Weekend Edition 7: Will He, Won’t He? AI Bill of Rights? And More…

Apple to be forced to join the 2020s?

Will He, Won’t He?

More US Restrictions on Selling Silicon to China?

YouTube to Push Narrative-Friendly Health Voices to Combat Wrongspeak

AI Bill of Rights?

WE 7-1: Will the EU Actually Force Apple to Abandon Lightning?

Well, there are a couple of steps for them to make before a 2-year grace period begins on the legislation they just passed, but it looks like the EU will likely be requiring Apple to switch all its connectors starting at the end of 2024, in the interest of convenience and reducing e-waste. Is it good that government can do this sort of thing? On certain levels, yes. On others, such as freedom, no. Should companies be large enough to push governments around? I don’t think so. There needs to be a balance between big business and government, but what that should look like, I don’t know. What do you guys think?

https://www.theverge.com/2022/10/4/23387425/european-parliament-iphone-usb-type-c-radio-equipment-directive-lightning-rip

#weekendedition #apple #eu #byebyelightning #TechFreedom

WE 7-2: Will He, Won’t He?

I am tired of talking about Elon Musk and Twitter. The deal is still fraught with difficulties, largely thanks to Elon’s mouth and acerbic fingertips, but he is willing, all of the sudden, to move forward, as long as Twitter drops its lawsuit against him. Why all of the sudden? Is there something that would be made public in discovery that would embarrass him or Twitter even more? Not sure that that would be enough to deter him in the long run for this deal, but who knows? This is a puzzling move on his part, and we won’t know why for quite some time, likely. What do you guys think? Is the whole thing good, or bad?

https://www.theverge.com/2022/10/4/23387592/elon-musk-twitter-deal-lawsuit-faq

#weekendedition #musk #twitter #TechFreedom

WE 7-3: No Silicon For You!

US based integrated circuit manufacturers now have to apply for a license from the Commerce Department in order to sell chips and manufacturing equipment to Chinese businesses, as well as tightening bans on others. The reasoning behind these new rules is that the US is trying to hinder China’s ability to compete on the cyber stage, particularly in regard to their sabre rattling over Taiwan. This new set of rules via fiat (in the form of an executive order) dovetails nicely with the CHIPS & Scinece Act, passed a couple of months ago. Intel has broken ground on a new Fab plant in Ohio, untilizing the largesse afforded by the CHIPS Act. This is promising for onshoring these important jobs and manufacturing facilities, which speaks directly to a dream I have, but I won’t talk about that now.

https://www.theverge.com/2022/10/7/23392860/biden-semiconductor-chips-intel-micron-china-ohio-science

#weekendedition #CHIPSAct #Biden #executiveorders #lockoutchina #TechFreedom

WE 7-4: YouTube to Push Pro-Narrative Health Videos

*eyeroll* ughhhhh…. YouTube is at it again, and the gatekeepers at The Verge are breathlessly cheerleading for this tampering with information availabiltity. #smh… the problem is that when anyone pulls moves like this, they try to determine what the truth is FOR the public, rather than allowing the public, who are largely adults, mind you, use their own brains and discern truth for themselves. They commit the fallacy of reliance on authority, but the problem with the established authority is that it has been shown to be corrupt and not really interested in the best outcomes for the public, but rather for the bottom lines of the Big Pharma bosses that own them. So, to combat perceived fake news shared through personal health stories by individuals, they are generating “approved” health stories and pushing them through the algorithm. Any of you see problems with this?

https://www.theverge.com/2022/10/7/23392802/youtube-personal-stories-health-misinformation

#weekendedition #youtube #fakenews #health #gatekeeping #TechFreedom

WE 7-5: New WH Guidelines on AI

These are voluntary suggestions that the White House has released now, to hopefully curb the misuse of AI for surveillance and other privacy invasions. This is framed as a blueprint for future legislation around a Bill of Rights for AI use, here are the principles laid out:
• That people should be protected from systems deemed “unsafe or ineffective;”
• That people shouldn’t be discriminated against via algorithms and that AI-driven systems should be made and used “in an equitable way;”
• That people should be kept safe “from abusive data practices” by safeguards built in to AI systems and have control over how data about them is used;
• That people should be aware when an automated system is in use and be aware of how it could affect them;
• That people should be able to opt out of such systems “where appropriate” and get help from a person instead of a computer.

Ok, that is a chunk of word salad to parse, isn’t it? Well, let me point out some flaws here…

Problem 1: What constitutes an unsafe or ineffective system? Who decides that?

Problem 2: What is the defintion of “equity”? Who makes that decision?

Problem 3: Who decides what is abusive? Who designs the safeguards?

The last two look genuinely beneficial to me… even as a tech guy, I get irritated when I deal with robo-callers and automated phone systems, as they almost never understand me perfectly, and it winds up taking longer to get where I need to go in the system when I am stuck with one of them, vs just an old school push-button system, or being on hold until I can deal with a person.

Well, then again, who decides when it is “appropriate” to have an opt-out from an AI / automated system?

I can’t imagine a world where these things wind up in a form that is genuinely good for We the People, as so many in congress are controlled by lobbies who have direct ties to the big businesses which would roll out these sorts of solutions.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/04/tech/ai-bill-of-rights

#weeekendedition #Biden #guidelines #AI #TechFreedom

How would I sum this week up? Government tries to reign in Big Tech… Big Tech tries to set the record straight on health… Elon renews his offer to Twitter…

EU looks to be forcing Apple to ditch the Lightning connector for their phones and tablets in favor of USB-C

What could go wrong? Well, it looks like the admin, or Biden’s handlers, at least, are somewhat awake to the need to cut China off from our tech IP, but is it too little, too late? Probably. The thing that has me scratching my head on the China-Taiwan thing is why China hasn’t just pulled the trigger and invaded that tiny island nation yet. Sure, big old Uncle Sam is waiting to smack them away, but with as gutted as our military is, both in terms of numbers and readiness, how effective can we be in protecting our interests in Taipei? This makes it all feel a bit like a theater production, so the act pertaining to Russia and Ukraine has to wind down before the Chinese drama can really begin, so that the world has bandwidth to attend to and care about it. At this point, it seems like everyone is tapped out with the Ukraine propaganda that has been happening for the last 8 months now.

Elon, dude, just make up your mind. Whatever you are doing with Twitter, just do it already and quit hogging the limelight already.

YouTube and health advice…. Doesn’t everyone know better than to turn there already? Sure people still post health content (and lots of it), but this appeal to authority feels a bit late in coming, particularly since anyone remotely awake is not in a place where they would trust these “authorities” anyway.

So much vagary in these guidelines… the language of the 5 principles is about as opaque and intentionally neutered that it could easily be twisted into something opposite of what it states, as it has to be sent through congress and its lobbyists. I don’t trust it any further than I can throw it.

What a week, huh?