Search
1000 results for “slpng_giants_fr”
-
#BonneNouvelle
✅ Un de moins !
Un autre point de vente disparaît pour l'hebdo raciste, antisémite et homophobe #Rivarol.Cette grande surface le retire de son rayon presse où l'un de nos abonnés l'avait aperçu.
On continue ! ✊
#StopRivarol -
#BonneNouvelle
✅ Un de moins !
Un autre point de vente disparaît pour l'hebdo raciste, antisémite et homophobe #Rivarol.Cette grande surface le retire de son rayon presse où l'un de nos abonnés l'avait aperçu.
On continue ! ✊
#StopRivarol -
#BonneNouvelle
✅ Un de moins !
Un autre point de vente disparaît pour l'hebdo raciste, antisémite et homophobe #Rivarol.Cette grande surface le retire de son rayon presse où l'un de nos abonnés l'avait aperçu.
On continue ! ✊
#StopRivarol -
#BonneNouvelle
✅ Un de moins !
Un autre point de vente disparaît pour l'hebdo raciste, antisémite et homophobe #Rivarol.Cette grande surface le retire de son rayon presse où l'un de nos abonnés l'avait aperçu.
On continue ! ✊
#StopRivarol -
#Rivarol ne sera plus vendu dans cette grande surface !✊
Avez-vous vérifié si l'hebdo raciste, antisémite et homophobe à la vingtaine de condamnations est encore dispo près de chez vous ?
Lutter concrètement contre le discours de haine, c'est possible : prévenez-nous par message privé 📩
-
#Rivarol ne sera plus vendu dans cette grande surface !✊
Avez-vous vérifié si l'hebdo raciste, antisémite et homophobe à la vingtaine de condamnations est encore dispo près de chez vous ?
Lutter concrètement contre le discours de haine, c'est possible : prévenez-nous par message privé 📩
-
#Rivarol ne sera plus vendu dans cette grande surface !✊
Avez-vous vérifié si l'hebdo raciste, antisémite et homophobe à la vingtaine de condamnations est encore dispo près de chez vous ?
Lutter concrètement contre le discours de haine, c'est possible : prévenez-nous par message privé 📩
-
#Rivarol ne sera plus vendu dans cette grande surface !✊
Avez-vous vérifié si l'hebdo raciste, antisémite et homophobe à la vingtaine de condamnations est encore dispo près de chez vous ?
Lutter concrètement contre le discours de haine, c'est possible : prévenez-nous par message privé 📩
-
L'hebdo antisémite, négationniste, raciste et homophobe
#Rivarol
, grand fan de J-M Le Pen, ne sera plus vendu dans ce tabac-presse.
Pour vider un lac, pas besoin de réunions secrètes ou de combat d'ego, une petite cuillère et de la persévérance suffisent.🥄 -
L'hebdo antisémite, négationniste, raciste et homophobe
#Rivarol
, grand fan de J-M Le Pen, ne sera plus vendu dans ce tabac-presse.
Pour vider un lac, pas besoin de réunions secrètes ou de combat d'ego, une petite cuillère et de la persévérance suffisent.🥄 -
L'hebdo antisémite, négationniste, raciste et homophobe
#Rivarol
, grand fan de J-M Le Pen, ne sera plus vendu dans ce tabac-presse.
Pour vider un lac, pas besoin de réunions secrètes ou de combat d'ego, une petite cuillère et de la persévérance suffisent.🥄 -
L'hebdo antisémite, négationniste, raciste et homophobe
#Rivarol
, grand fan de J-M Le Pen, ne sera plus vendu dans ce tabac-presse.
Pour vider un lac, pas besoin de réunions secrètes ou de combat d'ego, une petite cuillère et de la persévérance suffisent.🥄 -
On tentera de contacter un responsable et de lui expliquer qu'il a le droit de ne plus vendre #Rivarol, titre multicondamné qui insulte sa clientèle (note : ça marche mieux avec les grandes surfaces)
On compte sur vous !
#StopRivarol
2/2 -
On tentera de contacter un responsable et de lui expliquer qu'il a le droit de ne plus vendre #Rivarol, titre multicondamné qui insulte sa clientèle (note : ça marche mieux avec les grandes surfaces)
On compte sur vous !
#StopRivarol
2/2 -
On tentera de contacter un responsable et de lui expliquer qu'il a le droit de ne plus vendre #Rivarol, titre multicondamné qui insulte sa clientèle (note : ça marche mieux avec les grandes surfaces)
On compte sur vous !
#StopRivarol
2/2 -
On tentera de contacter un responsable et de lui expliquer qu'il a le droit de ne plus vendre #Rivarol, titre multicondamné qui insulte sa clientèle (note : ça marche mieux avec les grandes surfaces)
On compte sur vous !
#StopRivarol
2/2 -
🚨✊ Besoin de vous !
