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Daily Archives: August 19, 2024

Your TV set has become a digital billboard

Ars Technica – TV software is getting loaded with ads, changing what it means to own a TV set: “The TV business isn’t just about selling TVs anymore. Companies are increasingly seeing viewers, not TV sets, as their most lucrative asset. Over the past few years, TV makers have seen rising financial success from TV operating systems that can show viewers ads and analyze their responses. Rather than selling as many TVs as possible, brands like LG, Samsung, Roku, and Vizio are increasingly, if not primarily, seeking recurring revenue from already-sold TVs via ad sales and tracking. How did we get here? And what implications does an ad- and data-obsessed industry have for the future of TVs and the people watching them?..”

ChatGPT is bullshit

Hicks, M.T., Humphries, J. & Slater, J. ChatGPT is bullshit. Ethics Inf Technol 26, 38 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-024-09775-5. Full text available free. “Recently, there has been considerable interest in large language models: machine learning systems which produce human-like text and dialogue. Applications of these systems have been plagued by persistent inaccuracies in their output; these are… Continue Reading

National Public Data Published Its Own Passwords

Krebs on Security: “New details are emerging about a breach at National Public Data (NPD), a consumer data broker that recently spilled hundreds of millions of Americans’ Social Security Numbers, addresses, and phone numbers online. KrebsOnSecurity has learned that another NPD data broker which shares access to the same consumer records inadvertently published the passwords… Continue Reading

NO FAKES – A Dream for Lawyers, a Nightmare for Everyone Else

EFF: “Performers and ordinary humans are increasingly concerned that they may be replaced or defamed by AI-generated imitations. We’re seeing a host of bills designed to address that concern – but every one just generates new problems. Case in point: the NO FAKES Act. We flagged numerous flaws in a “discussion draft” back in April,… Continue Reading

The 12 Best Ways to Share Files With Anyone Over the Web

Make Use Of: “There are many ways to share files between people and devices, but a lot of those methods can be cumbersome by requiring app downloads, account registrations, cloud storage setups, and so on. That’s why we prefer these no-hassle file sharing websites that let you drag-and-drop files and share links to those files… Continue Reading

Collecting federal .gov databases

“Please help us by submitting the agency name and url of your favorite agency’s queryable database. We will attempt to harvest that information for the 2024 crawl. We appreciate your time in assisting us in collecting those .gov databases. Please feel free to forward this email to other interested people/communities/lists. For questions, please email me… Continue Reading

OpenTheBooks.com – Every Dime. Online. In Real Time.

“At OpenTheBooks.com, we work hard to capture and post all disclosed spending at every level of government – federal, state, and local. In 2022, we filed 50,000 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and captured 25 million public employee pension and salary records. We also broke open the California state checkbook for the first time… Continue Reading

South Korea’s plan for AI textbooks hit by backlash from parents

FT.com / no paywall: “South Korea’s plan to introduce artificial intelligence-powered digital textbooks in schools has provoked a backlash from parents and academics concerned about children’s overexposure to digital devices and potential misinformation. Education minister Lee Ju-ho said this week that tablets loaded with AI features were “pivotal” to a planned overhaul of the Korean… Continue Reading

Biggest US companies warn of growing AI risk

FT.com [unpaywalled] – “Study finds more than half of Fortune 500 groups cited new technology as a potential hazard in their latest annual reports. More than half of the US’s biggest companies see artificial intelligence as a potential risk to their businesses, according to a new survey of corporate filings that highlights how the emerging… Continue Reading