Russ White
Creativity Takes Discipline. AI Offers an Easy, but Boring, Way Out
Because creativity requires work, AI systems will stunt human creativity over time.Consider the following scenarios and compare: Leilani considered the images on the screen … choose five, copy them, and paste them from the AI generator to the AI evaluator. Two to choose from … creative juices flowing, Leilani chose one and started working on the type. Which typeface would represent the playful air the client was looking for? Back to the AI selector to describe each face. All of them were playful, but one was fun, too — that’s the right match! After a few more minutes of creative release, Leilani leaned back to consider the result. Paste a copy of the final to her local friend’s group and wait a minute … the first response was: “Wow! You’re as Read More ›
How Can Content Creators Avoid AI Theft?
The world of AI appears to be shaping up much like the world of social media.Whither AI and copyright? Two significant battles working their way through the United States court system will define the relationship between human creators and AI systems. If you are a creator, you need to pay attention. First, can content created by AI be copyrighted? While it seems evident that content created by a user prompt should not be copyrightable by the user, what about the designer and operator of the AI system? It might seem reasonable to infer the humans who create a system that, in turn, creates new “works” should be able to copyright those works. In August of 2023, however, a United States District Court Judge ruled that AI-generated content cannot be copyrighted because “human authorship is a Read More ›
The Great Trust Heist
When social media companies are mining data, trust is naturally undermined.
Welcome to Digital Pottersville
From homey Bedford Falls to greedy Pottersville: how "It's a Wonderful Life" reflects the dangers of the Internet age
Meet Mediocrates: When AI Does All the Heavy Mental Lifting
A satirical look at how depending on ChatGPT for everything will erode our cognitive skillsetsMight I suggest a name for anyone building yet another Large Language Model (LLM)? Mediocrates would be a far more honest name than the ones big tech companies choose. Why Mediocrates? Who was Mediocrates? Legends say Mediocrates was Socrates’ younger brother. He was supposed to step in for Socrates when the great philosopher drank the cup of hemlock, but pursuing the truth was much too difficult. Instead, he decided to pursue practical knowledge and do so in the easiest way possible. Dear ChatGPT, Please Do All My Thinking for Me, Thanks! Mediocrates decided reading books so he could learn to build solid arguments and elegant writing skills was far too much trouble. It is easier to let a chatbot do Read More ›
The Titan and the Titanic: Bookends of Progressivism
Nature, despite all our technological innovations, remains extremely powerfulI read, with great sadness, of the wreck of the Titan. There were, undoubtedly, technical reasons why this submersible, carrying five human souls, broke up, lying now in the same graveyard as the Titanic. We pray that the impacted families might find peace in this moment—and in the coming times when lawsuits are filed, and horrible things are spoken about their loved ones. There is a great lesson to learn from this disaster—not the obvious lessons about the all-to-human failings of individual engineers or managers. The lesson we take from this should be broader. We should learn a lesson about man’s confidence in his own abilities, in our ability to overcome nature, and in a certain kind of progress. The Read More ›
So Many Selfies, So Little Self
The collage of images on social media so often doesn’t add up to a single selfConsider the way in which the phrase: “That’s your truth— my truth is different,” has expanded in scope. It’s now: “That’s your truth—my truth, right now, and on this social media platform, is different!”
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Can Your Tablet Really Tell People Where You Are?
Yes, and it'll talk louder with the next gen protocols. But there's a way to shut it upIf someone can see your traffic as it is transmitted across the “first hop” physical network and your devices are using the manufacturer-assigned MAC address, they can discover the unique address assigned to your device.
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Alan Turing’s original “computer” was actually a human being…
But will human beings now be thought of as computers?We should reflect on how unthinking use of technology can shape us, despite our commitments.
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Your Browser CAN Be Secure
If you are willing to think beyond GoogleThe place to begin, however, is with a simple rule of thumb: if a system is convenient, you are probably trading your information for that convenience. If you want to reduce your “digital exhaust,” you will need to do things that are a little less convenient.
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Cash For Your Data Won’t Solve Big Tech Privacy Issues
It seems like such a great idea… at first. But how do you know what the data is really worth?Privacy is a fundamental right tied to the person, rather than something on which a price tag can be placed, which can be sold for a fistful of dollars.
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Escaping the News Filter Bubble: Three Simple Tips
Spoiler: Reduce the amount of information big providers have about YOUOver time, unnoticed bubbles form ever more effective barriers against alternative information, maybe information you need. But getting out requires only a few simple steps.
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Are You Trapped in a News Bubble?
The news filtered to you might leave out important things you need to know. But how can you tell?
Why can’t monkeys typing forever produce Shakespeare?
Before communication can begin, there must be an intention to communicatePractitioners in the field of artificial intelligence often assume that intent does not matter in defining intelligence or that intent does not exist, that it is a useful illusion. Neither of these two approaches will work. Real communication requires intent.
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Always Wear Your Safety Glasses: A Tale for Our Times
What if we came to know the world only through our high tech aids? Russ White imagines…
Pop-Ups? Just Say “No” — and Close Those Tabs
Making the internet work for YOU means, among other things, getting control of who can follow you aroundIf allowing these notifications sounds like a perfect avenue for an attacker, that’s because it is. This attack surface is a very large hole in the security of your computer.
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Should You Pay For a Virtual Private Network (VPN)?
Here's what a VPN can and can't do for youIn some cases, specifically when you are using public wireless services, using a VPN can add measurably to your privacy and security. But VPNs are not a “silver bullet” in solving the many security and privacy issues users face today.
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The Internet’s Structure Builds In Privacy Flaws
The Domain Name resolver knows every service you visit, and every service those services rely on, as you move around the internetHow can you create a directory that anyone can access and yet keep what everyone is asking for private? Short of moving to a paper-based DNS system (think, a stack of New York City-size telephone directories), there isn’t a good answer within the present system.
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