Opération "#Rivarol, tout doit disparaître"
Faites un tour dans votre grande surface/marchand de journaux/point presse, et si ce torchon raciste, antisémite, misogyne, homophobe est en rayon, envoyez-nous le nom et l'adresse du magasin en DM
1/2 -
🚨✊ Besoin de vous !
Opération "#Rivarol, tout doit disparaître"
Faites un tour dans votre grande surface/marchand de journaux/point presse, et si ce torchon raciste, antisémite, misogyne, homophobe est en rayon, envoyez-nous le nom et l'adresse du magasin en DM
1/2 -
🚨✊ Besoin de vous !
Opération "#Rivarol, tout doit disparaître"
Faites un tour dans votre grande surface/marchand de journaux/point presse, et si ce torchon raciste, antisémite, misogyne, homophobe est en rayon, envoyez-nous le nom et l'adresse du magasin en DM
1/2 -
🚨✊ Besoin de vous !
Opération "#Rivarol, tout doit disparaître"
Faites un tour dans votre grande surface/marchand de journaux/point presse, et si ce torchon raciste, antisémite, misogyne, homophobe est en rayon, envoyez-nous le nom et l'adresse du magasin en DM
1/2 -
Encore un supermarché qui cesse de vendre
#Rivarol
!
@TambTom, qui nous l'avait signalé, est allé expliquer en direct à la responsable ce qu'elle proposait dans son rayon et il a emporté la décision.Merci à lui, merci à vous tous ! ✊
-
🔴 #France 2026 Sur #CNews chaîne condamnée pour racisme, un #avocat souhaite qu'on organise de grandes #rafles généralisées sur tout le territoire, quitte à ce qu'il y ait des " #injustices" (avec comme exemple des meurtres perpétrés par #ICE) #attaquez-le en #justice mstdn.social/@slpng_giant...
Sleeping Giants FR (@slpng_gia... -
🔴 #France 2026 Sur #CNews chaîne condamnée pour racisme, un #avocat souhaite qu'on organise de grandes #rafles généralisées sur tout le territoire, quitte à ce qu'il y ait des " #injustices" (avec comme exemple des meurtres perpétrés par #ICE) #attaquez-le en #justice mstdn.social/@slpng_giant...
Sleeping Giants FR (@slpng_gia... -
AI Cryptid Vlogs
In June 2025, video blog shorts have been materializing daily featuring cryptids rendered with amazing realism. They are meant to be humorous, with the cryptids pointing the video cam at themselves and their friends, making jokes, and showing the viewer what it’s like to be them being their best selves. They talk, sing, demonstrate life skills, discover cool things, and even interact with people. These vids can be quite entertaining. However, the novelty is already wearing off as there are so many flooding the platforms with varying quality. Let’s look at a few.
Bigfoot
The first channel that kicked it off was https://www.tiktok.com/@bigfootvlogs. The first video was on May 28, 2025. And the scene exploded over the following weeks. There are so many Bigfoot vlogs and re-posters now that I can’t untangle who is doing what. Bigfoot is usually rendered as a chestnut or dark brown, husky creature, sometimes more muscular than Bigfoot is usually portrayed, with a dark gorilla-like face. Sometimes, however, he resembles a giant orangutan. Because this is an AI generated Bigfoot, this version is collectively what the culture says it looks like.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3F1yTvmWqQ
He carries a selfie stick so you get the personal and steady view. In some, he has a wolf dog named Lobo. Bigfoot often finds drugs, and the punch line is that he always uses them. Most of these aren’t very funny, though they have their moments. In some longer videos, Bigfoot’s look differs from clip to clip, even having an entirely different voice or accent, which is sloppy and annoying. Also, yes, there is a female Bigfoot blog. Many of these videos are rather PG-13 in ratings, but kids are certainly watching them.
Yeti
So far, the individual Yeti vlogs or those along with Bigfoot are not very good. The Yeti is depicted as white-furred with a dark face, which is a very pop culturally derived version. The realism is less convincing and these are just not well written so far. Sometimes, the face might be pink or the head shape different across the same video. Often appearing with Bigfoot, Yeti has not found his influencer niche yet.
Yowie
This one is bloody hilarious. The key is that the Yowies have personality and use Australian slang. (Remember how much we loved Crocodile Dundee and Steve Irwin? Same fun vibe.)There are two top Yowie creators: @Big_Yowie is rendered as a dark brown Bigfoot relation, and Kev the Yowie is more orangutan-like. I subscribe to big_yowie as the realism on this channel is superb. He likes to drive (badly), and blow things up (real good) – sometimes in combination, such as when driving off a cliff. One of the best bits is when he teaches you how to swim, and fist fight a shark. Check it out on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. Kev is a bit more salty in language, not as naturally funny, but your mileage may vary.
