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Author: Bonnie

Meta Under the Microscope

Meta Under the Microscope

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Image by A3DigitalStudio from Pixabay

The social networks love kids. That especially seems to be the case with Meta nee Facebook, with its many social platforms. The company has a long history of engaging children – the more the merrier and cha-ching!

Just how engaging and by what methods is at long last coming under scrutiny. How Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Failed Children on Safety, States Say, the New York Times reported. The C.E.O. and his team drove Meta’s efforts to capture young users and misled the public about the risks, lawsuits by state attorneys general say. That’s not exactly a news flash, but then again, it’s the New York Times – all the news that’s fit to print…eventually.

There were more than a dozen lawsuits filed since last year by the attorneys general of 45 states and the District of Columbia, the Times reported. “The states accuse Meta of unfairly ensnaring teenagers and children on Instagram and Facebook while deceiving the public about the hazards. Read More...

Apple’s New AI: Is Tim Cooked?

Apple’s New AI: Is Tim Cooked?

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Image by Stefan Schweihofer from Pixabay

So, Apple has at long last stepped into the AI game, and appropriately named at least part of their offering Apple Intelligence, a designation that, in our mind, harkens to ‘Army Intelligence,’ ‘Military Intelligence,’ and in Apple’s case, rightly so.

Apple’s AI solution is a partnership with OpenAI, who last week announced the addition of Paul M. Nakasone, a retired US Army general and former head of the National Security Agency (NSA), to its board of directors. FYI, as the National Pulse reported, “Prior to his departure from the NSA, Nakasone authored an op-ed advocating for the renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The FISA legislation reauthorized a controversial provision that allows the government to spy on Americans without a warrant as long as they’re communicating with noncitizens in a foreign country.

“Not everyone is thrilled about Nakasone’s new role at the AI firm, which will also see the former general seated at OpenAI’s Safety and Security Committee,” Futurism reported. “The NSA has long been associated with surveillance of US citizens, and AI-embedded technologies are already renewing and escalating existing surveillance concerns. With that in mind, it might be unsurprising that former NSA employee and famed whistleblower Edward Snowden is among the OpenAI appointment’s outspoken detractors. Read More...

The Thing That Should Be Eating Us (Besides GenAI, of course)

The Thing That Should Be Eating Us (Besides GenAI, of course)

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Image by rewind from Pixabay

It’s nearly summer – feels like it already in many parts of the world – and let’s face it: food just seems to just taste better in summer, no doubt due  in no small part to the fact that local produce is more readily available.

Speaking of food, notice how many recalls there have been lately?

Just last week, “More Than 800,000 Units of Cream Cheese Have Been Recalled,” according to The Kitchn via MSN. “The recall has extended to a number of states across America: California, Florida, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. Some of the products were also shipped to Puerto Rico.” Read More...

The Demise of Internet 1.0

The Demise of Internet 1.0

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Image by Johnson Martin from Pixabay

Some strange things are going on in tech these days, and we wonder if, with the advent of AI, tech has lost its way.

Or is taking a different direction. Here are some seemingly unrelated events that all seem to be headed in the same direction…

First, Sam Altman approached Scarlett Johansson to be the voice of his AI, Sky, although she turned him down. “Sky drew widespread attention for its striking similarity to Johansson, particularly her role as an AI voice assistant in the movie Her,” Forbes reported. “‘OpenAI itself has acknowledged the vocal similarities between Sky and Johansson but stressed the voice “is not an imitation of Scarlett Johansson” and belongs to “a different professional actress using her own natural speaking voice.”
Still, they did remove the voice from the ChatGPT4o model. Read More...

GenAIs and the Safety Dance

GenAIs and the Safety Dance

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Photo by Evgeniya Litovchenko on Unsplash

The reference is a song by Men Without Hats and couldn’t resist given the soft shoe reaction given by the OpenAI co-founders following the resignation of its safety oversight team and talk about everyone taking a chance…

“In July last year, OpenAI announced the formation of a new research team that would prepare for the advent of supersmart artificial intelligence capable of outwitting and overpowering its creators. Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI’s chief scientist and one of the company’s cofounders, was named as the colead of this new team. OpenAI said the team would receive 20 percent of its computing power,” Wired reported.

All good – or at least a start, especially in light of all of the doomsday warnings reported on the potential dangers of unbridled, unchecked AI. A fifth of the company’s computing power as well as a crack team of researchers were being devoted to that danger. Sure, and how long did OpenAI’s not-for-profit status last? Read More...

