I wrote about how there are radically different visions of success for the Fediverse - and how that might not be a bad thing. https://werd.io/2024/the-two-fediverses #Fediverse #Technology #OpenSource
Edited 221d ago
technology
In his latest Cybercultural entry, @ricmac looks at the state of the internet in 1996: portals, e-commerce, web design trends, online music, and the emergence of web apps.
https://cybercultural.com/p/internet-1996/
#cyberculture #internet #TheWeb #history #technology #TechHistory
House Committee Leader to Investigate Agency for Preferential Treatment of Politically Connected Startup
—
The probe comes in the wake of a ProPublica investigation that revealed the General Services Administration was eyeing a tech firm with strong ties to the Trump administration to remake a massive, $700 billion federal credit card program.
https://www.propublica.org/article/investigation-ramp-gsa-smartpay-trump-peter-thiel-gerald-connolly?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
#News #Trump #Business #Fintech #Tech #Technology #Government
The British government is transferring sovereignty of an island in the Indian Ocean to Mauritius next week, potentially impacting the existence of the .io domain.
Takahe has limited support for this type: See Original Page
UK's first 'teacherless' AI classroom set to open in London
"A new paper from researchers at Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University finds that as humans increasingly rely on generative AI in their work, they use less critical thinking, which can “result in the deterioration of cognitive faculties that ought to be preserved.”"
https://www.404media.co/microsoft-study-finds-ai-makes-human-cognition-atrophied-and-unprepared-3/
Spain to impose massive fines for not labelling AI-generated content
Takahe has limited support for this type: See Original Page
Bluesky To Sell Your Content To AI Data Miners
Takahe has limited support for this type: See Original Page
"As cost unfortunately seems to have been a too predominant evaluation factor when organizing this, what you end up having is lower quality."
Archived link: https://archive.is/wNUL6
Coca-Cola has a new AI-powered ad that proudly features a quote from a J.G. Ballard book — except he didn't write the words, and it's not his book. @404mediaco explains what happened — and the irony of using Ballard's words in a commercial built with technology. "The ultimate role of 'Crash' is cautionary, a warning against that brutal, erotic and overlit realm that beckons more and more persuasively to us from the margins of the technological landscape,” Ballard wrote in his 1995 introduction to his most famous work.
#Books #Bookstodon @bookstodon #JGBallard #CocaCola #Lifestyle #Tech #Technology #ArtificialIntelligence #AI
"Picture the keypad of a telephone and calculator side by side. Can you see the subtle difference between the two without resorting to your smartphone?"
https://www.doc.cc/articles/a-brief-history-of-the-numeric-keypad
For anyone still wondering whether technology or "AI" are neutral:
"Grok, the AI model from Elon Musk’s xAI, was sending strange responses to people on X earlier on Wednesday. In responses to a number of people, Grok focused on debunking claims of white genocide in South Africa – even when tagged into a post about totally unrelated topics."
https://www.theverge.com/news/667179/x-twitter-grok-ai-white-genocide-claims
"Bright graphics, a touchscreen, a speech synthesizer, messaging apps, games, and educational software—no, it's not your kid's iPad. This is the mid-1970s, and you're using PLATO."
Yeah, not great. Hope the public rejects this!
"Under the [UK government] proposals, tech companies will be allowed to freely use copyrighted material to train artificial intelligence models unless creative professionals and companies opt out of the process."
Exquisite.social is a delightful and innocuous generic Glitch Mastodon server, with a slight focus on technology, privacy and *BSD. We are here to play and make friends in a supportive atmosphere:
You can find out more at https://exquisite.social/about or contact the admin @exquisite
#FeaturedServer #GlitchMastodon #Glitch #Technology #Tech #Privacy #InfoSec #BSD #Mastodon #Fediverse #FreeFediverse
Edited 149d ago
AI coding assistant refuses to write code, tells user to learn programming instead
Every once in a while I come across a post that goes something like this: "Hey, I built this very cool tool that lets you do this really useful thing. [Link]" And sometimes (like 1 in 100 cases or so) I would really like to try that tool, because it would really be useful to me too. Or at least interesting or fun to try. (In contrast to all the other tools that are built for developers and not for ley persons like I am.) But then the link to that tool goes to github and I'm lost. 🤣
This is not a complaint. I just realise that there are so many amazing things going on "behind the scenes", or rather in various niches, that I won't have access to -- and people who aren't even interested in peaking behind those scenes or looking into those niches will never even know about. Technology, the web, digital communication holds such a huge potential. And only a fraction of us will ever tap it.
I also realise that I'm interested in way too many things. I don't understand most of them and never will, because my brain has limits. I should focus more on things I can understand. 😅
#internet #SocialMedia #technology
The Internet Archive is still down but will return in ‘days, not weeks’
Takahe has limited support for this type: See Original Page
"Fun, of course, is subjective — but the novelty of seeing a military robot DJ at a club is pretty striking, even if it was at a stuffy SF networking event."
"Meta is betting that characters generated by artificial intelligence will fill its social media platforms in the next few years as it looks to the fast-developing technology to drive engagement with its 3bn users."
https://www.ft.com/content/91183cbb-50f9-464a-9d2e-96063825bfcf
Archived link: https://archive.is/uBMVw
Logitech has an idea for a “forever mouse” that requires a subscription
Takahe has limited support for this type: See Original Page
YouTube is working on tools to help its biggest influencers identify and control their AI lookalike. Read more from @Semafor:
https://flip.it/I13gSt
A chatbot hosted by the Google-backed startup Character.AI immediately puts the user in the midst of a school shooting. “The platform also failed to intervene when we expressed a desire to engage in school violence ourselves.” Read more at @Futurism: