"In February, Microsoft ushered out at least five employees protesting their employer’s connections to Israel... The workers, who wore T-shirts reading, “Does Our Code Kill Kids, Satya?” were part of a worker-led campaign known as No Azure for Apartheid...calling on the company to cut ties with the Israeli government... The campaign is expected to hold a rally on Monday at the company’s annual developer conference..." By Naomi Nix @Nitasha Tiku & Trisha Thadani https://wapo.st/43kG3K7

My cousin's friend told me about a lawsuit she's part of. This organization (forgot the name) charged students for coding lessons (I think in javascript). My cousin's friend said that the company used to have office hours, multiple people to ask questions, etc.They then reduced staff to the point that there are no office hours, very few lectures & students are expected to many things on their own and, you guessed it, with the help of "AI." The students have filed a lawsuit against the company.

I'm thinking about spending some time to write explainers on some topics that people have asked me about. Some would include synthesizing other people's work, some would include our own work etc. Any other topics you'd like to add to the mix?

Meanwhile in "liberal" institutions "On the evening of April 30, dozens of police officers raided an outdoor film screening on the UCLA campus. Wearing riot gear & holding projectile weapons, they stormed into an enclosed plaza circled by dormitories. As a helicopter hovered overhead, 2 officers rode motorcycles into this pedestrian-only area filled with students who scattered, panicked...the police confiscated a screen that was literally a sheet strung between 2 poles." https://www.thenation.com/article/society/fortress-ucla/

In our work documenting the social media failures contributing to #TigrayGenocide (https://dair-institute.org/tigray-genocide), we tried to be proactive in thinking about what we can contribute to the foundation of the new social media platforms being built. We also tried to issue a warning of the current rampant incitement to violence and warmongering on social media, preparing the groundwork for another devastating war.

I can't stand the level to which so many Africans, especially African men, admire Muskrat. A colonized mind is harder to fight than the colonizers.

ProPublica

The Trump Administration Leaned on African Countries. The Goal: Get Business for Elon Musk.

The State Department has intervened on behalf of Musk’s satellite internet company in five developing nations. In Gambia, U.S. diplomats have lob...

Seems like the logical conclusion of this "generative AI" exercise. "“My grades were amazing,” she said. “It changed my life.” Sarah continued to use AI when she started college this past fall. Why wouldn’t she? Rarely did she sit in class and not see other students’ laptops open to ChatGPT. Toward the end of the semester, she began to think she might be dependent on the website.

New York Magazine

Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College

ChatGPT has unraveled the entire academic project.