“the way [these companies]have designed it, the bones of social media, is inherently unhealthy to kids…they’ll scroll &scroll until the wee hrs of the AM. Dev’ing brains need a lot of sleep, &so if a kid’s only getting 3 or 4 hrs of sleep/pm, it has ramifications that are completely debilitating.”🛟🧪
I spoke with one of the plaintiff's attorneys in the social media addiction trial about what comes next and how this $6 million verdict could impact tech companies www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...
UPDATED with @aoc.bsky.social comments: "We must sound the alarm now — because this surveillance of the American people is not going to stop. We must stop it. All of this harm has occurred, not in spite of, but because of the absence of federal legislation to regulate AI.”
UPDATED w/@aoc.bsky.social's comments: "We must sound the alarm now — because this surveillance of the American people is not going to stop. We must stop it. All of this harm has occurred, not in spite of, but because of the absence of federal legislation to regulate AI.”
“We cannot sit back and allow a handful of billionaire Big Tech oligarchs to make decisions that will reshape our economy, our democracy and the future of humanity."
Story: www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
Today @sanders.senate.gov is introducing an AI data center moratorium bill in the senate, and @aoc.bsky.social will be following suit in the house as they call for more AI regulation to protect Americans and the environment www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol... @rollingstone.com
It's dangerous for civilians AND for troops to dismiss guardrails on AI as bureaucracy and speed toward modernization without safety, experts tell me.
“You have a Pentagon, under Hegseth’s leadership, that is increasingly dismantling accountability structures."
www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...
“We have reached a level of realism in video, audio,
and image deepfakes that for most people,
it is not discernible from fact”
Thanks to
@gmpinglish.bsky.social
for posting.
#AI
#Photography
I spoke with experts about the future of AI in warfare and how the Anthropic lawsuit plays in to all of this: www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult... @rollingstone.com
‘War isn’t a video game’ Misinformation does not always rely solely on AI. Sometimes, for example, a screenshot from a video game can be circulated and shared as if it is a real photograph of destruction. And then there’s just outright propaganda, which has grown exponentially under Trump. During the ICE raids in Minnesota, the Trump administration relied on cruel memes and AI-generated images to try and sway public opinion. They even did their own version of a shallowfake, digitally altering a photograph of a woman being arrested to make it appear as if she was crying, when she was not. Then came Iran. On March 4, the White House released a video on its official X account merging real clips of Iran missile strikes with footage from the Call of Duty video game. Halfway through, a choppy voiceover says, “We’re winning this fight.” On March 5, the White House released another video, this time celebrating “justice the American way” with clips from movies and TV series like Braveheart, Breaking Bad, Iron Man, and Gladiator. The war has already left more than 1,000 people dead, including more than 100 Iranian schoolgirls, according to Iran state media, and at least six American service members.
And then, of course, there's propaganda which has also been on the rise during the Trump administration.
![These days, it’s not as simple as people getting fed deepfakes and being fooled. Political scientist Steven Feldstein says that as people have become savvier about AI, the disinformation content creators have also become more sophisticated in how they present things, resulting in a “shallowfake,” which is a more subtle manipulation.
“Rather than present something that would look completely false, [they] present shades of the truth, manipulate what’s there,” says Feldstein. Meaning content creators provide details and nuance that’s good enough to get past people’s bullshit detectors, but could still be misconstruing reality to represent a specific viewpoint. This can happen by only slightly manipulating images, like a real Iraqi airport photo which depicted smoke over a U.S. military base in Iraq, but on March 1 was changed using AI to show a giant fireball explosion. Or it could be sharing an image out of context, like using an old photo and saying it just occurred.
