The Most Important Technology of 2023 Wasn’t AI [read free] – “This was a breakout year for electric vehicles in America: One day in late November, I cradled a red Samsung flip phone in my hands as if it was a ruby gemstone. To me, it was just as precious. Deep inside an overstuffed dresser in my childhood bedroom, I had spotted the glint of my first-ever cellphone, a Samsung SGH-A707. This device, and every other phone like it, of course, was made obsolete by the touchscreen slabs now in all of our pockets. Perhaps you have heard that we are now on the cusp of another iPhone moment—the rise of a new technology that changes the world. No, not that one. Despite the post-ChatGPT frenzy, artificial intelligence has so far been defined more by speculative hype than actual substance…”
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Monthly Archives: December 2023
Should we even care about using LLMs to query enterprise data?
The Analytics Engineering Roundup, Jason Ganz:”…First we’ll look at how a single workflow might adapt to incorporate natural language processing and understanding. Then, we’ll go all out and imagine a world where these natural language questions power the decisionmaking systems for LLM systems themselves. The goal here is not to make predictions about how exactly… Continue Reading
Tesla blamed drivers for failures of parts it long knew were defective
Reuters Investigates: “Wheels falling off cars at speed. Suspensions collapsing on brand-new vehicles. Axles breaking under acceleration. Tens of thousands of customers told Tesla about a host of part failures on low-mileage cars. The automaker sought to blame drivers for vehicle ‘abuse,’ but Tesla documents show it had tracked the chronic ‘flaws’ and ‘failures’ for… Continue Reading
Protecting Students from Faulty Software and Legislation: 2023 Year in Review
EFF: “Lawmakers, schools districts, educational technology companies and others keep rolling out legislation and software that threatens students’ privacy, free speech, and access to social media, in the name of “protecting” children. At EFF, we fought back against this overreach and demand accountability and transparency. Bad bills and invasive monitoring systems, though sometimes well-meaning, hurt… Continue Reading
The Atlas of Surveillance Hits Major Milestones: 2023 in Review
EFF: “If you haven’t checked out the Atlas of Surveillance recently, or ever before, you absolutely should. It includes a searchable database and an interactive map, and anyone can download the data for their own projects. As this collaboration with the University of Nevada Reno’s Reynolds School of Journalism (RSJ) finishes its fifth year, we… Continue Reading
Want to go plastic-free in 2024?
Fast Company: Want to go plastic-free in 2024? Here’s the realistic way I’m cutting out single-use plastic – “Heading into 2024, living without plastic feels as impossible as living without water, medicine, or clothing. Plastic is everywhere—from the depths of the oceans to our blood-brain layers. Despite needing ~1,000 years to decompose, we rely on… Continue Reading
How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7
The New York Times, December 28, 2023. ‘Screams Without Words’: How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7. A Times investigation uncovered new details showing a pattern of rape, mutilation and extreme brutality against women in the attacks on Israel…A two-month investigation by The Times uncovered painful new details, establishing that the attacks against women… Continue Reading
52 things I learned in 2023
Kent Hendricks · December 28, 2023 – This is such an interesting list with so many subjects covered. Some are whimsical and many others are a fact checkers delight. Enjoy and hope you will click and read the links to articles referenced. From the list: Twelve plant species and five animal species are responsible for… Continue Reading
Massive Spikes In Antisemitic Google Searches Across the Globe
Mid East Journal, December 27, 2023: Quantifying the rise in global antisemitism by evaluating the increase in antisemitic Google search queries since the events of October 7. Google searches drive more than 50% of web traffic, with estimates putting the number of searches per day at more than eight billion. The search terms people use… Continue Reading
The World’s Top Thinkers 2024: ideas for a world on the brink
Prospect: “As a planet and a civilisation we are approaching tipping points—some frightening, others freeing—that will transform life as we know it. Here, we present our annual list of intellectuals—from priests and strategists to neuroscientists and historians—who will help us navigate the world in the year ahead.” Continue Reading
Non-Sketchy News Search
“Find News Sources on Wikipedia and Search Them Via Google With Non-Sketchy News Search. When you search Google News, you’re trusting that all the sources included in your results are legitimate. Often that’s the case, but there are a lot of bad actors trying to poison Google’s search results with disinformation, propaganda sites, and other… Continue Reading
Misinformation Monitor: December 2023
News Guard Misinformation Monitor: December 27, 2023: “The rise of artificial intelligence in 2023 transformed the misinformation landscape, providing new tools for bad actors to create authentic-looking articles, images, audio, videos, and even entire websites to advance false or polarizing narratives meant to sow confusion and distrust. NewsGuard monitored and exposed how AI tools are… Continue Reading
