Every time I convert one of my PNG images to WebP format I'm kinda blown away by how small the file becomes.
Tagged: Akkoma
As an aside, I spent an embarrassingly long time on getting the icons in the taskbar of that meme just right. The pictograms spell my name, if you look hard enough, and accept that a duck can be an "R". đ
@ambivalena Tack för Äterkopplingen, det Àr alltid roligt att höra att det uppskattas. Det betyder mycket.
@meraord đđđ
@dhry @EpiphanicSynchronicity What's the quick shortcut to mute the microphone on Windows? Would be good to be able to tell people.
@dhry @EpiphanicSynchronicity I found this article but it talks about only workings for Teams... which would seem to indicate that it's not actually muting the microphone.
https://www.aomeitech.com/windows-tips/windows-11-shortcuts-mute-microphone.html
@dhry @EpiphanicSynchronicity Yes, but not in a user-friendly way. This is an option: https://axbom.me/notice/Aud5dKIAwwf72PljHM
I understand that people think their microphone is off when they have muted the microphone in the online meeting. Now, consider that the meeting software reminds you that your sound is muted when you speak.
[âYour microphone is muted.â]
It does this because your sound isnât really muted⊠the software âheardâ you. The sound is just not transferred to other participants. But there is of course nothing stopping the software from capturing your sound anyway.
This is one of the reasons I like to have a hardware mute button on the microphone Iâm using.
If you donât have a mute button on your microphone, the next best thing is software that will mute your microphone at the system level. MicDrop is an example of an app Iâve tried for this (Mac only): https://getmicdrop.com
You know itâs working when the meeting software starts throwing an âerrorâ and saying itâs not picking up sound from your microphone.
@lebout2canap Perfect summary: "MĂ©lange confus dâĂ©lĂ©ments disparates."
BouillabAIsse. (Though I know in French it's referred to as IA)
A wonderful description of how the technology works.
"ChatGPT generates realistic responses by making guesses about which fragments of text should follow other sequences, based on a statistical model that has ingested billions of examples of text pulled from all over the internet. In Mr. Mataâs case, the program appears to have discerned the labyrinthine framework of a written legal argument, but has populated it with names and facts from a bouillabaisse of existing cases."
I should be using the beautiful word bouillabaisse a lot more in my writing.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/27/nyregion/avianca-airline-lawsuit-chatgpt.html
En pÄminnelse om att vara försiktig med att skanna QR-koder.
https://axbom.se/qr-kod-risker/
@wolf480pl No worries, it just means we thought of the same thing :)
@wolf480pl Yes, that's the line in the footer of the poster. đ
â ïž Abusive content in "AI" tools
One of the reasons I avoid generative AI is because I understand how much of the content used to train the models is abusive, violent and vitriolic. This is what tends to happens in the context of massive, unsupervised training on undisclosed information sources.
I'm appalled by the very idea of images being generated with faces containing the likeness of people who in original photos were engaged in extreme violence, sexual or otherwise. Or children subjected to it.
And this goes equally for text. Text can contain wording that is subtly abusive, racist and discriminating in a way that people donât pick up on. Unless itâs very overt. As an example: The software known as Mistral is very good at generating scripts for convincing minors to meet in person for sexual activities.
There are actually many reasons I try to avoid these tools, but the circumstances of being trained on abusive content doesn't get a lot of media coverage. Or attention from politicians.
Itâs entirely likely that a lot of the content used to make LLMs and image generators is considered illegal in many countries. So not disclosing training material is of high priority to the companies.
And the fact that this type of content is often overtly generated is also a reason why so many content moderators in the Majority World work are hired to minimise it, under traumatising conditions. Which doesntâ make it any more okay.
Itâs also related to the phenomenon that itâs now very easy to generate fake naked photos (and video) of pretty much anyone.
Anyway. Thatâs one reason.
Some sources:
AI image training dataset (LAION-5B) found to include child sexual abuse imagery (The Verge in December 2023). An updated release of this dataset was made available in August of 2024.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/12/20/24009418/generative-ai-image-laion-csam-google-stability-stanford
Releasing Re-Laion 5B: transparent iteration on Laion-5B with additional safety fixes
https://laion.ai/blog/relaion-5b/
Sidenote: The dataset is made available for research, not commercial products, but that is a moot point in the way that big tech just doesnât care anymore and there are no consequences.
Mistral AI models '60 times more prone' to generate child sexual exploitation content than OpenAI
https://www.euronews.com/next/2025/05/08/mistral-ai-models-60-times-more-prone-to-generate-child-sexual-exploitation-content-than-o
âItâs destroyed me completelyâ: Kenyan moderators decry toll of training of AI models. Employees describe the psychological trauma of reading and viewing graphic content, low pay and abrupt dismissals.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/aug/02/ai-chatbot-training-human-toll-content-moderator-meta-openai
These are the types of insights the tech companies are working very hard to keep from getting out.
On July 3rd I'm speaking in Manchester at #CampDigital, at the Royal Northern College of Music.
I won't talk about tech, UX or AI. In my closing keynote I will be addressing the spectacular lies of maps.
Here's the full schedule:
https://www.nexerdigital.com/campdigital/2025/schedule/
@Fluyar Looks like a great book, thanks!
@cgruenloh Exactly⊠this focus on being âoptimisticâ, as if itâs a religion. I compare it to being asked to talk about guns, with the instruction âJust be optimistic and donât talk about all the bad they can be used for. We already have laws against killing people so thereâs no need to spend time on that. Talk about the great, transformative things they can be used for. Stay positive! Itâs not like we can stop the future. Nobody likes a pessimist.â
And in my head Iâm always âIâm not a pessimist. Iâm an optimist who believes we can do much better. Pessimism to me is resigning to an imagined inevitability.â
@Emiliagnathus I get to teach a 3-week ethics in design course at a trade school every autumn and it's one of the most rewarding things I do. This will be year 8(!) The AI hype certainly put a spin on things. Lots of good debate.
I turned down doing a workshop today. They wanted one on AI and ethics. After I submitted my tender (and they essentially accepted it) they asked me to spend half the time on teaching employee tips on using AI to save time.
So I explained I personally avoid using LLMs and image generators and wouldn't be good fit for the job.
It was quite a weird turn of events though and I'm still not sure how our initial talk gave them the impression I would be up for that.
Also, it was a 90-minute workshop and there is no way for me to cut the ethics content with exercises to anything less than that.
To be clear, a big point of the ethics workshop is to encourage giving people the autonomy to think for themselves on how, when and why they would want to use an "AI" tool, or object to it.
And I haven't heard back from this other speaking gig after I mentioned diversity matters to me and I reserve the right to withdraw if the lineup is too homogenous, as in large majority privileged men like myself.
I do still recommend living true to your values, though. đ