@KathyReid@aus.social
@KathyReid@aus.social avatar

KathyReid

@KathyReid@aus.social

Doing a #PhD https://aus.social/@anucybernetics in #opensource #voice and #data #bias #FairML. Into #linux, #IoT. Built @SenseBreast. She/her pronouns. Ex @mycroft_ai https://fosstodon.org/@linuxaustralia @deakin @mozilla
Living in Australia on Waddawurrung land but with connections in #Northumberland
#MastoAdmin for fediverse.au

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KathyReid, to stackoverflow
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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,
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@j3j5 @DoesntExist @blogdiva @astrojuanlu

Strong agree. A lot of Elinor Ostrom's work around governance of the commons - where we get the phrase "tragedy of the commons" - relied on mechanisms of co-operation between institutions.

One of the key challenges I see here is that corporations like OpenAI now have a lot more power than even groups of institutions - lawmakers, governments, civil society. We've seen that recently with the way Meta has influenced government policy around paying to share content from commercial news agencies.

There's also a paradox here - an increased production of work in the Commons is good for OpenAI - because it provides them with more data. However, the way in which the Commons is used - to create for-profit products like , serves as a constraint on people donating creative material to the commons.

KathyReid, to random
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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/

KathyReid, to microsoft
@KathyReid@aus.social avatar

Why does want to implement ? 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 data (e.g. 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 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.

KathyReid, to threads
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is not a text sharing platform, nor a app. It's a platform for people to create natural language examples Meta can use for training , for free

KathyReid, to llm
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Tay gently pushed the plastic door of the printer shut with an edifying "click".

Servicing Dark Printers had been illegal for years now. They enjoyed the seditious thrill.

It had started as a subscription grab after the printer companies tried hobbling third party toner cartridges.

"Subscribe for a monthly fee and you'll never run out of toner again."

"Let us monitor your printer so you don't have to."

People saw it for what it was - vendor lock in - but they had no choice really, not after all the printer companies started doing it.

Then came generative AI.

Everyone wanted to scrape every word ever written on the internet, tokenize it and feed it to an . sold out, then , even open source darling - selling out their user base for filthy token lucre.

So people started hiding their words, their art, their thoughts, their expression, not behind disrespected robots.txt, but through obscurity.

Rejecting Website Boy's "fewer algorithmic fanfares", they forked into the Dark Fedi.

Unscrapeable, unscrutable, ungovernable.

But people had forgotten about the printers.

The printers had to be connected 24/7, for "monitoring".

But you could tokenize postscript as easily as HTML.

And so every time a document was sent to a printer, it was harvested for tokens. Even secure documents. Documents not online.

Tay shut the metal door behind them, Dark Printer cossetted safely in its Faraday cage, and shuffled the hot stack of A4 paper it had borne.

It was a children's story, about how words were sacred, and special, and how you had to earn the right to use them.

KathyReid, to random
@KathyReid@aus.social avatar

I am setting up Windows on a spare computer, and OMG EVERYTHING IS GEARED TOWARD COLLECTING AND TRACKING YOUR DATA.

Everything.

The OS wants to track my browsing, my geo-location, my telemetry data. Everything.

No. Absolutely The F*ck No.

KathyReid, (edited ) to ai
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This is a beautifully-written, haunting, ambiguous and resonant exploration of one of the founding fathers of - Joseph Weizenbaum - and the demons that drove his work in early with . As Weizenbaum rightly asserts, our context, our history, our experience, shapes our relationship with, and toward, technology.

"Yet, as Eliza illustrated, it was surprisingly easy to trick people into feeling that a computer did know them – and into seeing that computer as human. Even in his original 1966 article, Weizenbaum had worried about the consequences of this phenomenon, warning that it might lead people to regard computers as possessing powers of “judgment” that are “deserving of credibility”. “A certain danger lurks there,” he wrote."

A certain danger lurks there. As applicable now in an age of as it was in the 1960s.

Thank you @bentarnoff for such an incisive piece. h/t to @CriticalAI for bringing it to my attention.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jul/25/joseph-weizenbaum-inventor-eliza-chatbot-turned-against-artificial-intelligence-ai

KathyReid, to opensource
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This is a fantastic retrospective on 40 years of from Rebecca Ackermann for MIT Technology Review that traces its origins, schisms, and current challenges. A beautiful study in exploring the richness and diversity of a landscape.

https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/08/17/1077498/future-open-source/

KathyReid, to mastodon
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Periodic reminder that I run the Fediverse AU server for and organisations who don't have a home on Mastodon.

https://fediverse.au

And here's a piece I wrote on why universities are reluctant to run their own Mastodon servers (recently updated with information on referrer tracking and social media platform support)

https://blog.kathyreid.id.au/2023/07/18/why-are-universities-reluctant-to-join-mastodon-and-the-fediverse/

KathyReid, (edited ) to ChatGPT
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got connected to , and started responding to people with disinformation. are , and they have the power to amplify what data sources they are interfaced with.

