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sujato

@sujato.bsky.social

360 followers 520 following 1.7K posts

Buddhist mendicant. Pali translations at https://suttacentral.net. I talk suttas at https://discourse.suttacentral.net. Events: The Monastery at the End of the World https://lokanta.github.io/. Writings: https://sujato.me/ repost = read this! 🚫 AI

suttacentral.net.

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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 2h

The horror. But no, it was something else, not specifically Buddhist.

sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 4h

Just turned down a project that uses AI.

“It’s industry standard” — it’s an evil industry.
“It allows us to save time” — it allows us to steal other’s work and profit from it.

#banai

sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 15h

Translation: *not doing crime* would kill AI.

Excellent. Don’t do crime.

The Verge @theverge.com · May 26

Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry

Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.

buff.ly

sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 1d

Folks think the growth of China’s renewables is somehow *good for the plant*. Sure, renewables do *less harm* than FF, but every EV, solar cell, battery, harms the earth. It’s integral to the world’s most massive industrial machine, profiting from the burned and desecrated corpse of mother nature.

Reposted by sujato

Håkon Nordhagen @hakonnordhagen.bsky.social · 2d

«is it rather the case that the [AI/LLMs] models’ inability to distinguish words from the world is precisely what makes them so useful to fascist aims?»

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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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 3d

incredible. I had no idea the change was that vast in just ten years.

sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 4d

Remember all the agonizing like, "is it *really* a Nazi salute???" Musk has been "our guy" his entire life, his father before him, his grandfather before him.

Reposted by sujato

Andrea Junker @strandjunker.com · 4d

“Terrible things are happening outside. Poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. Families are torn apart. Men, women, and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared.”

Diary of Anne Frank
January 13, 1943

250 8K 17K

sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 4d

Well, I'd rather see AI *go away* but yeah, good idea.

I really feel like governments have been largely made up of old guys who get their emails printed out. They're starry-eyed at the "smart" geeks and just relinquished any sense of purpose when it comes to the digital sphere.

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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 4d

We don’t even have anything like a public service sphere in the digital space.

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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 4d

It’s not even just one thing, it’s promoting a healthy digital ecosphere.

Eg. govts could run their own social media, spin up an instance of Mastadon or Bluesky and make it the official medium of record. It’s not competing w/ FB, it’s providing an accountable service.

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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 4d

Yeah, government is not the whole answer, but I think having both government and corporate is better than either alone.

I’m thinking of TV and radio in Australia, where you have commercial channels, govt channels which are quasi-independent, but also local community radio, universities, etc.

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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 4d

Good to see these serious issues being raised. I don’t think there’s a simple answer, but whatever it is it has to involve plurality. Break up the corporate monopolies and enable multiple options via govts, communities, regions, etc. Maybe a hard limit on the size of social media networks.

Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · 4d

Macron remarks are notable- some quotes: "We have been incredibly naive in entrusting our democratic space to social networks that are controlled either by large American entrepreneurs or large Chinese companies, whose interests are not at all the survival or proper functioning of our democracies."

Defend Democracy @defenddemocracy.bsky.social · 4d

President Macron: “Europeans, let's wake up!

We have been incredibly naive in entrusting our democratic space to social networks.”

defenddemocracy.eu/macron-democ...

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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 4d

I remember being at group discussion, one young guy was manspreading heavily. One woman asked him to cut it, but another woman said it’s better to just be patient. They ended up arguing while he kept on spreading.

Simpler times.

sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 4d

Not sure that “we’ll just keep our trillions cos the real problem is the ones who want to drive their car or fertilize their field” is a winning message but ok.

sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 4d

Noooooooo!

Screenshot of Merrian-Webster website showing fascism defeating Chargoggagoggmanchauggauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg.

sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 4d

Just saying, there's two sides.

sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 4d

And yet …

Graph from norskpetroleum showing Norway's oil and gas exports from 1970. They have remained roughly steady since the mind 90s, in fact growing slowly since 2020, the same period that saw a massive increase in renewables globally.

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sujato @sujato.bsky.social · 4d

It’s only just become respectable to explain how bad MAGA is by comparing them to Nazis. Time flies. Soon we’ll be telling kids, “That Hitler was so terrible, he was as bad as Trump”. And they’ll scoff and say that’s so extra, be serious.