If you needed any proof that 'public interest AI' is yet another Trojan Horse for big tech and liberal technocracy, it's this announcement.

Fortune

France, tech companies endow new $400 million foundation for public interest AI | Fortune

Current AI will fund projects around public datasets, open source AI, and public accountability for AI systems

When I wrote 'Resisting AI - An Anti-fascist Approach to Artificial Intelligence' my publisher was told by distributors in the USA they wouldn't carry it because of the 'antifa' in the title. Seems ironic, given the takeover of their country by actual technofascism.

Uni of California Press says of a new volume: "The first book to draw a direct line between the datafication and prediction techniques of past eugenicists and today's often violent and extractive 'big data' regimes'". I say "Wtf? Read Resisting AI!" https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/resisting-ai"

Today the Nerd Reich (as Gil Duran names it) comes to power in Trump's wake. In 'Resisting AI - An Anti-fascist Approach to Artificial Intelligence' https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/resisting-ai I wrote about forms of resistance to technofascistic solutionism. Other worlds are still possible ✊

New by me on Computer Weekly: 'Labour's AI Action Plan - a gift to the far right'

ComputerWeekly.com

Labour

Critical computing expert Dan McQuillan argues that, on top of the clear social and environmental harms associated with the technology, Labour

subheader reads "optional for enterprise subscribers" 🤔

'UK proposes letting tech firms use copyrighted work to train AI'

the Guardian

UK proposes letting tech firms use copyrighted work to train AI

Consultation suggests opt-out scheme for creatives who don’t want their work used by Google, OpenAI and others

creatives won't be the last people sacrificed to this government's 'growth through AI' delusion

Friends of the Earth Ireland Call for an Immediate Moratorium on Data Centre Expansion

Friends of the Earth

New UCC Research Reveals Alarming Impact of Data Centres on Climate Commitments | Friends of the Earth

Campaigners Call for an Immediate Moratorium on Data Centre Expansion&nbsp&#x3B; As negotiations regarding the Programme for Government begin&...

- backed by some solid research

Hard to overstate the importance of this point. However shallow a fool like Musk might be, what we're seeing can't be explained away as simply a smash and grab for more corporate expropriation but needs to be understood in terms of ideology.

My friend Helen Beetham is a very astute critic of AI. While primarily researching digital education, her substack posts are packed with sarcasm-loaded insights about the whole AI shit show. Uncompromising analysis plus bitter irony:

imperfect offerings | Helen Beetham | Substack

There's a crack in everything. It's how we know a human being is writing. Thoughts on technology and education, writing and related issues, from a ...