Mothman
There are a few Mothman vlogs out there as well. This has potential, but isn’t quite there yet. Mothman tends to comment on the same things in the woods as Bigfoot. This Mothman vlog comments on the fact that the creature looks different in each clip, a useful point. The truth is that Mothman is not as well-defined as Bigfoot, so the face, physique and wing descriptions can be more, uh, fuzzy.
https://www.tiktok.com/@mothman.vlogs/video/7512589692185906463
Flood of AI creature vlogs
According to this June 2025 article, the explosion in these types of creative projects are due to the availability of Google’s video generator Veo 3 that has more realistic results. To make a fun depiction, you no longer need a costume and makeup! In fact, you simply put a description in a prompt. The voices and movements sync up. All you need to make a video of your own is skill with the software, the funds for the digital tools, and some writing talent to generate a distinct personality for your cryptid.
This source notes that the Bigfoot vlogs meme has really caught on, generating consistent engagement and sharing. Other videos are surfacing to teach you how to do it yourself.
It’s certain that other cryptid vlogs will follow. I see some with Rougarou, Nessie, werewolf, Jersey Devil, chupacabra, and skinwalker. The wendigo makes an appearance in one of the Yeti vlogs. These are mostly pretty awful, but if the trend continues, you’ll see them improve and proliferate.
The Danger of AI video
There is little to fret about from the serious cryptid hunter; these are clearly made for fun and may become profitable as well. Most viewers won’t readily understand how they were made, but will enjoy them for entertainment. However, the danger of AI is obvious when it’s used to create with the intent to deliberately fool people. Therefore, no video or image can now be reasonably considered as evidence for a cryptid. By default, if the visual is clear, we should assume it is hoaxed, manipulated, or created outright, as that is so simple to do. The ubiquity of AI means that those aiming to get useful evidence of a cryptid animal will have to up their game as well.
For more on AI cryptids, check out Pop Cryptid Spectator 11, and 15, and Chaneque video unmasked
#AICryptids #Bigfoot #BigfootVideo #BigfootVlog #meme #mothman #TikTok #Yeti #YetiVlog
-
Weekly output: Sling Select, Alaska Airlines + Starlink, Mark Vena podcast, Verizon Family Line, Bluesky blocks Mississippi
I was going to spend part of Sunday night watching SpaceX’s 10th flight test of its giant, lately star-crossed Starship rocket–but the company scrubbbed the attempt “to allow time to troubleshoot an issue with ground systems.” Given everything else I had on my to-do list, I can’t say I mind the delay.
8/19/2025: Sling Debuts Skinnier $20 ‘Sling Select’ Bundle of 11 Sports, Lifestyle Channels, PCMag
I had to mention Sling’s subscriber totals in this post, so I checked its parent firm’s EchoStar’s quarterly earnings filing and saw not only that number (1.785 million) but a warning about insufficient projected cash flow to pay the company’s upcoming expenses that “raises substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern.”
8/20/2025: Alaska Airlines to Switch to Starlink Wi-Fi Starting in 2026, PCMag
My attempt to get some clarification from Alaska about planes equipped with old air-to-ground connectivity hit a bizarre snag: The airline’s mail servers failed to deliver my e-mails to its PR department, instead returning error messages reporting that “the remote server is misconfigured.” My PCMag colleague Michael Kan relayed my queries from his own account, and that worked.
8/21/2025: Ep 114 SmartTechCheck Podcast — Intel, smart glasses, AOL dial-up, new EV battery tech, Ford, Mark Vena
I found a recording of a dial-up modem connecting to AOL to play at the start of that segment of our conversation and also dug out an AOL disk from my home office’s collection of obsolete technology to show off as a prop.
8/22/2025: Verizon Tries to Reinvent the Home Phone Number With ‘Family Line’, PCMag
This wouldn’t have been much of a story without my asking Verizon if you can port an existing number over to this service–and Verizon’s publicist checking and informing me that you can’t.
8/23/2025: Bluesky Blocks Mississippi Users Instead of Making Them Prove They’re Over 18, PCMag
I spent more time than I expected Saturday morning studying the Mississippi law requiring social platforms to verify the ages of new users, which has some confusing and vague parts. I’m not sure that this statute is quite as bad as Bluesky portrays it, but I am sure that Facebook and Instagram are in just as much trouble–which makes Meta’s silence on this issue look sketchy.
#ageVerification #AlaskaAirlines #AS #Bluesky #cordCutting #homePhone #landline #Mississippi #SlingSelect #SlingTV #SpaceX #Starlink #streamingTV #VerizonFamilyLine
-
There are two schools of thought in regards to how your rock guitar, bass or keytar is slung. The first school says that to be as cool as possible, the guitar should be slung as low as possible while the musician is still able to play the instrument.
Generally the maximum low is roughly when the guitar body is as low as your groin and the rest of the instrument appears as if it is coming out of your groin area. If you think I am saying groin a lot, you would be right.
