#Banking AI Use Cases
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Use Cases of Artificial Intelligence in the Banking Sector
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming the banking sector by enhancing operational efficiency and customer experiences. AI-powered chatbots improve customer support, while fraud detection systems secure transactions in real time. Predictive analytics helps banks understand customer behavior and offer personalized services. Additionally, AI streamlines loan processing and credit scoring, ensuring faster approvals. By integrating AI, banks can drive innovation and stay competitive.
USM Business Systems stands out as the best mobile app development company, delivering AI-driven solutions tailored for the banking sector.
USM Business Systems
Services:
Mobile app development
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
Android app development
RPA
Big data
HR Management
Workforce Management
IoT
IOS App Development
Cloud Migration
#AI in Banking Sector#Banking AI Use Cases#Artificial Intelligence in Banking#AI for Fraud Detection#Smart Banking Solutions#AI-Driven Banking Services#Banking Technology Innovations#AI for Financial Security#AI-Powered Banking Apps#AI in Financial Services
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SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES AND TOURISM DEVELOPMENT AT THE NATIONAL MUSEUM IBADAN AS A STUDY AREA
SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES AND TOURISM DEVELOPMENT AT THE NATIONAL MUSEUM IBADAN AS A STUDY AREA ABSTRACT This research explores the role of sustainable practices in tourism development, with a focus on the National Museum Ibadan, Nigeria. The study investigates the current sustainable practices at the museum, their impact on tourism development, the challenges faced in integrating sustainability, and…
#ai ml project topics#ai project topics for final year#any project topics#bank related project topics#banking related topics for project#bba 5th sem project topics#be project topics for computer engineering#best marketing project topics#best marketing topics for project#best research project topics#best topics for project report#bible project topics#biblical and theological project topics#brand awareness project topics#business ethics project topics#business research project topics#case study topics for project management#climate change project topics#computer science project topics in python#computer science project topics on web design#dbms mini project topics using sql#dbms project topics using sql#design thinking project topics#diversity project topics#easy marketing topics for project#examples of project proposal topics#finance internship project topics for mba#financial risk management project topics#good research project topics#good science project topics
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Unlocking the Future: AI Revolutionizing Finance Industry
Welcome to Financial Life, where we learn about finance and technology. In our latest video, we uncover the revolutionary impact of artificial intelligence on the financial landscape. So, let's watch the full video and learn about AI Revolutionizing Finance Industry.
👉 Subscribe to my channel to stay tuned: https://bit.ly/4aXYMxD
In today's video, we discover how Artificial Intelligence is revolutionizing the finance industry. Let's watch the entire video and learn about the impact of AI on financial services and how it is shaping the future of the industry. Unlock the potential of AI in finance with this informative video!
Explore the cutting-edge fusion of finance and technology in our latest video, 'Unlocking the Future: How AI is Revolutionizing Finance.' Delve into the transformative power of artificial intelligence (AI) as it reshapes the financial landscape, from personalized banking experiences to lightning-fast stock trading insights.
Discover how AI is revolutionizing the finance industry in this insightful video. Learn how artificial intelligence is transforming the way financial institutions operate and make decisions.
Join us on this journey as we uncover the mind-bending potential of AI and its profound impact on the way we interact with money and investments. Don't forget to like, share, and subscribe for more content on the intersection of technology and finance.
#ai in personal finance#finance#ai revolutionizing finance industry#artificial intelligence#ai in finance#ai use case in finance#ai applications in finance#mind-blowing ai uses in finance#ai in finance and banking#using ai in finance#Youtube
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the more i look into webdev and graphic design the more i run into AI bros and people going "ooo it's so easy, AI can do that for you" and it's so. nnnnnnn
#kuu.txt#for someone with a compsci degree my hatred for “generative” AIs is very strong#you expect me to believe AI can code better and more efficiently in every use case?#and that it can also create better pictures than an actual human being...? yeah no#like i'm sorry if you need images for your website there are image banks online#you can comm an artist or a photographer#but nooo you want things that are custom and cheap#and then you get people with 6 fingers#i wanna fight the people who believe this#artists in my country aren't able to live from their work but “ai is so good wow”
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#ai in finance#ai in banking and finance#ai applications in finance#ai in finance industry#future of ai in finance#ai use cases in finance#applications of ai in finance#use of ai in finance#AI in Investment Strategies#ai in investment management#ai in investment banking
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Americans, our democracy is under threat.

Do you reject fascism and oppose the Trump-Musk coup? Want to do something, but aren’t sure what you can do to make a difference? Keep reading for ways big and small you can fight back:
Attend a Protest New to protesting? Here’s a primer for first-time protesters and a schedule of upcoming national days of action:
Mar 1st and ongoing (Tesla Takedown) Website | Find an event
Mar 4th (50501: 50 protests, 50 states) Website | Find an event
Mar 7th (Stand up for Science) Website | Find an event
Mar 8th (Women’s March) Website | Find an event
Search for future protests at /r/ProtestFinderUSA and join the mailing list of grassroots organizations like Indivisible to be alerted to future actions.
Put Pressure on Congress Want your elected officials to stand up to Trump-Musk and push back against the unconstitutional executive orders, disastrous DOGE cuts, and illegal funding freezes? Already calling your Reps and Senators daily using 5calls.org?
Then it’s time to escalate to in-person action. Visit their websites, join their mailing lists, follow their socials, and call their offices to find out when the next local event will be and make your voice heard.
Applying pressure to congress works, and we are already seeing the results of constituent push back. House Democrats recently voted as a unified block against the Trump-sponsored billionaire tax cuts, with members breaking maternity leave and leaving the hospital to fly back to Washington just to cast their votes. And on the Republican side, negative town hall blowback has the GOP running scared.
