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13 posts total
 I wrote about why Meta is integrating Threads with Mastodon and the fediverse -- and why advocates for an open social web are both cautiously intrigued and wary. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/10/02/meta-threads-fediverse-mosseri-mastodon-rochko/ Artists' class-action lawsuit against AI image generators quietly cleared a significant hurdle this week. I wrote about what it means for the broader battle over AI and digital rights: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/08/14/ai-copyright-lawsuit-artists-stability-midjourney/ SCOTUS' ruling on social media was a bigger deal than it first seemed. Content moderation and ranking algorithms are now First Amendment-protected speech, and that has major implications for the internet. My newsletter today: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/02/netchoice-scotus-content-moderation-speech/  "majority opinion makes clear that forcing social media companies to carry certain posts is unlikely to be constitutional. But in declining to throw out the laws altogether, the court signaled that other aspects of those measures might be less problematic." Seems not necessarily dumb? New: Casey Newton's Platformer is leaving Substack, suggesting its recent move to ban some accounts has failed to quell a writer revolt over its tolerance of extremist content. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/01/11/substack-platformer-nazis/ The Washington Post says it will pause its advertising on X, joining numerous other brands. Apparently Elon posting a Pizzagate meme this morning was the last straw. Story by @drewharwell: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/11/28/pizzagate-musk-twitter-x-controversy/ web4 is a web written by AIs for other AIs. unfortunately there are still humans in the loop reading the content and expecting it to not be total gibberish. web5 fixes this
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A high-profile First Amendment ruling that restricted the Biden admin's contacts w/ tech firms & researchers relied on "invented quotations," Stanford says in a legal brief—and violates disinfo researchers' own speech rights. My story today: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/08/03/disinfo-researchers-are-under-pressure-right-theyre-starting-push-back/ Asked for examples of sexual harassment at law schools, ChatGPT named a GW law prof accused of touching a student on a class trip to Alaska, citing a 2018 Washington Post story. The law prof is real. The rest was made up. We wrote about what happens when AIs lie about you: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/04/05/chatgpt-lies/ It gets weirder. ChatGPT generated the fake scandal involving law prof Jonathan Turley in response to prompts from Eugene Volokh last week. Turley wrote about it in a USA Today op-ed on Monday. OpenAI appears to have since addressed the issue: ChatGPT no longer names Turley when given the same prompt. But today we tested the same prompt on Microsoft's Bing AI. And guess what... Antisemitic tweets have more than doubled on Twitter since Elon Musk took over, a new study finds. Asked for comment, Musk's press department auto-responded with a poop emoji. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/03/20/antisemitic-tweets-soared-twitter-after-musk-took-over-study-finds/
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 @willoremus Billionaires don’t have to respond to peasants anymore now that government doesn’t care about peasants anymore either Well Musk is easy to understand from a Christian point of view, He is a serial adulterer, with his tryst with Brin's wife being a vile and clear case. Second, I am unfascinated by the hyper wealthy, greedy and spoiled children. the society defines "net worth" so that Musk has a higher score than, say Mother Teresa. I follow God not mammon, and when it comes to "net worth" I score Mother Teresa higher than Musk. Starting nowish (1pm ET): The Washington Post's @cqz interviews the president of Signal, @Mer__edith Live stream: https://whittakerjan2023.splashthat.com/ Folks in tech who say it's easy to criticize but hard to build... Sorry, no. It's easy to build if you don't care about the flaws or societal consequences or ripping off others' work. Any midwit sociopath can do that. The hard thing is to build something that *isn't* evil.  @willoremus Also, speaking as a builder and a critic... have these people *tried* writing useful criticism? There's a reason I put out ~1 major software project a year and ~1 major critical essay a year. They're about equally hard to do well!! Here’s the full story on Musk’s Twitter takeover and firing of the executive team: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/10/27/twitter-elon-musk/ |
Gregory's Server
I want to thank Mastodon founder @Gargron for taking the time to comment for my story on Threads' fediverse integration. Here's what he had to say:
@willoremus There’s a strong sense that Meta is going to follow the “Embrace, extend, and extinguish” path that Microsoft and other tech giants have previously used when they adopt open platforms or protocols.
I don’t think that’s their goal at all here. At their core, Meta is built around collecting personal data and then leveraging that to target people with ads. They don’t need to control the platform, they just need to be able to vacuum up the data.
In fact, I would go so far as to say that Meta would rather *not* control the platform, since that means they’re responsible for *moderating* the platform, which they’ve repeatedly shown they’re not interested in doing well.
I’m sure absolution from moderation sounds like a win in Zuck’s mind.
@willoremus There’s a strong sense that Meta is going to follow the “Embrace, extend, and extinguish” path that Microsoft and other tech giants have previously used when they adopt open platforms or protocols.
I don’t think that’s their goal at all here. At their core, Meta is built around collecting personal data and then leveraging that to target people with ads. They don’t need to control the platform, they just need to be able to vacuum up the data.