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
[Laughter]
Sasha Akhavi
boosted
I love how so much of the AI debate is on things like:
* Will AI take people's jobs?
* Will AI destroy creativity?
* Will AI take over the world?
* Will AI be used to make people poorer?
And not:
* Will corporations that use AI get rid of people's jobs?
* Will corporations that use AI destroy creativity?
* Will corporations that use AI try to take over the world?
* Will corporations that use AI make people poorer?
Because these LLMs and machine learning systems and so forth aren't just wandering around randomly out there - they're owned by corporations. The corporations are the ones putting them to use. The executives that run those corporations are the ones making the decisions to pay people less, to increase their profits, to make creative people act as subeditors for LLMs.
It's the corporations, and the ethics-free systems that govern them, that cause these things. They're the ones pushing to have more AI.
The rest of us would be happy just having a bit more humanity in the world.
“This is secret information. Look, look at this.” is the new “Ugh, this is terrible; taste this.”
Oh, so THOSE were the people to tell about the crimes.
From: @benjysarlin
https://bird.makeup/users/benjysarlin/statuses/1667140513974169605
This seems like a BFD, or however you say that in Canadian.
From: @jeffjarvis
https://mastodon.social/@jeffjarvis/110513942685050778
Step 1 was to do the evil. Step 2 was to “flood the zone with [mis- and disinformation]” about it.
Step 3 seems to be to persecute anyone who might ask questions about step 2.
From: @melissaryan
https://me.dm/@melissaryan/110498507395897821
Sasha Akhavi
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Heh, land war in Asia, going up against a Sicilian when death is on the line, and double-dawg-daring the DOJ.
Sasha Akhavi
boosted
Response to Agile Alliance Chairperson
Some thoughts on the Alliance holding its conference in Florida, and on some surely well-intended remarks by their chairperson, on their blog.
https://ronjeffries.com/articles/-y023/aa-conference/
Sasha Akhavi
boosted
A particularly good @caseynewton commentary on how social media companies, which once pretended to care about their responsibility for helping spread misinformation, have now become allies of the people who want to bring down our democracy.
https://www.platformer.news/p/the-platforms-give-up-on-2020-lies
It's not that progressives are newly intolerant of conservative positions. It's that conservative positions were always intolerably harmful, and the veneer of abstraction that protected them from more widespread revulsion has been newly worn away. 3/3
What’s different is a greater general level of clarity about how some opinions entail harmful consequences for people. What might formerly have been seen as abstract disagreements in principle have been revealed to be atrocious in themselves. It is a different thing to propose we “agree to disagree” about police funding when more have seen the evidence of what that funding does. It’s different to do so about gun rights when so many of our kids do active shooter drills. 2/
@perrybacon’s piece today mentions a general sentiment captured in a 2022 NYT editorial that it’s a darn shame you can’t speak your mind in public without being shamed and shunned. As he says, these are undefined terms, and they’ve always applied -- people have always been free to hold each other to account socially for their views. But something really is different nowadays. 1/
Sasha Akhavi
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Superb by Perry Bacon Jr.! I hear too many white, "centrists" who would rather talk class over race, who fret too much about crime, who think we should listen to Trumpists, who say "cancel" without irony. This is Licht's CNN (& the NYT) & white "centrism."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/06/06/anti-woke-centrism-cnn-chris-licht-atlantic-profile/
Sasha Akhavi
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This may be the most incisive blog yet from maybe the most incisive blogger. There are deep emotional reasons behind the pathology that calls itself “conservatism,” and we won’t cure or evolve past it without isolating those reasons.
From: @JuliusGoat
https://mastodon.social/@JuliusGoat/110496655819239896
Sasha Akhavi
boosted
We knew that in Amazon Ring employees were fired for accessing footage but, via the FTC: "one employee over several months viewed thousands of video recordings belonging to female users of Ring cameras..in their homes such as their bathrooms or bedrooms"
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/05/ftc-says-ring-employees-illegally-surveilled-customers-failed-stop-hackers-taking-control-users
Sasha Akhavi
boosted
The beauty of AI is that we have finally found a way the economy can keep growing after it has killed off every last one of us.
Sasha Akhavi
boosted
We just published "Chatbots Can’t Care Like We Do: Helpline Workers Speak Out on World Eating Disorders Action Day" by Abbie Harper of @hlaunited, in honor and celebration of @worldedday #RealPeopleRealRecovery https://news.techworkerscoalition.org/2023/06/02/issue-9/
The neutral, objective language here identifies the right’s intention to “roll back rights” for gender minorities. Some people think rolling back others’ rights can be ok sometimes. And they should never ever get to be in charge.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/06/03/tennessee-drag-law-unconstitutional/
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