Who controls what information is presented by a voice assistant? Who is liable for misinformation?

https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/amazon-s-alexa-has-been-claiming-biden-stole-the-2020-election-20231008-p5eajm.html

I explore these and other issues in my earlier blog post:
https://blog.kathyreid.id.au/2023/02/19/the-mycroft-mark-ii-and-the-wind-down-of-mycroft-ai-its-all-about-ecosystems-infrastructures-and-the-friction-of-privacy/

(edited to include non-AMP link, thanks @bignose )

KathyReid, to OpenAI
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I see has adopted a daily beta release schedule for their CEOs.

KathyReid, to Futurology
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I am so frustrated that @thecarpentries is laying off 7 talented people - 4 with PhDs - mostly - because of financial constraints.

The Carpentries train researchers in digital and coding skills - allowing them to use computational methods, because universities often aren't placed to do this themselves.

In a time when the only organisations that can train huge models are those that can afford the compute time, we need more people with the skills to evaluate them and find their weaknesses.

We need to find a way to fund the Carpentries or we will have a generation of researchers who won't have the computational research skills needed to keep Big Tech accountable.

https://carpentries.org/blog/2023/12/saying-farewell-to-seven-carpentries-core-team-members/

KathyReid, to philosophy
@KathyReid@aus.social avatar

Folks, I'm starting my post- job search low-key on the side while I write up my .

I have an odd collection of skills - , , , , , and I've done a lot of work in team leadership and management, and have led a multi-million $ not for profit in the past. Keynote speaker.

My speciality is and AI, more on the side with models like .

I'm looking for something that harnesses all of these skills - and it will be a senior role with senior pay, given my experience, qualifications and proven capability. I have time and will be discerning about my next step.

Job titles that might fit here would be Senior Research Engineer, Engineering Lead, Lead AI Engineer or similar.

Looking for fully remote work, with one day a fortnight max in , AU. If you don't believe in or , we're not a good fit.

Super keen on something full time rather than splitting my attention over multiple part-time roles.

Looking to start around August, so a fair amount of lead time.

Keen on organisations that have strong values alignment - and data use, , AI for social good.

No crypto, no web3, no deepfake stuff.

Check out my LinkedIn for more info on my background:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathyreid/

KathyReid, to UQ
@KathyReid@aus.social avatar

Hi folks! @nad1a is a at and is researching including and how it effects how we experience .

Here are her bona fides:
https://business.uq.edu.au/profile/12710/nadia-bello-rinaudo

Could you please complete her ?

Thank you!

https://uniofqueensland.syd1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1EKNV4HaKYA0nQy

KathyReid, to TwitterMigration
@KathyReid@aus.social avatar

Good morning folks! It's been a while since I did one of my posts where I curate interesting people for you to follow on the :fediverse:

Today, I'd like you to meet:

@LMonteroSantos Lola is a at interested in , digital and , passionate about and . New to Mastodon, please make welcome 👋 🇪🇺

@danlockton is a at @TUEindhoven where he works in , and . He often posts interesting things around co-design and 🇳🇱

@1sabelR is a @ANUResearch where she is into and @scicomm 🇦🇺 She co-hosts the - worth a listen!

@timrichards is a based in / in Australia, specialising in 🇦🇺

@microstevens is a facilitator at and she works in and 💻 🧬

@mrocklin does amazing things with in , and I am very grateful in recent weeks for his posts and responses. Thank you 🙏 🐍

@everythingopen is Australia's premier open conference, covering , , , , , and everything else open. You should check it out! 🐧 🇦🇺

That's all for today - don't forget to share your own lists so we can more richly connect the :fediverse: and curate the conversations we want to have ❤️

KathyReid, to Futurology
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Regular reminder that if your or organisation in or is looking for a home, I run the https://fediverse.au instance for this purpose.

I also wrote this about why universities don't want to run their own :
https://blog.kathyreid.id.au/2023/07/18/why-are-universities-reluctant-to-join-mastodon-and-the-fediverse/

KathyReid, to random
@KathyReid@aus.social avatar

Sam Altman has recently suggested as an alternative to .

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, to TwitterMigration
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It's been a while since I did an post, where I curate a list of interesting people in the :fediverse: you might want to follow - helping us create valuable communities and connections.

