Sam J SharpeMay 3, 2023
mhoye

The UK government wants programmers to do performative, unpaid labor, so they can leverage tools built entirely on a nonconsensual strip-mining of the public sphere, to find a way to automate the process of treating desperate people as something less deserving than human with tools that will let them launder their racism, classism and hatred.

Don't do this.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/apr/29/government-hackathon-to-search-for-ways-to-use-ai-to-cut-asylum-backlog

UK government ‘hackathon’ to search for ways to use AI to cut asylum backlog

Three-day quest for innovations to tackle waiting list of 138,052 attacked as ‘wasting time on nonsense ideas that will go nowhere’

The Guardian
May 3, 2023 at 2:47pmWeb
Show threadJohnMay 3, 2023
@mhoye @brunty agree. If they want a solution here is mine: approve all applications ((they are going to approve 85ish% anyway)
Show threadmhoyeMay 3, 2023
@johnwithbeard @brunty That's plausibly within the error bars for this class of technology but that is not, of course, what the apparatus of state wants to see.
Show threadHighlandLawyerMay 3, 2023
@johnwithbeard @mhoye @brunty Strangely that's mine too.
Even more, open the borders to anyone who has not previously been personally banned, with permission to work (taxed same as citizens) & no recourse to public funds. No visas, just show your passport or claim asylum & get a residence card. Committing a crime (including failing to pay tax) gets you kicked out & banned from returning. 7 years or so residence & fluency in national language, entitled to citizenship.
Show threadMichaelMay 3, 2023
@mhoye how to make the monster that is our asylum system even worse …
Show threadDoug WarrenMay 3, 2023
@mhoye
Obligatory link to Mitchell and Webb sketch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owI7DOeO_yg
Mitchell and Webb - Kill The Poor

YouTube
Show threadlocalzukMay 3, 2023

@mhoye ah, so they're looking for novel solutions to a problem they caused by purposefully dragging their feet processing asylum claims.

Do you think they'll accept my submitting a program that just outputs "call a general election"?

Show threadcostrikeMay 3, 2023
@mhoye They're going to automate turning folks down. Exasperating.
Show threadSeiðrMay 3, 2023
@mhoye If I were, say, a foreign actor with an interest to infiltrate the UK governement networks, I wonder what would prevent me from exploiting a "hackathon" for a project that seems to be oriented to get a cheap and fast solution that I doubt will be reviewed in depth. But that's me.
Show threadalanpaxtonMay 3, 2023
@mhoye Can’t they afford to pay Rishi’s Dad-in-law to do this for them ?
Show threaddonaldhMay 3, 2023
@mhoye return “asylum granted”
Show threadGeoff WinklessMay 3, 2023
@mhoye easy way to clear the backlog: anyone not processed through the proper channels within 6 weeks is automatically granted asylum.
Show threadmhoyeMay 4, 2023
@Geoff I'd be a lot more bullish on AI if its primary failure mode was towards basic human decency.
Show threadKevin MarksMay 4, 2023
@mhoye can we write a small program that grants amnesty to them all?
It's what Reagan would have done https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128303672
Show threadLisPiMay 4, 2023

@mhoye
(lambda (applicant &rest args)
(declare (ignore applicant args))
t)

There, that's all the code needed.

Show threadKris JenkinsMay 5, 2023
@mhoye AI huh? Well I bet I could use linear regression to show that the backlog’s related to funding…