tardigrada

@tardigrada@beehaw.org

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"Lack of transparency, state censorship, potential copyright infringement”: Leading geologist raises serious issues with Chinese-funded Large Language Model aimed at geoscientists (geoscientist.online)

GeoGPT, a big-data artificial intelligence project aimed at geoscientists and researchers particularly in the global south and built by the Chinese tech company Alibaba, aims at helping develop their understanding of earth sciences by drawing on swaths of data and research on billions of years of the planet’s history....

Facial recognition startup Clearview AI settles privacy suit in the U.S. by giving plaintiffs a share of the company’s potential value, rather than a traditional payout, over lack of liqudity (apnews.com)

Facial recognition startup Clearview AI reached a settlement Friday in an Illinois lawsuit alleging its massive photographic collection of faces violated the subjects’ privacy rights, a deal that attorneys estimate could be worth more than $50 million....

A supermarket trip may soon look different, thanks to electronic shelf labels (www.npr.org)

Grocery store prices are changing faster than ever before — literally. This month, Walmart became the latest retailer to announce it’s replacing the price stickers in its aisles with electronic shelf labels. The new labels allow employees to change prices as often as every ten seconds....

tardigrada,

The real change in retail pricing might be discrimination pricing (or ‘surveillance pricing’ as it is now called sometimes). Simply speaking, it uses personal data to personalize prices not just for each customer, but also for each customer depending on actual circumstances such as day time, weather, an individual’s pay day, and other data, collected through apps, loyalty cards, …

As one article says, there is One Person One Price:

"If I literally tell you, the price of a six-pack is $1.99, and then I tell someone else the price of a six-pack for them is $3.99, this would be deemed very unfair if there was too much transparency on it,” [University of Chicago economists Jean-Pierre] Dubé said. “But if instead I say, the price of a six-pack is $3.99 for everyone, and that’s fair. But then I give you a coupon for $2 off [through your app] but I don’t give the coupon to the other person, somehow that’s not as unfair as if I just targeted a different price.”

The linked article is a very long read but worth everyone’s time. Very insightful.

Tuta Mail's Google Ranking Mysteriously Restored After Announcement to Take Legal Actions -- [Tuta blog] (tuta.com)

On March 7, 2024, Google inexplicably downranked the website of Tuta Mail in its search results. While Tuta Mail is a prominent provider of encrypted email services, focusing on security and privacy, our website was deranked for terms like “secure email” and “encrypted email” completely. The search results for our...

tardigrada,

I am thinking the same. Must be some sort of Streisand effect :-)

Top 10 Generative AI Models Mimic Russian Disinformation Claims A Third of the Time, Citing Moscow-Created Fake Local News Sites as Authoritative Sources (www.newsguardtech.com)

NewsGuard audit finds that 32% of the time, leading AI chatbots spread Russian disinformation narratives created by John Mark Dougan, an American fugitive now operating from Moscow, citing his fake local news sites and fabricated claims on YouTube as reliable sources....

Surgeons believe we are about to enter a new era where diseases can be treated before children are born (www.bbc.com)

Prenatal screening for neurological conditions has progressed in leaps and bounds over the past couple of decades. Technology including genetic analysis, neuroimaging, and high-resolution foetal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are allowing doctors to peer into the nervous systems of developing foetuses and already diagnose them...

tardigrada,

Yeah, and not to forget:

One interviewee admitted to paying for access to a data set. “I bought access to an official archive and altered the data to support my hypotheses.”

False promise of biometrics: Digital IDs in Africa failing to deliver promised democratic and development boost while making fortunes for tech vendors, investigations finds (www.lighthousereports.com)

Some of the world’s poorest countries have been investing heavily in digital ID systems which it is claimed will deliver democratic and development dividends. Africa has been at the forefront of this push supported by the World Bank, UN agencies and the international community. Some of Africa’s most fragile states have been...

6,000 years ago, men and women -and those migrated from other locations- had equal access to resources, research finds (www.sciencedaily.com)

Using isotope geochemistry, scientists have uncovered new information about the Barmaz necropolis in Valais (Switzerland): 14% of the people buried 6,000 years ago at this site were not locals. What’s more, the study suggests that this Middle Neolithic agropastoral society – one of the oldest known in the western part of...

tardigrada,

You can’t build and scale a start-up fast enough, say, in case of a crisis. Furthermore, China will use such investments to gain political influence in the foreign country -in that case Canada-, and they won’t stop in this particular industry. Countries must think more in vertically-integrated supply chains and strategic clusters rather than in industries, and they must include geopolitical issues.

tardigrada,

This is related, particularly as the discussion is to a large part around cheap cars:

China: Carmakers Implicated in Uyghur Forced Labor - (February 2024)

China’s electric vehicle battery supply chain shows signs of forced labor, report says - (June 2023)

tardigrada,

They have to stop the use of forced labour in China, the U.S. and wherever this bs happens. This “U.S. bad, China bad okay” stance is unbearable.

Why do people hate people? - A question by 'curious kid' Daisy, age 9, Lake Oswego, Oregon (theconversation.com)

Understanding hate as an emotional response can help you recognize your feelings about something or someone and be curious about where those feelings are coming from. This awareness will give you time to gather more information and imagine the other person’s perspective....

tardigrada,

Probably, but as the article’s authors say, hate “does not mean rage, anger or general dislike”. It appears to be a different concept.

A cyberattack forces a big US health system to divert ambulances and take records offline (abcnews.go.com)

A cyberattack on the Ascension health system operating in 19 states across the U.S. forced some of its 140 hospitals to divert ambulances, caused patients to postpone medical tests and blocked online access to patient records...

CSIS says China remains "an enduring threat" to Canadian technology, democracy and diaspora communities (www.cbc.ca)

As the dust settles on the landmark findings of the foreign interference inquiry, Canada’s intelligence agency is warning that China likely will back more meddling campaigns and expand its online pressure tactics over the coming year....

China’s biggest chipmaker SMIC warns of ‘fierce’ competition as it misses quarterly profit expectations (www.cnbc.com)

SMIC, China’s biggest contract chip manufacturer, is seen as critical to Beijing’s ambitions of cutting foreign reliance in its domestic semiconductor industry as the U.S. continues to curb China’s tech power. SMIC lags behind Taiwan’s TSMC and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics, according to analysts....

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