It is incredibly concerning. It has been one of my primary concerns. Too many people have been worried about X-risk while ignoring the risks that are right in front of us.
Wrote this 2 years ago:
"Privacy is one of the most precious facets of one’s own existence. It is the mechanism that allows for the concept of our own identity as well is also the foundation for our protection in a free society against tyranny ... AI is positioned to rapidly destroy whatever remains of privacy in our society at a terrible cost."
an 'eternal tyranny' is one of my greatest fears with modern technology and it only becomes more and more true, especially now that we are dependent on the opium of the tyrants
The tyranny of modern tech is extremely vulnerable to loss of electricity. When the grid goes down, so does it.
OTOH, are people prepared for life without power? In Europe, we had the opportunity for a foretaste last week, when the power went down for some 10 hours. Not a pretty sight, nor did it lead to any sense of how one might overcome our dependency. Or have we already made our bargain to live or die with our master/s?
Yes, it often seems so. I fear we are forgetting the things that bring real value in our lives.
"Society is now far more machine and algorithm than the spirit of humanity. AI, social media and automation are transforming the human experience. All optimizing for what is now the most important attribute, attention, rather than genuine connection."
Yes, but choices can freely be made...we're not all of us helpless automatons logging into SM to receive our daily mind-melding propaganda injection. I mean, our family is totally off SM, use all privacy options available on a smart phone, use only a non-tracking browser, etc., etc. Let's not succumb to Big Brotherism that willingly...we still possess agency, right?
What occurs to me is that what we are really seeing here is the _convergence_ of collected data, not so much purposefully spying on people. Within a business context, the Wholly Grail (pun intended) has been hyper-converged data in order to make better decisions. Even personally, what’s not to like about total recall and infinite memory? I think the issue that must be resolved is trust. Who do we trust to hold or have access to our data and to what extent can they use it? Most of this info is already floating around in cyberspace. Big AI could use it in a benign manner to increase the model’s knowledge or maliciously by using our data against us. And there’s the rub…
You mean like a knife? In the hands of a master chef, we like it; in the hands of Jack the Ripper, not so much. The basic problem is that the techno knives are pretty much only in the hands of a gang of Jacks, with nary a chef to be seen.
Not so sure that I agree. Most tech people are not malicious, but the pressure from investors to make huge $$$ causes some to mine their data for extra value.
Wholly Grail, I love it! The other day I heard a fella down at the quarry talking about Whole Foods, but he called it Whole Paycheck! Bcuz it's so expensive, geddit?
And when they do face the music, it is usually massive piling on of someone that nobody really liked (see Harvey Weinstein). Agree… there should be many more people in jail. When a Republican goes after one of these it is called retribution, when a Dem does it… justice.
For me this is old news! The people will not wake up. The drug of the smart phone is just to much for them. Unless a massive overhaul of thought comes which it won't as the people are to sedated with the drug of convenience. This is game set match. The yellow brick road has been constructed.
Anyone who was around in 2016 should know this is nothing new. Facebook already spied on us and stole our data back then during the Cambridge Analytica scandal selling off our data to foreign actors.
Innovation be damned. The US needs it's own GDPR and to crack down on Big Tech. The last thing we need is more megabillionaire entities ruling over us.
What steps do individuals take to protect privacy? Quit smartphones? Quit going online? Quit doing anything on a screen at the doctor's office? What steps does anyone advise legislators to take? Do you know of other countries that have enacted legislation that protects privacy?
I can't count the number of times over the last decade I've tried to help folks understand that this sentiment: "it doesn't matter to me, I have nothing to hide" is something they'll come to regret.
The end of Carissa Veliz's quote reads: "But we do have more of a choice than it might first appear. And the right time to make better choices for democracy is now." I am certainly worried and I am trying to pay attention (in spite of the firehose of news and informational tidbits). But what are the better choices that we can make given the current climate? If tech companies clearly don't give a shite, and regulations seem to be a pipe dream, are we merely left to improving individual behavior?
The message from Meta said that I could object to this. So I wrote back:
To whom it may concern.
You or anyone using my data to develop AI is a threat to my, or anyone else´s integrity. Integrity is a human right. Do not violate mine or anyone else´s integrity.
Data is not a "common" that you can use however you want, SO, respect MY and every one else's boundaries. I believe that you are also infringing on the copyrights of everyone.
I also believe that all agreements with enormous amounts of detail that cannot be over viewed by both parties alike, are agreements between very unequal partners, and therefore questionable, if not illegal
Then we have the new laws of the European Union. They are under development for the enhancement of our human rights and especially integrity and our right to own our own data. You cannot use "Fair Use" to steal our data. Just suggesting that you are educational is simply ridiculous.
They wrote back and they said that they would consider my objection regarding my public information and that it would apply to all my accounts connected to the one I used to contact them through.
Yeah, it was pretty apparent from the beginning of this whole AI revolution big tech wanted to essentially transform our world into their own personal technocratic fiefdom where we all live under their humbs.
