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Stefan Baack

@sbaack.com

250 followers 550 following 20 posts

Senior researcher studying data governance and AI training data. Mastodon: @[email protected] he/him

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Stefan Baack @sbaack.com · Feb 6

Most #generativeAI models were trained on Common Crawl, a massive archive of web crawl data. Yet most people never heard of it. My new research studies Common Crawl in-depth and highlights its influence on LLM research and development foundation.mozilla.org/en/research/... (1/10)

Training Data for the Price of a Sandwich: Common Crawl’s Impact on Generative AI

Mozilla research finds that Common Crawl's outsized role in the generative AI boom has improved transparency and competition, but is also contributing to biased and opaque generative AI models.

foundation.mozilla.org

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Stefan Baack @sbaack.com · 6d

Check in if you're interested in my thoughts about what open source AI should aspire to be in relation to proprietary AI

Open Source Initiative @opensource.org · 9d

What should open source AI aspire to be? Watch Stefan Baack and Kasia Odrozek's keynote at OSI Deep Dive: Data Governance conference taking place October 1-3. Register for free at: https://opensource.org/datagovernanceconf

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Stefan Baack @sbaack.com · Jul 16

"The update is yet another signal that payment processors...are currently the ultimate arbiter of what kind of content can be made easily available online, or not."

Emanuel Maiberg @emanuelmaiberg.bsky.social · Jul 16

more pressure from payment processors www.404media.co/steam-bends-...

Steam Bends to Payment Processors on Porn Games

Steam, which has hosted sex games for years, says developers must now comply with the standards of payment processors and financial institutions.

www.404media.co

Stefan Baack @sbaack.com · Jun 30

The key questions we always should ask when people talk about AI: What is being automated and why? @alexhanna.bsky.social @weizenbauminstitut.bsky.social

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Stefan Baack @sbaack.com · Jun 30

"AI is a labor disciplining device" @alexhanna.bsky.social

Reposted by Stefan Baack

Daniel Drepper @danieldrepper.bsky.social · May 11

“The reporter is a man of critical value. No amount of money or effort spent in fitting the right men for this work could possibly be wasted, for the health of society depends upon the quality of the information it receives.” — Walter Lippmann [a century later, I’d swap “man” for “person” though]

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Reposted by Stefan Baack

Christo Buschek @christobuschek.net · Dec 9

New Release! Most AI deepfakes aren't political. 90% of deepfakes are non-consensual intimate imagery. 99% of victims are women. Max Hoppensted, @rechercheur.bsky.social, @romanhoefner.bsky.social, and I uncover a deepfake community and the business behind undress apps www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/web...

(S+) Deepfake-Pornos: Das perfide Geschäft mit gefälschten Sexvideos

Tausende Frauen werden Opfer von gefakten Pornos, in denen ihr Gesicht zu sehen ist. Betroffen sind minderjährige Mädchen, Prominente, Politikerinnen. Dahinter stecken skrupellose Geschäftsleute. Der ...

www.spiegel.de

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Stefan Baack @sbaack.com · Apr 8

"brainstorming and iteration is...a crucial everyday part of game development...and is not a problem to be solved...I have had many discussions with other game developers who interact with AI engineers and savants who believe our industry pipelines need 'fixing' by them and them alone"

Aftermath @aftermath.site · Apr 7

‘An overwhelmingly negative and demoralizing force’: what it’s like working for a company that’s forcing AI on its developers

aftermath.site/ai-video-game-...

Reposted by Stefan Baack

FragDenStaat @fragdenstaat.de · Mar 26

Die Union will das Informationsfreiheitsgesetz abschaffen.
@arnesemsrott.bsky.social: „Öffentliche Kontrolle &Transparenz sind der Union offenbar ein Dorn im Auge. Sie will unbehelligt durchregieren. Rechte der Öffentlichkeit stören dabei offenbar."
Pressemitteilung: fragdenstaat.de/newsletter/a...

Union will Informationsfreiheitsgesetz abschaffen: Frontalangriff auf Transparenz und Demokratie - FragDenStaat

Das Portal für Informationsfreiheit für Bürger, Initiativen und Vereine. Stellen Sie eine IFG-Anfrage nach Behördendokumenten, die für Sie und Ihr Engagement wichtig sind! Informieren Sie sich über In...

fragdenstaat.de

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Reposted by Stefan Baack

Roland Meyer @bildoperationen.bsky.social · Feb 9

«By moving fast and breaking things, DOGE forces a collapse of the system where unanswered questions are met with technological solutions. Shifting the conversation to the technical is a way of locking policymakers and the public out of decisions and shifting that power to the code they write.»

Eryk Salvaggio @eryk.bsky.social · Feb 9

My latest for @techpolicypress.bsky.social, “Anatomy of an AI Coup.” With the takeover of the US government by tech elites underway, we must examine its goals and next steps — and how we will know if it has succeeded. www.techpolicy.press/anatomy-of-a...

