Wrote a little thing on #AI, #Deskilling, #Hype, and #Enshitification, and how the concept of speed-accuracy tradeoffs can help us think about AI beyond the question of "is this hype"
Hagen Blix
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Linguist, Cognitive Scientist, Occasional AI Researcher, Immigrant in NYC, Co-Author w/ Ingeborg Glimmer of 'Why We Fear AI' - out now: https://bookshop.org/a/114797/9781945335174
I really liked that one, but I do kinda worry that it's occasionally overly optimistic about the anti-labor aspect. The propaganda may be about replacement, but imho the reality is about enshitification, wage depression, and labor disciplining - and LLMs can be useful for the latter even if they clearly fail at the former. Wrote a little thing about that here (and in our book, ofc). Might be interesting for you!
Cory DoctorowToday's threads (a thread)
Inside: AI turns Amazon coders into Amazon warehouse workers; and more!
Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2025/05/27/rancid-vibe-coding/
1/
Timnit Gebru (she/her).Speaking of Shane Legg, co-founder & "chief AGI scientist" 🙄 of Deepmind, here is this gem he co-authored in 2007 titled "Universal Intelligence" where he wonders, as one does,
"Are men on average more intelligent than women? Are white people smarter than black people?" 🤔 Questions white men like to "ask"
https://www.nytimes.com/.../technology/openai-new-gpt4.html
In which we learn that neither GPT-4, nor the New York Times have any idea how Spanish is pronounced
Alex WildPretty fucking bold of these scientists to scrape one of my copyrighted photographs off the internet and then re-release it uncredited under a Creative Commons license because they used it for training data for an algorithm.
Thunderbird: Free Your InboxIn early 2023, #Mozilla will stand up and test a publicly accessible instance in the #Fediverse at Mozilla.Social.
More info here: https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/mozilla-launch-fediverse-instance-social-media-alternative/
Kristin KopfIch lese ja dauernd "Zeitenende".
@pictureofitself I had honestly not expected that article to have a syntactician in it
Omer Preminger 
Genuinely infuriating story out of Northeastern University, involving spying on grad student "attendance" en masse without informing or obtaining consent: https://www.vice.com/en/article/m7gwy3/no-grad-students-analyze-hack-and-remove-under-desk-surveillance-devices-designed-to-track-them
This, I'm sorry to say, reflects an attitude I encountered **often** during my years as university faculty. The last paragraph of the piece is especially worth noting, since OF COURSE the same individuals who harbor this pernicious attitude are also the ones who regularly spread brazen anti-union propaganda. Matches my experience 100%.
(h/t @researchfairy)
‘NO’: Grad Students Analyze, Hack, and Remove Under-Desk Surveillance Devices Designed to Track Them
In October, the university quietly introduced heat sensors under desk without notifying students or seeking their consent. Students removed the devices, hacked them, and were able to force the university to stop its surveillance.