alxfsl - Tumblr blog

[alxfsl]

What if when he said this he was also thinking of breaking the curse

[alxfsl]

“When people of colour are expected to educate white people as to their humanity, when women are expected to educate men, lesbians and gay men are expected to educate the heterosexual world, the oppressors maintain their position and evade their responsibility for their own actions.”

— Audre Lorde (via stories-yet-to-be-written)

[alxfsl]

it's here https://www.tumblr.com/settings/blog

Hi, Tumblr. It’s Tumblr. We’re working on some things that we want to share with you. 

AI companies are acquiring content across the internet for a variety of purposes in all sorts of ways. There are currently very few regulations giving individuals control over how their content is used by AI platforms. Proposed regulations around the world, like the European Union’s AI Act, would give individuals more control over whether and how their content is utilized by this emerging technology. We support this right regardless of geographic location, so we’re releasing a toggle to opt out of sharing content from your public blogs with third parties, including AI platforms that use this content for model training. We’re also working with partners to ensure you have as much control as possible regarding what content is used.

Here are the important details:

We already discourage AI crawlers from gathering content from Tumblr and will continue to do so, save for those with which we partner. 

We want to represent all of you on Tumblr and ensure that protections are in place for how your content is used. We are committed to making sure our partners respect those decisions.

To opt out of sharing your public blogs’ content with third parties, visit each of your public blogs’ blog settings via the web interface and toggle on the “Prevent third-party sharing” option. 

For instructions on how to opt out using the latest version of the app, please visit this Help Center doc. 

Please note: If you’ve already chosen to discourage search crawling of your blog in your settings, we’ve automatically enabled the “Prevent third-party sharing” option.

If you have concerns, please read through the Help Center doc linked above and contact us via Support if you still have questions.

[alxfsl]

OPT-IN, the ethical approach to any third-party sharing should always be OPT-IN. Opt-out means that until I don't take action, you feel entitled to sell my content without my permission.

I trusted Tumblr. And you have just decided to jump on the unethical bandwagon.

Hi, Tumblr. It’s Tumblr. We’re working on some things that we want to share with you. 

AI companies are acquiring content across the internet for a variety of purposes in all sorts of ways. There are currently very few regulations giving individuals control over how their content is used by AI platforms. Proposed regulations around the world, like the European Union’s AI Act, would give individuals more control over whether and how their content is utilized by this emerging technology. We support this right regardless of geographic location, so we’re releasing a toggle to opt out of sharing content from your public blogs with third parties, including AI platforms that use this content for model training. We’re also working with partners to ensure you have as much control as possible regarding what content is used.

Here are the important details:

We already discourage AI crawlers from gathering content from Tumblr and will continue to do so, save for those with which we partner. 

We want to represent all of you on Tumblr and ensure that protections are in place for how your content is used. We are committed to making sure our partners respect those decisions.

To opt out of sharing your public blogs’ content with third parties, visit each of your public blogs’ blog settings via the web interface and toggle on the “Prevent third-party sharing” option. 

For instructions on how to opt out using the latest version of the app, please visit this Help Center doc. 

Please note: If you’ve already chosen to discourage search crawling of your blog in your settings, we’ve automatically enabled the “Prevent third-party sharing” option.

If you have concerns, please read through the Help Center doc linked above and contact us via Support if you still have questions.

[alxfsl]

Repeat with me: it should be OPT-IN. They make it opt-out because they know that most won't opt-in, and are counting with you not checking the 'opt-out' option so that they can keep selling your content, and basically, as per the list above, everything else on Tumblr.

Tumblr and Wordpress are preparing to sell user data to Midjourney and OpenAI, according to a source with internal knowledge about the deals and internal documentation referring to the deals. 

The exact types of data from each platform going to each company are not spelled out in documentation we’ve reviewed, but internal communications reviewed by 404 Media make clear that deals between Automattic, the platforms’ parent company, and OpenAI and Midjourney are imminent.

The internal documentation details a messy and controversial process within Tumblr itself. One internal post made by Cyle Gage, a product manager at Tumblr, states that a query made to prepare data for OpenAI and Midjourney compiled a huge number of user posts that it wasn’t supposed to. It is not clear from Gage’s post whether this data has already been sent to OpenAI and Midjourney, or whether Gage was detailing a process for scrubbing the data before it was to be sent. 

Gage wrote:

“the way the data was queried for the initial data dump to Midjourney/OpenAI means we compiled a list of all tumblr’s public post content between 2014 and 2023, but also unfortunately it included, and should not have included:

private posts on public blogs

posts on deleted or suspended blogs

unanswered asks (normally these are not public until they’re answered)

private answers (these only show up to the receiver and are not public)

posts that are marked ‘explicit’ / NSFW / ‘mature’ by our more modern standards (this may not be a big deal, I don’t know)

content from premium partner blogs (special brand blogs like Apple’s former music blog, for example, who spent money with us on an ad campaign) that may have creative that doesn’t belong to us, and we don’t have the rights to share with this-parties; this one is kinda unknown to me, what deals are in place historically and what they should prevent us from doing.”

Gage’s post makes clear that engineers are working on compiling a list of post IDs that should not have been included, and that password-protected posts, DMs, and media flagged as CSAM and other community guidelines violations were not included.

Automattic plans to launch a new setting on Wednesday that will allow users to opt-out of data sharing with third parties, including AI companies, according to the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, and internal documents. A new FAQ section we reviewed is titled “What happens when you opt out?” states that “If you opt out from the start, we will block crawlers from accessing your content by adding your site on a disallowed list. If you change your mind later, we also plan to update any partners about people who newly opt-out and ask that their content be removed from past sources and future training.” 

