#programming ethics

[mckitterick]

garbage in, garbage out

To understand what's going on here, know these things:

OpenAI is the company that makes ChatGPT

A spider is a kind of bot that autonomously crawls the web and sucks up web pages

robots.txt is a standard text file that most web sites use to inform spiders whether or not they have permission to crawl the site; basically a No Trespassing sign for robots

OpenAI's spider is ignoring robots.txt (very rude!)

the web.sp.am site is a research honeypot created to trap ill-behaved spiders, consisting of billions of nonsense garbage pages that look like real content to a dumb robot

OpenAI is training its newest ChatGPT model using this incredibly lame content, having consumed over 3 million pages and counting...

It's absurd and horrifying at the same time.

[ruby-static]

The idea of Riley introducing Arcade to Yes Man has been eating my head for ages- It's gotta be the most awkward first meeting imaginable.

Basic rundown: Shortly after first visiting the Legion Fort, pissing off Caesar and retrieving the platinum chip, Riley decides to open up to Arcade about what he found in Benny's suite after he initially ran off: a new friend with a potential plan to throw all major parties out of New Vegas. So he promises to eventually introduce the two, and imagine Arcade's surprise (or lack thereof) when this 'friend' turns out to be a giant reprogrammed securitron robot.

First impressions are... interesting. I feel like Arcade would definitely be a little unnerved at first, but surprised at the potential for an independent Vegas.

[darkwood-sleddog]

i think what's really irritating about situations where i'm offered random dogs is that having multiple dogs makes people think i'm some sort of charity when it's actually the opposite. my pack is heavily and carefully curated. i know what i want from a dog that is coming into my pack and don't stray from these wants for the good and wellbeing of my existing dogs. the only person i think is acceptable to offer me a dog is a breeder i've been already talking to about potentially getting a dog from already point blank and period. (and even then i've turned down a great offer recently from MY dogs breeder because it just wasn't timed correctly/dog import law bullcrap etc). just because i have made the choice for myself to have multiple dogs does not make me a charity home for dogs people cannot care for anymore. i sincerely feel for dogs in this sort of situation, but malamutes are overall better off going to experienced fosters and breed specific rescues instead of having people blind message people who own the same breed on your facebook timeline. and i don't trust a non-breed specific persons evaluation of temperament at ALL. for a malamute to have success in re-homing you must be knowledgable about the breed or else they're going to end up right back where they started.

[fjordfolk]

every time someone in a discussion about breeding for BOAS reduction in pugs says to 'look up this program called Retromops' i slip a little arsenic into the produce section at the grocery store

[leahthedreamer]

I find it hilarious that when there are upsets in who fs stans perceive to be the pre determined winners of events the immediate action is to crash out in the most shameless way

[ethics-and-ink]

Read More Here: Substack

[drysauce]

i explained vocaloids to my mother jdhdbsb

[moregraceful]

hope everyone who got a creator subscription notif from me today realizes something deeply unwell and bizarre happened to me in march

[g1deonthefirst]

wasn't alfred a hedge fund manager? i get where ur coming from re: the class divide post otherwise btw but am somewhat stumped ab this bc he was definitely the one making the most money and likely highly educated as well, and ended up a cav. ig it is STEM/nonSTEM divide?

hi! yes, alfred was a hedge fund manager — he was also augustine's brother and so comes from a similar (presumably very wealthy) background. this exception doesn't really disprove the rule to me: either way, john was disproportionately likely to make people who were highly educated necromancers and people who were not cavaliers. i want to walk through a couple possible reasons for this.

the first possibility is that john (1) believed that people who were more "intelligent" were more likely to be able to understand necromancy and (2) implicitly believed that people who were academically high-achieving like scientists, lawyers, doctors, etc. were more "intelligent." clearly, john and the lyctors all seem to think pretty highly of their own intelligence. john in particular went from being a poor māori kid to being an accomplished scientist, and i don't think it's a stretch to say he probably believed he deserved it on the basis of intelligence.

in contrast, both alfred and cristabel have their own talents and intelligence disparaged — john describes alfred as "useless, but a darling" and augustine describes cristabel as "not hav[ing] the intellect you'd ordinarily find in a sandwich or an orange." additionally, necromancy is talked about in scientific terms, which lends itself to the idea that you might need some scientific understanding to be good at it. i think it's entirely possible that john consciously decided that some people wouldn't be intelligent enough to hack it and made them the cavaliers, a problematic assumption chiefly in that it equates academic achievement with innate intelligence.

the second possibility, and to me the more likely one, is that john simply made the people closest to him necromancers while making people he wasn't as close to (essentially his friends' friends) non-necromancers. it's pretty clear that the people john made necromancers were people who directly worked on john's original cryogenics project with him, while the cavaliers were all people who got dragged into his cult by those original project members. alfred is a perfect example of this — he's there because he's augustine's brother. other people have made posts about the possibility that john did this to intentionally separate his friends from the people they loved.

but either way, i think this demonstrates who john as a character cared about. john, as a successful scientist, surrounded himself by people who were highly educated and successful, predominantly (as you note anon) people in STEM. people who are disproportionately likely to be white, neurotypical, and cis, or at least disproportionately likely to be able to conform to white/european, neurotypical, cis standards. not only is john not as close to people in his project-turned-cult that aren't as highly educated, but poor people aren't present at all. there are no janitors, no retail workers, no manual laborers, no farmworkers. i don't get the sense that john ever really unpacked his internalized biases or questioned why he primarily values people who are highly educated.

