The UID #design talks begin at 13.00 today, and will be live streamed! https://www.umu.se/en/umea-institute-of-design/uid24/
| web | https://heatherwiltse.me/ |
Heather Wiltse
- 9 Followers
- 49 Following
- 20 Posts
Design researcher and technology theorist
Associate professor, Umeå Institute of Design.
American expat, immigrant, world citizen. Newbie Mastodon user/lurker.
@camerontw This makes me think of the outrageous situation in the US where you basically have to file your taxes through an exorbitantly-priced tax preparation service (like Turbo Tax) because it's close to impossible otherwise. That industry then lobbies to keep taxes as complicated as they are, while putting on an impressive display of emotional support for users who have to deal with stressful taxes. (Meanwhile in Sweden, you can file taxes in about 30 seconds in a government-provided app.)
Johnny RyanIt does indeed appear that Coimisiún na Meán has had its wings clipped by Thierry Breton. Ireland wanted to force tech firms to switch off toxic recommender algorithms by default but was prevented by the European Commission.
This is despite massive public support for the measure.
It was a clear choice. Breton could have given everybody the freedom to decide whether to switch these systems on or not. Alas, he has trapped us in a dystopic mess. https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2024/0527/1451373-online-safety/
This is despite massive public support for the measure.
It was a clear choice. Breton could have given everybody the freedom to decide whether to switch these systems on or not. Alas, he has trapped us in a dystopic mess. https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2024/0527/1451373-online-safety/
Mythic BeastsAnother large language model scraper blocked. This graph is from a site which runs a tool generating answers for people doing important research work. The AI scraper sent hundreds of thousands of lookup requests evading rate limits by using about a thousand IPs and pinned multiple webservers at 100% CPU (graph from one attached). This is a massive waste of electricity to train a hallucination machine.
@cbecker This looks fantastic, but also like there haven't been any updates for a couple years. I would be super interested to see updates from others working in this space, especially if there are any connections (existing or to be made) with design research. #TechOtherwise
Timnit Gebru (she/her).1954: “we have machines which, if they were for the first time discovered by animal psychologists, would be said to think in the way animals do.”
1958: machines that “will be able to walk, talk, see, write, reproduce itself & be conscious of its existence.”
2024 👇
Short but poignant interview with @Mer__edith https://theinnovator.news/interview-of-the-week-meredith-whittaker-ai-ethics-expert/
Eric Maugendre about data"It’s not just Big Tech that’s playing for all the marbles - it’s also the systems of democratic control and accountability. If Apple can sabotage the DMA’s insistence on taking away its veto over its customers’ software choices, that will spill over into the US Department of Justice’s case over the same issue, as well as the cases in Japan and South Korea."
Cory Doctorow @pluralistic: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/05/big-tech-eu-drop-dead @data @datadon
#EFF #Meta #dma #dsa #eu #privacy #advertising #GDPR #dataProtection
Big Tech to EU: "Drop Dead"
The European Union’s new Digital Markets Act (DMA) is a complex, many-legged beast, but at root, it is a regulation that aims to make it easier for the public to control the technology they use and rely on. One DMA rule forces the powerful “gatekeeper” tech companies to allow third-party app stores...
Nick CouldryIf you want to catch up with my recent talk on data and AI policy challenges for
UCDublin and its Center for DigitalPolicy, here's the recording: https://digitalpolicy.ie/the-impending-crisis-in-societys-relations-to-big-tech-nick-couldrys-visiting-lecture-to-the-ucd-centre-for-digital-policy/
UCDublin and its Center for DigitalPolicy, here's the recording: https://digitalpolicy.ie/the-impending-crisis-in-societys-relations-to-big-tech-nick-couldrys-visiting-lecture-to-the-ucd-centre-for-digital-policy/
@couldrynick This framing around the three crises of governability, solidarity, and freedom is quite nice, also in terms of foregrounding what is at stake. But most of the sort of 'agenda' for each of these points is basically calling out everything that is currenty going wrong (driven by data colonialism/capitalism) and insisting on the right to say no. We also need affirmative visions (plural) of what other worlds could be possible. I am increasingly interested in what those might be.