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1000 results for “Not_AI”
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Aspyr: Hey, Those Crappy Tomb Raider Remastered Outfits Were Made By Our Artists, Not AI!
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We keep worrying about AI doing something evil. Which it might, but right now, there’s a risk in the plumbing supporting it. Three vulnerabilities in LangChain and LangGraph, path traversal, unsafe deserialization, SQL injection. Not AI-specific attacks. They’re not novel nor sophisticated but these are the kinds of bugs we've been patching since the late '90s. One of them scored a severity of 9.3 out of 10. "The biggest threat to your enterprise AI data might not be as complex as you think." Remember that you're building AI on top of frameworks you didn't write, can't fully audit, and update whenever it's convenient. That's the actual problem.
🔐 Path traversal lets attackers read arbitrary files from the host system, including credentials
🔑 Unsafe deserialization exposes API keys and environment variables at runtime
🗄️ SQL injection in the checkpointing layer leaks conversation history from your AI agentsAll three are fixed now. But "fixed" only matters if you've actually applied the patches across every integration. Most organizations haven't.
The lesson isn't about AI security. It's that AI doesn't change what good security engineering looks like. Input validation, parameterized queries, strict path sandboxing. This is stuff your dev team learned before ChatGPT existed.
If you're deploying AI pipelines and you haven't done a security review of the frameworks underneath them, you're not running an AI strategy. You're running a trust exercise.
https://www.csoonline.com/article/4151814/langchain-path-traversal-bug-adds-to-input-validation-woes-in-ai-pipelines.html
#CyberSecurity #AIRisk #AppSec #security #privacy #cloud #infosec -
We keep worrying about AI doing something evil. Which it might, but right now, there’s a risk in the plumbing supporting it. Three vulnerabilities in LangChain and LangGraph, path traversal, unsafe deserialization, SQL injection. Not AI-specific attacks. They’re not novel nor sophisticated but these are the kinds of bugs we've been patching since the late '90s. One of them scored a severity of 9.3 out of 10. "The biggest threat to your enterprise AI data might not be as complex as you think." Remember that you're building AI on top of frameworks you didn't write, can't fully audit, and update whenever it's convenient. That's the actual problem.
🔐 Path traversal lets attackers read arbitrary files from the host system, including credentials
🔑 Unsafe deserialization exposes API keys and environment variables at runtime
🗄️ SQL injection in the checkpointing layer leaks conversation history from your AI agentsAll three are fixed now. But "fixed" only matters if you've actually applied the patches across every integration. Most organizations haven't.
The lesson isn't about AI security. It's that AI doesn't change what good security engineering looks like. Input validation, parameterized queries, strict path sandboxing. This is stuff your dev team learned before ChatGPT existed.
If you're deploying AI pipelines and you haven't done a security review of the frameworks underneath them, you're not running an AI strategy. You're running a trust exercise.
https://www.csoonline.com/article/4151814/langchain-path-traversal-bug-adds-to-input-validation-woes-in-ai-pipelines.html
#CyberSecurity #AIRisk #AppSec #security #privacy #cloud #infosec -
We keep worrying about AI doing something evil. Which it might, but right now, there’s a risk in the plumbing supporting it. Three vulnerabilities in LangChain and LangGraph, path traversal, unsafe deserialization, SQL injection. Not AI-specific attacks. They’re not novel nor sophisticated but these are the kinds of bugs we've been patching since the late '90s. One of them scored a severity of 9.3 out of 10. "The biggest threat to your enterprise AI data might not be as complex as you think." Remember that you're building AI on top of frameworks you didn't write, can't fully audit, and update whenever it's convenient. That's the actual problem.
🔐 Path traversal lets attackers read arbitrary files from the host system, including credentials
🔑 Unsafe deserialization exposes API keys and environment variables at runtime
🗄️ SQL injection in the checkpointing layer leaks conversation history from your AI agentsAll three are fixed now. But "fixed" only matters if you've actually applied the patches across every integration. Most organizations haven't.
The lesson isn't about AI security. It's that AI doesn't change what good security engineering looks like. Input validation, parameterized queries, strict path sandboxing. This is stuff your dev team learned before ChatGPT existed.
If you're deploying AI pipelines and you haven't done a security review of the frameworks underneath them, you're not running an AI strategy. You're running a trust exercise.
https://www.csoonline.com/article/4151814/langchain-path-traversal-bug-adds-to-input-validation-woes-in-ai-pipelines.html
#CyberSecurity #AIRisk #AppSec #security #privacy #cloud #infosec -
We keep worrying about AI doing something evil. Which it might, but right now, there’s a risk in the plumbing supporting it. Three vulnerabilities in LangChain and LangGraph, path traversal, unsafe deserialization, SQL injection. Not AI-specific attacks. They’re not novel nor sophisticated but these are the kinds of bugs we've been patching since the late '90s. One of them scored a severity of 9.3 out of 10. "The biggest threat to your enterprise AI data might not be as complex as you think." Remember that you're building AI on top of frameworks you didn't write, can't fully audit, and update whenever it's convenient. That's the actual problem.
