hatemail tech newsletter 2023-07-31
The human cost of AI; Big Tech's risk to open protocols; and more in this week's ethical tech news.
Cleaning Up ChatGPT Takes Heavy Toll on Human Workers
Contractors in Kenya say they were traumatized by the effort to screen out descriptions of violence and sexual abuse during the run-up to OpenAI’s hit chatbot. [Wall Street Journal]
America Already Has an AI Underclass
Search engines, ChatGPT, and other AI tools wouldn’t function without an army of contractors. Now those workers say they’re underpaid and mistreated. [The Atlantic]
Does Sam Altman Know What He’s Creating?
The OpenAI CEO’s ambitious, ingenious, terrifying quest to create a new form of intelligence. [The Atlantic]
Big Tech's Takeover and Destruction of Open Protocols and Networks
Some great thoughts on Big Tech’s alleged appreciation for open technology: “All this means that corporations inherently cannot be trusted on open, federated networks. If they are allowed on, they will eventually destroy them.” [Cheapskates Guide]
The tricky truth about how generative AI uses your data
AI systems train on your data. What can you do about it? [Vox]
Doomsday to utopia: Meet AI’s rival factions
Inside Silicon Valley’s insular AI sector, a small group of strange but influential subcultures have clashed in recent months. [Washington Post]
How to Prepare for the Deluge of Generative AI on Social Media
A project studying algorithmic amplification and distortion, and exploring ways to minimize harmful amplifying or distorting effects. [Knight Center at Columbia]
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The Online Christian Counterinsurgency Against Sex Workers
Special Operations vet Jeff Tiegs runs Skull Games, where evangelical Christians use internet surveillance to locate and bust sex workers. [The Intercept]
In age of AI, women battle rise of deepfake porn
Photo apps digitally undressing women and manipulated images fuel sextortion rackets. A boom in deepfake porn using people's images without consent is outpacing efforts to regulate the technology [Yahoo/AFP]
Stanford researchers find Mastodon has a massive child abuse material problem
Researchers found CSAM within five minutes of searching Mastodon. [The Verge]
Twitter under fire for reinstating account that posted child sex abuse
Twitter reinstated the account after some of its more than 500,000 followers complained that the account had been suspended for its political messaging. [Washington Post]
Code Kept Secret for Years Reveals Its Flaw—a Backdoor
A secret encryption cipher baked into radio systems used by critical infrastructure workers, police, and others around the world is finally seeing sunlight. Researchers say it isn’t pretty. [Wired]
Decoy Dog: Unveiling a Sophisticated DNS-Based Malware Toolkit
The Decoy Dog malware toolkit is a DNS-based command and control system. Learn about its origins, advanced features, and the response from threat actors. [Infoblox]
The Ups and Downs of 0-days: A Year in Review of 0-days Exploited In-the-Wild in 2022
Google’s annual report of exploits of 0-day vulnerabilities being observed in the wild. [Google]
Analysis of the whitewashing of human rights violations in Xinjiang, China
An investigation into the information operators, narratives, and media shielding the many atrocities in Xinjiang from coming to light. [OSINT Team Blog]
Our Oppenheimer Moment: The Creation of A.I. Weapons
A weird, oozing opinion piece in the New York Times from Palantir CEO Alex Karp. Per Meredith Whittaker on Twitter: “Note the author/Palantir have been promoting transforming tech cos into defense contractors for years, since at least 2018. Well before this new surge of generative AI hype. The urgency and serious-men tone remains constant, only the pretexts (and grandiosity) change.” [New York Times]
Hikvision Uyghur Recognition, NVIDIA-Powered, Sold To PRC China Authorities
Hikvision promised that this had stopped, but a new PRC government document IPVM obtained shows the truth of the human rights abusing software. [IPVM]
Elon Musk’s Unmatched Power in the Stars
The tech billionaire has become the dominant power in satellite internet technology. The ways he is wielding that influence are raising global alarms. [New York Times]
Their Families Said They Needed Treatment. Mississippi Officials Threw Them in Jail Without Charges
In Mississippi, serious mental illness or substance abuse can land you in jail, even if you aren’t charged with a crime. The state is a stark outlier in jailing so many people for so long, but many officials say they don’t have another option. [ProPublica]
Spyhide stalkerware is spying on tens of thousands of phones
The Android spyware app, developed in Iran and hosted in Germany, has compromised about 60,000 Android devices since 2016. [TechCrunch]
Google’s nightmare “Web Integrity API” wants a DRM gatekeeper for the web
It's just a "proposal," but it's also being prototyped inside Chrome right now. [ArsTechnica]
California hotel workers strike back over 'union busting' app
A US trade union has filed a labor complaint against Instawork, a staffing app it says is designed to penalize workers who strike [Context]
They put food on our tables but live in the shadows. This man is fighting to be seen
Jose Martinez has picked America's food for decades. With all that experience on different farms, he saw workers lacking labor protections. Now he works to give farmworkers more rights. [NPR]
AI in Hollywood Has Gone From Contract Sticking Point to Existential Crisis
As the strikes grind on, actors and writers are worried about technology encroaching on their jobs. [Bloomberg]
Israel Lawmakers Pass Controversial Law to Limit Judges’ Power
Israel’s parliament approved a bill that will reduce judges’ ability to overrule government decisions and appointments. [Bloomberg]
Hong Kongers line up for hours at Shenzhen bank branches to withdraw their money
Long waits come amid concerns about the Chinese economy and liquidity of banking system. [Radio Free Asia]
Florida Has Approved PragerU ‘Curriculum’ for the Classroom
It’s the latest shakeup to Florida’s public education curriculum, which has taken a sharp conservative turn under Gov. Ron DeSantis’ leadership. [The Daily Beast]
Winnipeg: A daughter's quest to find her mother's remains
Police believe the remains of four indigenous women murdered by a serial killer were dumped in a landfill. [BBC]
Musk’s X Corp sues Israel’s Bright Data for scraping data
X Corp., formerly known as Twitter, alleges that the Israel-based web data collection firm scrapes and sells content and user data pulled from the social media platform. [Times of Israel]
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