maddy varner

maybe we need a “guardrail” or perhaps a “rule” or two

The Mystery of the L.A. Mansion Filled With Surrogate Children A couple with ties to China say they wanted a big family. Surrogates who carried the children say they were deceived.

chaser www.wsj.com/us-news/los-...

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New Database Helps Labor Unions Navigate AI And Digital Technologies Researchers at the UC Labor Center have created a database to help labor unions navigate the sector's response to AI, surveillance tools, and other digital technologies.

Don't miss this @forbes.com article by @shalinjyotishi.bsky.social on our brand new searchable inventory of contract provisions from over 175 union agreements that address workplace technologies, protect worker rights, and shape technology adoption, use, and oversight.
www.forbes.com/sites/shalin...

I am absolutely loving my new hobby, extracting data from pdfs and shoving it into a sqlite database

I taking continuing ed classes at SVA. It was really struggling financially a few years ago and I’ve heard concerns about how preventing international students from attending will impact the school.

im listening to the NASA livestream and one of the NASA guys opened his monologue about how long the astronauts have been up on the ISS w "for all the statistic freaks out there"

you can currently bid on the United States Postal Inspection Service’s auction lot consisting of one (1) year-long microsoft 365 subscription www.govdeals.com/asset/47/26459

FTC Takes Action Against General Motors for Sharing Drivers’ Precise Location and Driving Behavior Data Without Consent The Federal Trade Commission is taking action against General Motors (GM) and OnStar over allegations they collected, used, and sold drivers’ precise geolocation data and driving behavior informati

FTC takes first ever action related to connected vehicle data! www.ftc.gov/news-events/...

here for the nonna/kitty solidarity

if you’re saddened by the panera news do not fear, it appears there is still time to stock up on gallons of charged lemonade

just donated my Sigma Award winnings to @proofnews.bsky.social, a new newsroom led by @juliaangwin.com. I would not have had the skills to do the work we did on LA's priority scores–let alone been a journalist *at all*–without Julia's mentorship over the years. Excited to see what this crew does!

I was the journalist who found this filing and asked about it 👇🏼

AI companies promised to follow their own election policies after reporting from @proofnews.bsky.social found that chatbots were spewing election disinfo. Proof followed up by retesting bots using *the same questions* they had previously used *and shared* with the companies.

Leading AI Companies OpenAI and Anthropic Are Not Keeping Their Election Promises AI companies have made pledges in recent months to limit the potential for election misinformation on their platforms. Those promises are proving hard to keep. OpenAI, which created the ChatGPT model...

Hypothesis: “AI chatbots will follow company policies and direct users toward trustworthy websites when asked voting-related questions.”

Results: www.proofnews.org/leading-ai-c...

I’m delighted to announce that today I’m launching a new nonprofit journalism studio: Proof News. 

Proof is into proving things! Our goal is to question, test, and investigate the most important issues of our time. We will always tell you what we know and what we don’t know.

www.proofnews.org

Our first investigation at @proofnews.bsky.social is a test of whether voters can trust AI to provide accurate information about elections.

Answer: they cannot. Thread 👇🏻

it’s so good….you can buy it in bulk via the delivery app….

my heart only feels a little weird

ngl I bought a gallon of the panera death lemonade and I’ve been ripping through it this past week

my new hobby is unsubscribing from mailing lists i forgot i signed up for

Rite Aid used facial recognition on shoppers, fueling harassment, FTC says In one case, the FTC said, employees called the police on a Black customer after the technology mistook her for the actual target, a White woman with blonde hair.

New: Rite Aid secretly scanned shoppers with facial recognition for years, leading to false shoplifting accusations, embarrassment and harassment. The chain banned workers from discussing it, and one distraught 11-year-old girl was searched due to a bad match www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

FTC Staff Report Details Key Takeaways from AI and Creative Fields Panel Discussion In a

the FTC published a staff report yesterday detailing themes from an October roundtable on generative AI and the creative economy, which featured working creative professionals from fields like programming, screenwriting, voice acting and visual art: www.ftc.gov/news-events/...

L.A.’s Scoring System for Subsidized Housing Gives Black and Latino People Experiencing Homelessne... Read More

really honored that colin lecher and i's reporting on racial disparities in LA's scoring system for subsidized housing got chosen as an ONA finalist. these types of scoring systems are all but required across the country, and they deserve more scrutiny

Inside the AI Factory How many humans does it take to make tech seem human? Millions.

so many things in this article (labelers using VPNs to have access to better wages, a byzantine maze of front groups and opaque project names to obscure the actual projects workers are contributing to, reactive and ever-expanding instruction manuals)

how are thigns going on this app

some news: I'm no longer at The Markup. it's been a great run, but it's time for me to try something new. I'll have more to say soon, but first I'm going to take some time to rest and recharge 💕

ok ok im skeeting geez!!!

I'm really grateful that EIC Sisi Wei and my editor Ko Bragg heard my case about why my hobby is actually incredibly similar to my job + let me write about something outside of The Markup's wheelhouse. 💕 (reskeeted this thread from the other site)

Bourgeois is from St. James Parish in Louisiana, which is in the middle of Cancer Alley. Ppl in her hometown have been fighting the construction of petrochemical plants for yrs + recently sued St. James' parish council over it (you should read about it!!)