The guitarist, bassist or keytarist plays with this giant instrument that is coming out of their groin. Isn’t that cool? Or is it just masturbation?
One might wish to call the guitarist, bassist or keytarist a giant dick. But they will just respond with a simple, “I’m not a giant dick. I play a giant dick.”
The other school of thought around guitar slinging is that the guitar should be held up high enough that the musician can play with maximum agility, speed and stretch. This musician can now play more complex pieces if he/she wants to.
It’s no surprise that the prog rock guitarists, bassists and keytarists all seem to play with their instrument up higher, more like the body of their instrument is based at the belly button and the instrument appears to come out of this area. Not only do prog rock musicians do this, but, virtuoso musicians like Eddie Van Halen and Mark Knoppfler also do this.
Not only is this much better for the complexity of the music, you can even say Steve Howe (of Yes) is such a good guitarist that he practically came out of the womb playing the umbilical cord. Yup, straight out of the belly button. No wonder virtuoso musicians play from the belly button.
https://larryrusswurm.com/2024/10/05/guitar-slinging/
#agility #Bass #EddieVanHalen #groin #guitar #guitarSlungAsLowAsPossible #guitarSlungHigherForPrecision #guitarVirtuosos #IPlayAGiantDick #IMNotAGiantDick #keytar #MarkKnoppfler #moreComplexMusicPossible #progRock #rock #speed #SteveHowe #stretch #umbilcalCord #Yes
-
This started off as a baseline post regarding generative artificial intelligence and it’s aspects and grew fairly long because even as I was writing it, information was coming out. It’s my intention to do a ’roundup’ like this highlighting different focuses as needed. Every bit of it is connected, but in social media postings things tend to be written of in silos. I’m attempting to integrate since the larger implications are hidden in these details, and will try to stay on top of it as things progress.
It’s long enough where it could have been several posts, but I wanted it all together at least once.
No AI was used in the writing, though some images have been generated by AI.
The two versions of artificial intelligence on the table right now – the marketed and the reality – have various problems that make it seem like we’re wrestling a mating orgy of cephalopods.
The marketing aspect is a constant distraction, feeding us what helps with stock prices and good will toward those implementing the generative AIs, while the real aspect of these generative AIs is not really being addressed in a cohesive way.
To simplify this, this post breaks it down into the Input, the Output, and the impacts on the ecosystem the generative AIs work in.
The Input.
There’s a lot that goes into these systems other than money and water. There’s the information used for the learning models, the hardware needed, and the algorithms used.
The Training Data.
The focus so far has been on what goes into their training data, and that has been an issue including lawsuits, and less obviously, trust of the involved companies.
…The race to lead A.I. has become a desperate hunt for the digital data needed to advance the technology. To obtain that data, tech companies including OpenAI, Google and Meta have cut corners, ignored corporate policies and debated bending the law, according to an examination by The New York Times…
“How Tech Giants Cut Corners to Harvest Data for A.I.“, Cade Metz, Cecilia Kang, Sheera Frenkel, Stuart A. Thompson and Nico Grant, New York Times, April 6, 2024 1
Of note, too, is that Google has been indexing AI generated books, which is what is called ‘synthetic data’ and has been warned against, but is something that companies are planning for or even doing already, consciously and unconsciously.
Where some of these actions are questionably legal, they’re not as questionably ethical to some, thus the revolt mentioned last year against AI companies using content without permission. It’s of questionable effect because no one seems to have insight into what the training data consists of, and there seems no one is auditing them.
There’s a need for that audit, if only to allow for trust.
…Industry and audit leaders must break from the pack and embrace the emerging skills needed for AI oversight. Those that fail to address AI’s cascading advancements, flaws, and complexities of design will likely find their organizations facing legal, regulatory, and investor scrutiny for a failure to anticipate and address advanced data-driven controls and guidelines.
“Auditing AI: The emerging battlefield of transparency and assessment“, Mark Dangelo, Thomson Reuters, 25 Oct 2023.
While everyone is hunting down data, no one seems to be seriously working on oversight and audits, at least in a public way, though the United States is pushing for global regulations on artificial intelligence at the UN. The status of that hasn’t seemed to have been updated, even as artificial intelligence is being used to select targets in at least 2 wars right now (Ukraine and Gaza).
There’s an imbalance here that needs to be addressed. It would be sensible to have external auditing of learning data models and the sources, as well as the algorithms involved – and just get get a little ahead, also for the output. Of course, these sorts of things should be done with trading on stock markets as well, though that doesn’t seem to have made as much headway in all the time that has been happening either.
Some websites are trying to block AI crawlers, and it is an ongoing process. Blocking them requires knowing who they are and doesn’t guarantee bad actors might not stop by.
