Stever Robbins

@[email protected]
1.4K Followers
3.2K Following
326 Posts

Helping peak performers deliver their best 🏳️‍🌈. Top-10 podcast 2007-2020. #MIT• #HBS • Extremely into #psychology, #publicspeaking, #learning, #teaching, #entrepreneurship, #lgbtq/#lgbt and #burningman.

I'm a humorist, an author, an amateur musical theater lyricist (check out http://worklessanddomore.com), and more.

I'm opinionated and willing to change my beliefs in the presence of data. • )'( • he / him

Twitter: @SteverRobbins

Twittertwitter.com/SteverRobbins
Websitehttps://www.steverrobbins.com
Twittodonhttps://twittodon.com/share.php?t=steverrobbins&[email protected]
Stever RobbinsNov 16, 2024
I've committed to leaving Twitter, but haven't yet decided whether to reside here or BlueSky. @pluralistic makes a strong case for Here, but I find Bluesky so much easier to use and find people.
Show threadStever RobbinsApr 5, 2023
@grammargirl in short, I believe the current wave of AI is engaging in extremely reckless behavior in ways I believe need to be thought about carefully. This isn’t some huge mystery. We can predict many of these problems. That is, perhaps, why google and Microsoft and Facebook all fired their AI ethics teams. If we don’t know about the ethical problems, our foreknowledge isn’t admissible in court.
Stever RobbinsApr 5, 2023
@grammargirl I believe that OpenAI should be 100% liable for consequential damages and for all court costs necessary for plaintiffs to collect. Possibly establish a large (multibillion dollar) fund to guarantee these claims move swiftly. Personal liability for OpenAI officers. Similar for copyright violations. I do not believe that just because automation makes it easy to scrape licensed content at gigantic scale, that it suddenly becomes OK. Ditto for misinformation widely distributed.
Show threadStever RobbinsApr 5, 2023
@grammargirl I might add this applies to google not having a mechanism for taking down misinformation links. I know someone who was the target of harassment and fake accusations that got posted on a web site by their ex. That’s what came up first in googling their name, and there was no way to get google to remove it.
Stever RobbinsApr 5, 2023
@grammargirl you can guess what my modest, humble recommendation might be for how to deal with this.
Stever RobbinsApr 5, 2023
Laurie VossMar 31, 2023
Y'all told me Andreesen was smart, Thiel was smart, Rabois was smart, Musk was smart, they have all outed themselves as lucky and dumb. You need to stop assuming being rich and being smart are the same.
Stever RobbinsApr 5, 2023
James GleickMar 31, 2023

This is actually false, New York Times. Ex-presidents have never been “shielded from indictment.” There is no “taboo.”

Ex-presidents have always been subject to prosecution for their crimes. Vice-presidents, state governors, and congressmen have all been indicted and even imprisoned.

Only one thing is new here: an incorrigible career criminal became president.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/30/us/politics/trump-indictment-democracy.html?unlocked_article_code=TyR2nPdw64cv07eIzC7yxLxDsARzmm2yCdealUwCCBXjQXEk9N6LqJdynlb717HiF6GCa5s2uiT-rPRL7d_xOeF2yimTCLIrkbzWU_Ch5jcDouarKvN0pihm00fyECbfNHXdPtbHNZqJr7rTIYay2zA6sboZSX6oPIhTxPSwnRwAIQC-ydjPHj45n2lyaAPEvz7ZzT1FBR8ZWUvvFGmJgxOc2n_P-6EHTZfmgKUDb9aPZ6bU1k3rBDXLGBGShbODt2TrWJzMk0hQa9XU-do6Xaq5uix5NVPZTVq35oiJ5Bxgw_xEgPbCdO1kx07LY6yDoRZwB6QkWadseQ5a2Rn49nBbAbA&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Trump Indictment, a First for a U.S. President, Tests Democracy

For more than two centuries, American presidents were effectively shielded from indictment. But the case against former President Donald J. Trump breaks that taboo and sets a new precedent.

The New York Times
Stever RobbinsApr 5, 2023
Max KennerlyApr 3, 2023

I remember when Aaron Swartz was criminally prosecuted for downloading too many academic journal articles, but, sure, it's totally cool to scrape everyone's personal photographs as part of a commercial effort to market discriminatory surveillance tech to police departments.

https://www.businessinsider.com/clearview-scraped-30-billion-images-facebook-police-facial-recogntion-database-2023-4

Clearview AI scraped 30 billion images from Facebook to share with police

Law enforcement officers have used Clearview AI's facial recognition database nearly a million times, Hoan Ton-That, the company's CEO, told the BBC.

Business Insider
Show threadStever RobbinsMar 25, 2023
@dankennedy_nu Why is “they could just buy our data anyway” a bad argument? Is it factually false, or is there some other underlying logic I’m missing?
Show threadStever RobbinsMar 25, 2023
@33ARSH @augieray also use good ventilation and air filtration indoors. We set up window fans and Corsi-Rosenthal boxes to keep things moving when we have others in the house.