Mastodawn

Irene Ros Jun 25, 2023

Chris Morran Jun 25, 2023

Marking the anniversary of the #SCOTUS decision overturning #Roe v. Wade with a re-read of this @bykenarmstrong @ProPublica piece on Matthew Hale, the 17th century witch trial judge whose work is cited by Alito in the majority opinion:

https://www.propublica.org/article/abortion-roe-wade-alito-scotus-hale

#abortion #SupremeCourt #SamuelAlito #RoeVWade

Draft Overturning Roe v. Wade Quotes Infamous Witch Trial Judge With Long-Discredited Ideas on Rape

Justice Alito’s leaked opinion cites Sir Matthew Hale, a 17th-century jurist who conceived the notion that husbands can’t be prosecuted for raping their wives, who sentenced women to death as “witches,” and whose misogyny stood out even in his time.

ProPublica

Irene Ros Mar 20, 2023

Chat GPT is down, and many startups and apps are down with it. Are we bound to learn the same lessons that created open source software to begin with all over? Probably. Hopefully faster.

https://mashable.com/article/chatgpt-down-even-for-plus-users

ChatGPT is down. What we know.

AI is having some issues.

Mashable

Irene Ros Mar 17, 2023

Show thread

J. Nathan Matias 🦣Mar 16, 2023

I now see why tech leaders are obsessed with the idea that everyone is controlled by dopamine hits from attention economies. It's what they have chosen as their north star.

This kind of irresponsible, self-defeating release of technologies into the wild is what we get from people who measure success in terms of news articles and user counts rather than any scientific or common-sense measure of value.

Irene Ros Feb 3, 2023

Meredith Whittaker Feb 3, 2023

Solidarity w
@BostonJoan. This is so familiar. NYU did similar to AI Now. We were v successful, but too critical, & were kicked out bc we didn't "align with the strategy." They took $4M of our funding, and used it to support weak big-tech friendly work.

I'm so glad AI Now is out of there, and able to pursue grounded honest work not hampered by the voracious pursuit of big tech funding.

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2023/2/2/donovan-forced-leave-hks/

Harvard Misinformation Expert Joan Donovan Forced to Leave by Kennedy School Dean, Sources Say | News | The Harvard Crimson

Harvard Kennedy School Dean Douglas W. Elmendorf is forcing out online misinformation expert Joan M. Donovan from her role at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy and ending her research project, according to three HKS staff members with knowledge of the situation.

Irene Ros Jan 22, 2023

Everyone is suddenly an ML expert when the expertise is trying to talk to ChatGPT like it's a 5 year old. "Here's some text I want you to answer questions based on. Try not to invent anything new you didn't read! There's a marshmello for you if you finish all your tasks quickly!"

"Prompt Engineering" is a generous term for our day jobs now...

Irene Ros Jan 21, 2023

Meredith Whittaker Jan 20, 2023

Early 2000s profitable startups gave their handful of workers novel perks/freedom. These cos/their workplace culture got big. Late 2010s tech labor gained power + made demands. Now a hint of recession = excuse to break promises/reestablish dominance over workers. It's not about $

Irene Ros Jan 21, 2023

Today has been really hard on my colleagues. Layoffs are a dehumanizing practice for so many reasons among them your inability to be loved and appreciated by the coworkers you might have spent years working with. Being shut off the network and losing your building access denies people closure. There's no severance that can replace the human connections that were suddenly lost.

#xooglers, you are cared for, appreciated and will be missed. All of us who remain hate this. Get in touch 💔.

Irene Ros Jan 21, 2023

J. Nathan Matias 🦣Jan 20, 2023

Layoffs:
- don't save money
- don't improve company performance
- don't increase stock pricess
- destroy trust
- have huge impacts on health, well-being, and income of employees

So why do layoffs? It's a network effect: execs lay people off because other companies are doing it

Stanford Biz School article: https://news.stanford.edu/2022/12/05/explains-recent-tech-layoffs-worried/

Harvard Biz Review:
https://hbr.org/2022/12/what-companies-still-get-wrong-about-layoffs

What explains recent tech layoffs, and why should we be worried? | Stanford News

As layoffs in the tech sector mount, Stanford Graduate School of Business Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer is worried. Research – by him, and others – has shown that the stress layoffs create takes a devastating toll on behavioral and physical health and increases mortality and morbidity substantially. Layoffs literally kill people, he said.

Stanford News

Irene Ros Jan 15, 2023