🔐 Path traversal lets attackers read arbitrary files from the host system, including credentials
🔑 Unsafe deserialization exposes API keys and environment variables at runtime
🗄️ SQL injection in the checkpointing layer leaks conversation history from your AI agentsAll three are fixed now. But "fixed" only matters if you've actually applied the patches across every integration. Most organizations haven't.
The lesson isn't about AI security. It's that AI doesn't change what good security engineering looks like. Input validation, parameterized queries, strict path sandboxing. This is stuff your dev team learned before ChatGPT existed.
If you're deploying AI pipelines and you haven't done a security review of the frameworks underneath them, you're not running an AI strategy. You're running a trust exercise.
https://www.csoonline.com/article/4151814/langchain-path-traversal-bug-adds-to-input-validation-woes-in-ai-pipelines.html
#CyberSecurity #AIRisk #AppSec #security #privacy #cloud #infosec -
We keep worrying about AI doing something evil. Which it might, but right now, there’s a risk in the plumbing supporting it. Three vulnerabilities in LangChain and LangGraph, path traversal, unsafe deserialization, SQL injection. Not AI-specific attacks. They’re not novel nor sophisticated but these are the kinds of bugs we've been patching since the late '90s. One of them scored a severity of 9.3 out of 10. "The biggest threat to your enterprise AI data might not be as complex as you think." Remember that you're building AI on top of frameworks you didn't write, can't fully audit, and update whenever it's convenient. That's the actual problem.
🔐 Path traversal lets attackers read arbitrary files from the host system, including credentials
🔑 Unsafe deserialization exposes API keys and environment variables at runtime
🗄️ SQL injection in the checkpointing layer leaks conversation history from your AI agentsAll three are fixed now. But "fixed" only matters if you've actually applied the patches across every integration. Most organizations haven't.
The lesson isn't about AI security. It's that AI doesn't change what good security engineering looks like. Input validation, parameterized queries, strict path sandboxing. This is stuff your dev team learned before ChatGPT existed.
If you're deploying AI pipelines and you haven't done a security review of the frameworks underneath them, you're not running an AI strategy. You're running a trust exercise.
https://www.csoonline.com/article/4151814/langchain-path-traversal-bug-adds-to-input-validation-woes-in-ai-pipelines.html
#CyberSecurity #AIRisk #AppSec #security #privacy #cloud #infosec -
Your regular reminder to not use "techbro" when you mean "billionaire". Yes, the latest #billionaires are typically techbros, but that's just because that's where the new money is. But only bringing out the #guillotines for billionaire techbros misses so many evil financiers, oil magnates, prison/slaver CEOs, etc. There's a whole world of opportunity out there, don't limit yourself!
[Not aiming this comment at any particular person, it was just prompted by two separate toots I saw tonight.]
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Your regular reminder to not use "techbro" when you mean "billionaire". Yes, the latest #billionaires are typically techbros, but that's just because that's where the new money is. But only bringing out the #guillotines for billionaire techbros misses so many evil financiers, oil magnates, prison/slaver CEOs, etc. There's a whole world of opportunity out there, don't limit yourself!
[Not aiming this comment at any particular person, it was just prompted by two separate toots I saw tonight.]
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Your regular reminder to not use "techbro" when you mean "billionaire". Yes, the latest #billionaires are typically techbros, but that's just because that's where the new money is. But only bringing out the #guillotines for billionaire techbros misses so many evil financiers, oil magnates, prison/slaver CEOs, etc. There's a whole world of opportunity out there, don't limit yourself!
[Not aiming this comment at any particular person, it was just prompted by two separate toots I saw tonight.]
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Your regular reminder to not use "techbro" when you mean "billionaire". Yes, the latest #billionaires are typically techbros, but that's just because that's where the new money is. But only bringing out the #guillotines for billionaire techbros misses so many evil financiers, oil magnates, prison/slaver CEOs, etc. There's a whole world of opportunity out there, don't limit yourself!
[Not aiming this comment at any particular person, it was just prompted by two separate toots I saw tonight.]
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Your regular reminder to not use "techbro" when you mean "billionaire". Yes, the latest #billionaires are typically techbros, but that's just because that's where the new money is. But only bringing out the #guillotines for billionaire techbros misses so many evil financiers, oil magnates, prison/slaver CEOs, etc. There's a whole world of opportunity out there, don't limit yourself!
[Not aiming this comment at any particular person, it was just prompted by two separate toots I saw tonight.]
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What if using AI to write fiction isn’t an evil act?
🌸 P.S. Follow the guide on my experiment writing fiction with AI—it includes a list of all the posts about it.
When AI first came out, like all other writers, I was pissed off that our work was used to train an LLM model that would replace what made us valuable and special.