404 Media has asked Automattic how it accidentally compiled data that it shouldn’t share, and whether any of that content was shared with OpenAI, but did not immediately hear back from the company. 404 Media asked Automattic about an imminent deal with Midjourney last week but did not hear back then, either.

Another internal document shows that, on February 23, an employee asked in a staff-only thread, “Do we have assurances that if a user opts out of their data being shared with third parties that our existing data partners will be notified of such a change and remove their data?”

Andrew Spittle, Automattic’s head of AI replied: “We will notify existing partners on a regular basis about anyone who's opted out since the last time we provided a list. I want this to be an ongoing process where we regularly advocate for past content to be excluded based on current preferences. We will ask that content be deleted and removed from any future training runs. I believe partners will honor this based on our conversations with them to this point. I don't think they gain much overall by retaining it.” Automattic did not respond to a question from 404 Media about whether it could guarantee that people who opt out will have their data deleted retroactively.

News about a deal between Tumblr and Midjourney has been rumored and speculated about on Tumblr for the last week. Someone claiming to be a former Tumblr employee announced in a Tumblr blog post that the platform was working on a deal with Midjourney, and the rumor made it onto Blind, an app for verified employees of companies to anonymously discuss their jobs. 404 Media has seen the Blind posts, in which what seems like an Automattic employee says, “I'm not sure why some of you are getting worked up or worried about this. It's totally legal, and sharing it publicly is perfectly fine since it's right there in the terms & conditions. So, go ahead and spread the word as much as you can with your friends and tech journalists, it's totally fine.”

Separately, 404 Media viewed a public, now-deleted post by Gage, the product manager, where he said that he was deleting all of his images off of Tumblr, and would be putting them on his personal website. A still-live post says, “i've deleted my photography from tumblr and will be moving it slowly but surely over to cylegage.com, which i'm building into a photography portfolio that i can control end-to-end.” At one point last week, his personal website had a specific note stating that he did not consent to AI scraping of his images. Gage’s original post has been deleted, and his website is now a blank page that just reads “Cyle.” Gage did not respond to a request for comment from 404 Media. 

Several online platforms have made similar deals with AI companies recently, including Reddit, which entered into an AI content licensing deal with Google and said in its SEC filing last week that it’s “in the early stages of monetizing [its] user base” by training AI on users’ posts. Last year, Shutterstock signed a six year deal with OpenAI to provide training data.

OpenAI and Midjourney did not respond to requests for comment. 

[alxfsl]

Apparently Matt is not trustworthy as I thought

[alxfsl]

Zeno´s betrayal

I loved it! Honestly! It makes so much sense regarding his desperation we have seen in Zeno´s past.

Honestly I consider the emotional tension between characters that consider their point of view correct, even though they know that they have to sacrifice...important bonds to people they hold dear, the most fascinating points in a story.

This was the case with Soo Won, who - just like Zeno - was more a victim of circumstances that stepped up, because he understood the situation and the dangers they would face better than the adults. Soo Won wished for revenge, yet also cared greatly for the wellbeing of the people living inside his country and he knew that Yona and Hak would become his enemies the moment he would kill the king....

And Zeno? Who understands the misery of the dragon warriors better than the person that has to suffer loneliness for 2000 years. And again and again has to witness the cruelty of the people, the pain of being an outcast that accompanies most of the dragon warriors their whole life?...that is often a senseless life as the person they need to protect doesn´t even appear.

And then he knows...after Yona´s death...there will be another period, where he has to suffer loneliness...Zeno´s mind is already heavily damaged and he is - actually nearly breaking down.

That person was a naive, sweet boy who had to endure such an immense amount of pain only because he wanted to create a better world...Like honestly...That was Zeno´s wish...how horrible he had to pay for this naive thought.

Can you really blame him? Would you live for another 2000 years of loneliness, while having to face the pain of people you care about? Zeno has loved his comrades and the descendants of his comrades...after all.

[alxfsl]

Just re-read because I forgot how beautiful was this story.

[alxfsl]

“There is no doubt that solitude is a challenge and to maintain balance within it a precarious business. But I must not forget that, for me, being with people or even with one beloved person for any length of time without solitude is even worse. I lose my center. I feel dispersed, scattered, in pieces. I must have time alone in which to mull over my encounter, and to extract its juice, its essence, to understand what has really happened to me as a consequence of it.” ― May Sarton, Journal of a Solitude

[alxfsl]

[alxfsl]

Sketchy Notes 2024: Digital Sketchbook #2 'Grandma memories: the black dress' I haven't been publishing my weeknotes yet because I am changing and restructuring my blog, but as I do it in my limited spare time (yes, the PhD is to blame), it still need some work. Today, however, it's a special day for me, and I really wanted to share it. A sketchy note to my grandma, who taught me the love for craft and learning, and would have turned 100 today:

https:://alxfsl.com/sketchy-notes/crafty-memories-and-birthday-wishes Software: Affinity Photo Device: Surface Laptop

[alxfsl]

Sketchy Notes 2024: Digital Sketchbook #1 'Interviews'

Software: Affinity Photo Device: Surface Laptop

[alxfsl]

It's Christmas Eve and as tradition commands, I'm already in the kitchen preparing homemade tortellini for tonight's dinner. With war ravaging in Palestine, I'm not really in the mood for celebrating, and wasn't sure if posting this drawing. Then I just realised: have you notice the colour of Christmas are the same of the Palestine's flag? So well, I guess there's only one great wish for these Christmas holidays: ceasefire now!

[alxfsl]

I WILL JOURNAL MY WAY OUTTA THIS PROBLEM

[alxfsl]

Trying to build some writing habits here. But I'm seriously thinking making them more visuals starting with the new year. In the meantime, enjoy some notes from last week

[alxfsl]

damn ok lake superior

[alxfsl]