There is a new Bill that being pressed in the United States, the Generative AI Copyright Disclosure Act, that is worth keeping an eye on:
“…The California Democratic congressman Adam Schiff introduced the bill, the Generative AI Copyright Disclosure Act, which would require that AI companies submit any copyrighted works in their training datasets to the Register of Copyrights before releasing new generative AI systems, which create text, images, music or video in response to users’ prompts. The bill would need companies to file such documents at least 30 days before publicly debuting their AI tools, or face a financial penalty. Such datasets encompass billions of lines of text and images or millions of hours of music and movies…”
“New bill would force AI companies to reveal use of copyrighted art“, Nick Robins-Early, TheGuardian.com, April 9th, 2024.
Given how much information is used by these companies already from Web 2.0 forward, through social media websites such as Facebook and Instagram (Meta), Twitter, and even search engines and advertising tracking, it’s pretty obvious that this would be in the training data as well.
The Algorithms.
The algorithms for generative AI are pretty much trade secrets at this point, but one has to wonder at why so much data is needed to feed the training models when better algorithms could require less. Consider a well read person could answer some questions, even as a layperson, with less of a carbon footprint. We have no insight into the algorithms either, which makes it seem as though these companies are simply throwing more hardware and data at the problem than being more efficient with the data and hardware that they already took.
There’s not much news about that, and it’s unlikely that we’ll see any. It does seem like fuzzy logic is playing a role, but it’s difficult to say to what extent, and given the nature of fuzzy logic, it’s hard to say whether it’s implementation is as good as it should be.
The Hardware
Generative AI has brought about an AI chip race between Microsoft, Meta, Google, and Nvidia, which definitely leaves smaller companies that can’t afford to compete in that arena at a disadvantage so great that it could be seen as impossible, at least at present.
The future holds quantum computing, which could make all of the present efforts obsolete, but no one seems interested in waiting around for that to happen. Instead, it’s full speed ahead with NVIDIA presently dominating the market for hardware for these AI companies.
The Output.
One of the larger topics that has seemed to have faded is regarding what was called by some as ‘hallucinations’ by generative AI. Strategic deception was also something that was very prominent for a short period.
There is criticism that the algorithms are making the spread of false information faster, and the US Department of Justice is stepping up efforts to go after the misuse of generative AI. This is dangerous ground, since algorithms are being sent out to hunt products of other algorithms, and the crossfire between doesn’t care too much about civilians.2
The impact on education, as students use generative AI, education itself has been disrupted. It is being portrayed as an overall good, which may simply be an acceptance that it’s not going away. It’s interesting to consider that the AI companies have taken more content than students could possibly get or afford in the educational system, which is something worth exploring.
Given that ChatGPT is presently 82% more persuasive than humans, likely because it has been trained on persuasive works (Input; Training Data), and since most content on the internet is marketing either products, services or ideas, that was predictable. While it’s hard to say how much content being put into training data feeds on our confirmation biases, it’s fair to say that at least some of it is. Then there are the other biases that the training data inherits through omission or selective writing of history.
There are a lot of problems, clearly, and much of it can be traced back to the training data, which even on a good day is as imperfect as our own imperfections, it can magnify, distort, or even be consciously influenced by good or bad actors.
And that’s what leads us to the Big Picture.
The Big Picture
…For the past year, a political fight has been raging around the world, mostly in the shadows, over how — and whether — to control AI. This new digital Great Game is a long way from over. Whoever wins will cement their dominance over Western rules for an era-defining technology. Once these rules are set, they will be almost impossible to rewrite…
“Inside the shadowy global battle to tame the world’s most dangerous technology“, Mark Scott, Gian Volpicelli, Mohar Chatterjee, Vincent Manancourt, Clothilde Goujard and Brendan Bordelon, Politico.com, March 26th, 2024
What most people don’t realize is that the ‘game’ includes social media and the information it provides for training models, such as what is happening with TikTok in the United States now. There is a deeper battle, and just perusing content on social networks gives data to those building training models. Even WordPress.com, where this site is presently hosted, is selling data, though there is a way to unvolunteer one’s self.
Even the Fediverse is open to data being pulled for training models.
All of this, combined with the persuasiveness of generative AI that has given psychology pause, has democracies concerned about the influence. A recent example is Grok, Twitter X’s AI for paid subscribers, fell victim to what was clearly satire and caused a panic – which should also have us wondering about how we view intelligence.
…The headline available to Grok subscribers on Monday read, “Sun’s Odd Behavior: Experts Baffled.” And it went on to explain that the sun had been, “behaving unusually, sparking widespread concern and confusion among the general public.”…
“Elon Musk’s Grok Creates Bizarre Fake News About the Solar Eclipse Thanks to Jokes on X“, Matt Novak, Gizmodo, 8 April 2024
Of course, some levity is involved in that one whereas Grok posting that Iran had struck Tel Aviv (Israel) with missiles seems dangerous, particularly when posted to the front page of Twitter X. It shows the dangers of fake news with AI, deepening concerns related to social media and AI and should be making us ask the question about why billionaires involved in artificial intelligence wield the influence that they do. How much of that is generated? We have an idea how much it is lobbied for.
