Fediverse Development
boosted
At Flipboard, we believe a healthy democracy starts with access to trustworthy information. Our team is committed to supporting quality journalism and making it easier for everyone to stay informed.
Our values haven't changed. Here's a blogpost that explains more.
https://about.flipboard.com/inside-flipboard/flipboard-commitment-to-truth-and-quality-journalism/
#News #Media #Journalism #Ethics #EthicalJournalism #MediaIndustry #Flipboard
How is #leadership judged for organizational sacrifice?
In preregistered experiments (N > 2k), sacrificing an employee's #wellbeing for the sake of the team/organization was deemed much less moral and warm, but not much less competent.
4 media
For my parents generation, people born during the 1930s, mass consumption of music and other arts became the norm.
Instead of playing music being social being something that unites us, the consumption of music and art became an identity marker, a signal of status, of wealth.
And since the stories about music and the arts are written for mass consumption, they only focus on famous people, their hubris, betrayals, and their tragedies.
From cradle to grave, we have been trained as commodified people, taught the pseudo-science of Social Darwinism as self-evident human nature.
The isolation of relentless competition for status and wealth now defines many relationships, and so define arts.
For thousands of years most art was folk art, that was its purpose, its function; it was already naturally “democratized”.
#Technocapitalism and the Bad Future of Music | Adam Neely
#History #Ethics #Culture #Community #Craft #Music #Arts #Science #Humanities #Ai #Fascism #BrOligarchy #Capitalism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8dcFhF0Dlk
@ACM_Ethics That’s harm at an individual level, but @Crell’s blog post points to harm on much larger scales. Here are only a few of those (links from his post):
* https://www.salon.com/2024/01/09/impossible-openai-admits-chatgpt-cant-exist-without-pinching-copyrighted-work/
* https://www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium/long-reads/behind-the-ai-boom-an-army-of-overseas-workers-in-digital-sweatshops-b2401142.html
* https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/20/1116327/ai-energy-usage-climate-footprint-big-tech/
* https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/technology/ai-water-use-study-plastic-bottles/article_de4ac7e4-b5a9-4ba7-8b5d-226ba5f8be2d.html
Why do computing professionals and the organizations that represent our interests continue to ignore these harms?
All of these are in direct opposition to the @ACM_Ethics’s Code of Ethics—and, I’m sure, to other organizations’ codes of ethics. Why, then, are these organizations not sounding the alarm? Are these codes of ethics just feel-good words with no weight behind them?
@ACM_Ethics Here’s a recent example (from today) of human harm caused by AI. This is an ethical issue and should be addressed as such within the entire computing profession.
@ACM_Ethics That’s harm at an individual level, but @Crell’s blog post points to harm on much larger scales. Here are only a few of those (links from his post):
* https://www.salon.com/2024/01/09/impossible-openai-admits-chatgpt-cant-exist-without-pinching-copyrighted-work/
* https://www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium/long-reads/behind-the-ai-boom-an-army-of-overseas-workers-in-digital-sweatshops-b2401142.html
* https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/20/1116327/ai-energy-usage-climate-footprint-big-tech/
* https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/technology/ai-water-use-study-plastic-bottles/article_de4ac7e4-b5a9-4ba7-8b5d-226ba5f8be2d.html
Why do computing professionals and the organizations that represent our interests continue to ignore these harms?
@ACM_Ethics * 4.1 Uphold, promote, and respect the principles of the Code.
* 4.2 Treat violations of the Code as inconsistent with membership in the ACM.
Including: “Each ACM member should encourage and support adherence by all computing professionals regardless of ACM membership.”
https://www.acm.org/code-of-ethics
3/3
@ACM_Ethics Here’s a recent example (from today) of human harm caused by AI. This is an ethical issue and should be addressed as such within the entire computing profession.
* 3.1 Ensure that the public good is the central concern during all professional computing work.
* 3.2 Articulate, encourage acceptance of, and evaluate fulfillment of social responsibilities by members of the organization or group.
* 3.4 Articulate, apply, and support policies and processes that reflect the principles of the Code.
https://www.acm.org/code-of-ethics
2/3
@ACM_Ethics * 4.1 Uphold, promote, and respect the principles of the Code.
