Via LLRX – Rejecting Dogmas Around AI, User Privacy, and Tech Policy – The Markup’s Ross Teixeira had a virtual discussion with Jonathan Frankle, Chief Scientist at DataBricks, about the the ethics of companies using customer data to train models, the growing trend of integrating AI models into our personal devices and lives, and how people can… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Search Engines
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
An exercise to make you better at using GenAI/LLMs
Brainyacts – Reasoning Engines, Not Search Engines – “For most people, it is still too easy to fall into the trap of viewing Large Language Models (LLMs) or GenAI tools as merely advanced search engines. After all, these models will produce answers to almost any question at the drop of a hat, making them seem… Continue Reading
Exploring Goodreads Data: An Analysis of 10 Million Books
Ammar Alyousfi’s Blog: “Goodreads is one of the largest book websites on the internet. It has data about millions and millions of books from different genres and in many languages. It’s hard not to find a book on Goodreads whether it’s published hundreds of years ago or just a few days ago. Today, I present… Continue Reading
NationalPublicData.com Hack Exposes a Nation’s Data
Krebs on Security: “A great many readers this month reported receiving alerts that their Social Security Number, name, address and other personal information were exposed in a breach at a little-known but aptly-named consumer data broker called NationalPublicData.com. This post examines what we know about a breach that has exposed hundreds of millions of consumer… Continue Reading
Google quietly opens Imagen 3 access to all U.S. users
VentureBeat: “Google has quietly made its latest text-to-image AI model, Imagen 3, available to all U.S. users through its ImageFX platform and published a research paper detailing the technology. This dual release marks a significant expansion of access to the AI tool, which was initially announced in May at Google I/O and limited to select… Continue Reading
Microsoft Tweaks Fine Print To Warn Everyone Not To Take Its AI Seriously
The Register – “Microsoft is notifying users that its AI services should not be taken too seriously, echoing prior service-specific disclaimers – an update to the IT giant’s Service Agreement, which takes effect on September 30, 2024, Redmond has declared that its Assistive AI isn’t suitable for matters of consequence. “AI services are not designed,… Continue Reading
The new Google AI Overview layout is a small win for publishers
Mashable: “Google’s AI Overviews got off to a rocky start, but it hasn’t deterred the tech giant from charging ahead with foisting AI-generated summaries upon your search results, like it or not. On Thursday Google announced new updates to AI Overviews, some of which might make publishers a little happier. As of today, Google is… Continue Reading
Go Beyond Google: The Best Alternative Search Engines for 2024
PC Mag: “A judge has ruled that Google has a monopoly on online search because it paid partners to make its search engine the default on phones and mobile browsers. But you don’t have to use Google, and there are many reasons not to. Alternative search engines often give you more privacy and sometimes come… Continue Reading
Most Adults are Not Confident They Can Tell Whether Information from AI Chatbots Is True or False
KFF: “…Most U.S. adults are not confident that they can tell what is true versus what is false when it comes to information from AI chatbots, such as Chat-GPT and Microsoft Copilot. Fewer than half say they are either “very confident” (9%) or “somewhat confident” (33%) that they can tell the difference between true and… Continue Reading
Google’s AI Search Gives Sites Dire Choice: Share Data or Die
Bloomberg [unpaywalled] – Publishers say blocking the company’s AI bot could also prevent their sites from showing up in search. Google now displays convenient artificial intelligence-based answers at the top of its search pages — meaning users may never click through to the websites whose data is being used to power those results. But many… Continue Reading
What Elected Officials Say and Do
Polarization Research Lab – America’s Political Pulse – Resources and data to understand and halt the growth of partisan animosity. What Elected Officials Say and Do – Explore data on the speech, effectiveness, and campaign support for elected U.S. legislators. Using AI to assess the rhetoric of all 535 legislators in the House and Senate.… Continue Reading
