Mammon category archive
This New Gilded Age 0
It appears that the Trump maladministration is on the side of those who like to play monopoly.
Fight Night, Emoluments Dept. 0
Mary Trump follows the money.
It’s All about the Algorithm 0
Via The Charlotte Observer, Northwestern University professors William J. Brady and Eli J. Finkel remind us that artificial “intelligence” is not intelligent. It’s engineered, and it’s engineered by humans to benefit the companies that they work for.
After looking at the damage that “social” media algorithms have done to dis coarse discourse (and that section alone makes their article worth reading), they explain why they fear that AI will have similar effects, especially now that AI designers are turning to advertising as a source of revenue. Here’s a tiny bit:
We are not opposed to AI – far from it. The evidence we’ve cited suggests it can be a powerful tool for improving reasoning and reducing prejudice. But those benefits depend on what the chatbots are optimized for.
The argument that AI is fundamentally different from social media, that it will elevate expertise rather than amplify outrage and moderate views rather than entrench them, is seductive precisely because we want it to be true. But that argument deserves scrutiny, not credulity. If anything, the case for skepticism is stronger here than it was for social media.
The Invasive Specie 0
The Privatization Scam 0
Farron follows the money.
The Art of the Crypto Con 0
John Young looks at the Trump maladministration’s dealings with crypto and postis that
Newton’s Law of Physics has to do with actions and reactions.
Of this president one can assume: For any action there’s an electronic transaction.
Read his piece to see why he so concluded.
The Belles of the Ballroom 0
Ring of Fire’s Josh Gay follows the money.
Strict Destructionists 0
At my local rag, Doug Mercado argues that the current federal maladministration seems to have overlooked the bit in the preamble to the U. S. Constitution that states that one of the purposes of the union is to “promote the general welfare.”
Methinks he may be onto something.
The Art of the Con 0
At the Las Vegas Sun, Tom Harper follows the money.
A Loopy Idea 0
SFgate’s Katie Dowd had to go to Las Vegas, so she decided to check out Elon Musk’s Loop underground transportation notnetwork.
She was–er–less than favorabley impressed.
Phoning It In 0
Apparently, reviewers are finding that the much-vaunted Trump phones don’t actually live up to their billing . . .
The Sure Thing 0
You can bet on more reports like this. It’s a sure thing.
We are a broken society.
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.”