Kristen Thomasen

Nous gagnons esti

In the immortal words of Hannah Einbinder: GO BIRDS🐦! F*ck Ice! Free Palestine!

Evidence: www.instagram.com/reel/DQFT88g...

new article and image of cyber spell books

green background and image of the article

My article “Cyber Spell Books: From Techno Pagans to AI Grimoires” discusses AI grimoires within a larger historical context of digital technology, magic practitioners, and popular culture.
asapjournal.com/node/cyber-s...

@asapjournal.bsky.social @tamigraph.bsky.social @jeffreymoro.com

An absolutely baller (hehe) move by @torontobluejays.bsky.social would be to have Michael Bublé throw the game 1 first pitch for Toronto.

Hot ⚾️ take: contrary to popular Bluesky opinion, the World Series is not Drake v Kendrick. No one is claiming Drake, so it doesn‘t feel like a feud.

Musically, I think the feud lies elsewhere - within the heart of Michael Bublé.

It’s Canada:Bublé v LA:Bublé until Ohtani decides otherwise.

That was magical. Some special teams have the power to overcome the curse. I just hope Vladdy stops touching Leafs jerseys for a couple weeks 😅

still in disbelief that a Toronto team has won a game 7 🥹

GOODNIGHT, SEATTLE!

Meta and Google want to free you from screens — by putting one in front of your eyes at all times.

This week @hypervisible.blacksky.app joins @parismarx.com to discuss the anti-social world they’re trying to create through mass adoption of smart glasses.

Full ep: techwontsave.us/episode/298_...

Good idea! Not one that I know of, but could be created.

Hard agree!

Remember how the Death Star had that one hidden weakness?

Well, an important kill switch in this massive surveillance network is: individual control over a bunch of the nodes. People hold the power to tear the network down.

Love your neighbour, trash the Ring camera.

Screenshot of intro

Screenshot of summary of Chapter 7's "disconcertingly persuasive" argument and its "apt solution" by Froomkin, Kerr & Pineau.

Screenshot of conclusion, praising our "human-centric" approach.

So happy so see Martin Holohan of Trinity College, Dublin pen a terrific (and very positive!) review of Robot Law II, the book I edited with @rcalo.bsky.social and @kristenthomasen.bsky.social. Thank you! scholar.google.com/scholar_url?...
Get your copy here: www.e-elgar.com/shop/usd/rob...

ANALYSIS | Why OpenAI wants to help Canada build homegrown artificial intelligence | CBC News OpenAI wants to help Canada build a sovereign digital infrastructure for artificial intelligence, putting the country in a tough spot as it tries to distance itself from overreliance on U.S. tech comp...

I am once again asking Canadian journalists to ask the most basic-ass question of "on whose land will these be built?" How is it that every other major industry must consider Indigenous rights but with tech it's like "meh".
www.cbc.ca/news/busines...

Dear President Obama, I saw in your statement you said "Israeli families" & "the people of Gaza." Palestinians have families, too. This kind of language contributes to dehumanization. Dehumanization is part of what caused so many to stay silent as 20,000 children were killed in this genocide. I've sat with wonderful Palestinian families from Gaza. They look at their children just like we look at ours - with all the love & hope in the world. Love, Ms Rachel

Seeing Ms. Rachel say exactly what needs to be said to Obama is so damn refreshing

aaand we are officially in the hide-your-neighbors stage

I love this poem. It was the last poem from Carver's last book written while he was dying of cancer. It is the inscription on his tombstone apparently too.

Headline from an article in Nature this week that states "Prizes must recognize machine contributions to discovery. The future of science will be written by humans and machines together. Awards should reflect that reality."

Lol the Nobels can't even acknowledge women's contribution to discovery. But sure let's acknowledge The Machines.

What will the AI data centre boom mean for Canada? | The Narwhal Sprawling AI data centres, like Kevin O’Leary’s plans for Wonder Valley in Alberta, are hungry for land, water and power

not if it continues to advance and improve for another 1000 years could AI generate an idea I hate more than "kevin o'leary building the world's biggest data centre in a drought-prone region without consent from local Nations"

thenarwhal.ca/ai-data-cent...

SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems... SIMON: What? SHAPIRO: ...Or saying... SIMON: You imagine that? SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over. SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level. SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this. SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.

David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)

Right up there with deleting Orwell’s 1984 off of everyone’s kindle 🏆

Cool :)

Thinking of AI as a Social Problem No need to know the unknowable. The knowable is bad enough.

It takes no special technical expertise to know that
1) AI's main value proposition today is automating labor,
2) AI is going to supercharge economic inequality, and
3) If we do not get out in front of that policy-wise, we are fools.

www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/thinking-o...

Greta Thunberg On Her Detention: I'm "Not The Story" — It's Israel Violating International Humanitarian Law “I could talk for a very, very long time about our mistreatment and abuses in our imprisonment. Trust me. But that is not the story.”

Greta Thunberg, deported to Greece, says the targeting of the Sumud Flotilla is "not the story" @teenvogue.com — instead, she says:

"Israel once again violated international humanitarian law by preventing aid from getting into Gaza while people are being starved.”

and beyond consent, much like colonial/imperial expansion, publics will be conscripted into training and testing the systems for ever wider use 🤮

Others have drawn these links already, but: colonialism, rape culture, and AI /big tech are intertwined. It all comes down to a deliberate unwillingness to respect consent. Whether land, sex/bodies, or data—if those driven by white supremacist patriarchy want it, doesn't matter if someone says no.

The consultation is structured to a pre-determined outcome: yes, more AI. Very much agree with @anabrandusescu.bsky.social 👇🏻

(I‘m also offended by how much effort so many stakeholders put into trying to make the AIDA process better only to be ignored again. As Ana says, it’s no way to build trust)

Something is sparking in gen A, I hope it can materialize to its best potential.