Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Shakeel

Felix M. Simon @felixsimon.bsky.social · 5d

🗞️ 🤖 Weekend reading anyone? For the launch of @transformernews.ai as a standalone publication, they invited me to contribute a piece on what persuasive AI might mean for democracy and elections.

Here’s the result…

buff.ly/OJsNmpK

AI is persuasive, but that’s not the real problem for democracy

Opinion: Felix M Simon argues that AI is unlikely to significantly shape election results in the near future, but warns that it could damage democracy through a steady erosion of institutional trust.

www.transformernews.ai

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Shakeel @shakeelhashim.com · 6d

Read our full (very good) profile on Transformer: www.transformernews.ai/p/kanishka-n...

Britain’s new AI minister actually ‘gets’ AI

Kanishka Narayan is excited about AI opportunities, but takes the risks seriously too

www.transformernews.ai

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Shakeel @shakeelhashim.com · 6d

It certainly seems that he'll be able to shape AI policy more than his predecessor, Feryal Clark, did.

But he's got an uphill battle ahead, navigating copyright, turf wars with Ed Miliband, and the general complexity of the topic.

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Shakeel @shakeelhashim.com · 6d

Kanishka Narayan, the UK's new minister for AI, is a rare example of a politician who actually *gets* his brief.

In a new profile for @transformernews.ai, @alys.bsky.social notes that he takes AI risks pretty seriously, too.

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Shakeel @shakeelhashim.com · 7d

The Cambridge Analytica panic was basically nonsense.

The AI-is-rigging-elections panic might be, too.

AI is persuasive, but that’s not the real problem for democracy

Opinion: Felix M Simon argues that AI is unlikely to significantly shape election results in the near future, but warns that it could damage democracy through a steady erosion of institutional trust.

www.transformernews.ai

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Shakeel @shakeelhashim.com · 22d

Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares' new book — If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies — is out today.

I am much more sympathetic to their views than most.

Unfortunately, the book is littered with torturous sentence structures and smug, self-satisfied writing.

I was not a fan.

Book Review: 'If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies'

Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares’ new book should be an AI wakeup call — shame it’s such a chore to read

www.transformernews.ai

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Shakeel @shakeelhashim.com · 28d

Thrilled to have @ruchowdh.bsky.social and Mala Kumar in @transformernews.ai today, writing alongside the launch of the new Humane Intelligence PBC.

www.transformernews.ai/p/why-ai-eva...

Why AI evals need to reflect the real world

Opinion: Rumman Chowdhury and Mala Kumar argue that we need better AI evaluations — and the infrastructure and investment to do them

www.transformernews.ai

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Reposted by Shakeel

James Ball @jamesrball.com · 29d

Data centers use 2% of the world’s electricity. There’s a *huge* push to build more for AI.

But even the most optimistic growth paths for AI predict it’ll drive less growth in energy demand than electric cars or aircon. It’s significant, but it’s not the biggest thing going on.

We’re getting the argument about AI's environmental impact all wrong

Individual ChatGPT queries are a rounding error — we need to think about the future

www.transformernews.ai

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Shakeel @shakeelhashim.com · 28d

Thank you!!

Shakeel @shakeelhashim.com · 29d

Read our relaunch announcement, all our new pieces, and subscribe at: www.transformernews.ai/p/welcome-to...

Welcome to Transformer 2.0

We're now a team of reporters and editors dedicated to covering the power and politics of AI

www.transformernews.ai

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Shakeel @shakeelhashim.com · 29d

Our aim is to be the definitive source for coverage of transformative AI — one dedicated to explaining what’s happening in AI and why it matters.

We think this is a really important mission. The world needs more journalism that takes AI seriously. We hope to provide it.

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Shakeel @shakeelhashim.com · 29d

We're also introducing an external opinion section, which launches tomorrow with some big names. We hope it'll be a forum for incisive debate about transformative AI from a diverse range of expert perspectives.

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Shakeel @shakeelhashim.com · 29d

And last week Nikita Ostrovsky explained why a team at the UK AI Security Institute recently criticized the state of AI scheming evaluations.

Are AI scheming evaluations broken?

Doubts have been raised about one of the key ways we tell if AI will misbehave. Is it time for a new approach?

www.transformernews.ai

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Shakeel @shakeelhashim.com · 29d

Pulitzer Prize-winner @jamesrball.com, meanwhile, has a fantastic piece on the (often misguided) debate about AI’s environmental impact.

