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Notes by Axbom
Per Axbom Akkoma

Way more dangerous than a jerk is a billionaire jerk who feels offended. Completely unpredictable with unjustified power and impact.

I'm not afraid of AI (not in the sense the manufacturers would have you be) but I am afraid of the inappropriate power of the billionaires backing their development.

Suppose it's time to write an open letter calling for a pause on giant billionaire experiments.

🔗 Originally posted on Akkoma

19 Apr 2023, 11:04
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⚠ Content Warnings

Reposting this, originally posted on my old account last November. As a reminder to myself as well:

I can appreciate content warnings (CWs). A lot. And I’m not a person who necessarily needs any for my wellbeing.

But I do often avoid opening posts that warn about ‘uspol’. That does make me feel better.

There are people who need CWs for their wellbeing. For reasons I do not always understand. And I do not *have* to understand. CWs remind me of that.

Content warnings are like adding a layer of compassion and consent, and I personally can not see a reason to object to that.

And if you truly do not need them, you can disable content warnings in settings under Sensitive Content. There's one setting for sensitive images and another for having post with CWs always expanded.

Imagine that, the compassionate setting is default and you still have control over changing it.

You can do more and actually set all images to hidden.

Quick sidenote: this is a great time to reflect on the best option for your wellbeing, before you change any settings.

🔗 Originally posted on Akkoma

18 Apr 2023, 20:08
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@mmitchell_ai Made me spit out my drink... 😂

🔗 Originally posted on Akkoma

18 Apr 2023, 20:01
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⚠ Twitter covertly removing protections against hate speech

« Earlier this Month, Twitter Covertly Removed Section of Hateful Conduct Policy Protecting Transgender People from Targeted Misgendering and Deadnaming.

GLAAD statement: “Twitter’s decision to covertly roll back its longtime policy is the latest example of just how unsafe the company is for users and advertisers alike.” »

https://www.glaad.org/releases/glaad-responds-twitters-roll-back-long-standing-lgbtq-hate-speech-policy

🔗 Originally posted on Akkoma

18 Apr 2023, 19:53
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@autiomaa @laurenshof

Yes, this is outlined in my original blog post 😊

https://axbom.com/world-map/

🔗 Originally posted on Akkoma

17 Apr 2023, 10:47
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@laurenshof

It is fascinating isn't it? Another wonderful example that we could likely contribute to organisational silos:

The team working on Russia is likely not the same team as the one working on Africa. By one way of measuring the figure for Africa is correct (for the land mass continent straight across at the longest point). And for another way of measuring Russia it is correct (if you go across all bodies of water, including ocean and allow for a slanted measurement than a strictly horizontal one.) Both can be verified in their own way (almost) but there appears to be no standard for these types of measurements,

The interesting thing about the community notes though is that they did not set out to measure the lines in the image, they just went after answers in text and made an assumption. I can see how this is appealing... and likely also feels obviously correct because of the Mercator distortion.

But yes, I do wonder about the 9,000km figure for Russia and how that really got approved for Britannica.

Great way of illustrating how one distortion sticks and then the distortion supports further false assumptions. The high status of Britannica ensures that many simply won't believe the truth...

🔗 Originally posted on Akkoma

17 Apr 2023, 10:00
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So Twitter now has Community Notes that are used to fact check other tweets. A person used my blog post about the world map to demonstrate how a longer line across Russia represents a distance that is actually shorter than a visibly shorter line across Africa.

In the Community Notes attached to that tweet it is stated that this is false, along with numbers of country/continent width that themselves are incorrect. But the original post actually isn't false. So the tool (Community Notes) designed to provide more trust is actually "debunking" actual truths and instead spreading the misinformation. And of course, Africa is as always a target of reduction.

Here ScafidiTravels shows how the original tweet is correct. Due diligence:

https://twitter.com/ScafidiTravels/status/1647463005024649217?s=20

I've now added all these details about the Russia-Africa controversy (regarding distance across East-West) to the blog post.

Direct link to the referenced section: https://axbom.com/world-map/#rudebate

🔗 Originally posted on Akkoma

17 Apr 2023, 09:26
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@Loukas @Mabande

Gah vad frustrerande. Och det finns ju dessutom ett till konsumentperspektiv: sÀkerhet. Hur svÄrt kan det vara nÀr man till och med i flygblad gÄr ut och talar om exakt vad problemen Àr:

* ResenÀrer med funktionsnedsÀttning kan inte resa spontant eftersom rampservice nu mÄste förbokas.
‱ ResenĂ€rer klĂ€ms i dörrarna eftersom kamerabilderna Ă€r dĂ„liga.
‱ Förseningarna ökar markant nĂ€r föraren ska Ă„tgĂ€rda alla störningar sjĂ€lv, eller vĂ€nta pĂ„ att assisterande personal kommer Ă„kande i bil.
‱ Ingen hjĂ€lp finns att fĂ„ ombord, och trafikinformationen vid störningar uteblir helt nĂ€r föraren har annat att prioritera.