Meanwhile, Facebook has been spamming users and has been restricting accounts without demonstrating a cause. If there were a video tape in a Blockbuster on this, it would be titled, “Algorithms Gone Wild!”.
Journalism is also impacted by AI, though real journalists tend to be rigorous in their sources. Real newsrooms have rules, and while we don’t have that much insight into how AI is being used in newsrooms, it stands to reason that if a newsroom is to be a trusted source, they will go out of their way to make sure that they are: They have a vested interest in getting things right. This has not stopped some websites parading as trusted sources disseminating untrustworthy information because, even in Web 2.0 when the world had an opportunity to discuss such things at the World Summit on Information Society, the country with the largest web presence did not participate much, if at all, at a government level.
Then we have the thing that concerns the most people: their lives. Jon Stewart even did a Daily Show on it, which is worth watching, because people are worried about generative AI taking their jobs with good reason. Even as the Davids of AI3 square off for your market-share, layoffs have been happening in tech as they reposition for AI.
Meanwhile, AI is also apparently being used as a cover for some outsourcing:
Your automated cashier isn’t an AI, just someone in India. Amazon made headlines this week for rolling back its “Just Walk Out” checkout system, where customers could simply grab their in-store purchases and leave while a “generative AI” tallied up their receipt. As reported by The Information, however, the system wasn’t as automated as it seemed. Amazon merely relied on Indian workers reviewing store surveillance camera footage to produce an itemized list of purchases. Instead of saving money on cashiers or training better systems, costs escalated and the promise of a fully technical solution was even further away…
“Don’t Be Fooled: Much “AI” is Just Outsourcing, Redux“, Janet Vertesi, TechPolicy.com, Apr 4, 2024
Maybe AI is creating jobs in India by proxy. It’s easy to blame problems on AI, too, which is a larger problem because the world often looks for something to blame and having an automated scapegoat certainly muddies the waters.
And the waters of The Big Picture of AI are muddied indeed – perhaps partly by design. After all, those involved are making money, they have now even better tools to influence markets, populations, and you.
In a world that seems to be running a deficit when it comes to trust, the tools we’re creating seem to be increasing rather than decreasing that deficit at an exponential pace.
- The full article at the New York Times is worth expending one of your free articles, if you’re not a subscriber. It gets into a lot of specifics, and is really a treasure chest of a snapshot of what companies such as Google, Meta and OpenAI have been up to and have released as plans so far. ↩︎
- That’s not just a metaphor, as the Israeli use of Lavender (AI) has been outed recently. ↩︎
- Not the Goliaths. David was the one with newer technology: The sling. ↩︎
https://knowprose.com/2024/04/10/from-inputs-to-the-big-picture-an-ai-roundup/
#AI #amazon #artificialIntelligence #ChatGPT #facebook #generativeAi #Google #influence #LargeLanguageModel #Meta #openai #socialMedia #socialNetwork #trainingData #trainingModel #twitter #x
-
This started off as a baseline post regarding generative artificial intelligence and it’s aspects and grew fairly long because even as I was writing it, information was coming out. It’s my intention to do a ’roundup’ like this highlighting different focuses as needed. Every bit of it is connected, but in social media postings things tend to be written of in silos. I’m attempting to integrate since the larger implications are hidden in these details, and will try to stay on top of it as things progress.
It’s long enough where it could have been several posts, but I wanted it all together at least once.
No AI was used in the writing, though some images have been generated by AI.
The two versions of artificial intelligence on the table right now – the marketed and the reality – have various problems that make it seem like we’re wrestling a mating orgy of cephalopods.
The marketing aspect is a constant distraction, feeding us what helps with stock prices and good will toward those implementing the generative AIs, while the real aspect of these generative AIs is not really being addressed in a cohesive way.
To simplify this, this post breaks it down into the Input, the Output, and the impacts on the ecosystem the generative AIs work in.
The Input.
There’s a lot that goes into these systems other than money and water. There’s the information used for the learning models, the hardware needed, and the algorithms used.
The Training Data.
The focus so far has been on what goes into their training data, and that has been an issue including lawsuits, and less obviously, trust of the involved companies.
…The race to lead A.I. has become a desperate hunt for the digital data needed to advance the technology. To obtain that data, tech companies including OpenAI, Google and Meta have cut corners, ignored corporate policies and debated bending the law, according to an examination by The New York Times…
“How Tech Giants Cut Corners to Harvest Data for A.I.“, Cade Metz, Cecilia Kang, Sheera Frenkel, Stuart A. Thompson and Nico Grant, New York Times, April 6, 2024 1
Of note, too, is that Google has been indexing AI generated books, which is what is called ‘synthetic data’ and has been warned against, but is something that companies are planning for or even doing already, consciously and unconsciously.
