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Reposted by David Wells

John Herrman @jwherrman.bsky.social · 12h

trying to think through what's unusual about so many AI startups, and about the gaps between their pitches, the real world, and what they would actually need to succeed nymag.com/intelligence...

This attitude toward externalities — not my problem, and in any case worth it in exchange for a small advantage — follows the approximate logic of a spammer and often comes wrapped in the language of AI hustle culture. It's also understandable from the perspective of a job seeker who feels constantly thwarted by automated systems employers use that seem to treat seekers with similar indifference or contempt, or by platforms like LinkedIn and Indeed that, while nominally intended to connect two parties with shared interests (one needing specific services, the other offering them), can feel more like social-media-style black holes for engagement. It's an escalation that will likely be met with more escalation: countermeasures by job-listings platforms and hirers to prevent access by AI agents; more aggressive automated filtering; different hiring routines altogether, making it even harder to get through the door to a coveted interview. Mercenary (and slightly deceptive) automation tools like this, which are being pitched all over right now and already wreaking havoc in, for example, online dating, depend on two temporary circumstances to work, if they ever actually do: (1) that most other people don't have access to them, giving the user an edge and (2) that the people and parties on which they're used will tolerate and take no action against them. In other words, if you take their pitches at face value, they're pretty obviously doomed in the medium term, in the sense that they'll either be rejected by the systems they operate in or simply ruin them for everyone.

Taking stock of the first few years of mainstream AI deployment, though, raises an important question. What if that's sort of the point? Or at least a world worth thinking about in a more thorough, long-term way? Generative image and video tools, for example, have significantly degraded social-media platforms, allowing bad actors and regular people to fill them with slop, intensifying existing problems with spam and deceptive content while thwarting old solutions. And, hey, look at that: Suddenly, OpenAI and Meta are launching new social networks based on AI, on which posting generated content is the point, not a problem to be solved. Generative AI may be placing immense stress on educational institutions and worsening the already strained relationships between teachers and students, but wait — every AI company is selling ed tech now.

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Reposted by David Wells

Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 1d

Lol the Nobels can't even acknowledge women's contribution to discovery. But sure let's acknowledge The Machines.

Headline from an article in Nature this week that states "Prizes must recognize machine contributions to discovery. The future of science will be written by humans and machines together. Awards should reflect that reality."

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Reposted by David Wells

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 17h

Shadow Justice Secretary has made a symbolic gesture of support for Quran burning, both in law & apparently in practice too

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Faine Greenwood @faineg.bsky.social · 1d

I think the killer argument against relying upon AI to write is the massive amount of thinking and concept-welding that goes on for me (and I assume most everyone else) during the *process* of writing something - it’s a cognitive process and I know I’d actively get stupider if I skipped it

Decorative Gourdian Knot @buckrawheat.bsky.social · 1d

I also just wonder if any of these people have ever really appreciated the value added in going through the experience of something like this. The fact that it changes you to engage with and puzzle over your own work, that you're not a content printer that just needs juicing to go faster.

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Reposted by David Wells

Faine Greenwood @faineg.bsky.social · 1d

there’s this weird idea a lot of people seem to have about how all of us writers and artists must secretly want to use AI and are merely resisting temptation for ethical reasons, and like, no, it’s not hard for me to resist drinking the bowl of Piss With Glass In It actually

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Michael E. Mann @michaelemann.bsky.social · 7d

Right wing think tank (AEI) employee Roger Pielke Jr. has formed a cozy relationship with the Murdoch media as he spreads climate disinformation in Australia.

It's right out of #ScienceUnderSiege (and yes, Roger is prominently mentioned in the book): www.theguardian.com/environment/...

News Corp embraces fantasy genre by turning climate crisis into ‘laughable’ science fiction | Temperature Check

The National Climate Risk Assessment is attacked in the Daily Telegraph, while wind turbines became a frightening obstacle for firefighting planes and solar panels a source of mountains of landfill wa...

