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• Post #4446939

  RE: https://mastodon.social/@404mediaco/117049039758297298 This is how you can tell the difference between politicians who are on your side and those who are merely pretending to be.

• Post #4245047

  RE: https://mastodon.social/@koen_hufkens/117004920937193940 So #Google is sacrificing their children to their mechanized #Moloch. A few noteworthy aspects: (1) As always, it’s worth keeping in mind that #LLMs and generative imagery are NOT the whole of #AI. (2) The willingness to shut down such a celebrated and illustrious project as #AlphaFold demonstrates the extent of the growing financial desperation hidden behind the #singularity hype about #LLMs. They've stretched their resources...

• Post #4115335

  RE: https://c.im/@cdarwin/116981152027273133 I keep telling everyone: THEY WANT US DEAD. This isn't about saving money; that's just a rationalization. They've convinced themselves that #AI can do all the work, and as far as they're concerned, we can all die of #heatstroke. Hannah #Arendt predicted, in the 1960s, the rise of a version of #fascism that wouldn't be content with targeting certain minorities. It would no longer rely on the labor of some supposed human master rac...

• Post #3987013

  RE: https://mastodon.green/@gerrymcgovern/116697233926805705 It now occurs to me that the enormous diversion of resources to the construction of AI #datacenters reflects not triumphalism but desperation. If the #LLMs and generative #AI of today worked half as well as their proponents claim they do, would it be necessary to go to these lengths to make them work a little bit better yet? These people and companies have bet the farm, not on #AI as such, but on a particular resource-heavy approach...

• Post #2542487

  RE: https://tomkahe.com/@GiftArticles/116568957664357462 Everyone who ever said #VoteBlueNoMatterWho should have this etched into their memory forever. Some Republicans defected to the cause of at least limiting the horror — but John #Fetterman voted for unlimited #war and #dictatorship. #JackassParty

• Post #2542486

  RE: https://mastodon.social/@DrALJONES/116564823319987788 Anyone who thinks we merely need to get back to the rule of the Democratic Party of #Clinton, or even #Obama, is part of the problem. It's true that that would be better than the uninterrupted continuation of Trumpian fascism. But those Democrats paved the way for Trump. Clinton gave us #NAFTA and the obscene expansion of intellectual property law, among other things. Obama helped the private health insurance industry whittle dow...

• Post #2475436

  Query for user experiences with software: is anyone familiar with the Kagi paid-subscription metasearch engine? I'm so fed up with Google and even DuckDuckGo that I'm seriously considering Kagi. I'd also be interested in hearing about any experiences with Mojeek (one of the search engines Kagi draws on, and reputedly one of the few serious search engines to be completely independent of Google and Bing).

• Post #1925714

  RE: https://twit.social/@leo/116506133841024081 Bad actors using social media for systematic manipulation of opinion — so-called "coordinated inauthentic behavior" (#CIB) — is one reason why creepy little accounts whose behavior just DOESN'T ADD UP bother me even more than do overtly abusive or fascistic accounts. With hindsight, I now see that on eX-Twitter I was manipulated by the #Russian propaganda apparatus — by accounts that appeared superficially to be those of people commu...

• Post #1268397

  RE: https://social.coop/@cwebber/116408556882122186 Has anyone noticed that it is a DEMOCRAT — Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ-5) — who is sponsoring this totalitarian monstrosity? [Cosponsor is the notorious Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY-21).] I would like to know the full list of members of Congress on record as supporting this abomination.

• Post #1175146

  RE: https://cosocial.ca/@mhoye/116408710411188966 OS-level "age verification" is of a piece with another high-tech control tactic, namely, pricing DRAM out of the consumer market. Jeff #Bezos of Amazon is already publicly on record that the latter (overpricing of DRAM) is a feature, not a bug, in the mad scramble for computing power for AI data centers. In both cases the goal is to take autonomous computing and communication out of the hands of citizens, and force us to rent t...

• Post #1125467

  Now #Hungary has given us an answer to the claim that #electoral means are useless for ending a #dictatorship. Even a badly gerrymandered, deeply flawed electoral system can accomplish real change if public opinion is strongly enough against the #dictator. Keep that in mind here in the #USA as we approach the midterms. Do NOT discourage anyone from voting, even if you believe (as I do!) that our Constitution is fundamentally undemocratic. An electoral system does NOT need to be completely fair...

• Post #1013568

  RE: https://union.place/@propublicaguild/116368736844528308 I support the ProPublica Guild. I have donated to their strike fund. Today they are on strike. This is currently a one-day strike, for today only, Wednesday April 8th. Please support the Guild by honoring their cyberspace picket line: do not boost ProPublica posts or click on ProPublica links today. Follow @propublicaguild for more strike news, and as another way of showing support. #ProPublicaGuild

• Post #873337

  Trump and his minions just don't seem to realize that the American #imperialist machine requires considerable actual SKILL to wield, if best results — even "best" from an amoral imperialist point of view — are to be achieved. They're acting like third-graders left alone in the cockpit of an F-35. And the results appear to be just as disastrous. #Iran

• Post #795472

  RE: https://union.place/@propublicaguild/116290657398834680 I never thought the day would come when I would ask anyone NOT to click on #ProPublica links. But that day may soon arrive. The #ProPublicaGuild (the union for ProPublica workers, including writers/reporters) has voted to authorize a strike. There is no strike yet, but the Guild has authorized its leadership to call a strike at their discretion if differences with management cannot be resolved. If they do strike, they will likely call...