parismarx

parismarx, 9 months ago to tech

In 2014, Ursula Le Guin warned that corporate power wanted to stop us from even imagining freedom as life got even harder.

Nearly a decade later, people are struggling and the tech industry seems intent on using generative AI to further replace art with cheap commodities churned out with AI tools. It’s our responsibility to stop them.

https://www.disconnect.blog/p/generative-ai-closes-off-a-better

#tech #ai #chatgpt #art

parismarx, 9 months ago to journalism

Critical reporting on the tech industry is essential, but for far too long tech media and large publications were far too happy to parrot company press releases. Thankfully, that’s changing.

On #TechWontSaveUs, I spoke to @jasonkoebler and Samantha Cole about launching a new publication called 404 Media that will focus on ground-up reporting instead of cultivating access to executives.

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1004689/13492628-reporting-critically-on-tech-w-jason-koebler-samantha-cole

#media #tech #journalism

parismarx, 9 months ago to tech

For years, the media built up Elon Musk and got the public to buy into the myth of his genius. Now the truth of who he is can’t be hidden and changing how they cover Musk isn’t enough.

The media failed us. They not only need to inform the public about the harms of Musk’s empire, but change how they cover the entire tech industry so another grifter can’t replicate his rise. They owe us nothing less.

https://www.disconnect.blog/p/the-medias-failure-on-elon-musk

#tech #media #elonmusk #tesla #spacex #twitter #x

parismarx, 9 months ago to tech

We’re in moment of AI hype, but if you followed the commentary, you might think criticism of the technology is entirely new. The truth is that it has a very long history.

On #TechWontSaveUs, I spoke to @bentarnoff about Joseph Weizenbaum’s creation of the first chatbot in the 1960s and how it turned him into a critic of AI and computation for the rest of his life. We can learn a lot from his perspective.

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1004689/13451613-ai-criticism-has-a-decades-long-history-w-ben-tarnoff

#tech #ai #chatgpt #artificialintelligence

parismarx, 9 months ago to tech

Canada just evacuated a city of 20,000 people because of the wildfires devastating the country, but when people turn to Facebook for emergency updates, they get caught up in Meta’s news ban.

It shows how little the company really cares about its users.

https://www.disconnect.blog/p/roundup-meta-doesnt-care-about-you

#tech #meta #facebook #canada #wildfires #socialmedia

parismarx, 9 months ago to tech

After two months as Twitter/X CEO, the only thing that stands out about Linda Yaccarino is how little power Elon Musk ceded to her.

After he called CEO a “fake title,” more people are wondering why she took the job and what she hoped to get out of it. I don’t think ideology or money were central to her decision. She was denied the CEO job at NBCUniversal, so sought it out elsewhere — and Musk was happy to have her advertising experience.

https://www.disconnect.blog/p/why-did-linda-yaccarino-join-twitter

#tech #twitter #x #elonmusk

parismarx, 9 months ago to tech

Microsoft is really hitting it out of the park with its AI-generated travel stories! If you visit Ottawa, it highly recommends the Ottawa Food Bank and provides a tip for tourists: “Consider going into it on an empty stomach.”

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/lifestyle/travel/headed-to-ottawa-here-s-what-you-shouldn-t-miss/ar-AA1faajY

#tech #ai #travel

parismarx, 9 months ago to tech

Sam Altman wants to scan all of our irises with his Worldcoin Orbs, and promises we’ll get a ton of benefits beyond a few crypto tokens if we let him.

On #TechWontSaveUs, I spoke to @molly0xfff about the real ambitions of the Worldcoin project, and we briefly discussed why Sam Bankman-Fried was just sent to prison. It might have crashed, but crypto isn’t dead yet.

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1004689/13416560-pondering-the-orb-w-molly-white

#tech #crypto #worldcoin #sbf

parismarx, 10 months ago to random

even zuckerberg is calling musk out on his bullshit now

parismarx, 10 months ago to journalism

I agree with most of this, but it’s too little, too late in 2023. Musk has been lying through his teeth for years, the entire tech press has known it, and they kept incessantly covering him—usually uncritically. He wouldn’t have his mystique without them.

https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/8/23824184/elon-musk-news-coverage-criticism

#techindustry #media #elonmusk

parismarx, 10 months ago to tech

Worldcoin wants to scan the irises of every person on the planet to build a global ID network to bring crypto to the masses and ensure we’re not AI — or that’s what it claims.

