snabelen.no er en av mange uavhengige Mastodon-servere du kan bruke for å delta i det desentraliserte sosiale nettet.
Ein norsk heimstad for den desentraliserte mikroblogge-plattformen.

Administrert av:

Serverstatistikk:

371
aktive brukere

#bigtech

70 innlegg57 deltakere0 innlegg i dag

Essential Reading ->

"One could argue that by repurposing creative works, AI has expanded the art multiplier: each dollar spent on the arts now yields its usual social return, as well as additional value derived from its incorporation into AI systems.

Yet, despite the value of their contributions, public funding for artists and creators has steadily declined. In the United Kingdom, for example, direct support from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to national arts bodies fell by 18% per person in real terms between 2009-10 and 2022-23. Over the same period, core funding for arts councils dropped by 18% in England, 22% in Scotland, 25% in Wales, and 66% in Northern Ireland. As generative AI continues to churn out synthetic content and displace human labor, that support must increase to reflect the realities of a changing creative economy.

Admittedly, with public finances under pressure and debt on the rise, this is hardly the time for unchecked government spending. Any additional funding would need to be financed responsibly. While a detailed policy blueprint is beyond the scope of this article, it’s worth noting that the enormous profits generated by major tech firms could be partially redirected to support the creative communities that power their models.

One way to achieve this would be to impose a levy on the gross revenues of the largest AI providers, collected by a national or multilateral agency. As the technology becomes increasingly embedded in daily life and production processes, the revenue flowing to AI firms is bound to grow – and so, too, will contributions to the fund. These resources could then be distributed by independent grant councils on multiyear cycles, ensuring that support reaches a wide range of disciplines and regions."

project-syndicate.org/onpoint/

Project SyndicateAI Should Help Fund Creative LaborMariana Mazzucato & Fausto Gernone show how today’s innovation economy exploits the very people it relies on and propose a fairer system.
Replied in thread

@Oleksii @Tutanota the real problem is EU institutions still using Google (or Microsoft, or any US #BigTech) services. That should be considered negligent behaviour for any institution in the EU (and everywhere outside the US - and even within the US people should, by now, have learnt that Google's not their friend).

Big Tech Companies are investing 10 times more into AI than they generate from it. At the same time, their solutions are crumbling from cybersecurity issues, and their employees are devastated by layoffs. The question is, where do these company valuations come from?
#bigtech #wallstreet

Alexandre Roure of the Computer & Communications Industry Association, whose members include many Big Tech groups, says the debate about blunt market access restrictions for non-EU tech companies “only distracts policymakers from the real task: finally delivering a functioning digital single market with clear, simple and practical rules”.

In private conversations, several Big Tech lobbyists and executives also express confidence in their ability to continue dominating the European market given the paucity of homegrown alternatives and the lack of urgency among many consumers.

by Barbara Moens for FT: archive.is/20250725082920/http via @Ruth_Mottram 🧵

"Since Mark Carney arrived on the political scene, he’s made AI adoption a cornerstone of his policy program, based on the view that the technology can serve as an essential tool in boosting productivity and addressing the government’s budget deficit. His federal election platform contained plans to increase funding for AI projects, create incentives for workers and businesses to adopt it, and cut “red tape” around the construction of infrastructure like data centres.

Carney’s excitement about AI isn’t new. In his 2021 book Values(s), he outlined his belief that AI, big data, and increases in computing power meant that “smarter machines are already replacing a broader range of human activities than before.” Now, when asked tough questions about government finances, military procurement, and the state of the economy, he often throws out AI as an obvious solution that doesn’t require further detail.

But there’s ample reason to be worried about the consequences of the government’s optimistic embrace of AI at any cost."

breachmedia.ca/mark-carneys-ai

"Alright, I’ve officially spent too much time reading Trump’s 28-page AI Action Plan, his three new AI executive orders, listening to his speech on the subject, and reading coverage of the event. I’ll put it bluntly: The vibes are bad. Worse than I expected, somehow.

Broadly speaking, the plan is that the Trump administration will help Silicon Valley put the pedal down on AI, delivering customers, data centers and power, as long as it operates in accordance with Trump’s ideological frameworks; i.e., as long as the AI is anti-woke.

More specifically, the plan aims to further deregulate the tech industry, penalize US states that pass AI laws, speed adoption of AI in the federal government and beyond, fast-track data center development, fast-track nuclear and fossil fuel power to run them, move to limit China’s influence in AI, and restrict speech in AI and the frameworks governing them by making terms like diversity, inclusion, misinformation, and climate change forbidden. There’s also a section on American workers that’s presented as protecting them from AI, but in reality seeks to give employers more power over them. It all portends a much darker future than I thought we’d see in this thing."

bloodinthemachine.com/p/trumps

Blood in the Machine · Trump's AI Action Plan is a blueprint for dystopiaAv Brian Merchant
#USA#Trump#AI

"[I]t appears that SoftBank may not be able to — or want to — proceed with any of these initiatives other than funding OpenAI's current round, and evidence suggests that even if it intends to, SoftBank may not be able to afford investing in OpenAI further.

I believe that SoftBank and OpenAI's relationship is an elaborate ruse, one created to give SoftBank the appearance of innovation, and OpenAI the appearance of a long-term partnership with a major financial institution that, from my research, is incapable of meeting the commitments it has made.

In simpler terms, OpenAI and SoftBank are bullshitting everyone.

I can find no tangible proof that SoftBank ever intended to seriously invest money in Stargate, and have evidence from its earnings calls that suggests SoftBank has no idea — or real strategy — behind its supposed $3-billion-a-year deployment of OpenAI software.

In fact, other than the $7.5 billion that SoftBank invested earlier in the year, I don't see a single dollar actually earmarked for anything to do with OpenAI at all.

SoftBank is allegedly going to send upwards of $20 billion to OpenAI by December 31 2025, and doesn't appear to have started any of the processes necessary to do so, or shown any signs it will. This is not a good situation for anybody involved."

wheresyoured.at/softbank-opena

Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At · Is SoftBank Still Backing OpenAI?Earlier in the week, the Wall Street Journal reported that SoftBank and OpenAI's "$500 billion" "AI Project" was now setting a "more modest goal of building a small data center by year-end." To quote: A $500 billion effort unveiled at the White House to supercharge the U.S.’s artificial-intelligence

"Consider AI Overviews, the algorithm-generated blurbs that often now appear front and centre when users ask questions. Fears that these would reduce the value of search-adjacent ads haven’t come to pass. On the contrary, Google says AI Overviews are driving 10 per cent more queries in searches where they appear and haven’t dented revenue. Paid clicks were up 4 per cent year on year, the company said in a call with analysts on Wednesday.

But as AI yields more, it costs more. Google’s capital expenditure on data centres and such trappings this year will now be about $85bn, versus its prior estimate of $75bn. That’s almost quadruple what the company spent in 2020, when AI was a glimmer in Silicon Valley’s eye. It’s also 22 per cent of the company’s expected revenue this year, according to LSEG, the highest annual level since 2006."

ft.com/content/7589393d-e562-4

Financial Times · Google earnings keep Silicon Valley’s AI flywheel spinningCapital expenditure on data centres and such trappings this year will now be about $85bn, versus its prior estimate of $75bn