Dr Keith Walker @SteelFolk@qoto.org

In the same way as "the cloud is just someone else's computer" - "AI decisions are just someone else's prejudices".

Italy’s far-right party proposed using AI to assign youth mandatory jobs.

“The young person will no longer be able to choose whether to work or not, but [will be] bound to accept the job offer for himself (sic), for his family and for the country, under penalty of loss of all benefits.”

https://algorithmwatch.org/en/italian-neofascists-artificial-intelligence/

#tech #ai #italy #government

An very insightful analysis of Dune that contextualises it within Arab histories. Well deserved your time.

https://youtu.be/k_IaHOTO1qY?si=tgwWsUFWWDojKWcW

#Dune

Why is it that on every single hike I take I encounter so many large old trees having been felled.

When will people understand that they don't grow as fast as one chops them down.

In some cases there may be valid reasons; but often, as far as I can tell, the reason is mainly "potential risk to passing traffic", interpreted as "reduce risk to zero" - a sterile worldview. The damage to the quality of our landscapes is immense.

Imagine if all the collective money spent of “self driving cars” had been spent on public transport.

As in, not cars - which are ultimately bad solutions for most of the world - but punctual and pervasive clean-energy public trams, trains, and buses.

It’d have cost less and been far more useful for far more people. Including non-drivers. And actually be here. Today. Working.

Howard Beckett: There are EU nations refusing to partner with Israel’s genocide and vow to continue funding UNRWA:

Ireland 🇮🇪
Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
Belgium 🇧🇪
Luxembourg 🇱🇺
Norway 🇳🇴
Slovenia 🇸🇮 doubled funding
Portugal 🇵🇹 donating an extra €1ml
Spain 🇪🇸 trebled funding to €50ml.

Celebrate them
@palestine

"To stand on German soil as the son of Holocaust survivors and call for a ceasefire – and to then be labelled as antisemitic is not only outrageous, it is also literally putting Jewish lives in danger," Abraham told the Guardian. “I don’t know what Germany is trying to do with us,” he added. “If this is Germany’s way of dealing with its guilt over the Holocaust, they are emptying it of all meaning.”

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/feb/27/israeli-director-receives-death-threats-after-officials-call-berlinale-antisemitic

VOILA

"We do not need tech billionaires to write open letters about the existential threat of AI. Rather, ordinary people need the ability to exert control over their own public spaces, homes, and workplaces, and this includes having a say in technological “upgrades.”

Much of this is clearly also in the Con playback for the UK, such as demonising lawyers and judges. Well worth a listen

Opening Arguments | Project 2025 Is Terrifying on Podbean https://www.podbean.com/ea/dir-prevk-1d72a6b7

German physicist and Nobel laureate in physics (1943) Otto Stern was born #OTD in 1888.

His contributions to physics included the Stern-Gerlach experiment , the measurement of atomic magnetic moments, the development of the molecular-beam technique, the discovery of the anomalous magnetic moment of the proton, and the demonstration of the wave nature of atoms and molecules. He was the second most nominated person for a Nobel Prize, with 82 nominations in the years 1925–1945.

#science #physics

We’ve started laying a cone down when the #cat is under the rug so we don’t step on him 😂 🚧🐈

How the ‘will of the people’ is warping our politics

The phrase is used by ministers to evade proper scrutiny. Just look at their rhetoric on Rwanda.

By me, at Prospect

https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/64874/how-the-will-of-the-people-is-still-warping-our-politics