Behind the grand vision, there’s a history of exploiting people in the Global South for biometric data and tech that doesn’t actually work very well. Maybe it’s just a means to pump a crypto token, but there’s good reason for regulators to shut it down now.

https://www.disconnect.blog/p/dont-look-into-the-orb

#tech #ai #crypto #worldcoin

parismarx, 10 months ago to random

it’s reached the point where i have people who aren’t on twitter asking me if it’s really called X now and laughing when i tell them it is. elon’s rebrand is slowly seeping into the public consciousness and most people think he’s a fool.

parismarx, 10 months ago to random

The Meta PR team is doing a great job with Zuck’s posts.

parismarx, 10 months ago to tech

Elon Musk says a left-wing political party in South Africa is promoting white genocide for singing apartheid-era song “Kill the Boer.” He’s echoing a far-right conspiracy.

“That Musk weighed in … through the hysteria of [far-right provocateur Benny] Johnson, who erroneously, though tellingly, labeled Malema’s EFF as ‘South Africa’s Black party’, is revealing. The specter of ‘white genocide’ is a long-standing trope among US white nationalists.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/08/01/musk-south-africa-apartheid-chant-malema/

#elonmusk #tech #racism

parismarx, 10 months ago to space

The US decision to privatize space has given Elon Musk immense power over how satellite communications are used and who has access to them. He controls 53% of active satellites in orbit, and countries have started voicing concerns to US officials. They won’t speak publicly for fear of the consequences of angering Musk.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/07/28/business/starlink.html

#space #spacex #starlink #tech #elonmusk

parismarx, 10 months ago to tech

Tech billionaires are piling money into Rumble in a bid to build a platform that can shape US conservatism and push extreme right-wing views further into the mainstream.

On #TechWontSaveUs, I spoke to Jacob Silverman about Rumble, the cast of characters associated with it, and why tech billionaires are backing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. It’s a fascinating conversation!

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1004689/13338108-the-right-is-building-its-own-platforms-w-jacob-silverman

#tech #rumble #rfkjr #politics

parismarx, 10 months ago to tech

Kenyan content moderators who reviewed incredibly graphic material to train ChatGPT are asking the Kenyan government to investigate the exploitative conditions they were subject to, which included “psychological trauma, low pay and abrupt dismissal.”

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/aug/02/ai-chatbot-training-human-toll-content-moderator-meta-openai

#tech #chatgpt #ai

parismarx, 10 months ago to tech

Sam Bankman-Fried and his brother Gabe wanted to buy the island nation of Nauru and turn it into a doomsday bunker and lab for genetic enhancement, regardless of the impact on its 12,000 residents.

Nauru has a long history of exploitation by powerful outside forces, and the Bankman-Frieds’ desire to be their latest exploiters tells us a lot about tech billionaires.

https://www.disconnect.blog/p/the-tragedy-of-sam-bankman-frieds

#tech #sbf #crypto

parismarx, 10 months ago to tech

Greg Rutkwoski requested to have his art removed from Stable Diffusion. Once it was, the image generation community created their own tool trained on his artwork that the company can’t do anything about. AI “artists” have no respect for real artists.

https://decrypt.co/150575/greg-rutkowski-removed-from-stable-diffusion-but-brought-back-by-ai-artists

#tech #ai #art #stablediffusion #aiart

parismarx, 10 months ago to random

Here’s an example of what you often find in these Elon Musk biographies: the author describes him being a socially inept dick and terrible boss, then brushes it off as “Musk being Musk.”

parismarx, 10 months ago to tech

“Humans and computers belong to separate and incommensurable realms. … For Weizenbaum, we cannot humanise AI because AI is irreducibly non-human. What you can do, however, is not make computers do (or mean) too much. We should never ‘substitute a computer system for a human function that involves interpersonal respect, understanding and love’, he wrote in Computer Power and Human Reason.” — @bentarnoff

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

#tech #ai #chatbot #chatgpt

parismarx, 10 months ago to tech

Elon Musk has been obsessed with the letter X for over 20 years. He tried to rebrand PayPal as X, but was ousted for his incompetence. Then he stuck the letter on his space company, a vehicle model, and even one of his children.

Now he’s determined to rebrand Twitter as X regardless of the consequences. Read my latest for @newstatesman:

https://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/big-tech/2023/07/origin-story-of-x-elon-musk-twitter

#tech #twitter #x #elonmusk #socialmedia

parismarx, 10 months ago to tech

Tesla faked its dashboard range projections under orders from Elon Musk so it seemed drivers could go farther before recharging. Last year, the volume of complaints became so high it created a special team to start canceling owners’ service appointments.

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/tesla-batteries-range/

#tech #tesla #elonmusk #cars #ev