David Cooper @cooplogic@qoto.org

I am so honored to be on a panel with THE @RodneyABrooks about AI and ChatGPT on Friday at #IEEEVICS @BlackInRobotics @black_in_ai @BlackWomenInAI @IEEEorg @BlkInEngineerng #NoireSTEMinist #IEEEAWards2023 @ccmntspeakers @RoseHulman
https://corporate-awards.ieee.org/event/2023-vic-summit-honors-ceremony-gala/#what

"Especially in this moment in history, it is vital that we provide our students with the critical thinking skills that will allow them to recognise misleading claims made by tech companies and understand the limits and risks of hyped and harmful technology that is made mainstream at a dazzling speed and on a frightening scale."

Excellent call to action by @Iris

https://irisvanrooijcogsci.com/2023/01/14/stop-feeding-the-hype-and-start-resisting/

@jax_nature_photos55 @Dr_Brian_Pet @Rihilism @wyld_art_photos @JulieNye @sunnymyers @NickSkupien thanks Jax. Saw some great birds here today to boot.

I’m gonna do a manual quote here to say that this is exactly the type of stuff we predicted, and especially with automation bias with people overtrusting model outputs. Police didn’t even check the height of the person they claimed did this, and neither was the person in Atlanta.

https://dair-community.social/@poppastring@dotnet.social/109634255362720798

Depressing that it was 5 years ago we wrote Gendershades (http://gendershades.org/) showing disparities & write:

"an error in the output of a face recognition algorithm used as input for other tasks can have serious consequences. For example, someone could
be wrongfully accused of a crime based on erroneous but confident misidentification of the perpetrator from security video footage analysis."

And here we are. And this is not the first case, nor will it be the last.

https://peopleofcolorintech.com/articles/facial-recognition-tech-used-to-jail-black-man-for-louisiana-theft-hes-never-been-to-louisiana/

I thought we were making progress when there was a wave of cities banning law enforcement use of face recognition but at this point it seems to be getting adopted everywhere exponentially.

I learnt to watch birds by watching birds—their patience, attentiveness, and awareness. Here’s a Green heron I found early one morning.

@jewwhohasitall

Too often Black folks, many times #BlackWomen, are tasked with being the voice of #DEI reason in their organization.

Where are those 2020 #diversity initiatives and commitments today? Are those employees even with the company still? Or did they #burnout after realizing their efforts were falling on deaf organizational ears? 🤔 😣

Sharing from #LinkedIn #BlackMastodon #Diversity

So @Raspberry_Pi just spun up a @Mastodon instance. I talk about why we're doing it, and (the fun bit) how we did it. Because it's running on a Pi in the Sky☁️ on a #RaspberryPi 4 with #IPv6 only networking hosted at @beasts. #RaspberryPi is now part of the #TwitterMigration. https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/an-escape-pod-was-jettisoned-during-the-fighting/

What happens when you twist your lens' focus ring while shooting long exposures of fireworks

#photography

OK, here’s an idea I want to try. Without looking it up on the Internet anywhere, just off the top of your head, do you know who Emmy Noether is? You can look her up after answering, but don’t post the answer till the poll is over! Please boost for more numbers. #women

Good morning to the home of “shockingly pretty pictures of wild birds”! Here’s a favorite bird pic of mine I took this fall of two Yellow-rumped Warblers arguing over some berries. The secret to making bird pictures really pretty though, is adding descriptions to them! #birds

Freeing #BlackTwitter is looking like an industry now. I just know someone is writing a book and having coffee with an agent. That person may or may not be Black.

I wish we had so much concern over the Black people still imprisoned for selling weed in states that now have White-owned dispensaries.

Both are still making White men a lot of money, but one group is making a choice like everyone else.

#BlackMastodon

Coincidentally (I didn't know this was coming, honest!), a big article was published just today claiming that the motivation to exercise depends on the microbiome of the gut (in mice).

The gist is that certain microbiomes produce chemicals that prevent the breakdown of dopamine in the brain during exercise. And when that happens, mice tend to be more active. Following antibiotics, these effects disappear. But they are restored again once the microbiome is restored.

The potential of this finding, if true: “If we can confirm the presence of a similar pathway in humans, it could offer an effective way to boost people’s levels of exercise to improve public health generally.”

The friendly version:
https://www.pennmedicine.org/news/news-releases/2022/december/gut-microbes-can-boost-the-motivation-to-exercise

The deeper dive:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05525-z

#Security truths

This morning I should be preparing for class but instead I am playing with engineering problems in chat.openai.com make me stop!!! So far it has failed my engineering problems, students doing homework better stay away!!! #PurposefulProfessor #EngineeringProfessor #CHATGPT #BlackTwitter #BlackTech #BlackMastodon #blackFediverse #BlackWomenTech #NoireSTEMinist #BlackInEngineering #BlackInRobotics

I have a background in disaster preparedness communication and would like the vocal ethics police on this app who keep insisting the “only” ethical course of action is to leave Twitter now to explain how Mastodon currently enables people living in the Gulf South today to get real-time warnings and information about the ongoing tornado outbreak on par with Twitter. They need this information now, so “let’s build something better” is a dodge. #LAwx #MsWx #Wx #BlackTwitter #BlackMastodon