“You’re seeing that happen in increasing levels,” says Feldstein, author of The Rise of Digital Repression: How Technology is Reshaping Power, Politics, and Resistance. “It’s become very sophisticated and also a critical part of geopolitics.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:agtycuntps5hinjbix5gnpfr/bafkreieb5bdlxcksgolh6wsazvbefzubtir4bxg2tln7tm4hw4ygovg3te)
These days, it’s not as simple as people getting fed deepfakes and being fooled. Political scientist Steven Feldstein says that as people have become savvier about AI, the disinformation content creators have also become more sophisticated in how they present things, resulting in a “shallowfake,” which is a more subtle manipulation. “Rather than present something that would look completely false, [they] present shades of the truth, manipulate what’s there,” says Feldstein. Meaning content creators provide details and nuance that’s good enough to get past people’s bullshit detectors, but could still be misconstruing reality to represent a specific viewpoint. This can happen by only slightly manipulating images, like a real Iraqi airport photo which depicted smoke over a U.S. military base in Iraq, but on March 1 was changed using AI to show a giant fireball explosion. Or it could be sharing an image out of context, like using an old photo and saying it just occurred. “You’re seeing that happen in increasing levels,” says Feldstein, author of The Rise of Digital Repression: How Technology is Reshaping Power, Politics, and Resistance. “It’s become very sophisticated and also a critical part of geopolitics.”
Look out for "shallowfakes," a more subtle manipulation being used to try and get past people's bullshit detectors.
AI experts explain the harmful impact of manipulated images in the fog of war: “It’s become very sophisticated and a critical part of geopolitics” www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...
Trump: "Maybe we do one more term. Should we? Do one more term! We're entitled to it."
Radiohead is demanding that the Trump administration take down a pro-ICE promotional video featuring a version of its song “Let Down” without permission.
Full statement from the band:
"Private money cannot replace public funding of science"
Thank you @naomioreskes.bsky.social
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
🧪 🌊 ⚒️ #scipol
In May 2023, Davis released the results of a study about racial and gender disparities among medical crowdfunding campaigns that were “highly successful,” defined as raising more than $100,000. They found that the more marginalized identities someone holds, the less likely they are to get donations. Men were more likely to have highly successful campaigns than women, and 80 percent of these campaigns were for white people. White men had the highest median amount raised at $186,180, which was $30,000 to 50,000 more than other race and gender groups. Of campaigns making at least $100,000, only 0.06 percent were represented by Black women, almost none of which made anywhere near their goal. Davis worries people might see campaigns like Van Der Beek’s raising so much money quickly and think that crowdfunding will solve their medical issues, too. “The reality is, it’s a small amount of people who are actually finding success in paying for care through these websites,” Davis says.
Issues come with making financial support a popularity contest Using technology for medical crowdfunding amplifies social biases. I spoke with a public health researcher who found evidence that the more marginalized identities someone holds, the less likely they are to get donations.
Fans have chipped in to help out their favorite stars before. Stever recounts how Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fans crowdfunded for actor Aron Eisenberg while he was undergoing surgery for a second kidney transplant. In fact, his new kidney came from a fan.
“It’s a natural human tendency to want to respond to the grief of another person with some kind of support,” says psychology prof. Gayle Stever, who studies parasocial relationships. “Even if it’s somebody that maybe you never met, but they still had a big influence on you.”
I spoke with experts about Eric Dane’s and James Van Der Beek’s campaigns, the rising trend of celebrity crowdfunding, and the history of who gets funding for medical debt and who gets left out. www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult... @rollingstone.com
I made a timeline of the connections between Jeffrey Epstein and Victoria's Secret billionaire Les Wexner — rollingstone.com/culture/cult...
@rollingstone.com
The potential for upheaval is precisely why economic elites wield AI as a weapon to threaten workers, even as we've seen time and again that AI cannot actually replace what humans do.
You can take these dynamics seriously without buying into the framing of the people doing the threatening.
