Khari Johnson

@kharijohnson
459 Followers
58 Following
25 Posts
Citizen, proud father, tech reporter at CalMatters, formerly WIRED + VentureBeat
Khari JohnsonMar 7, 2024
Timnit Gebru (she/her).Mar 6, 2024

I missed this piece by @nitashatiku

"an Army Special Operations veteran and former Army Ranger turned investigative journalist. “We think there is a technological solution to everything.” he said. “Are we losing sight of the reality of what AI will probably do on the battlefield?”

But rather than out-of-touch, some tech investors present this work as a chance to return to mid-century American values."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/02/17/silicon-valley-military-tech-defense-contractors/

How Silicon Valley learned to love America, drones and glory

After a decade of building the future, tech’s new guard is going back to the American past, spurring a funding frenzy in defense technology

The Washington Post
Khari JohnsonDec 21, 2023
Drew HarwellDec 20, 2023
New: More than 1,000 photos of child sexual abuse have been found in a prominent database used to train AI image generators. "Basically gives the model an advantage in being able to produce content of child exploitation in a way that could resemble real life" https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/12/20/ai-child-pornography-abuse-photos-laion/
Exploitive, illegal photos of children found in the data that trains some AI

More than 1,000 images of child sexual abuse have been found in a prominent database used to train artificial intelligence tools, a Stanford report finds.

The Washington Post
Khari JohnsonAug 17, 2023
Alex HannaAug 16, 2023

Since it is the #ASA2023 season, don't miss our Thematic Session: Public Sociology and Digital Technology.

We have an amazing lineup to talk about the need for sociology to engage in public discussions about technology with
@nanjala @kharijohnson Joan Donovan @ftripodi!

Khari JohnsonApr 15, 2023
mmitchell_aiMar 30, 2023
I always read @kharijohnson & this piece w @willknight is helpful in explaining what happens next with AI.
"Going from text generation to taking actions on a person’s behalf erodes an air gap that has so far prevented language models from taking actions."
https://www.wired.com/story/chatgpt-plugins-openai/
Now That ChatGPT Is Plugged In, Things Could Get Weird

Letting the chatbot interact with the live internet will make it more useful—and more problematic, too.

WIRED
Khari JohnsonMar 9, 2023
Show threadTimnit Gebru (she/her).Mar 3, 2023
"Bender remains particularly fond of an alternative name for AI proposed by a former member of the Italian Parliament: “Systematic Approaches to Learning Algorithms and Machine Inferences.” Then people would be out here asking, “Is this SALAMI intelligent? Can this SALAMI write a novel? Does this SALAMI deserve human rights?”"
Khari JohnsonMar 7, 2023
Drew HarwellMar 7, 2023

New: The FBI actively helped research facial recognition software that could be used to identify people from street cameras and flying drones at distances of more than half a mile away. "The question always in the back of my mind was: What does the intelligence community really want to do with this stuff?"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/03/07/facial-recognition-fbi-dod-research-aclu/

FBI, Pentagon helped research facial recognition for street cameras, drones

Hundreds of pages of records chronicle the FBI’s years-long attempt to upgrade its facial recognition capabilities to match those deployed in China and Britain.

The Washington Post
Khari JohnsonFeb 28, 2023
Alonzo Sawyer spent nine days in jail for a crime he didn’t commit after an analyst using face recognition identified him as the person who assaulted a bus driver. He’s the latest Black man falsely accused of a crime involving face recognition in the US https://www.wired.com/story/face-recognition-software-led-to-his-arrest-it-was-dead-wrong/
Face Recognition Software Led to His Arrest. It Was Dead Wrong

Alonzo Sawyer’s misidentification by face recognition algorithm made him a suspect for a crime police now say was committed by someone else—feeding debate over regulation.

WIRED
Show threadKhari JohnsonFeb 24, 2023
@gleemie thx for listening!
Khari JohnsonFeb 24, 2023
Lilly IFeb 24, 2023

This interview with Tawanna Petty and @[email protected] so good! On AI, errors, social movement organizing, police policies, and the story that surveillance is about safety with ample evidence that it is actually about social repression.

Although fasc-y vibes from some call in comments: "who cares if someone is mistakenly jailed? there are always EDGE CASES." Edge cases is programmer vocabulary! People are not unusual inputs generating odd output!

https://the1a.org/segments/know-it-all-facial-recognition-and-ai-in-police-surveillance/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_brand=wired&utm_social-type=owned

Know It All: AI, facial recognition, and police surveillance | 1A

Will AI in policing make us safer, or less free?

WAMU 88.5 - American University Radio
Khari JohnsonFeb 23, 2023
DAIRFeb 22, 2023

In this article by @kharijohnson,
"@alex sees a familiar pattern in these events—financial incentives to rapidly commercialize AI outweighing concerns about safety or ethics. There isn’t much money in responsibility or safety, but there’s plenty in overhyping the technology, says Hanna, who previously worked on Google’s Ethical AI team and is now head of research at nonprofit Distributed AI Research."

https://www.wired.com/story/chatbots-got-big-and-their-ethical-red-flags-got-bigger/

AI Chatbots Got Big—and Their Ethical Red Flags Got Bigger

Researchers have spent years warning that text-generation algorithms can spew bias and falsehoods. Tech giants are rushing them into products anyway.

WIRED