Sarah Brown
@brownsarahm.com
Assistant Professor in CS: researching ML/AI in sociotechnical systems & teaching Data Science and Dev tools with an emphasis responsible computing
New Englander, NSBE lifetime member
profile pic: me in a purplish sweater with math vaguely on the w
New Englander, NSBE lifetime member
profile pic: me in a purplish sweater with math vaguely on the w
Reposted by Sarah Brown
the plan if they get into office is to loot and extract until there’s nothing left
Very unfun fact: Project 2025 specifically names Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area and wants to remove its protected status and open it up to mining.
This is the future Donald John Trump wants.
This is the future Donald John Trump wants.
July 11, 2024 at 2:10 PM
the plan if they get into office is to loot and extract until there’s nothing left
Reposted by Sarah Brown
despite no benefit & multitude of harms, AI companies aggressively push GenAI everywhere & successful adoption depends on public perception of AI. how do prominent venues like NYT report on AI? who’s voices & perspectives are most frequently cited in NYT articles? www.saysmaybe.com/latest-work/...
July 10, 2024 at 3:00 PM
despite no benefit & multitude of harms, AI companies aggressively push GenAI everywhere & successful adoption depends on public perception of AI. how do prominent venues like NYT report on AI? who’s voices & perspectives are most frequently cited in NYT articles? www.saysmaybe.com/latest-work/...
Reposted by Sarah Brown
students use AI to generate essays; educators use AI to grade it… AI that is built on the backbone of stolen data and packaged as a shiny EdTech tool that educational institutes have to pay a fortune for… folks, do you see who benefits from all of this?
No matter who says that these tools aren’t intended to replace teachers or how many times it’s said, that’s exactly what will happen. (Or it will be used as a justification for eliminating teacher jobs because now teachers can “grade” more efficiently) www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-t...
July 3, 2024 at 11:31 AM
students use AI to generate essays; educators use AI to grade it… AI that is built on the backbone of stolen data and packaged as a shiny EdTech tool that educational institutes have to pay a fortune for… folks, do you see who benefits from all of this?
Reposted by Sarah Brown
I kinda feel like now that the Supreme Court has declared it legal for a president to straight-up murder people they don't like, it's probably even more important to not elect people who seem extremely inclined to murder people they don't like
July 2, 2024 at 10:33 PM
I kinda feel like now that the Supreme Court has declared it legal for a president to straight-up murder people they don't like, it's probably even more important to not elect people who seem extremely inclined to murder people they don't like
Reposted by Sarah Brown
Google’s emissions grew 48% because of AI and they cannot meet environmental pledges. Microsoft too. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Google’s Emissions Shot Up 48% Over Five Years Due to AI
A new report shows that the artificial intelligence boom will test Silicon Valley’s climate commitments.
www.bloomberg.com
July 2, 2024 at 11:27 PM
Google’s emissions grew 48% because of AI and they cannot meet environmental pledges. Microsoft too. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
11. early enough they're still raking
June 28, 2024 at 1:00 PM
11. early enough they're still raking
Reposted by Sarah Brown
It's not "I suffered so you should too," it's "I suffered and no one else should ever have to."
June 26, 2024 at 8:10 PM
It's not "I suffered so you should too," it's "I suffered and no one else should ever have to."
technically today's conditions are safe, the green flag is up, but it's pretty choppy today (so hard to photograph) and I'm feeling a little fatigued so I'm not going to swim, bc the ocean is undefeated and I don't test it
1/3 of my goal!
June 26, 2024 at 3:54 PM
technically today's conditions are safe, the green flag is up, but it's pretty choppy today (so hard to photograph) and I'm feeling a little fatigued so I'm not going to swim, bc the ocean is undefeated and I don't test it
Reposted by Sarah Brown
Westerners will imagine and depict the end of the world in their literature and media, but never the end of capitalism.
June 25, 2024 at 11:56 PM
Westerners will imagine and depict the end of the world in their literature and media, but never the end of capitalism.
Reposted by Sarah Brown
We tested AI voice cloning services to see how easy it was to clone a voice without the owner’s consent.
Results: 7 cloning services offer barely any technical barriers. Only one service - Respeecher - attempts to verify consent.
From @janus.bsky.social for @proofnews.bsky.social:
Results: 7 cloning services offer barely any technical barriers. Only one service - Respeecher - attempts to verify consent.
From @janus.bsky.social for @proofnews.bsky.social:
AI Tools Make It Easy to Clone Someone’s Voice Without Consent
A survey by Proof News shows that many AI voice cloning services don’t require any proof of a human’s consent — just a simple click of an “I agree” button
www.proofnews.org
June 25, 2024 at 12:29 PM
We tested AI voice cloning services to see how easy it was to clone a voice without the owner’s consent.
Results: 7 cloning services offer barely any technical barriers. Only one service - Respeecher - attempts to verify consent.
From @janus.bsky.social for @proofnews.bsky.social:
Results: 7 cloning services offer barely any technical barriers. Only one service - Respeecher - attempts to verify consent.
From @janus.bsky.social for @proofnews.bsky.social:
Resistance is not denial, it's more intentional and active. I think it requires acknowledgement without endorsement, which is really hard.
June 25, 2024 at 1:47 PM
Resistance is not denial, it's more intentional and active. I think it requires acknowledgement without endorsement, which is really hard.
9. nature looks like a lot of different things. seagulls were poking around the post storm seaweed and decided they don't want the washed up fish.
June 25, 2024 at 1:36 PM
9. nature looks like a lot of different things. seagulls were poking around the post storm seaweed and decided they don't want the washed up fish.
