Judge Allows Books for AI Training; Meta Oversight Board Says AI Moderation is Uneven; Bezos Reaches Out to Trump after Musk Falling Out; Uber in Atlanta-May be Waymo Self-Driver

Posted: June 26, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

It a ruling certain to upset authors and creators, a federal judge ruled that Artificial Intelligence companies don’t need permission from authors to train their large language models (LLMs) on legally acquired books. Arstechnica.com reports that Judge William Alsup made the ruling this week. It remains an open question with regards to pirated books. The judge did allude to the plaintiffs’ weak argument, and noted that authors would be able to raise new claims if they found evidence of infringing Claude outputs. That could change the fair use calculus, as it might in a case where a judge recently suggested that Meta’s AI products might be “obliterating” authors’ markets for works. The piracy case is still pending, so stay tuned…this isn’t the end yet.

Meta’s Oversight Board is calling out the firm’s approach to manipulated media as being ‘incoherent.’ According to engadget.com, the board has been urging Meta to update rules since a misleading video of Joe Biden went viral on Facebook. Meta’s software apparently does a reasonable job of spotting and labeling AI images, but isn’t as good with audio or video clips that have been manipulated. Meta has even told the board that it can’t automatically identify and apply labels to audio and video posts, only to “static images.” The board said the company should adopt a “clear process” for consistently labeling “identical or similar content” in situations when it adds a “high risk” label to a post. 

With Elon Musk out of Trump’s inner circle and the two at an uneasy truce after publicly throwing criticisms and insults at the other, Jeff Bezos is apparently trying to worm his way in…reaching out to Trump. Bezos, who is very publicly in the middle of his high dollar wedding festivities in Venice, which have cause protests there, is more privately reaching out to Trump. TechCrunch.com notes that Bezos has spoken to the president twice this month, and is angling for more government contracts for his space company Blue Origin. Look for Bezos to be much more under the radar and not try to ‘co-star’ or act like a co-president to Trump…which will likely get him a lot further with the president before an inevitable falling out. If he can get the administration to go with Blue Origin on more space spending and take that away from Musk’s SpaceX in the meantime, he will have gotten what he wants.

As of now, if you order an UberX, Comfort, or Comfort Electric ride in Atlanta…you may see a Waymo vehicle showing up instead of a live driver. 9to5google.com reports that Uber is saying customers will aways have an option to switch to a non-AV ride before a car is dispatched. If you do choose the Waymo self-driver, you can unlock the car, open the trunk, and start your journey, all from the Uber app. Uber says 24 hour customer service is available. The driverless Waymo cars will operate in a 65 square mile area of Atlanta. 

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.

Apple Working On Foldable iPhone; EU May Fine Meta for Pay or Consent; BS on AI ‘Hallucinations’; Google Won’t Depreciate 3rd Party Cookies in Chrome After All

Posted: July 23, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

We have just gotten a whiff of rumors now, but macrumors.com reports that in an exclusive out today from The Information, Apple is allegedly working on a foldable iPhone similar to the Galaxy Z Flip. Apple has been on the prowl now for months, looking for suppliers in Asia, and now is moving forward with the project. The Apple foldable is being code named V68. Up to now, Apple has had interest in a folding iPhone, but hasn’t been happy with the crease where the screen folds. We’ll see if they are able to overcome this, or if we will see a folding iPhone by 2026. 

The European Union is threatening Meta for saying Facebook is free in the EU. According to theverge.com, the EU has told Meta that their ‘pay or consent’ model for Facebook and Instagram may violate consumer protection laws. They have given Meta until September 1st to propose changes to its model which they call ‘misleading’ and ‘confusing’ for users. If Meta doesn’t hit the deadline, it gets hit with big fines. Meta has responded with a statement saying “Subscriptions as an alternative to advertising are a well-established business model across many industries. Subscription for no ads follows the direction of the highest court in Europe and we are confident it complies with European regulation.”

Three lecturers at University of Glasgow in Scotland have published a paper in the journal of Ethics and Information Technology, and have also covered it in a Scientific American article. The paper is titled ‘ChatGPT is Bullshit.’ After laughing and agreeing, I read further. The professors say there are actually bullshit distinctions…there’s general bullshit, hard bullshit, and soft bullshit. Cnet.com says the scholars argue that calling AI lies hallucinations is not accurate, saying ”Because these programs cannot themselves be concerned with truth, and because they are designed to produce text that looks truth-apt without any actual concern for truth, it seems appropriate to call their outputs bullshit. We think this is worth paying attention to.” They go on to write “Among philosophers, ‘bullshit’ has a specialist meaning, one popularized by the late American philosopher Harry Frankfurt. When someone bullshits, they’re not telling the truth, but they’re also not really lying. What characterizes the bullshitter, Frankfurt said, is that they just don’t care whether what they say is true. ChatGPT and its peers cannot care, and they are instead, in a technical sense, bullshit machines.” 

Google has now given up on plans to depreciate third party cookies on Chrome. According to androidauthority.com, the little trackers that make targeted ads possible will be sticking around. Google had said back in 2020 they would revise Chrome’s user privacy, but after several delays, they have apparently killed the whole idea. Money talks. 

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.