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A.I., A.I., captain!

Joseph Stiglitz, he of former World Bankiness, haver of the 2001 Nobel Prize in economics who warned that globalization was taking place at the behest international conglomerates rather than “forces,” now comes to light his hair on fire present similar cautions about Artificial Intelligence:

“Artificial intelligence and robotisation have the potential to increase the productivity of the economy and, in principle, that could make everybody better off,” he says. “But only if they are well managed.”
…
Beyond the impact of AI on work, Stiglitz sees more insidious forces at play. Armed with AI, tech firms can extract meaning from the data we hand over when we search, buy and message our friends. It is used ostensibly to deliver a more personalised service. That is one perspective. Another is that our data is used against us.

“These new tech giants are raising very deep issues about privacy and the ability to exploit ordinary people that were never present in earlier eras of monopoly power,” says Stiglitz. “Beforehand, you could raise the price. Now you can target particular individuals by exploiting their information.”

It is the potential for datasets to be combined that most worries Stiglitz. For example, retailers can now track customers via their smartphones as they move around stores and can gather data on what catches their eye and which displays they walk straight past.

The data farming of which we are all willing seeds know no boundaries, recognizes no politics and sees only profits. Shaded with the camouflage of complexity, it is a winning hand. Are we up for the ‘boring overwhelming’ of taking on the Tech giants? Wait, let me come in again…

Image: Warehouse operated by Amazon, via The Guardian

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The Boutique Age of journalism

Not my phrase. From a podcast between Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Miles O’Brien where they cast CNN as the Wal-Mart of journalism:

They then discussed the notion of “fair and balanced” reporting, with O’Brien recounting an occasion in which he brought his producers a story that 95 percent of the scientific community agreed on. “Is it fair in a story about climate change,” O’Brien said, “which is clearly what I’m talking about, to do this journalistic convention of equal time for both sides. This is a huge mistake for journalism.”

Tyson agreed, saying that the conventional solution means that you get “one person to represent that 5 percent, but then he gets 50 percent of your time.”

They went on to discuss the use of a Jessica Yellin hologram during the 2008 election, which is not that far off from my assertion that actors will begin to be portrayed by avatars, instead of humans, in the not to distant future.

Dystopia? How would we know?

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Making it easy for us

To turn them off, that is. First, via Yglesias, CNN’s indomitable weatherman Chad Myers:

“You know, to think that we could affect weather all that much is pretty arrogant,” Myers said. “Mother Nature is so big, the world is so big, the oceans are so big – I think we’re going to die from a lack of fresh water or we’re going to die from ocean acidification before we die from global warming, for sure.”

Millions of people voluntarily invite this genius into their homes everyday. Will the American Meteorological Society credentials committee please reconvene. What does Myers believe are the causes of the lack of fresh water and ocean acidification, anyway? Like Fox ‘News’, viewers are objectively better informed – by not being misinformed – not watching CNN.

Of all the hand wringing about the loss of viewers to TV and readers to newspapers, the damage is largely of the Plaxico Buress variety. Your demise is an economic problem only in the respect that the quality of your product is terrible. See also, companies, American car.

Tangentially, this A.O. Scott review of the new Will Smith feature is curious for its bluntness about the movie’s level of quality.

Frankly, though, I don’t see how any review could really spoil what may be among the most transcendently, eye-poppingly, call-your-friend-ranting-in-the-middle-of-the-night-just-to-go-over-it-one-more-time crazily awful motion pictures ever made. I would tell you to go out and see it for yourself, but you might take that as a recommendation rather than a plea for corroboration. Did I really see what I thought I saw?

Really, Tony, that good? Maybe its a sort of cyclical race to the bottom and we’ve entered the low point of the curve with our national villians and popular entertainments. And while the national I.Q. appears to take its continual beating as a kind of badge of honor, we did just elect a new president who, we were continually reminded at high volume, was alternatively a marxist, a communist, a terrorist, a phony, too famous, too unknown and a marxist again. Makes you wonder whether anybody’s listening to the Chad Myers of the world anymore and if they’re not, who are we paying with our attentions?

And a hearty welcome back to Mean Joe.

Posted on

Making it easy for us

To turn them off, that is. First, via Yglesias, CNN’s indomitable weatherman Chad Myers:

“You know, to think that we could affect weather all that much is pretty arrogant,” Myers said. “Mother Nature is so big, the world is so big, the oceans are so big – I think we’re going to die from a lack of fresh water or we’re going to die from ocean acidification before we die from global warming, for sure.”

Millions of people voluntarily invite this genius into their homes everyday. Will the American Meteorological Society credentials committee please reconvene. What does Myers believe are the causes of the lack of fresh water and ocean acidification, anyway? Like Fox ‘News’, viewers are objectively better informed – by not being misinformed – not watching CNN.

Of all the hand wringing about the loss of viewers to TV and readers to newspapers, the damage is largely of the Plaxico Buress variety. Your demise is an economic problem only in the respect that the quality of your product is terrible. See also, companies, American car.

Tangentially, this A.O. Scott review of the new Will Smith feature is curious for its bluntness about the movie’s level of quality.

Frankly, though, I don’t see how any review could really spoil what may be among the most transcendently, eye-poppingly, call-your-friend-ranting-in-the-middle-of-the-night-just-to-go-over-it-one-more-time crazily awful motion pictures ever made. I would tell you to go out and see it for yourself, but you might take that as a recommendation rather than a plea for corroboration. Did I really see what I thought I saw?

Really, Tony, that good? Maybe its a sort of cyclical race to the bottom and we’ve entered the low point of the curve with our national villians and popular entertainments. And while the national I.Q. appears to take its continual beating as a kind of badge of honor, we did just elect a new president who, we were continually reminded at high volume, was alternatively a marxist, a communist, a terrorist, a phony, too famous, too unknown and a marxist again. Makes you wonder whether anybody’s listening to the Chad Myers of the world anymore and if they’re not, who are we paying with our attentions?

And a hearty welcome back to Mean Joe.