^TagBig Tech

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
May 24, 2021

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Religion, Surveillance, Technocracy

Tagged
Big Tech, Caitlin Bassett, China (crackdown on religions), Erik J. Larson, Heather Zeiger, John McCarthy, Live not by Lies (book), Myth of Artificial Intelligence (book), Norbert Wiener, Rod Dreher, Shoshan Zuboff, Surveillance Capitalism (book), United States (and mass surveillance)}

How Much of Your Income — and Life — Does Big Tech Control?

_{Erik J. Larson reviews the groundbreaking book Surveillance Capitalism, on how big corporations make money out of tracking your every move} _{News

May 24, 2021

7

Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Religion, Surveillance, Technocracy}

In a review of Shoshana Zuboff’s groundbreaking Surveillance Capitalism (2019), computer science historian Erik J. Larson recounts a 1950s conflict of ideas between two pioneers, Norbert Wiener (1894-1964) and John McCarthy (1927–2011). Wiener warned, in his largely forgotten book The Human Use of Human Beings (1950), about “new forms of control made possible by the development of advancing technologies.” McCarthy, by contrast, coined the term “artificial intelligence” (1956), implying his belief in “the official effort to program computers to exhibit human-like intelligence.” His “AI Rules” view came to be expressed not in a mere book but in — probably — hundreds of thousands of media articles warning about or celebrating the triumph of AI over humanity. If you are skeptical Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Caitlin Cory
Date
March 31, 2021

Categorized
Censorship, Social Media, Technocracy

Tagged
Alphabet Inc, Big Tech, Facebook, Google, Heritage Foundation, Jack Dorsey, Ken Buck, Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai, The Heritage Foundation, Twitter}

Influential Think Tank Declines Big Tech Donations

_{The Heritage Foundation declined six-figure donations from Big Tech companies Facebook and Google in 2020, citing repeated censorship of conservative views} _{Caitlin Cory

March 31, 2021

3

Censorship, Social Media, Technocracy}

News website Axios obtained letters signed by Heritage Foundation‘s departing President Kay Coles James (pictured), addressed to the CEOs of both Facebook and Google in October 2020, explaining why Heritage felt compelled to decline the six-figure contributions from the companies. “We cannot in good conscience take money from a company that repeatedly, and blatantly, suppresses conservative speech on your platforms,” reads the letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai. A similar statement is made in the letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Heritage declined $225,000 from Google, and returned $150,000 that came from Facebook. The Heritage Foundation made several accusations against the companies in its letters, including: that Facebook suppressed their reach by blocking referral traffic; that Facebook targeted Heritage with third-party fact-checkers; and that Google Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
March 26, 2021

Categorized
Data Privacy, Ethics, Surveillance, Technocracy

Tagged
Big Tech, Cell phones, Elizabeth Kolbert, Karl D. Stephan, Liquid modernity, Zygmunt Bauman}

Getting Used to Liquid Modernity

_{The only constant of liquid modernity is change, chiefly of the self, but also of the self's surroundings} _{News

March 26, 2021

7

Data Privacy, Ethics, Surveillance, Technocracy}

(Reprinted with permission from the Engineering Ethics Blog of Karl Stephan (pictured) of the Ingram School of Engineering at Texas State University) I do not own a conventional smart phone. Instead, I intentionally use a style of flip phone whose rugged case and physical numeric keypad buttons won’t be injured by a drop of three or four feet to a concrete surface. It can receive some texts on its small screen, and I can even send texts after a fashion with the twelve numeric keys, tapping them rapidly one to four times to select the correct letter or punctuation mark. It won’t do capitals, but you can read texts from me without capitals and still get the message. It took me a while to Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
March 18, 2021

Categorized
Business and Finance, Censorship, Social Media

Tagged
Big Social Media, Big Tech, Decentralization (of social media), Gallup poll on social media, Maryland (taxing social media), Reality czar, Section 230, Social media (federal control), Social media (new entrants), Social media (polls), social media (pressure to share wealth), Social media (state control), Social media (taxing social media), Timothy Head}

Can Big Tech and Big Social Media Be Reined In?

