We live in incredible times with such possibilities that is clear. Although its easily dismissed with Klarna’s ai chatbot 700 people foot in mouth statement, hearing the unlikely but technically possible Meta VR inception attack but Meta caught snooping on users via a VPN app they bought previously is chilling stuff
To quote Buckminster Fuller “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
You are seeing aspects of this with the FCC adopting Cyber trust labelling, discussion about norms for wearables and Mozilla’s change in privacy partner.
Revisiting the dark forest filled with Gen AI
Ian thinks: A little while back, the dark forest theory was heavily mention and quoted. Followed up not long afterwards with thoughts about GenAI last year. I have found it useful to re-read it and reflect on where we are now in 2024.
Are you afraid? The race for AI robots
Ian thinks: Watching the race for AI robots, honestly makes me feel slightly defensive. Its harder to work out the real from the hype, and this video helps a lot with this. My defensiveness reminds me of a scene in War of the Worlds and the Animatrix second renaissance. How would you react?
Deep concerns about nostalgia
Ian thinks: I have always had a real problem with nostalgia and this episode of tech won’t save us really speaks about my concerns I see/hear too often.
It is possible to train AI without using copyright media?
Ian thinks: Open AI says its impossible but they are wrong, proven by nonprofit Fairly Trained and zero copyright material. Expect many more court cases around this all soon.
How the digital divide looks in the UK post pandemic
Ian thinks: This guardian short video highlights some of the deep dividing issues which are easily forgotten in the forever pace of technology
Anger and disillusionment with Ed Zitron
Ian thinks: I recently subscribed to better offline with Ed. Its refreshing to have a good informative rants about the state of the tech industry, however I found this interview with Paris a lot more constructive.
Retiring the Mozilla’s privacy aware location service
Ian thinks: Its sad news for a privacy service by Mozilla. Most major location services which end up inside of other applications/service, generally track the users. MLS went out of their way to minimise the tracking and now its going away.
Dodds is confused about SOLID, are you too?
Ian thinks: Although I’m less confused by SOLID Its worth reading the comments which include a almost confession. Leaning in on the community
Japan plan to restrict seniors at the cash point?
Ian thinks: When I first read this, I thought about what the UK does in this space. None of them use age, however there is good argument both ways in Japan. Anything to make all people think is a very good thing, when you consider the way these scams work.
Find the archive here
I just stumbled across a link to some inside discussion about the state of timbl’s Solid project: https://blog.ldodds.com/2024/03/12/baffled-by-solid/#comment-4783 (/ht @cubicgarden).
I feel sad about this because, like the commenter, I really liked the vision behind Solid (my take: separation of data custody from apps), and I thought there were some really good people working on it, but the new custodians seem to have lost their way 😔.
Confused by SOLID