Category: Essays
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AI is the New Snake Oil
AI cares more about confidence than accuracy, which explains why it’s being sold by tech grifters with more panache than sense.
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Yes, TikTok is Bad. But It Shouldn’t Be Banned
TikTok, like all social media, has serious problems. But banning it doesn’t solve those problems and gives those other platforms a free pass.
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Another Millennial on Jon Stewart’s Return
Jon Stewart made a career of calling out media bias while occasionally falling for the same traps as the mainstream outlets he criticized.
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How I Really Feel About AI
I have a lot of thoughts about so-called “artificial intelligence” in the form of language learning models. Sometimes I like them. Other times I don’t. But it’s also pretty disingenuous to pretend it’s so simple. Even though I’ve written on the topic before, here’s everything I have to say (right now) about the machine learning…
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Hate Speech in Online Communities
Last week, we examined how hate speech can be used as a way to intimidate and upset opponents. We looked at Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg’s use of the n-word as an example of how, even though he was playing a competitive video game, he wasn’t using it this way. It’s important to look at the reasons…
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How Hate Speech & Video Games Created the Alt-Right
In 2005, Steve Bannon got Goldman Sachs to invest $60 million in a World of Warcraft Chinese gold farming company. 1 Bannon eventually took control of the gold farming company, Internet Gaming Entertainment. Even though IGE flopped, Bannon said that these gamers were the pre-cursor to the alt-right. “These guys, these rootless white males, had monster power… It was…