[Plura-list] The G(AN)-8; Facebook's tonsils; Podcasting How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism
Cory Doctorow
doctorow at craphound.com
Mon Apr 19 11:42:56 EDT 2021
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I'm appearing at the FITC conference tomorrow!
* Panel: "Intersection: Seeing Our Failures from the Future"
https://fitc.ca/presentation/intersection-future/
* Keynote: "Interop: Self-Determination vs. Dystopia"
https://fitc.ca/presentation/interop/
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Today's links
* The G(AN)-8: Shardcore's questing AI tries to locate world leaders in
a sprawling data-set.
* Facebook's tonsils: The traumatic lives of Facebook's moderators.
* Podcasting How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism: Part three.
* This day in history: 2001, 2006, 2011, 2016, 2020
* Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current
writing projects, current reading
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🦃 The G(AN)-8
A GAN (Generative Adversarial Network) is a peculiar species of machine
learning: it uses two models to sharpen one another. One model (the
generator) creates things - like faces - based on its training, while
the other (the discerner) scores them based their convincingness.
"G(AN) 8" is a new ML art-piece from Shardcore. He trained GANs with
images of leaders from the G-8 bloc of countries and then asked a GAN to
"find" the leaders in combination with different emotional tags, like "sad."
http://www.shardcore.org/shardpress2019/2021/04/19/the-gan-8/
These tags come from internet captions, both specific ("Boris Johnson
looking sad") and generic (images from the CLIP network); the generator
uses this input to make a leader's face within a certain emotional
range, and the discerner tells it if it's doing a good job.
Shardcore projects his virtual affective world leaders on a screens
flaking a virtual meeting hall, watched over by a smattering of
synthetic people. It's quite a strange and lovely 5-minute video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5Zd-ZnqHQQ
Says Shardcore: "Increasingly we find AI systems are chained together –
the output of one, fed into the next. An ouroboros of impenetrable
signs, invisibly passed around until a simplified, human-readable,
response is produced. Inside the system the machines talk in their own
internal language to which we are not party. Perhaps we should keep an
eye on that."
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🦃 Facebook's tonsils
Facebook's moderators are legendarily traumatized; they spend endless
hours having the very worst humanity has to offer being rammed into
their eyeballs. Facebook frequently claims that it's doing better by its
moderators, but that's a shell-game.
To understand the shell-game, consider Facebook's highly selective view
of vertical integration. On the one hand, Facebook insists it has to own
its supply chain, buying up hundreds of companies doing everything from
data-centers to ad-tech to rival systems like Instagram.
But on the other hand, Facebook - a company whose ambitions range from
dominating VR to issuing its own currency - insists that some functions
are *so* specialized it can't *possibly* run them in-house.
https://pluralistic.net/2020/12/11/number-eight/#curse-of-bigness
I'm sure it's just a coincidence, but these functions it insists on
outsourcing to low-waged subcontractors are also the
impossible-to-perform, high-stakes tasks.
You see, when you use anticompetitive practices to become the arbiters
of the social lives of 2.6 billion users, you will end up destroying
many of those users. The problem with FB's moderation isn't merely that
it's incoherent and under-resourced, it's that it's *impossible*.
"Create and enforce a set of speech policies that is fair for 2.6
billion people speaking 300 languages in 150 countries" is not a sexy
startup idea. Pitch that to a VC and they'll point out that it's a)
impossible and b) a surefire money-loser and c) a PR nightmare.
But again, I'm sure that it's totally a coincidence that a company that
insists on owning its entire, vertically integrated supply-chain has
decided that it should leave it to others tender competitive bids to
clean up the grotesque messes that monopolistic system produces.
This outsourcing allows FB to play a shell-game: it can speak of
improving the lives of "its moderators" without specifying whether or
not this includes the lives of outsourced moderators.
It's not a particularly imaginative scam: Amazon uses it to confuse the
issue of labor conditions for drivers and warehouse workers; Google and
Apple use it to shuffle around labor practices for their armies of
"green-badge" contractors, etc.
The brutalization of FB's outsource moderators is unprecedented in the
kind of psychological trauma it inflicts. How many rape- and beheading
videos can you watch per day before you end up with serious, long-term
mental health effects?
