Bits

Supervillains in #tech – with Greg Epstein, Chris Gilliard, and Jim Starlin https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/148678

“In a situation where the outcome is valued more than the process, a shortcut to the desired outcome will always be attractive.” #teaching #learning #ai #generative https://archive.ph/h1Pz8

“We cleaned 860K English and 180K Chinese e-books from Anna’s Archive ..” #copyright #generative #ai #shadowlibrary #libraries https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-libraries-are-forbidden-fruit-for-ai-companies-but-at-what-cost-250131/

Politics & Economics

“Our assignment is to prove that a trade-off between openness and adaptability is not necessary—that a highly decentralized system, designed to respect individual freedom and community rights, can also respond nimbly to looming dangers.” https://thewalrus.ca/canada-has-spent-over-a-century-avoiding-collapse-can-it-keep-going/

“a future in which surviving the seemingly unsurvivable requires people to show some emotional dexterity, some ability to surrender whatever selfishness they’ve been harboring and see if they have something that someone else needs.” https://archive.ph/fJoZQ

“What’s standing in the way of a Canadian industrial policy that focuses on raiding the sky-high margins of American monopolists with third-party add-ons, mods and jailbreaks? Only the IP laws that Canada has agreed to in order to get tariff-free access to American markets.” #canada #trade #economics https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/15/beauty-eh/#its-the-only-war-the-yankees-lost-except-for-vietnam-and-also-the-alamo-and-the-bay-of-ham