SepoySep 17, 2024
Prof. Emily M. Bender(she/her)

"It is not the case that “AI gathers data from the Web and learns from it.” The reality is that AI companies gather data and then optimize models to reproduce representations of that data for profit."

"The productivity myth suggests that anything we spend time on is up for automation — that any time we spend can and should be freed up for the sake of having even more time for other activities or pursuits — which can also be automated."

https://www.techpolicy.press/challenging-the-myths-of-generative-ai/

Read the whole thing!

Challenging The Myths of Generative AI | TechPolicy.Press

Eryk Salvaggio says we must dispense with myths if we are to think more clearly about what AI actually is and does.

Tech Policy Press
Sep 16, 2024 at 1:13pmWeb
Show threadGary McGrawSep 16, 2024
@emilymbender data feudalism is real https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/why-the-data-ocean-is-being-sectioned-off
Why the Data Ocean Is Being Sectioned Off

Bigger is better approaches in AI create an inexhaustible appetite for users’ data, leading to a rise in user data expropriation, sectioning off of the internet, and “data feudalism.”

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Show threadThomas Vander WalSep 16, 2024
@emilymbender Dang! This is really good.
Show threadCySep 16, 2024
We want computers that work for us, so we can spend more time making art and stories. And now they're giving us computers that make art and stories for us, so we can spend more time working. -_-
Show threadMartin DougiamasSep 17, 2024

@emilymbender

Some meaningful things in there along with a lot of statements that indicate a shallow perspective: one of the latter was this:

"For one, a model doesn’t exist until it has “learned,” which is quite different from what we do as people: a student exists, and then goes to school, and then learns, using a mind that was already there"

We start #learning from the womb, and #AI systems definitely exist before training!