To understand how the shell-game lets FB absolve itself of
responsibility for this trauma, check out the leaked farewell memo from
an Accenture-employed, Austin-based Facebook moderator that Buzzfeed's
Ryan Mac published:
https://twitter.com/RMac18/status/1382369915995189249
The memo describes how the band-aid measures FB and Accenture provide
are just window-dressing. It's fine to have "wellness coaches" who give
you visualization tips that let you get back to work when the trauma
gets to be too much.
But "wellness" is more than "being able to do your job." To address
mental health (rather than job performance), this system would have to
consider the lives of moderators when their shift is over: the sleepless
nights and the haunted days afterward.
This is not part of the package. Indeed, the idiotic NDAs moderators
must sign - broad and nonspecific, which the company refuses to answer
contractors' questions about - mean that when they're off the clock,
they can't talk to loved ones about what's going on with them.
There's no good reason for these NDAs to be as broad as they are. The
material that moderators see is, by definition, mostly public already.
The NDAs don't keep secret things secret - rather, they gag the people
best poised to understand how bad things truly are.
Reading the memo makes the lie of the "wellness program" obvious:
moderators get wellness coaches, but not therapy and their bosses use
"wellness coaches" to get them to finish their shifts but not help with
their mental health when the shifts end.
Personal time off rules are vague and ever shifting and workers who
can't hack it are told they should quit and get another job, but aren't
paid enough to build up a buffer that would let them survive in the
times between jobs.
Most tellingly, there is no direct path for moderators to feed back into
the moderation policies that come down from on-high. At best, they can
"raise issues to QA who can raise them to Facebook FTEs."
Facebook has built a bloodless, bureaucratic system that internally fobs
off feedback from the people best-poised to describe the problems with
its systems, which also silences those people so they can't tell anyone
else.
That's not the actions of a company interested in improvement - it's the
actions of of a company interested in plausible deniability.
A company that cared about its moderators would heed eminently sensible
suggestions like allowing workers who deal with "safety" (the worst
material) to rotate in and out of that role, spending half their time on
less toxic chores.
The anonymous author of the leaked memo calls themself and their
colleagues "the tonsils of the internet, a constantly bombarded first
line of defense against potential trauma to the userbase."
FB is a company that says it can do everything - operate local offices
in more than 100 countries, field a major VR platform, issue a currency.
But when it comes to moderation, it is rendered helpless before the
enormity of the task.
The "we must outsource" explanation grows ever thinner, while the
"tonsils" hypothesis has enormous explanatory power.
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🦃 Podcasting How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism
This week on my podcast, the third part of a six (?) part serialized
reading of my 2020 One Zero book HOW TO DESTROY SURVEILLANCE CAPITALISM,
a book arguing that monopoly – not AI-based brainwashing – is the real
way that tech controls our behavior.
https://onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism-8135e6744d59
The book is available in paperback:
https://bookshop.org/books/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism/9781736205907
and DRM-free ebook :
https://sowl.co/bm2F7c
and my local bookseller, Dark Delicacies, has signed stock that I'll
drop by and personalize for you!
