Links for 31 August 2024

First, some good news: Sweden’s been stealthily using hydrogen to forge green steel. Now it’s ready to industrialise (the EU isn’t against technology, they’re against crooks and bullshitters. The DMA Version of iOS Is More Fun Than Vanilla iOS, Silicon Valley’s Very Online Ideologues are in Model Collapse)

AI Has Created a Battle Over Web Crawling The report, Consent in Crisis: The Rapid Decline of the AI Data Commons, notes that a significant number of organizations that feel threatened by generative AI are taking measures to wall off their data. (IMHO this is not just a TOS or copyright issue. In the medium term the main problem for AI scrapers is going to be privacy and defamation law. Meta AI Keeps Telling Strangers It Owns My Phone Number - Business Insider)

From the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, more news from the circuit split between common sense (advertisers should not be paying the PRC to kill kids) and the epicycles of increasingly contrived Big Tech advocacy still in the law books: The Limits of the CDA Section 230: Accountability for Algorithmic Decisions, Judges Rule Big Tech’s Free Ride on Section 230 Is Over. Yes, the Big Tech defenders are big mad. They thought they won with the ISIS recruiting on Twitter case. And they’re probably right about how well the Third Circuit’s decision (PDF) will hold up on appeal. I don’t think this will hold up in court with today’s judges. At least for now we need to regulate Big Tech in a way that avoids free speech issues. The motivation to deal with the situation is just getting stronger: Here are 13 other explanations for the adolescent mental health crisis. None of them work.) Update: TikTok Inspired Child Suicide Prompts a Sound Reading of Section 230 - The Illusion of More

DOJ sues TikTok, alleging “massive-scale invasions of children’s privacy” (Throwing the book at creepy surveillance companies is a win. Meta to pay $1.4 billion settlement after Texas facial recognition complaint)

Opt Out of Clearview AI Giveaway Class actions are terminally disappointing, but this one is especially egregious and it is worthy of special attention. We think you should opt out. Not just as a protest, but to preserve your rights in the event of further litigation. Here is how to do it. The deadline is September 20th.

Google’s Real Googly. No Not The Anti-Trust! Google search is starting to look old, tired, and less and less useful. (True, but that’s not because of disruption or innovation, it’s mainly that Google management has put dogmatic union-busting of TVC (second-class, indirect) employees ahead of a quality experience for users. The biggest mistake that companies with a cash cow make isn’t under-investing in innovation, it’s making wasteful investments in non-core areas while pursuing false economies in the core business. Meanwhile, Google writes checks for legacy media: Will Google’s $250 million deal with California really help journalism? California tried to make Google pay news outlets. The company cut a deal that includes funding AI and a new generation of journalist-owned news sites become going concerns)

More news from the regular people side of the AI story arc: Excuse Me, Is There AI in That? - The Atlantic Businesses and creators see a new opportunity in the anti-AI movement. Why putting AI in your product description is actually hurting sales The Generative-AI Revolution May Be a Bubble Law firm page following copyright cases: Case Tracker: Artificial Intelligence, Copyrights and Class Actions | BakerHostetler The other shoe dropping on ‘AI’ and office work

Ethics and Rule Breaking Among Life Hackers (to defeat the techbro, think like a techbro? full text)

Point of order: I decided not to put some otherwise good links in here because the writers chose to stick a big obvious AI-generated image on them. That’s like Rolling Coal for the web. Unless your intent is to claim membership in evil oligarch fan club or artist hater club, cut it out. I can teach you to find perfectly good Creative Commons images if you don’t have an illustration budget.