Where some of these actions are questionably legal, they’re not as questionably ethical to some, thus the revolt mentioned last year against AI companies using content without permission. It’s of questionable effect because no one seems to have insight into what the training data consists of, and there seems no one is auditing them.
There’s a need for that audit, if only to allow for trust.
…Industry and audit leaders must break from the pack and embrace the emerging skills needed for AI oversight. Those that fail to address AI’s cascading advancements, flaws, and complexities of design will likely find their organizations facing legal, regulatory, and investor scrutiny for a failure to anticipate and address advanced data-driven controls and guidelines.
“Auditing AI: The emerging battlefield of transparency and assessment“, Mark Dangelo, Thomson Reuters, 25 Oct 2023.
While everyone is hunting down data, no one seems to be seriously working on oversight and audits, at least in a public way, though the United States is pushing for global regulations on artificial intelligence at the UN. The status of that hasn’t seemed to have been updated, even as artificial intelligence is being used to select targets in at least 2 wars right now (Ukraine and Gaza).
There’s an imbalance here that needs to be addressed. It would be sensible to have external auditing of learning data models and the sources, as well as the algorithms involved – and just get get a little ahead, also for the output. Of course, these sorts of things should be done with trading on stock markets as well, though that doesn’t seem to have made as much headway in all the time that has been happening either.
Some websites are trying to block AI crawlers, and it is an ongoing process. Blocking them requires knowing who they are and doesn’t guarantee bad actors might not stop by.
There is a new Bill that being pressed in the United States, the Generative AI Copyright Disclosure Act, that is worth keeping an eye on:
“…The California Democratic congressman Adam Schiff introduced the bill, the Generative AI Copyright Disclosure Act, which would require that AI companies submit any copyrighted works in their training datasets to the Register of Copyrights before releasing new generative AI systems, which create text, images, music or video in response to users’ prompts. The bill would need companies to file such documents at least 30 days before publicly debuting their AI tools, or face a financial penalty. Such datasets encompass billions of lines of text and images or millions of hours of music and movies…”
“New bill would force AI companies to reveal use of copyrighted art“, Nick Robins-Early, TheGuardian.com, April 9th, 2024.
Given how much information is used by these companies already from Web 2.0 forward, through social media websites such as Facebook and Instagram (Meta), Twitter, and even search engines and advertising tracking, it’s pretty obvious that this would be in the training data as well.
The Algorithms.
The algorithms for generative AI are pretty much trade secrets at this point, but one has to wonder at why so much data is needed to feed the training models when better algorithms could require less. Consider a well read person could answer some questions, even as a layperson, with less of a carbon footprint. We have no insight into the algorithms either, which makes it seem as though these companies are simply throwing more hardware and data at the problem than being more efficient with the data and hardware that they already took.
There’s not much news about that, and it’s unlikely that we’ll see any. It does seem like fuzzy logic is playing a role, but it’s difficult to say to what extent, and given the nature of fuzzy logic, it’s hard to say whether it’s implementation is as good as it should be.
The Hardware
Generative AI has brought about an AI chip race between Microsoft, Meta, Google, and Nvidia, which definitely leaves smaller companies that can’t afford to compete in that arena at a disadvantage so great that it could be seen as impossible, at least at present.
The future holds quantum computing, which could make all of the present efforts obsolete, but no one seems interested in waiting around for that to happen. Instead, it’s full speed ahead with NVIDIA presently dominating the market for hardware for these AI companies.
The Output.
One of the larger topics that has seemed to have faded is regarding what was called by some as ‘hallucinations’ by generative AI. Strategic deception was also something that was very prominent for a short period.
There is criticism that the algorithms are making the spread of false information faster, and the US Department of Justice is stepping up efforts to go after the misuse of generative AI. This is dangerous ground, since algorithms are being sent out to hunt products of other algorithms, and the crossfire between doesn’t care too much about civilians.2
The impact on education, as students use generative AI, education itself has been disrupted. It is being portrayed as an overall good, which may simply be an acceptance that it’s not going away. It’s interesting to consider that the AI companies have taken more content than students could possibly get or afford in the educational system, which is something worth exploring.
Given that ChatGPT is presently 82% more persuasive than humans, likely because it has been trained on persuasive works (Input; Training Data), and since most content on the internet is marketing either products, services or ideas, that was predictable. While it’s hard to say how much content being put into training data feeds on our confirmation biases, it’s fair to say that at least some of it is. Then there are the other biases that the training data inherits through omission or selective writing of history.
There are a lot of problems, clearly, and much of it can be traced back to the training data, which even on a good day is as imperfect as our own imperfections, it can magnify, distort, or even be consciously influenced by good or bad actors.
And that’s what leads us to the Big Picture.