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by David Wells

Jacob Ware @jacobware.bsky.social · 1d

Yes. Really important point. Much far-right violence is internecine and fratricidal. So, Pape's argument that "although using the partisan identity of targets as a proxy for the partisan motivations of perpetrators is not a perfect approach, it is a fairly good one" does not hold up.

Dan Nexon @dhnexon.bsky.social · 1d

What Bob leaves out is that the rise in threats against Republican officials is driven, in no small measure, by stochastic MAGA terrorism aimed at cowing anyone who does, or might, cross Trump.

Jacob Ware @jacobware.bsky.social · 1d

"Violent populism—a phase of politics characterized by high levels of political violence and broad support for it—now represents a greater risk to American democracy than any competition with another country or any menace by a foreign terrorist group."🎯

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Reposted by David Wells

Ben Fenton @benfenton.bsky.social · 1d

If a news organisation is making -200% margin after five years, it is not a commercial operation and should be assumed to have a different purpose.

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 1d

The channel lost £33 million to communicate its content to a large audience
www.business-live.co.uk/enterprise/g...

GB News suffers huge loss despite doubling revenue and growing audience

The TV channel, whose well-known presenters include Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, fell to a pre-tax loss of £33.4m in the year to 31 May, 2024

www.business-live.co.uk

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Lucy Osler @lucyosler.bsky.social · 21d

Chatbots are explicitly being designed “to elicit intimacy and emotional engagement in order to increase our trust in and dependency on them” (me in Wired magazine 🤭). This designed intimacy combined with AI sycophancy creates serious risks for delusional thinking

www.wired.com/story/ai-psy...

AI Psychosis Is Rarely Psychosis at All

A wave of AI users presenting in states of psychological distress gave birth to an unofficial diagnostic label. Experts say it’s neither accurate nor needed, but concede that it’s likely to stay.

www.wired.com

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Reposted by David Wells

ProPublica @propublica.org · 1d

A former DOGE staffer developed an AI tool that hallucinated the size of Veterans Affairs contracts.

For example, it concluded that more than a thousand deals were each worth $34 million, when in fact some were for as little as $35,000.

(Published June)

DOGE Developed Error-Prone AI Tool to “Munch” Veterans Affairs Contracts

We obtained records showing how a Department of Government Efficiency staffer with no medical experience used artificial intelligence to identify which VA contracts to kill. “AI is absolutely the wron...

www.propublica.org

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Guardian Australia @australia.theguardian.com · 1d

4chan unlikely to be included in Australia’s under-16s social media ban, eSafety commissioner says

Julie Inman Grant says message board will need to comply with other codes which will also include age assurance for sites hosting violent and adult content * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The eSafety commissioner is not expected to block children from accessing 4chan as part of the under-16s social media ban, despite it being labelled one of the “darker” places on the internet. The eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, was asked by independent senator Fatima Payman in Senate estimates on Wednesday night whether 4chan, the message board often referred to as the engine room of the internet, would be considered one of the sites required to prevent under-16s when the social media ban comes into effect from 10 December. Continue reading...

www.theguardian.com

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violent alien @blipstress.bsky.social · 2d

An actual hot take: Too many authors are afraid of editors watering down their voice or whatever and not afraid enough of editors letting you put any old slop on the page.

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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 2d

Altman claims the company didn’t anticipate people not wanting their deepfakes to say “offensive things or things that they find deeply problematic,” which sounds like a lie but is also indicative of how they recklessly release tech into the world.

OpenAI wasn’t expecting Sora’s copyright drama

It felt “more different to images than people expected.”

www.theverge.com

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Musa Okwonga @okwonga.bsky.social · 1d

"German authorities registered approximately 3,200 right-wing extremist-motivated crimes committed by people up to the age of 24 in 2020. Last year, the number was more than double, at over 7,100....most of these crimes were committed by male adolescents between the ages of 14 and 17."

Omas gegen Rechts Wetterau @ogrwetterau2017.bsky.social · 1d

www.fr.de/politik/rech...
AfD wirkt. Ihre Dominanz in den sozialen Netzwerken zeigt dieses Ergebnis.