_{A number of strategies to limit their power or make them share the wealth are being evaluated, both among governments and private think tanks} _{News

March 18, 2021

8

Business and Finance, Censorship, Social Media}

Big Tech’s recent censorship moves have revived the debate about what, exactly, the new social media are? Are they publishers like HarperCollins or carriers like Ma Bell? Section 230 of the U.S. Communications Decency Act exempts the Bigs from liability as publishers. But, unlike carriers, they can act against messages in their system that they don’t like. Generally, they benefit from a fuzziness that is not granted to other institutions. It’s probably not accidental that most Big Social Media are domiciled in the United States. Canada, to name just one other country, does not offer Twitter that protection. The scale of the conflict is expected to grow and a number of strategies to limit the Big Social Media’s power or Read More ›

Finger touching phone with social media concept and dark background

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
March 11, 2021

Categorized
Data Privacy, Social Media, Surveillance

Tagged
Ad Nauseam, Big Tech, Conscious data contribution, Data poisoning, Data poisoning by internet users, Data strikes, Hanlin Li, Microsoft (Tay), Nicholas Vincent, Tay (chatbot)}

Why Do Some People Try To Poison Big Tech’s Data Well?

_{Some social media users confuse Big Tech about their interests so as to preserve privacy and rein in relentless marketing campaigns} _{News

March 11, 2021

5

Data Privacy, Social Media, Surveillance}

Here’s an article on a theme you probably didn’t expect to read about in a top tier tech magazine: How to poison the data Big Tech collects about you. It’s certainly evidence of the growing discontent with Monopoly Power and Big Surveillance: Now researchers at Northwestern University are suggesting new ways to redress this power imbalance by treating our collective data as a bargaining chip. Tech giants may have fancy algorithms at their disposal, but they are meaningless without enough of the right data to train on. Karen Hao, “How to poison the data that Big Tech uses to surveil you” at Technology Review (March 5, 2021) Researchers Nicholas Vincent and Hanlin Li presented a paper at the recent Association Read More ›

Beginning of the game, Two chess teams in front of different color white and black on the chessboard

^{Type
post

Author
Caitlin Cory
Date
March 10, 2021

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Censorship

Tagged
Algorithms, Antonio Radić, Artificial Intelligence, Ashique KhudaBukhsh, Big Tech, chess, Human in the loop, Rupak Sarkar, social media, YouTube}

AI Flags “Black” and “White” Language of Chess as Racist

_{New research shows the weakness of depending on AI to accurately flag racist online content} _{Caitlin Cory

March 10, 2021

5

Artificial Intelligence, Censorship}

Last summer, artificial intelligence algorithms took down a video on YouTube’s most popular chess channel mid-livestream and flagged it as containing “harmful and dangerous” content. New research into the incident indicates that artificial intelligence algorithms programmed to scan for racist and other hateful speech online may be to blame. On June 27, 2020, the host of the most popular chess chanel on YouTube, Antonio Radić, Croatian chess player, was conducting a livestream with chess Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura. Around the one-hour-and-twenty-minute mark of the discussion of chess, the video was cut off and removed from Radić’s channel. When Radić (or anyone else) tried to access the video, they were met with a message from YouTube: “We’ve removed this video because it Read More ›

Hand holding smartphone with media icons and symbol

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
March 5, 2021

Categorized
Business and Finance, Economics, Law

Tagged
Android, App stores, Apple (company), Arizona, Big Tech, Google, iPhone, Matt Stoller, Monopoly (in business), North Dakota, Steve Jobs}

Arizona Fights Back Against Big Tech App Store Monopoly

_{North Dakota’s anti-monopoly legislation was defeated but Arizona’s passed} _{News

March 5, 2021

3

Business and Finance, Economics, Law}

Big tech, flexing political muscles, is starting to get pushback at the state level. Political analyst Matt Stoller tells us a tale of two states: A loser and a winner: Two weeks ago, Apple and Google managed to defeat a major bill in North Dakota to force competition in app stores. This week, the Arizona House of Representatives defied the tech giants and passed the very same bill… Matt Stoller, “Apple Threatens North Dakota, Suffers Crushing Loss in Arizona: “A Lot of It is Just Fear”” at Substack Even sovereign states like Australia have felt the heat from pushing back against the likes of Facebook. Facebook blocked access to the Australian government’s Facebook pages during the forest fire season, due Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
February 26, 2021

Categorized
Social Media, Technocracy

Tagged
Amazon, Amazon (delisting books), Big Tech, Books (delisting), Deplatforming, discrimination, Featured, John West, Kara McKinney, Parler, political discrimination, Seattle}

Could a Seattle Law Hobble Amazon’s Unaccountable Censorship?

