Nik // Data and Ethics

Parents are generally very bad at this. Even the technical parents that understand technology may not be able to explain critical thinking, why you should assume content is sometimes faked but always biased, and that's before you get into the always very awkward conversation on sexual exploitation.

ChatGPT Agent clicks the 'I'm not a bot' button because "this step is necessary to prove I'm not a bot."

Everything is fine in AI.

book cover photograph of Dan Pelzer in front of the Columbus Metropolitan Library, "What Dan Read 1962-2025"

Dan Pelzer's handwritten book list, first page: 1962

Final page of Dan Pelzer's book list from 2025. Photo of Dan (man in glasses, polo shirt, and holding a bottle of "Danhattan"

“Nobody loved the library more than Dan.”

A meticulous list kept by Dan Pelzer from 1962-2025, cataloging all the books he borrowed and read from the Columbus Metropolitan Library, shared by his daughter.

I could not could not love this more.

Dan's book list (all 109 pages) at what-dan-read.com

Disinformation warriors are ‘grooming’ chatbots Russian hackers are exploring ways to inject propaganda into the training data of generative AI models

Disinformation warriors are ‘grooming’ chatbots - on.ft.com/46hV6qW via @FT

“Let’s just grab all the books we can for AI training, what could possibly go wro-”

chatgptiseatingtheworld.com/2025/07/17/a...

How TikTok, AliExpress & WeChat ignore your GDPR rights All three companies failed to adequately answer the complainants' access requests

🚨 Today, we've filed complaints against TikTok, AliExpress and WeChat

👉 All of them failed to comply with access requests. This makes it impossible for Europeans to exercise their right to privacy and find out how their data is being processed.

noyb.eu/en/how-tikto...

Hopefully the government can avoid locking into new contracts with Google for what is essentially untested technology. Replacing multiple tech contracts for one could be far worse for the tax payer.

If there was another World War getting the facts will be even harder with modern technology.

^off

It didn't occur to me that people would be so bad at their job that they would use GenAI for it. Not to help or supplement, but to provide the solution. It was not built for that. Professionals should be struck of for this abuse.

It's not a huge surprise that a GenAI will respond to a fake image as if it is true. It will assume it is, what else could it do? Though a GenAI that actively tries to deduce the truth could be even more amusing.

Has anyone tracked the downfall of Google quality since the retirement of the "Don't be evil" goal? The days of using Google as a main search engine are long gone.

Generative AI’s crippling and widespread failure to induce robust models of the world LLM failures to reason, as documented in Apple’s Illusion of Thinking paper, are really only part of a much deeper problem

o3 can't play chess.

what that tell us about dreams of AGI?

open.substack.com/pub/garymarc...

The people that own the companies don't want the workers to have an opinion - they're workers, not people. :/

AI Scraping Bots Are Breaking Open Libraries, Archives, and Museums "This is a moment where that community feels collectively under threat and isn't sure what the process is for solving the problem.”

AI scraping bots looking for training data are overwhelming the servers of libraries and archives, making valuable, public resources unavailable to people. We are losing access to original writing and getting gimmicky writing in return through LLMs. #AIEthics #writers
www.404media.co/ai-scraping-...

1984, but with LLM’s “Who controls the past,’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’” - 1984, George Orwell

"He couldn't get Grok to align with his own personal beliefs so he is going to rewrite history to make it conform to his views."
Latest from @garymarcus.bsky.social

Is Cassian Andor ok this time?

a man in a suit is sitting at a desk with his hands up . ALT: a man in a suit is sitting at a desk with his hands up .

I'm not a big user of memes but I would have use this one for that question...

Bad technology is funny. Until it actually harms people, then it's a lot less funny.

Disney & Universal finally decided to pursue IP infringement lawsuit against Midjourney. It's glorious. @garymarcus.bsky.social & @rahll.bsky.social 's great Jan '24 piece "Generative AI has a Visual Plagiarism Problem" cited heavily.
H/t to @edzitron.com
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

I've not had a chance to look through all of your replies, but I expect to still see defenders of AI saying things like "that's how humans learn" to hand wave away direct copying.

🖊️ Save the date, CPDP attendees!

On Thursday, noyb lawyer Felix Mikolasch will attend a panel on "Delivering on Children’s Rights Online: An Improved Digital World for All?"

More details: cpdp.be/4624

👋 If you're at the conference, come by and say hi!

👉 We're at the CPDP in Brussels this week and will be taking part in several panels!

First up on Wednesday: "Strengthening Trust in Computing Technologies For Detecting Illegal Deception Online"

More info: https://cpdp.be/4794

👋 If you're there, come by and say hi!

All your data belong to us Surveillance shit is about to get real

Privacy as we know it is done, and social control is about reach a new level, unless we speak up now. Breaking news and an urgent essay, with quote from Carissa Véliz.

open.substack.com/pub/garymarc...

Ironically the "nice thing to do" costs LLM owners millions in processing and is ethically wrong for energy and monetary reasons.

HiveHome.com do not have a very elegant fail for their "reset password" process. This is the result of clicking the link from the email they send. It works ok via the mobile app - so there is a solution.

AI governance shouldn't ignore unethical AI marketing.

To make sure AI is aligned with fundamental rights, we must also assess the types of narratives and premises AI companies are promoting, both from ethical and legal perspectives.

I wrote about it today (link below).

The Newspaper Flourishing Without a Paywall How the Guardian US is using Trump to get readers to cough up a donation.

Here's the fascinating story of a great newspaper (and now global media company) that agrees with this premise - and is increasing revenue at the same time. nymag.com/intelligence...

It's a complex issue. Newspapers have all but disappeared from peoples hands. You barely see a newspaper on a
commute now. We know social media is not a good place for journalistic integrity but it seems people are happy to accept dross and bias for their news. There needs to be a free alternative.

This post should get more traction as yet another example of "GenAI is just making up stuff and the big players want you to trust it with your life" @garymarcus.bsky.social