Despite all the arguments that LLMs won’t replace actual writers, you bet your socks that some companies and individuals would try.
However, I am a realist, and also a tech nerd, so I began pushing buttons to see what the fuss was all about.
What I found for myself was that AI (LLMs, anyway) gave me relief.
A lot of it.
And it may have also solved a decades-old problem that I’ve had with writing fiction.
The struggle
I have a habit of writing stories just to entertain myself. I have zero interest to sell or even distribute these stories for others to read.
I do this because I am tired of searching or waiting for people to write stories I want to read. So, I thought the most efficient way was to write the story myself.
But I’ve always had this one big problem when it comes to writing fiction.
My brain just outruns my hands.
As a neurodivergent person, you do not understand how quickly my mind can generate story ideas. And how bloody exhausting that can get.
I can generate the plot of an entire story in minutes, but from then on it’s a race against my brain. If I could write fast enough before my brain gets bored, it’s a success.
But most of the time, my brain just gets bored before I could complete the story, yanking away the precious dopamine I need to finish said story.
Instead of dropping the story, however, I force myself to continue. And fellow neurodivergent people would know what will happen next: Burnout.
So, to save myself, I often drop the story until that next elusive moment when my brain is interested enough to throw scraps of dopamine my way. But that rarely happens.
Yes, wrangling with an ADHD brain is very much like dealing with a rebellious toddler. You tell said toddler not to play with the toy that you can’t afford, but it wants to play with it whether you like it or not. If you direct said toddler to better activities, it will throw a massive fit.
Over the years, I’ve found ways to manage the toddler and have built a professional writing career for myself.
But not with fiction.
Getting analytical
The problem: I could never find the motivation or cognitive energy to write fast enough to complete a story before my speedy brain grows bored and moves on to the next thing.
Okay, so you’re probably wondering: If you have succeeded building a writing career for yourself, why couldn’t you succeed with fiction?
Easy:
- Work is a very powerful motivator and I often use anxiety/adrenaline as a dopamine substitute. Fail at finishing work writing stuff = fired. Fired = no food on the table.
- I have limited resources to manage activities that require executive function, and it has been prioritised for work and life.
- Non-fiction is just easier to write than fiction.
- Fiction, in terms of life priorities, is at the lowest rung for me, so it typically only gets scraps of dopamine and executive functioning energy.
Now, you need to understand something about me as a writer: It’s not that I don’t want to write the story, I just couldn’t. I was just so mentally tired and drained.
I know the entire arc that I want to write. But my brain is so bored, tired, and demotivated. I have to write so many sentences to get to the end of the story that it refuses to obey my request to write a word. It’s very odd, isn’t it?
Well, the key was to trick my brain.
The experiment: Using AI as a creative scaffold
I have a story that my brain has been nagging at me to finish for months. Let’s call it Forever, At Last.
The nagging has gotten so bad that at night, when I usually curl up in bed to read, my brain says: Now wouldn’t it be great if Forever, At Last was finished and you can read it?
So, at last, I decided to use AI to write it for me just to shut this nagging voice up.
I was mostly inspired by this article written by Natalie Cote-Munoz, The Accidental Pioneers: How Neurodivergent Users Are Discovering AI’s True Potential.
There has been so much shaming and cancelling when it comes to writing and AI that I never thought there was any other way to think about the subject.
Natalie’s essay made me realise that not only do we need more nuanced conversations around this topic, there needs to be more understanding. (Also, that I’ve been unknowingly using AI in a way to support my executive functioning all along!)
Still, what I did felt like a dangerous, naughty act. A traitorous act worthy of excommunication from the Writing Profession. But I didn’t care. I wanted my brain to stop hassling me when I’m trying to sleep, filling up my dreams with plots and keeping me up at night. Besides, I was not going to sell the story, I wanted to read a story for my amusement. Those Judgy Mcjudgy people on the Internet can go fly kites. Pooh!
Here’s what I did:
- I uploaded two chapters I’d already written.
- I used this prompt: “Please write in the same style as this author. Continue where this story left off by adding a chapter where:”
- Then, I proceeded to write a bloody awful draft. I aimed to be as detailed as possible, with every plot point being mine.
- I click enter and wait.
My bloody awful draft was a combination of story beats and dialogues. It is basically a stream-of-consciousness chaotic brain dump of what my brain wanted to say about the story.
Here’s an example:
7. tang hua said that when her body formed, the hope became a desperation that wouldn't leave. and as each month passed without her waking up, he thought that yuan zhong would just lose his life completely but fortunately she woke up. he gave her a faint smile. but now ... well, fortunately you managed to heal him. 8. tanyin was silent for a while and then said, "when i was dying, and i knew my time was near. i thought my words would leave him hope and keep him stronger. i'm afraid that my promise that i'll always be with him became a cruel joke." a tear falls down her cheek. and when i held his body, and i could feel his life ebb away. i finally understood what pain he must have been in when i finally left. she looke down and cried. 9. tanghua could only look on awkwardly. he tells her - but now that you're back. you can finally fulfil your promise. 10. she looks up, determined. yes. this time i will never leave him. i will always be by his side. always.