The Big Picture
…For the past year, a political fight has been raging around the world, mostly in the shadows, over how — and whether — to control AI. This new digital Great Game is a long way from over. Whoever wins will cement their dominance over Western rules for an era-defining technology. Once these rules are set, they will be almost impossible to rewrite…
“Inside the shadowy global battle to tame the world’s most dangerous technology“, Mark Scott, Gian Volpicelli, Mohar Chatterjee, Vincent Manancourt, Clothilde Goujard and Brendan Bordelon, Politico.com, March 26th, 2024
What most people don’t realize is that the ‘game’ includes social media and the information it provides for training models, such as what is happening with TikTok in the United States now. There is a deeper battle, and just perusing content on social networks gives data to those building training models. Even WordPress.com, where this site is presently hosted, is selling data, though there is a way to unvolunteer one’s self.
Even the Fediverse is open to data being pulled for training models.
All of this, combined with the persuasiveness of generative AI that has given psychology pause, has democracies concerned about the influence. A recent example is Grok, Twitter X’s AI for paid subscribers, fell victim to what was clearly satire and caused a panic – which should also have us wondering about how we view intelligence.
…The headline available to Grok subscribers on Monday read, “Sun’s Odd Behavior: Experts Baffled.” And it went on to explain that the sun had been, “behaving unusually, sparking widespread concern and confusion among the general public.”…
“Elon Musk’s Grok Creates Bizarre Fake News About the Solar Eclipse Thanks to Jokes on X“, Matt Novak, Gizmodo, 8 April 2024
Of course, some levity is involved in that one whereas Grok posting that Iran had struck Tel Aviv (Israel) with missiles seems dangerous, particularly when posted to the front page of Twitter X. It shows the dangers of fake news with AI, deepening concerns related to social media and AI and should be making us ask the question about why billionaires involved in artificial intelligence wield the influence that they do. How much of that is generated? We have an idea how much it is lobbied for.
Meanwhile, Facebook has been spamming users and has been restricting accounts without demonstrating a cause. If there were a video tape in a Blockbuster on this, it would be titled, “Algorithms Gone Wild!”.
Journalism is also impacted by AI, though real journalists tend to be rigorous in their sources. Real newsrooms have rules, and while we don’t have that much insight into how AI is being used in newsrooms, it stands to reason that if a newsroom is to be a trusted source, they will go out of their way to make sure that they are: They have a vested interest in getting things right. This has not stopped some websites parading as trusted sources disseminating untrustworthy information because, even in Web 2.0 when the world had an opportunity to discuss such things at the World Summit on Information Society, the country with the largest web presence did not participate much, if at all, at a government level.
Then we have the thing that concerns the most people: their lives. Jon Stewart even did a Daily Show on it, which is worth watching, because people are worried about generative AI taking their jobs with good reason. Even as the Davids of AI3 square off for your market-share, layoffs have been happening in tech as they reposition for AI.
Meanwhile, AI is also apparently being used as a cover for some outsourcing:
Your automated cashier isn’t an AI, just someone in India. Amazon made headlines this week for rolling back its “Just Walk Out” checkout system, where customers could simply grab their in-store purchases and leave while a “generative AI” tallied up their receipt. As reported by The Information, however, the system wasn’t as automated as it seemed. Amazon merely relied on Indian workers reviewing store surveillance camera footage to produce an itemized list of purchases. Instead of saving money on cashiers or training better systems, costs escalated and the promise of a fully technical solution was even further away…
“Don’t Be Fooled: Much “AI” is Just Outsourcing, Redux“, Janet Vertesi, TechPolicy.com, Apr 4, 2024
Maybe AI is creating jobs in India by proxy. It’s easy to blame problems on AI, too, which is a larger problem because the world often looks for something to blame and having an automated scapegoat certainly muddies the waters.
And the waters of The Big Picture of AI are muddied indeed – perhaps partly by design. After all, those involved are making money, they have now even better tools to influence markets, populations, and you.
In a world that seems to be running a deficit when it comes to trust, the tools we’re creating seem to be increasing rather than decreasing that deficit at an exponential pace.
- The full article at the New York Times is worth expending one of your free articles, if you’re not a subscriber. It gets into a lot of specifics, and is really a treasure chest of a snapshot of what companies such as Google, Meta and OpenAI have been up to and have released as plans so far. ↩︎
- That’s not just a metaphor, as the Israeli use of Lavender (AI) has been outed recently. ↩︎
- Not the Goliaths. David was the one with newer technology: The sling. ↩︎
https://knowprose.com/2024/04/10/from-inputs-to-the-big-picture-an-ai-roundup/
#AI #amazon #artificialIntelligence #ChatGPT #facebook #generativeAi #Google #influence #LargeLanguageModel #Meta #openai #socialMedia #socialNetwork #trainingData #trainingModel #twitter #x