Chris Hedges on Technocapitalism: Bitcoin, Mars, and Dystopia

We are living through an incipient technological revolution. AI, blockchain, cryptocurrencies, commercial space travel, and other innovations are rapidly transforming everything from the workplace to the financial architecture of the global economy. While many of these technologies hold vast potential to benefit the social good, the multinational corporations and financial oligarchy that drive innovation and… Read More Chris Hedges on Technocapitalism: Bitcoin, Mars, and Dystopia

Israel’s Murderbot is Programmed to Kill up to a Third of all Palestinian Civilians in Gaza / US Congressman calls for Gaza genocide: ‘like Nagasaki and Hiroshima: Get it over Quick’

GAZA casualties, live statistics JUAN COLE Israel’s Murderbot is Programmed to Kill up to a Third of all Palestinian Civilians in Gaza Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The incredibly brave and resourceful Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham revealed Wednesday in a hard-hitting piece of investigative journalism that the Israeli military has used two artificial intelligence programs, “Lavender” and… Read More Israel’s Murderbot is Programmed to Kill up to a Third of all Palestinian Civilians in Gaza / US Congressman calls for Gaza genocide: ‘like Nagasaki and Hiroshima: Get it over Quick’

Automated Murder – Israel’s ‘AI’ in Gaza

By Patrick Lawrence and Cara Marianna  ZURICH—“Technological change, while it helps humanity meet the challenges nature imposes upon us, leads to a paradigm shift: It leaves us less capable, not more, of using our intellectual capacities. It diminishes our minds in the long run. We strive to improve ourselves while risking a regression to the… Read More Automated Murder – Israel’s ‘AI’ in Gaza

Our tools shape our selves

For Bernard Stiegler, a visionary philosopher of our digital age, technics is the defining feature of human experience Bryan Norton It has become almost impossible to separate the effects of digital technologies from our everyday experiences. Reality is parsed through glowing screens, unending data feeds, biometric feedback loops, digital protheses and expanding networks that link… Read More Our tools shape our selves

When It Comes to Critical Thinking, AI Flunks the Test

Real intelligence requires critical thinking and causal reasoning. LLMs cannot acquire these skills by finding statistical patterns in words they don’t understand. By Gary Smith and Jeffrey Funk It has been almost 70 years since the term “artificial intelligence” was coined at a 1956 Dartmouth College summer workshop. The conference was convened by the mathematician… Read More When It Comes to Critical Thinking, AI Flunks the Test

Algorithms of Exclusion

Reporters Collective A I series Haryana used the state’s Family ID database and algorithms to identify genuine beneficiaries of welfare schemes. The database wrongly listed thousands of citizens as dead. Result: They lost their pensions. The Collective’s Tapasya travelled to Haryana to understand how states are using artificial intelligence in an unintelligent way, at a… Read More Algorithms of Exclusion

The zeitgeist is changing. A strange, romantic backlash to the tech era looms

NB: The rebellion against reason, the cults of nostalgia or particularity are not new, these ways of thought have been with us a long time; and are a consequence of the divorce of reason from goodness, virtue, beauty and justice. Romanticism is a consequence of the elevation of scientific reason to a status above the… Read More The zeitgeist is changing. A strange, romantic backlash to the tech era looms

Gaza is the terrifying Dystopia sci-fi writers warned you about

RICKY Israel is doing all the terrifying shit that us science-fiction writers tried to warn you about. For years, we tried to explain we’re heading for a cyberpunk dystopia in which individuals are rendered completely powerless. Well, that dystopia’s now here, it’s called Gaza, and it’s even worse than many of us dreamt up. After… Read More Gaza is the terrifying Dystopia sci-fi writers warned you about

Not so private room: Zoom’s AI privacy fiasco

If there’s been one topline tech story this week that feels synecdochal of the United States’ entire tech-politik zeitgeist, it’s got to be Zoom’s latest privacy fiasco. The video conference software-maker caught heat this week over a Terms of Service (ToS) change allowing it to harvest private user meeting data for artificial intelligence training. And, yes, once… Read More Not so private room: Zoom’s AI privacy fiasco

Christopher Nolan: strong parallels between Oppenheimer and scientists worried about AI

The Oppenheimer director, Christopher Nolan, has highlighted the difficulties of applying nuclear weapons-style regulation to artificial intelligence, as he warned that the United Nations had become a “very diminished” force. Nolan told the Guardian J Robert Oppenheimer’s call for international control of nuclear weapons had “sort of come true”, but there had nonetheless been extensive proliferation of… Read More Christopher Nolan: strong parallels between Oppenheimer and scientists worried about AI