Rechtsextreme Straftaten junger Menschen nehmen stark zu

Die Behörden registrieren mehr als doppelt so viele rechtsextreme Delikte junger Menschen wie noch 2020. Die Bundesregierung sieht neue Gruppierungen und soziale Medien als Treiber.

www.fr.de

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Reposted by David Wells

Max Colbert @mc00.bsky.social · 2d

I feel like if you had to ban social media for any group of people for their own protection, you should probably start with people over 60.

Jacob Öberg @profjacob.bsky.social · 2d

🚨🚨 #Denmark aims to ban #socialmedia for children under 15. PM Mette Frederiksen says "We have unleashed a monster" to Danish lawmakers. 🧵https://www.politico.eu/article/denmark-mette-frederiksen-partially-ban-social-media-children-under-15/

Denmark aims to ban social media for children under 15, PM says

“We have unleashed a monster,” Mette Frederiksen tells Danish lawmakers.

www.politico.eu

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Reposted by David Wells

VOX-Pol @vox-pol.bsky.social · 1d

We're launching our latest report on researching the far-right at 6pm UK/1pm US east coast time today.

The webinar will be chaired by @lizzypearson.bsky.social & feature author @antoniavaughan.bsky.social & discussant @audreygagnon.bsky.social.

More info.: voxpol.eu/events/new-v...

#PleaseRS

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Reposted by David Wells

David Wells @davidwellsct.bsky.social · 3d

New paper out with the CoE exploring how and how quickly terrorists adopt new technologies. It identifies factors inhibiting or encouraging new tech adoption - with two case studies on virtual assets and drones - and analyses the impact of new tech on terrorism in Europe rm.coe.int/report-on-th...

rm.coe.int

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Reposted by David Wells

Alex Hanna-ween @alexhanna.bsky.social · 3d

I'm not an economist but seems worrying that the whole US economy is seven companies in a trenchcoat, passing the same $20 up and down

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 3d

NVIDIA and OpenAi:

Concerns that their “increasingly complex and interconnected web of business transactions is artificially propping up the trillion-dollar AI boom.“

@bloomberg.com $NVDA 👀
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 3d

Who is going to pay for all this slop?

Sora 2 Has a Huge Financial Problem

How will OpenAI stop Sora 2 from burning through cash as users generate countless resource-intensive AI videos?

futurism.com

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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 3d

NVIDIA and OpenAi:

Concerns that their “increasingly complex and interconnected web of business transactions is artificially propping up the trillion-dollar AI boom.“

@bloomberg.com $NVDA 👀
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

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Reposted by David Wells

NY Times Pitchbot @nytpitchbot.bsky.social · 3d

Hard to compete with this.

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General Boles @generalboles.bsky.social · 3d

Everyone who advocates for turning the UK into the UAE assumes they'll be the one with a marina penthouse rather than the guy working on a building site in 50c heat

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David Wells @davidwellsct.bsky.social · 3d

New paper out with the CoE exploring how and how quickly terrorists adopt new technologies. It identifies factors inhibiting or encouraging new tech adoption - with two case studies on virtual assets and drones - and analyses the impact of new tech on terrorism in Europe rm.coe.int/report-on-th...

rm.coe.int

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Col. Boozy Badger @boozybadger.lawyersandliquor.com · 3d

Dunno man, seems a little misleading to write an article about Trump describing activity in Portland and Chicago as “insurrection” with a 33 year old photo of a burning donut shop taken in the 1992 LA Riots (sans caption explaining that) as the header on all your posts about it.

The picture from
The article with a picture of an armed men standing in front of a burning donut shop. You must click through to read the caption “
Two National guardsmen stand guard outside a burning donut shop in Los Angeles on April 30, 1992.
The National Guard was called in to aid police during the second day of rioting in the city.”

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John Scott-Railton @jsrailton.bsky.social · 5d

NEW: breach of Discord age verification data.

Including some users passports & DLs

Age verification is a badly implemented data grab wrapped in a moral panic.

Mark my words, as age verification mandates expand, we'll end up more surveilled and less secure. 1/

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