_{John West discusses Amazon’s vulnerability in Seattle with Kara McKinney at Tipping Point} _{News

February 26, 2021

4

Social Media, Technocracy}

Recently, John West, Managing Director of the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture, offered some thoughts at Tipping Point about Seattle legislation that could stymie Big Tech’s growing tendency toward viewpoint discrimination: Everyone is wondering what we can do about Big Tech censorship and it turns out there is a law on the books in progressive Seattle just waiting to be used. John West, “Big Tech Discrimination with John West” at Tipping Point (February 25, 2021) He’s referring to this law which forbids discrimination on the basis of, among other things, political ideology, seen as: any idea or belief, or coordinated body of ideas or beliefs, relating to the purpose, conduct, organization, function or basis of government and related Read More ›

Get Out of Jail Board Game Prison Free Escape

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
February 13, 2021

Categorized
Social Media

Tagged
Big Social Media, Big Tech, CitizenGo, Debanking, Deplatforming, Depublishing, Jordan Peterson, Josh Hawley, Lifesite, Michael Cook, Michael Lind, New Class War (book), Publishers vs. carriers, Section 230, Stasi}

Prof: America Now Has Two Constitutions — Yours and Big Tech’s

_{People who are being debanked, depublished, and deplatformed are discovering that, whatever the Constitution says, they don’t have rights if Big Tech says they don’t} _{News

February 13, 2021

7

Social Media}

University of Texas prof Michael Lind (pictured), asks us to think about the growing problem of Big Tech power as if we were living in an old time film about a corrupt county: Imagine that you are a resident in a low-population county in 1950. You run afoul of the small group of families who are effectively in charge. Your political and legal rights are unimpaired. You are free to vote and you are free to sue in municipal and county and state courts. The police treat you with unfailing courtesy and respect. But strange things start to happen. The only newspaper in the county refuses to take ads for your business. The only bank in the county announces that Read More ›

Ray Kurzweil presenting via teleconference at COSM 2019

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
October 30, 2019

Categorized
Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
AlphaGo Zero, Andy Kessler, Artificial Intelligence, Big Tech, COSM, Danielle (novel), Digital Immortality, George Gilder, Google, immortality, Ray Kurzweil, Singularity, Singularity Is Near (book), transhumanism, Turing Test}

Tech pioneer Ray Kurzweil: We Will Merge with Computers by 2045

_{For computers, “Even the very best human is just another notch to pass,” he told the COSM Technology Summit} _{Denyse O'Leary

October 30, 2019

5

Philosophy of Mind}

Advocates point to the success of Kurzweil’s past predictions as evidence that his Singularity is indeed Near, as his 2005 book predicts or Nearer, as his forthcoming one (June 2020) does. But questions bubbled to the surface.

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
October 25, 2019

Categorized
Business and Finance, Global Technology

Tagged
Amazon, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Andy Kessler, Apple (company), AT&T, Big Tech, Blockchain, COSM, Facebook, George Gilder, Google, IBM, Regulation, social media, Verizon}

Wall Street Journal columnist to Big Tech: You are doomed

_{Companies like Google and Facebook aren’t monsters, says Andy Kessler, but each nourishes the seeds of its own destruction} _{Denyse O'Leary

October 25, 2019

4

Business and Finance, Global Technology}

Kessler told his audience at the COSM National Technology Summit that Big Tech companies are so vulnerable that, for legal reasons, the United States is the only safe place for their headquarters.

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 14, 2019

Categorized
Technocracy, Work

Tagged
Big Tech, curation, Google, media bias, Project Veritas, Technocracy, Zach Vorhies}

Whistleblower: Google Told Cops To Do a “Wellness Check” on Him

_{He can be seen doing a sort of perp walk on the video; some portions transcribed here} _{Denyse O'Leary

August 14, 2019

9

Technocracy, Work}

In the documents Vorhies unearthed, Google seemed to be "intending to scope the information landscape so that they could create their own version of what was objectively true."

^{Type
post

Author
Robert J. Marks
Date
July 30, 2019

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Global Technology

Tagged
algorithm, Algorithms, bias, Big Tech, Google Search, search engines, Technocracy}

Can Computer Algorithms Be Free of Bias?

_{Bias is inevitable but it should be recognized and admitted} _{Robert J. Marks

July 30, 2019

4

Artificial Intelligence, Global Technology}

Gregory Coppola’s revelations about Google’s politically biased search engine shone a spotlight on how algorithms are written.

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 14, 2018

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Social Factors

Tagged
Big Tech, George Gilder, Google, Life after Google (book), Silicon Valley, Technocracy}

George Gilder: Life after Google Will Be Okay

_{People will take ownership of their own data, cutting out the giant “middle man”} _{Denyse O'Leary

August 14, 2018

5

Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Social Factors}

In his new book, he calls the successor era he envisions the “cryptocosm,” referring to the private encryption of data, represented by technologies such as blockchain.