PawsUp

A thought experiment in what we built without noticing.

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1263258/google-s-ai-search-features-pose-unacceptable-risk-to-children

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1263218/microsofts-secure-boot-has-been-broken-for-a-decade-and-no-one-noticed-until-now

The difference in 2126 isn’t technological, it’s political — a revolution in how people choose to use the tools in their hands. People see data differently now: not as the raw material of automated systems but as a collective resource leading to transparent, community-led decisions. Data no longer automatically equals power. Once a tool of inequality, it has become the ground where fairness is contested and defended.

This shift did not come from better machines. It came from people’s decisions, renewed each generation, because they refused to give up the future. Their actions remade the world and clarified a simple truth:

Technology never decided anything on its own. Humans did.

Data has always been more than numbers: the clay of memory, the account of tribute, the ledger of conquest — a currency of control and, sometimes, a language of solidarity. Over and over, its history has shown that how it is interpreted shapes how we live. Data itself has never been the threat; the danger has always come from the hands that bend it toward their own purposes and from the political and economic structures that grant those actors that power.

For too long, too many of us have treated data as fate — a resource to be mined, raw material for surveillance that we just accept, a colossus beyond human control. But history shows that no data regime lasts forever. Each one carries the marks of its builders and collapses under new crises, new demands, new claims to power. The corporate data regime that spans the globe today — and the states that make it possible — holds onto power only until we take that power back.

Data’s future is not set in stone. It does not hinge on the size of networks, the brilliance of code, or even the mountains of personal and public information that feed them. It never did. Human choices decide how these technologies work — and who they serve.

The next chapter for data and power will not be written by the algorithms. It will be written by us.

A new AI detection tool ​from Meta which the tech company previewed this week alongside the launch of its image-generation model, Muse ‌Image, failed to identify some of its own AI-generated images once they were cropped, according to a Reuters analysis.

In an analysis of 40 images generated using Muse Image, Reuters found the detection tool verified all of the original AI-generated images but failed to verify 55% of ⁠the same images after they were cropped to approximately one-third to one-half of their original size.

When asked about the results of the Reuters analysis of the detection tool, Meta noted that the tool was a preview. The company said the watermark is designed to remain intact after common edits, but that the signal may be lost if an image is heavily cropped.

Rival tech companies Google and OpenAI have cautioned that their own detection ‌tools ⁠are not foolproof against image-alteration techniques.

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1262675/12-states-sue-paramount-over-warner-takeover-say-merger-would-extinguish-competition

Emergency Motion to Immediately Block Warner Bros./Paramount Merger.

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1261812/26-employees-lawsuit-meta-used-ai-to-target-workers-who-took-time-off-work-using-their-p

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1262255/paint-on-tattoos-could-help-spot-heart-attacks-early-power-robotic-prosthetics-and-read

Microsoft is facing fresh criticism over its handling of user accounts after another customer claimed the company permanently deleted their Microsoft account.

Streamer Joshua Khane shared the situation on X, claiming Microsoft deleted both his account and associated OneDrive storage even after confirming he was the account’s owner and that it had been compromised.

In the post, he wrote: “Microsoft deleted my account and OneDrive!!?? After acknowledging that I’m the owner of the account and that it was compromised? 25 f****** years of data, thousands of euros spent on games?? My son’s baby pictures? gone.”

He continued: “All because Microsoft couldn’t bring back a compromised account?? One of the biggest companies ever couldn’t do that, so they just deleted that s*** like it was nothing?? F****** shame on you!!”

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1261694/new-york-city-enacts-first-us-ban-on-data-center-construction-for-1-year-in-the-first-st

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1261690/a-majority-of-americans-now-support-seizing-wealth-from-ai-industry

While 89% back mandatory safety disclosures, nearly 70% support requiring AI firms to transfer 50% of their stock to a public fund