Unit ⑧ Letter #20244
We decided to open up to our wider network and share a selection of our resources with our colleagues and followers. 🦾
Dear Unit ⑧ friends,
We have been internally exchanging readings for a while, sharing links we find relevant for our development as a small organization, looking for meaningful directions to head to, and keen to keep up-to-date in the realm of technology from a technical, political, ethical, and artistic point of view. Here are some links to the articles we paid attention to these past weeks, covering topics from legal regulations of Blockchain and AI to the nature of consciousness and what it entails. We hope you enjoy them!
Deep-fake Abuse
The recent phenomenon of Kategate unleashed a series of speculations about the integrity of the video in which the princess recently confessed her cancer diagnosis; many were not convinced, seeing it as a deep-fake. A video of Olaf Scholz recently circulated, in which he claimed to have decided to ban the far-right German party AfD. It turned out to be a deep-fake. It’s becoming notoriously hard to differentiate what’s true and what’s fake in the realm of the glitchy online imagery. But a way darker application of this effect has been exemplified in non-consensual, sexually explicit videos. In her article for Tech Policy Press, Kaylee Williams highlights the global concern around the terrible and humiliating impact on victims of non-consensual sexually explicit deep-fakes, which are mainly women. Stakeholders, researchers, and activists are investigating the urgent need for preventive strategies.
The Gravitational Force of Tech Money
Neal Stephenson's book "Seveneves" begins with a tidal change generated by the moon breaking apart, rendering the earth's surface uninhabitable. Substacker Dave Karpf uses this fantasy premise as a metaphor to expo his thoughts on the wild concentration of wealth by big tech corporations, which is so unbalanced that it can create a gravitational disruption in an economic, social and political sense. What could be the outcome of these massive fortunes owned and managed by individuals; fortunes that turn them more wealthy and influential than some governments? This challenge should be considered.
The Industry can’t agree about what Open Source means
To open source or not to open source. That is the most crucial question in the AI sector. Some companies claim to follow this model, but the definition of what parameters such a model should be based on to be considered open source still needs to be clarified and undefined. The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is trying to establish standardised definitions, yet the interpretations and practices by tech companies are varied and only sometimes comply with OSI. In his article for MIT Technology Review, Edd Gent considers the main questions that need to be asked when deciding whether to open-source a model and how these decisions would challenge the AI community and impact innovation, competition, and regulatory considerations.
Embrace AI strategically for Writing?
The original fear of plagiarism and skill replacement by AI tools progressively leads to the realization that it can also be used in the writer’s favor. AI tools such as chatGPT can serve as collaborators in the process. In his Substack entry, Nick Potkalitsky lists how these tools can support the writers in different ways, such as knowledge acquisition or even help disrupt blockages or get inspiration through experimentation. These tools can thus help transcend traditional methodologies and inspire the creation of new working methods that put technology at the service of humans and not the other way around.
AI #55: Keep Clauding Along
In one of his extra-long and exhaustive Substack entries, Zvi Mowshowitz compiles tons of twists around the fresher versions of the most powerful AI models, such as Claude 3, GPT-4 or Mistral, ironically reflecting on how LLM can be used for mundane utility purposes, on discourses around openness and safety, especially concerning issues of accuracy and accountability, listing various testimonies of people in the business. As usual, Mowshowitz's scepticism is sustained by countless articles and references from multiple corners of the internet, ultimately questioning the tendency to rely too much on these models and AI-generated content.
Videos
AI, Open Source & Technical Due Diligences | Sheila Beladinejad
In this new YouTube entry, substacker and lawyer Tobias Mark Jensen, a.k.a. The Futuristic Lawyer, discusses the parameters and ethics around sourcing Artificial Intelligence, with founder and CEO of O' Canada Tech Sheila Beladinejad, who recently published an article in two parts about the topic.
Podcasts
What You didn't know about Tech’s Hidden Heroines
In this Politico Tech podcast, author of "Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet", Claire Evans and Deputy Tech Editor Daniella Cheslow list some of the most relevant female actors responsible for developing what we know now as computation and the internet. These figures have been overlooked, as it often has happened in history with female figures, something that is fortunately changing. Ada Lovelace is a well-known figure in the history of computation and programming, but there are so many more to be dug up!
Books
#40 - Decrypting “The Oracle”
The term "proof of work," now known worldwide and overused in the context of blockchain technologies, was first coined and formalized in a 1999 paper by Markus Jakobsson and Ari Juels. Juels is not just a developer, cryptographer and researcher, but also a sci-fi novelist. In his last literary project, a crypto thriller titled “The Oracle,” he speculates possible scenarios in which a blockchain developer becomes the target of a bounty on his death, ostensibly commanded by the Greek god Apollo. In this video interview, Stanford Blockchain Review’s Jay Yu debates the novel’s disparate main themes, such as blockchains, ancient Greek mythology, and art crime.” The interview aims to partially illuminate the complex crypto space to the general public by analyzing the novel’s more profound significance.
In other news:
Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade goes live: how it impacts L2 gas fees
Introducing Devin, the first AI software engineer
A generalist AI agent for 3D virtual environments
Signed Letter against AI’s profits thanks to appropriating copyrighted music