jeffjarvis

jeffjarvis, 9 hours ago to random

Meta’s new AI council is composed entirely of white men https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/22/metas-new-ai-council-is-comprised-entirely-of-white-men/

jeffjarvis, 7 hours ago to random

RIP ICQ
ICQ is shutting down after almost 28 years https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/25/24164579/icq-shut-down-june

jeffjarvis, 9 hours ago to random

I am waiting for The Washington Post to apologize for burying the Alito flag story. But then, I am still waiting for The New York Times to apologize for #ButHerEmail and #ButHisBirthday and countless other sins against democracy. So I think I'll be waiting a long time.

jeffjarvis, 10 hours ago to random

Gee. People are misinformed about the economy and crime. Think that might be the failure of the institutions charged with informing the public: journalism? You'll never see journalists reflect on that.

jeffjarvis, 1 day ago to random

Good Lord. The Washington Post blew this, choosing not to report on the Alitos' (plural) flag at the time, dredging it up now, masking the failure amid background paragraphs. Democracy dies in terrible, irresponsible, credulous, complicit news judgment. Shame.

Wife of Justice Alito called upside-down flag ‘signal of distress’ https://wapo.st/4dS1BCf

jeffjarvis, 9 hours ago to random

The ultimate Time Pitchbot self-own: Trump is Biden's fault.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/26/magazine/trump-reaction-videos-biden-campaign.html

jeffjarvis, 9 hours ago to random

Fun read on the #Threadnought team of lawyers now suing Elon.
“In a very large sense, he broke our home.”
Gift link
How a Profane Joke on Twitter Spawned a Legal Army
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/26/nyregion/twitter-lawyers-threadnought-elon-musk.html?unlocked_article_code=1.u00.7mlK.Ycgit3trw0EH&smid=tw-share

jeffjarvis, 1 day ago to random

The Guardian laps up the nutballs doomsterism of Max Tegmark arguing the opposite of what is true: His talk of extinction from AI is macho distraction from real and present issues. God, I wish reporters would just Google #TESCREAL before reporting on the AI boys.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/may/25/big-tech-existential-risk-ai-scientist-max-tegmark-regulations

jeffjarvis, 2 days ago to random

Google blew it. They could have stood back and said: "Ha! Microsoft is so desperate for hype, it is irresponsibly linking LLMs to Bing. Google instead stands for reliable search and won't do that." But instead, Google did. They knew better. They all knew better. LLMs have no sense of meaning. They should be nowhere near the expectation of credibility.

jeffjarvis, 1 day ago to random

The Missouri Granger, May 12, 1874, on the invention of the typewrtier: "All we now want is a spelling machine and a patent brain-worker, through which a man may hatch machine poetry, and the summit of human ambition will have been attained."
Guess we've made it.

jeffjarvis, 1 day ago to random

As an aside, the reason I object to moral entrepreneurs' scare phrase "surveillance capitalism" as it relates to web cookies is that it diminishes the impact of the word "surveillance" by governments such as this:
Xi Jinping’s Recipe for Total Control: An Army of Eyes and Ears https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/25/world/asia/china-surveillance-xi.html?smid=tw-share

jeffjarvis, 1 day ago to random

The Times and Haberman as Trump whisperer are blind to the irony of writing about "the reality that a man who spent years building an artifice about himself in the press and on TV" while doing just that for him here.
How Donald Trump Still Lives in the 1980s
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/25/us/politics/trump-1980s-manhattan.html?smid=tw-share

jeffjarvis, 2 days ago to random

Fascinating.
“That devil in sheepskin called the Constitution of the United States,” the man wrote, is “the great chain that binds the north and south together, a union to rob and plunder the sons of Africa, a union cemented with human blood, and blackened with the guilt of 68 years.”
Gift link:
A Furious, Forgotten Slave Narrative Resurfaces After Nearly 170 Years
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/23/arts/john-jacobs-slavery-discovery.html?unlocked_article_code=1.uU0.pD_R.IfH8kZJz4Y3i&smid=url-share