If your congressperson is hiding from you, stage a protest event and put their cowardice on blast. For more information on how to implement these tactics, see the Indivisible congressional recess toolkit.
If your congressperson is already fighting the good fight, then make sure to thank them and provide encouragement to continue opposing the budget cuts. Courage is contagious, and vocal public support will help spur congress to fight that much harder.
And finally, regardless of where you live, you can sign up to phone bank and reach out to voters in red congressional districts.
Get Out the Vote Did you know there are Special Elections as soon as April 1st that could flip control of the House back to Democrats? We simply cannot wait for the 2026 midterms, we must take action now! You can help get out the vote for Gay Valimont (FL-1), Joshua Weil (FL-6), and Blake Gendebien (NY-21).
In addition, the Muskrat is spending millions to buy the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Phone bank or write letters to keep a MAGA extremist off the high court and protect Wisconsin elections from future gerrymandering.
Fight the Broligarchy If you own TSLA stock, or *gasp* an actual Tesla vehicle, drop it like a scorching case of herpes, then join the picket line at your nearest Tesla showroom.
On socials, delete your Nazi-infested X and Meta (Facebook, IG, Threads) accounts and join the open source BlueSky. If you must remain on Meta, at minimum change your account settings so Fuckerberg can’t profit from your data.
Stop using Google search/Chrome and install privacy-focused alternatives like DuckDuckGo or Firefox. As a bonus, in the DuckDuckGo browser you can permanently hide AI garbage from your search results.
Show your monetary support for companies that have renewed their commitment to DEI programs (like Costco and Apple) and boycott those who have not (like Target and Amazon). Also look up how other corporations score on the democracy scale and adjust your spending accordingly.
And last, but not least, pledge to join the General Strike!
Stay Informed Corporate media has capitulated to Trump. From the cancellation of minority-hosted shows on MSNBC to the Bezos takeover of the Washington Post editorial pages, MSM cannot be relied upon to provide unbiased coverage of the Trump-Musk regime.
Support independent journalists and media and follow AltGov accounts on Bluesky to stay informed as to what is actually going on in Washington.
Get to Know your Community Authoritarians want you to feel helpless and isolated because they know we the people vastly outnumber them. Get to know your neighbors and join a group/team/club - anything that gets you interacting with your local community whether it is political or not.
Under Trump-Musk, federal programs like SNAP, Medicaid, Medicare, and even Social Security are in danger. We will need to increasingly rely on our own communities to have our backs. Visit mutualaidhub.org to locate resources and learn how to start your own network.
And finally, remember that resistance is a marathon, not a sprint. So be sure to stop doomscrolling and simply enjoy life as AOC reminds us:

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Ramallah, May 13, 2024—Israeli forces used three Palestinian boys as human shields in the northern occupied West Bank last week.Karam, 13, Mohammad, 12, and Ibrahim, 14, were used as human shields by Israeli forces in separate incidents during an Israeli military incursion into Tulkarem refugee camp on May 6, according to documentation collected by Defense for Children International - Palestine. In all three incidents, armed Israeli soldiers forced the boys to walk in front of them as soldiers searched Palestinian homes and neighborhoods in Tulkarem refugee camp, and in two cases, Israeli forces fired weapons positioned on the boys’ shoulders. “International law is explicit and absolutely prohibits the use of children as human shields by armed forces or armed groups," said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at DCIP. “Israeli forces intentionally putting a child in grave danger in order to shield themselves constitutes a war crime.” Around 30 Israeli soldiers entered 13-year-old Karam’s home on the morning of May 6, located on the third floor of an apartment building. Israeli forces isolated Karam’s family in one room and forced Karam to walk in front of them, open the doors to each room, and enter it before them. Then, Israeli forces moved Karam and his family to the fourth floor of the building, where the rest of the building’s residents were held.Israeli forces then took Karam to the building��s staircase, where they were accompanied by a “huge military dog,” as Karam told DCIP. While they were walking, one soldier placed his rifle on Karam’s right shoulder and fired two shots toward an apartment in the building. "I was crying and shaking in fear, and whenever I begged the soldiers to stop, they would scream at me and order me to be silent," Karam said."After the soldiers searched the apartments of the building that I was entering before them, I asked them while crying where they were taking me. One of them answered me in Arabic that they would take me with them to show them the way, in addition to opening the doors of the neighboring houses and entering before they did." When Karam and the Israeli soldiers arrived at the first floor of the building, where his grandmother lives, she began yelling at them and asking them to release him, so they returned him to the fourth floor. Karam’s grandmother was unable to climb the stairs to the fourth floor due to her age and health and Israeli forces permitted her to stay on the first floor. "While we were climbing up the stairs, three soldiers assaulted me severely with black sticks that they had. They beat me on my lower limbs and my back for about five minutes, while they were telling me that I was a terrorist. When I reached the fourth floor, I was exhausted and could not stand as a result of the beating and fear. I was kept with the residents of the building until around 7 p.m., during which the soldiers did not allow us to eat anything," Karam told DCIP.