I spoke with AI experts about all of those optimistic AI Super Bowl ads and why many (like the Ring commercial) underestimated how skeptical the public is becoming of tech www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult... @rollingstone.com
Trial lawyer and legal analyst Richard Schoenstein says, in his opinion, Mangione has a strong double jeopardy argument should a second case go to trial after a conviction. But he also says he’s disappointed about the fact that the federal and state prosecutors didn’t coordinate about which trial should go first, which has the more significant penalty, better evidence, chance of getting a conviction, and who did the investigation. “It’s absurd that they’re fighting about who goes first, and that is only because we’re in a world where politics rules prosecutor’s offices,” says Schoenstein. “The only reason the federal government sought the death penalty is because of politics. Because the federal administration is desperate to protect corporate executives. So if you kill one, you’re going to get the death penalty.” (The federal charges that would have carried a possibility of the death penalty were dropped on Jan. 30.)
“The only reason the federal government sought the death penalty is because of politics. Because the federal administration is desperate to protect corporate executives." - Richard Schoenstein
![“It’s not double jeopardy,” says attorney Catherine Christian, of Mangione’s two cases. Christian worked as a prosecutor at the Manhattan District Attorney’s office and is now a criminal defense lawyer. “But I would argue it too, if I was them.”
Christian says if she were Mangione’s defense attorney and he was convicted in state court, she’d immediately try to get the federal indictment dismissed. “I’d say, this is ridiculous, to go a block down [to federal court] and have this whole trial over again — which essentially is true, it would be — but it’s completely different charges. The same witnesses, the same criminal transaction, basically the same trial, but the crimes he’s being charged with federally just have different elements.”
New York defense attorney Lance Clarke agrees with Christian’s assessment of Mangione’s federal and state cases not amounting to double jeopardy even though they seem similar.
“Both cases arise from the same underlying events, but they are not identical,” says Clarke. “If the action itself is being litigated in both forms, but for different crimes, unfortunately that’s ok.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:agtycuntps5hinjbix5gnpfr/bafkreiczhv5igpuimn7f5eufkwvslpp2mif4gf6gmcrncwb6gv5jfqe3hm)
“It’s not double jeopardy,” says attorney Catherine Christian, of Mangione’s two cases. Christian worked as a prosecutor at the Manhattan District Attorney’s office and is now a criminal defense lawyer. “But I would argue it too, if I was them.” Christian says if she were Mangione’s defense attorney and he was convicted in state court, she’d immediately try to get the federal indictment dismissed. “I’d say, this is ridiculous, to go a block down [to federal court] and have this whole trial over again — which essentially is true, it would be — but it’s completely different charges. The same witnesses, the same criminal transaction, basically the same trial, but the crimes he’s being charged with federally just have different elements.” New York defense attorney Lance Clarke agrees with Christian’s assessment of Mangione’s federal and state cases not amounting to double jeopardy even though they seem similar. “Both cases arise from the same underlying events, but they are not identical,” says Clarke. “If the action itself is being litigated in both forms, but for different crimes, unfortunately that’s ok.”
If the crimes are considered “substantially different” and are distinguishable from one another, even if they come from the same act, they can still both be prosecuted.
One lawyer pointed out that that Mangione’s team might have a good argument to appeal his case if they can argue that preparing for two trials simultaneously is overly burdensome. Another agreed it's all "really unfair"
I spoke to a few lawyers about Luigi Mangione and double jeopardy after yesterday's tense hearing www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult... @rollingstone.com
In December, an inmate died in custody after MDC’s medical staff missed a lung cancer diagnosis for an inmate complaining of chest pain.
“The results were somehow missed... and the delay was unfortunate,” the medical staff wrote.
More: www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...
“The MDC has a long and documented history of inhumane conditions, including chronic overcrowding, severe understaffing, and woefully inadequate medical care,” criminal defense attorney Anna Estevao tells Rolling Stone.
🔗 www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...
Sean Combs’ lawyers said he was threatened by an inmate with a shiv once.
“What people experience at MDC, it’s not just punishment, it’s neglect, chronic understaffing, systematic failure, dehumanization,” criminal defense attorney Lance Clarke says.
🔗 www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...
The federal detention center has a reputation for extended lockdowns, lack of outside space, poor medical care, and violent brawls — it’s known for being cruel even when compared to other jails.
More: www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...
