New from me on AI race dynamics
The surge of attention around ChatGPT is prompting pressure inside tech giants including Meta and Google to move faster, potentially sweeping safety concerns aside
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Nitasha Tiku @nitashatiku@mastodon.social
@nitashatiku
Tech culture reporter for in SF. nitasha.tiku@washpost.com, Signal: 917-318-7531 (she/her) @nitashatiku@mastodon.social
No flex zone, OaklandJoined March 2009
Nitasha Tiku @nitashatiku@mastodon.social’s Tweets
NEW: Black taxpayers are 3-5x more likely than everyone else to be audited by the IRS, a product of algorithmic discrimination -- and policy choices by the agency.
My write-up of new research from et al:
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I was one of the people in the article on EA's hostile culture toward women.
Here I clarify some points about the EA Bay Area hacker house scene, and why the frat house culture, backed by billions in capital, puts women at a disadvantage.
youtu.be/BxRS5HQZgEc
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Silicon Valley and specifically the EA community have harbored and protected sexual predators for far too long. It’s time for us to talk about it.
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I was in the mag article about sexual violence in EA.
I know firsthand the fear of speaking up— and the immense courage it takes to speak up anyway.
Sending love to the brave women who are shedding light on darkness, you are my heroes. ❤️
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Effective Altruism— the movement dedicated to doing good better— has been under scrutiny since the fall of SBF.
But seven women told me that EA also has a hostile culture for women, one in which sexual misconduct is tolerated or rationalized away.
time.com/6252617/effect
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not only are we seeing the downfall of netflix, we are also seeing the downfall of chill
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"SkyCop-whose VP of sales worked for the Memphis police-[calls it a] crime deterrent but after .. Memphis taxpayers have paid $10 million to expand the surveillance system, crime in the city has gone up." (who is still banned)
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This is a travesty. and her team are doing important, critical work, and the should be embarrassed about how it's turning its back on controversy. It's a terrible message for future leaders it's supposed to train.
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Mark Zuckerberg is in his austerity era and said he's liking the results of so much cost-cutting, more of which is coming this year.
"For what it's worth, I think it'll be a more fun place for people to work because they can get more stuff done."
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Were you laid off from the tech industry in the last few months? Do you want to talk about your experience and thoughts on the industry for a Wash Post story? Hoping to talk with people who held any roles. Dm or email me: rachel.lerman@washpost.com
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Taking a brief break from my current research k-hole to present (((KLAXON SOUND))): the best internet culture stories of January!
First up: 's on the drama-influencer-to-TikTok-business-journalist-pipeline through the lens of the FTX scandal.
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Scoop: OpenAI is building a mobile app for ChatGPT. And it's getting ready to launch GPT-4, which is not just smarter (more human sounding and detailed), but is faster, too, suggesting some real innovation on Microsoft's cloud.
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One of the great things about 's smart debut climate advice column:
Reminders that regulatory change is powerful, and companies often resist.
washingtonpost.com/climate-enviro
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If you're a finger, your job is safe (for now)
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“We do ourselves a disservice by dismissing EA as a cult…[EA] shows how our idea about what it means to be a good person can be changed. It is a feeble thing, so readily submissive to and forged by raw status and power.” must-read from
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"EAs with status..are told that their time is more precious than others..their..fantasies about the future are considered too brilliant to fully grasp. The thrill of beginning to believe that your ideas might matter in this world is..a little addictive"
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Y'all, the Average Diffusion Faces demo is live! 🚀huggingface.co/spaces/SDbiase
(See examples for cleaner, CEO, tutor and receptionist below 👇)
I'm curious to hear your thoughts - do the faces generated for your profession look anything like you? Please share!!
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Exactly one year ago
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There are many frustrating bits in this. This one I take personally. While I can only speak to Cloud's #ResponsibleAI work under my leadership (+ I'm confident, the current team) we NEVER made decisions b/c of PR. We made decisions based on risk of HARMS.
washingtonpost.com/technology/202
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"if there is something i don’t like to do that i need to do ill go on the computer and its my excuse" 🫥
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Addicted to the internet in the 90s
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“If Google doesn’t get their act together and start shipping, they’ll go down in history as the company who nurtured & trained an entire generation of ML researchers & engineers who went on to deploy the technology at other companies.”
lol, quoted in wapo:
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The only video of Tyre Nichols we should all be watching.
Rest in Paradise 🕊️
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From 
Mai Perkins
TWNE 
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We should not need to see graphic video of a Black person being killed by police to know that Black Lives Matter. Tyre Nichols should be alive today, and our hearts are with his family, friends and community.
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In one video, Tyre Nichols is shown on the ground with officers around him, and he can be heard repeatedly screaming: “Mom, Mom, Mom.” Lawyers have said that his mother’s home was about 100 yards away from where he was beaten. nyti.ms/3HE7apV
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If AI is in a race to the bottom why has nobody hired me yet 🥺
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Since today is my last day at , here's a thread of some of the work I've done there that I'm the proudest of (and... hi editors... what you can commission me to do for you!)
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This quote by sums it up
"Rumman Chowdhury...said she expects companies like Google to increasingly sideline internal critics & ethicists as they scramble to catch up with OpenAI.
“We thought it was going to be China pushing the U.S., but looks like it’s start-ups"
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For years, tech giants like Google and Facebook have been developing the underlying tech behind tools like ChatGPT and Stable Diffusion--but had been cautious about releasing them due to concerns over safety, bias, and misinfo.
That's changing now. washingtonpost.com/technology/202
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Taking my account private just to feel something again
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We ( & I) are organizing a virtual Stochastic Parrots Day on March 17. We thought it was time for a retrospective, & plan to discuss the current landscape, how we got here & where we need to go instead. Sign up below to join us.
eventbrite.com/e/stochastic-p
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It's only kinda funny because Google fired me for being an appropriate expert on this.
Thanks for the reporting !
washingtonpost.com/technology/202
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"Companies that made promises to hire more underrepresented groups are gutting departments meant to achieve those goals."
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It's been a journalistically intense time -- in the past year-and-a-half alone I wrote longform stories about AI cancer detection and video deepfakes and the wild fight over the legacy of Bob Ross...
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After nearly 5 1/2 years covering entertainment, tech and other excitements for The Washington Post, it looks like I have become part of the resurgently fashionable trend of media layoffs. I'm still here for the moment but it won't be for forever.
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We're very happy to announce that @megatobin1 will join @washingtonpost as a China correspondent, with a focus on business and technology.washingtonpost.com/pr/2022/12/22/
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petition for all the Pandavas to each write individual stories of "how i met your mother" 😭😭😭😭
that shit's gonna be WILD
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WaPo is sunsetting its games vertical the same day NYT publishes another classically 🙄 line on gaming: "Until fairly recently, games were considered a niche hobby, typically associated with children." Infuriating that games coverage remains low priority at these prestige outlets
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More details on @washingtonpost layoffs, per memo from Executive Editor Sally Buzbee:
— 20 newsroom positions eliminated
— 30 open positions will not be filled
— WaPo is sunsetting Launcher, its online gaming vertical, and KidsPost, per two sources familiar
Memo below: twitter.com/sarafischer/st…
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just still kind of in shock. but we did spend a lot of this month talking about layoffs. here's my substack link, it's a big work in progress:
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welp, it's official! I've been laid off from , alongside some of my talented and hard-working colleagues. I'll be looking for work and trying to figure out next steps from here. thank you so much for following along until now
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