12-year-old Mohammad told DCIP that his family decided to go to their relatives' house in Tulkarem refugee camp after they heard that Israeli forces had besieged the camp so they would not be alone. Their relatives' house was an apartment located on the second story of a residential building. Around 8 a.m. on May 6, Israeli soldiers entered the apartment and ordered everyone to leave, and when they saw Mohammad, they took him away from his family, despite his mother's pleas and desperate attempts to free him. "I was left alone with the soldiers after they ordered my mother and siblings to go up to the fourth floor of the building. I started crying and shaking in fear because I did not know what they would do to me. They were armed, masked, and had frightening appearances. They had a huge military dog that made terrifying sounds," Mohammad told DCIP. "After that, the soldiers told me to knock on the doors of the apartments in the building, while they were standing behind me at a fairly short distance, and to ask the residents to come out, and this is what I did. When we reached the door of one of the apartments, there was no one inside, so the soldiers blew up the door and forced me to go inside alone and check and search it. After I told them that it was empty, they entered it, while I remained held by one of the soldiers at the door," Mohammad added. "While I was held in the hallway, the soldier guarding me assaulted me with a wooden stick for about 10 minutes. He hit me on my head and back. After the soldiers left the apartment, they took me to the fourth floor, during which one of them hit me with his hands on my head, and I fell on my face. One soldier also put his rifle on my shoulder and fired several bullets at the ceiling of the staircase. They kept me with them for about two hours, during which I was crying out of fear, terror, and pain. I begged them a lot to no avail. When we reached the fourth floor, I was searched before I was held with the rest of the building's residents until about 7 p.m., without being allowed to have anything to eat,” Mohammad said.
14-year-old Ibrahim was in his family’s home in Tulkarem refugee camp around 9:30 a.m. on May 6 when Israeli soldiers entered and searched their house. “A number of soldiers took me to one of the rooms and began interrogating me about the whereabouts of wanted men. When I told them that I did not know anything, one of them threatened me in Arabic and said that he would shoot me if I did talk, after which he slapped me and kicked me for a few minutes. Then, my hands were cuffed behind my back with a plastic tie, and I was taken outside and forced to walk in front of the soldiers,” Ibrahim told DCIP. “I was trembling because of intense fear and terror,” Ibrahim said. “At first, I thought they wanted to arrest me, but they told me to walk in front of them in the alleys of the Sawalma neighborhood in the camp. They would hide in the alleys and tell me to see if there was anyone around. After that, they untied my hands, and whenever we passed a house or building, they would instruct me to enter and ask the residents to come out. Then they would raid those houses and tell me to open the doors into different rooms.” After about two hours, Ibrahim was taken to one of the houses in the camp and held there with the residents until Israeli forces withdrew from Tulkarem refugee camp.
Since 2000, DCIP has documented 34 cases involving Palestinian children being used as human shields by the Israeli army. Last year, Israeli forces used four young children in Aqbat Jabr refugee camp, near Jericho in the occupied West Bank, as human shields.
#yemen#jerusalem#tel aviv#current events#palestine#free palestine#gaza#free gaza#news on gaza#palestine news#news update#war news#war on gaza#children of palestine#tulkarem#tulkarm#palestine genocide#war crimes#long post#child abuse
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Assaf Baciu, Co-Founder & President of Persado – Interview Series
New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/assaf-baciu-co-founder-president-of-persado-interview-series/
Assaf Baciu, Co-Founder & President of Persado – Interview Series
Assaf Baciu has nearly two decades of experience shaping enterprise strategy and product direction for market-leading SaaS organizations. As co-founder and President of Persado, he drives the progression and advancements of Persado’s growing product portfolio and oversees the company’s customer onboarding, campaign delivery management, Center of Enablement programs, and technical services.
Persado offers a Motivation AI platform designed to enable personalized communications at scale, encouraging individuals to engage and take action. Several of the world’s largest brands, such as Ally Bank, Dropbox, JPMorgan Chase, Marks & Spencer, and Verizon, use Persado’s platform to create highly personalized communications. According to the company, the top 30 Persado customers have collectively generated over $4.25 billion in additional revenue through the use of the platform.
Can you share the story behind the founding of Persado and how your previous experiences influenced its creation?
My co-founder, Alex Vratskides, and I founded Persado 12 years ago. We were at Upstream, and became fascinated with how text message response rates changed with even minor tweaks in the language. Given that the number of characters is limited for SMS, we started thinking about text messages as a mathematical problem that has some finite number of alternative messages, and with the right algorithm we could find the optimal ones. We evaluated some approaches and saw that there is a way…and the rest is history.
Persado’s Motivation AI Platform is highlighted for its ability to personalize marketing content. Can you explain how the platform uses generative AI to understand and leverage customer motivation?
GenAI, on its own, via a foundation model, cannot motivate systematically. It’s a component with a stack of data, machine learning, and a response feedback loop.
Persado has been generating and optimizing language using various approaches for over 10 years. We’ve accumulated a unique dataset from one million A/B tests from messages, across industries, designed to connect with consumers and motivate action at any stage. We leverage this data to finetune a foundation model with Supervised Fine Tuning (SFT) and Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF). We’ve also adapted a second transformer model to be able to predict message performance based on language parameters. On top of that, our machine learning (ML) algorithms understand—in real time—which language elements resonate with a given individual, then adjust the copy within the communication to that person or segment.
By continuously learning the most effective combination of message elements for each consumer, and dynamically creating the most engaging content, Persado-generated content is able to outperform human and other AI-generated copy 96% of the time.
How does Persado’s Motivation AI Platform differentiate itself from other generative AI tools in terms of driving business results?
Persado is unique on many fronts.
Purpose-Built – Persado has the only models specifically trained and curated with 10 billion tokens of marketing enterprise communication, coupled with behavioral data.
Emotionally Intelligent – Our AI is designed to understand and generate language that elicits specific emotional responses from target audiences. This capability is grounded in advanced ML models trained on extensive linguistic and psychological data.
Precision – Our platform leverages the most powerful model architectures and is trained with statistically valid customer behavior data. We have executed the equivalent of more than 1M A/B tests, which enables us to generate the specific words, phrases, emotions, and stories that drive incremental impact 96% of time.