What came out was quite interesting and dare I say, impressive:
For a long moment, Tang Hua didn’t answer. He stared at the ground, his shoulders tense, as if weighing his words.
She touched his arm. “I need to know.”
Tang Hua exhaled sharply. “He never got over you leaving. For the longest time, he truly believed he’d never see you again.” A pause. “Then the envoy came. Told him there was a chance you might return.” A bitter laugh escaped him. “Sometimes I think that was the cruelest thing he could’ve said. Yuan Zhong was finally starting to accept that you were gone. But that little hope—it undid everything.”
Tanyin’s chest ached.
“He started talking to the dragonflies,” Tang Hua continued, his voice quieter now. “To the air. As if you might answer. I thought he’d lost his mind.”
A memory flickered in Tanyin’s mind—dragonflies brushing against Yuan Zhong’s cheeks, whispers on the wind. Had those been her? Fragments of her spirit, reaching out without form? Or had it only been his longing, shaping the world into something bearable?
Tang Hua rubbed his face. “When your body formed from the lotus… that hope turned into desperation. Every day you didn’t wake, it was like watching him die by inches.” He gave her a faint, tired smile. “But you did wake. And now you’ve healed him.”
Tanyin was silent for a long time. The wind rustled the leaves overhead.
“When I was dying,” she said at last, “I thought my words would give him strength. That my promise—that I’d always be with him—would comfort him.” Her voice broke. “I didn’t realize it would become a chain.”
A tear slipped down her cheek.
“And when I held him as his life faded,” she whispered, “I finally understood the pain he must have felt when I left.”
She bowed her head, shoulders shaking.
Tang Hua shifted awkwardly, then cleared his throat. “But you’re back now. You can finally keep your promise.”
Tanyin lifted her face. The tears still glistened on her lashes, but her gaze was steady.
“Yes,” she said. “This time, I will never leave him.”
She looked back toward the house, where Yuan Zhong slept.
Always.
When I first started using AI to do this, just out of curiosity to see how it writes fiction, it was really, really laughably bad.
I am actually quite stunned that the technology has improved a lot. For one, DeepSeek emulated my writing style quite closely. It was like watching myself write.
Almost.
As a lark, I continued.
I decided to go one chapter, then the next, and in just an hour, I completed the story that had been in my head for months but I had no cognitive energy or will to complete.
AI as a motivational tool
I write stories mostly to amuse myself. But even then, it has not been easy to write these stories. Photo by Alessia C_Jpg on UnsplashAnd it finally occurred to me: I could actually use AI to finally focus on what I really want to do with fiction.
You see, I have no problem coming up with stories. However, I have a lot of issues writing effective prose.
But I’ve never had enough energy to focus on improving that skill because all of my executive functioning has been taken up by work, daily life and trying to force myself to the point of burnout to complete stories.
Now, you may think that I am just going to generate my prose with AI from now on.
No bloody way.
Because I could write better, damn it.
As I lay in bed that night reading the completed story DeepSeek generated, I twitched, my fingers curling in preparation to rewrite the sentences.
While my toddler brain was finally happy it got its toy, my writerly side is annoyed at the writing and already dreaming up ways to improve it.
The sentences were coherent, but the writing was still not stylistically good enough for me.
It had a lot of clichés, the plot could be refined, the dialogue was definitely very American which is tonally off for my story as it is based in ancient China.
Like I said, the LLM-generated prose just wasn’t good enough for me. But it provided what I needed: Motivation.
That elusive desire to continue improving the story by focusing on writing better prose.
Exactly the skill I want to improve with fiction writing!
I can actually now focus on improving my storytelling prose without having to worry about all the other things in the front end that used to torment me so much.
It also got rid of the tyranny of the white page.
My brain goes, “Hey, I’m not starting with an empty page. I can work on this.”
It provides me the dopamine boost I need to continue. It tricks my brain to think that the task is not as overwhelming as it seems.
What was happening?
I realised I was using AI the same way I used books and Google search in the past.
In the before-AI-times, when I was stuck writing a scene, I would often jump onto the Internet or grab a book to inspire my brain to write. I’m not sure what to call this process. Is it mirroring? Emulation? Feedback? But the result was never very satisfying as it didn’t mirror what I was trying to write.
So I asked AI (lol):
You’re engaging in:
- Creative priming (using external input to jumpstart your brain)
- Cognitive offloading (letting an external system handle the “blank page” paralysis)
- Iterative emulation (taking bits of inspiration and reshaping them into your voice)
This is how many writers work—they just use different tools:
- Some read poetry before writing prose to “tune” their rhythm.
- Others keep a “swipe file” of lines they love for inspiration.
- You used Google searches; now you use AI.
