Weekend Edition 37: Holmes, Google, and AI News

WE 37.1 – Well, that Sure Lasted a Long Time...
Not much to say here, but I started covering it, so I’m gonna continue. Elizabeth Holmes got a extra month of freedom, but not what she was gunning for, which would have kept her out of prison until her appeal, which as far as I know has yet to be scheduled. The disgraced fraudster-CEO of Theranos was originally due to report at the end of last month. Her legal team is still attempting to appeal on her behalf, and I don’t know enough of the specifics to guess in any educated way whether she will have a shot, or if it will legitimately even be heard on her behalf. My hunch is that the appeal will likely be granted, but nothing will change for her. Why? She defrauded the Big Boys, not just a bunch of Main St mom & pop type investors.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/17/disgraced-theranos-ceo-elizabeth-holmes-will-report-to-jail-on-may-30.html
#weekendedition #theranos #elizabethholmes #justice #US #FOSSNews #TechFreedom

WE 37.2 – Google to Delete Accounts Unused for Last 2 Years
Good. Purge it, fools. Their excuse, other than needing to maintain space for all that data is that those kinds of accounts are more likely to have been breached in hack attacks, as they lack (or are FAR less likely to have extra layers of security) 2FA, for whatever 2FA is worth. SMS 2-Factor Authentication is inherently insecure, just as the SMS system is, it can be intercepted and easily read by man in the middle type attacks. If you are going to use, it get it set up with an app like Authy or Aegis, as those codes are harder to get at than SMS ones are. So, if you still have a Google account at this point, why? We know that we are the commodity with them, and that they scrape all search, YT, drive contents, and emails for pertinent ad data, so, other than the drug called convenience, why are you still on that platform? If you need business collaboration tools, and want to regain some privacy, check out Zoho for a drop-in replacement that may have more than what you need (probably does). If you want a more free experience with videos, take a look at Rumble, BitChute, Odysee/LBRY, or even GabTV. If you want even more control of your videos, take a look at setting up a peertube instance, or joining someone else’s. If you have something important there, all you have to do is sign in and watch a YouTube video, search for something, download and app, do something in Docs/ Drive, or read/ send an email. The deadline for this is not for 6.5 months though, so you have plenty of time to worry about it, if you are going to. My suggestion, though, is to look at my tutorial on how to get your data back from Google: https://rumble.com/v116bgp-tutorial-on-rescuing-your-data-from-google.html?mref=2jfr3&mc=anr3y , then take the time to set up an account with a provider like Zoho or Proton or Tutanota, who actually respects your privacy.
https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/google-will-delete-inactive-accounts-heres-how-to-save-yours/
#weekendedition #technews #google #letitgo #accountdeletion #FOSSNews #TechFreedom

WE 37.3 – EU Regulators Rubber Stamp Microsoft’s Takeover of Activision... With Provisons
The European Commission has greenlit the merger, but as reported last week, the Uk regulator did not, and the US FTC seems unlikely to go along with it, over concerns that MSFT would then control too much of the gaming industry, specifically in terms of cloud gaming. That kind of game streaming is sketchy to me anyway. I understand the appeal, don’t get me wrong. It allows people with lesser machines to play while outsourcing the heavy lifting to another machine. Usually you have to own both machines, but not always. As with anything cloud based, game streaming has inherent privacy issues, most gamers likely don’t care, because they just want to play their games. This merger would make Microsoft into the 3rd largest game studio in the world, just behind Nintendo and Sony. Is that a good thing? Should we laud this massing of economic power in one of the most vile companies on the planet? I don’t think so. This feels like an overall net-negative move, a lose-lose for the consumers and the industry as a whole. This means that not only will games likely carry more MS spyware in them, but the woke-itis will get that much worse. I don’t think that the FTC is likely to approve this, anyway, but we’ll have to wait and see.
https://www.cnet.com/tech/gaming/microsofts-69b-deal-to-buy-activision-gets-eu-approval-what-to-know/
#weekendedition #microsoft #activision #merger #EU #rubberstamp #FOSSNews #TechFreedom

WE 37.4 – Elon to Be Subpoenaed in Epstein- JPM Chase Suit
Oh boy, all those nights partying with the Epstein crowd might just bite the Twitter owner in the backside here. Here’s the skinny: Tesla used to bank with JPM Chase, but stopped doing so after Musk & Co felt that the bank had “let them down” in some significant way. Epstein claimed that he advised Musk on something in 2018, which, since, Musk has flatly denied, saying that “that cretin” (meaning Epstein) “never advised me on anything”. Sounds like a whole lot of unnecessary drama, but a judge has ok-ed the request of the AG from the Virgin Islands to require Tesla to surrender any records pertaining to the alleged connection with JPM Chase and Epstein. We’ll see if there is anything worth sharing, or if, as Musk and Tesla have claimed since, he actually never had anything to do with Jeff Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell. Sure, he might have had a conversation with her at a Vanity Fair soiree years ago, and someone snapped a picture of it, but that, he claims, is the extent of his relationship with her. Hmmm... That is all I can say right now, just hmmm...
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/17/tesla-elon-musk-subpoena-jpmorgan-epstein.html
#weekendedition #elon #epstein #maxwell #jpmchase #subpoena #FOSSNews #TechFreedom

