Sasha Akhavi @sakhavi@qoto.org
Reasonably happy almost all the time, somehow. Extremely lucky father & husband; 20+ year software veteran / exec now studying the software industry as Ph.D @York University Science and Technology Studies. Blog at https://sakhavi.wordpress.com
Joined Oct 2022
Sasha Akhavi
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Response to Agile Alliance Chairperson
Some thoughts on the Alliance holding its conference in Florida, and on some surely well-intended remarks by their chairperson, on their blog.
https://ronjeffries.com/articles/-y023/aa-conference/
Sasha Akhavi
boosted
A particularly good @caseynewton commentary on how social media companies, which once pretended to care about their responsibility for helping spread misinformation, have now become allies of the people who want to bring down our democracy.
https://www.platformer.news/p/the-platforms-give-up-on-2020-lies
It's not that progressives are newly intolerant of conservative positions. It's that conservative positions were always intolerably harmful, and the veneer of abstraction that protected them from more widespread revulsion has been newly worn away. 3/3
What’s different is a greater general level of clarity about how some opinions entail harmful consequences for people. What might formerly have been seen as abstract disagreements in principle have been revealed to be atrocious in themselves. It is a different thing to propose we “agree to disagree” about police funding when more have seen the evidence of what that funding does. It’s different to do so about gun rights when so many of our kids do active shooter drills. 2/
@perrybacon’s piece today mentions a general sentiment captured in a 2022 NYT editorial that it’s a darn shame you can’t speak your mind in public without being shamed and shunned. As he says, these are undefined terms, and they’ve always applied -- people have always been free to hold each other to account socially for their views. But something really is different nowadays. 1/
Sasha Akhavi
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Superb by Perry Bacon Jr.! I hear too many white, "centrists" who would rather talk class over race, who fret too much about crime, who think we should listen to Trumpists, who say "cancel" without irony. This is Licht's CNN (& the NYT) & white "centrism."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/06/06/anti-woke-centrism-cnn-chris-licht-atlantic-profile/
Sasha Akhavi
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This may be the most incisive blog yet from maybe the most incisive blogger. There are deep emotional reasons behind the pathology that calls itself “conservatism,” and we won’t cure or evolve past it without isolating those reasons.
From: @JuliusGoat
https://mastodon.social/@JuliusGoat/110496655819239896
Sasha Akhavi
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We knew that in Amazon Ring employees were fired for accessing footage but, via the FTC: "one employee over several months viewed thousands of video recordings belonging to female users of Ring cameras..in their homes such as their bathrooms or bedrooms"
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/05/ftc-says-ring-employees-illegally-surveilled-customers-failed-stop-hackers-taking-control-users
Sasha Akhavi
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The beauty of AI is that we have finally found a way the economy can keep growing after it has killed off every last one of us.
Sasha Akhavi
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We just published "Chatbots Can’t Care Like We Do: Helpline Workers Speak Out on World Eating Disorders Action Day" by Abbie Harper of @hlaunited, in honor and celebration of @worldedday #RealPeopleRealRecovery https://news.techworkerscoalition.org/2023/06/02/issue-9/
The neutral, objective language here identifies the right’s intention to “roll back rights” for gender minorities. Some people think rolling back others’ rights can be ok sometimes. And they should never ever get to be in charge.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/06/03/tennessee-drag-law-unconstitutional/
Sasha Akhavi
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YES! Some attention on Turnitin's flawed AI detection technology.
Don't forget that Turnitin forced this technology on its customers. Schools had no way to turn it off themselves and few schools were granted an opt out.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/06/02/turnitin-ai-cheating-detector-accuracy/
I wonder if the feeling that guy had, about that night being a good good night, panned out.
Sasha Akhavi
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"[A]n adviser to #Zelensky said Moscow residents deserved whatever came at them"
"[R]esidents of Russia’s capital experienced direct consequences of their nation’s hostilities for the first time."
NOPE. These are civilians. Noncombatants. Targeting them on purpose is a war crime when #Russia does it to Ukraine and a war crime when it's done to Russians. #Ukraine denies responsibility, so, fine, but simultaneously saying they "deserve" it forfeits all moral authority. F*** that.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/05/30/moscow-drones-kyiv-russia-counteroffensive/
Sasha Akhavi
boosted
Can we talk about the phrase "top AI researchers" and how it devalues the expertise of anyone whose primary focus isn't on the internals of the systems themselves?
Reasonably happy almost all the time, somehow. Extremely lucky father & husband; 20+ year software veteran / exec now studying the software industry as Ph.D @York University Science and Technology Studies. Blog at https://sakhavi.wordpress.com
Joined Oct 2022