We’re getting the argument about AI's environmental impact all wrong

Individual ChatGPT queries are a rounding error — we need to think about the future

www.transformernews.ai

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Shakeel @shakeelhashim.com · 29d

We're kicking off with Jonathan Stein's timely look at the feasibility of chip location verification as a way of cracking down on chip smuggling.

Chip location verification is the new export control battleground

The Chip Security Act proposes a way to tackle chip smuggling. Semiconductor companies don’t seem to like it.

www.transformernews.ai

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Shakeel @shakeelhashim.com · 29d

@transformernews.ai is now a team of all-star journalists. I'm joined by @jasperjackson.bsky.social as managing editor, @celiaford.bsky.social as AI reporter, and Jamie Condliffe as opinion editor.

We'll be publishing features and analysis that dive deep into a wide range of AI topics.

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Shakeel @shakeelhashim.com · 29d

When I launched Transformer a year ago, it was with a simple mission: provide decision-makers with the information and analysis needed to anticipate and steer the impacts of transformative AI.

Today, we're announcing an exciting new effort to achieve that: Transformer 2.0.

Welcome to Transformer 2.0

We're now a team of reporters and editors dedicated to covering the power and politics of AI

www.transformernews.ai

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Shakeel @shakeelhashim.com · Aug 27

Last year, the crypto industry set up a network of super PACs.

Its strategy? Throw huge amounts of money at politicians to discourage crypto regulation.

Now many of those same people have launched a $100m campaign to do the same thing for AI.

Read my full piece on Transformer:

AI embraces crypto’s dirty politics

A new super PAC network looks set to spend millions to influence AI regulation

www.transformernews.ai

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Reposted by Shakeel

Eugene Vinitsky 🍒 @eugenevinitsky.bsky.social · Aug 21

I am genuinely so frustrated with the state of the average journalist. Just nonstop dunking and in a way that makes people less informed.
They're being very clear that it's not a calculator and should not be used that way!
defector.com/it-took-many...

It Took Many Years And Billions Of Dollars, But Microsoft Finally Invented A Calculator That Is Wrong Sometimes | Defector

It’s not AI winter just yet, though there is a distinct chill in the air. Meta is shaking up and downsizing its artificial intelligence division. A new report out of MIT finds that 95 percent of compa...

defector.com

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Shakeel @shakeelhashim.com · Aug 21

Why assume Meta’s hiring freeze is for financial reasons, rather than logistical ones (which seems much more likely)?

It makes a lot of sense to pause hiring shortly after a huge hiring surge and restructuring — you need time to get the new structure working before bringing more people in!

Rob Cyran @robcyran.bsky.social · Aug 21

Meta was on track to spend $50bn on R&D this year (compare to about $60bn on capex). Quite a turnaround to go from $300m comp packages to hiring freeze in a few weeks.

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Reposted by Shakeel

James Ball @jamesrball.com · Aug 19

“If Anthropic loses big,” the judge’s order concludes, “it will be because what it did wrong was also big.”

www.transformernews.ai/p/anthropic-...

Anthropic’s piracy could make its copyright battle existential

Anthropic could have to pay billions in damages — and others may follow

www.transformernews.ai

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Shakeel @shakeelhashim.com · Jul 25

Hugging Face still has a ton of porn hosted on its website which can be accessed without logging in or verifying your age.

Not entirely sure how that's compliant with the UK Online Safety Act ... which even 4Chan's taken action to comply with today!

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Shakeel @shakeelhashim.com · Jul 24

appreciate you engaging!

Reposted by Shakeel

Jasper Jackson @jasperjackson.bsky.social · Jul 24

It's a bit dispiriting to see a company that talks so much about being "ethical" adopt the same old strategy of relying on journalists to find bad stuff on their platforms. I saw this for years covering Meta, and Hugging Face is following exactly the same playbook. bsky.app/profile/shak...

Shakeel @shakeelhashim.com · Jul 24

We sent the list of models we found to Hugging Face.

The company removed some, but not all, of the models we shared with them.

They left up a video model that references a film released when the actress was 15, for instance.

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Shakeel @shakeelhashim.com · Jul 24

Read the full piece, including today's update, on Transformer:

www.transformernews.ai/p/why-ethica...

Why is Hugging Face hosting tools to make deepfake porn of teenage celebrities?

The “ethical” AI company is hosting models designed to make nonconsensual sexual content, despite clear breaches of its policies

www.transformernews.ai

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