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Craig H
Max Notes
Thereâs a good chance that TikTok will be gone by the time you read this. Or not. Totally unclear how this goes. 99 shared this article with me as I was preparing the newsletter. Itâs about influencers using TikTok and other platforms to sell detox programs to recover from smoke inhalation due to the fires in Los Angeles. Maybe Congress can find a way to deport these people instead of the millions of hard-working immigrants that will no doubt be involved in the disaster recovery process.
We had a curious interaction on TikTok this week since weâre on the subject. You may have seen the video I dropped on the ceasefire in Gaza. Then again, you probably didnât and thatâs the point.
Not only did the video absolutely flop on YouTube, leading to a brief period of subscriber loss, the clip of it we shared on TikTok was shadowbanned. Zero views. We were put in social media jail for a rather clinical analysis of the ceasefire deal, likening it to the Iran Hostage deal when Carter and Reagan crossed over.
Point being, we are at the mercy of these platforms and that includes our subject for this week. In our day jobs we work extensively with tech platforms and now AI tools. They are as powerful as they are horrifying so we have a definitive perspective on the topic at hand this week. We have so many thoughts about whatâs happening right now that this episode will likely be just the beginning of several to come. Here are just a few observations and things weâre grappling with.
LLMs are increasingly training on bad information. We have generated content using tools that routinely make up statistics and distort facts, even when we prompt the tools specifically. Carry this out to its logical conclusion and we will quickly live in a world where news and information will be founded in false logic and lies. Fake News might be All News if weâre not careful.
We are keenly aware of the ecological harm being done by the sheer amount of energy required to perform the most routine tasks. At the same time, weâre trying to remain relevant and on top of current trends. This is a toxic cocktail. If we donât find renewable sources to meet the energy demands, then machines will kill us all for very different reasons than we imagined.
For these reasons and more, there is no such thing as âethical AI.â Itâs a problem that our representatives wonât catch up to or contain. Perhaps the most cynical example of where weâre headed is the news (is it real?) that Elon Musk might have an office in the White House.
Weâre past the need for ânews literacy.â Weâre entering into something entirely different that only the great fiction writers have envisaged. 99 asked me if Iâm conflicted about our warnings against the AI revolution and the fact that we utilize these tools and are therefore participating in it. I lied and said, âno.â Male ego defense mechanism at work right there.
After some deliberation (thanks for even more lost sleep, 99) the answer is mostly âyesâ and a bit of ânoâ.
Yes, because almost everything we do in our society is in conflict with the ethics we require to lead balanced and moral lives. I drive; eat processed foods and meat; pipe natural gas into my home; use AI tools at work, etc. There are many other ways that I live a moral and ethical life, of course, but I canât throw stones in a glass house.
No, because I choose to acknowledge these inconsistencies while leveraging my skills and using my time to build this community. This is my contribution. Itâs all I know how to do and what I have to offer. It doesnât excuse other deleterious behaviors I have control over but I sleep well at night knowing I have tomorrow to do better.
Now if youâll excuse me, I have some TikToks to doomscroll throughâŚ
Sometimes my mind wanders and I get sucked into stupid gossip. For some reason, Iâm again engrossed by the Blake Lively/Justin Baldoni fiasco. I donât feel good about it. But Iâm here to gossip if you want.
Thank you, Mel Gibson. Thank you for reminding everyone how batshit crazy you are. Youâve given us so much. Braveheart. 17 Lethal Weapons. Seething phone recordings with unrepeatable expletives. And now perhaps the greatest line ever uttered in regard to Jesus rising from the dead: âBuddha didnât do that shit.â How profound.
âSticky.â Thatâs what they call it when inflation doesnât budge. How about âFuckmeâ instead? An increase in energy prices was the primary driver of the December data, so there is some good underlying news regarding core inflation. But the Fed will likely interpret this negatively and keep rates where they are for the time being. Not great. Student, housing, and credit card debt after the holidays are going to start inching further into crisis mode. And itâs anyoneâs guess what the fallout will be from immediate enactment of Trump policies. Hold tight folks.
Headlines
There Are So Many Things the âFree Marketâ Just Wonât Solve
Houston, we have a problem. Also, Los Angeles, Asheville, New Orleans, SarasotaâŚThe housing insurance crisis has reached a tipping point. With private insurers leaving markets with their hair on fire, public insurance funds are forced to fill the gaps. Thereâs no market-based solution that will save the day.
