What about cleaning all yards? This ‘the West bad, China bad okay’ stance is dehumanising and ignorant. [Edit typo.]
I posted this elsewhere already, but it also fits here goven many of the posts in this thread: It is not just about data/privacy concerns (which are underestimated imo, as China pursues an own agenda with collecting your data through Chinese tech) and ‘unfair’ subsidies, but about gross human rights violations.
In short, some parts of the cheap Chinese cars are made in concentration camps where people are forced to work under catastrophic conditions.
I posted this elsewhere already, but it also fits here goven many of the posts in this thread: It is not just about data/privacy concerns (which are underestimated imo, as China pursues an own agenda with collecting your data through Chinese tech) and ‘unfair’ subsidies, but about gross human rights violations.
In short, some parts of the cheap Chinese cars are made in concentration camps where people are forced to work under catastrophic conditions.
Chinese orgs love signing MOUs
The CCP - or, better, the China Scholarship Council (CSC) under the rule of the CCP - forces Chinese students and researchers to sign ‘loyalty pleadges’ before giong abroad saying they “shall consciously safeguard the honor of the motherland, (and) obey the guidance and management of embassies (consulates) abroad.” The restrictive scholarship contract requires them to report back to the Chinese embassy on a regular basis, and anyone who violates these conditions is subject to disciplinary action.
In one investigation,
Mareike Ohlberg, a senior fellow working on China at the German Marshall Fund, sees the CSC contract as a demonstration of the Chinese Communist Party’s “mania for control.”
“People are actively encouraged to intervene if anything happens that might not be in the country’s interest,” Ohlberg said.
Harming China’s interests is in fact considered the worst possible breach of the contract.
“It’s even listed ahead of possible involvement in crimes, so effectively even ahead of murder,” she noted. “China is making its priorities very clear here.”
[…] Kai Gehring, the chair of German parliament’s Committee for Education and Research, says the CSC contracts are “not compatible” with Germany’s Basic Law, which guarantees academic freedom.
In Sweden, for example, universities have already cancelled the collaboration with the CSC over this practice.
There is ample evidence that China uses scientific collaboration with private companies as well as universities and research organizations for spying. You’ll find many independent reports on that as well as of the CCP’s intimidation practices of Chinese students who don’t comply with the party line, e.g., in Australia and elsewhere. It’s easy to find reliable sources on the (Western) web.
Yes. We need human responsibility for everything what AI does. It’s not the technology that harms but human beings and those who profit from it.
This is maybe a good idea. What would an emoji analysis tell us about a network? 😃
If you are ready to live in a low-quality, insecure, and unfinished building, you may have a chance to get one.
Addition: The first 3 minutes of this video may give a rare glimpse what ‘low quality’ (and the handling of it) could mean.
Data Leak at Anthropic Due to Contractor Error
TL;DR - Anthropic had a data leak due to a contractor’s mistake, but says no sensitive info was exposed. It wasn’t a system breach, and there’s no sign of malicious intent.
The article doesn’t say which classifier algorithm they use in that case in India.
We had a similar incident in the Netherlands last year, for example, with similar problems. There they used Gradient Boosting afaik. But it doesn’t really matter as all these algorithms will yield a high number of false positives. If we use this and blindly trust trust the result in sensitive areas such as social welfare, we cause a lot if harm to iur society.
Or with Coreboot: https://minifree.org
YouTube Says New 5-Second Video Load Delay Is Supposed to Punish Ad Blockers, Not Firefox Users
Firefox users are reporting an ‘artificial’ load time on YouTube videos. YouTube says it’s part of a plan to make people who use adblockers “experience suboptimal viewing, regardless of the browser they are using.”
You’re right. A blockchain doesn’t solve the double-spending problem, so don’t create decentralized payment networks. Let’s use something like Paypal instead, you know, the one that will sooner or later merge with this single-letter company.
You can also use Google Pay or Apple Pay, and developers can use their stores to monetize their apps. Just 30% or so commission and the apps ‘adjusted’ to the stores’ rules (to be fair, there are not really soooo many trackers, right?).
Proof of provenance isn’t a use case either. Use Amazon servers. Microsoft Azure. They store all the data, and it’s safe.
We don’t need companies like drife.io or particl.io. We have Uber and Amazon. Centralized services are much better. They are so good for humanity that their companies don’t even have to pay taxes.
The cult of the dead cow has recently announced promising projects. I’m also looking forward to them.
I agree on what you say about the ways PDFs are used today, but back in the 1982 the world was different. Back then it was a useful thing imho.
There’s is also Jstor Open Content and Sci-hub, just fyi.
Edit: I forgot libgen (simply speaking, libgen is for books what sci-hub is for papers).
Worldcoin’s latest funding round was back in the fall, it raised USD 115m from the venture fund Blockchain Capital as lead investor, other investors included a16z crypto, Bain Capital Crypto, and Distributed Global.
In 2021 and 2022, there have been at least 3 other funding rounds with a total volume of at least USD 215m.
Last year the MIT Technology Review published an extensive research report. It’s a very long read but it’s worth the time if I may say so.
Our [MIT] investigation revealed wide gaps between Worldcoin’s public messaging, which focused on protecting privacy, and what users experienced. We found that the company’s representatives used deceptive marketing practices, collected more personal data than it acknowledged, and failed to obtain meaningful informed consent. These practices may violate the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR)—a likelihood that the company’s own data consent policy acknowledged and asked users to accept—as well as local laws. […]
Pete Howson, a senior lecturer at Northumbria University who researches cryptocurrency in international development, categorizes Worldcoin’s actions as a sort of crypto-colonialism, where “blockchain and cryptocurrency experiments are being imposed on vulnerable communities essentially because…these people can’t push back,” he told MIT Technology Review in an email.
I agree with what you say about inequality and get your point, though I am not sure whether exactly these individuals were in urgent need of extra 50 bucks. A major point here is information and education here (or, better, the lack of it).
Whether or not we call it slavery, it is for sure a gross exploitation of labour. The article reminds us that we in the so-called ‘western world’ can only afford their luxury life because there’s someone elsewhere who pays the price.
Do you say that to Europe, to China, or both?
It’s obvious you’re addressing only Europe. Why?
This is what I meant with ‘The West bad, China bad okay’. It’s hypocritical. It’s double-standards. It’s ignorant and disgusting.