Sasha Akhavi
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Whenever I see someone on one of these, I imagine they started out with a much larger vehicle and their journey has been riddled with a series of mishaps
#OldMememesNeverDie
Sasha Akhavi
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My sense is this is about 60% of what was needed in a statement aimed at adequately addressing the infamy of hosting an event in the name of Agile in Ron Desantis’ Florida. There’s no naming of the harms to female, gay or trans Floridians; there’s no “Yeah, Florida’s unacceptable rn.” What say you, @GeePawHill @RonJeffries ?
From: @agilealliance
https://agilealliance.social/@agilealliance/110531988819184741
Would’ve been SO much better if there’d been no documents.
Sasha Akhavi
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"Don't prosecute Trump for crimes because then we will make up crimes to retributively prosecute Democrats for!" --Every Pro-Trump argument on the right.
And the dumbest thing about that argument is that Republicans already do that so their "threat" is that they'll never change.
Reasonably happy almost all the time, somehow. Extremely lucky father & husband; 20+ year software veteran / exec now studying the software industry as Ph.D @York University Science and Technology Studies. Blog at https://sakhavi.wordpress.com
Joined Oct 2022