Knowledge Graph – Persado developed a representation of key concepts expressed via language and their relationship with the market vertical, type of communications, customer lifecycle journey, and channels. We use advanced NLP techniques to classify, identify, and make use of these concepts (emotions, narratives, structure of message, voice, and more) to generate and personalize better performing messages.
Predictive – We use predictive analytics to forecast the performance of different messages, empowering marketers to create content with a high probability of success. This predictive power is unique and offers customers a great competitive edge.
What are some of the key capabilities that Persado’s AI platform offers to ensure a seamless integration with existing marketing technologies?
Our platform securely integrates with a brand’s existing tech stack to simplify marketing content generation so brands can easily generate the highest-performing digital marketing messaging they need to boost results. We combine custom, non-PII user attributes, and Persado’s award-winning language generation models to more effectively communicate with every customer across channels, at any stage of their journey.
Motivation AI is compatible with over 40 martech solutions to ensure each brand can use their existing martech stack to generate the most relevant, personalized outputs for their customers.
Content Delivery Platforms – Our processes and tech enablers are designed to streamline the configuration of Persado-generated content in your deployment platform
Customer Data Platforms – The platform facilitates a regular update of non-PII data with Persado as an input for relevant and personalized content generation
Analytics Platforms – We provide processes and data flows to seamlessly integrate results and reporting back into the Persado platform, supporting continuous learning and enhancing machine learning capabilities
Can you describe the process of onboarding a new client and how Persado’s AI helps in their campaign management and delivery?
Prior to formal onboarding, Persado ingests all relevant brand voice materials from its clients, such as style guidelines, information on segments, language restrictions, and more. This trains our model on how to write for a business’s particular brand on day one. We hit the ground running with a partnership kickoff to define KPIs and campaign focus areas as well as to educate users on Persado Portal, our centralized platform where all content is generated, approved, and deployed. In addition to hosting weekly check-ins during onboarding, we close out onboarding with an executive business review summarizing performance thus far and next steps.
Our teams help brands get the tone or brand voice correct across channels by grounding all of their outputs in emotion—a key element of language that motivates customers to engage. By leaning into the emotions and narratives most likely to resonate with each customer, brands can create more effective, revenue-driving campaigns while staying true to the brand’s values.
Scalability is one of the biggest ways we’re able to help businesses with their campaigns. Personalization is a key tactic for marketers to reach key audiences and attract new customers. However, true personalization is challenging to achieve at scale. Using Persado’s knowledge base of 1.5 billion real customer interactions, we help enterprises uncover which versions of a message resonate best with their customers, so they can personalize these messages in real-time at each stage of the customer journey.
You’ve worked with top banks and card issuers, driving significant revenue increases. Could you provide specific examples of how Persado’s AI has enhanced marketing performance for these clients?
Yes, while we work with many industries, we have deep experience working with 8 of the 10 largest U.S. banks and 6 of the 7 top credit card issuers. Here are a few examples of impact:
Chase has used Persado to generate and optimize marketing messages for consumers in its Card and Mortgage businesses. They have been using Persado since 2019 to write personalized market copy by analyzing massive datasets of tagged words and phrases. In pilot tests run by Chase, Persado AI-generated ad copy delivered click-through rates up to 450% higher than copy created by humans alone.
Ally Bank uses Persado to enhance cross-sell opportunities. Our Motivation AI platform has helped Ally understand which marketing communications resonate well with their customers across key channels like email and web. By knowing the do’s and don’ts related to targeted conversations with customers, the product marketing and CRM team are able to deliver a better CX and unlock double-digit improvement on KPIs like clicks and actual conversions.
How does Persado’s AI ensure that generated messages remain on-brand and comply with industry regulations, particularly for highly regulated sectors like finance?
As you noted, because sectors like financial services are highly regulated, it can be challenging to implement AI across business functions. In financial services and beyond, brand and legal compliance are a major piece of the AI puzzle. Although compliance and establishing AI governance can seem daunting, whether you’re part of a large enterprise or small business, it shouldn’t be a reason to not implement AI, or at least test it out.
To ensure copy is aligned with best practices and regulations, we ingest compliance and brand guidelines into Persado’s model. Our built-in tools allow for easy compliance and brand review, feedback, and approval before deployment.
We adjust our approach to help financial services brands remain compliant. While we can’t target specific demographics, such as age, for personalized marketing in financial services, we create high-performing narratives or emotional tones that resonate overall. From there, we observe which messages resonate with a bank or card issuer’s different segments.
What are some common challenges businesses face when trying to prove the value of AI, and how does Persado address these challenges?
There is a “opportunity lost” cost of enterprise inaction. A few changes in word choice can mean the difference between a completed transaction, application or enrollment and money being left on the table.
Persado’s impact is easily measured. We integrate with analytics systems and continuously evaluate success via automated A/B tests that show the performance of our more engaging, personalized content, vs what the brand initially created. And, we measure the difference via the conversion funnel. On average, Persado increases content performance 43%, compared to humans alone or another AI solution.
Our purpose-built AI is not only impactful, but easy to measure, which empowers business leaders to make better decisions about the technology investment—and quickly prove its value.
Given the rapid advancements in generative AI, what steps is Persado taking to stay ahead of the curve and maintain its industry leadership?
We’ve been leaders in AI for over a decade; long before it became popular following the launch of ChatGPT. As GenAI curiosity has increased across industries, we’ve been excited to bring and expand our marketing-specific capabilities among large enterprises needing a proven solution for creating high-performing, compliant messages at scale. We do this across channels as well: email, websites, social media, SMS/push notifications, and even IVR.
Our global product and customer success teams are continually listening to our customers—who are among some of the earliest, and most successful adopters of AI–and shaping our roadmap to help them deliver a stellar digital customer experience that also drives increased sales, loan application completions, on-time, payments, or other actions.
