Erica "digifox" Kovac

to the extent that AI makes these things cheaper, it's Bad, Actually.

people are also very good at selectively identifying the parts of a character that they relate to while ignoring the parts they don't

to be fair, I don't think we need anyone or anything making content for dumb SaaS websites, email marketing, ads, etc.

me: you think somewhere there's a taxidermist who uses a stuffed pig as a piggy bank?

wife: we don't actually have to talk about every thought you have

This is a remarkably stupid way to try to fix this problem

"the president can rescue people from pirates" should not open the door to "the president can invade and conquer other countries" like c'mon do we even have a congress anymore at this rate

a lot of what has made discourse insane is that there's an entire crop of guys who live in dc, do a ton of uppers, and have massive gender insecurity around the fact that they're soft-handed scribes

Also we really need to put to rest now the idea that the US will be an international pariah for all eternity after Donald is gone or that rebuilding will take our whole lifetimes.

This is exactly right.

Age verification / online ID check legislation literally forces companies to collect MORE data on children (and everyone else) not less.

We desperately need privacy, antitrust, and algorithmic justice legislation.

Not censorship bills like KOSA and expanded surveillance.

i would respect organizations like @fairplayforkids.bsky.social so much more if they would just come out and admit that they are pro-censorship.

like, reasonable people can believe that keeping kids away from harmful content is worth collateral damage to speech.

just own that that's your position

Everyone’s mad about Proton! Let’s go through the chain of events, as I understand it, that led to disclosure of identifying information associated with a Proton account being disclosed to the FBI.

citation very much needed on that one.

Warm lines are incredibly important! They offer voluntary support before a situation becomes a crisis.

The current regulatory push toward automatic hotline escalation ignores warmlines entirely and funnels everyone to resources they may not need, want, or trust.

YES! I absolutely think human touch will be a premium in the AI era. Talented, brilliant people will be in high demand.

I tell my law students to get really good at whatever it is they want to do, because their specific insights and instincts will one day be an upcharge on top of bot service.

Also the "you're going to get left behind" thing is basically de rigeur among the management and executive classes.

True! But yeah I think it's unfair to say this doesn't happen, or doesn't happen often. The hype cycle has been obnoxious and to someone outside of the industry (or even in it) has been indistinguishable from the NFT or cryptocurrency hype based on tone, even if there's way more substance to this.

I hope you have this screenshot framed in your house somewhere

this has been haunting me all day

the difference between "exploitative capitalism" and "fully automated luxury communism" is who gets the benefit of improved technology

literally nothing else, the technology itself fundamentally cannot be and is not either capitalism or communism

I had someone (who I like and respect!) at work imply I was going to get left behind just today. It's pretty common. If you make the mistake of visiting LinkedIn it's like every 5th post.

I miss it, I hope we get it back at some point.

I would admit it but I would say "this was an extremely dumb fucking thing to do, and I should've known that"

I keep seeing lots of people saying "LLMs are like compilers/assemblers for prompts"

Noooooooooo
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

LLMs are not compilers, and they're not assemblers. Determinism is a key aspect to assemblers and compilers.

And they *certainly* can't be part of a reproducible pipeline

Doomscrolling is the weaponization of literacy

of course maybe he should've realized that by avoiding interacting with that discourse he's just handing rhetorical ammo to one side instead of demonstrating neutrality. Or frankly if I was of his age and professional stature, I might just not give a damn about such squabbles.

I think that's a reasonable thing to do to avoid getting stuck in the morass that is AI discourse. If I were in his position I'd stick to what I was able to accomplish with the tool, too.

this is also how I feel about eg, Torvalds dabbling with AI in a hobby project; this isn't a slam dunk, it's just evidence that there's some utility in it.

I think the externalities that are definitely observable are way, way overstated, whereas some of the ones that are much harder to measure (such as weakening skill formation in operators and creating dependence) are firmly in the "it's too early to tell" stage.

I bet he just went out and bought XBL gift cards and made a new account that way

I find it amusing I've gotten myself blocked by both AI boosters and AI skeptics over my positions on generative AI.

credit card for the subscription.