10 Aug 2025 Search

AI teacher tools show racial bias in suggestions for struggling students by Norah Rami. (say the line, Bart…) After Chalkbeat asked about Common Sense Media’s findings, a Google spokesperson said Tuesday that Google Classroom has turned off the shortcut to Gemini that prompts teachers to Generate behavior intervention strategies to do additional testing.

AT&T CEO’s Memo Just Made It Official: Workplace Loyalty Is Dead by Aki Ito. (This is also why I’m cautiously optimistic about the coming end of the Big Tech oligopoly. People in hardcore mode making day-to-day decisions based on fear aren’t going to come up with much new stuff. When signaling loyalty is more important than adding value, large companies create value too slowly to justify an increasing stock price, and have to pivot to crime. Eventually legit companies are going to have to work around them. Related: Silicon Valley’s Dream Tech Job Is Disappearing by Kate Conger, Titan sub implosion caused by absolutely bonkers “toxic workplace environment” by Nate Anderson)

Think Linux desktop market share isn’t over 6%? This 15 million-system scan says otherwise by Steven Vaughan-Nichols. In an interview, Lansweeper, an IT asset discovery and inventory company, revealed to ZDNET that, in its analysis of over 15 million identified consumer desktop operating systems, it found that Linux desktops currently account for just over 6% of PC market share. (yes, we’re having a Linux Installfest at the Alameda Library on August 30.)

Wikipedia Editors Adopt ‘Speedy Deletion’ Policy for AI Slop Articles by Emanuel Maiberg. (As a large language model, I welcome this effort to keep training sets accurate.)

Online Scams and Attacks in America Today by Jeffrey Gottfried, Eugenie Park, and Monica Anderson at Pew Research. Americans are becoming more familiar with artificial intelligence (AI) while also growing more concerned about its impact on daily life. When it comes to online scams and attacks, most Americans say AI will make them more frequent. In fact, about seven-in-ten (68%) say the increased use of AI is going to make online scams and attacks more common.

Scientists Shine a Laser Through a Human Head by Velvet Wu. (Is the consent form for this study available anywhere? I am impressed by the skills of whoever got a volunteer to sign up.)Maybe they got a graduate student to enter the laser chamber? icymi: Lena by qntm

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine calls for action to be taken on prop bets by Graeme Hanna. (imho the state laws on gambling and the state laws on privacy need to be designed to work together. Do you have a license for that robot bookie?)

What is personalized pricing, and how do I avoid it? by Jay L. Zagorsky. There are ways to get around customized pricing. All depend on denying AI programs data on past purchases and knowledge of who you are. (Related: personalized advertising is an adult custom)

Chinese steel market: China’s path to low-carbon steel — GMK Center by Ihor Vorontsov. As with the energy sector previously, emission allowances will initially be allocated to companies free of charge. In the future, the total quota will be reduced, which will lead to an increase in the price of emissions. Currently, their cost (for energy companies) is $12.5/ton of CO2. In 2022, trading started at $7.4/ton. The introduction of CO2 emissions system with fees, taking into account their gradual increase in price, will be an important incentive for the decarbonization of the Chinese steel industry.

China’s greening steel industry signals an economic reality check for Australia by Christoph Nedopil. In the past five years, Australia’s metallurgical coal exports have already fallen by about 15%, despite persistent predictions for growing demand.