Wednesday Wondering - 11.29.23 - Khepping Up

Microsoft Is Using a Hell of a Lot of Water to Flood the World With AI (Gizmodo) & Sports Illustrated Published Articles by Fake, AI-Generated Writers (Futurism) “Flood the zone with shit” is a maxim Putin believes, as does Steve Bannon. As the tech embrace of “AI” continues, large corporations and publishers are copying this strategy, using gargantuan amounts of water to do so. Maybe we should listen to the black & brown women who called this? 

Annie Altman’s Abuse Allegations Against OpenAI’s Now-Rehired CEO Sam Altman Highlight the Need to Prioritize Humanity Over Tech (The Mary Sue) & ‘Before It’s Too Late, Buddy’ (TruthDig) There won’t be commentary on accelerationism, the quest for Skynet or any of the corporate maneuvering here. Just a reminder that Sam Altman’s sister' has alleged some pretty awful things and the entirety of tech journalism is ignoring it so they don’t lose access to the hottest company on the block.

How AI shaped Milei’s path to Argentina’s presidency (Japan Times) & Is Argentina the First AI Election? (NYTimes) In the same way InfoOps on YouTube led to Bolsonaro’s victory in Brazil, Milei’s win will be scrutinized by academics for decades to come. AI, like Deepfakes, and astroturfed influencer campaigns, will become another tool in the Sith Armamentarium of any Fascist Campaign Manager worth their salt.

Apple ‘quietly asked Amazon to block competitor ads on its product pages’ (Search Engine Land) Someone tell Samsung & Microsoft that Amazon is playing favorites, literally dropping the number of ads on iPhone Amazon pages.

Pentagon Fails 6th Audit in a Row, Claiming “Progress sort of beneath the surface” (The Intercept) & Pentagon fails sixth audit in a row (Responsible Statecraft) Military budgeting, reported on by two DoD-adjacent reporters doing the work, Connor & Ken. At this point, the DoD should make the “wanking it” motion when they talk about numbers, because we all know they’re jerking us around.

The Pace of Technology Adoption is Speeding Up (Harvard Business Review) It’s not just you, technology is advancing more quickly, it’s being adopted by more people faster, and it’s becoming outdated so fast.

Top Secret Hamas Command Bunker in Gaza Revealed (Tablet Mag - 2014) & Meta is Suppressing Palestinian Speech (Fight for the Future) & my resignation (Anne Boyer, Poetry Editor NYT) & TikTok teens aren’t stanning Osama (Garbage Day) Why is Israel so sure there’s a Hamas compound under a hospital in Gaza? Because the IDF built it back in 1983. However, this is a far cry from the super villain lair etched into a volcanic island that some make it out to be. On the other end, Meta is being predictably meta, the blow up about Gen Z worshipping Osama Bin Laden was drummed up to sell substack subscriptions, and the poetry editor of the NY Times quit in protest of the Gray Lady’s coverage. Softness for all those suffering, please.

Israeli intelligence leak details extent of warnings over Hamas attack (The Guardian) & The Women Who Saw 9/11 Coming (The Atlantic) Tangentially related but eternally correct, BELIEVE WOMEN. Looks like there were Cassandras who raised warnings about both 9/11 and Oct 7th, ignored by men in both cases. Funny that.

Strawberry Fields Becomes First Cannabis Dispensary in Ohio to Join the Teamsters (Teamster.org) Cannabis dispensaries treat unionization drives as diplomatically as Amazon, Uber, or Walmart, sadly. The teamsters should help sort out any weed entrepreneurs that Google the Pinkertons and start getting ideas.

Kushner’s Mexican Connection (Popular Info) This would be such an exciting story if none of these words meant what they mean. Trump went to Jared for outreach to Univision and its Latinx viewers, and it is sadly resulting in a ton of success for him. Watch the Latinx space in 2024, Trump’s going to do much better there than liberals expect.

Uber slashes fees in Bangladesh as drivers keep taking rides offline (Rest of World) Instead of letting the ride go through, the rider cancels the ride after negotiating a different rate, which is called khep. We absolutely adore this story, and can’t wait for Uber drivers worldwide to start copying the practice.

Quote of the week 

This seems related to so many things, we have no idea when this was said, and don’t know if we care.

Poem of the week

Wonderful words from Subhaga Crystal Bacon, a name that also sounds like a magic item from the cartoon Adventure Time.

Vibe of the week

We’re now on Bluesky! Vibe to celebrate, and we’re actually going to try to dip our toes back into the Realm that Destroyed Us: Social. Dispatch to explain what the social platforms did to us, coming soon.

Nothing but blue skies,t