Mastodawn

cstephens2 22h ago

Lauren Weinstein

The booing that almost drove Eric Schmidt off that commencement stage when he tried to push AI should be a reminder that there are pretty much no other issues, short of hatred of child abuse, that cut across political lines more dramatically than the growing anger and pushback against Big Tech AI systems being forced on us, their associated data centers, and the politicians who support them.

Alex Russell 3d ago

@[email protected] The truly incredible part is that if ML progress had continued to be pushed forward at the pace of better medicines and energy efficiency breakthroughs, it would have been nothing but celebration.

And yet.

Lauren Weinstein 3d ago

@slightlyoff It's worse than that. The understandable hatred of the horrific LLM systems being foisted on us is causing potentially beneficial AI applications to increasingly become collateral damage.

Alex Russell 3d ago

@lauren ...and that's before discussing the layoffs and capital misallocation. Real "hat-trick of value destruction" stuff.

Lauren Weinstein 3d ago

@slightlyoff From a few days ago: https://lauren.vortex.com/2026/05/12/big-tech-layoffs-catastrophe

eestileib (she/hers)3d ago

@lauren @slightlyoff

"Beneficial AI" is about as credible as atom bombs for peace.

Lauren Weinstein 3d ago

@eestileib @slightlyoff That's incorrect. AI/machine learning systems can have major benefits in data analysis, particularly in medical and related "big data" fields. It's specifically LLM generative AI systems that are the source of the horrific slop, not "AI" in general.

eestileib (she/hers)3d ago

@lauren @slightlyoff

I actually spent time as a labrat making gels and exposing them on film and whatnot, and I can absolutely understand the temptation to throw the blobs at a machine to tell me what to think about them.

I must admit that I strongly suspect a similar amount of verification is being done for LLM health research (like from one week to the next every doctor and therapist decided they wanted to record my consultation and send it to openai, there's zero chance that process has actually been vetted except to look at the price tag).

So I'm sure it _feels_ to the practitioners that they're making huge progress in the medical field, just like it does to everybody else who uses one. I think that's the biggest danger here, they are far better at making people think they are productive than they are at actually delivering it.

Lauren Weinstein 3d ago

@eestileib @slightlyoff There are studies indicating clear benefits to machine learning at finding patterns in large corpuses of data, medical and otherwise -- recognizing cancers, etc. This needs to be kept separate from generative AI applications as these topics are discussed.

eestileib (she/hers)3d ago

@lauren @slightlyoff

I used to manage a team that did automatic analysis of all the incoming ads at a major tech company for stuff like smut, gambling, etc.

Eng had a pretty amazing system set up create an n-million dimensional vector out of each landing page and would run a process overnight to cluster them and find the ones that landed next to our corpus of tagged ones. Millions of pages per day, amazing stuff.

So yeah I've seen the power of automated classification systems first hand, I have gotten bonuses for allowing that company to "reassign" people who had been working on manual classifications.

I can imagine that systems similar to that is very useful in medical diagnosis. What's different now is that half the engineers and all the managers think the machine is the genie from _Aladdin_, and I don't think that delusion is separable from how work actually gets done anywhere now.

Lauren Weinstein 3d ago

@eestileib @slightlyoff The heavy lift is to try avoid that kind of conflation to the greatest extent possible.

Khleedril 3d ago

@lauren @eestileib @slightlyoff Lots of things need teasing apart in the media; AI is far too much of a blanket click-bait phrase.

Wulfy—Speaker to the machines 3d ago

@eestileib @lauren @slightlyoff

Cool. Delete all the whale speech data.

klausfiend 3d ago

@lauren I think it's also a very clear reminder that the priorities of plutocrats / the billionaire class are SO FAR REMOVED from those of the rest of us, and that we are far more numerous (which is why they're trying to systemically disempower and impoverish us.)

disorganized tropical low 3d ago

@lauren So many of my fellow faculty think students are cheating left and right but so many students keep telling us how much they loathe AI. Not all of them, but most of them. While there’s a lot to worry about from techbros, I think our students are largely on to the con.

@StephanieMoore
Another disconnect! 😐 (Between faculty & students) but good to hear your thoughts about “students [being] largely on to the con”. 🙏🏻

#AISlop #LLMs #GrandTheftAutoComplete #students #faculty #hope

Nicole Parsons 3d ago

In an interview with Chris Hayes, Derek Thompson points out that the vast wealth of the fossil fuel industry is being poured into AI to concentrate power into the hands of a very few billionaires.

Does anyone want to be a vassal to #PrinceBonesaw or his capo Musk ?

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/business/xai-humain-saudi-musk-spacex.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/27/technology/saudi-arabia-ai-exporter.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/19/technology/saudi-arabia-elon-musk-xai.html

Or illiterate peasantry ruled by Koch's alliance of fossil fuel bigots?

https://www.desmog.com/2025/12/11/the-koch-network-is-pushing-trump-to-accelerate-ai-documents-show/

https://jacobin.com/2018/06/public-education-privatization-koch-brothers-teachers

https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattdurot/2025/07/17/bill-gates-charles-koch-and-three-other-billionaires-are-giving-1-billion-to-enhance-economic-mobility-in-the-us/

Elon Musk’s xAI Gets $3 Billion Investment From Saudi-Backed A.I. Firm

Humain, which was created by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman last year, said it made the investment just before xAI was acquired by SpaceX, Mr. Musk’s rocket company.

The New York Times

AI6YR Ben 3d ago

@lauren Ha, best news yet today, hadn't seen that story. Hopefully these folks will start getting a clue.

Dźwiedziu 3d ago

@ai6yr
Probably not. Affluenza brakes your cognitive abilities, that you go full-Principal Skinner without the Aurora Borealis.

