rumisoc @rumisoc@computerfairi.es
Bavarian in northern Spain, workarounder, artist with certain tendency to detail. To be continued ...
2. If you are at all visible in the media, you're now extra vulnerable to having false quotes attributed to you. The folks at Biharprabha probably don't know who I am, but the LLM they used produced my name and something people might believe I said (I didn't).
On an individual level, I guess this leaves us with the job of trying to find and pushback against all such misquotes. Yet another kind of spam, sucking up literal & figurative energy to no benefit. *sigh*.
This has been true for a long time, of course, it's just now it's gotten much cheaper to create plausible looking sites filled with worthless content. Maybe Biharprabha was in it for ad $, maybe they want to provide "news reporting" wrapping around some kind of propaganda...
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1. Now that everyone has access to synthetic text extruding machines that can generate text on a requested topic and in a requested style, any unfamiliar source is suspect.
On the internet we (esp. speakers of colonial languages) have access to news media from around the world, but we need to build networks that can help us contextualize what we see.
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The editor replied quickly and took out the quote ... and admitted that they'd prompted an LLM to generate the piece. I've got a few takeaways from this experience:
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Has anyone heard of the news site Biharprabha? They ran an article today with a fabricated quote attributed to me. I've emailed the editor in the hopes of getting it taken down, but we'll see.
The forgotten astronomer, poet, and tragic genius Rebecca Elson died at only 39 (the exact age I am now), leaving behind 56 scientific papers and a slender, sublimely beautiful book of poetry – including the loveliest New Year's poem I have ever read: https://t.co/dcbUSM0uoo https://t.co/tIW3XkhawR
The tallest tree in #Wales had been damaged by a storm and was supposed to be cut down ... but chainsaw #artist Simon O'Rourke found a better solution to symbolise the tree's last attempt to reach the sky
What journalists -- and everyone else -- need to understand is that if the United States goes full fascist, essentially **every** police agency will get full license to do this kind of thing, routinely.
Too many get away with lesser versions of this already. Full fascist-led "law" enforcement isn't just speculation anymore.
And right-wingers can hardly contain their glee at such a possibility.
The stakes are that high. Wake up, journalists, and help us move toward justice, not terror.
If you've heard about @disco_coop but aren't exactly sure what it is, or if you haven't checked in since we launched the DisCO Manifesto, then the DisCO Basics is for you. Containing the lowdown on DisCO, its aims, origins, principles and more it's been lovingly designed as an inmersive experience for mobile devices.
Check it out at https://basics.disco.coop/ and please share.
Alan Turing was a mathematician & cryptographer who was a leading code-breaker in the team that decrypted Nazi Germany’s Enigma machine during WWII. He inspired modern computing & what became AI.
Instead of being hailed as a genius & hero, Turing was convicted as a homosexual & forced to endure chemical castration. He died by suicide at 41 in 1954.
The British government didn’t apologize until 2009 & Queen Elizabeth II finally pardoned him in 2013. #history #science
Mastodon User Tip
Make use of #Lists, and when you follow someone make a habit of adding them to a list right then.
It's quick and easy:
- Set up at least three or four lists. You can number them to arrange the list display order.
- After you hit FOLLOW, click the three vertical dots and choose "Add or Remove from lists". This will bring up your lists and you can click to add the follow to one or more lists.
They will make your #Fediverse life so much better.
“I've always tried to present a positive view of the world in my work. It's so much easier to be negative & cynical & predict doom for the world than it is to try & figure out how to make things better. We have an obligation to do the latter."
- Jim Henson
My fellow dudes: If you are entering a conversation among women, especially one that is explicitly about women's issues, out of a genuine desire to be helpful by offering a male perspective, take a moment to consider that they are IMMERSED in male perspectives, they are force-fed them all day every day, they know, really, they know better than you do because they've heard it AND seen it from the outside, you can let this one go. I promise.
Physicist Lise Meitner’s brilliance led to the discovery of nuclear fission. But her long time collaborator Otto Hahn, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry without her in 1944, even though she had given the first theoretical explanation.
Albert Einstein called Meitner “our Marie Curie." She also adamantly refused to work on the atomic bomb during WWII. https://whyy.org/articles/lise-meitner-the-forgotten-woman-of-nuclear-physics-who-deserved-a-nobel-prize/ #science #history
Last night I shared two posts. The first was positive (Fred Rogers) & the second was abysmal (normalized gun violence).
On #Twitter, I suspect the latter would have garnered far more attention bc a race for publicly visible RTs, likes & follows favors promoting shock & outrage.
But here on #Mastodon, Mister Rogers wisdom was shared more widely.
This isn’t a scientific analysis but a mere observation reinforcing that social media will be what we make it. And I like this neighborhood.
Who amongst you know of "Otik's spicy potatoes" (without doing an internet search)?
😊 Anyone?
Pls boost for reach!
Bavarian in northern Spain, workarounder, artist with certain tendency to detail. To be continued ...