https://www.darkdel.com/store/p2024/Available_Now%3A__How_to_Destroy_Surveillance_Capitalism.html
Here's the podcast episode:
https://craphound.com/nonficbooks/destroy/2021/04/19/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism-part-03/
And here's part one:
https://craphound.com/nonficbooks/destroy/2021/04/05/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism-part-01/
And part two:
https://craphound.com/nonficbooks/destroy/2021/04/12/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism-part-02/
And here's a direct link to the MP3 (hosting courtesy of the Internet
Archive; they'll host your stuff for free, forever):
https://archive.org/download/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_385/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_385_-_How_To_Destroy_Surveillance_Capitalism_03.mp3
And here's the RSS feed for my podcast:
https://feeds.feedburner.com/doctorow_podcast
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🦃 This day in history
#20yrsago Crad Kilodney Homepage
https://web.archive.org/web/20020127155242/http://www.jagular.com/crad/
#20yrsago The CueJack FAQ
https://web.archive.org/web/20011211211846/http://rtmark.com/cuejack/
#15yrsago The novel Heinlein would have written about GW Bush’s America
https://memex.craphound.com/2006/04/17/the-novel-heinlein-would-have-written-about-gw-bushs-america/
#15yrsago Hilarious hijinx with security guards who hate
building-photographers
https://thomashawk.com/2006/04/photographing-architecture-is-not.html
#15yrsago How AT&T wants to turn the Internet into mere TV
https://web.archive.org/web/20060620095643/http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2006/04/17/toll/index_np.html
#10yrsago US, EU want to delay copyright treaty to help blind people for
3-5 years
https://web.archive.org/web/20110623111741/https://www.keionline.org/node/1114
#10yrsago Seeds: comic-book memoir of father’s cancer is moving, sweet
https://memex.craphound.com/2011/04/19/seeds-comic-book-memoir-of-fathers-cancer-is-moving-sweet/
#10yrsago China’s “Jasmine Revolution”: anonymous out-of-country
bloggers troll the politburo
https://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2011/04/the-jasmine-revolution.html
#10yrsago AT&T future of telcoms video 1962, directed by Jetsons writer
https://paleofuture.com/blog/2011/4/18/talking-of-tomorrow-1962.html
#10yrsago Shit Harper Did: Canada’s Prime Ministerial ignominy
https://web.archive.org/web/20131224090648/http://www.shd.ca.nyud.net/
#10yrsago China’s housing bubble: ghost malls, ghost highrises, and
ghost cities https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPILhiTJv7E
#10yrsago Motorcycles made from watch parts
https://www.deviantart.com/dkart71/art/Motorcycles-out-of-watch-parts-204941090
#10yrsago More watch-part motorcycles
https://ummaisoumenos.blogspot.com/2008/11/miniaturas-fantsticasbikesfeitas-de.html
#10yrsago TSA considers being upset at screening procedures to be an
indicator of terrorist intentions
https://web.archive.org/web/20110417032448/https://www.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/04/15/tsa.screeners.complain/
#10yrsago Save Google Video before it goes dark!
https://wiki.archiveteam.org/index.php?title=Google_Video
#10yrsago NZ MP votes for anti-piracy law hours after tweeting about her
love of pirated music
https://torrentfreak.com/kiwi-mp-called-out-as-pirate-after-passing-anti-piracy-law-110415/
#10yrsago Privacy, Facebook, politics and kids
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/video/2011/apr/18/cory-doctorow-networking-technologies-video?CMP=twt_fd
#5yrsago Ben and Jerry arrested at Democracy Spring demonstration in DC
https://web.archive.org/web/20160419173913/https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/co-founders-of-ben-and-jerrys-arrested-at-us-capitol/ar-BBrW5tb?li=BBnb7Kz
#5yrsago Chicago Police Accountability Task Force Report: racism,
corruption, and a “broken system”
https://chicagopatf.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/PATF_Final_Report_4_13_16-1.pdf
#5yrsago Hacking Team supplied cyber-weapons to corrupt Latin American
governments for human rights abuses
https://www.derechosdigitales.org/wp-content/uploads/malware-para-la-vigilancia.pdf
#5yrsago Supreme Court sends Authors Guild packing, won’t hear Google
Books case
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/04/fair-use-prevails-as-supreme-court-rejects-google-books-copyright-case/
#5yrsago No, tax-havens aren’t good for society (duh)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-myths-about-tax-havens/2016/04/15/76d001d2-0255-11e6-b823-707c79ce3504_story.html
#5yrsago Something New: frank, comedic, romantic memoir of a wedding in
comic form
https://memex.craphound.com/2016/04/19/something-new-frank-comedic-romantic-memoir-of-a-wedding-in-comic-form/
#5yrsago George Clooney’s neighbor threw a $27/plate Sanders fundraiser
to counter Clooney’s $33K/head Hillary event
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/sanders-supporters-shower-clinton-motorcade-1-bills-n557191
#5yrsago What is neoliberalism?
