Weekend Edition 33: Elon, AI, Digital Hygiene Tips, and More

News From Elon Land
AI News
Tech tips from the FBI (LOL)
Dominion/Fox/Smartmatic BS

#elon #AI #FBI #techtips #electionstuff Elonmusk #Twitter #FOSSNews #TechFreedom #weekendedition #currentevents #technews

WE 33.1 – Elon World
He claims to be lining up a lawsuit against Microsoft for illegally using Twitter data to train the Bing AI, based on reporting from a few outlets on the matter. Elon tweeted out a threat on Wednesday, but as of writing, there have been no teeth behind the barked threat. This opens up the topic of data ownership, which is one of the cornerstones of both Tech Freedom and another related company which I’ve been creating content for, called Altha Tech. The prime difference between us is that Altha Tech can actually help you to host your data safely away from Big Tech, on their own infrastructure. I do not have that capability. They can help you get set up with a custom WordPress site, host your own Nextcloud instance, or any other number of self-hosted tools or platforms, to keep your data safe, and your website up and running no matter what you post there. Tech Freedom is about showing you the need for and introducing you to alternatives to Big Tech. I can help you set your computer and mobile life free, but the best option, unless you have the hardware and know-how to self host the rest of whatever can be in your digital life, is to go with a hosting provider who has their own infrastructure and prizes privacy. Altha Tech fits that bill. Back to the main gist of the article though, Elon is acting big mad about Twitter’s data being scraped to train Microsoft’s AI. Data ownership and privacy need to be foremost in our minds, as these factors make a huge difference in every day life, believe it or not. Whether you feel you have anything to hide or not, this should matter to you because whenever you use an electronic device, it records data about he interaction, whether your phone, computer, or some online account. The profiles built about us by big tech (and the surveillance state) are incredibly powerful and can sometimes reveal more about ourselves than we know about ourselves. This can lead to very dark places if that data winds up in the wrong hands. That is why I just plugged Altha Tech, as well as Tech Freedom.
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/19/musk-threatens-to-sue-microsoft-over-twitter-data-being-used-in-ai.html
https://althatech.com
https://techfreedom.pro
#elonmusk #suingmicrosoft #personaldata #dataownership #dataprivacy #althatech #techfreedom #weekendedition #TechFreedom

WE 33.2 – AI News
33.2a) TruthGPT?
In Elon’s interview with Tucker, he claimed that he was going to start a new AI initiative called TruthGPT to be a counterbalance to the wokism and political correctness of other AI tools that are currently in vogue. The reality is that there are ways to make ChatGPT less woke, and I have talked about them in the past, then there is Gab AI (currently just art and short video clips), but working on a text chat bot that will produce far more based (less biased) things. Elon used to be on the board at OpenAI, but left after a failed takeover attempt in 2018, and has been decrying the for-profit model that they have been pursuing since then. In this interview, he also calls for some sort of government regulatory agency to be put in place around AI. Uhhh, no. Let’s not create more government agencies, Mr. Musk. Weren’t you paying attention when Regan quipped that the scariest words in the English language are “Hi, I’m from the government and I’m here to help”? We need less government and better moral and ethical norms in our society again. We need to eliminate the corruption that seems to be at the core of our government and society, then restore life to a purer state. To me, this requires a full shut down and cleanse of the system, then rebuild from the ground up, with a core of Truth rather than corruption. A keystone to this project is submission to the God of the Bible, learning to trust the Holy Spirit to guide us, the Father to protect and provide for us, and Jesus to walk with us. But I digress. AI may or may not be the issue, here. The organizations creating and training the AIs are. I don’t trust Elon to head this up, either. He is too inconsistent, and besides, he voted for pResident Depends in 2020. That is an epic case of bad judgment. Not sure I trust Torba and the team at Gab, either, to be honest. I think I trust them more, but that isn’t saying much. As always, I think that open sourced efforts are the way to move forward. That way we can see the data used, the algorithms and whatnot used to make the educated guesses at what its answers should be and whatnot. Generally, FOSS also = self-hostable, which adds an extra layer of privacy and control to the whole picture. Either way, remember that these things are TOOLS, not something you should live your life according to.
#AI #elonmusk #truthgpt #idonttrusthim #TechFreedom #weekendedition
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/18/musk-calls-plans-truthgpt-ai-to-rival-openai-deepmind.html

33.2b) Google Creating MAGI, a new AI Search Engine
What is MAGI? It’s a response/reaction to the report that Samsung may be considering moving away from Google Search as its default for its devices, and over to Bing, due to the AI integration with it. Its aim is to be as conversational as ChatGPT, which BARD is not, currently. Bard kind of sucks. It sounds like the search giant is reeling a bit, as shares went down 4% when the news about Samsung’s apparent decision broke. Why do they still hold a 97% market share for search? I’ve been harping on ditching them for the whole time I’ve been doing Tech Freedom. That is the simplest step you can take to reduce your big tech footprint, as well as gaining access to more balanced news and other information as well. Quit volunteering your data to Google and Microsoft, y’all. Just stop it. Use Brave search, Presearch, or something else that doesn’t send your search data to them without some anonymization at least. Word on the street is that Google will start to release MAGI in a month or so. Oh boy. #smh
#google #AI #MAGI #yikes #nothanks #weekendedition #TechFreedom #FOSSNews
https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/google-reportedly-working-on-ai-powered-search-engine/

