I'll let our story speak for itself, but put simply, there's no place on the Internet for the kind of policies Meta implemented this week.

@viticci and I have decided want no part of it, so we’ve deactivated the MacStories and AppStories Threads and Instagram accounts.

Details on our site: https://www.macstories.net/stories/macstories-wont-stand-for-metas-dehumanizing-and-harmful-moderation-policies/

"Mozilla is going to be more active in digital advertising."

"we do this fully acknowledging our expanded focus on online advertising won’t be embraced by everyone in our community" - https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/improving-online-advertising/

I appreciate Mozilla laying their intent out explicitly with no room for interpretation or guesswork.

Personally, I think this is not just a huge misstep, but a deathknell.

Inspired by the Dada movement, from Marcel Duchamp’s L.H.O.O.Q. to Hannah Höch’s collages, Portrait Robot is a parody of current “generative AI” programs.

Thread 👇

writeup on @protomaps and open source - no open core, no commons clause, plain FOSS:

https://protomaps.com/blog/open-core-to-open-source/

Meta Researchers Create High-Precision Tree Canopy Maps https://researchinenglish.com/article/2024.1/meta-researchers-create-high-precision-tree-canopy-1q546lrl?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

#meta #facebook #ai #ml #research #fair #news #environment #ecology #maps #map #trees #treecanopy #nature

Last night @simon joined me, @bcantrill and the Oxide Friends to discuss a recent article maligning open source large language models. Simon has so much practical experience with LLMs, and brings so much clarity to what they can and can’t do. I learned a ton about how to use these systems, how to regard them, and new systems to try.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wqkvn4YyGpA

Amazing robotics project from Stanford: robot arms on a roomba-like platform that can be taught how to manipulate the physical environment and then set loose on it - videos have to be seen to be believed https://mobile-aloha.github.io/

The code is open source (MIT) and comes with a detailed hardware assembly guide

Total bill of materials cost: $31,757.86 - the most expensive components: 4x robot arms, Lambda Labs Tensorbook laptop and a Tracer Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV)

If you're cold, they're cold. Bring them inside.

#WinterSolstice #Krampus