gAlienLifeform

gAlienLifeform OP , 8 months ago

Ah, thanks for catching that, should be fixed now

gAlienLifeform OP , 8 months ago

Fair enough, but I think this article is reasonably critical

But critics warn the system is unproven at best — and at worst, providing a technological justification for the killing of thousands of Palestinian civilians.

“It appears to be an attack aimed at maximum devastation of the Gaza Strip,” says Lucy Suchman, an anthropologist and professor emeritus at Lancaster University in England who studies military technology. If the AI system is really working as claimed by Israel’s military, “how do you explain that?” she asks

…

The Israeli military did not respond directly to NPR’s inquiries about the Gospel. In the November 2 post, it said the system allows the military to “produce targets for precise attacks on infrastructures associated with Hamas, while causing great damage to the enemy and minimal harm to those not involved,” according to an unnamed spokesperson.

But critics question whether the Gospel and other associated AI systems are in fact performing as the military claims. Khlaaf notes that artificial intelligence depends entirely on training data to make its decisions.

“The nature of AI systems is to provide outcomes based on statistical and probabilistic inferences and correlations from historical data, and not any type of reasoning, factual evidence, or ‘causation,’” she says. “Given the track record of high error-rates of AI systems, imprecisely and biasedly automating targets is really not far from indiscriminate targeting.”

Some accusations about the Gospel go further. A report by the Israeli publication +972 Magazine and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call asserts that the system is being used to manufacture targets so that Israeli military forces can continue to bombard Gaza at an enormous rate, punishing the general Palestinian population.

gAlienLifeform OP , 8 months ago

The problem is that a lot of people within the Biden administration want these policies because they think migrants and asylum seekers are political losers and they don’t really give a shit about doing right by them. Moderate, anti-immigration Dems want a deal that lets ICE and CBP goons brutalize migrants so they can play up how reasonable and bipartisan they are to selfish dipshits in suburban communities. Republicans meanwhile just want to win everything in 2024, so they’re going to do what they can to keep anything from passing while saying they want to “secure the border” to try to lock up those same selfish suburban dipshit votes.

gAlienLifeform , 8 months ago

The article is interesting, but (unless I missed something) doesn’t really spend much time answering it’s headline question beyond these couple of paragraphs

The ratios vary by geography, in part because of the presence of certain institutions and industries with gender imbalances. In the most populous counties in the West, this is especially discernible. San Diego, for instance, has several male-dominated military bases, which is reflected in the sex ratio. In Austin, San Francisco, Seattle and San Jose there are plentiful jobs in tech, a sector where men account for around three-quarters of the workforce.

This is in contrast to areas with large numbers of colleges or universities, which typically have more women, according to a Census Bureau report from May.

Adding to the imbalance are the effects of historic racism in the U.S., including high rates of incarceration and the mortality gap, which have lowered the number of men in some communities, said Karen Guzzo, director of the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina.

gAlienLifeform , 8 months ago

The number of times Boeing’s been let off the hook for murderously bad design is infuriating

gAlienLifeform OP , 8 months ago

I know friends in places like that. I’m going to end up in a place like that. We didn’t, and don’t, have family.

I can’t say anything about where any of us will end up for sure, but I think it’s safe to say you’ll be missed here whenever you log off for the last time.

I don’t think anybody deserves to be completely forgotten like this, but I think things are also not entirely grim as they seem. Things we do in life resonate in ways we never see, someone might be gone and forgotten but the things they said and did will have ripple effects for forever.

Like your namesake character said, “nothing is ever truly gone, now let’s do these mushrooms” (I think that’s how it went, been a while since I’ve seen Discovery)