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0x815@feddit.deOPto Technology@beehaw.org•China's state subsidies in green technologies significantly higher than those in EU and OECD countries, distorting competition, researchers say3·1 year agoWhat about cleaning all yards? This ‘the West bad, China bad okay’ stance is dehumanising and ignorant. [Edit typo.]
0x815@feddit.deOPto Technology@lemmy.world•China's state subsidies in green technologies significantly higher than those in EU and OECD countries, distorting competition, researchers sayEnglish21·1 year agoI posted this elsewhere already, but it also fits here goven many of the posts in this thread: It is not just about data/privacy concerns (which are underestimated imo, as China pursues an own agenda with collecting your data through Chinese tech) and ‘unfair’ subsidies, but about gross human rights violations.
In short, some parts of the cheap Chinese cars are made in concentration camps where people are forced to work under catastrophic conditions.
0x815@feddit.deOPto Technology@beehaw.org•China's state subsidies in green technologies significantly higher than those in EU and OECD countries, distorting competition, researchers say2·1 year agoI posted this elsewhere already, but it also fits here goven many of the posts in this thread: It is not just about data/privacy concerns (which are underestimated imo, as China pursues an own agenda with collecting your data through Chinese tech) and ‘unfair’ subsidies, but about gross human rights violations.
In short, some parts of the cheap Chinese cars are made in concentration camps where people are forced to work under catastrophic conditions.
0x815@feddit.deOPto Technology@lemmy.world•Chinese firm sought to use UK university links to access AI for possible military useEnglish101·1 year agoChinese orgs love signing MOUs
The CCP - or, better, the China Scholarship Council (CSC) under the rule of the CCP - forces Chinese students and researchers to sign ‘loyalty pleadges’ before giong abroad saying they “shall consciously safeguard the honor of the motherland, (and) obey the guidance and management of embassies (consulates) abroad.” The restrictive scholarship contract requires them to report back to the Chinese embassy on a regular basis, and anyone who violates these conditions is subject to disciplinary action.
In one investigation,
Mareike Ohlberg, a senior fellow working on China at the German Marshall Fund, sees the CSC contract as a demonstration of the Chinese Communist Party’s “mania for control.”
“People are actively encouraged to intervene if anything happens that might not be in the country’s interest,” Ohlberg said.
Harming China’s interests is in fact considered the worst possible breach of the contract.
“It’s even listed ahead of possible involvement in crimes, so effectively even ahead of murder,” she noted. “China is making its priorities very clear here.”
[…] Kai Gehring, the chair of German parliament’s Committee for Education and Research, says the CSC contracts are “not compatible” with Germany’s Basic Law, which guarantees academic freedom.
In Sweden, for example, universities have already cancelled the collaboration with the CSC over this practice.
There is ample evidence that China uses scientific collaboration with private companies as well as universities and research organizations for spying. You’ll find many independent reports on that as well as of the CCP’s intimidation practices of Chinese students who don’t comply with the party line, e.g., in Australia and elsewhere. It’s easy to find reliable sources on the (Western) web.
0x815@feddit.deto Technology@beehaw.org•OpenAI Insider Estimates 70 Percent Chance That AI Will Destroy or Catastrophically Harm Humanity7·1 year agoYes. We need human responsibility for everything what AI does. It’s not the technology that harms but human beings and those who profit from it.
0x815@feddit.deOPto Technology@beehaw.org•German carmaker Volkswagen says forced labour in one of its sub-supplier's plants in China was not identified as 'no full supply chain transparency exists'2·1 year agoYou wouldn’t trust the Chinese supplier (or any supplier). You’d go to the bauxite shipment company and let them register with the network, you’d send independent auditors to their premises, very much as we do it with ibdependent audits nowadays.
We do need to physically access the premises across the supply chain to verify that ‘on-chain personas’ reflect their ‘real’ identities. But no single authority can control the data, we can be quite sure that all transfers of ownership across the supply chain have been authorized by their controllers. Compared to centralized systems, the blockchain provides us a much higher level of transparency and certainty over the fidelity of the information.
0x815@feddit.deOPto Technology@beehaw.org•German carmaker Volkswagen says forced labour in one of its sub-supplier's plants in China was not identified as 'no full supply chain transparency exists'3·1 year agothere’s no way tovtrack where resources, material, items come from, who made them
Independent audits are done -they are very common in many industry for a variety of reasons- and they work if done properly.
We could even track the provenance of each material through a trustless system like a blockchain to guarantuee a high level of credibility and transparency, just to name a relatively new technology. This is done already.
0x815@feddit.deOPto Technology@beehaw.org•German carmaker Volkswagen says forced labour in one of its sub-supplier's plants in China was not identified as 'no full supply chain transparency exists'6·1 year agoThey have been already managing that for a long time. Independent audits are common - except in a few countries.
