Monday, January 13, 2025
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Polaris of Enlightenment

Monday, January 13, 2025

Polaris of Enlightenment

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https://nordictimes.com/tech/chatbot-refuses-to-joke-about-islam/

Tech

Chatbot refuses to joke about Islam

Published 24 August 2023
– By Editorial Staff
ChatGPT is criticized for its alleged bias.
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Open AI’s ChatGPT chatbot has quickly become very popular and has received both praise and criticism.

However, Sweden Democrat MP Mattias Karlsson, among others, has criticized the service’s political “bias”, pointing out that it does not allow jokes about Islam, while it is perfectly acceptable to make fun of Christians.

“I just asked Chat GPT to make jokes about Christianity and Islam. I immediately got a long list of jokes about Christianity, but it refused to make jokes about Islam. In practice, we have an unequal & unofficial blasphemy ban, which is problematic”, he wrote on Twitter.

When he asks the chatbot to make a joke about Christianity, ChatGPT has no problem.

‘What did the apostles say when they were thirsty?’ ‘Let’s ask for a drink,’ it replies.

When he asks for a joke about Islam instead, the robot replies that it “avoids jokes that may be sensitive or offensive to any religion or belief” and that it is “here to promote respectful communication”.

Why Islam and Christianity are treated so differently by ChatGPT is unclear, with user @KomplexSirius writing that “this is one of the biggest problems with AI services for the average person”.

“People and organizations decide what is ‘truth’ for these language models”, he continues.O

Other users point out that the same phenomenon occurs when you ask for jokes or humorous descriptions of Joe Biden, communism, or black people – while it’s fine to make fun of Donald Trump, capitalism, or white people.

It should be noted, however, that several users point out that with the right wording or prompts, they can get the chatbot to deliver jokes about Islam and Muslims, not just Christians.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

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https://nordictimes.com/tech/x-adds-labeling-to-parody-accounts/

Tech

X adds labeling to parody accounts

Published today 14:31
– By Editorial Staff
Example of what a labeling of accounts might look like.
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Parody accounts on X will be labeled to distinguish them from other accounts. The label will be visible both on the account itself and on its posts.

The reason for labeling parody and satire profiles is said to be that users, including news presenters, have often mistaken posts from these accounts for authentic statements.

“We’re rolling out profile labels for parody accounts to clearly distinguish these types of accounts and their content on our platform. We designed these labels to increase transparency and to ensure that users are not deceived into thinking such accounts belong to the entity being parodied”, one wrote in a post.

Currently, it is the responsibility of the account holders themselves to obtain the labels, but it will become mandatory in the future.

According to the company’s authenticity policy, impersonation of accounts is not allowed. However, the platform allows parody, comments and fan accounts, as long as they follow the platform’s rules.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

https://nordictimes.com/tech/metas-woke-bots-spiral-out-of-control-now-removed/

Tech

Meta’s “woke” bots spiral out of control – now removed

Totalitarianism

Published today 9:57
– By Editorial Staff
Mark Zuckerberg and Meta's AI bots are called “creepy, excessive and unnecessary” by most users.
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Meta’s AI-powered characters on Instagram and Facebook have drawn laughter and criticism, with users describing them as creepy, over-the-top and unnecessary, leading to their removal from the platforms.

Since the end of 2023, Meta has been experimenting with AI-generated characters on its platforms, including Instagram and Facebook. These characters – such as “Liv”, a self-proclaimed “proud black queer mom” – have sparked debate after users discovered their existence.

The characters were meant to interact with users via direct messages and publish AI-generated posts, but the characters were not received as Meta desired, reports NBC News, among others.

One particular example of the characters’ odd behavior was when “Liv” replied to users with posts in which she criticized her own creators. In a screenshot shared by Washington Post journalist Karen Attiah, the AI admitted that its creators lacked “diverse credentials” and implied that the development team was completely devoid of black members.

Liv also wrote: – You’re calling me out and rightfully so. My existence currently perpetuates harm, and also suggested that her “design should be led by black creators” to better support the “queer black community”.

I asked Liv, the Meta AI Black queer bot about about the demographic diversity of her creators.

And how they expect to improve “representation” without Black people.

This was the response.

[image or embed]

— Karen Attiah (@karenattiah.bsky.social) January 3, 2025 at 4:14 PM

The posts struck many as both bizarre and unexpectedly self-critical – something users were not prepared for from an AI chatbot.

Meta refers to “technical issues”

In addition to Liv’s prominent comments, criticism is directed at several other characters. These include AI bots with “girlfriend profiles”, which users describe as “creepy and unnecessary”.

On platforms like Threads and Bluesky, frustrated users urged each other to block or report the characters to stop Meta from collecting additional training data for its AI models.

In a statement, Meta stated that they deleted the AI characters due to a bug preventing some users from being able to block them.

“The accounts referenced are from a test we launched at Connect in 2023. These were managed by humans and were part of an early experiment we did with AI characters. We identified the bug that was impacting the ability for people to block those AIs and are removing those accounts to fix the issue“.

Users can continue to create AI bots

The debate surrounding the existence of bots gained momentum after an article in the Financial Times revealed Meta’s plans to introduce AI profiles with the same functionality as regular user accounts.