…and still I can't thing about something they would say or that would make their managing boards think that they shouldn't maybe stay in a position of power (except getting that clue).

Lauren Weinstein 3d ago

@dzwiedziu @ai6yr The way to get a serious leash on AI is to make the AI firms fully responsible for misinformation and damage done by those systems, as humans would be who did the same thing. No 230 protection. AI likes saying "I" a lot, just like a person. They must be 100% responsible financially and criminally -- the latter meaning CEOs in prison when horrible events like suicides or murders are triggered by AI chatbots, etc.

Pseudo Nym 3d ago

@lauren @dzwiedziu @ai6yr

This. ^^^

A developer is responsible for the context of a "fix" pushed under their ID. Companies are held accountable for their employees' speech, or ads they produce. The system behind it doesn't matter.

Every chat bot deployed on a customer support website gets to issue binding discounts on behalf of its controlling company.

Liability and responsibility come along with whatever benefits business owners believe they are getting from using these systems.

Tall Simon 3d ago

@lauren @dzwiedziu @ai6yr

Firms have been held liable for their chat bots in 🇨🇦

https://www.canlii.org/en/bc/bccrt/doc/2024/2024bccrt149/2024bccrt149.html

I think that if a for-profit firm (LLM/AI slop or otherwise),
- generates, promotes or recommends something,
- claims copyright over something,
- advertises beside it to monetize it, or
- brands it,
then they are a "publisher" as specified under CDA §230(c)1 and should bear full legal liability for the content. For LLM/AI surely §230 doesn't even appear to apply.

Metcalf's Law applies: if we cripple the large commercial platforms by removing the ability to be algorithmically profitable then we remove the most powerful problems. The nasty, little players are far less powerful, so are not really the problem, IMO, and more easily policed.

2024 BCCRT 149 (CanLII) | Moffatt v. Air Canada | CanLII

Access all information related to judgment Moffatt v. Air Canada, 2024 BCCRT 149 (CanLII) on CanLII.

Peter Ludemann 3d ago

@lauren
Replace "AI" with "corporations" and you'd fix a lot of flaws in capitalism. A few CEOs going to jail would do wonders to corporate governance ("pour encourager les autres"). Especially if "I didn't know" wasn't allowed as a defence (it's the CxOs' jobs to know and to insure that they know).

(This wouldn't fix all of capitalism, despite what libertarians might think; but having "skin in the game" usually improves outcomes)
@dzwiedziu @ai6yr

Lauren Weinstein 3d ago

@PeterLudemann @dzwiedziu @ai6yr That's an admirable fantasy, but that would immediately engender cries that you were trying to destroy capitalism -- it also has a decided left-wing tilt that makes it a very tough sell to the population in general. On the other hand, as I noted, hatred of LLM AI and how it's being deployed, and what it's doing to society, is absolutely nonpartisan and quite focused -- rather than just going after corporations in general. Like I said, I can't think of any other issue short of anger at child abuse that has such a nonpartisan force behind it.

Peter Ludemann 3d ago

@lauren @dzwiedziu Bringing responsibility to "AI" could also be a first step (a precedent) in bring responsibility to corporations. After all, the Supreme Court has said that they are "persons" in terms of speech, so why not in other aspects?
@ai6yr

Lauren Weinstein 3d ago

@PeterLudemann @dzwiedziu @ai6yr Yes, though these things need to be done in the proper order, and delicately, or you hurt the spell.

AAA Trans Pirate 3d ago

@lauren @dzwiedziu @ai6yr

that would require repealing citizens united in the u.s.

@lauren Probably worth noting that Schmidt is facing allegations of sexual abuse, spying, and corporate retaliation by his ex-girlfriend (https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2026-03-06/former-google-chiefs-spying-sex-assault-lawsuit-sent-to-arbitration), so his support for AI is probably the least of my concerns regarding the man.

And this isn’t the first or only allegations of him being a gross creep either.

Former Google chief's spying, sex assault lawsuit sent to arbitration

A lawsuit by an ex-girlfriend of former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, accusing him of sexual assault and accessing her company account, has been sent to arbitration.

Los Angeles Times

@DigitalPatch @lauren
Gawd… this sounds familiar - having just read Michael Crichton’s ‘Disclosure’ (which he says is based on a true story), 1st published in 1994, but still feels contemporary in lots of areas.
Same damn plot!!

Ned Hamson 3d ago

@lauren Everyone over 10 knows that something like Skynet would be a threat to the 98%.

astroPug 3d ago

I take such delight in those boos.

Dźwiedziu 3d ago

@lauren
Please post a link. I want to enjoy it too 👉👈🥺

@dzwiedziu
I found an NBC news story with clips of it (and 2 other people that were booed recently)
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/former-google-ceo-booed-graduation-speech-ai-rcna345585

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt booed during graduation speech about AI

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt was booed multiple times while discussing artificial intelligence during a commencement speech at the University of Arizona.

NBC News

Dźwiedziu 3d ago

Kierkethumbs up convincingly 23h ago

@lauren maga is good with child abuse

@Kierkegaanks @lauren

sexual abuse and cults have a strong history.

https://www.humanrightsresearch.org/post/cults-the-exploitation-and-abuse-of-vulnerable-individuals

they are condoning it, and it would not surprise me if they are emboldened to perpetrate it.

i honestly believe if trump said raping kids is OK, his cult would go great.

they are the American Taliban, and it is how they also want to treat women and children.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/asia-and-the-pacific/south-asia/afghanistan/report-afghanistan/

Kierkethumbs up convincingly 14h ago

@lauren @amiserabilist i prey beige.party has none