I am aware of the fact that meditation excercises *can*work anywhere, but the actual ocan is so much better than a guided meditation recording. it's the feeling of the breeze, the smell of the salt, the occasional mist from a big wave.
June 24, 2024 at 4:03 PM
I am aware of the fact that meditation excercises *can*work anywhere, but the actual ocan is so much better than a guided meditation recording. it's the feeling of the breeze, the smell of the salt, the occasional mist from a big wave.
on the eighth trip, a yellow flag, no swimming for me
June 24, 2024 at 3:12 PM
on the eighth trip, a yellow flag, no swimming for me
Reposted by Sarah Brown
Honestly the difference is one of them potentially makes so much money, no way it will eventually be illegal
Important lesson: the reason crime doesn’t pay is that if it did, it wouldn’t be a crime
(Worth learning the economic reasons eg abolition started getting popular when it did)
Important lesson: the reason crime doesn’t pay is that if it did, it wouldn’t be a crime
(Worth learning the economic reasons eg abolition started getting popular when it did)
Reminder that Aaron Swartz was facing 35 years in prison and financial devastation for trying to programmatically download and open the contents of JSTOR, which led to him taking his own life.
But OpenAI is going to scrape all of academia and make billions by plagiarizing it.
But OpenAI is going to scrape all of academia and make billions by plagiarizing it.
June 23, 2024 at 7:56 PM
Honestly the difference is one of them potentially makes so much money, no way it will eventually be illegal
Important lesson: the reason crime doesn’t pay is that if it did, it wouldn’t be a crime
(Worth learning the economic reasons eg abolition started getting popular when it did)
Important lesson: the reason crime doesn’t pay is that if it did, it wouldn’t be a crime
(Worth learning the economic reasons eg abolition started getting popular when it did)
Reposted by Sarah Brown
to add a little more here, it is not that economic anxiety is fake, it is that it cannot be neatly disentangled from racial anxieties. for instance, if you are doing well but see black people doing better, you may feel anxious on account of your internalized idea of what the racial order should be.
i have largely stopped arguing about this on social media because it isn’t fruitful, but this finding gets to why you should be skeptical of theories that try to sideline or excise race from an explanation of the white rural turn toward reactionary politics news.cornell.edu/stories/2024...
Growing rural-urban divide exists only among white Americans | Cornell Chronicle
Researchers have found that when it comes to politics, Black and Latino residents of rural America differ far less, if at all, from their urban counterparts than do non-Hispanic white residents.
news.cornell.edu
June 23, 2024 at 9:09 PM
to add a little more here, it is not that economic anxiety is fake, it is that it cannot be neatly disentangled from racial anxieties. for instance, if you are doing well but see black people doing better, you may feel anxious on account of your internalized idea of what the racial order should be.
seven. later than normal, but I made it and swam.
June 21, 2024 at 3:35 PM
seven. later than normal, but I made it and swam.
Reposted by Sarah Brown
Bet every police precinct in the City of New York has shiny new A/C
Four NYPL branches had broken air conditioning this week amid 90-degree temperatures, despite being city-designated "cooling centers." Library officials blame $750,000 in deferred maintenance exacerbated by Mayor Eric Adams’s recent budget reductions.
After budget cuts, NYC's libraries can't fix broken air conditioners amid heat wave
The air conditioning was out in at least four New York Public Library branches on Tuesday, forcing two Staten Island sites to close.
gothamist.com
June 20, 2024 at 6:43 PM
Bet every police precinct in the City of New York has shiny new A/C
Reposted by Sarah Brown
I am all for reducing social media addictiveness, in ways that are grounded in sound evidence and understanding of the relevant technologies.
I strongly expect the most effective solutions to “non- or less-addictive social media access” will involve personalization.
I strongly expect the most effective solutions to “non- or less-addictive social media access” will involve personalization.
June 20, 2024 at 7:36 PM
I am all for reducing social media addictiveness, in ways that are grounded in sound evidence and understanding of the relevant technologies.
I strongly expect the most effective solutions to “non- or less-addictive social media access” will involve personalization.
I strongly expect the most effective solutions to “non- or less-addictive social media access” will involve personalization.
Balloons suck. I pulled this out of the ocean and deflated it and will bring it to the trash, but saw 2 more float by too far out to get them. Don't cause this.
June 20, 2024 at 2:51 PM
Balloons suck. I pulled this out of the ocean and deflated it and will bring it to the trash, but saw 2 more float by too far out to get them. Don't cause this.
six.
it's too hot to go for walks *not* at the beach this week
it's too hot to go for walks *not* at the beach this week
June 20, 2024 at 1:28 PM
six.
it's too hot to go for walks *not* at the beach this week
it's too hot to go for walks *not* at the beach this week
Reposted by Sarah Brown
correction: "those in management and leadership positions are coming with AI for Hollywood"
Column: AI is coming for Hollywood
Proponents of AI are making bold promises. That potentially means human creativity will be replaced by the theft — sorry, data scraping — jobs will be lost, water will be wasted. What will be left is anyone’s guess
Proponents of AI are making bold promises. That potentially means human creativity will be replaced by the theft — sorry, data scraping — jobs will be lost, water will be wasted. What will be left is anyone’s guess
Column: AI is coming for Hollywood
The looming threat of AI in Hollywood will arrive with all the subtlety of the Kool-Aid Man busting through a wall.
www.chicagotribune.com
June 19, 2024 at 11:44 AM
correction: "those in management and leadership positions are coming with AI for Hollywood"