Recently my son had pulled up the real estate page for a house next door up for sale and he looked at me and said "these pics are garbage, AI."
I said something like 'really, how do you know?'
He started picking out technical aspects that I would a thousand times miss but also things like where the floor of a same room was entirely different (not lighting difference but substantively different) and where other features changed.
He said the realtor ran the originals through an AI enhancer.
He just now texted me: "Saw at the gym. Local 12 is actually doing a piece on ai staging for homes creating risks for real estate."
AI is a consumer protection violation in the making...
@gregeganSF Some doctors say AI based note-taking solutions make the notes much less useful.
https://benngooch.substack.com/p/i-was-an-enthusiastic-early-adopter
RE: https://mathstodon.xyz/@gregeganSF/117090457831768597
SAY NO TO ALL MEDICAL AI NOTE TAKING.
Whether it is Meta AI glasses used to harass & covertly film women, Apple AirTags used to track women, Meta algorithms that push sexist ads, Grok AI tools that nudify women's images, tech companies continue to create harassment by design instead of privacy by design.
https://www.irishtimes.com/technology/2026/08/13/women-continue-to-bear-the-brunt-of-bad-tech-decisions/
Begging folks to wake up and realize that the massive increase in food borne illness and infectious diseases is not an accident.
This was always the goal.
The regime removed protections because they want “the vulnerable” to die.
Fascism and eugenics go hand in hand.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/13/health/foodborne-illness-outbreaks-risk-rising
#uspol #eugenics #fascism #ableism #disability #chronicillness #publichealth
In my Feb 2026 talk, "Resisting Dehumanization in the Age of "AI": The View from the Humanities", I call on humanities scholars to make legible to the broader world how even as we work with texts (and write more texts), the words aren't the work.
This recent paper by Lauren Goodlad of @CriticalAI is an excellent example:
You've asked, so our small but mighty design team answered: EFF images are all made by human beings. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/08/who-or-what-generates-images-eff
I don't get the argument that public institutions "have to be where people are". Why?
Pornhub has about the same amount of monthly active users as X. No one thinks our EU commissioners or the Swedish parliament must be on Pornhub.
In the pre-socials era no one expected the prime minister to make his statements in the gossip press "because that's where people are".
I think its time to dismiss that "where people are" argument altogether. No one will listen to me, but still 😐. #plus1
I self-host now: this account runs on my own server and my own domain, @mbr
The old instance is shutting down and the auto-migration only carried a fraction of you across. If you can read this, you're already in the right place.
Everyone else has to re-follow by hand. Please BOOST this to help me get back everyone :)
#Fediverse #SelfHosted #Mastodon #mbr #masterbootrecord
Great interview with EMMA Technology Cooperative from Strange Birds (also a co-op!)
#WorkerCoops #Tech
Flock “can’t tech its way out” of the stalker cop problem, experts say
Flock to lock out cops who stalk exes, but agencies can still hide abuse.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/08/flock-cant-tech-its-way-out-of-the-stalker-cop-problem-experts-say/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social
Person Hides Prompt Injection in Legal Filing Telling AI to Side With Them
https://www.404media.co/person-hides-prompt-injection-in-legal-filing-telling-ai-to-side-with-them/?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub
Posted into 404 Media @404-media-404media
Every so often a politician does the unimaginable—Obama in 2008, AOC in 2018, Mamdani in 2025. Dr. Abdul El Sayed is doing it again in Michigan, and corporate media is wholly missing the moment. Anti-Muslim hate targeting him jumped twentyfold after the primary, and even the President attacked him from his global platform.
Yet he's united Michigan and struck enough fear into MAGA Mike Rogers that he so far won't debate him. Let’s Address This.
https://www.qasimrashid.com/p/dr-abdul-el-sayed-is-doing-something
Help us and Cloaked bring the fireside chat "AI, Data Privacy and the Legislative Road to Personal Safety," featuring EFF's Senior Policy Analyst Matthew Guariglia, to SXSW! Voting ends August 23rd. https://participate.sxsw.com/flow/sxsw/sxsw27/community-voting-sxsw/page/community-voting/session/1784810293331001kpUU
What can a button tell us about the history of the Left?
Quite a lot.
Join archivist Isaac Silver for Buttons, Bagels, and Brunch, featuring artifacts from the rise, decline and rebirth of May Day.
Sunday, Aug. 23, 11 AM–1 PM in Chicago.
https://www.allyoufascistsboundtolose.com/calendar/buttons-bagels-and-brunch
“I just look forward to when things finally get all in place, where we can kind of relax a little bit and enjoy being seniors and not have to fight for the basics.”
Sandra Larson reports on older adults organizing for housing justice.
#ShlaerMellor, #FunctionPointAnalysis, #punk, #environmentalist, #unionAdvocate, #anarchosocialist
"with a big old lie and a flag and a pie and a mom and a bible most folks are just liable to buy any line, any place, any time" - Frank Zappa