The risk isn’t the technology. The risk is in people who should know better getting whipped up in the hype and helping normalize tech’s narratives so we don’t pay attention to (and rein in) what they’re actually doing in the present.
Illustrated cover image titled “Behind the Face of AI,” showing a split face: one half is a tired human with a worried expression, the other half is a glowing robot face. The contrast suggests a human hidden behind an artificial intelligence persona, set against a blue comic-style background.
🚨NEW INQUIRY! - Behind the Face of AI🚨
In this short comic, two data workers describe their work impersonating an “AI” chatbot for a major social media platform. Sleepless nights, penalties for sounding “too human,” and emotional drain are just a few of the job hazards.
➡️ data-workers.org/france
I relate to these words and sentiment so much and been thinking about the refusal to participate in the "AI" clownery a lot.
We love to pretend we have no agency (especially at work), but that just helps everyone that doesn't want us to have any.
One lesson I wish tech folks would grasp is to stop building and releasing frameworks out of academic theory without testing it in... you know, real world scenarios.
Oh and all the pets on the conf wall were adorable 😍
See you all again next year!
And I lapped up all the weirdness @sachajudd.com told us about. We need more "useless" and weird things on the web. Have to fight that soulless corporate beigeness with whimsy (and accessibility)! Love how it was different from @localghost.dev and @olu.online talks despite the similar message 💜
Also @gearsco.de talking us through his coding journey. It's amazing how someone so young is already a better teacher than a majority of the people that have taught me 🙃 (and a better dev than I'll ever be :)) Well done, can't wait to see what you do next!
Highlights were @jesslynnrose.bsky.social & edaeren.bsky.social talk on how LLMs prevent you from learning properly (even though they're marketed for it!). I'm paraphrasing; because I was pushed to use it instead of getting real support before. It's trash and can't replace humans like this, c'mon.
Compulsary annual post: Another great #ffConf yesterday! Had no signal in the venue, but even if I did, too busy thinking and chatting to people to be posting.
It felt good to bring some of our team again. Sad I didn't get to talk to most people I wanted, but energy and time were not on my side.
Love the localisation article, thanks for sharing!
I'm planning to be there, too. Looking forward to seeing you!
So, if you made it this far in the thread, and even if you can't go yourself, see if you can help others make it. I'm sure there are some of you with unspent training budgets.
ffConf is my favourite place in tech and the highlight of my professional year. The event is always super friendly, even for anxious hermits like myself, you'll always learn something new (and you'll struggle to find a conf venue with more comfortable seats!).
It introduced me to some incredible people in the field who I could learn from, both personally and at a distance. I honestly think I'd be in a massively different place, and likely not working as a dev right now, if I couldn't go.
And it changed my career. It made me feel like there might be a (small) space for me in this industry after all. That I don't have to be a framework bro with shitty morals to get a paycheck.
It's very rare that scholarships offer travel and accommodation as well, even though that is often what excludes people even if they can get a ticket! Only one example of how much thought Julie and Remy put into putting this event on.
I was lucky to get a spot when I was starting out in tech.
Please ask your employers to support these scholarships!
If you're able to, please consider chipping in (the ticket platform allows you to throw in even a few quid 😉, if I'm not mistaken).
Your marginalised/future junior colleagues will thank you, speaking from experience.
We need to teach people the difference between being uncomfortable and being unsafe. Because the discomfort of the safest people is endangering the most vulnerable, all day every day.
“ICE protestors […] are turning what the tech companies see as an asset into a vulnerability, and they’re exploiting it. There is no one around to stop them […]
They have turned these indifferent and extractive technologies into instruments of protest. They are weaponizing the accountability sink.”
hey! Haymarket is making our book No Cop City, No Cop World: Lessons from the Movement FREE in ebook form for the next 12 days!
hopefully it's very clear this book is not about making money (& it won't 😂) lol so please tell everyone to download it if they want!
one of my favorite chatgpt commentaries is "you dont need AI i can also drink a bottle of water and lie to you"
This is one way to make me buy more books haha
“I just don’t know how you go around, asking everyone first. I just don’t see how that would work”
It would work, if your lot weren't greedy rapists.
Oof, that's so not ok. Maybe you could put it in the bin in this beta period. This garbage never should have seen the light of day.
How did we get from "Do not use Wikipedia as a source" to "ask hallucinating chatbot everything"?
Using accessibility applications to legitimate generative AI is seriously gross.
"But an AI that describes images helps the blind"
Someone chose that image and put it where people can see it. *They* can describe it.
Came to say the exact same thing. Great work!
OpenAI has to be the most insufferable company in the world. They can steal from the whole world & guzzle all resources. But no one can give them a taste of their own medicine even a little bit.
How long till they use this to say give us even more resources & this is why we can't release anything.
