Pied wagtail

if you are wondering "but what is it good for then and why are companies pushing it so hard"

the answers are "it is good for centralizing power and rationalizing harm"

and "because it is good for centralizing power and rationalizing harm"

Give 'em the wheel, we're toasted

Ceasefire is threatened as Israel expands Lebanon strikes and Iran closes strait again A ceasefire deal to pause the war in Iran appears to be hanging by a thread after the Islamic Republic closed the Strait of Hormuz again in response to Israeli attacks in Lebanon.

The ceasefire was supposed to include Lebanon, but instead, Israel attacked Lebanon 100 times in 10 minutes and massacred hundreds of people under the tired and unsubstantiated guise of a war on terror.

apnews.com/article/iran...

Unionized ProPublica staff are on strike over AI, layoffs, and wages A key issue is protections against layoffs from AI

New: 150 unionized ProPublica workers are on strike TODAY over AI, layoff protections, wages, and more.

They're asking readers to not visit ProPublica or engage with content on other platforms. It's the first work stoppage of its kind at the newsroom.

www.theverge.com/news/908401/...

But we're maxxingmaxxing!

A good friend of mine was a few years ahead of me on the conveyor and this was maybe the most important warning I got from her. May the ocean lower for us all.

I can’t think of any historical equivalents to the universal glee here. It’s like Iraq striking a vuvuzela factory in the early 2000s

You're embarrassing yourself

Four Frictions: or, How to Resist AI in Education - Public Books We are calling for resistance to the AI industry’s ongoing capture of higher education.

"We envision a resistance that is...a repudiation of the efficiencies that automated algorithmic education falsely promises: a resistance comprising the collective force of small acts of friction."

"How to Resist AI in Education" by me & @cnygren.bsky.social
www.publicbooks.org/four-frictio...

🧵

Good news: not just one open job, but two! Both are postdocs in philosophy of science/ML working with my @technomoralfutures.bsky.social co-Director Dr Emily Sullivan on issues in ML scientific understanding and explanation. Ads for a 3 year post and 2 year post are linked below, apply by 20 April

Deeply grateful to the UK AI and Robotics research community for this Leadership Award. So many wonderful researchers were honoured with me tonight - my own award would not be possible without my amazing @braiduk.bsky.social @technomoralfutures.bsky.social @edfuturesinstitute.bsky.social colleagues

If this destroys grammarly that would be fabulous

The Laid-off Scientists and Lawyers Training AI to Steal Their Careers Experienced white-collar workers are now part of a miserable gig economy.

This is why AI "inspiration" - slop outputs fed into new chatbots - creates an near-immediate systemic collapse, and also why tech companies want to turn human creatives into little piggies that do nothing but feed the slop machine, because they *know* it's unique and valuable

Three cheers for the House of Lords. This far from the the first time in their modern history that they have functioned as a check on the tendency of governments to comply with the industry pressure.

When the Future Feels Foreclosed: AI Resignation and the Power to Act This article develops the concept of ‘AI resignation’ to capture how young people encounter AI not only as a helpful or flawed tool, but as an overpowering and seemingly inevitable force that can for....

"The task of AI education, then, is not merely to teach technical competence, but to cultivate the political imagination and collective capacities necessary to contest and reshape technological power," write Jan‐Philipp Siebold, Annemarie Witschas, and Rainer Mühlhoff.

I don’t think most academics realise that we’re way past the ‘AI concerns me’ phase and in the middle of a full scale apocalyptic war waged by tech corporations. We must fight for our lives and for everything we hold dear. AI should be exposed, shamed, and rejected in every facet of our profession.

surely we can teach the children how to ethically use this product designed for unethical use by unethical people

Technomoral Conversations: What’s the Story with AI? AI Narratives and Counter-Narratives — Centre for Technomoral Futures During this fireside chat, we will hear insights from experts across academia and industry on the dominant narratives surrounding AI, and what alternative stories can and are being told about AI and i...

In case you missed it, the recording of 'Technomoral Conversations: What's the Story with AI? AI Narratives and Counter-Narratives' with @abeba.bsky.social @johnthornhill.bsky.social @amoorelouise.bsky.social & @alex-taylor.bsky.social is available now!

Watch the event recording 👇
edin.ac/4q8TXsZ

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

"Is Claude really powerful? Yes, say the people who need that to be true!"
Just the most basic failures of competent journalism on show here.

Check out our new op-ed! With @taniaduarte.bsky.social @markwong.bsky.social, @suoman.bsky.social, & @timdavies.org.uk.

We argue that these collabs normalize close relationships w/Big-Tech, setting them up to be key actors in governance who provide tech solutions to important social ‘problems’.

I think part of this is academic-brain. We've disciplined ourselves into believing that refusal or simply identifying something as irredeemable are not respectable intellectual positions. Instead, the clever posture is to wishcast a scenario on to which we can project our own smart version of sthing

This was an excellent event, well done Dani and team! (and @aggillespie.bsky.social has been lured to Bluesky)

GM: Charisma check.

Mamdani: [rolls natural 20]

GM: that’s a d6 how did you

Mamdani: [direct to camera] Did you know you can check out board games at your local public library? 😊

I think I might be a burnt out husk now

I hope your UK lawyer is more competent

The implied purpose of the "trust" here is telling. It's needed for to sell more AI and harvest more data, but nothing about actual benefits for the people trusting it.