Lifeboat Foundation

How can we ensure that the technologies currently being developed are used for the common good, rather than for the benefit of a select few?

When ChatGPT was asked what advances in artificial intelligence mean for the human condition, it responded to our inquiry that AI will “change the way people view their own abilities and skills and alter their sense of self.” It could “impact people’s sense of identity and purpose.” It could “change the way people form and maintain relationships and impact their sense of community and belonging.” The progress made in 2022 by generative AI, which includes large language models such as ChatGPT and image generators such as Dall-E, is awe-inspiring. When it eloquently warns us about its own potential impact on the human sense of self, purpose, and belonging—we are naturally impressed. But large language models can only give back to us what we have fed to them.

While many have claimed to fix politics, very few even came close. Centuries have come and gone with their empires and ideals. Despite the many attempts to reform and improve the political landscape, the issues at hand remain largely unchanged. Corruption, inequality, and moral decay continue to plague governments around the world. It is clear that simply implementing new systems or electing the same leaders is not enough to address these longstanding issues. To truly reform and reverse the decay we see will need more. It will take a multifaceted approach that involves both systemic changes and individual actions, and some radical new ideas.

Many people find themselves today in countries that are repeating history. Inflation that only taxes the working class. Scandals from politicians that care not for the country nor the people they claim to represent. Lies of taxing the wealthy while continuing to burden all others with the shackles of debt. Fear and alarm echoed through every channel of state media that does nothing but leave the public despondent and hopeless about their future. Constant pandering and pilfering by people who see the nation they reside in as nothing but a sinking ship to be looted and left.

Fixing political systems has been a problem prominent in my mind for a long time. With the current order and systems of governance collapsing globally many have begun to ponder this as well. Unfortunately for the simple-minded, I foresee the rise of autocracy, be it communism, socialism, republicanism, or fascism. Such a thing cannot be averted and in fact, many people I doubt would even want it to be. The world has cried out far too long for order, and sooner or later every society will heed that call. Proof enough of this observation would be the nationalist movements that have gained widespread traction in 2022. While I won’t name them such parties and movements have spawned in virtually every western nation. The reason for this is painfully simple: democracy has failed in many people’s lives. It has failed to increase wages or lower housing costs, or even provide reasonable public services.

Timetable.
0:00 — AI in our society.
0:46 — Defining Algocracy.
1:00 — Current AI algorithms.
2:20 — Future of AI decision-making.
5:59 — AI governance scenarios.
7:43 — Poll on our opinions of AI
8:35 — What actually worries experts.
10:02 — What now?

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The quiet October 29 announcement of the partnership is light on details, stating that Trust Lab and In-Q-Tel — which invests in and collaborates with firms it believes will advance the mission of the CIA — will work on “a long-term project that will help identify harmful content and actors in order to safeguard the internet.” Key terms like “harmful” and “safeguard” are unexplained, but the press release goes on to say that the company will work toward “pinpointing many types of online harmful content, including toxicity and misinformation.”

Though Trust Lab’s stated mission is sympathetic and grounded in reality — online content moderation is genuinely broken — it’s difficult to imagine how aligning the startup with the CIA is compatible with Siegel’s goal of bringing greater transparency and integrity to internet governance. What would it mean, for instance, to incubate counter-misinformation technology for an agency with a vast history of perpetuating misinformation? Placing the company within the CIA’s tech pipeline also raises questions about Trust Lab’s view of who or what might be a “harmful” online, a nebulous concept that will no doubt mean something very different to the U.S. intelligence community than it means elsewhere in the internet-using world.

‘Pangeos’ is a turtle-shaped ‘terayacht,’ a giant floating city imagined by Italian firm Lazzarini Design Studio. While it only exists as a rendering for now, upon completion it could be the largest floating structure in the world. #yahoofinance.

Don’t Miss: Valley of Hype: The culture that built Elizabeth Holmes.
WATCH HERE:

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It has been built to be a self-sustaining floating city.

Designer Pierpaolo Lazzarini has proposed a concept for a bold and innovative terayacht which is a giant floating continent double the size of the Roman Colosseum, as first reported by DesignBoom last Friday. It’s called the Pangeos watercraft and it consists of a floating city that includes various hotels, shopping centers, parks, as well as ship and aircraft ports.

Continue reading “This terayacht concept is double the size of the Colosseum” »

O’Rourke soon started his own board, TacoLand, which was freewheeling and largely about punk music. “This was the counterculture: Maximum Rock & Roll[magazine], buying records by catalog you couldn’t find at record stores,” he said.

When he was younger, he was arrested on drunk-driving charges and played in a punk band. Now 46, he still skateboards.

Interestingly I played in Punk Rock bands in New Orleans, and used CDC’s BO2k to show my friend KJ that Southwest Research’s network was not safe. I also used it in Austin to show my friend Jacob Grimes’ boss that his network was not safe. It was a handy tool for hackers and security researchers back in the day. Texans know all too much about it. This gave Beto major cool points in my book. Hacktivismo still continues today with people like Johnny Long, and I would hope me too. I loved the Ninja Strike Force back in the day.

Continue reading “Beto O’Rourke’s secret membership in America’s oldest hacking group” »

So how should companies begin to think about ethical data management? What measures can they put in place to ensure that they are using consumer, patient, HR, facilities, and other forms of data appropriately across the value chain—from collection to analytics to insights?

We began to explore these questions by speaking with about a dozen global business leaders and data ethics experts. Through these conversations, we learned about some common data management traps that leaders and organizations can fall into, despite their best intentions. These traps include thinking that data ethics does not apply to your organization, that legal and compliance have data ethics covered, and that data scientists have all the answers—to say nothing of chasing short-term ROI at all costs and looking only at the data rather than their sources.

In this article, we explore these traps and suggest some potential ways to avoid them, such as adopting new standards for data management, rethinking governance models, and collaborating across disciplines and organizations. This list of potential challenges and remedies is not exhaustive; our research base was relatively small, and leaders could face many other obstacles, beyond our discussion here, to the ethical use of data. But what’s clear from our research is that data ethics needs both more and sustained attention from all members of the C-suite, including the CEO.

It is scheduled to be completed by 2050.

Tokyo’s Metropolitan Government plans to build a high-tech, sustainable city on reclaimed land in its bay area — Tokyo Bay eSG. Announced in April 2021, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government is clearing the decks for action to make the city carbon-neutral and better able to withstand future climate and health crises.

Continue reading “Tokyo builds an eco-friendly high-end technology city on the bay” »