The title is cool but should probably be All your data ARE belong to us to fully capture the meme. This was originally used as a title by Alexander Gounares back in 2023
It is a really mangled translation from Japanese to English for a video game.
Something that makes me think of Google Translate and its output that at times is more like the Monty Python skit about the dirty Hungarian English phrasebook. : )
One thing worth taking seriously is how much a state legislature can get done. There are a number of decent privacy bills in states and many legislatures have pending bills. Because state legislatures are small and there are a lot of them, organizing a political coalition to get something done is much less difficult than at the federal level.
IMHO the best framework is something where consumer consent is required for sale or linkage of data beyond the uses needed to deliver a product or service.
This would make most secondary data markets opt in, and force the adoption of new business models.
It really is worth reaching out to your state legislator or governor about this.
1. Most people say they care about privacy, but very few will pay even a small amount of money to a social media company to preserve their privacy on the platform; thus tech bros conclude that people generally don't care, because they'd rather have free stuff than privacy.
2. What options do we have here? Either wealthy tech bros have access to our sensitive data, or the normal system, in which low-paid bureaucrats have access to it. Hard to say which is worse.
3. All the smart tech bros know that the AI arms race is unstoppable; that's the nature of arms races. If the proliferation of nuclear weapons was unstoppable, AI is far more so. And the smart ones also know that there will be a short window between AI reaching human-level intelligence, and even its creators being able to control it.
It is incredibly concerning. It has been one of my primary concerns. Too many people have been worried about X-risk while ignoring the risks that are right in front of us.
Wrote this 2 years ago:
"Privacy is one of the most precious facets of one’s own existence. It is the mechanism that allows for the concept of our own identity as well is also the foundation for our protection in a free society against tyranny ... AI is positioned to rapidly destroy whatever remains of privacy in our society at a terrible cost."
https://www.mindprison.cc/p/ai-end-of-privacy-end-of-sanity
an 'eternal tyranny' is one of my greatest fears with modern technology and it only becomes more and more true, especially now that we are dependent on the opium of the tyrants
The tyranny of modern tech is extremely vulnerable to loss of electricity. When the grid goes down, so does it.
OTOH, are people prepared for life without power? In Europe, we had the opportunity for a foretaste last week, when the power went down for some 10 hours. Not a pretty sight, nor did it lead to any sense of how one might overcome our dependency. Or have we already made our bargain to live or die with our master/s?
Yes, it often seems so. I fear we are forgetting the things that bring real value in our lives.
"Society is now far more machine and algorithm than the spirit of humanity. AI, social media and automation are transforming the human experience. All optimizing for what is now the most important attribute, attention, rather than genuine connection."
https://www.mindprison.cc/p/technology-is-progress
It's truly sad, we are close and arguably are at a dystopian reality akin to what Bradbury Described in Fabrenhiet 451.
It would be very sad if the only salvation in the future is some catastrophical collapse as was in the end of the book
That's what I'm hoping for, bcuz then I won't be on the hook to pay Klarna for food that I already ate.
Yes, but choices can freely be made...we're not all of us helpless automatons logging into SM to receive our daily mind-melding propaganda injection. I mean, our family is totally off SM, use all privacy options available on a smart phone, use only a non-tracking browser, etc., etc. Let's not succumb to Big Brotherism that willingly...we still possess agency, right?
Not me, I'm a robot!
This so very bleak...
Never has a technology have been such a net negative
double plus ungood
And all this negativity without having to mention Palantir!
I think we should combine the CIA, NSA, and DHS into one ISB. At least then I won't have to come up with a new mental model.
What occurs to me is that what we are really seeing here is the _convergence_ of collected data, not so much purposefully spying on people. Within a business context, the Wholly Grail (pun intended) has been hyper-converged data in order to make better decisions. Even personally, what’s not to like about total recall and infinite memory? I think the issue that must be resolved is trust. Who do we trust to hold or have access to our data and to what extent can they use it? Most of this info is already floating around in cyberspace. Big AI could use it in a benign manner to increase the model’s knowledge or maliciously by using our data against us. And there’s the rub…
You mean like a knife? In the hands of a master chef, we like it; in the hands of Jack the Ripper, not so much. The basic problem is that the techno knives are pretty much only in the hands of a gang of Jacks, with nary a chef to be seen.
Not so sure that I agree. Most tech people are not malicious, but the pressure from investors to make huge $$$ causes some to mine their data for extra value.
It doesn't take 'most' to end up where none of us want to be. And if the most are swayed by investors then the difference might be vanishingly small.
The difference between malicious and greedy is that malicious implies intent to harm and greedy just implies harm.
IOW, the results are likely to be the pretty much the same, if permitted to continue.
Wholly Grail, I love it! The other day I heard a fella down at the quarry talking about Whole Foods, but he called it Whole Paycheck! Bcuz it's so expensive, geddit?
And when they do face the music, it is usually massive piling on of someone that nobody really liked (see Harvey Weinstein). Agree… there should be many more people in jail. When a Republican goes after one of these it is called retribution, when a Dem does it… justice.
