Below are posts associated with the “link” type.
🔗 linkblog: Elon Musk’s reach on Twitter is dropping — he just fired a top engineer over it - The Verge'
Every time I think this acquisition can’t get dumber, it does.
🔗 linkblog: The End of Grading | WIRED'
Somewhat meandering read, but I think there are interesting implications for both teaching and research.
🔗 linkblog: Twitter's new data access rules will make research harder : NPR'
Some good coverage of the consequences of API restrictions for researchers—though I think we still need clarification from Twitter about whether the academic dev status is being handled separately from primary dev status.
🔗 linkblog: Lazy Reporters Claiming Fediverse Is ‘Slumping,’ Despite Massive Increase In Usage | Techdirt'
I’d seen some of the headlines Masnick is critiquing here, but I hadn’t read the articles. I appreciate this critique and overview.
🔗 linkblog: ChatGPT is a data privacy nightmare, and we ought to be concerned | Ars Technica'
Important points in here.
🔗 linkblog: Disinformation Researchers Raise Alarms About A.I. Chatbots - The New York Times'
Important to keep an eye on this.
🔗 linkblog: Conservatives Are Obsessed With Getting ChatGPT to Say the N-Word'
Of all the dumb responses to perfectly legitimate content moderation, this is perhaps the dumbest.
🔗 linkblog: OpenAI Wants To Help You Figure Out If Text Was Written By OpenAI; But What Happens When It’s Wrong? | Techdirt'
Just because some worries about ChatGPT are, indeed, moral panics doesn’t mean that there aren’t legtimate criticisms of the technology—including from an educational perspective. I happen to agree with Masnick that schools ultimately need to roll with the punches here, but given how much we already expect of our schools and teachers, it’s reasonable to resent being punched in the first place. Masnick’s point about the error rate for detecting AI-generated text is an important one, though: I don’t think plagiarism-detecting surveillance is at all the right response.
🔗 linkblog: Twitter to remove free API access in latest money making quest - The Verge'
I presume this decisuon also cuts off academics; this is going to have a huge impact on research, and not in a good way. I’m glad I’ve pivoted to other platforms, but this is still infuriating.
🔗 linkblog: The audacious rescue plan that might have saved space shuttle Columbia | Ars Technica'
Fascinating read. I can’t believe it’s been 20 years… I remember learning the news at a Boy Scout activity.
🔗 linkblog: Florida Teachers Are Emptying Classroom Libraries to Avoid Going to Jail'
What a dumb world we live in.
🔗 linkblog: 4chan users embrace AI voice clone tool to generate celebrity hatespeech - The Verge'
Why… why don’t we better anticipate better misuses like this? Are technological “progress” and market opportunities more important than these side effects?
🔗 linkblog: Inside a US Neo-Nazi Homeschool Network With Thousands of Members'
Well, this is horrifying. Another example of a news article I wish weren’t relevant to my research.
🔗 linkblog: People Can’t Stop ‘Spotify Snooping’ on Friends, Exes and Crushes - WSJ'
This is dumb and gross, and another reason I’ll never use Spotify.
🔗 linkblog: Les Jones releases 'Burger,' an homage to /mocking of America | Boing Boing'
Franchement, c’est parfait.
🔗 linkblog: Instagram Has a White Nationalist ‘Groyper’ Problem'
I wish this weren’t as relevant as it is to my work on Mormon Twitter, but here we are.
🔗 linkblog: In The End, Trump Will Screw Over Anyone: Including His ‘Own’ Social Media Company | Techdirt'
Welp, all the more reason to leave birdsite behind.
🔗 linkblog: ChatGPT Is Passing the Tests Required for Medical Licenses and Business Degrees'
Headline overstates things a bit, and I’m on team “change the assessments,” but it’s still worth asking if AI developers are appropriately anticipating the disruptions these tools are causing.
🔗 linkblog: Madison Square Garden's facial recognition policy ignites debate over the tech : NPR'
Glad this story is still getting attention, because it so neatly demonstrates why facial recognition is scary. We shouldn’t tolerate this level of surveillance—by private or public actors.
🔗 linkblog: OpenAI Used Kenyan Workers on Less Than $2 Per Hour: Exclusive | Time'
Looks like the job of AI training is as awful as the job of content moderation.
🔗 linkblog: Discord acquires Gas, the popular app for teens to compliment each other - The Verge'
A couple of months ago, I spoke to Education Week about the Gas app. I thought it had an exploitative business model then, and its being acquired does nothing to calm that fear.
🔗 linkblog: Twitter says it’s intentionally blocking apps like Tweetbot - The Verge'
Ah, the kind of answer that only raises more questions.
🔗 linkblog: CNET Defends Use of AI Blogger After Embarrassing 163-Word Correction: ‘Humans Make Mistakes, Too’'
Here, as with autocorrect and citation managers, my personal opinion is that any human who knows enough to use the tool critically knows enough to do the job themself. Maybe slower, sure, but slower isn’t always bad.
🔗 linkblog: Amid widespread backlash, D&D maker scales back “open” license changes | Ars Technica'
Seems like good news, but while I’ll be happy to join others’ D&D games, I think my preferences are locked into Paizo games and indie titles.