Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

blair @blairaf.com · 9h

"how's Alberta are you settled in now?"
"the milkmen are watching me"

Reposted by blair

blair @blairaf.com · 21h

Working in AI policy rn is like being on a derailed train where the conductor is saying "haha check out this sick trick the train is going so much faster now" and you have to calmly explain to the conductor why actually maybe it is bad that the train has derailed

1 3 13

blair @blairaf.com · 14h

"OpenAI is Canadian sovereign AI" is astonishing mental gymnastics and it gets worse the more you think about it

1 8 22

blair @blairaf.com · 17h

Maybe of interest @parismarx.com

1 1

blair @blairaf.com · 18h

The OpenAI for Countries initiative is part of the Stargate project backed by the US government, OpenAI is very clear on their own website that their For Countries infrastructure partnerships are supported by and coordinated with the US government

Excerpt from OpenAI website that reads:

Today, we’re introducing OpenAI for Countries, a new initiative within the Stargate project. This is a moment when we need to act to support countries around the world that would prefer to build on democratic AI rails, and provide a clear alternative to authoritarian versions of AI that would deploy it to consolidate power.

In response to these interested governments, OpenAI is offering a new kind of partnership for the Intelligence Age. Through formalized infrastructure collaborations, and in coordination with the US government, OpenAI will:

Partner with countries to help build in-country data center capacity. These secure data centers will help support the sovereignty of a country’s data, build new local industries, and make it easy to customize AI and leverage their data in a private and compliant way.
Provide customized ChatGPT to citizens. This will help deliver improved healthcare and education, more efficient public services, and more. This will be AI of, by, and for the needs of each particular country, localized in their language and for their culture and respecting future global standards.

1 6 11

blair @blairaf.com · 18h

Looks like Canada's approach to "sovereign AI" will involve creating structural dependencies on large US tech companies

Excerpt from an article that reads: Lehane met with AI Minister Evan Solomon on Monday. Solomon told The Logic in June that his mission is to “create sovereign AI.” But “sovereignty is not solitude,” Solomon said, noting that Canada still needs technology and capital from other countries.

OpenAI is participating in similar initiatives in other advanced economies. In May, the firm launched OpenAI for Countries, a new program that localizes ChatGPT and its underlying models for a nation’s particular customs and the requirements of its public sector. It is also offering to build data centres for countries that help pay for the infrastructure.

Countries are turning to OpenAI because of its “cutting-edge technology,” which can be used to build homegrown tools and applications, and because the firm can help stimulate their domestic AI ecosystems by building or buying compute capacity, Lehane said.

5 24 46

blair @blairaf.com · 21h

Working in AI policy rn is like being on a derailed train where the conductor is saying "haha check out this sick trick the train is going so much faster now" and you have to calmly explain to the conductor why actually maybe it is bad that the train has derailed

1 3 13

Reposted by blair

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 2d

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...

150 760 2.1K

Reposted by blair

Data & Society @datasociety.bsky.social · 2d

“The user interfaces on our devices have become less like tools and more like receptacles for collection,” @anthropunk.bsky.social writes. It’s a dynamic that “exploits our energy and labor.” www.fastcompany.com/91397818/lar...

LLMs are the users now

Tech companies have shifted focus from designing for people to prioritizing algorithms.

www.fastcompany.com

5 16

blair @blairaf.com · 7d

Oops the October tan turned into an October burn

blair @blairaf.com · 7d

Visiting Toronto for the first time since moving out to Edmonton and it is still basically summer here you are all so lucky. Gonna enjoy getting an October tan for the next few days

1 2

Reposted by blair

Ana Brandusescu @anabrandusescu.bsky.social · 7d

I wrote a short essay about refusing to participate in Canada's public consultation on AI.

On refusal and reaching the limits to engage

This is an essay about the importance of refusal. As a researcher, I hardly write anymore this way, but I thought I should, in this moment, where the need to document our descent into fascism is cr…

www.anabrandusescu.com

1 11 39

blair @blairaf.com · 10d

It centers around promises of optimization and enablement. Find a niche where you can convince ppl that your product will make them more capable/more efficient, then convince investors that ppl will pay for your product. Now you have more capital that you can use to make promises to even more ppl

2

Reposted by blair

darth™️ @darthbluesky.bsky.social · 10d

why not opt-in? just ask permission first

if this is truly a positive feature then surely copyright holders will be happy to participate and have their work included if asked

just ask permission first

The Wall Street Journal @wsj.com · 10d

Exclusive: OpenAI is planning to release a new version of its Sora video generator, which creates videos featuring copyrighted material unless copyright holders opt out of having their work appear.

