Dr. Elinor Carmi

Why I said we need anti-surveillance laws not privacy laws... this isn't ok just because they 'anonymised' the data.

"We don’t have to set the bar this low. We have to remind each other that this isn’t normal for the world, and doesn’t have to be normal for tech".

Important post by Anil Dash.

Both Netflix and Paramount are bad for the film industry. But Larry Ellison is bad on another level as he wants to take over CNN, CBS, Tiktok and Warner Brothers all before the USA mid-term elections.

Both in tech and media we are seeing more monopolies and all are rooting for right wing politics.

UK MPs launch new inquiry examining technology’s role in education.

Just briefly looked at what they intend to look at and it doesn't seem that the involvement of big-tech in education is a concern here but mainly how teachers and students use AI.... 🙄

committees.parliament.uk/committee/20...

Actually, the left is winning the AI debate But it does need to get organized.

The left is not "missing out" on AI. It's winning the argument. Americans worry about AI and dislike tech CEOs. They're mobilizing against data centers. They support regulation, even refusal.

Calls for the left to embrace AI are an effort to change the terms of the debate in Silicon Valley's favor.

excited to hear tech companies will now be allowed to build their own power plants for their data centers. i am sure the makers of "the app that tells kids to kill themselves" will responsibly operate coal plants

Just as a reminder OpenAI recently removed the word "safely" from its mission...

theconversation.com/openai-has-d...

Anthropic Drops Flagship Safety Pledge In an abrupt shift, the company may release future AI models without ironclad safety guarantees

"We didn't really feel, with the rapid advance of AI, that it made sense for us to make unilateral commitments … if competitors are blazing ahead"

So basically a race to the bottom.

time.com/7380854/excl...

Justice Department withheld and removed some Epstein files related to Trump An NPR investigation finds the public database of Epstein files is missing dozens of pages related to sexual abuse accusations against President Trump.

UNBELIEVABLE! DOJ withheld Epstein files naming Trump in abuse allegations of a minor

This is why we sued

@democracydefendersfund.org has been fighting in court to get these records & we won’t stop👇
www.democracydefendersfund.org/prs/02.06.26...

Bit we never catch each other!!!

Do tell! I am just tired of seeing so much inequality in how grants are distributed.

Is this what "the Left" should be engaging with, according to some thinkpiece?

Data centers for AI V. food+school for humans, same difference?

World enters era of ‘global water bankruptcy’ The world has moved beyond a water crisis and into a state of global water bankruptcy, says a new flagship report released on Tuesday by UN researchers.

Altman - "Water is totally fake. It used to be true. We used to do evaporative cooling in datacenters, but now … we don’t do that.”

The UN has declared ‘global water bankruptcy’, but AI is somehow more important.

news.un.org/en/story/202...

Sam Altman defends AI’s energy toll by saying it also takes a lot to ‘train a human’ OpenAI CEO also downplayed concerns about how much water datacenters require at AI summit in India

Altman - "People talk about how much energy it takes to train an AI model – but it also takes a lot of energy to train a human”.

The world is poorer while you & other tech CEOs become richer. Many ppl struggle to feed themselves & yet your AI is more important?
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

UK academics - I am seeing a lot of UKRI grants which are invites only, and hearing from friends in Russell Group universities they get invited to these, which seems to be unethical considering it's public money.

Has it always been like this or did it increase recently?🤔

Palantir sues magazine that revealed Switzerland rejected its approaches Peter Thiel-chaired data intelligence group alleges that Republik did not give it sufficient right to reply

"The company objects to Republik’s presentation of the public documents and believes its right to reply has been wrongfully denied"

Looks like when newspapers don't parrot the usual hype then AI companies get stressed. Which is why we need reporting beyond the hype.

www.ft.com/content/434b...

Newcastle pubs ban AI art from breweries to protect local creatives As two pubs in Newcastle ban AI art, artists discuss the impact it can have on creatives.

"no longer be accepting AI art, including on bottles and pump clips, in order to try to protect local artists from losing out on work."

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Well, hello world!

State of the Future is a new think tank (from @gavinfreeguard.com) for public servants and others who believe data, digital, openness and innovation can deliver better policy, better services and better outcomes for people.

sotf.org.uk

(Quiet news day to soft launch, eh?)

Thank you!

If they can arrest a prince, you can arrest a president.

Thou shalt arrest the Epstein criminals in the USA.

Git ‘r’ done.

The Lord has spoken. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

FCC chair Brendan Carr says media were ‘lied to’ over Stephen Colbert controversy Carr says the Federal Communications Commission has also opened an enforcement action into ABC’s the View

Say what you want about entertainers but this week what Stephen Colbert did was HUGE.

He also publicly came against his own network CBS saying that their announcement about what happened with the FCC was NOT done by consulting with him. His show will be missed. www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

'Students Are Being Treated Like Guinea Pigs:' Inside an AI-Powered Private School Leaked documents reveal the inner workings of Alpha School, which both the press and the Trump administration have applauded. The documents show Alpha School's AI is generating faulty lessons that sometimes...

Leaked documents reveal the inner workings of Alpha School, which both the press and the Trump administration have applauded. The documents show Alpha School's AI is generating faulty lessons that sometimes do "more harm than good."

Yep this is also (part of) our argument in our @techpolicypress.bsky.social article about the UK gov's reliance on US big-tech as part of its AI Skils Hub. The UK chooses to deepen its dependency on US tech monopolies instead of collaborating with local UK orgs.
www.techpolicy.press/the-real-cos...

Whether it's "trickle down economy", "self regulation", or "democratizing AI", billionaires try to sell us futures that very few actually benefit from with lies about distribution of wealth while it only concentrates between a few.

All the big-tech have been firing ppl while their CEOs get richer

US military used Anthropic’s AI model Claude in Venezuela raid, report says Wall Street Journal says Claude used in operation via Anthropic’s partnership with Palantir Technologies

Anthropic have been positioning themselves as the ethical AI company, what with their constitution and all.

So it will be interesting to see how they respond to this story.

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Microsoft AI CEO: 'Most, if not all' white-collar tasks can be replaced by AI within 12-18 months Mustafa Suleyman, Microsoft's AI chief, says AI can automate white-collar jobs within 12-18 months, as tech reaches human-level performance in tasks.

Remember when in 2021 Bill Gates said: "Within the next two or three years, I predict most virtual meetings will move from 2D camera image grids...to the metaverse, a 3D space with digital avatars”.

That blog post has since been missing, I wonder why 😉

www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-ai...

If you are in the UK please consider signing the open letter to the government about this here: weandai.org/updated-open...

It's been an honour and pleasure to take part in this important project, check out the final report here -> demos.co.uk/research/adv...

If you are in the UK please consider signing the open letter to the government about this here: weandai.org/updated-open...

So Anthropic stole the idea for their Claude ads against ChatGPT from Black Mirror's new season, first episode "Common People".

But do they think that Claude is not just a different episode of Black Mirror?