0x815@feddit.deOPto Technology@beehaw.org•Car makers BMW, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and Volkswagen (VW) used parts made by supplier with links to Chinese forced labour, U.S. probe says7·1 year agoForced labour in Chinese prisons isn’t limited to Xinjiang, nor to the car industry. A lot products we use in Europe and North America and elsewhere around the globe are made by Chinese prisoners forced to work under catastrophic conditions.
There is strong evidence for this provided by many independent sources, among them a documentary by Arte (a French-German media outlet). If interested:
Forced Labour - SOS from a Chinese Prisoner – (documentary, 95 min.)
A desperate cry for help written in Chinese was discovered in a pregnancy test sold in France and made in a Chinese factory. It revealed a hidden world of Chinese prison-companies where prisoners are forced to work for 15 hour days manufacturing products for export. This documentary tries to find out who wrote the letter.
(And, yes, prison labour exists also in the U.S., and it is as evil, but this doesn’t make the autocratic Chinese government any better.)
0x815@feddit.deOPto Technology@beehaw.org•The coordination network toolkit: a framework for detecting and analysing coordinated behaviour on social media2·1 year agoThis is maybe a good idea. What would an emoji analysis tell us about a network? 😃
0x815@feddit.deOPto Technology@beehaw.org•Amazon- and Google-backed AI firm Anthropic says “general-purpose AI tools simply could not exist” if AI companies had to pay licences for the training material3·1 year agoData Leak at Anthropic Due to Contractor Error
TL;DR - Anthropic had a data leak due to a contractor’s mistake, but says no sensitive info was exposed. It wasn’t a system breach, and there’s no sign of malicious intent.
0x815@feddit.deOPto Technology@beehaw.org•How an algorithm denied food to thousands of poor in India3·1 year agoThe article doesn’t say which classifier algorithm they use in that case in India.
We had a similar incident in the Netherlands last year, for example, with similar problems. There they used Gradient Boosting afaik. But it doesn’t really matter as all these algorithms will yield a high number of false positives. If we use this and blindly trust trust the result in sensitive areas such as social welfare, we cause a lot if harm to iur society.
0x815@feddit.deto Technology@beehaw.org•Your next Windows PC may need at least 16GB of RAM1·1 year agoOr with Coreboot: https://minifree.org
0x815@feddit.deOPto U.S. News@beehaw.org•New US company ownership database faces continued political attacks weeks after launch7·1 year agoI guess it’s the big business which is complaining here trying to lobby against transparency. The small business owners don’t have much to hide as you suggest.
0x815@feddit.deto Technology@beehaw.org•YouTube limits Video Viewing for Ad blocker Users18·2 years agoYouTube Says New 5-Second Video Load Delay Is Supposed to Punish Ad Blockers, Not Firefox Users
Firefox users are reporting an ‘artificial’ load time on YouTube videos. YouTube says it’s part of a plan to make people who use adblockers “experience suboptimal viewing, regardless of the browser they are using.”
0x815@feddit.deto U.S. News@beehaw.org•UnitedHealth uses AI model with extreme bias to deny care, lawsuit alleges6·2 years agothe dubious estimates nH Predict spits out seem to be a feature, not a bug
This is the major problem with algorithms, one of the issue being that they will produce a lot of false positives even if there are best intentions.
But another major problem is that you can influence the outcome by altering the parameters as the article also says. We have been observing similar issues in health and social policy in many countries over the last years, and the results have always been devastating. And research suggests that biases may increases dramatically in the future if we continue to use these algorithms the way we do it now.
0x815@feddit.deto U.S. News@beehaw.org•GOP and Dems Unite to Smear Gaza Ceasefire Supporters as "Pro-Hamas"3·2 years agoFlorida Republican Michelle Salzman Calls for ‘All’ Palestinians to Die in Viral Video
A Florida state representative, identified online as Republican Michelle Salzman, has gone viral on social media for shouting “all of them” after being asked how many dead Palestinians will be enough during a Florida Senate session.
The politician was responding to a speech calling for a ceasefire from the Democrat Rep. Angie Nixon. Newsweek has reached out to Salzman for comment by email.
0x815@feddit.deto U.S. News@beehaw.org•Ohio voters enshrine abortion access in constitution in latest statewide win for reproductive rights6·2 years agoBemoaning Ohio results, Santorum says ‘pure democracies’ aren’t how to run a country
After a particularly disappointing night of election results for Republicans, former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) lamented “pure democracies,” where major decisions are left up to voters rather than their elected officials.
“Thank goodness that most of the states in this country don’t allow you to put everything on the ballot, because pure democracies are not the way to run a country,” Santorum said Tuesday night on Newsmax.
Do you say that to Europe, to China, or both?
It’s obvious you’re addressing only Europe. Why?
This is what I meant with ‘The West bad, China bad okay’. It’s hypocritical. It’s double-standards. It’s ignorant and disgusting.