The scary (Dystopia)

Microsoft AI chief gives it 18 months—for all white-collar work to be automated by AI

AI Will Destroy Millions of White Collars Jobs in the Coming Months, Andrew Yang Warns, Driving Surge of Personal Bankruptcies

Ring cancels Flock deal after dystopian Super Bowl ad prompts mass outrage

Amazon and Flock Safety have ended a partnership that would’ve given law enforcement access to a vast web of Ring cameras. The decision came after Amazon faced substantial backlash for airing a Super Bowl ad that was meant to be warm and fuzzy, but instead came across as disturbing and dystopian.

Ring’s Founder Knows You Hated That Super Bowl Ad. Since the commercial aired, Jamie Siminoff has been trying to quell an outcry over privacy concerns with his doorbell cameras.

Platforms bend over backward to help DHS censor ICE critics, advocates say MM

Anthropic is clashing with the Pentagon over AI use

Anthropic’s relationship with the Department of Defense is “under review” as the two sides negotiate over how the company’s AI models can be used.

The startup wants assurance that its models will not be used for autonomous weapons or mass surveillance.

The DOD wants to use Anthropic’s models “for all lawful use cases” without limitation

David Sacks, the venture capitalist serving as the administration’s AI and crypto czar, has accused Anthropic of supporting “woke AI” because of its stance on regulation.

Our Big Data Overlords

Meta Begins $65 Million Election Push to Advance A.I. Agenda

Mark Zuckerberg faces jury in landmark trial over alleged youth harm linked to social media

The lawsuit, K.G.M. v. Meta Platforms, Inc., et al., was filed by a 20-year-old California woman identified by her initials. She alleges that Meta and other tech companies deliberately engineered their platforms to hook young users, contributing to her depression and suicidal thoughts, and seeks to hold them accountable.

Regarding Instagram’s enforcement efforts, plaintiffs asked whether Meta removed all 4 million under-13 users the company had identified on the platform in 2018. Zuckerberg responded that while the company did not remove all of them, it had implemented tools to detect and address underage accounts and was working to improve those systems.

According to reports, Zuckerberg has not directly answered the central question of the case: whether Instagram is addictive. The plaintiff’s attorney, Mark Lanier, asked if people tend to use something more if it’s addictive. “I’m not sure what to say to that,” Zuckerberg said. “I don’t think that applies here.”

He said he believes in the “basic assumption” that “if something is valuable, people will use it more because it’s useful to them.”

When he was asked about his compensation, Zuckerberg said he has pledged to give “almost all” of his money to charity, focusing on scientific research. Lanier asked him how much money he has pledged to victims impacted by social media, to which Zuckerberg replied, “I disagree with the characterization of your question.”

Zuckerberg's courthouse entourage showed up in Meta Ray-Bans

Meta Adding Facial Recognition to Its Smart Glasses That Identifies People in Real Time, Hoping the Public Is Too Distracted by Political Turmoil to Care MM

Apple sued by West Virginia for alleged failure to stop child sexual abuse material on iCloud, iOS devices

SpaceX said to weigh dual-class IPO shares to empower Musk

Macron Blasts Social Media’s Free Speech Defense as ‘Bullshit’

The stupid (ESG edition)

Goldman Sachs to Drop D.E.I. Criteria for Board Members MM

The move would be the Wall Street firm’s latest retreat from diversity mandates that its chief executive, David Solomon, had once made a priority.

The decision is a result of a deal that Goldman struck with the National Legal and Policy Center, a conservative nonprofit group that has been pressuring numerous companies to drop diversity, equity and inclusion mandates, the people said.

As part of its agreement with Goldman, the National Legal and Policy Center, which has a small investment in the bank, withdrew a shareholder proposal demanding that diversity criteria for the board be dropped.

In March 2019, Mr. Solomon, his top deputy John Waldron and the firm’s chief financial officer at the time, Stephen M. Scherr, declared diversity and inclusion “a top priority.”

“When we unite around a common goal, we make progress together,” the men wrote in an email to the staff. They said they would “improve each year” toward goals that included a new recruiting class comprising “50 percent women, 11 percent Black professionals and 14 percent Hispanic/Latino professionals in the Americas, and 9 percent Black professionals in the U.K.”

The next year, Mr. Solomon said Goldman would no longer take a company public in the United States or Europe unless it had at least one “diverse” board member. By 2021, a company would need at least two diverse board members in order for Goldman to agree to work on its initial public offering.

Inspire Investing CEO: Nike’s DEI Is A Legal Liability, Shareholders Comi...

Goldman wipes DEI, AI will wipe white collar work, platforms censor ICE critics, and merit is a gaslight