Deepfakes are getting good. Like really good. I cloned myself for this story on Synthesia. It's soon going to be impossible to distinguish what is made by AI and what is not, and that raises some big questions about a world where we can’t tell what’s real. technologyreview.com/2024/04/25/109…

rightwingwatch.org/post/bad-faith…

It's official: We won back Net Neutrality! 🎉

This is a huge moment, and proof that when people like us fight for the open internet with everything we've got, we win.

Free Press' statement: freepress.net/news/press-rel…

17/ This isn’t a story about “free speech” v. “censorship.”

It’s a story about who gets to wield the power of speech — & a cautionary tale of how massive private wealth enables an immature man[child] to selectively elevate those who reject democracy’s bedrock value:

Equality.

13/ A wiser person would understand that…

- a global platform like this cannot deepen and reify the worst excesses and inequalities of capitalism, privilege, and power;

- nor carry water for bad actors;

- nor incentivize and monetize the ugliest, most cruel human behaviors.

12/ Musk utterly failed to understand that Twitter’s hardest challenges are not about more revenue & fewer rules.

They are *human* challenges, about power, speech, competition, fairness, diversity, wealth, poverty, war, peace, safety, inclusion, equity, and privacy.

11/ Musk is a textbook example of the schmucks who believe that any problem can be solved with more tech, lower costs, more automation, better code, more “hardcore” engineers & the right investors — as if Twitter’s challenges are simply *business* challenges.

But they are not.

6/ The “free speech/content moderation” issue is cynical redirection.

As an ex-Dir of Product Mgmt at Twitter, I care about mitigating harm associated with speech.

As a long-time student of political philosophy, I also care about the value of free speech.

Musk fails at both.

Part of the curriculum at Columbia Journalism School involves real-time reporting. Our students have been covering the campus protests happening now. Check out their work: journalism.columbia.edu/students-cover…

1/ Two years ago today, on 4/25/22, Twitter’s Board accepted Elon Musk’s offer to acquire the company at $54.20/share.

As an ex-director for civic integrity at Twitter, I’ve watched what Musk has done since then.

And today is my last post on this platform.

I’m leaving.
🧵>>>

Look, I obviously know the circumstances are different, but there is a ton of overlap between what is going on now and the various iterations of the so-called campus free speech wars that we’ve seen for years. We know how this will unfold. Here’s a sneak preview.

Good morning from New York City! Looking forward to congratulating outstanding journalists tonight at the Overseas Press Club. Central to reaching citizens who need information they can trust is how we reclaim our rights on the Internet! #ReclaimOurRights #GlobalDigitalCompact

The global rules-based order is under assault.

Powerful governments cast humanity into an era devoid of effective international rule of law, with civilians in conflicts paying the highest price

Amnesty International State of the World’s Human Rights’ report is out now 👇…

Being back Columbia Journalism it is a very present reminder that we are in the midst of a global, targeted , manipulative and too often successful campaign against freedom of the press, freedom of thought, and freedom of expression. It is everywhere. Including the US

Meta switched this year to using AI/no human in the loop reports for child abuse material to save $ - meaning the govt. can no longer legally use them without a warrant. Side benefit for Meta - fewer child abuse cases link back to them, at the cost of children’s safety.…

Classical music, avocado toast, heat :) Hello, NYC!

Extremely important research.

It's not possible to understand the state of BigTech, or its pathologies at the moment, without understanding these companies' transformation into defense contractors, in addition to their central role as surveillance providers to the state. 👇

Philippines thanks G7’s support in rejecting China’s ‘baseless, expansive claims’ in disputed sea rappler.com/philippines/g7… via Rappler

More from Maria Ressa in Perugia: “If this is happening to us it is happening you and it is going to get worse.”

Sees polarization, “dismantling of facts”, personalization feeding geopolitical power, encourages worst of human nature, “like the Matrix meet the Truman show.”…

BamaB nope the root cause is focusing purely on statistics in lieu of records for individual entities, just like I said in my 2001 book.

even with maximally clean data LLMs will still hallucinate to some degree.