[kwlug-disc] Trust in Musk.. or go to NextCloud

[Eva B]

An AI linked to the community database. It may be removed from all current
models

On Fri., Nov. 11, 2022, 1:34 p.m. CrankyOldBugger, <
crankyoldbugger at gmail.com> wrote:

> I'm not sure if I'd trust Musk with too-powerful an AI these days...
>
>
> On Fri, Nov 11, 2022 at 1:32 PM Eva B <eva at diyode.com> wrote:
>
>> Hmmmm....
>> I wonder if key words could trigger an encyclopedic database, something
>> like wikipedia, not just for reference of community driven information, but
>> to show leanings based on the content of the post. Maybe with AI.
>>
>> On Fri., Nov. 11, 2022, 12:50 p.m. Chris Frey, <cdfrey at foursquare.net>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Well said.  I think the only point I'd add would be to this:
>>>
>>> > There's been an unfortunate trend to increasing political
>>> polarization. In
>>> > the extreme form, it's the idea that objective reality doesn't exist,
>>> there
>>> > are no facts, only politicized opinions. This is being driven by
>>> people on
>>> > the far left and the far right. It's not just right wing people who
>>> need to
>>> > be fact checked. Extreme ideologies have been around for thousands of
>>> years,
>>> > nothing new here. What seems to make it worse is the magnifying effect
>>> of
>>> > social media like facebook and twitter. These are funded by
>>> advertising, so
>>> > to increase ad revenues you use an algorithmic feed that increases
>>> engagement
>>> > by preferentially showing people extremist content, because that
>>> content gets
>>> > more clicks.
>>>
>>> I'd love it if the "fact checking" was done by civilized free speech
>>> itself,
>>> enabled by a new twitter rather than imposed by outside "authorities",
>>> or even worse, advertiser interests.  Sometimes the authorities need
>>> to be fact checked too.
>>>
>>> - Chris
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, Nov 11, 2022 at 11:10:18AM -0500, Doug Moen wrote:
>>> > I have a different view of "what's wrong with twitter". The problem
>>> isn't specifically and only "Musk", Twitter has been criticized for years.
>>> >
>>> > There's been an unfortunate trend to increasing political
>>> polarization. In the extreme form, it's the idea that objective reality
>>> doesn't exist, there are no facts, only politicized opinions. This is being
>>> driven by people on the far left and the far right. It's not just right
>>> wing people who need to be fact checked. Extreme ideologies have been
>>> around for thousands of years, nothing new here. What seems to make it
>>> worse is the magnifying effect of social media like facebook and twitter.
>>> These are funded by advertising, so to increase ad revenues you use an
>>> algorithmic feed that increases engagement by preferentially showing people
>>> extremist content, because that content gets more clicks.
>>> >
>>> > The factors that made old Twitter toxic are:
>>> >  * It was a publically held company, and therefore motivated to grow
>>> user count and revenue by any means necessary, regardless of the social
>>> cost. Musk fixed that, Twitter is now privately held.
>>> >  * It was 90% funded by advertising, therefore it needs an algorithmic
>>> feed of the most inflammatory comment in order to maximize engagement and
>>> clicks. Except you censor the content that the ad companies object to. Musk
>>> wants to reduce or eliminate the dependency on ad revenue. We'll see if he
>>> figures that out.
>>> >
>>> > What does Musk think about algorithmic feeds? Mar 24: "Twitter
>>> algorithm should be open source". May 11: "Chronological tweets seem much
>>> better than what “the algorithm” suggests". These tweets are
>>> pre-acquisition. He's workshopped a lot of conflicting ideas recently, so
>>> we'll see.
>>> >
>>> > His Oct 27 tweet, "Dear Twitter advertisers", says positive things.
>>> Although he's pandering to advertisers, and you can interpret the following
>>> multiple ways, so we'll see.
>>> > > The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the
>>> future of civilization to have a common digital town square where a wide
>>> range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to
>>> violence. There is currently great danger that social media will splinter
>>> into far right wing and far left wing echo chambers that generate more hate
>>> and divide our society.
>>> > >
>>> > > In the relentless pursuit of clicks, much of traditional media has
>>> fueled and catered to these polarized extremes, as they believe that is
>>> what brings in the money, but, in doing so, the opportunity for dialogue is
>>> lost.
>>> > >
>>> > > That is why I bought Twitter. I didn't do it because it would be
>>> easy. I didn't do it to make more money. I did it to try to help humanity,
>>> whom I love. And I do so with humility, recognizing that failure in
>>> pursuing this goal, despite our best efforts, is a real possibility.
>>> > >
>>> > > That said, Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape,
>>> where anything can be said with no consequences! In addition to adhering to
>>> the laws of the land, our platform must be warm and welcoming to all, where
>>> you can choose your desired experience according to your preference, just
>>> as you can choose, for example, to see movies or play video games ranging
>>> from all ages to mature.
>>> >
>>> >  Musk says that his actions may drive Twitter into bankruptcy. That
>>> sounds positive: one less toxic social media site? Whether or not that
>>> happens, Musk wants to burn Twitter to the ground and replace it with
>>> something "better", and it's not impossible that the new thing might be an
>>> improvement. Now we just need somebody to kill Facebook and the others.
>>> >
>>> > Musk is an idealist who is motivated to make the world a better place.
>>> Eg, Tesla to move society away from fossil fuel consumption to address
>>> global warming, SpaceX to make humanity multi-planetary, removing an
>>> existential threat to our species. Money is just a means to these ends. His
>>> disinterest in money is made very clear by his treatment of Twitter, and
>>> half the criticism of his tenure as Twitter CEO is "but that's not how you
>>> run a business". He's also extremely driven, a terrible boss, manipulative,
>>> probably a narcissist. But as long as I don't have to work for him, there's
>>> a chance that his interventions might actually be a net positive for me. I
>>> can't know for sure, as only history will tell. I sure don't like
>>> everything he does, just some things.
>>> >
>>> > Do I want to use Twitter now, after having deleted my account years
>>> ago? Nope. If I wanted to microblog, Mastodon is decentralized and open
>>> source, with no ads or algorithmic feeds forced on me. Mastodon is growing
>>> quickly right now, and that's another good thing that has arisen from
>>> Musk's twitter acquisition. Yay Elon!
>>> >
>>> > On Thu, Nov 10, 2022, at 9:48 PM, Khalid Baheyeldin wrote:
>>> > > A good summary of Twitter under Elon Musk, so far ...
>>> > >
>>> > > https://www.bbc.com/news/business-63593242
>>> > > _______________________________________________
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>>> > >
>>>
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