Lunch & Liberty 10/25
Next Wednesday, we will have our re:BASED round table, hosted on X (formerly Twitter) Spaces! We will chat about technology and liberty.
Wednesday, 10/25, at 12pm CT / 1pm ET \
https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1YqJDgWbPQaGV?s=20
Please RSVP by replying to this email if you intend to join us, and we’ll send you a calendar invitation. If you have an exciting project you’ve been working on, let us know so we can schedule a slot for you to present it!
Hope to see you there!
Robot Overlords
Why AI Will Save the World - Marc Andreessen (of a16z) writes a long form essay that calls out the alarmism around generative AI. He’s mostly right, and this is worth a read if you are at all worried about our robot overlords. He argues that AI is a beneficial augmentation to human intelligence across diverse fields that will drive economic growth and scientific advancements. Andreessen addresses several “irrational” doomsday scenarios one by one before stressing that the real risk would be not pursuing AI, and that we have a moral obligation to do so. Don’t skip this one!
Most Europeans Want Government to Save Them from the Robots - Europeans are increasingly worried that robots will devour their jobs; no word on how they feel about government devouring their technological freedom. A study from Spain’s IE University revealed that 68% of Europeans pine for more government regulations to shield jobs from AI, marking an 18% rise from 2022. The study was not entitled, “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things,” though it should have been. In contrast, freedom-loving Estonia saw a 23% drop in such views.
Enhancing Privacy in AI Healthcare with Efficient Nanoelectronics - Researchers have developed a highly energy-efficient nanoelectronic device that enables real-time AI tasks to be carried out within wearable electronics, reducing the need for cloud-based analysis. In tests, the device accurately classified various heart conditions with 95% accuracy, and it holds promise for faster, more efficient, and more private health monitoring.
Fuyu-8B, A Multimodal Architecture for AI Agents, Goes Open Source - A small version of the multimodal model called Fuyu-8B has been released with an open-source license. Fuyu-8B is designed for digital agents, supports various image-related tasks, is fast, and performs well on image understanding benchmarks.
DALL-E Character Consistency - The 🎉 prompt of the week 🎉 clearly goes to @Borriss, who has come up with a very simple method to generate consistent character illustrations with DALL-E 3. You first describe and name your character. Then you simply tell the robot what your character is doing, like, “Bob is walking his dog.” One commenter points out that you can even use this technique to generate two consistent characters that interact with each other. 😲
Daring Bits
Supreme Court Allows Biden Admin To Continue Enforcing Ghost Gun Regulations - The Supreme Court has allowed the Biden administration’s regulations on ghost guns to take effect by vacating a lower court’s order. This decision grants the government the power to regulate ghost guns in a manner similar to traditional firearms. Meanwhile, a New York bill would require a criminal background to buy a 3D printer, because again, ghost guns. Gun rights advocates, say hello to my little friend, and repeat after me: “🤖 Nobody is coming to take your guns… 🤖”
Atlas of Surveillance - The Atlas of Surveillance aims to create a comprehensive database of law enforcement agencies’ use of surveillance technologies. By crowdsourcing and employing data journalism, the project has collected over 11,500 data points from 5,500 jurisdictions, shedding light on the prevalence of technologies like drones, face recognition, and predictive policing, with the goal of promoting transparency and public awareness of surveillance practices.
U.S. State Regulators Intervene in Coinbase’s Unregistered Securities Case - Coinbase’s legal battle over its alleged operation of an unregistered securities exchange continues, as three new legal filings, including one from the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA), argue that the SEC has the authority to regulate digital assets under existing law. They contend that cryptocurrencies do not warrant special treatment, as they lack practical economic use cases beyond speculation. “Nobody is coming for your crypto,” said nobody.
Fed Governor Questions Need for US Central Bank Digital Currency - Fed Governor Michelle Bowman expressed skepticism about the need for a U.S. central bank digital currency (CBDC), stating that existing innovations like instant payments may address identified issues as effectively as a CBDC. She highlighted potential risks and tradeoffs, including disruptions to the traditional banking system and consumer privacy concerns, while calling for more research. More like this please.
US Companies Reducing College Degree Requirement - Major American companies, like Walmart, IBM, and Google, have announced plans to reduce the number of jobs that require indoctrination paperscrushing debt college degrees.
Gap between US income taxes owed and paid is set to keep growing, IRS says - 🤔 You say that like it’s a bad thing. 🤷♀️ Brace yourself for “compliance efforts.”
A common theme throughout the internet is dark patterns of user interface design, like this not-so-handy phone number slider. A password game highlighting dark patterns has become trendy, and people are speed running it. Great for a lolz.
Liberty Toolbox
BrowserBox - “BrowserBox is a leading-edge solution in the Zero Trust landscape, enabling embeddable multiplayer browsers in any web page on any device. Our cybersecurity focus is on ensuring that every web interaction is treated as potentially hostile, and isolating it, so that we protect your devices and network from harm… BrowserBoxPro ensures that no web content directly interacts with the end user’s device, while remaining accessible through a shareable, collaborative interface. This guide will walk you through the seamless integration of BrowserBoxPro into your Zero Trust architecture.”
Whole Earth Catalog - The complete digital library of Whole Earth publications, including the iconic Whole Earth Catalog, has been made available online for the first time, allowing readers to browse or download issues free of charge. The project was led by Barry Threw, in collaboration with the Long Now Foundation and the Internet Archive, offering access to a collection that influenced techno-optimism, back-to-the-land movements, and Silicon Valley’s ethos. The catalog, published from 1968 to 1998, focused on self-sufficiency, ecology, and DIY.
