markjgsmith

War, AI and more war: the 2024 Bilderberg agenda is sure to set off alarm bells - Haven't herd this lot mentioned in quite a few years. It was Bilderberg this and illuminatti that about a decade ago. Interesting they are trying to re-inventing themselves. Perhaps they should try being more 'open' and less secretive, have the attendees do some blogging. I'm struck today about the 'builder' root in the name that I hadn't noticed before. This year it's a who's who of heads Big AI tech apparently, oh and Big pharma, and Big warfare. So nothing to be worried about then. Probably just like Davos. theguardian.com #

Napster Sparked a File-Sharing Revolution 25 Years Ago - That era of the internet really was kind of wild. I don't remember being into Napster specifically but Bit torrent and NZBs were really awesome. Great post download automation features. I miss those days, you could really vicerally sense how the web was going to change literally everything. torrentfreak.com #

U.S tech giants are building dozens of huge data centers in Chile. Locals are fighting back - These data centers are massive and use huge amounts of water extracted from the ground to cool their servers. That's a big problem in areas that already have droubts since many years. I like that these environmental organisations are springing up to both highlight the issue but also to facilitate projects where the very rich Big Tech companies can offset their environmental footprint. I just hope there is transparency, I could imagine such efforts could easily fall victim to corruption. restofworld.org #

Computer makers unveil Nvidia Blackwell systems for AI rollouts - Two big new things in this article. First, 25-30X improvements in power comsumption, and second, the idea of "AI factories" that produce a new type of commodity: artificial intelligence. AI ETF anyone? venturebeat.com #

Young French leader's rise and Belgium's future existence: What to watch in EU elections - Pretty good article that briefly samples the pulse in various countries accross the EU. I didn't realise that Belgium was in danger of disapearing, I suspect it's a bit of an alarmist view. Lots of focus on the rise of far right groups. It would be good to find a few similar articles by different news orgs to compare and contrast. Certainly interesting times politically in the EU at the minute. bbc.com #

I’m a brown, Muslim European. For people like me, these EU elections are terrifying - Shada Islam piece about how the EU elections affect people like her. Every country has it's own slightly different flavour of disfunction when it comes to immigration, racism etc. I think also each place has it's own particulars where it's working well and producing net benefits for those involved. I wish we could spend some time unearthing those stories too. Interesting article nonetheless, both positive and negative aspects need to be written about and shared. theguardian.com #

‘I cannot take it lightly’: young voters urged to take part in EU elections - The view from young voters, also very interesting, they face quite different pressures and influences. And across the EU this group is massive. Some varied beliefs in ex-autocratic and russian states. Lots of concern for environmental issues. theguardian.com #

The future of financial analysis: How GPT-4 is disrupting the industry, according to new research - At some point the prediction capabilities are going to approach perfection. Won't that break the econony? Why would anyone invest? I guess when predicting company perfornance and economies has been solved those analysts will need to move on to analysing more complex systems? venturebeat.com #

UK within British empire is like last person left at a party, says David Olusoga - Quite the analogy. I'm not sure it's so accurate, it feels like we've been hungover for years at this point. theguardian.com #

The Guardian view on social media harms: the tech giants must be more open - I'm not so sure this is such a good idea. Yes there are occasionally some horrible cases that occur, but you have to realise the other side of the coin. There are also horrible cases of abuse by parents. I wonder what Britney Spears would think about social media companies allowing parents to snoop on their children. theguardian.com #

Whither Utopia? - This article by Rohit Krishnan has been getting some attention. I thought it started out as a sort of book list maskerading as a thought piece. But it does get more interesting from about half way through. It's a topic I'm curious about, especially in this new age of AI and crypto where everything can be predicted and everything can be turned into a transaction. strangeloopcanon.com #