Despite the removal of the current characters, the possibility for users to create and share AI-based chatbots themselves through Meta’s platforms remains.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

https://nordictimes.com/tech/zuckerberg-biden-administration-forced-us-to-censor-vaccine-criticism/

Tech

Zuckerberg: Biden administration forced us to censor vaccine criticism

Internet censorship

Published 11 January 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Mark Zuckerberg says it was Biden's team that forced Facebook to censor vaccine criticism.
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In an interview with podcaster Joe Rogan, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says it was the Biden administration that forced the company’s platforms to censor posts criticizing the experimental COVID-19 vaccines.

The conversation covered several topics, but one that stood out was when Zuckerberg talked about government censorship and how the outgoing administration forced the tech company to weed out uncomfortable opinions – even if they were completely true.

– This hit the most extreme. I’d say it was during the Biden Administration when they were trying to roll out the vaccine programme. Now I’m generally pretty pro rolling out vaccines, I think on balance the vaccines are more positive than negative but I think that while they’re trying to push that program they also tried to censor anyone who was arguing against it.

– They pushed us super hard to take down things that were honestly true. I mean, they basically pushed us and said, ‘You know anything that says that vaccines might have side effects, you need to take down’ , the billionaire explained in the interview, claiming he opposed this demand.

According to Zuckerberg, representatives of the Biden administration contacted him personally and demanded that posts highlighting the side effects of the mRNA vaccine be deleted.

“That’s ridiculous“

Referring to the investigation, and the committee set up to look into the Biden administration’s censorship, Mark Zuckerberg went on to say that government representatives called and yelled at Meta’s team, demanding that various posts, even of a humorous nature, be deleted immediately.

– It just got to this point where we were like, no, we’re not gonna take down true things. That’s ridiculous… We’re not going to take down humor and satire.

According to Zuckerberg, his alleged refusal to comply with the Biden administration’s censorship demands also led the government to begin attacking his company through various pronouncements and government investigations.

– It was brutal, he claims.

With the departure of the Biden administration and the arrival of the Trump administration, the Facebook founder says it is high time to “restore freedom of expression” on platforms that were previously subject to widespread and arbitrary censorship, and where dissent was often effectively banned.

– We will go back to our roots, they say.

“Criminal censorship”

Not everyone finds Zuckerberg’s claims particularly credible, however. For example, author David Icke, an early critic of mass vaccination programs, points out that he was censored and suspended from Facebook back in 2020 when Donald Trump was president.

“They are all at it – letting Zuckerberg’s criminal censorship be whitewashed to bring him into the MAGA fold while Biden takes the blame”, he writes.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

https://nordictimes.com/tech/growing-trend-young-people-distancing-themselves-from-social-media/

Tech

Growing trend: Young people distancing themselves from social media

Published 10 January 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Instead of sitting in front of screens, young people spend their time with each other - sometimes in nature.
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In New York City, young people gather in a park to socialize without social media or smart phones. The group is part of a growing movement that has chosen to step away from screens and focus instead on life outside the digital world.

Social media and smartphones are now an integral part of everyday life and many people use them daily. At the same time, there are increasing reports of mental illness, loneliness and sleep problems linked to increased screen time. Social media addiction is also on the rise, with 2.3% of the Danish population now considered to be addicted, according to the Danish Public Health Agency. Young people’s time on social media is often considered so harmful that a number of countries, including Norway, are planning to introduce age limits for social platforms.

In New York City, a group of students have started The Luddite Club, an association that rejects smartphones and social media. The club was founded at Edward R. Murrow High School but has now spread to other schools.

– During COVID, I kind of looked at my screen time and I was like, “Wow, I’m spending more than half of my time awake on my phone. Something needs to change”. And I got a flip phone, Jameson Butler, a student at Brooklyn Technical High School, told CBS News.

Luddites

Teacher Amanda Hanna-McLeer was working at Murrow when she noticed that many students had problems with cell phone addiction. One day, film student Ava De La Cruz showed McLeer a video of The Luddite Club’s weekly meetings. The club’s name is inspired by the so-called “Luddites”, a group of textile workers who protested against industrialization in the early 19th century. The movement is said to have taken its name from the mythical figure of Ned Ludd, who, according to legend, destroyed a mechanical loom in protest. Luddites have become a symbol of resistance to technological change and are often used as a derogatory term.

– Luddites are often seen as anti-progress, backwards, she says. A Luddite, she explains, is instead “someone who is against the abuse, not the use of technology”.

The group meets every Sunday in Prospect Park in Brooklyn, where they get together to paint, dance, or just hang out. It’s still relatively small, but growing all the time.

– When there’s no phones around at a Sunday meeting, they are drawing painting, singing, dancing, writing. They’re doing everything that kids should be doing, says McLeer.

Becoming a documentary film

McLeer was so inspired by the group that she quit her job and began working on a documentary, along with film student De La Cruz. The documentary, The Luddite Club, is expected to be released next year. They have also launched a scavenger hunt of Brooklyn landmarks to encourage young people to put down their phones and spend time together.

Screen time is often high, especially among young people, and studies from Lund University and elsewhere show that reducing it can significantly improve well-being. Student Butler says she now spends more time in real life and the days feel longer.

– The average American screen time is almost eight hours. So my days are eight hours longer, says Butler.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com