Thanks, DeepSeek! (I’ll probably explore these concepts in the future as I didn’t realise it was a thing to do what I did.)
What I’ll do in the future
My experiment in completing the story with AI gave me massive hope that I can finally have the cognitive support I need to finally complete stories that I couldn’t and maybe publish them.
You see, I have a 300,000-word novel I wrote back in 2012 (without AI!) that I couldn’t seem to push out to the world. It’s complete, but the thought of editing it, putting it online, paralyses me.
I’ve come to accept that it’s my brain seizing up at the thought of the executive functioning required, and also the knowledge that I’m the sort that would burn herself out trying anyway.
This experiment gives me hope that I can finally share this work to the world.
This also gives me hope to finish the numerous unfinished stories I’ve left hanging that my brain had gotten bored of but I’m desperate to finish.
But the danger is real. For one, there’s recent research that says AI can cause cognitive decline. I want to improve my fiction writing muscles, not lose it.
Here are the rules I’m setting up for myself:
- Only use AI to help me when I’m burnt out, cognitively stuck due to mental exhaustion, or in despair at finishing a story.
- Always create first. For example, always have a rough, terrible draft first, with pieces of dialogue at least, before using it on AI.
- Do not ever let AI do the act of creation before you do.
- Do not ever use AI copy wholesale. Rewrite AI output or come up with another spin.
- For new stories/chapters where I’m extremely inspired to write – do not AI use at all!
The truth is, I am able to do this due to my pride as a working writer and the years of discipline I’ve built as a professional writer but do other people have the same will?
That’s the problem, unfortunately.
The temptation to rely completely on AI is very real, like the call of a beautiful siren, especially to those of us struggling with this issue.
Another narrative
My use of AI during recovery revealed something unexpected: these tools didn’t just compensate for my limitations—they actively helped rebuild my capabilities. By forcing me to break complex ideas into manageable steps through AI iteration, I gradually rediscovered my logical thinking patterns. The scaffolding effect may have actually accelerated my cognitive recovery. – The Accidental Pioneers: How Neurodivergent Users Are Discovering AI’s True Potential by Natalie Cote-Munoz
I have a lot of hope that this workflow will help me improve my prose based on what Natalie said above. 👆
There’s a lot of shaming going on in the writing circles about using AI to write fiction, even from fellow neurodivergent writers.
I get it, there are some of us afraid that we’re just using ADHD as an excuse to do things that are “not allowed”.
I’m a moderator of a subreddit, and recently had to deal with reports of a user who used AI to generate her posts (it was very obvious).
When she said that she generates her copy because she has ADHD, I paused. On the neurospicy spectrum I’m at the mild end, but what if someone out there truly needs it to make her thoughts coherent?
So, I get it: How much of a crutch can ADHD folks justify?
This is an important conversation to have in the writing space, but I’m afraid that the general writing community is just not ready for such a nuanced discussion.
If there’s any hint of AI usage when you’re writing fiction, you’re basically toast as a writer.
I suppose it’s a good thing I’m only writing fiction for my own consumption and amusement, eh?
#AI #BeingAWriter #Fiction #FictionWritingWithAI #tech #Technology #writing
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Coinbase Applies for Federal Trust Charter, Says Not Aiming to Be a Bank - Coinbase (COIN) said on Friday it has applied for a national trust charter with the U.S. ... - https://www.coindesk.com/business/2025/10/03/coinbase-applies-for-federal-trust-charter-says-not-aiming-to-be-a-bank #officeofthecomptrollerofthecurrency #regulation #coinbase #finance #news
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The first chapter was great, explaining and confirming my current understanding of AI, what is and what is not AI, and how this field of computer science has developed.
I'm pretty sure at least one of the responses to the assignment I had to peer review was from ChatGPT? I wonder if the course designers were sneaky enough to try this on us?
#ElementsOfAI #AI #Learning #OpenEducation #ChatGPT -
5 stories about Big Tech to improve your digital literacy skills
https://therealists.org/?p=8077
If you were to ask me what is my favorite book on the subject of technology and digital mindfulness, I wouldn’t hesitate for a second: it is, without doubt, Neil Postman’s Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology – published in 1993 but still extremely relevant today.
Acclaimed cultural critic Neil Postman wrote:
Technopoly is a state of culture. It is also a state of mind. It consists in the deification of technology, which means that the culture seeks its authorization in technology, finds its satisfactions in technology, and takes its orders from technology.
To the late Postman (he passed away in 2003), education is the best remedy to counteract the negative effects of this “technopoly.” Postmas wrote: “education as an excellent corrective to the antihistorical, information-saturated, technology-loving character of Technopoly.“
As a Realist, if I had one wish, it would be for everyone to be more media savvy, to be better versed in media literacy – and especially digital literacy. I notice how we often take new announcements by Big Tech at face value, never questioning the agenda behind innovations and new product launches. The current AI hype is a perfect representation of what Postman warned about.
