I work in tech, working on #AI #alignment of #personalized applications to make sure they avoid #privacy and #safety harms
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2026-07-06T03:41:02Z Event JSON
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"content": "{\"name\":\"Imbolc\",\"about\":\"I work in tech, working on #AI #alignment of #personalized applications to make sure they avoid #privacy and #safety harms\\n\\nOpinions here are strictly my own — I’m not speaking for my employer\",\"website\":\"https://social.coop/@eob\",\"picture\":\"https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/accounts/avatars/109/249/993/201/850/105/original/86002caf652ea99f.png\",\"banner\":\"https://social-coop-media.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/accounts/headers/109/249/993/201/850/105/original/725e86f8464251a7.png\",\"nip05\":\"[email protected] \"}" ,
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Last Notes npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc The recent "Odd Lots" episode, "How a Trade War With China Could Become a Hot War," is a critical listen npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc "A skeletal 18-month-old Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq is the lead picture for the Guardian, which reports on Israeli attacks on aid hubs and worsening starvation in Gaza. Palestinian Faiza Abdul Rahman, who is "constantly dizzy" from lack of food says: "We have faced hunger before, but never like this", a quote the paper uses as its main headline" npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc If you want to know the truth about AI then read the comments in this thread from @npub1zjp…u8q9 npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc It's troubling that police are using generative AI to produce legally significant text like police reports, given the known risks of bias and hallucination npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Astounding imagery of how far ahead China is in solar npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc This is a really excellent overview of the privacy challenges that anyone building generative AI systems should consider npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Hey, if anyone will be looking for someone with a technical background to work on privacy or AI safety later this year, I might be available for a new gig starting around October npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Meta was caught red-handed using its Facebook app to eavesdrops on your browser sessions even if you had taken privacy precautions such as using incognito mode npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Oh great. Now all personal data the the US government knows about us will be collected by Palantir, the Blackwater of tech npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Concerning that the Republican in the US Congress want to prevent AI regulations by the states npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc From Florida, comes some good news for privacy… npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc This is insane npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Yes, this is a newly found supply-chain vulnerability according to the original post from the security company: npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Generally you want to run untrusted code in as constrained an execution environment as possible to minimize the damage it could do. But easyjson requires the ability to create new programs and execute them, which means it could do a lot of damage of it were subverted npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc The article does quote people who base their security concern on the fact that most of the developers of this library are in Russia, which might increase the vulnerability to a supply-chain stack npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Even if the developers of this library are fully trustworthy, a quick glance at this code revealed a few worrying things from a security pound of view npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Happy Beltane to those who celebrate npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Extract from the article[email protected] npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc In a move reminiscent of communist-era Eastern European police states, the US administration is ignoring the Federal Privacy Act and combining all government data about everyone to create a "database of ruin" npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Yes, fighting crime is important, but taking away the privacy of all European is not the answer npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Future superhuman AI worries people npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Current techniques for #AI #safety and #alignment are fragile, and often fail npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Even better is to use semantic classes npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Some people think that although the US does not have general #privacy law at the federal level, at least there is reasonable privacy law at the state level npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Anything you print in color is traceable to your printer, because of hidden patterns of yellow dots npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Important new privacy protections rolling out to Android… npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc AI alignment work often considers alignment of values, but even more basic is ensuring that an AI's abstractions match how humans think about the world npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc I really, really hope that when they say "AI" they don't mean LLMs or other kinds of generative AI npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Great AI security and safety article about a paper on mitigated prompt injection vulnerabilities of LLMs: npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc I don't think there is really a generally accepted term for that. I'd just call it "mis-tap from layout shifting" npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc This is amazing! npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc It is important that AI tools keep human in the loop npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc I like the term "ungrounded response" instead of "hallucination" npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Yeah agreed. This is not a novel point npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc This article takes evidence-based approach to understanding LLMs and suggests it's a category error to apply terms like "hallucination" or consider LLMs to have personalities npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Well I don't agree fully with that. I think there are some valid econ equations that have a solid basis in theory and are supported by real world findings. npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc It doesn't take much economics to see through this bullshit formula for calculation the tariff increases npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Oh that was so linguistically interesting! npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Oh thanks, I just read the article and saw it npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc I'm confused. Where is that quote from? npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc This is what happens when a country has no broad privacy protection laws npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc I'm not a particularly big LLM booster, but I do think they do have some value npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Bravo, la France npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc The Trump administration trusts Signal npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Presumably the entire constellation of tech regulatory laws will constrain LLM technology in Europe: the GDPR is really only appropriate for the