Anatomy of an AI Coup | TechPolicy.Press

DOGE is gutting federal agencies to install AI across the government. Democracy is on the line, writes Tech Policy Press fellow Eryk Salvaggio.

www.techpolicy.press

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Reposted by Stefan Baack

404 Media @404media.co · Feb 5

You can’t post your way out of fascism

Authoritarians and tech CEOs now share the same goal: to keep us locked in an eternal doomscroll instead of organizing against them

🔗 www.404media.co/you-cant-pos...

You Can’t Post Your Way Out of Fascism

Authoritarians and tech CEOs now share the same goal: to keep us locked in an eternal doomscroll instead of organizing against them, Janus Rose writes.

www.404media.co

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Reposted by Stefan Baack

Auschwitz Memorial @auschwitzmemorial.bsky.social · Jan 27

Auschwitz was at the end of a long process. It did not start from gas chambers.

This hatred was gradually developed by humans. From ideas, words, stereotypes & prejudice through legal exclusion, dehumanization & escalating violence... to systematic and industrial murder.

Auschwitz took time.

A bird's-eye view of a former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp showing a wide dirt pathway flanked by parallel rows of barbed-wire fences. Groups of visitors walk along the path, surrounded by the remnants of brick structures and barracks, now reduced to foundations. Green grass contrasts with the somber history of the site, as the path leads toward a guard tower in the distance.

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Reposted by Stefan Baack

Eryk Salvaggio @eryk.bsky.social · Dec 6

“AI is fake and sucks” vs “AI is real and dangerous” is a Twitter argument. In reality I think the debate also has a lot of “AI is real but not for how you’re using it,” to “AI is fake and that is dangerous,” to “things are happening to real people because of AI hype and that should stop.”

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Stefan Baack @sbaack.com · Dec 3

My reading for this week, delivered to me by the great
@aschrock.bsky.social
themself! Thank you, looking forward to reading :-)

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Reposted by Stefan Baack

Critical Digital Media @digital.therourke.net · Dec 3

Labelers training AI say they're overworked, underpaid and exploited by big American tech companies

Digital workers in Kenya had to sift through horrific online content to train AI, but say they were underpaid, overworked, and got inadequate mental health support. So they're fighting back.

www.cbsnews.com

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Reposted by Stefan Baack

Daniel Drepper @danieldrepper.bsky.social · Dec 3

Dieser Report gibt Hoffnung!

Immer mehr neue, ambitionierte Medien haben sich in Deutschland und Europa gegründet. Medien mit dem Ziel, die Öffentlichkeit hochwertig zu informieren.

@netzwerkrecherche.org hat für den „Journalism Value Report“ 174 Medien in 31 Ländern befragt und kann zeigen:

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Reposted by Stefan Baack

klaudia jaźwińska @klaudia.bsky.social · Nov 27

I have a new piece out with @aisvarya17.bsky.social in @columjournreview.bsky.social in which we test how OpenAI's new search feature surfaces and attributes news content. Our findings were not promising for news publishers (1/9) www.cjr.org/tow_center/h...

How ChatGPT (Mis)represents Publisher Content

ChatGPT search — which is positioned as a competitor to search engines like Google and Bing — launched with a press release from OpenAI touting claims that the company had “collaborated extensively wi...

www.cjr.org

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Reposted by Stefan Baack

Thandi Smith @thandis.bsky.social · Nov 20

“Without facts, you can’t have truth, and without truth, you can’t have trust”. - Maria Ressa, 2021 Nobel Peace Prize

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Reposted by Stefan Baack

MwahahahahahadScientist @mads100tist.bsky.social · Nov 14

The Onion should buy Elsevier next

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Stefan Baack @sbaack.com · Feb 21

It ended well though. He got the job, and still has it. We met recently 😅

Stefan Baack @sbaack.com · Feb 21

I still remember when a friend asked for advice about getting a job I intended to apply for

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Stefan Baack @sbaack.com · Feb 6

Long term, there should be less reliance on sources like Common Crawl and a bigger emphasis on training generative AI on datasets created and curated by people in equitable and transparent ways (10/10)

Stefan Baack @sbaack.com · Feb 6

A key issue is that filtered Common Crawl versions are not updated after their original publication to take feedback and criticism into account. Therefore, we need dedicated intermediaries tasked with filtering Common Crawl in transparent and accountable ways that are continuously updated (9/10)

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Stefan Baack @sbaack.com · Feb 6

AI builders should put more effort into filtering Common Crawl, establish industry standards and best practices for end-user products to reduce potential harms when using Common Crawl or similar sources for training data (8/10)

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Stefan Baack @sbaack.com · Feb 6

Both Common Crawl and AI builders can help making generative AI less harmful. Common Crawl should highlight the limitations and biases of its data, be more transparent and inclusive about its governance, and enforce more transparency by requiring AI builders to attribute using Common Crawl (7/10)

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Stefan Baack @sbaack.com · Feb 6

Due to Common Crawl’s deliberate lack of curation, AI builders need to filter it with care, but such care is often lacking. Popular filtered versions like C4 are especially problematic as the filtering techniques used to create them are simplistic and leave lots of harmful content untouched (6/10)

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