For example, we recently released new pre-built audience segments to speed personalized content generation for marketers across financial services, retail, and travel. This feature helps brands increase engagement with specific groups of customers by making it even easier and faster to generate marketing content that will resonate with customers.
What is your vision for the future of marketing and AI?
The possibilities for AI in marketing are only expanding. AI can serve as a helpful asset for marketers to enhance experiences and reach audiences in new, more personalized ways. I think we’ll see marketers shift from expecting (and using) GenAI to improve efficiency and productivity, to also ensuring AI tools deliver measurable increased performance.
Establishing AI governance and standards will also become more important as companies expand AI use cases with an eye on responsible AI. If they’re not careful, brands can risk not being compliant with regulations.
Companies will need to be vigilant and use guardrails to ensure models can be tested to ensure they are free of biases, and that content outputs are accurate, relevant, and on-brand. Applied properly, AI has the potential to turbo-boost marketing performance and customer experiences, which generates the most valuable benefit for businesses: increased revenue.
Thank you for the great interview, readers who wish to learn more should visit Persado.
#ai#AI in Marketing#ai platform#ai tools#ai use cases#algorithm#Algorithms#amp#Analytics#approach#bank#banks#Behavior#behavior data#behavioral data#billion#brands#Business#chatGPT#communication#communications#Companies#compliance#consumers#content#continuous#credit card#crm#curiosity#customer experience
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Skinnamarinkstump Linkdump

I'm on a 20+ city book tour for my new novel PICKS AND SHOVELS. Catch me TODAY (Feb 15) for a virtual event with YANIS VAROUFAKIS, and on MONDAY (Feb 17) for an event at KEPLER'S in MENLO PARK with CHARLIE JANE ANDERS. More tour dates here.
It's Saturday and I'm on a book tour, and the world is in chaos, and there are more links to write about than I could fit in to this week's newsletter, so time for a cubic linkdump, the 27th such:
https://pluralistic.net/tag/linkdump/
Let's start with the best thing I saw all week: a 3D-printed, spring-loaded, clockwork chess pawn that uses a magnet to sense when it has reached the end of the board and SPROING! turns into a queen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSOnnle3zbA
The whole video is a fascinating account of the design process, from idea to prototype to finished item, but if you're impatient and want to skip right to the eyeball kick, it's at 12:27-12:35. And if you want to print your own, the files are $12 (cheap!):
https://www.patreon.com/WorksByDesign/shop/queen-pawn-3d-printing-files-614491?source=storefront
Regrettably, not every tech project is a good one. This week, Google abandoned its AI ethics pledge. Unlike most AI ethics pledge, which are full of nonsense about not accidentally creating a vengeful god that turns the human race into paperclips, Google's AI pledge was actually very important, in that the company promised not to make AI that violates human rights, international law, or privacy. There comes a point where harping on Google's abandoned "don't be evil" motto can feel a little hacky, but in this case, I'll make an exception. My EFF colleague Matthew Guariglia tears Google a much-deserved new AIhole over this latest heel turn:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/02/google-wrong-side-history
Not all bad technology is evil. Some of it is merely very, very stupid. How stupid? Check out Thom Dunn's Wirecutter review of The Heatbit Trio, a space-heater that uses Bitcoin-mining GPUs to generate some of its heat, very slightly offsetting the cost of warming your room – but at a rate that would take decades to recoup the $700 price-tag. Thom got some spicy quotes from Molly White for this one – possibly the first time she's been cited in a home appliance review:
https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/heatbit-space-heater-review/
Staying with crypto freaks for a moment here, Adam Levitin dissects the cryptocurrency "industry"'s latest chorus of aggrieved whining over "debanking":
https://www.creditslips.org/creditslips/2025/02/debanked-by-the-market.html
As Levitin writes, banks aren't kicking cryptocurrency "companies" off their books because the government wants to punish them. Banks have a very good reason to want to avoid doing business with high-dollar scams that have highly correlated implosions, which is to say, times when everyone wants their money back from the cryptocurrency "company" the bank is handling charges for. For a longer explanation that gets into the nitty gritty of bank supervision, check out Patio11's excellent, detailed explainer:
https://www.bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/debanking-and-debunking/
As all the real heads know, "crypto means cryptography," and cryptographers continue to contrive privacy marvels. This week, Kagi – the best search engine, a million times better than Google – released a Privacy Pass authentication plugin, which lets you login to Kagi and run searches without Kagi being able to connect any of the searches you make with your account:
https://blog.kagi.com/kagi-privacy-pass
As an sf/crime writer who sometimes (often) searches for information on committing ghastly crimes and 'orrible murders, the fact that my favorite search engine will be technically incapable of tying those searches to my identity is quite a relief. Read my review of Kagi here:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/04/teach-me-how-to-shruggie/#kagi
If you're one of those marvel-contriving hackers, cryptographers, security researchers or tinkerers, you should really consider attending this summer's Hackers on Planet Earth (HOPE), 2600 Magazine's (now) annual (formerly biennial) hacker con. They've just posted their CFP – get those submission in!
https://www.hope.net/cfp-talks.html
Well, I have to post this and get ready for this morning's virtual book tour event with Yanis Varoufakis:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkIDep7Z4LM
But before I go, one more link: Kevin Steele's 2005 essay on Hypercard, "When Multimedia Was Black & White," an absolute classic, and a beautiful meditation on the art and promise of early hypertext:
https://web.archive.org/web/20240213190609/http://www.kevinsteele.com/smackerel/black_white_00.html
I've known Kevin for most of my life, long before he helped found Mackerel, the pioneering Toronto multimedia company. Long after Mackerel, Kevin went on making wonderful things. In 2023, he published a monumental act of portraiture – a "sequential art" time-series of panoramas of Toronto's hip, ever-changing Queen Street West strip:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/13/spadina-to-bathurst/#dukes-cycle
Comparing Kevin's more recent work with that lovely old essay reveals deep correspondences and the progress of a unique and creative soul.
