At a time where the vulnerability of relying on US digital infrastructure and cloud services is *huge*, our @algosoc.org research program pilot to rely on *European* cloud services is more relevant than ever. [edited]

Alternatives are not easy. But necessary.

www.voxweb.nl/nieuws/five-...

Goddamnit, Google. For shame.
Google Calendar removes Black History Month, Pride and other cultural events
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

This is how a democracy collapses: "A senior official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency instructed subordinates to freeze funding for a wide array of grant programs Monday, just hours after a federal judge ordered the Trump administration — for the second time — to stop such pauses."

With Google removing their Responsible AI Principles, they no longer state that they will *not* engage in "Technologies whose purpose contravenes widely accepted principles of international law and human rights".
Concerns about surveillance and injury are also erased.
ai.google/responsibili...

The Guardian can say it. @hcrichardson.bsky.social can say it. Why can't our incumbent, institutional journalism? It is a #coup.
"The replacement of our constitutional system of government with the whims of an unelected private citizen is a coup."
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-3...

So Google joins OpenAI in continuing to expose "Responsible AI" as a useful PR term that every teacher and school admin should understand can be stripped of any remaining ethical commitments when it's profitable to do so, and thus a good reason not to embrace these companies and their tools.

Over the past year, a network of AI-generated local newsletters has quietly spread to 47 states and 355 towns and cities across the U.S.

For @niemanlab.org, I dug into Good Daily's operations and learned how it gained a foothold in "small town America."
www.niemanlab.org/2025/01/insi...

Fabrice Fries, PDG de l’AFP : « L’écosystème de la désinformation est sorti grand vainqueur du cycle d’élections de 2024, contribuant à faire élire populistes et dirigeants autoritaires »

Le second mandat de Donald Trump commence par un investissement de centaines de milliards de dollars pour l’intelligence artificielle

Hello world.