OpenAI’s New Sora Video Generator to Require Copyright Holders to Opt Out

Executives at the startup notified talent agencies and studios over the last week.

on.wsj.com

82 430 2.1K

blair @blairaf.com · 10d

agentic pasta pot development as a new pillar of the Italian national AI strategy

1 1

blair @blairaf.com · 10d

But what if I want to cook a lot of pasta? The only solution is $20 million in VC funding for an AI-infused pot

blair @blairaf.com · 10d

Can one of the AI for social good people pls make AI that stops my pasta water from boiling over

2 3

blair @blairaf.com · 10d

PSA please do not give your credit card information to the hallucinating robot

openai.com/index/buy-it...

Buy it in ChatGPT: Instant Checkout and the Agentic Commerce Protocol

We’re taking first steps toward agentic commerce in ChatGPT with new ways for people, AI agents, and businesses to shop together.

openai.com

2

blair @blairaf.com · 10d

Finally coming out of my writing lull to write a whole piece that unpacks this contradiction & re-centers public interest

2

blair @blairaf.com · 10d

Canada's AI strategy is in a counterproductive place rn "we want to implement AI everywhere and we want the public to trust & use the AI, but we don't want to do too much public engagement or regulation" this isn't a recipe for success

1 5

blair @blairaf.com · 11d

beautiful, poised, & in her zone (big bird outside the window)

Huxley the dog has big ears and brown black and white fur and brown eyes and is staring out a window on a sunny day

1 3 110

Reposted by blair

blair @blairaf.com · Apr 6

me every weekend

ms paint drawing of a little stick figure smiling and burrowed under the ground with the text captions "safe from emails, ground, and me"

2 14

Reposted by blair

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 16d

The lie is that glasses are made to liberate you from screens. The purpose of the glasses is to make sure you have no experiences except those mediated through a companies’ technology.

Analysis | America can’t quit smartphones. Smart glasses won’t help.

We keep hoping that a magical technology can liberate us from what we don’t like about technology.

www.washingtonpost.com

10 140 520

Reposted by blair

Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.bsky.social · 16d

I was part of a working group on AI and Fraternity assembled by the Vatican. We met in Rome and worked on this over two days. I am happy to share the result of that intense effort: a Declaration we presented to the Pope and other government authorities

coexistence.global

In this spirit of fraternity, hope and caution, we call upon your leadership to uphold the following principles and red lines to foster dialogue and reflection on how AI can best serve our entire human family:

Human life and dignity: AI must never be developed or used in ways that threaten, diminish, or disqualify human life, dignity, or fundamental rights. Human intelligence – our capacity for wisdom, moral reasoning, and orientation toward truth and beauty – must never be devalued by artificial processing, however sophisticated.

AI must be used as a tool, not an authority: AI must remain under human control. Building uncontrollable systems or over-delegating decisions is morally unacceptable and must be legally prohibited. Therefore, development of superintelligence (as mentioned above) AI technologies should not be allowed until there is broad scientific consensus that it will be done safely and controllably, and there is clear and broad public consent.

Accountability: only humans have moral and legal agency and AI systems are and must remain legal objects, never subjects. Responsibility and liability reside with developers, vendors, companies, deployers, users, institutes, and governments. AI cannot be granted legal personhood or “rights”.

Life-and-death decisions: AI systems must never be allowed to make life or death decisions, especially in military applications during armed conflict or peacetime, law enforcement, border control, healthcare or judicial decisions.

Independent testing and adequate risk assessment must be required before deployment and throughout the entire lifecycle.
Stewardship: Governments, corporations, and anyone else should not weaponize AI for any kind of domination, illegal wars of aggression, coercion, manipulation, social scoring, or unwarranted mass surveillance.

Responsible design: AI should be designed and independently evaluated to avoid unintentional and catastrophic effects on humans and society, for example through design giving rise to deception, delusion, addiction, or loss of autonomy.

No AI monopoly: the benefits of AI – economic, medical, scientific, social – should not be monopolized.

No Human Devaluation: design and deployment of AI should make humans flourish in their chosen pursuits, not render humanity redundant, disenfranchised, devalued or replaceable.

Ecological responsibility: our use of AI must not endanger our planet and ecosystems. Its vast demands for energy, water, and rare minerals must be managed responsibly and sustainably across the whole supply chain.

No irresponsible global competition: We must avoid an irresponsible race between corporations and countries towards ever more powerful AI.

7 110 280

Reposted by blair

Hagen Blix @hagenblix.bsky.social · 23d

We wrote a thing about AI, fascism, and why framing this as "hype" is too apolitical

www.liberalcurrents.com/deflating-hy...

Deflating “Hype” Won’t Save Us

The problem with AI isn’t hype. The problem is who and what it’s useful for.

www.liberalcurrents.com

4 49 130