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blair

@blairaf.com

3K followers 220 following 640 posts

Asst. Prof, Amii Fellow, sci-fi creator @ UAlberta Transfeminist AI ethics, policy, governance: blairaf.com Gay trans cyborg warriors vs. AI monsters: objecttype3.app

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blair @blairaf.com · Apr 10

Why is AI governance so often ineffective at preventing AI from harming people and the planet? My new paper Transfeminist AI Governance addresses this question, now out in this month's issue of First Monday: firstmonday.org/ojs/index.ph...

Abstract for a paper entitled "Transfeminist AI Governance". The abstract reads: "This paper re-imagines the governance of artificial intelligence (AI) through a transfeminist lens, focusing on challenges of power, participation, and injustice, and on opportunities for advancing equity, community-based resistance, and transformative change. AI governance is a field of research and practice seeking to maximize benefits and minimize harms caused by AI systems. Unfortunately, AI governance practices are frequently ineffective at preventing AI systems from harming people and the environment, with historically marginalized groups such as trans people being particularly vulnerable to harm. Building upon trans and feminist theories of ethics, I introduce an approach to transfeminist AI governance. Applying a transfeminist lens in combination with a critical self-reflexivity methodology, I retroactively reinterpret findings from three empirical studies of AI governance practices in Canada and globally. In three reflections on my findings, I show that large-scale AI governance systems structurally prioritize the needs of industry over marginalized communities. As a result, AI governance is limited by power imbalances and exclusionary norms. My reflections reveal that re-grounding AI governance in transfeminist ethical principles can support AI governance researchers, practitioners, and organizers in addressing those limitations."

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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 1d

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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Data & Society @datasociety.bsky.social · 1d

“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

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blair @blairaf.com · 6d

Oops the October tan turned into an October burn

blair @blairaf.com · 6d

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

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Ana Brandusescu @anabrandusescu.bsky.social · 6d

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

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blair @blairaf.com · 9d

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

Reposted by blair

darth™️ @darthbluesky.bsky.social · 9d

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 · 9d

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

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blair @blairaf.com · 9d

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

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blair @blairaf.com · 9d

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 · 9d

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

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blair @blairaf.com · 9d

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

blair @blairaf.com · 9d

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

blair @blairaf.com · 9d

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

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blair @blairaf.com · 10d

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

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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"

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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 15d

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

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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.bsky.social · 15d

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.

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Hagen Blix @hagenblix.bsky.social · 22d

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

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bianca wylie @biancawylie.com · 22d

new from @anabrandusescu.bsky.social looking at generative AI as a force for increasingly privatized governance re:

1. exploitation of workers + the environment;
2. defence partnerships + human rights abuses;
3. concentration of power through foreign acquisition
balsilliepapers.ca/bsia-paper/c...

Challenging Privatization in Governance by AI: A Caution for the Future of AI Governance - Balsillie Papers

Ana BrandusescuWhether in self-regulation or government regulation, Big Tech influences the direction of governance of AI, which increasingly is evolving to governance by AI and the automation of jobs...

balsilliepapers.ca

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blair @blairaf.com · 22d

Doing my best to keep a straight face while turning it into a teachable moment

Screenshot from a lecture slide entitled "Trump Executive Order on AI" that poses a question: "How does this EO compare with the Biden EO, or with legislation in Canada & the EU? What similarities or differences are there in the purpose & principles of this EO?"

Reposted by blair

Mike Stabile @mikestabile.bsky.social · 23d

Michigan lawmakers have introduced a bill prohibiting the any "depiction or description" of trans people or trans existence online, including it in a bill banning "pornographic" material

The bill would completely erase trans people online, equating them with porn.

Total porn ban proposed by Michigan lawmakers

Some states have moved to require age verification to ensure only adults are watching porn, but no states have outright banned the viewing of pornographic material.

www.fox2detroit.com

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blair @blairaf.com · 23d

Zuckerberg face where capn crunch face should be

blair @blairaf.com · 23d

The "teaching about digital policy" experience

Edited photo of a Captain Crunch cereal box that reads "Oops! all policy mess"

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blair @blairaf.com · 23d

Always the most fun part of a course!

blair @blairaf.com · 23d

Overall narrative of a new Politics of Digital Tech course I'm putting together:

- The utopian promise of ✨The Information Age✨
- Oops Web 2.0 was a mess
- Oops big data & platform economy was a mess
- Oops AI & Web 3.0 is a mess
- Digital policy & regulation?
- Resistance??
- Better futures???

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