Mammon category archive
Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0
Sucking you down the rabbit hole? Per El Reg, to Google’s Hotel California of AI.
Afterthought:
For you whippersnappers who don’t ken the reference to “Hotel California,” well, just Yahoo! it.
Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0
A shill for merch? El Reg explores how Google plans to infuse its AI with ads.
(Another reason to loathe AI.)
Aside:
My new Anddroid cell phone keeps nagging me to use Google’s Gemini AI.
I keep telling Gemini to go away. (I don’t need nor want what amounts to a talking search engine that chooses search results for me, which is basically all that AI is.)
A couple of times, before I’ve gotten a chance to tell it to go away, it’s eavesdropped on my conversation and started talking on its own, saying stuff that is irrelevant to whatever the conversation was about.
As far as I’m concerned, AI does not stand for “artificial intelligence.” It stands for “annoying interrupter.”
Emoluments 0
Mary Trump follows the money.
“Fog of Lies” 0
Thom discusses how billionaires are spending to skew dis coarse discourse.
The Art of the Con 0
At the Las Vegas Sun, Tom Harper follows the money.
Follymarket 0
Security maven Bruce Schneier expresses some conerns about Polymarket.
The Crypto Con 0
From the Youtube page:
A story broke this weekend which exposed that the founder and leader of Reform UK, Nigel Farage, had been gifted £5 million by a Thai cryptocurrency billionaire shortly before announcing his intention to stand for election. It is another example of how while claiming to be a man of the people – Farage is actually raking it in, and beholden to the super-rich and exploiting their resource and control of media to make a bid for power and policies that will benefit them. On Sunday he withdrew from a BBC interview at the last minute, hoping that avoiding questions (before Thursday’s local elections across the UK) will allow him to benefit from voters’ anger at the failings of the main two parties.
The Art of the Steal 0
Mediaite takes a look at the White House crypto con.
The Crypto Con 0
Alabama State Representative Ben Harrison warns that they are coming for the banks next.
If Charles Ponzi were still with us, he would bow in awe and admiration to the Crypto Bros for taking his legacy to unimagined heights.
It’s Bubblelicious 0
What’s bubblelicious? you may ask.
Per Hillary Remy in the Charlotte Observer, according to the Warren Buffett’s Buffett Indicator, the economy is about as bubblelicious as it’s ever been.
“History Does Not Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes.”* 0
Emma talks with Gil Duran about the implications of the Palantir Manifesto and hears a rhyme that sounds a lot like “Mussolini.”
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*Mark Twain.
Suffer the Children 0
We are again reminded that that’s not scripture. That’s a Republican family value.
By the Book, Reprise 0
Colin Marshall, writing at Open Culture, argues that we may be nearing the point of bringing to life a book by George Orwell. Unlike Mark Hermann, though, he doesn’t point to Animal Farm.
He argues that AI may help lead us into the world envisioned in 1984.
You’ll Win that Bet . . . 0
. . . if you bet the explosion of legal gambling and, especially, gambling apps and websites* is not going to work out well.
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*No doubt aided by algorithms designed to suck the marks dry attract and keep eyeballs.
“History Does Not Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes”* 0
Joe Conason looks at the defeat of Viktor Orban in the recent election in Hungary and hears a rhyme:
Follow the link for context.
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*Mark Twain.