Except for that one other time.
For me this is old news! The people will not wake up. The drug of the smart phone is just to much for them. Unless a massive overhaul of thought comes which it won't as the people are to sedated with the drug of convenience. This is game set match. The yellow brick road has been constructed.
Anyone who was around in 2016 should know this is nothing new. Facebook already spied on us and stole our data back then during the Cambridge Analytica scandal selling off our data to foreign actors.
Innovation be damned. The US needs it's own GDPR and to crack down on Big Tech. The last thing we need is more megabillionaire entities ruling over us.
FOOD: get in line, data. Wait your turn.
What steps do individuals take to protect privacy? Quit smartphones? Quit going online? Quit doing anything on a screen at the doctor's office? What steps does anyone advise legislators to take? Do you know of other countries that have enacted legislation that protects privacy?
I can't count the number of times over the last decade I've tried to help folks understand that this sentiment: "it doesn't matter to me, I have nothing to hide" is something they'll come to regret.
When the history books are written, entire chapters will be titled "At Least Larissa Tried to Help, But You People Wouldn't Listen".
The end of Carissa Veliz's quote reads: "But we do have more of a choice than it might first appear. And the right time to make better choices for democracy is now." I am certainly worried and I am trying to pay attention (in spite of the firehose of news and informational tidbits). But what are the better choices that we can make given the current climate? If tech companies clearly don't give a shite, and regulations seem to be a pipe dream, are we merely left to improving individual behavior?
I have the same question. Is the only option to delete all of our social media accounts? Would that even be enough?
So write a bot to create prompts with your own name and randomly added search words. Save the result on a Google Docs page and set access to public.
Write an essay about Your-name-here being friends with the Dali Lama
Write an essay about Your-name-here having traveled to Mars
...
AI hallucinations will create all manner of complete crap then the ever-scraping LLMs will ingest it and amplify it.
AI can obfuscate for you.
The message from Meta said that I could object to this. So I wrote back:
To whom it may concern.
You or anyone using my data to develop AI is a threat to my, or anyone else´s integrity. Integrity is a human right. Do not violate mine or anyone else´s integrity.
Data is not a "common" that you can use however you want, SO, respect MY and every one else's boundaries. I believe that you are also infringing on the copyrights of everyone.
I also believe that all agreements with enormous amounts of detail that cannot be over viewed by both parties alike, are agreements between very unequal partners, and therefore questionable, if not illegal
Then we have the new laws of the European Union. They are under development for the enhancement of our human rights and especially integrity and our right to own our own data. You cannot use "Fair Use" to steal our data. Just suggesting that you are educational is simply ridiculous.
They wrote back and they said that they would consider my objection regarding my public information and that it would apply to all my accounts connected to the one I used to contact them through.
Yeah, it was pretty apparent from the beginning of this whole AI revolution big tech wanted to essentially transform our world into their own personal technocratic fiefdom where we all live under their humbs.
I'm doing my part to combat this: https://cicero.sh/forums/thread/cicero-origins-and-end-goals-000004
The title is cool but should probably be All your data ARE belong to us to fully capture the meme. This was originally used as a title by Alexander Gounares back in 2023
https://www.thoughtfulbits.me/p/all-your-data-are-belong-to-us
That post was about training data and not your personal profile.
that was first title/thought but that phrase (with data) actually goes back to 2012, so i opted out.
but i was alluding to all our base :)
I read it at first glance as "All your data are belong to us." because like Alistair I remember All Your Base Are Belong to Us.
The "all your base" phrase has an interesting history.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_your_base_are_belong_to_us
It is a really mangled translation from Japanese to English for a video game.
Something that makes me think of Google Translate and its output that at times is more like the Monty Python skit about the dirty Hungarian English phrasebook. : )
After all these years, figuratively speaking, big brother has come home & it's not to wish you well.
Thanks for this. Just subscribed to AI-curious. Will listen.
One thing worth taking seriously is how much a state legislature can get done. There are a number of decent privacy bills in states and many legislatures have pending bills. Because state legislatures are small and there are a lot of them, organizing a political coalition to get something done is much less difficult than at the federal level.
IMHO the best framework is something where consumer consent is required for sale or linkage of data beyond the uses needed to deliver a product or service.
This would make most secondary data markets opt in, and force the adoption of new business models.
It really is worth reaching out to your state legislator or governor about this.
1. Most people say they care about privacy, but very few will pay even a small amount of money to a social media company to preserve their privacy on the platform; thus tech bros conclude that people generally don't care, because they'd rather have free stuff than privacy.
2. What options do we have here? Either wealthy tech bros have access to our sensitive data, or the normal system, in which low-paid bureaucrats have access to it. Hard to say which is worse.
3. All the smart tech bros know that the AI arms race is unstoppable; that's the nature of arms races. If the proliferation of nuclear weapons was unstoppable, AI is far more so. And the smart ones also know that there will be a short window between AI reaching human-level intelligence, and even its creators being able to control it.
Tech Brother is watching you!