Alex Hanna / is on Nostr

Director of Research at the Distributed AI Research Institute.

Roller derby athlete/announcer at Bay Area Derby.

🇪🇬⚧

Residing on unceded Lisjan (Ohlone) land. Pay your Shuumi Land Tax if you live in the East Bay. https://sogoreate-landtrust.org/

Web: https://alex-hanna.com
Work: https://dair-institute.org
Pronouns: She/her/هي
Derby name: Kate Silver (#538)

Last Notes

2024-07-05 23:02:37

Oh my gosh.
"Recent construction connected to data centers... has damaged Black cemeteries in the Manassas area... which have historically been the burial place of free Black people, formerly enslaved Black people and Indigenous Americans."
These companies really have no problem ingesting literal Black and Indigenous bodies as grist for the AI mill.
https://www.insidenova.com/headlines/black-leaders-say-development-infringing-on-historical-cemeteries-in-prince-william/article_4a75e8f8-349d-11ef-894f-43fd29f4c462.html

2024-06-26 04:17:54

With all the recent reporting on AI sucking up so much energy, I wonder if Jeff Dean and all the folks at Google who swear that the AI consumption of energy will "plateau and then decrease" because that seems like a patent lie with the existing data.
See this newsletter about false promises of tech companies, by @npub15xv…0jms:
https://buttondown.email/maiht3k/archive/on-the-energy-demands-of-ai/

2024-06-26 04:16:54

"I’m no longer interested in encouraging the design of more human-centered versions of these murderous technologies, or to inform the more humane administration of complex algorithmic systems that separate families, bomb schools and neighborhoods..."
Destroy AI, by @npub1fw8…g7yy
https://ali-alkhatib.com/blog/fuck-up-ai

2024-05-24 20:11:04

Apropos of nothing this Friday: a reminder to never use Google Scholar for correct citations! They are wrong for everything except arXiv papers! And even then it's dicey! It's a shit product!
If anything, use DOIs and Zotero!
For instance, one way I assume that someone hasn't actually read Ruha Benjamin's Race After Technology, despite citing it, is that the citation is to a Social Forces review of the book, which says the publisher is Wiley, and not Polity.
https://cdn.masto.host/daircommunitysocial/media_attachments/files/112/497/410/604/890/801/original/6fcf4a1dce5eb48b.png

2024-04-28 23:04:56

multiple times a day I think of the word "autopoiesis" and multiple times a day I forget what it means

2024-04-28 07:02:23

One of my DMs let my Barbarian/Cleric take a level of warlock after I failed a divine intervention so hard (literally got a 1 out of 100) while in the Nine Hells, I summoned a mommy devil who made a contract with my character

2024-04-23 23:26:53

The recent sit-ins in higher ed spaces are inspiring and creating a second wave of protest against the genocide in Gaza. They also follow a pattern of student solidarity waves, which Ellen Berrey and I have been watching for years. It’s 2015 and we’re at a different Columbia...
https://cdn.masto.host/daircommunitysocial/media_attachments/files/112/322/627/791/088/145/original/09628fadcfc7cbf0.png

2024-04-23 00:09:15

The [@nationalnurses](https://bird.makeup/users/nationalnurses) guidance on AI in the healthcare setting is excellent. Talk about immediately seeing through the hype!
https://www.nationalnursesunited.org/artificial-intelligence
https://cdn.masto.host/daircommunitysocial/media_attachments/files/112/317/151/585/510/681/original/9cb2755611b03750.png

2024-04-18 05:08:40

Holy shit. Google fired 28 workers for protesting against its $1.2 billion contract with the IDF. Solidarity with these workers of conscience.
https://medium.com/@notechforapartheid/statement-from-google-workers-with-the-no-tech-for-apartheid-campaign-on-googles-indiscriminate-28ba4c9b7ce8

2024-04-16 15:51:56

With IDF's "Lavender" and its use in the violence in Gaza, the point is not the technology or its errors, but plausible deniability and ideologies of scale. New for the newsletter.
https://buttondown.email/maiht3k/archive/lavender-the-gospel-and-the-scale-of-ai-war/

2024-04-14 07:13:22

At punk rock karaoke with a guy who looks like a punk rock Romulan

2024-04-04 17:44:19

It was such a joy to speak with [@annaleen](https://wandering.shop/@annaleen) and [@charliejane](https://wandering.shop/@charliejane) over at [@ouropinions](https://wandering.shop/@ouropinions)!
(and yes, the Turing Test is totally bullshit)
https://www.ouropinionsarecorrect.com/shownotes/2024/4/4/the-turing-test-is-bullshit-walex-hanna-and-emily-m-bender