privacy concern npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Here's thoughtful analysis on the issues of applying GDPR to generative AI npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc To people who are following who might be confused by this account appearing in their feed... npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc In California, parking operators and private security can put up an automated license plate readers, with the only requirement being to post a privacy policy online npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Sometimes web user interface can throw up weird bugs npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Here's a privacy threat you might not have been aware of npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc If this sticks, the loss of Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya in particular will remove one of the few people left defending the privacy of Americans npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Great visualization, though still trying to wrap my head around the 4D one npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Scary vision of what's coming npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Lesson learned from Germany of how information technology without data privacy facilitated the Holocaust npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc We should not anthropomorphize generative AI systems either in a emotional sense, or in an ethical and legal sense npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Privacy and data protection laws are even more important in these times npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc It is indeed a challenge right now to run on-device agentic AI inference on a phone npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Whittaker is rightly warning about the privacy nightmare of agentic AI needing root permission to our lives npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc The State of Florida wants to know what drugs every person in Florida is prescribed, and by which doctor npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc It's an exciting time to be working on Google Search, as generative AI expanded the space of what's possible npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc The effective dismantling of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board is loss of protections for American's privacy npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc The best way of earning people's trust is to first trust them npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/feb/21/apple-removes-advanced-data-protection-tool-uk-government npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Slouching towards vague authoritarianism is scary enough npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Normalize pronouncing npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Too many bad review npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Maybe the things that saves democracy will be the Privacy Act of 1974 npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc The US (unlike the EU) has very poor privacy protections against the actions of corporations npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Three attacks on privacy from the new US administration: npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc "U.K. orders Apple to let it spy on users' encrypted accounts npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Given the US is violated its free trade agreements, then Canada and Mexico are no longer bound to respect the agreements to enforce anti-competitive IP practices that benefit US big tech npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Happy Brigid's Day, the first day of spring (Imbolc) according to the Celtic calendar npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Scientific American, I love you, but please read the room npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Today Meta revealed that the Paragon spyware is surveiling journalists and others who are using WhatsApp npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Happy Data Privacy Day, to those who celebrate npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc What ICE calls a "warrant" is often not valid for entry into a private building or vehicle npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Tired: npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc "people be peopling" npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc This is bad for Americans' privacy npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Reminder that Trump whisperer and tech billionaire Andreessen has said: npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ovia-app-location/ npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Legal arguments for how the states can act to protect privacy, now that the stakes are higher: npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc This is great advice npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc So, Andreessen drops the veil and reveals why he turned against the Democrats. It was self interest, given they tried to rein in ("terror campaign" in his overwrought words) the crypto scams that he was invested in, and might have put some guardrails around AI npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc I'm not against carbon sequestration, so I read the paper out of curiosity npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Thaumaturgy is the correct name for LLM system prompt engineering npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc This is a good lesson for why prompt rewriting is not a robust AI safety protection for LLMs npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc The VC-bros on the All In podcast have started talking credulously about aliens constructing the pyramids, and the Ancient Apocalypse lost Ice Age civilization pseudoscience npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Cookie consents are not necessarily dark patterns npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc Experimental evidence that dark patterns in a UI are effective at fulfilling their deceptive aims of getting people to "consent" to things they don't want npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc There have been many horrific images coming out of LA, but this early one still horrifies me the most npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc It seems like Meta is an awful place to work npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc So, Meta gets two benefits from unleashing the misinfo and disinfo on its platforms npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc A security directorate of the US immigration service does surveillance of social media using fictitious accounts: npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc “I really think this a precursor for genocide"…"We've seen it happen. Real people's lives are actually going to be endangered." npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc One notable things is that Zuckerberg explicitly says he is making these changes because of US political changes npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc To be totally pedantic, in British English, "which" can be used to introduce a restrictive clause without a comma. npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc An LLM cannot inherently know about it's creation any more than the average human can accurately describe the embryology of how they developed in the womb npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc "misinformation is powerful, not because it changes minds, but because it allows people to maintain their beliefs in light of growing evidence to the contrary. The internet may function not so much as a brainwashing engine but as a justification machine. A rationale is always just a scroll or a click away" npub145g76y6p96ykkm9zxfyeslashxsd8thadejvzfprmljya2ez0zcsapmrpm Imbolc How to do content moderation on a system designed to be maximally privacy preserving?