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/15/intermixture/#debunking-debanking
#pluralistic#bitcoin#kevin steele#mulitmedia#patio11#adam levitin#thom dunn#eff#wirecutter#linkdump#linkdumps#google#ai#dont be evil#hope#hackers on planet earth#hackercons#privacy pass#kagi#search#debanking#chess#3d printing#clockworks
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Are there actual distinct differences between regular Pokemon behaviors and “Man-made” Pokemon behaviors?
it depends on the method used to create them!
in the case of porygon, then yes- porygon's behaviors are entirely pre-programmed. it can't act in a way it hasn't been "taught" how to do. with advancements in AI over the years and the development of porygon2 (and porygon-z), their behaviors have left the realm of strictly programmed single-stimulus-response and have become more complex, but they still can only act based on the bank of behaviors that they have stored.
in the case of a pokemon like castform, its behaviors are more of a response to the physical construction of its body. the way it changes forms is an automatic response to its environment caused by a manufactured chemical reaction, so its behavior is more in line with a "natural" pokemon's.
keep in mind too that "artificial" pokemon could just be the result of gene splicing, such as in the case of mewtwo, and is not necessarily talking about a pokemon designed completely from scratch. a pokemon that's resulted from some genetic modification to an already-existing base is going to behave in response to things the same way a pokemon that evolved over time would.
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DAY 6273
Jalsa, Mumbai Apr 19, 2025/Apr 20 Sat/Sun 1:12 am

words of wisdom from Shweta , sent to me 👆🏼 .. her repertoire of books and reading is immense .. as is of Navya .. it is such a delight to sit in their presence and company and be educated about aspects of life and the world .. it is astonishing ..
And that is what eats us elders up .. there is the desire to do and be a part of what this GEn thinks and does .. but the limitations of time barricade the impulse and the intent ..
Life did not move so rapidly in our time or in the time of our elders .. now the rapidity is so volatile that the wishes to accomplish all is overwhelming .. you do not want to miss out a single day, in case you miss something that you had wished you would want to do, or be a part of ..
The excitement of what the World does to day and the speed with which it does it is unbelievably attractive .. and one wants so desperately to be a art of it .. or many parts of it .. but time is not with us .. at our age we lament the time .. and we feel let down .. for the wish to be having the time to be involved , to test, to apply, to discover, to invent, to admire and enjoy that spectacle .. is huge ..
But the hugeness hits a wall .. the timeless wall of limitations ..
"एक घड़�� ख़रीद कर, हाथ में क्या बांध ली;
वक़्त पीछे ही पड़ गया मेरे ~ "
पूज्य बाबूजी के शब्द
My wishes as ever .. and the great battle of invention that percolates our lives persists to be in its excel ..
The excel of AI ..
So, I asked and it replied :
"Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the simulation of human intelligence in machines designed to think, learn, and make decisions. It powers technologies like voice assistants, recommendation systems, and autonomous vehicles. AI works through algorithms that process data, recognize patterns, and improve over time through machine learning. It is transforming industries by automating tasks, enhancing productivity, and enabling innovative solutions. From healthcare diagnostics to personalized education, AI’s potential is vast. However, it also raises ethical concerns about bias, privacy, and job displacement. As AI continues to evolve, balancing innovation with responsibility will be key to ensuring it benefits society as a whole."
The clarity of social implications is a massive debate , engaging thinkers and artists and writers and indeed all creative talent ..
For the creative content of a writer are his words .. and if the AI data bank consumes that , as a part of a legacy to be maintained over time infinity, it can be used by ChatGPT to refer or use that extract for its personalised usage .. making it the property of ChatGPT ... NOT the property of the writers or the artists, from where it originally came ..
So the copyright of the artist has been technically 'stolen' , and he or she never gets the benefit of ts copyright, when GPT uses it for its presence .. !!!!
The true value of an artists creation will never be restored to his credit, because technology usurps it .. gulps it down deliciously , with an aerated drink and finalising its consumption with a belch 😜🤭 ... END OF CHAPTER !!!
End of discussion .. !!!
In time there shall be much to be heard and written on the subject ..
Each invention provides benefits .. but also victims ..
बनाये कोई - लाभ उठाए कोई और, जिसने उसे बनाया ही न हो
Love

Amitabh Bachchan
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Here’s what I think is happening. The case for imminent AGI more or less reduces down to the notion that creative problem solving can be commoditized via large model based technologies. Such technologies include language models like the GPT family and Claude, the diffusion models that produce art and others. The thesis is that these models will soon be able to solve difficult problems better than humans ever could. They will be able to do this because of the “bitter lesson” that the “secret to intelligence,” is, in Dario Amodei’s formulation, scaling up simple objective functions by throwing data and compute at them. We will soon live in a world where “geniuses in a datacenter” can conduct fundamental research, solve the aging problem and propel us into a material paradise like that in Iain M. Banks’ Culture novels. Under this theory, we should prioritize building AI over solving other problems because AGI (or whatever you want to call it: Amodei doesn’t like that term) will be a superior and independent means for solving those problems, exceeding the problem solving capacity of mere humans. Thus, for example, both Eric Schmidt and Bill Gates say that we should build lots of power capacity to fuel AI, even if this has short term repercussions for the climate. In Schmidt’s summation, human beings are not going to hit the climate change targets anyway, “because we’re not organized to do it.” Hence, the better bet is to build out the power infrastructure for AI, to build automated systems that are better capable of solving the problems than flawed human social institutions.