Bara att lĂ€sa upp för lyssnarna! LĂ€gger in dem hĂ€r för alla andra som lĂ€ser i trĂ„den. 😊

https://vildstrejkpendeln.blogg.se/2023/april/flygblad.html

🔗 Originally posted on Akkoma

17 Apr 2023, 08:48
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I'm just so tired of people reposting prompts and responses from ChatGPT as if they're showing off something novel. "Hey look at this profound synthetic text!" Can we fast forward through this maddening point in time please. I'm not coping well.

🔗 Originally posted on Akkoma

15 Apr 2023, 23:05
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@lukaisunlucky

You can get an overview in @annaleen 's thread I think:

https://wandering.shop/@annaleen/110199740713221658

🔗 Originally posted on Akkoma

15 Apr 2023, 12:46
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One concept I likely will be adding to The Elements of Digital Ethics is ”Linguistic Misdirection”. Very much inspired by @emilymbender ’s objections to the use of AI.

Do listen to this episode of Tech Won’t Save Us, where Bender and Marx towards the end get into ”how the tech industry uses language to trick us into buying its narratives about technology”: https://techwontsave.us/episode/163_chatgpt_is_not_intelligent_w_emily_m_bender

”Wishful Mnemonic” is the term Bender uses in the show. Coined by Drew McDermott in 1976.

She gives the example of Automatic Speech Recognition (falsely attributes cognition) which should just be Automatic Transcription.

Some other examples of terms that may give an impression of something going on that really isn’t:

- Cognitive Computing
- Machine Learning
- Neural Network

Would love to hear some more examples of misleading terminology in the tech space in general, if you’ve got them. ”Cloud”, ”Smart” and ”Autonomous” would absolutely qualify.

#AIHype #DigitalEthics #DoubleSpeak #NewSpeak #WishfulMnemonic

🔗 Originally posted on Akkoma

15 Apr 2023, 12:32
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@jtrem

Here is a guide by @jamesmontemagno on how to accomplish this with IFTTT and Mastodon:

https://montemagno.com/automate-posting-to-mastodon-via-web-requests/amp/

I know I've seen other services that can be set up to do this as well.

#RSS2AP

🔗 Originally posted on Akkoma

15 Apr 2023, 11:32
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Given all the controversy around Substack (again) I just want to promote the idea of self-hosting your own blog/newsletter using Ghost.

This allows you to set up your newsletter very much in the same way as Substack, with different tiers and a connection to Stripe. And it’s all yours, on your own domain, and without having to associate with bad actors.

While I myself don’t do paid tiers (I want all my content available openly), I have shared my way of setting up a VPS running Ghost within this blog post:

https://axbom.com/indieweb/

If I gauge enough interest I’m considering writing a post about only running a Substack alternative using Ghost..

#Indieweb #Substack

If a VPS is not your thing, and you want a really cheap option for just running a Ghost blog/newsletter with the possibility of paid subscription tiers, FastComet is the only hosting provider I know of that gives you a 1-click install of Ghost on a shared hosting solution.

Honestly, to get started in a day with a Ghost setup to replace Substack or any other newsletter/blog solutions I believe this could be the killer app. This currently starts at $2.19 per month.

https://www.fastcomet.com/ghost-hosting

#Indieweb #Substack

🔗 Originally posted on Akkoma

15 Apr 2023, 09:56
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@Scmbradley

Inside Out, definitely.

🔗 Originally posted on Akkoma

14 Apr 2023, 22:04
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So there is this film category, psychological thriller, that is supposedly different from just a thriller. But wouldn’t this suggest that we should also have psychological comedies and psychological romance films?

Anyway, that was my absurdist thought for the night. Wishing everyone a pleasant weekend.

🔗 Originally posted on Akkoma

14 Apr 2023, 21:57
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Finally a well-versed walkthrough of how ChatGPT works that more people can take to heart. No we are not even close to something that "understands" our input. And maybe, just maybe, we can stop calling these things AI. But I won't hold my breath.

https://www.newyorker.com/science/annals-of-artificial-intelligence/what-kind-of-mind-does-chatgpt-have

#AIHype #DigitalEthics

🔗 Originally posted on Akkoma

14 Apr 2023, 21:07
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Writing this book has been on my mind for two years now. By breaking it down into ~42 blog posts I think I can get it done in a reasonable amount of time.

Just getting started and will be scouting for publishers. Any words of advice are welcome.

Telling you all this so you can hold me accountable over the next 7 months. My goal is to finish writing by the end of the year. 😁

https://debook.axbom.com

#DigitalEthics #AIHype #ResponsibleInnovation

If you're curious about the content you can read a blog post of mine from March 2021 that covers all the elements (though a couple will be added for the book):

https://axbom.com/elements/

🔗 Originally posted on Akkoma

14 Apr 2023, 15:43
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@daniel Haha 😂

🔗 Originally posted on Akkoma

14 Apr 2023, 15:36
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@dailygrail Haha, that would have been something.

🔗 Originally posted on Akkoma

14 Apr 2023, 14:22
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@Homebrewandhacking @Mabande

We also must not forget her portrayal of Albert Nobbs.

https://slate.com/culture/2012/01/albert-nobbs-glenn-close-plays-a-woman-playing-a-man.html

🔗 Originally posted on Akkoma

14 Apr 2023, 13:47
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