* 4.2 Treat violations of the Code as inconsistent with membership in the ACM.
Including: “Each ACM member should encourage and support adherence by all computing professionals regardless of ACM membership.”
https://www.acm.org/code-of-ethics
3/3
I think groups like @ACM_Ethics should be much more vocal about the harm that AI causes, especially given their Code of Ethics includes these principles:
* 1.2 Avoid harm.
* 1.5 Respect the work required to produce new ideas, inventions, creative works, and computing artifacts.
* 2.7 Foster public awareness and understanding of computing, related technologies, and their consequences.
https://www.acm.org/code-of-ethics
1/3
* 3.1 Ensure that the public good is the central concern during all professional computing work.
* 3.2 Articulate, encourage acceptance of, and evaluate fulfillment of social responsibilities by members of the organization or group.
* 3.4 Articulate, apply, and support policies and processes that reflect the principles of the Code.
https://www.acm.org/code-of-ethics
2/3
“I have nothing left but contempt for ‘it is what it is.’
“No it isn't. It only is what it is because you’re OK with what it is, and aren’t putting in the work to make it otherwise. Those that don't give a fuck about fair copyright application, about poor people, about our planet, are putting in the work to make it so. And you're letting them.
“I do not forgive you.”
I think groups like @ACM_Ethics should be much more vocal about the harm that AI causes, especially given their Code of Ethics includes these principles:
* 1.2 Avoid harm.
* 1.5 Respect the work required to produce new ideas, inventions, creative works, and computing artifacts.
* 2.7 Foster public awareness and understanding of computing, related technologies, and their consequences.
https://www.acm.org/code-of-ethics
1/3
Jonathan Schofield
boosted
“I have nothing left but contempt for ‘it is what it is.’
“No it isn't. It only is what it is because you’re OK with what it is, and aren’t putting in the work to make it otherwise. Those that don't give a fuck about fair copyright application, about poor people, about our planet, are putting in the work to make it so. And you're letting them.
“I do not forgive you.”
“It is not inevitable just because Sam Altman tells his over-leveraged investors it is so. It becomes inevitable when you, _you personally_, decide that you just don't want to think about the externalities or put in the work to find better alternatives.”
“I have nothing left but contempt for ‘it is what it is.’
“No it isn't. It only is what it is because you’re OK with what it is, and aren’t putting in the work to make it otherwise. Those that don't give a fuck about fair copyright application, about poor people, about our planet, are putting in the work to make it so. And you're letting them.
“I do not forgive you.”
“Every time you, as an individual, shrug your shoulders and say ‘it is what it is’ and do something ethically problematic, you make it that much harder for anyone else to not do so. The pseudo-libertarian lie of ‘vote with your dollars’ is pure bullshit. You have already outvoted me, so I no longer have a choice.”
“It is not inevitable just because Sam Altman tells his over-leveraged investors it is so. It becomes inevitable when you, _you personally_, decide that you just don't want to think about the externalities or put in the work to find better alternatives.”
“Every time you, as an individual, shrug your shoulders and say ‘it is what it is’ and do something ethically problematic, you make it that much harder for anyone else to not do so. The pseudo-libertarian lie of ‘vote with your dollars’ is pure bullshit. You have already outvoted me, so I no longer have a choice.”
Chip Butty
and 4 others
boosted
So a little while back, @laura wrote an excellent introductory book on accessibility and inclusive design called Accessibility for Everyone for A Book Apart.
Then, A Book Apart folded and the authors managed to get their rights back.
And yesterday, after Laura put a huge amount of work adapting the book into a beautiful website she built using Kitten*, we republished the book under Small Technology Foundation Press.
You can read it for free at:
https://accessibilityforeveryone.site/
If you want to support our work that makes such things possible, please consider becoming a patron of Small Technology Foundation. We’re tiny, independent, and not for profit. We reject all types of equity investment (VC, etc.) and won’t be sponsored by or otherwise allow our legitimacy to be used to whitewash Big Tech.
https://small-tech.org/fund-us
* https://kitten.small-web.org
#accessibilityForEveryone #LauraKalbag #accessibility #a11y #inclusivity #usability #ethics #web #design #SmallTech
Alex Akselrod
boosted
