AI algorithms spinning out of control is a feature, not a bug.
No human can work at the speed of the AI to review its input data or process of deduction. That’s the point!
As we dive deeper into the proverbial black box, can the AI actually "know" anything at all?
x.com/carissaveliz/s…
For now, “It's a nice-to-have, it's a pretty rare thing,” to have someone on staff dedicated to ethics in development of products or services, Baxter said. “But in a few years, it will be madness not to have at least one of these in your company.”
protocol.com/enterprise/sal…
This weekend Daniel Ek wrote a memo to his employees that also leaked online. Here is part 2 of my ongoing analysis of the communication inside and outside Spotify with regards to the Rogan controversy.
axbom.com/spotify-ceo-me…
My ongoing Twitter thread on this topic is here: x.com/axbom/status/1…
↪ Replying to @Just_Nag_Em
@Just_Nag_Em Ha, that was going to be my next tweet in the thread. You beat me to it. 🙌
Also: yes, yuck.
↪ Replying to @unknown
@carlheath @karaswisher @profgalloway @eldsjal Kara and Scott on this would be amazing.
↪ Replying to @unknown
@Hilaryonline 😁 I like to give my explainers some personality. Thank you Hilary.
I read the CEO town hall speech to Spotify employees and had many thoughts. My concern is how words spoken are hugely significant in times of distress, and this felt condescending. Just a 15-minute speech and I wonder about its impact. New post:
axbom.com/spotify-ceo/
As many as 70 episodes of “The Joe Rogan Experience” have been quietly removed in recent days by Spotify. Neither Rogan nor Spotify have given an explanation.
nytimes.com/2022/02/05/art…
At the end of my post I have now added a link to this page, which contains clips providing context for the types of harm being referred to.
Content warning: racism, sexual assault, holocaust denial, ableism, abusive slurs
paper.dropbox.com/doc/Joe-Rogan-…
CEO Daniel Ek sent a memo to Spotify staff this weekend. This has also leaked online and I’ve been reading it this morning. Full text:
cryptpad.fr/pad/#/2/pad/vi…
Key takeaways:
* Rogan himself took the initiative to take down episodes over the past days
* Daniel Ek does not believe “that silencing Joe is the answer”
* Doubling down on “we are not the publisher of JRE”
* $100 million for creators from “historically marginalized groups”
Also: Spotify intends to “expand the number of outside experts” they consult with for balancing “creator expression with user safety”.
For me an admission of not having anticipated real harm and finding themselves short-staffed in managing this harm.
Reading the same memo I also see signs of many employees actually *having* anticipated that harm. A more pressing dilemma may then not be a shortage of competence, but how existing competence is surfaced and listened to.
Something else that is not pointed out enough: Spotify employees are not asking their CEO to "silence" Joe Rogan. They are asking their CEO to not endorse, amplify and multiply him.
The difference is monumental. Using the word "silence" is a straw man tactic.
Question: If the 70 episodes with racial slurs taken down over the last few days was Rogan's idea, why was Spotify okay keeping them up before? Are they saying no content review was done before a $100 million deal? Or that one was done and they were fine with the content?
Also Daniel Ek doesn't appear to have a clue as to how brutally tone-deaf it is to communicate the same dollar figure for many marginalized creators as the one sum they just paid one profusely privileged man...
x.com/Just_Nag_Em/st…
I added my updates thoughts on the Spotify memo to a part 2:
axbom.com/spotify-ceo-me…
“I think it's important you're aware that we've had conversations with Joe and his team about some of the content in his show, including his history of using some racially insensitive language.”
Uhm why are they talking about content? Allegedly, Spotify is not Rogan’s publisher.
Looking at and re-reading both the speech and memo I am blown away by the apparent belittling of Spotify staff on display. There are clear attempts at misdirection and deceptive half-truths, as if staff don’t understand what is going on. Is this the honest expression of culture?
I see people claiming that Rogan clips are taken out of context. This can be a valid point at times. But Rogan *himself* took down 70 episodes since Friday, clearly signalling that being able to hear the context would not help him.
In case you’ve missed it, Spotify have a seemingly straightforward path out of the mess. Video platform @RumbleVideo have offered $100 million (there’s that number again) if he goes exclusive with them instead.
In other news: over a period of 1 year, Spotify stock is now down more than 50%.
Last week Spotify announced that content warning labels and links would be added to episodes with discussions about Covid-19. It was to be rolled out "in the coming days".
10 days later there are no such labels or any "content advisory" information.
newsroom.spotify.com/2022-01-30/spo…
”If you want to sit with me and talk, you need to come to my table. And, I’m sitting with Joe Rogan.” ”But sharing the table with Rogan puts me in a tremendous values conflict with very few options.”
– @BreneBrown about her exclusive Spotify contract.
brenebrown.com/articles/2022/…
I'm seeing the Spotify content advisory for the first time on the Malone episode. So no warning but just a big blue box with a title "Learn about COVID-19" and the call to action: "Looking for the latest information? Visit our COVID-19 hub" with the button "Learn more". 1/2
Clicking the button takes me to a selection of shows discussing Covid-19. None of which are official sources. This appears to be "the hub". At the top is a link to the official country-specific information, so for me a link to The Public Health Agency of Sweden. 2/2
Spotify stock (SPOT) has lost 33% of its value over the past month and almost 50% over the last year.
Images show graphs of this decline over time, 1 year and 1 month respectively.
This is the background for CEO Daniel Ek’s hollow speech to employees. Employees question how the company considers itself a platform while still promoting JRE and adding its logo to the cover art. How an ethical issue is expressed in pure business terms
theverge.com/2022/2/3/22915…
The content I’m here for: ”Tether is currently keeping some of its assets with Deltec, a bank in the Bahamas run by the creator of Inspector Gadget.” One of Tether’s co-founders is Brock Pierce, a former Mighty Ducks actor.
The multiverse must be real.
slate.com/technology/202…
Sometimes we have to pause, take a deep breath and make an effort to see the bigger picture. My latest issue of The Edge of Digital Ethics is out.
newsletter.axbom.com/issues/the-edg…
Ransom-ware viruses are not a far cry from leaving bugs in your software and then charging huge amounts of money, year after year, to fix them.
Asking if everyone is okay with being recorded when everyone is already in the meeting is a hollow query. Consent is not consent with audience peer pressure.
Always strive to ask for recording permissions beforehand, without people having to oust themselves in a live meeting.
This tweet has been brewing into a blog post.
x.com/axbom/status/1…
I’ve now seen several posts about an Apple ”smart ring” for couples making the rounds? I believe the original source for this is the satire site Faking News. They wrote this just after the fall Apple Event in 2016:
#AppleRing
web.archive.org/web/2016090317…
At the same time, it is true that Apple started filing patents for smart ring concepts in 2015.
appleinsider.com/articles/20/07…
As it turns out, the image being used in the misleading tweets is actually much older than 2016. It dates back to at least 2007!
appleinsider.com/articles/22/02…
Voice messages used to be a machine by my phone that I was excited to see blinking. With mobile phones they became an annoyance. Thanks to podcasting it's an innovative business idea you can apparently charge money for.
↪ Replying to @ApVeng
@ApVeng They can be a huge help. If you haven't already noticed, all episodes of @UXPodcast also have a transcript :)