There's a weird thing where we've created these text generators and even if they are fiendishly complex and intelligent they still aren't what was imagined previously as "AGI," they aren't building a perfectly updating bayesian model of the world or something that they can be used to change outcomes with ruthless efficiency. And I feel that tech people are still running their "AGI" playbook like they are.
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The genocide is also experimentation on living beings
Israel is currently testing new weapons in Gaza, some of which will soon be sold globally as "battle-tested," according to Antony Loewenstein, an author who has written a widely acclaimed book on the issue.
For years, the Israeli defense sector has used Palestine as a laboratory for new weapons and surveillance tech, he told Anadolu, adding that this is also the case in the current ongoing war on Gaza.
One of the main reasons why "many nations, democracies and dictatorships support Israeli occupation" of Palestine is because it allows them to buy these "battle-tested" weapons, asserted Loewenstein, author of The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World.
Another aspect of Israel's war on Gaza has been the use of artificial intelligence technology, he said.
According to Loewenstein, AI has been one of the key targeting tools used by the Israeli military in its deadly campaign of airstrikes, leading to mass killings of Palestinians-now over 28,500-and damage on an unprecedented scale.
The current war on Gaza is "inarguably one of the most consequential and bloody," he said.
He described Israel's use of AI against Palestinians as "automated murder," stressing that this model "will be studied and copied by other nation-states" and Tel Aviv will sell them these technologies as tried and tested weapons.
In the last 50 years, Israel has exported hi-tech surveillance tools to at least 130 countries around the world.
To maintain its illegal occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and blockade of the Gaza Strip, Israel has developed a range of tools and technologies that have made it the world's leading exporter of spyware and digital forensics tools.
But analysts say the intelligence failure during the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks casts doubts over Tel Avis's technological capabilities.
Israel's reliance on technology "is an illusion of safety, while imprisoning 2.3 million people under endless occupation," said Loewenstein, who is Jewish and holds Australian and German nationalities.
He described Israel's response in Gaza as "apocalyptic," stressing that the killings of Palestinian civilians, including children and women, is "on a scale of indiscriminate slaughter."
- 'BLOOD MONEY'
Loewenstein, who is also a journalist, said Israel has honed its weapons and technology expertise over decades as an occupying power, acting with increasing impunity in the Palestinian territories.
This led a small country like Israel to become one of the top 10 arms dealers in the world, he said, adding that Israeli arms sales in 2021 were "the highest on record, surging 55% over the previous two years to $11.3 billion."
In his book, Loewenstein explores thoroughly Israel's ties with autocracies and regimes engaged in mass displacement campaigns, and governments slinking their way into phones.
The Israeli NSO Group sold its well-known Pegasus software to numerous governments, a spyware tool for phones that gives access to the entire content, including conversations, text messages, emails and photos even when the device is switched off.
Israeli drones were first tested over Gaza, the besieged enclave that Loewenstein referred to as "the perfect laboratory for Israeli ingenuity in domination."
Surveillance technology developed in Israel has also been sold to the US in the form of watch towers now used on the border with Mexico.
The EU's border agency Frontex is known to have used Israeli drone technology to monitor refugees.
Loewenstein explains in his book that the EU has partnered with leading Israeli defense companies to use its drones, "and of course years of experience in Palestine is a key selling point."
"So again, one sees how there are so many examples of nations that are wanting to copy what Israel is doing in their own area in their own country on their own border," he said.
These technologies and "are sold by Israel as battle-tested," he said.
In other words, he contends that Palestinians essentially have become "guinea pigs," and despite some nations and the UN publicly criticizing the Israeli occupation, in reality "they're desperate for this technology for themselves for their own countries."
"And that's how in fact, the Palestine laboratory has been so successful for Israel for so long," he said.
In his exhaustive probe into Israel's dealings with arms sales around the world, he noted that the country has monetized the occupation of Palestine, by selling weapons, spyware tools and technologies to repressive regimes such as Rwanda during the genocide in 1994 and to Myanmar during its genocide against the Muslim Rohingya people in 2017.
"This to me is blood money. I mean, there's no other way to see that and again, as someone Jewish, who has spent many, many years reporting on this conflict, both within Israel and Palestine but also elsewhere, it's deeply shameful that Israel is making huge amounts of money from the misery of others," he said.
"This is not a legacy that I can be proud of."
- 'NO NATION ACTUALLY HOLDING ISRAEL TO ACCOUNT'
Profiting from misery is to some extent the nature of what capitalism has always been about, but Israel does this with a great deal of impunity, "because Israel does what it wants," said Loewenstein.
"There is no accountability, there is no transparency, there is no nation actually holding Israel to account," he added.
Israel's regime is shielded from any political backlash for years to come because nations are reliant on Israeli weapons and spyware, said the author.
Israel may not be the only player employing surveillance technology that leads to human rights violations, but it still plays a dominant role, which is why Loewenstein insists that it deserves singular attention.
Israel's foreign policy has always been "amoral and opportunistic," he said, calling on all nations to take a stand and hold Israel accountable, and acknowledge that the world is buying what Israel is selling.
#free palestine#animal rights#govegan#animalrights#free gaza#gaza strip#gaza genocide#palestine#veganism#animals
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Anyone who has spent even 15 minutes on TikTok over the past two months will have stumbled across more than one creator talking about Project 2025, a nearly thousand-page policy blueprint from the Heritage Foundation that outlines a radical overhaul of the government under a second Trump administration. Some of the plan’s most alarming elements—including severely restricting abortion and rolling back the rights of LGBTQ+ people—have already become major talking points in the presidential race.