jeffjarvis, 2 days ago to random

Excellent reporting by @brandyzadrozny Inside the fringe worldview of RFK Jr.’s VP pick https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/nicole-shanahan-rfk-jr-vice-president-beliefs-rcna153535

jeffjarvis, 2 days ago to random

Good Krugman column on the wrong perception of the economy. But he says "it’s surprisingly hard to pin down where negative views of the economy are coming from." I say, start with news media coverage of it.
America Is Still Having a ‘Vibecession’ https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/23/opinion/biden-trump-vibecession.html?smid=tw-share

jeffjarvis, 2 days ago to random

The rightwing media aim to save Britain from Labour. They’re also desperate to save themselves
Jane Martinson
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/24/rightwing-media-britain-labour-starmer-sunak

jeffjarvis, 4 days ago to random

Another Provocative Flag Was Flown at Another Alito Home https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/22/us/justice-alito-flag-appeal-to-heaven.html?smid=tw-share

jeffjarvis, 4 days ago to random

As if Jonah didn't already have enough to worry about. Yeesh....
Vivek Ramaswamy Acquires Activist Stake in BuzzFeed https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/vivek-ramaswamy-acquires-activist-stake-buzzfeed-1235906064/

jeffjarvis, 4 days ago to random

The big, old publishers grab their bag o' gold from OpenAI et al, leaving out all of local, Black, Latino, digital, and new media and the needs of the public. The industry should instead band together for a news API. But it's every mogul for himself.

https://www.wsj.com/business/media/openai-news-corp-strike-deal-23f186ba?mod=hp_lead_pos3

jeffjarvis, 4 days ago to random

Good. The Atlantic carries Candice Odgers -- actual scholar of children and technology -- responding to The Atlantic's Jonathan Haidt and his #MoralPanic and moral entrepreneurship over kids and their phones. Gift link. Quoting:
"My colleagues and I have repeatedly failed to find compelling support for the claim that digital-technology use is a major contributor to adolescent depression and other mental-health symptoms."
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/05/candice-odgers-teens-smartphones/678433/?gift=lOosoRE4GnUPfUTNHl2Az6-hh7-_z5hn_GEV52sOANs&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social

jeffjarvis, 4 days ago to random

Lovely story about Tom Lehrer. For you kids, he was kind of our @DougJBalloon for Boomers.
(From The Guardian, it's always a gift link:)
https://www.theguardian.com/music/article/2024/may/22/my-songs-spread-like-herpes-why-did-satirical-genius-tom-lehrer-swap-worldwide-fame-for-obscurity?CMP=share_btn_url

jeffjarvis, 4 days ago to random

In other words, mass media and the mass are dying....
With the median age of TV viewers well into the 60s at many networks, media companies’ new advertising pitch is that age doesn't matter https://www.wsj.com/business/media/tv-networks-embrace-their-aging-audience-with-a-new-mantra-age-doesnt-matter-63badbd1?st=j39x9ttvjyp9k7n

jeffjarvis, 4 days ago to random

Stop this. Just stop this. Vanessa Friedman trivialized Stormy Daniels and normalizes RFJ Jr., Melania, and Noem with fashion takes. Bad judgment by her and The Times.
The Power of the Kennedy Look https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/21/style/rfk-jr-fashion.html?smid=tw-share

jeffjarvis, 4 days ago to random

France Issues Scratch-and-Sniff Baguette Postage Stamps https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/18/world/europe/france-baguette-stamp-scratch-and-sniff.html?smid=tw-share

jeffjarvis, 4 days ago to random

It’s moral panic time! Thank goodness for News Corp who continue to champion the mental health of kiddies | First Dog on the Moon https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2024/may/22/its-moral-panic-time-thank-goodness-for-news-corp-who-continue-to-champion-the-mental-health-of-kiddies?CMP=share_btn_url