@nrennie is a in at , and she does amazing work in , primarily with

@mkohler is a and , and a long-time contributor to all things @mozilla, and in particular, the project

@isomeme is a too and she practices Hermetic

@skc is Scott Kingsley Clark, who is also a and Lead Dev of the framework for

@aehdeschaine is interested in and

@hclarke is a Senior Fellow at . He researches and 🔥 🌲

@blogdiva is Liza, and she, well she's generally awesome and shares my views on Space Karen / ApartheidBoi 🇵🇷

KathyReid, to ai
@KathyReid@aus.social avatar

A group of prominent and scientists signed a very simple statement on giving the possibilities of global catastrophe caused by AI more prominence.

https://www.safe.ai/statement-on-ai-risk

This is part of a broader movement of or . I don't disagree with everything this movement has to say; there are real, and tangible consequences to unfettered development of AI systems.

But the focus of this work is on possible futures. Right now, currently, there are people who experience discrimination, poorer outcomes, impeded life chances, and real, material harms because of the technologies we have in place right now.

And I wonder if this focus on possible futures is because the people warning about them don't feel the real and material harms already causes? Because they're predominantly male-identifying. Or white. Or socio-economically advantaged. Or well educated. Or articulate. Or powerful. Or intersectionally, many of these qualities.

It's hard to worry about a possible future when you're living a life of a thousand machine learning-triggered paper cuts in the one that exists already.

KathyReid, to random
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Welcome to the future where I have to disable my adblocker infrastructure like and to place a Coles online shopping order.

Because my user is more profitable than the goods I purchase.

video/mp4

KathyReid, to linguistics
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Excellent piece from Grégory Miras on why new tools that change in real time are harmful and problematic - they erase diversity - and make us less able to appreciate and listen to that diversity.

https://theconversation.com/why-ai-software-softening-accents-is-problematic-197751

KathyReid, to TwitterMigration
@KathyReid@aus.social avatar

Good morning everyone! Here's a post, where I curate interesting accounts for you to follow from across the :fediverse:

@GreatDismal is the acclaimed author , of and fame. He's been on here a while, but looking to be more active. Please make him welcome 🇨🇦

@fossandcrafts is a co-hosted by @mlemweb and @cwebber exploring the intersection of user on computers, and crafting things (like and ). They run a twice-monthly online session (it's 5am in my time zone otherwise I would be there for sure!) 💻 🧶

@rbert works in at @helmholtz @HelmholtzOpenScienceOffice 🇩🇪 🧑‍🔬

@kdnyhan works as a , and is the co-founder of Community Access to Ventilation Information 📖 🔬

@Samuelmoore is a scholarly specialist at . Researches 🇬🇧

@katemiltner i a in , and at the of 🇬🇧

@markus_netzpolitik works for at @netzpolitik_feed (cc @floreani) 🇩🇪

@sarahgilbert is the Director of the Citizens and Lab at (cc @michalove) 🇺🇸

That's all for now, please do curate your own lists so we can more closely connect the ❤️

KathyReid, to VintageOSes
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PSA: Read 's new very carefully - section 9 requires you to use arbitration and reduces the ability for you to make a class action against them.

This is another example of (per @pluralistic) and Rebecca Giblin's work on - this sort of clause is one of the ways of creating a chokepoint and reducing the power users of a platform have, while concentrating power in the hands of the platform.

KathyReid, to generativeAI
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"We were supposed to research , not embrace it as a business model!" implored the DVC Research.

The Vice-Chancellor sighed audibly and exhaled.

"We're out of options."

She raised her hands, palms up, reminiscent of prayer.

"The research grants don't cover the research we do, much less the research we want to do.

International students have declined 20% year on year since India, China and Indonesia have on-shore partnerships with Deakin and Monash that still get the grads a permanent residency.

We have PhDs teaching most of the undergrad courses. The endowment took a major hit when the stock market crashed in '25.

Federation's gone bust, Adelaide's half the size it was before the merger, and you've seen CQ merge with SCU and James Cook and Charles Darwin just to be viable."

She took a sharp inhalation of burnt autumn air.

"It's tens of millions a year in recurring revenue. That's a School's worth of people."

"What do they get?"

"All the data, and lecture recordings."

"All of it?"

"Yeah, then new deltas each semester."

"So, what's to stop them using it to create that mimics a lecturer?"

"Good point, I suspect that's what their end game is."

"Given our smarts, couldn't we do that ourselves?

Use our LMS data and lecture recordings to build a personal assistant for students, you know, Diamond Age style?

Like an always-available personal tutor? Use , make sure it doesn't spit out bullshit?

We have the best in the world. Why sacrifice a long term advantage for short-term money?

What if we built it ourselves and white-labelled it for other ?"

The Vice-Chancellor raised her eyebrow.

And so was born.

TO BE CONTINUED

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