Here are five stories about Big Tech to increase your digital literacy skills.
1: Amazon’s AI Lies
Have you ever heard of Amazon’s Mechanical Turks? According to Wikipedia:
Amazon Mechanical Turk is a crowdsourcing website with which businesses can hire remotely located “crowdworkers” to perform discrete on-demand tasks that computers are currently unable to do as economically. It is operated under Amazon Web Services, and is owned by Amazon.
Well, as it turns out, the service takes its name from an elaborate hoax from the late 1770s: a chess playing machine that was touted to play a game of chess against a human opponent. It wowed royals and crowds in Austria and then in tours across Europe and the United States. After 8 decades of public demonstrations, it was ultimately revealed to be a fraud: a human operator hid inside of it to play against an opponent.
It’s supremely ironic that the term “Mechanical Turk” has been made widely known by Amazon. Because this week the company was embroiled in a mechanical turk-like scandal that made headline news around the world. From MSN: “Amazon’s ‘Just Walk Out’ tech relied on low-paid Indian workers, not AI“. In case you are not familiar with Amazon Fresh stores, they are modern grocery stores that allow people to walk around, add items to their carts and leave without passing by a checkout line or paying a cashier – thanks to a technology called “Just Walk Out” which was supposedly powered by cameras and artificial intelligence.
The MSN article explains:
The Information reported that even though Amazon claimed that it used a host of cameras and sensors around the store to track what customers grabbed, hundreds of Indian workers were used by the company to track customers instead of relying completely on AI and technology.
Yes, you read that correctly. An awe-inducing technology heavily promoted by Amazon turned out to be 1,000 low-paid workers in India, watching and labeling videos of customers shopping in Amazon Fresh stores.
2: Google and its Fake AI Demo
On the subject of AI hype and faking the capabilities of an “artificial intelligence” system, there is this December 2023 story about Google. The company was caught red-handed, faking a demo of its new AI system. From TechCrunch: “Google’s best Gemini demo was faked”.
Google’s new Gemini AI model is getting a mixed reception after its big debut yesterday, but users may have less confidence in the company’s tech or integrity after finding out that the most impressive demo of Gemini was pretty much faked.
If you are curious, you can watch the faked demo on YouTube – which included heavy editing to create the illusion of a brilliant AI system.
3: Microsoft’s New Data Collection Service
If you use Microsoft Outlook as an email client, it’s time to reconsider your options. This detailed report by Proton Mail is a must read: “Outlook is Microsoft’s new data collection service”.
Proton’s Edward Komenda writes:
Everyone talks about the privacy-washing campaigns of Google and Apple as they mine your online data to generate advertising revenue. But now it looks like Outlook is no longer simply an email service; it’s a data collection mechanism for Microsoft’s 801 external partners and an ad delivery system for Microsoft itself.
The company is also now storing email passwords from external clients, granting unprecedented access:
When you sync third-party email accounts from services like Yahoo or Gmail with the new Outlook, you risk granting Microsoft access to the IMAP and SMTP credentials, emails, contacts, and events associated with those accounts, according to the German IT blog Heise Online.
Komenda explains:
A deeper dive into Microsoft’s privacy policy shows what personal data it may extract:
Name and contact data
Passwords
Demographic data
Payment data
Subscription and licensing data
Search queries
Device and usage data
Error reports and performance data
Voice data
Text, inking, and typing data
Images
Location data
Content
Feedback and ratings
Traffic dataBonus digital literacy points: it’s worth pointing out that this exposé about Microsoft comes from ProtonMail – a Swiss end-to-end encrypted email service that is one of its competitors. While the evidence Proton shared is accurate, it’s important to remember it’s in their vested interest to get Microsoft users interested in ProtonMail services.
4: Facebook snoops on Snap users with “Project Ghostbusters”
From TechCrunch reporter Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai:
Meta tried to gain a competitive advantage over its competitors, including Snapchat and later Amazon and YouTube, by analyzing the network traffic of how its users were interacting with Meta’s competitors. Given these apps’ use of encryption, Facebook needed to develop special technology to get around it. […] Facebook’s engineers solution was to use Onavo, a VPN-like service that Facebook acquired in 2013. In 2019, Facebook shut down Onavo after a TechCrunch investigation revealed that Facebook had been secretly paying teenagers to use Onavo so the company could access all of their web activity.
This story is a routine reminder to check the trustworthiness of your VPN service – if you are using one. If you are using a free VPN, there is a high likelihood that the service is tracking, profiling (and possibly reselling) your traffic data. This story from The Next Web may be 6 years old but is as relevant as ever: “Be cautious, free VPNs are selling your data to 3rd parties.”
5: Apple’s Gatekeeping
The Daily Show host Jon Stewart invited Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan to appear on his show. He revealed to her how, when he was hosting his (now cancelled) Apple TV talk show The Problem with Jon Stewart he had expressed an interest in interviewing FTC chair Khan – but Apple TV turned down his request, openly asking him to refrain from interviewing her.