"but," i imagine my hypothetical reader who's somehow made it this far protesting, "of course he's surrounded by highly educated people. he's working on a cryogenics project!" well...precisely. tumblr user sophelstien's scratch a liberal and a fascist bleeds essay touches on how this project demonstrates that john is not as progressive as some people assume he is, but what i'll say here is simply that john didn't have to make the people in his cryogenics project the leaders of his new society. and by installing the very people who our society rewards into positions of power, john — consciously or not — shapes the new society he's creating with the old society's inequalities.

[kraniumet]

i think image gen can be used like any other artistic tool but I don't really think the big commerical proponents of "ai" are advertising it as a tool, they're adertising it as a solution. I also think it's intellectually dishonest to argue that image generation is exactly like "using photoshop/taking a photograph" because of some generalized "those were also criticized at their conception for being new and scary and disruptive" soundbite. they were not even really criticized for the same reasons. find a better argument.

[talesfromthebandgeekmafia]

Look at me. Look at me.

Get out your phone or laptop or whatever, go to dropout.tv or the dropout app

And use your three-day free trial to watch Dimension 20 season 20: Burrow’s End

Go do it you will not regret it

[cypheroxide]

Building Your Own Cyberdeck:

What do you do when you have extra time between a job and your next? How about building your own Cyberdeck? Check this article out for tips on building your own!

The Ultimate Hacker Project For aspiring cybersecurity professionals, cyberpunk enthusiasts, hardware hackers, and circuit benders, one of the best hands-on projects you can take on is building your own cyberdeck. Despite overwhelming schedules full of training programs, full time work weeks, sometimes limited funds, and the endless possibilities of hardware combinations, many fans of the…

[t0rschlusspan1k]

Before I resort to M*crosoft Learn, can anybody suggest me some free HTML/CSS online course that issues a certificate after an exam? I can finish it in the span of half a week and it's not something I actually need, but it would definitely make my life at home with my parents much easier if I could show them I'm doing something (studying languages doesn't count, since I'm not getting anywhere).

(Panicking a bit because I don't want to leave too much data and digital footprint behind...)

[ethics-and-ink]

Read More Here: Substack 👀

[dxxprs]

Consciousness vs. Intelligence: Ethical Implications of Decision-Making

The distinction between consciousness in humans and artificial intelligence (AI) revolves around the fundamental nature of subjective experience and self-awareness. While both possess intelligence, the essence of consciousness introduces a profound divergence. Now, we are going to delve into the disparities between human consciousness and AI intelligence, and how this contrast underpins the ethical complexities in utilizing AI for decision-making. Specifically, we will examine the possibility of taking the emotion out of the equation in decision-making processes and taking a good look at the ethical implications this would have

Consciousness is the foundational block of human experience, encapsulating self-awareness, subjective feelings, and the ability to perceive the world in a deeply personal manner. It engenders a profound sense of identity and moral agency, enabling individuals to discern right from wrong, and to form intrinsic values and beliefs. Humans possess qualia, the ineffable and subjective aspects of experience, such as the sensation of pain or the taste of sweetness. This subjective dimension distinguishes human consciousness from AI. Consciousness grants individuals the capacity for moral agency, allowing them to make ethical judgments and to assume responsibility for their actions.

AI, on the other hand, operates on algorithms and data processing, exhibiting intelligence that is devoid of subjective experience. It excels in tasks requiring logic, pattern recognition, and processing vast amounts of information at speeds beyond human capabilities. It also operates on algorithmic logic, executing tasks based on predetermined rules and patterns. It lacks the capacity for intuitive leaps and subjective interpretation, at least for now. AI processes information devoid of emotional biases or subjective inclinations, leading to decisions based solely on objective criteria. Now, is this useful or could it lead to a catastrophe?

The prospect of eradicating emotion from decision-making is a contentious issue with far-reaching ethical consequences. Eliminating emotion risks reducing decision-making to cold rationality, potentially disregarding the nuanced ethical considerations that underlie human values and compassion. The absence of emotion in decision-making raises questions about moral responsibility. If decisions lack emotional considerations, who assumes responsibility for potential negative outcomes? Emotions, particularly empathy, play a crucial role in ethical judgments. Eradicating them may lead to decisions that lack empathy, potentially resulting in morally questionable outcomes. Emotions contribute to cultural and contextual sensitivity in decision-making. AI, lacking emotional understanding, may struggle to navigate diverse ethical landscapes.

Concluding, the distinction between human consciousness and AI forms the crux of ethical considerations in decision-making. While AI excels in rationality and objective processing, it lacks the depth of subjective experience and moral agency inherent in human consciousness. The endeavor to eradicate emotion from decision-making raises profound ethical questions, encompassing issues of morality, responsibility, empathy, and cultural sensitivity. Striking a balance between the strengths of AI and the irreplaceable facets of human consciousness is imperative for navigating the ethical landscape of decision-making in the age of artificial intelligence.