π Newsletter #009 - Social Media Alternatives (Good!), Bill C-22 (Not So Good!), and The End of Google Search as We Know It
β¨ In This Edition β¨
- π Short-Form Content: Slopified grad ceremonies, Stochastic slot machines, RIP Google search, and spookiness long before Halloween.
- π° Long-Form Content: Two pieces! Alternatives Pt. 2 - Social Networking; and On Bill C-22, which I Lovingly Refer to as Bill C-an We Not-22.
- π Good News!: A lot of resistance - against AI, random tech bros deciding the future of a country, and Bill C-22.
- π― The Post-Script: Take care of yourselves! Also, no-AI lofi.
π Short-Form Content
Chatbots ("AI")
- This is probably one of the most disrespectful uses of LLM's I've seen this month, and that's saying something:
GreendaleOh! Sorry. I meant Glendale Community College in Arizona legit used an LLM to read out names at the graduation ceremony.- It missed students, gave students the wrong names, et cetera, et cetera. Hilarious, in a way, but mostly I feel bad for the students. Even the "apology" was odd: That mention of "critical thinking" felt really icky when the school had literally just outsourced reading out student names. Good on the grads to make their discontent heard.
- "AI Agents," which really are just chained, uh, instances of LLM's, aren't really all they're cracked up to be. As per their non-deterministic nature, they introduce huge error rates, which, if it wasn't AI, we'd certainly raise our eyebrows towards:
[e]ven the newest models the fancy AI labs (Anthropic, OpenAI etc.) produce "degraded" document content in nontrivial "agentic" workflows. Small errors that those stochastic systems produce keep piling up and after about 20 interactions with a document 25% of content has been degraded.
"Vibe coding is coming to your phone." Well, it certainly won't be coming to mine :), but damn, Google locking down Android certainly makes a lot more sense now...
- "No, no, you don't need this open source app! Just use our vibe coding thingamajig, will ya? Please?
<prod>You really should. It'll make our line go up if you use it. And the line really must go up. No, you can't install apps from ""unsecure sources"" anymore, we're afraid... Looks like your only option will be to vibe code this app you need so badly... Which is possible because we ingested every open source app under the sun into our Grand Theft Autocorrect machine.... Oh hey! Look at all the users vibe-coding apps and widgets. Line go up! :)"
- "No, no, you don't need this open source app! Just use our vibe coding thingamajig, will ya? Please?
And here's one of those "Oh. Oh." moments I had recently, thanks to user @mhoye@cosocial.ca on Mastodon:
If you pay per interaction why would the stochastic token slot machine ever solve your problem on the first pull? If the slot machine can see how long and how much you'll spend haggling over semicorrectness before giving up, why wouldn't the machine drag the conversation out to the ragged edge of that limit every single time?
Non-Chatbots
- This one could just as well have gone into the Chatbots category: Google Search as we know it is over, basically. It hadn't been great for a while, but this upcoming AI-addled overhaul is going to change "Search" into something that's not... well, search.
- A lot of articles have been written about this. As a former-but-can't-quite-shake-it linguist, I will be intrigued to see what's going to happen to the verb "to google." While you can bring back the actually good, 2004 Google experience by, uh, telling the Google Chatbot to act as a Google website from 2004, now might also just be a great time to switch to a search engine that is not Google!
- Hey, want to see something spooky? π»
π° Long-Form Content
This week there's two pieces of long-form content! One that was planned, and one that was not, but that I felt had to be written this week as it was very time-sensitive.
Alternatives Pt. 2 - Social Networking
Part two of the Alternatives series! Yes, better social media is possible.
The article shines a light on the Fediverse, which offers:
- π¨ different platform flavours
- βοΈ interop! the flavours talk to each other!
- π« an ad-free existence (no, seriously)
- π° an algorithm-free existence (also seriously)
- πΆπΌββοΈa true right to exit
- ποΈ digital sovereignty
Part 1, on Messaging, Browsing, and Email, in case you missed it, can be found here.
And then there's the article I didn't mean to write last week, but that I felt had to be written:
On Bill C-22, which I Lovingly Refer to as Bill C-an We Not-22
This one is extracurricular as there's not a lot of time left to act. Four days at the time of publication of this newsletter edition.
Bill C-22, if implemented, would be the biggest infringement on Canadian online privacy in a long, long time.
The article answers questions like:
- What is Bill C-22? (a proposal that would create surveillance architecture - think metadata storage, like the when, where, and how of everyone's communications; and the possibility of being able to require platforms to build in backdoors.)
- Why is it Not Good β’οΈ for Canadian privacy? (backdoors == high risk of breaches; more information sharing with foreign governments; apps like Signal and VPN providers potentially pulling out of Canada entirely)
- What can we do to stop it, or to have it be amended? (Contact your MP! Share posts/articles about C-22!)
Read the full article here.
π Good News!
- The "AI Resist List" is a thing that exists. You can use it to check out different ways, big and small, by pillar and/or region, in which you can resist AI.
- Related to this, local activists can make a big difference when it comes to AI and/or surveillance tech. It might feel like you're constantly being pushed and urged and maybe even required to use AI, which conveniently makes things look like everyone is in support and there is no alternative. Neither is true :)
- Germany's Minister for Labour and Social Affairs is calling for the regulation of AI in the workplace (article in German). A π₯ quote from the re:publica conference: "We are not putting the future of our country into the hands of some random tech bros." Bam.
- There is a lot of pushback against Bill C-22: A number of organizations and groups, such as OpenMedia and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, have endorsed this open letter opposing the bill. Read more about the bill here.
π― The Post-Script
Not quite a Following or Reading bit, but: Remember to take care of yourselves. We live in times of a polycrisis - Everything is expensive, when you take a look around, you think, what on Earth is going on here!? - and it ain't easy.
On top of that, if you work in tech, and you technically love your job, but these days, you are despairing due to Reasonsβ’οΈ, I see you. You are not alone. There are tons of us who see this AI boosterism for what it is, and who don't believe all the drivel put forth by the billionaire visionaries who haven't built anything in a decade, but who have skin in the game, and need this boondoggle to work out.
Try to find pockets of offline enjoyment, or at least enjoyment that isn't related to consuming a constant stream of news or posts that's all hot takes and terribleness:
- ποΈ Books (print, ebooks, library, zines,...)
- πΌ Music (listening - bonus points for Not From Your Phone - not that this is a contest. MP3 players are so back though; or even playing music yourself)
- π± Plants (gardening, succulents, botanical gardens, forest walks,...)
- π€ΈπΌ Sports & movement (running, walking, canoeing, longboarding, dancing (yes, terribly counts), yoga, stretching,...)
- βοΈ Coffee / other fave beverages with friends
- π² Board games
Even when fighting the enshittification of everything, we need rest and recuperation. Actually especially then!
Following & Reading
Lastly, I guess I do have a Following bit: I really like these folks - Yellow Cherry Jam. They make no-AI lofi music that they record in nature. It's very pleasant. This newsletter was written while listening to that session!
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