KathyReid

KathyReid, 21 hours ago to microsoft

Why does #Microsoft want to implement #Recall? It's not about images. It's about modelling what workers do on Windows, and then replacing them.

The most expensive part of a computer is the fallible feelings-filled unpredictable meat sack that operates it.

Google has YouTube, Google Photos, Maps, and a bucket load of search data, Google Analytics, advertising, as well as it's #GCP data (e.g. #STT transcriptions). And a bunch of data from Android services. From this data they can model speech, model videos and model advertising systems, and how humans respond to them.

But they can't model what people do on computers.

Amazon has Prime data, and a bucket load of compute. But no operating system data. They can build models based around e-commerce and advertising systems.

But they can't model what people do on computers.

Meta has waves hands enough analytics to model human behaviour in the Metaverse.

But they can't model what people do on computers.

Microsoft has GitHub.
Microsoft has LinkedIn.
Microsoft has SharePoint.
Microsoft has Teams.
Microsoft has Dynamics.
Microsoft has O365.
Microsoft has Windows telemetry data.

Microsoft can model what people do on (Windows) computers. Like fill out spreadsheets.Write emails. Synthesize web pages of research. Interact with colleagues on Teams. Create and edit documents.

Microsoft wants #MicrosoftRecall data so they can model what people do with operating systems.

Then replace them.

Imagine a CoPilot that doesn't just write buggy code. Imagine one that also does spreadsheets. That creates documents on SharePoint. That communicates with colleages on Teams. That has a customer pipeline on Dynamics.

That's what Recall is about - 360 degree surveillance of the worker, to model their functions, make them fungible, replicable - and replaceable.

jessie, 4 days ago to random

Friends, Romans, fellow internet nerds: Do we have resources we like for teaching R to already-competent developers?

adamsteer, 5 days ago to random

It's job application weekend again with 5 weeks on the current clock. It is painful. there's nothing that really "fits" skills or location (Bendigo, Victoria, Australia). No permanent roles, all short term.

If you want to headhunt a highly trained, super experienced, skilled researcher and geospatial data analyst, who can lead teams and develop concepts from dream to strategy to reality to results, and is trusted to get remote work done - reach out! Save me and my referees a pile of effort.

KathyReid, 9 days ago to random

Sam Altman has recently suggested #UniversalBasicCompute as an alternative to #UniversalBasicIncome #UBI.

Apart from being egregiously out of touch, it's also a huge power move, one that I don't think people grasp.

The polarisation of society into those deriving an income from return on capital - capitalists - and those deriving an income from labour - workers - has been driven in large part by venture capital and their hunger for new asset classes.

Housing is an asset class, it's no longer social infrastructure.

Stocks are an asset class - they're no longer a way to ensure survival of the best organisations - because many companies with little revenue have high valuations.

Compute is now an asset class. It allows organisations to gain advantage, and create a moat from their competitors. Compute is an asset.

By substituting compute for money (another asset class), Altman is trying to substitute compute for currency more broadly.

And who creates currency?

Typically, the state. Who now creates currency, sorry I mean compute? The MAANGs that have taken the place of the state.

Compute is currency.

Replacing currency with compute is a form of wrestling control from the state.

As we say in Australia, yeah, nah.

KathyReid, 10 days ago to FiberArts

This is incredible - Tracey Clement, a lecturer at #ACU, used #embroidery to visualise the devastating #bushfires in Australia.

Her work is rage expressed in thread, each stitch a jibe at the people who continue to vacillate in the face of a climate emergency.

Incredible.

https://theconversation.com/15-000-squares-500-hours-19-months-how-i-used-embroidery-to-make-sense-of-australias-catastrophic-fires-227907

Unixbigot, 10 days ago to random

Venture Capital is dynamite fishing. You sprinkle some “free service” on the waters until you have a nice thick shoal of users. Then you detonate.

KathyReid, 11 days ago to random

In the most glorious "fuck you" I have seen in a while, you know the book that Cumberland City Council banned because they're homophobic bigots - Holly Duhig's "A focus on Same Sex Parents"? Well, the publisher, BookLife Publishing, have made a PDF version of the book available for free.

Sure be a shame if it was shared far and wide now, wouldn't it?

Every time you ban a book filled with hope and kindness, and care and love, we will resist.

https://www.booklifepublishing.co.uk/a-focus-on/same-sex-parents/

#CumberlandCityCouncil #SameSexParents #BookBans #Bookstodon

DanielEriksson, 12 days ago to random

@KathyReid
Small world - I've students at the ANU Research School of Biology (Williams lab, structural biology of plant innate immunity).

Seems I'll need to explore more of the campus next time I'm in Canberra!

KathyReid, 13 days ago to stackoverflow

Like many other technologists, I gave my time and expertise for free to #StackOverflow because the content was licensed CC-BY-SA - meaning that it was a public good. It brought me joy to help people figure out why their #ASR code wasn't working, or assist with a #CUDA bug.

Now that a deal has been struck with #OpenAI to scrape all the questions and answers in Stack Overflow, to train #GenerativeAI models, like #LLMs, without attribution to authors (as required under the CC-BY-SA license under which Stack Overflow content is licensed), to be sold back to us (the SA clause requires derivative works to be shared under the same license), I have issued a Data Deletion request to Stack Overflow to disassociate my username from my Stack Overflow username, and am closing my account, just like I did with Reddit, Inc.

https://policies.stackoverflow.co/data-request/

The data I helped create is going to be bundled in an #LLM and sold back to me.

In a single move, Stack Overflow has alienated its community - which is also its main source of competitive advantage, in exchange for token lucre.

Stack Exchange, Stack Overflow's former instantiation, used to fulfill a psychological contract - help others out when you can, for the expectation that others may in turn assist you in the future. Now it's not an exchange, it's #enshittification.

Programmers now join artists and copywriters, whose works have been snaffled up to create #GenAI solutions.

The silver lining I see is that once OpenAI creates LLMs that generate code - like Microsoft has done with Copilot on GitHub - where will they go to get help with the bugs that the generative AI models introduce, particularly, given the recent GitClear report, of the "downward pressure on code quality" caused by these tools?

While this is just one more example of #enshittification, it's also a salient lesson for #DevRel folks - if your community is your source of advantage, don't upset them.

KathyReid, 14 days ago to stackoverflow

I just issued a data deletion request to #StackOverflow to erase all of the associations between my name and the questions, answers and comments I have on the platform.

One of the key ways in which #RAG works to supplement #LLMs is based on proven associations. Higher ranked Stack Overflow members' answers will carry more weight in any #LLM that is produced.

By asking for my name to be disassociated from the textual data, it removes a semantic relationship that is helpful for determining which tokens of text to use in an #LLM.

If you sell out your user base without consultation, expect a backlash.