• The Uber Files data leak and the chasm between ethics and lobbying

    On July 11, the Guardian newspaper dropped a bombshell across the media and political landscapes with the first revelations about Uber and its law-breaking activities around the world, on an industrial scale, in the pursuit of profits. News about the Uber Files published by the Guardian and a global array of media partners was the visible first step in making use of a treasure trove of data leaked by a whistleblower to shine a bright spotlight on a company that…

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  • Topics for FIR 270

    My topics for discussion with Shel in For Immediate Release 270, our monthly long-form podcast episode for July 2022, published on July 18, 2022: The Uber Files The Uber Files are a leaked database of Uber’s activities in about 40 countries that reveals how Uber stormed into markets around the world, and how it used stealth technology and evasive practices to thwart regulators and law enforcement in at least six countries […] https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/jul/10/uber-files-leak-reveals-global-lobbying-campaign https://www.icij.org/investigations/uber-files/frequently-asked-questions-about-the-uber-files/ https://twitter.com/ICIJorg/status/1546164602236551168 https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/10/leaked-uber-files-reveal-history-of-lawbreaking-lobbying-and-exploiting-violence-against-drivers/ https://www.thestreet.com/investing/three-words-at-the-heart-of-uber-scandal https://newsroom.cipr.co.uk/uber-leaks-reveal-easily-exploitable-lobbying-rules/ To the game industry, NFTs…

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  • The enduring influence of Paul McCartney

    A few days ago I met up with some good friends for lunch at a terrific pub outside Dorking. It was a pleasant 90-minute drive on a warm and sunny day from Newbury via Guildford and through the Surrey Hills. To make the journey even more pleasant and very relaxing, I listened to the Spotify playlist of the songs in Paul McCartney‘s headline session at Glastonbury Festival last weekend. The 90-minute return journey gave me the time to listen to…

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  • Keep an open mind about AI

    The suspension of a Google engineer called Blake Lemoine, who claimed an AI (artificial intelligence) in the form of a computer chatbot he was working on had become sentient and was thinking and reasoning like a human being, has stimulated a lot of comment over the past few weeks following the story’s publication in the Washington Post. It formed the starting discussion that Shel Holtz and I had in this month’s long-form episode 263 of the For Immediate Release podcast,…

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  • Topics for FIR 263

    My topics for discussion with Shel in For Immediate Release 263, our monthly long-form podcast episode for June 2022, published on June 20, 2022: Google has not created sentient AI — yet The suspension of a Google engineer called Blake Lemoine, who claimed a computer chatbot he was working on had become sentient and was thinking and reasoning like a human being, has stimulated a lot of discussion over the past week or so. […] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/jun/12/google-engineer-ai-bot-sentient-blake-lemoine https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/06/11/google-ai-lamda-blake-lemoine/ https://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/2022/06/dangerous-fallacy-sentient-ai https://www.wired.com/story/blake-lemoine-google-lamda-ai-bigotry/ https://bigthink.com/the-future/google-sentient-ai/…

    Full story: Topics for FIR 263