From the article:
âIf we want different outcomes, we must reimagine our disaster risk finance system so it reduces risk and provides protection fairly. Thatâs why we propose a new policy vision for home insurance in the United States: housing resilience agencies (HRAs). Given that insurance markets and much risk reduction and emergency management are regulated and managed at the state level, our policy proposal focuses on state- and territory-level implementation.â
Current Affairs Magazine, The Jacobin long-form and just about everything in The Baffler are proof that great writing not only exists, but is flourishing. This Baffler piece weaves a biographic narrative to show how conscious capitalism is an oxymoron in the most splendid prose. This is leather elbow patch, comfy armchair by the fire kind of shit.
From the article:
âThe eruption of class consciousness at Erewhon illustrates the tensions that persisted within the cohort of professional and managerial workers who came of age during the counterculture (or shortly thereafter) and were increasingly encouraged by their bossesâand occasionally their friendsâto conceptualize themselves as entrepreneurs rather than employees. The promise of countercultural entrepreneurship was that through right livelihood and force of will it was possible to transcend the antinomies of work and leisure; success and self-expression; managerial hierarchy and anti-authoritarian self-governance; the masculinity of the traditional corporate ranks and the femininity of the casualized and domestic workforce.â
Just as Dwight Eisenhower presided over secret plans to increase military spending and weapons trials while warning of the Military Industrial Complex, Joe Biden warned the nation on his way out the door that we just might be heading toward a tech oligarchy.
From the article:
âIt is easy enough to point to the staggering hypocrisy of Bidenâs comments, which present the consolidation of oligarchic control as if his own administration had nothing to do with it. According to Bloomberg News, during Bidenâs four years in office, the wealth of the 100 richest Americans grew by $1.5 trillionâa 63 percent increase. Prominent figures within what Biden referred to as the âtech-industrial complexâ have seen their fortunes skyrocket. Elon Muskâs wealth has grown sixteenfold, from $25 billion in 2020 to over $415 billion. Jeff Bezosâs wealth has doubled, and Mark Zuckerbergâs has nearly quadrupled.â
Building a Civilian Labor Corps: Bracing for the AI Job Apocalypse.
Non-Negotiable #2.
Today weâre tackling our second non-negotiable pillar of establishing a Civilian Labor Corps, and the timing couldnât be more critical. You may have picked up on chatter in the wind about the impending job apocalypse at the hands of artificial intelligence (AI). Iâm here to tell you that this is real. It is coming faster and more furiously than you realize, and we are wholly unprepared. This episode breaks down the speed and totality of whatâs coming in the AI revolution and speaks to how prominent economists from history through today would manage the impending employment crisis.
Hereâs a snippet from the pod:
Max: âThe forces in Big Tech will tell you itâs a brave new world brimming with miracles from cancer cures to 15 hour work weeks where agents manage our daily lives and eliminate stress. And, look. AI might cure cancer. Could happen. And some people have 15 hour work weeks with AI agent assistants in their future for sure. But the masses wonât participate, and you can be sure that only the very few will have access to the modern miracles of medicine. More to the point, these are the sales pitches. The real reason why nearly a trillion dollars has been invested into AI research and development from the private and public sectors is to find ways to eliminate jobs.â
âCo-hosts Jared Yates Sexton and Nick Hauselman dive deep into Joe Bidenâs legacy as he prepares to leave office after serving as a Senator, Vice President, and Presidenct of the United States. From the historic infrastructure bill he passed in 2021 to presiding over Clarence Thomasâs supreme court confirmation, Jared and Nick analyze exactly what will be remembered as his political career comes to a close.â
Since I was immersed in Banerjee and Duflo the past couple of weeks, Iâm picking up a recommendation from listener @marcjones744. I havenât read this but Iâm a big fan of Stoller so Iâm going with it and will try to check it out.
âIn Goliath, Matt Stoller explains how authoritarianism and populism have returned to American politics for the first time in eighty years, as the outcome of the 2016 election shook our faith in democratic institutions. It has brought to the fore dangerous forces that many modern Americans never even knew existed. Todayâs bitter recriminations and panic represent more than just fear of the future, they reflect a basic confusion about what is happening and the historical backstory that brought us to this moment.â
From @joeanthony7759: âIt hasnât helped that âthe Leftâ has been represented (in the eyes of most USAmericans) by the Democrats and bourgeois liberals, who are not leftist in any sense- not economically, not on foreign policy, not on war, not socially. They have become as rightwing as almost any Republican. This has given anything deemed âleftâ a black mark and confuses most people.â
The influential political thinker and journalist has helped expose how capitalists weaponize disasters for financial benefit and to completely hollow out democracy.
âThe National Womenâs Law Center fights for gender justiceâin the courts, in public policy, and in our societyâworking across the issues that are central to the lives of women and girls. We use the law in all its forms to change culture and drive solutions to the gender inequity that shapes our society and to break down the barriers that harm all of usâespecially women of color, LGBTQ people, and low-income women and families. For 50 years, we have been on the leading edge of every major legal and policy victory for women.â
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