"But AI can't do your job. It can help you do your job, but that doesn't mean it's going to save anyone money. Take radiology: there's some evidence that AIs can sometimes identify solid-mass tumors that some radiologists miss, and look, I've got cancer. Thankfully, it's very treatable, but I've got an interest in radiology being as reliable and accurate as possible.

If my Kaiser hospital bought some AI radiology tools and told its radiologists: "Hey folks, here's the deal. Today, you're processing about 100 x-rays per day. From now on, we're going to get an instantaneous second opinion from the AI, and if the AI thinks you've missed a tumor, we want you to go back and have another look, even if that means you're only processing 98 x-rays per day. That's fine, we just care about finding all those tumors."

If that's what they said, I'd be delighted. But no one is investing hundreds of billions in AI companies because they think AI will make radiology more expensive, not even if that also makes radiology more accurate. The market's bet on AI is that an AI salesman will visit the CEO of Kaiser and make this pitch: "Look, you fire 9/10s of your radiologists, saving $20m/year, you give us $10m/year, and you net $10m/year, and the remaining radiologists' job will be to oversee the diagnoses the AI makes at superhuman speed, and somehow remain vigilant as they do so, despite the fact that the AI is usually right, except when it's catastrophically wrong.

"And if the AI misses a tumor, this will be the human radiologist's fault, because they are the 'human in the loop.' It's their signature on the diagnosis."

This is a reverse centaur, and it's a specific kind of reverse-centaur: it's what Dan Davies calls an "accountability sink." The radiologist's job isn't really to oversee the AI's work, it's to take the blame for the AI's mistakes.

This is another key to understanding – and thus deflating – the AI bubble. The AI can't do your job, but an AI salesman can convince your boss to fire you and replace you with an AI that can't do your job. This is key because it helps us build the kinds of coalitions that will be successful in the fight against the AI bubble."

- Cory Doctorow, The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Criticizing AI

( part 1 )

some random s16 moments that i adore🥹

Sometimes on the internet people will throw an abbreviation at you as if you’re supposed to know what it means and you’ll try to find out what it means but no matter what you do on any search engine all that comes up is some kind of dental supplies logistics company in Malaysia or something

i could be titling all my posts REAL LAWYER REACTS TO ACE ATTORNEY? REAL LAWYER MAKES POSTS ABOUT PHOENIX WRIGHT! REAL LAWYER WRITES FANFICTION ABOUT ANIME LAWYERS KISSING. i could because ive earned this right through hard work. but i never have, for reasons of integrity, and that i didn't think of doing it until now

I haven’t even started the preparation for my great work

Katie 'Boots' Quinn
Ted Lasso S4E03

Imagine conceiving and raising a mayor

matarael

A Book of Paper and Ink

idea: db cooper gets isekaid into modern day america and must re-learn how to hijack planes with post-9/11 security measures

the most romantic thing a character can do is prematurely ejaculate

ALT

It’s that time again! I have another shop update coming! This time on August 28th. I’ll have a lot of new pieces ready including this little forest dragon.

paul simon fact checking

❌ in 1969 there were well over 3 million living boys in new york city

✅ not sure what it means to be art garfunkeled but i am sure it happened to paul simon

❌ no you did not paul simon

❔unverifiable

❌ at 5’3” a medium tree is more than enough

something I want to say as a personal statement, speaking for me, Shelby Donahue:

It always troubles me when people talk about trans women (like Meagan and Autumn Hill, my partners who I talk to every day) in men's prisons, describing them as "rape concentration camps" and emphasizing the sexual violence there. Both Meagan and Autumn Hill have told me, explicitly, that the vast majority of their fellow prisoners respect them and respect their gender, and while some prisoners have been threatening (particularly to Meagan), that the violence against them has primarily come from the institutional systems of the guards, wardens, etc. I know this in part because of their actions: Meagan and Autumn Hill have consistently helped their fellow prisoners, with little things like getting artwork to help a prisoner draw a birthday card for his child, or bigger things like helping someone get back in contact with their family. And a lot of prisoners have been supportive to Meagan and Autumn Hill, especially when they know about the Prairieland case. They make snacks to share, trade books, and comfort Meagan when she's feeling particularly sad.

I say all this for two reasons. The first is that prisoners are not all rapists or bigots, and in fact many of them are not even guilty of the crimes they're arrested for. They're an oppressed class of people, even the worst of them, and they deserve to be understood as individuals, not a nameless and faceless mass of violent threats. And, as individuals, a lot of them have been good comrades to Meagan and Autumn Hill. I want people to keep that in mind when thinking about prisoners. There's a lot of racial stereotypes and bigotries in the way people think of prisoners in the USA, and we need to unlearn those things and understand prisoners as people, as our equals.

The second reason is that you, and me, and everyone we know may end up in jail, or prison. I think about that a lot - getting raided by the FBI will have that effect on you. If we end up in prison, we have to understand the risks and dangers realistically, without excessive fear or unrealistic optimism. And I think it's important people know the facts about what prison is like, and what prisoners are like. Not everyone is violent in prison - but everyone there is the victim of a lot of violence. There are potential friends and allies everywhere.