WE 37.5 – Big Sky State to Ban App Stores from Distributing TikTok
Well, Montana legislators and executives just decided that TikTok poses enough of a threat to warrant starting to ban the Play Store and the App Store from allowing MT residents to download the app. The first domino has fallen. That ban will, unless overturned by a judge, go into effect on Jan 1, 2024. This is simply a restriction on NEW downloads of the app, not current users. I am still unconvinced that TikTok is any worse than YT or any other social media app. They are all geared to collect data about you and keep your attention so that they can keep mining the data, which makes them the money. They all have algorithms which incentivize people to pay more attention to them, as well as pushing certain content more than other kinds of content, whether overtly to mold opinion or not. If you ban one, then ban the rest. Just wipe the slate clean. Half-measures will never succeed in the end. Do I actually believe what I just said? Somewhat. If gov’t is going to ban one thing, then why not ban the rest? My sense is that the best option (which almost certainly won’t be taken) is that the public needs to be educated on how to think about social media and how to deal with it more healthily, so that influence operations on social media will be less effective. That a) takes too much effort and b) undermines the US intelligence community, which uses social media to spy on us.
https://news.sky.com/story/tiktok-montana-becomes-first-us-state-to-ban-video-sharing-app-on-personal-devices-12883467
#weekendedition #tiktok #montana #banhammer #meh #FOSSNews #TechFreedom

WE 37.6 – Amazon Still Thinks They’re an AI Leader
Maybe they are, maybe they’re not. What we know now, is that Alexa was on the leading edge when it came to voice assistants almost 10 years ago. They are trying to improve it, the LLM that it is based on, as well as seeking to roll a text based generative AI into the Amazon Shopping experience. This just feels like a desperate, “Hey look at us, we’re still in this conversation, too” from Amazon. Do something, release something impressive, or lose relevance. That is the nature of tech. Talk is cheap. I don’t know that I want them to improve their AI stuff any further than it already has been, as if you use Amazon, it likely knows more about you and your preferences than you do already. If that is cool with you because it makes it easier to shop for things, then by all means, keep using all of their AI crap. Personally, if I could exit the Amazon system effectively, I would. I have not found a way to replace all of their services that we use, so I haven’t. We do not use Alexa on purpose, as we do not trust that “always listening” feature in our home. My wife was the first one to question that, as I used to just be an uncritical “ooooh, shiny object” kind of tech adopter, whenever I could afford it (which was not very often). She was never comfortable with voice-controlled or “smart” anything. Good call, babe.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/17/amazons-alexa-head-defends-companys-work-on-ai-amid-chatgpt-boom.html
#weekendedition #amazon #AI #alexa #FOSSNews #TechFreedom

WE 37.7 Open AI & Congress
This last week, Sam Altman testified before a Senate sub-committee. He actually agreed with them that AI needs to be regulated, which is a bit odd, considering that most tech CEOs, when called before Congress usually try to fight whatever regulation is being explored in relation to them or their products. This doesn’t surprise me much, as he was one of the signatories, as well as the professor from NYU who also testified, on that open letter from March, which called for a moratorium on developing these advanced AI models, due to what more or less amounts to fear porn. If I’m proven wrong, and we are seeing the birth of SkyNet or The Matrix or something, I will gladly eat crow. I do NOT, however, think that we are there, at least not with the versions that John Q. Public is allowed to see right now. I have no inside knowledge (just to be clear) about those sorts of secret projects, but I would almost stake my life on their existence.
At the beginning of the proceedings, Altman demonstrated a rather creepy sideshow trick: they had trained an AI on Sen. Blumenthal’s voice and speeches, and had it present an opening speech, which was eerily true to life. I know that they can be used to mimic people, in fact, we’ve seen AI generated videos before, not to mention filters which can make anyone look and/or sound like anyone else. Those videos have been floating around for a few years now, but now, all you need is a computer with an internet connection to create something like that, whereas before, it took all sorts of crazy motion capture and voice synth tech to pull off the same thing. One could be made to say literally anything, and it is harder and harder to detect the forgeries, because they have gotten so good. What do you guys think about this? Good? Bad? Terrifying? Ultimately beneficial?
The fact that Altman was in agreement that something needed to be done at a federal level about curbing the possibilities for abuse strikes me as altogether odd. Doesn’t it seem that way to you? This whole thing is starting to smell like a psyop to me. Whenever both parties in congress and all involved parties in a hearing, as well as the breathless media all agree on something, that is almost never a good sign.

https://news.sky.com/story/senator-richard-blumenthals-chilling-warning-after-ai-generated-speech-convincingly-imitates-him-at-congress-hearing-12882342
https://news.sky.com/story/boss-of-ai-firms-worst-fears-are-more-worrying-than-creepy-senate-party-trick-12882348
#weeekendedition #AI #openAI #samaltman #fishy #blumenthal #FOSSNews #TechFreedom