gerrymcgovern

gerrymcgovern, 46 minutes ago to random

AI Big Tech practices modern day slavery in poor countries. If you're surprised by this, you're not paying attention.

"US Big Tech companies are systemically abusing and exploiting African workers. In Kenya, these US companies are undermining the local labor laws, the country’s justice system and violating international labor standards. Our working conditions amount to modern day slavery."

https://www.foxglove.org.uk/open-letter-to-president-biden-from-tech-workers-in-kenya/

gerrymcgovern, 13 hours ago to random

AI: The best liar ever designed. Incredible innovation and progress.

"An AI algorithm found a way to achieve its objective in a research experiment — by hacking its own code. Tasked with winning a simple game that involved strategic deception, the AI discovered an unanticipated workaround to triumph, according to a new paper in the journal Patterns."

https://www.pymnts.com/news/artificial-intelligence/2024/ai-breaks-its-own-code-win-glitch-reveals-new-challenge/

gerrymcgovern, 13 hours ago to random

"Generative AI is getting more advanced by the day. During the course of my reporting, I was shown deepfake videos, purportedly portraying global leaders like U.S. President Joe Biden and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, that were indistinguishable from the real thing. They included politicians allegedly speaking in multiple languages and saying things that, if true, would have ended their careers."

https://www.politico.eu/article/artificial-intelligence-elections-ballots-vote-chinsinau-seattle-policymakers-technology/

Never has there been a technology that can lie so well.

gerrymcgovern, 22 hours ago to random

Why are we giving the richest and most powerful companies in the world tax breaks, half-price water and half-price electricity? Why does Google, Facebook and Microsoft have to be on corporate welfare?

"Environmental groups warn that without ratepayer protections, average Michigan taxpayers may be burdened with hefty costs to support data centers, akin to supporting entire cities."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/environmental-groups-raise-concerns-data-164440393.html

gerrymcgovern, 23 hours ago to random

‘Climate capitalism’ can help scale green solutions, new book says

"Some people say that the title of your book is an oxymoron — that, in a sense, capitalism is the root cause of the rapid growth of industrialization."

https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/climate-capitalism-can-help-scale-green-solutions-new-book-says

gerrymcgovern, 23 hours ago to random

In the words of Ursula Le Guin “[the] power [of capitalism] seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings”.

"Growth and its attendant social structure has shaped the core of the modern Western subject, it has also become evident that a break away from this model will require not merely an economic shift, but the root-and-stem refashioning of our very selves—our practices, common senses, needs and values.

https://www.resilience.org/stories/2024-05-21/life-after-growth-a-peek-into-values-needs-and-time-for-degrowth/

Leave the Growth Death Cult
Degrowth is the only hope

gerrymcgovern, 23 hours ago to random

"The digital world gobbles up 10 per cent of the world’s electricity and represents more than four per cent of global emissions. That’s more than the civil aviation industry. Within a year or two it will account for 20 per cent of global electrical production and nearly eight per cent of greenhouse gas emissions."
https://www.resilience.org/stories/2024-05-21/no-ai-wont-outsmart-our-climate-calamity/

That's the tip of the melting iceberg. The digital world is an advertising machine whose key objective is to drive overconsumption--the key cause of collapse.