But according to a new analysis from the Technology Oversight Project, Project 2025 includes hefty handouts and deregulation for big business, and the tech industry is no exception. The plan would roll back environmental regulation to the benefit of the AI and crypto industries, quash labor rights, and scrap whole regulatory agencies, handing a massive win to big companies and billionaires—including many of Trump’s own supporters in tech and Silicon Valley.
“Their desire to eliminate whole agencies that are the enforcers of antitrust, of consumer protection is a huge, huge gift to the tech industry in general,” says Sacha Haworth, executive director at the Tech Oversight Project.
One of the most drastic proposals in Project 2025 suggests abolishing the Federal Reserve altogether, which would allow banks to back their money using cryptocurrencies, if they so choose. And though some conservatives have railed against the dominance of Big Tech, Project 2025 also suggests that a second Trump administration could abolish the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which currently has the power to enforce antitrust laws.
Project 2025 would also drastically shrink the role of the National Labor Relations Board, the independent agency that protects employees’ ability to organize and enforces fair labor practices. This could have a major knock on effect for tech companies: In January, Musk’s SpaceX filed a lawsuit in a Texas federal court claiming that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) was unconstitutional after the agency said the company had illegally fired eight employees who sent a letter to the company’s board saying that Musk was a “distraction and embarrassment.” Last week, a Texas judge ruled that the structure of the NLRB—which includes a director that can’t be fired by the president—was unconstitutional, and experts believe the case may wind its way to the Supreme Court.
This proposal from Project 2025 could help quash the nascent unionization efforts within the tech sector, says Darrell West, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Center for Technology Innovation. “Tech, of course, relies a lot on independent contractors,” says West. “They have a lot of jobs that don't offer benefits. It's really an important part of the tech sector. And this document seems to reward those types of business.”
For emerging technologies like AI and crypto, a rollback in environmental regulations proposed by Project 2025 would mean that companies would not be accountable for the massive energy and environmental costs associated with bitcoin mining and running and cooling the data centers that make AI possible. “The tech industry can then backtrack on emission pledges, especially given that they are all in on developing AI technology,” says Haworth.
The Republican Party’s official platform for the 2024 elections is even more explicit, promising to roll back the Biden administration’s early efforts to ensure AI safety and “defend the right to mine Bitcoin.”
All of these changes would conveniently benefit some of Trump’s most vocal and important backers in Silicon Valley. Trump’s running mate, Republican senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, has long had connections to the tech industry, particularly through his former employer, billionaire founder of Palantir and longtime Trump backer Peter Thiel. (Thiel’s venture capital firm, Founder’s Fund, invested $200 million in crypto earlier this year.)
Thiel is one of several other Silicon Valley heavyweights who have recently thrown their support behind Trump. In the past month, Elon Musk and David Sacks have both been vocal about backing the former president. Venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, whose firm a16z has invested in several crypto and AI startups, have also said they will be donating to the Trump campaign.
“They see this as their chance to prevent future regulation,” says Haworth. “They are buying the ability to avoid oversight.”
Reporting from Bloomberg found that sections of Project 2025 were written by people who have worked or lobbied for companies like Meta, Amazon, and undisclosed bitcoin companies. Both Trump and independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have courted donors in the crypto space, and in May, the Trump campaign announced it would accept donations in cryptocurrency.
But Project 2025 wouldn’t necessarily favor all tech companies. In the document, the authors accuse Big Tech companies of attempting “to drive diverse political viewpoints from the digital town square.” The plan supports legislation that would eliminate the immunities granted to social media platforms by Section 230, which protects companies from being legally held responsible for user-generated content on their sites, and pushes for “anti-discrimination” policies that “prohibit discrimination against core political viewpoints.”
It would also seek to impose transparency rules on social platforms, saying that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) “could require these platforms to provide greater specificity regarding their terms of service, and it could hold them accountable by prohibiting actions that are inconsistent with those plain and particular terms.”
And despite Trump’s own promise to bring back TikTok, Project 2025 suggests the administration “ban all Chinese social media apps such as TikTok and WeChat, which pose significant national security risks and expose American consumers to data and identity theft.”
West says the plan is full of contradictions when it comes to its approach to regulation. It’s also, he says, notably soft on industries where tech billionaires and venture capitalists have put a significant amount of money, namely AI and cryptocurrency. “Project 2025 is not just to be a policy statement, but to be a fundraising vehicle,” he says. “So, I think the money angle is important in terms of helping to resolve some of the seemingly inconsistencies in the regulatory approach.”
It remains to be seen how impactful Project 2025 could be on a future Republican administration. On Tuesday, Paul Dans, the director of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, stepped down. Though Trump himself has sought to distance himself from the plan, reporting from the Wall Street Journal indicates that while the project may be lower profile, it’s not going away. Instead, the Heritage Foundation is shifting its focus to making a list of conservative personnel who could be hired into a Republican administration to execute the party’s vision.
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The UK government are currently trying to pass a bill that will give the DWP and banks unprecedented levels of power to invade people's privacy, using an AI algorithm (that they have already bought) to scan their bank accounts and flag them for potential benefits fraud.
Now just think about how often AI makes mistakes, how much the current gov/DWP want to kick as many people off benefits as possible, and how few human staff there will be checking and verifying these cases. The result will of course be disabled people losing money, which quickly snowballs into a loss of medical care, food, housing, health and ultimately, life. Austerity measures have already killed so many disabled people (especially those who are also of other minority and vulnerable groups) and this is just another in a long line of measures designed to take us out.
Full article: https://novaramedia.com/2025/04/24/labour-wants-to-force-banks-to-spy-on-their-most-vulnerable-customers/
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