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/15/neoliberalism-ideology-problem-george-monbiot?CMP=twt_books_b-gdnbooks
#5yrsago Heads of UK’s tax havens to Her Majesty’s Government: go fuck
yourself
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tax-haven-corporate-tax-avoidance-uk-ministers-humiliated-after-cayman-bvi-british-virgin-islands-leaders-ignore-requests-meetings-a6974956.html
#1yrago Ellen DeGeneres's union crew takes paycuts while Ellen records
from home with non-union contractors
https://pluralistic.net/2020/04/17/pack-of-knaves/#be-kind
#1yrago Charlie Stross on how we'll screw up the "re-opening"
https://pluralistic.net/2020/04/17/pack-of-knaves/#brexit-too
#1yrago Gilead, the remdesivir welfare queens
https://pluralistic.net/2020/04/19/shared-microbial-destiny-2/#remdesivir
#1yrago 80% of the stimulus tax break will go to 43,000 people
https://pluralistic.net/2020/04/19/shared-microbial-destiny-2/#trickle-down
#1yrago Delivery services are gouging restaurants to death
https://pluralistic.net/2020/04/18/politics-of-discouragement/#rent-seekers
#1yrago ICANN pauses selloff of .ORG registry
https://pluralistic.net/2020/04/18/politics-of-discouragement/#savedotorg
#1yrago The Rent and Mortgage Cancellation Act
https://pluralistic.net/2020/04/18/politics-of-discouragement/#ilhan-omar
#1yrago Rural swing-state voters' social media show growing disapproval
for Trump
https://pluralistic.net/2020/04/18/politics-of-discouragement/#measuring-discouragement
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🦃 Colophon
Today's top sources: Slashdot (https://slashdot.org/).
Currently writing:
* A cyberpunk noir thriller novel, "Red Team Blues." Friday's progress:
4950 words (67476 total). - FIRST DRAFT COMPLETE
Currently reading: Analogia by George Dyson.
Latest podcast: Past Performance is Not Indicative of Future Results
https://craphound.com/news/2021/03/28/past-performance-is-not-indicative-of-future-results/
Upcoming appearances:
* Interop: Self-Determination vs Dystopia (FITC), Apr 19-21,
https://fitc.ca/presentation/interop/
* Book launch for Bruce Sterling's Robot Artists & Black Swans (Book
People), Apr 27,
https://www.bookpeople.com/event/virtual-event-bruce-sterling-robot-artists-black-swans
Recent appearances:
* The Right to Repair Movement, Monopolies, and Solarpunk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmosdDCrL-4
* The surveillance state, digital monopolies, and why we should be
worried (Podsongs)
https://anchor.fm/podsongs/episodes/Cory-Doctorow-on-the-Surveillance-State--digital-monopolies--and-why-we-should-be-worried-eso43k
* Conspiracy Theories (Utopian Horizons):
https://soundcloud.com/utopianhorizons/conspiracy-theory-w-cory-doctorow
Latest book:
* "Attack Surface": The third Little Brother novel, a standalone
technothriller for adults. The *Washington Post* called it "a political
cyberthriller, vigorous, bold and savvy about the limits of revolution
and resistance." Order signed, personalized copies from Dark Delicacies
https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1840/Available_Now%3A_Attack_Surface.html
* "How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism": an anti-monopoly pamphlet
analyzing the true harms of surveillance capitalism and proposing a
solution.
https://onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism-8135e6744d59
(print edition:
https://bookshop.org/books/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism/9781736205907)
(signed copies:
https://www.darkdel.com/store/p2024/Available_Now%3A__How_to_Destroy_Surveillance_Capitalism.html)
* "Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a new
introduction by Edward Snowden:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250774583; personalized/signed copies
here:
https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1750/July%3A__Little_Brother_%26_Homeland.html
* "Poesy the Monster Slayer" a picture book about monsters, bedtime,
gender, and kicking ass. Order here:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627. Get a personalized, signed
copy here:
https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1562/_Poesy_the_Monster_Slayer.html.
Upcoming books:
* The Shakedown, with Rebecca Giblin, nonfiction/business/politics,
Beacon Press 2022
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"*When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla*" -Joey "Accordion
Guy" DeVilla
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