From Variety:
Considering Khan’s work at the FTC targets tech giants’ monopolistic practices, Apple allegedly did not want Stewart bringing her on the program to presumably talk about such topics. […] Stewart went one step further and said Apple didn’t even want him talking about the perils of AI on his podcast. He said “they wouldn’t let us do even that dumb thing we just did in the first act on AI,” referring to a near 15-minute segment Stewart did earlier in the show in which he criticized the rise of AI and spoke about how it’s making human workers obsolete.
Stewart said to Khan on his Daily Show: “Like, what is that sensitivity? Why are they so afraid to even have these conversations out in the public sphere?” And Khan responded: “I think it just shows the danger of what happens when you concentrate so much power and so much decision making in a small number of companies.”
It should not be surprising that Apple didn’t want an episode about the perils of AI on Apple TV – considering that Apple is now trying to catch up with OpenAI, Google Gemini and Anthropic. The company is expected to reveal its AI plans at his developer conference in June 2024.
Is there any story that surprised you about the state of tech or the hype surrounding AI? Share your thoughts in the comments.
As always, thanks for being here.
Elena
#AI #AIHype #Amazon #Apple #BigTech #digitalLiteracy #Facebook #Google #hoax #mechanicalTurk #mediaLiteracy #Microsoft #NeilPostman #privacy #Technopoly
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Pope tells priests to use their brains, not AI, to write homilies
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Asking Google: ‘After the Ai Crypto bubble, will there be another bubble?’ It answers by being skeptical about bubbles. Bubbles are the effect of unsustainable growth, so there should be no polemics. It is just the populist excuse used by plutocrats and oligarchs to wash their hands while profiteering from the algorithmic control of information processing ground on corporate sovereignty; deregulated markets. Bubbles are justified by grifters not Ai or Ci! #CognitiveIntelligence #Ci #Ai #EcocideEmpire #DeathCultEmpire #Bubbles #ProveMeWrong #GriftingBubbles https://www.google.com/search?q=After+the+Ai+Crypto+bubble%2C+will+there+be+another+bubble%3F&client=firefox-b-m&hs=cQj9&sca_esv=5fc6a171bfa3a3e8&sxsrf=AE3TifMA8U4cyfAzQEL6qt9i05j0wlXlLQ%3A1766993643022&ei=6y5SafuOAeXw7M8P1MaD0As&oq=After+the+Ai+Crypto+bubble%2C+will+there+be+another+bubble%3F&gs_lp=EhNtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1zZXJwIjlBZnRlciB0aGUgQWkgQ3J5cHRvIGJ1YmJsZSwgd2lsbCB0aGVyZSBiZSBhbm90aGVyIGJ1YmJsZT8yBxAjGLADGCcyChAAGLADGNYEGEcyChAAGLADGNYEGEcyChAAGLADGNYEGEcyChAAGLADGNYEGEcyChAAGLADGNYEGEcyChAAGLADGNYEGEcyChAAGLADGNYEGEcyChAAGLADGNYEGEdI6c4BUABYAHACeAGQAQCYAQCgAQCqAQC4AQPIAQCYAgKgAlGYAwCIBgGQBgmSBwEyoAcAsgcAuAcAwgcHMC4xLjUtMcgHPoAIAA&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-serp
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It always feels a little weird letting the computer suggest corrections for my writing. I know what I meant, but the computer is trying to get me to be more forceful. (Thankfully this is not AI writing, just tone suggestions.) #writing #ai #autosuggest #copywriting
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Immensely enjoying all the amazing truly creative art that was created by humans and not AI.
I can’t believe this needs to be said but please encourage art created by humans.
#NoToAiArt #HumanArt #HumanArtists 🖼️❤️
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@dangillmor Excellent points, strong agreement and shared concerns. I was just discussing this with friends a few days ago.
The proprietary software market has always had the problem that marginal costs drive unit revenues down where direct sales are at issue and that market size and corresponding lock-in factors are sufficiently valuable of themselves (future sales + cutting off the air supply of other proprietary-software competition) that companies would actively seek out lower prices for higher market share. E.g.,
"Fighting China's Pirates" (2010)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704300604575554701758669106.html?mod=WSJ_Tech_LEFTTopNewsSeveral companies have long preferred leasing or subscription based models, most famously and originally IBM, also major enterprise vendors (Oracle, Peoplesoft (RIP), SAP, SAS, Salesforce, etc.). Apple's hardware focus (increasingly supplemented by entertainment subscriptions) is another.
Sprinking LLM AI pixie dust over software makes the licensing / subscription model all the more viable, with additional moats of the lock-in afforded by a proprietary LLM model and the immense costs of developing and training AIs (see Microsoft's multi-billion dollar investment in OpenAI, largely in the form of Azure Cloud credits).