33.2c) Snapchat to Roll Out My AI to All Accounts Soon
Uhhh, thanks for reminding me why I don’t use Snapchat again, Snap. My AI is a ChatGPT based tool which can talk to you on the platform, even eventually including pictures, but just the same way as another user might. It’s designed to suggest different AR lenses to filter your content through, it even has its own bitmoji persona, and you can set up group chats with the same bot. Right now, it will only respond with text, but soon, they will update it so that it can generate images. Ok... *side eye* I used to think that snapchat was kind of cool, but then I started caring more about privacy, and lost interest, that and if you haven’t noticed, brevity in my content is not my specialty, lol.
#snapchat #AI #ohbrother #myai #weekendedition #FOSSNews #TechFreedom
https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/snaps-ai-bot-is-rolling-out-to-everyone-heres-how-it-works/

WE 33.3 – Security Tips
A) Phishing 101
a. What is phishing?
i. A type of scam which uses bits of scraped personal data, which can happen via email, social media, or even text messaging.
1. They will message you, one way or the other, sometimes offering money if you’ll help them with something, and sometimes soliciting donations for some worthy cause. They ultimately want to squeeze money from you, or some other valuable piece of personal information.
b. How can you protect yourself from a phishing scam?
i. Practice good digital hygiene
1. Don’t open emails or other messages from addresses/senders that you don’t recognize.
a. Verify with individual senders that you do know before you open messages from them
2. Make sure that the spellings for addresses actually match the senders and domains you are familiar with.
3. If a message requests donations in crypto or gift cards, it is a scammer
4. Romance scams are a doozy. If I weren’t happily married, it would have been far harder to dodge those bullets, but if someone is messaging you that you don’t know in person, claiming that they love you, block them and flag that sender as a spam account.
5. Be wary about charities anyway. Even established charities can also be little more than money laundering operations. It is better to find a way to give directly to someone who is hurting, but beware of that as well.
c. Mitigating Damage
i. Use a good anti-virus suite and keep it up to date
1. Or use Linux, it is not as likely to have a place for malware to latch onto.
ii. Make sure that your password is strong, and that you do not reuse passwords for anything. If needed, use a good password manager like Bitwarden.
iii. Use 2FA
1. I would be careful with 2FA, as not all 2FA is created equal. If you must use it, use an app like Aegis which is FOSS and never use SMS 2FA if you can help it.
iv. Consider a Credit Freeze
1. If you fear that bad actors have breached your social security number or credit card numbers, there are steps you can take to make sure that they can’t do much with that information. Phone your credit card company or bank and have them freeze your account until you are able to piece it back together.
https://www.cnet.com/news/privacy/avoid-concert-and-sports-ticket-scams-with-these-expert-approved-tips/
#phishing #security #tips #weekendedition #FOSSNews #TechFreedom

B) Beware Public Device Chargers
Simple PSA here, don’t use free, public anything these days. Some bad actor has probably been there, hacked that in some way, and these public charging stations can take advantage of the fact that most charging ports on phones and tablets can also transfer data, and juice jack devices through embedding compromised data chips with malware payloads embedded in them to hit your phone as soon as you plug it in. Just use your own, with a power outlet. It is that simple. Sometimes it is hard, but if you value privacy, this is how it must be.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/12/tech/fbi-public-charging-port-warning/index.html
#PSA #juicejacking #becareful #useyourowncharger #weekendedition #FOSSNews #TechFreedom

WE 33.4 – Fox & 2020 Election Stuff
A) Fox & Dominion Settle for just shy of $800 Million
I don’t know how I feel about this, except that I recall that the owner of Faux News is in the rarefied air of the “chosen people”. They tend to live by their own unique set of rules, and that makes Faux News and all of its talent sketchy, IMO. Faux has been controlled opposition the whole time, never really on the side of we the people. They are Lamestream Media, after all. Dominion sued for about double that based on claims of defamation that Faux’s anchors and personalities made in relation to the company’s voting tabulation machines in the aftermath of that fraudulent election. Whether or not the machines were knowingly tampered with to invalidate the will of We the People or not, the will of We the People was negated in many ways in November of 2020. I could go off on this, but I have not really researched it, and there is much noise and mis/disinformation on both sides of the issue so it is hard to see the truth at this point.
Either way, Faux News chose to more or less admit to wrongdoing to avoid more scandal in the midst of public discovery for the trial, and now Dominion gets a fat payday.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/19/business/nightcap-fox-dominion-winners-losers/index.html
#elections #fauxnews #msm #2020 #dominion #weekendedition

B) Smartmatic vs Faux News
In a very related case, Smartmatic is pressing forward with its $2.7 Billion claim against Faux News and News Corp. They have compelled Faux to produce the same materials for discovery as they needed to for the Dominion case. Both firms accuse the media giant of not merely reporting on the statements of Trump and his surrogates and lawyers, but engaging in statements which damaged the company’s prospects due to being implicated in the court of public opinion with fraud. It looks like Faux will actually take this one to trial, and perhaps that was the idea all along, since these cases are so similar.
#weekendedition #2020 #smartmatic #voting #FOSSNews #TechFreedom
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/19/fox-smartmatic-defamation-case-dominion.html