📣NEW paper! Don’t believe the hype: bigger AI ≠ better AI. @SashaMTL, @GaelVaroquaux and me on how the race to bigger, and bigger AI has bad consequences and isn't necessary.
1. Smaller AI models often perform better than big models in context
And
2. obsession with bigness has severe collateral consequences, from climate costs, to concentrated power, to more surveillance, to the capture of AI research.
All of this, and what we can do instead 👇
arxiv.org/abs/2409.14160
New blogpost: Running a law firm on Free software (2024 edition)
It has been a couple of years since I last wrote about decoded.legal's (almost entirely FOSS) tech stack.
I was chatting with someone about it yesterday, so now is as good a time as any for an update.
It's not particularly law firm specific; probably more generically "small business" oriented.
I'm always happy to hear friendly constructive feedback :)
https://decoded.legal/blog/2024/09/running-a-law-firm-on-free-software-2024-edition/
Seach engine comparison: Mojeek vs Duckduckgo
Today's search: "skitsystem"
Search result quality: Mojeek is better, includes quality links such as http://javlaskitsystem.se/ and "Boktips: Jävla skitsystem - boken om den digitala arbetsmiljön"
Privacy: Mojeek is better, uBlock Origin blocks lots of bad things for Duckduckgo but nothing for Mojeek. Also, Duckduckgo shows links to "facebook" and "youtube" which are very bad regarding privacy.
Winner in both categories: Mojeek
Today, 20 September 2024, is the last day to take part in the EU consultation where everyone can have a say, as FSFE explain here:
"Bring Back Free Software Funding: Give Your Feedback to the European Commission"
https://fsfe.org/news/2024/news-20240911-02.en.html
I just filled it out, it's quite easy, so now my opionions ("the EU should support Free Software more!") will be in there.
For those reading this, if in the EU: Please take part you too! Today is your last chance. Do it!
"Vi påstår oss ofta ha lärt oss av det förra århundradets auktoritära regimer, och pratar om “aldrig mer”. Men diskussionen fastnar gärna vid vad de auktoritära regimerna gjorde när de regerat under lång tid, och vunnit full kontroll att styra utan motstånd från andra politiska krafter.
Varje auktoritär utveckling börjar någonstans. Och i efterhand förbannar många att de inte stoppade den i tid. "
Nu krävs ditt motstånd mot auktoritär utveckling | Dagens ETC
https://www.etc.se/debatt/nu-kraevs-ditt-motstaand-mot-auktoritaer-utveckling
Vi i Kamratdataföreningen Konstellationen släpper rapporten Kluvna tungor, som handlar om hur riksdagspartierna kommunicerat och agerat i Chat Control.
Vi redogör också svaren på enkäten vi skickade.
C, V, MP och SD svarade på enkäten. De svarade alla “ja” på våra frågor och har därmed tagit tydligt ställning mot Chat Control och massövervakning.
S, M, KD och L svarade inte på enkäten trots flera påminnelser.
@echo_pbreyer “Funny” how the green swab coincides with living memory of state surveilance terror.
🇬🇧Leak on latest #ChatControl attempt (in German): https://netzpolitik.org/2024/interne-dokumente-sperrminoritaet-gegen-chatkontrolle-wackelt/ +++ Only AUT, DEU, EST, LUX, POL, SVN were critical – no blocking minority! +++ BEL, CZE, FIN, ITA, NLD, PRT, SWE undecided +++ EU legal experts confirm violation of our fundamental rights +++ Only 5 days to next discussion +++
Help pressure our governments into defending our #privacy of correspondence and secure #encryption now: https://www.patrick-breyer.de/en/take-action-to-stop-chat-control-now/
Ny opinionsartikel: Ny svensk deadline för Chat Control (https://bahnhof.se/2024/09/16/ny-svensk-deadline-for-chat-control/).
Följ bevakningen av Chat Control 2.0 på https://chatcontrol.se/coverage/.
"It is not the case that “AI gathers data from the Web and learns from it.” The reality is that AI companies gather data and then optimize models to reproduce representations of that data for profit."
"The productivity myth suggests that anything we spend time on is up for automation — that any time we spend can and should be freed up for the sake of having even more time for other activities or pursuits — which can also be automated."
https://www.techpolicy.press/challenging-the-myths-of-generative-ai/
Read the whole thing!
I released #GNOME #Calls 47.0 yesterday 🚀 \o/
This is the first release running #gtk4 and #libadwaita
Thanks a lot to everyone who contributed code, translations and bug reports!
Find the release notes at https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/calls/-/releases/v47.0
And of course, it has already been uploaded to 🎉
Went to the cabin this weekend, looking forward to eating some of the food I had left there last time.
"Let's cook some rice!" -- oh wait, no, I guess the mice have eaten all the rice.
"Ok that's fine, no problem, we still have that tasty muesli!" -- oh, no we don't. The mice ate all of that too.
There was a packet of ramen also that they chewed a hole in but they only ate about half of that, not as yummy I guess.
Lesson learned: need to put everything in glass jars.
Human being. Programmer, sailor, researcher, teacher, student, parent, child, etc. Free/libre and open-source software (FOSS/FLOSS) enthusiast. Likes human rights, including digital rights such as privacy of communication. Lives in Stockholm. He/him. No DMs.