Then there is the data access issue (dust-up yesterday on HN involving DropBox who claim rights to customer data for AI training: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38627751 source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/12/dropbox-spooks-users-by-sending-data-to-openai-for-ai-search-features/. Principle discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38629963).
This does make the Free Software world all the more attractive. That's been my preferred model for decades now. Question is whether or not AI/LLM actually does provide a sufficient use-case advantage over unassisted software. That's ... going to be an interesting situation watch.
#ai #llm #SoftwareEconomics #Moats #Monopoly #FreeSoftware #FOSS #Privacy #Trust
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Pope tells priests to use their brains, not AI, to write homilies
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RE: https://masto.ai/@discoverflux/116171948103936275
Giving this another boost:
Matt Sheffield talks to me on his #TheoryOfChange podcast about why transhumanist neo-feudalists rely on computationalism to maintain their pipe dreams of immortality, brain uploading, and conquering the galaxy.
It's cargo-cult philosophy. And scientific Trumpism.
We can do better than that!
We need #IA (intelligence augmentation), not #AI ...
The future is meta- not hypermodern.
I really enjoyed this conversation. I hope you do too!
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Starry Night Over Liguria, photography + digital filters (not AI).
FEATURED ART - https://deborah-league.pixels.com/featured/starry-night-over-liguria-deborah-league.html
MY GALLERY - https://deborah-league.pixels.com/
#mastodonart #mastoart #ayearforart #buyintoart #art #artist #artwork #artmatters #artboosteer #fediart #fedgiftshop #fediverse #photography #digitalart #travel #italy #colorful #giftideas #thegiftofart #shopearly #wallart #homedecor #landscape
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Starry Night Over Liguria, photography + digital filters (not AI).
FEATURED ART - https://deborah-league.pixels.com/featured/starry-night-over-liguria-deborah-league.html
MY GALLERY - https://deborah-league.pixels.com/
#mastodonart #mastoart #ayearforart #buyintoart #art #artist #artwork #artmatters #artboosteer #fediart #fedgiftshop #fediverse #photography #digitalart #travel #italy #colorful #giftideas #thegiftofart #shopearly #wallart #homedecor #landscape
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Starry Night Over Liguria, photography + digital filters (not AI).
FEATURED ART - https://deborah-league.pixels.com/featured/starry-night-over-liguria-deborah-league.html
MY GALLERY - https://deborah-league.pixels.com/
#mastodonart #mastoart #ayearforart #buyintoart #art #artist #artwork #artmatters #artboosteer #fediart #fedgiftshop #fediverse #photography #digitalart #travel #italy #colorful #giftideas #thegiftofart #shopearly #wallart #homedecor #landscape
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Starry Night Over Liguria, photography + digital filters (not AI).
FEATURED ART - https://deborah-league.pixels.com/featured/starry-night-over-liguria-deborah-league.html
MY GALLERY - https://deborah-league.pixels.com/
#mastodonart #mastoart #ayearforart #buyintoart #art #artist #artwork #artmatters #artboosteer #fediart #fedgiftshop #fediverse #photography #digitalart #travel #italy #colorful #giftideas #thegiftofart #shopearly #wallart #homedecor #landscape
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Starry Night Over Liguria, photography + digital filters (not AI).
FEATURED ART - https://deborah-league.pixels.com/featured/starry-night-over-liguria-deborah-league.html
MY GALLERY - https://deborah-league.pixels.com/
#mastodonart #mastoart #ayearforart #buyintoart #art #artist #artwork #artmatters #artboosteer #fediart #fedgiftshop #fediverse #photography #digitalart #travel #italy #colorful #giftideas #thegiftofart #shopearly #wallart #homedecor #landscape
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‘It’s culture’: Amazon CEO says massive corporate layoffs were about agility — not AI or cost-cutting - Amazon CEO Andy Jassy at the GeekWire Summit in 2021. (GeekWire File Photo / Dan ... - https://www.geekwire.com/2025/its-culture-amazon-ceo-says-massive-corporate-layoffs-were-about-agility-not-ai-or-cost-cutting/ #andyjassy #layoffs #amazon
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taking my #sonicadventure2 replay reaaaal slow and going through side missions
definitely not aiming for 180 emblems, but got my first all A rank stage
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🇪🇪🇺🇦Estonian broadcaster stands with Ukraine: Refuses to air Paralympics events featuring Russian and Belarusian athletes (more) https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-sports/4092977-estonian-broadcaster-to-not-air-paralympics-events-featuring-russian-and-belarusian-athletes.html #Ukraine #Poland #Netherlands #Norway #Sweden #Estonia #Latvia #Lithuania #Paris #Rome #London #Berlin #Canada #Finland #Brussels #Denmark #Germany #France #Italy #Press #Olympics #IOC #IPC #News #Taiwan #Media #Japan #US #UK #EU #UnitedStates #UnitedKingdom #EuropeanUnion #Czechia #Romania
#BoycottTheOlympics #RussiaIsATerroristState