The frantic race to develop more powerful forms of AI has given rise to another race: a scramble to set up ever more data centers. According to the Data Center Map, an online resource, there are [...] Continue Reading
Technology
“Casi cero información”: los centros de datos y el malestar que provocan
La carrera frenética por desarrollar formas más poderosas de inteligencia artificial ha dado lugar a otra carrera: la prisa por instalar cada vez más centros de datos. Según Data Center Map, un [...] Continue Reading
“We Will Never Spy on You”: Cory Doctorow’s Scathing Take on Tech Giants
In her song “Bitter Ender” Mary Chapin-Carpenter claims that, “Nothing changes—it’s the same old shit.” But Cory Doctorow would beg to differ. Doctorow, a science fiction author and special advisor [...] Continue Reading
EdTech’s Inexorable Limits
Recently, the Fresno Unified School District announced a major AI initiative. Trained teachers are now on hand at sites across the district to assist in implementing the program. But could it be [...] Continue Reading
Workers Support Autonomous Vehicle Safety
Around 25 gig workers came out to the lawn in front of Fresno City Hall on March 25 for a press conference to support SB 1246, which would regulate autonomous vehicles statewide. State Senator Dave [...] Continue Reading
What the Flock?
(Editor’s note: Reprinted by permission from Rad Rag.) In 2024, Fresno entered into a three-year, $1.6 million contract with Flock Group Inc. Here is what we have learned (so far) about the [...] Continue Reading
Moving Fast and Breaking Lots of Things
The journey that Sarah Wynn-Williams traces in Careless People began when she came down with a severe fever—Facebook fever. In 2006, she noticed that politicians were starting to use the [...] Continue Reading
A Surprising Shortcoming of ChatGPT
Mainstream media coverage of AI titans like ChatGPT often gives the impression that they’re awesome game changers—already virtually flawless and reliable. It would be foolish, one gathers, not to [...] Continue Reading
“Kill Chain” Technology behind Deportations
(Editor’s note: The following story is published with the permission of American Community Media.) Mounting evidence shows the Trump administration’s weaponization of data analysis to target [...] Continue Reading
Technocracy vs. Democracy
The debate between technocracy and democracy has long been a subject of scholarly debate, especially in the context of the United States and its approach to complex global challenges. Technocracy [...] Continue Reading
How Social Media Is Changing Our Lives
Several recent books and articles that probe the troubling aspects of social media have something in common: They focus on the dangers that social media platforms pose for the young. Less explored, [...] Continue Reading
Navigating the Global Battle for Critical Minerals
Nations with access to large oil deposits, especially those in Russia, the Middle East and North America, were able to influence the world’s energy scene for much of the 20th century. With oil-rich [...] Continue Reading