The Apple iPad Commercial: That’s Not What’s Meant By ‘Crushing It’

The Apple iPad Commercial: That’s Not What’s Meant By ‘Crushing It’

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Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

“Meet the new iPad Pro: the thinnest product we’ve ever created, the most advanced display we’ve ever produced, with the incredible power of the M4 chip. Just imagine all the things it’ll be used to create,” Apple CEO Tim Cook tweeted last week, proudly showing off his company’s latest product – and setting off a media and Twitter/X firestorm.

In the commercial, the company that has long been the standard bearer for providing creator tools showed a hydraulic press pulverizing a number of the physical tools on which its very core market – artists – depends: musical instruments (including an upright piano), cans of paint, an 80s arcade game, a sculpture, to name a few.

“You destroyed all the creative tools and effort of humans. Worst. Commercial. Ever,” was just one of the comments in the Twitter/X feed. Read More...

The Work-Life Balance 2.0

The Work-Life Balance 2.0

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Photo by Max van den Oetelaar on Unsplash

We haven’t seen this issue getting much attention lately, but things have changed since the lockdowns. It was a time when isolation became the New Normal, with people working from home; at least the concept of the metaverse rising in the patois; and like Google, Zoom became a verb.

Did the younger generations, especially those who were coming of age during the time of isolation, withdraw into the metaverse? There’s no doubt that the space is alive and well and growing and expected to reach 1.4 billion users in just seven years, with gaming and ecommerce being the most popular sectors to date.

As for it becoming the new workplace, hold on there, baba louie. Read More...

Big Wins for Big Tech.

Big Wins for Big Tech.

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Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay

For the rest of us, not so much…

There were two big stories in tech this past week, neither of which is good news for startups. It’s also difficult to rate which of them is the lesser of two evils.

First came the announcement that OpenAI’s Sam Altman and other tech leaders join the federal AI safety board, and as Engadget put it so correctly, “It’s like turkeys being appointed to the Christmas (or Thanksgiving) oversight board. “Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, Microsoft chief Satya Nadella, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai are joining the government’s Artificial Intelligence Safety and Security Board, according to The Wall Street Journal. They’re also joined by Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, Northrop Grumman’s Kathy Warden and Delta’s Ed Bastian, along with other leaders in the tech and AI industry. The AI board will be working with and advising the Department of Homeland Security on how it can safely deploy AI within the country’s critical infrastructure. They’re also tasked with conjuring recommendations for power grid operators, transportation service providers and manufacturing plants on how they can protect their systems against potential threats that could be brought about by advances in the technology.” Read More...

An Homage to Earth Day

An Homage to Earth Day

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Image by Ericve from Pixabay

Climate engineering is nothing new. We’ve been allowing Bill Gates et all to crisscross the skies with chemtrails to block out the sun in order to reduce global warming, or so goes the unproven hypothesis. “Controversial spraying method aims to curb global warming,” CBS News reported in 2018.

Odd, as four years later, “CNBC report on climate research didn’t confirm ‘chemtrails’ theory,” AP reported, contending that “The story reported on a federal plan to research technology such as “stratospheric aerosol injection,” the concept of placing materials in the atmosphere to reflect sunlight away from Earth. Experts say the idea is being investigated and not currently in use.”

Well, look! Up in the skies! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s superscientist Bill Gates crisscrossing the skies with chemtrails! “A Bill Gates Venture Aims To Spray Dust Into The Atmosphere To Block The Sun. What Could Go Wrong?” Forbes reported the year before. “Widespread research into the efficacy of solar geoengineering has been stalled for years due to controversy. Opponents believe such science comes with unpredictable risks, including extreme shifts in weather patterns not dissimilar to warming trends we are already witnessing.” Read More...

The Power of AI: Who Is Truly Hallucinating?

The Power of AI: Who Is Truly Hallucinating?

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Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

It’s a tough funding environment right now and although we’ve often reminded founders that some of the most successful companies launched during the toughest times in funding, that fact often gets lost in the tough-times funding headlines.

The current exception seems to be if/when founders have ‘AI’ someone front and center in their pitches. As we all know at this point because the hype machine/tech press impresses it upon us every two or three headlines, AI is going to change the world, replace most jobs, eliminate entire professions.

Including coding itself, if Devin is any indication. Devin is “An AI startup that’s not even 6 months old says it’s worth $2 billion Cognition Labs is building an AI tool for writing code — and seeking a valuation six times its current level,” said Quartz. Read More...