I wrote this short summary of our @DAIR #NoTechForApartheid event co-hosted with Haymarket Books. I came away from the event thinking that this is even worse than I knew and that we have even more of a responsibility to say #NoTechForApartheid. This is the post: https://dair-institute.org/blog/NoTechForApartheid/

Kremlin-backed hackers exploit critical Windows vulnerability reported by the NSA

Microsoft didn't disclose the in-the-wild exploits by Kremlin-backed group until now.

https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/04/kremlin-backed-hackers-exploit-critical-windows-vulnerability-reported-by-the-nsa/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

It is truly heartbreaking to hear what is happening to the Eritrean refugees who protested in Germany. They escape unimaginable horror only to face repression at their destination for which they had to give up everything and endure horrible torture to get to. Then you have various German police collaborating with Eritrean regime agents to target these people. People on whom investigations have been opened have their family reunification plans halted.

In Dune, the Butlerian Jihad destroyed the “intelligent machines” and set the world on a very different technological path. Can we learn from it?

In a bonus #TechWontSaveUs episode, I had a chat with Ed Ongweso Jr and @brianmerchant about Dune and the Luddites.

Full ep: https://techwontsave.us/episode/time_for_a_butlerian_jihad_a_dune_chat_w_ed_ongweso_jr__brian_merchant

#dune #duneparttwo #tech #ai

🏢 Warum Datenschutz gerade bei einer Abgabe für leerstehende Wohnungen ein Hindernis sein soll, ist uns nicht klar. Der Zugriff auf das Zentrale Melderegister ist genau geregelt und in Salzburg & der Steiermark zu diesem Zweck sogar heute schon möglich.https://oe1.orf.at/player/20240318/752817/1710746010300

Is TikTok’s parent company an agent of the Chinese state?

Op-ed: In China Inc., it’s a little more complicated than that.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/03/is-tiktoks-parent-company-an-agent-of-the-chinese-state/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

This Google report is really perplexing. It purports to document cyberattacks post 10/7. But it only covers those against US/Israel. No mention of attacks against Palestine. Even as US/Israel has extremely sophisticated capabilities.

It also doesn't acknowledge let alone justify this narrow focus in the text. No methods section, no reflexivity. It's a very odd document.

https://blog.google/technology/safety-security/tool-of-first-resort-israel-hamas-war-in-cyber/

The US government seems serious about developing a lunar economy

You know the military is serious when the guy running the program is nicknamed "Orbit."

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/03/the-us-government-seems-serious-about-developing-a-lunar-economy/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

New: multiple published scientific papers include language that appears to have been generated by AI-tools like ChatGPT. Search for "as of my last knowledge update" on Google Scholar, you get 115 results. It's a phrase used by OpenAI's ChatGPT https://www.404media.co/scientific-journals-are-publishing-papers-with-ai-generated-text/

"In this way “AI” is deeply dehumanizing: Making the spaces and opportunities for people to grow and be human smaller and smaller. Applying a straitjacket of past mediocrity to our minds and spirits.

And that is what is being booed: The salespeople of mediocrity who’ve made it their mission to speak lies from power. The lie that only tech can and will save us. The lie that a bit of statistics and colonial, mostly white, mostly western data is gonna create a brilliant future. The lie that we have no choice, no alternatives."

(Bit proud of my writing here)

(Original title:
While the crowd at sxsw2024 booing a sizzle reel of people either promising th...)

https://tante.cc/2024/03/18/5115/

AI generated scientific papers and papers that have language copy-pasted from ChatGPT are increasingly finding their way into real journals:

https://www.404media.co/scientific-journals-are-publishing-papers-with-ai-generated-text/

@parismarx WHY CAN’T TECH JERKS UNDERSTAND THE SCI-FI/FANTASY THEY CLAIM TO LOVE?

Grimes likes Dune, even though Paul actually turns out to be a monster.

Musk, the hypercapitalist, adores the post-scarcity anarcho-syndicalist utopia of The Culture novels.

Thiel names his surveillance company after the palantirs, seeing stones used by the main evil in Lord of the Rings.

Bezos likes The Expanse, where societies literally war over labour issues.

Grimes thinks she’s Lady Jessica, I guess because she spins bullshit tales about her kid becoming the Chosen One. She thinks he’ll be like Paul Atreides, who launched a Holy War that kills billions. Great. 🫠

https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2022/03/grimes-cover-story-on-music-and-mars

#tech #elonmusk #grimes #dune #duneparttwo

Seit bald einem Jahr ist das Hinweisgeberschutzgesetz in Kraft. Es soll das vertrauliche Melden von Missständen garantieren. Doch die meisten Polizist:innen wissen nichts davon – und haben laut einer Studie immer noch Hemmungen dabei, gegen Verfehlungen ihrer Kolleg:innen vorzugehen. https://netzpolitik.org/2024/whistleblowing-bei-der-polizei-die-angst-vor-den-kolleginnen/

"OpenAI is selling us a creation myth. That’s not to say that the company hasn’t produced interesting new technologies Chatbots and video generators do stuff. But they don’t quite do what OpenAI tells us they do. When OpenAI executives are invited to summits, hearings, and conversations with policymakers, the frame through which all this tech is filtered is the “eventually AGI” lens.
[...] So why aren’t these tech companies building those tools? The answer I come back to is ideological: sophisticated tech demos such as Sora, GPT4 and DALL-E are a sales pitch for the contrary argument. These are spectacles designed to recruit new converts to the idea of delivering powerful autonomous agents — eventually. These technologies are often framed in misleading ways, shaped by the focus on general intelligence, that misleads the public about what they actually do. This frame, unfortunately, distorts our relationship to what these systems do and, to a large extent, what we should collectively sacrifice to make them possible."

Great essay. Well worth reading to understand why "AI" companies build what they build

(Original title: Clip Art Doesn’t Come to Life)

https://cyberneticforests.substack.com/p/ai-is-a-creation-myth

Today the US DHS announced three "pilot" use cases of "AI" (by which they apparently mean synthetic text extruding machines). Despite their repeated assurances of "rigorous testing" and "protecting civil liberties" I am ... just a bit (a lot) skeptical:

https://buttondown.email/maiht3k/archive/us-dhs-attempts-to-use-ai/

🚨 Spionagesoftware & staatl. Hacken schaden Gesellschaft und Demokratie weltweit. Ein alarmierendes Beispiel dafür ist der Fall des Wiener Unternehmens #DSIRF. Seit unserer Anzeige ist es aber still um die 🇦🇹 Spionagefirma geworden – hier zum Überblick: https://epicenter.works/content/dsirf-spionagesoftware-aus-oesterreich

Tesla settles with Black worker after $3.2 million verdict in racism lawsuit

Tesla and Owen Diaz both appealed $3.2 million verdict before deciding to settle.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/03/tesla-settles-with-black-worker-after-3-2-million-verdict-in-racism-lawsuit/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

@tante

be yr own boss. good old diy.
substance over tech-bro-bullshit will win in the long-run.
(i am also un-hire-able btw)

https://techcrunch.com/2024/02/21/discord-took-no-action-against-server-that-coordinated-costly-mastodon-spam-attacks/?guccounter=1