MCViewPoint

Opinion from a Libertarian ViewPoint

Posts Tagged ‘AI’

MS Word Becomes Big Brother – LewRockwell

Posted by M. C. on July 3, 2019

Under Microsoft control, thought control is a “feature” helpfully built into your word processor. But soon, you won’t be able to turn the feature off. And then, … well, you get the point.

I use Libre. Works well with the Ubuntu and Mint operating systems as well as W10.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2019/07/no_author/ms-word-becomes-big-brother/

By Chas Holloway

I’ve been a writer for thirty years.  I have over two hundred thousand MS Word docs on my computer.  But now, I’m converting all those files to a different word processor.

I don’t want to do it.  But I have no choice.  MS Word — the default application for novelists, poets, journalists and playwrights — has just become Big Brother.  No serious writer can use it anymore.

The problem: Microsoft now “offers” an AI tool designed to “improve” my writing.  For example, if I type, “We need some fresh blood around here,” Word now changes that phrase to “We must hire some qualified employees.” Or, if I type the word “waitress,” Word now changes it to “waitperson.” (see HERE and HERE and HERE.)

I heard about this a month ago, or so. The geniuses at Microsoft want to control my ideas. “That’s insidious,” I thought, but then got distracted. Until the other day. While writing an article, I experienced Big Brother in action — Word was highlighting my text as I typed!…

Real writing is about thinking.  It’s about discovering your individual voice.  It’s about finding original things to say.  But will Microsoft soon disallow original and creative thought?…

A screenwriter bangs out a political thriller: the evil corporation wants the population to be chipped.  How do they manage it?  First, they’ll say it’s for the safety of our soldiers: we can track them in warfare.  Second, they’ll say it’s for public safety: we must chip the lawbreakers and prisoners.  Then, they’ll launch a patriotic ad campaign: “I got chipped — for America!”  Following that, the cops just arrest a few libertarian stragglers. 

Cool story.  But under Microsoft control, would a screenwriter be allowed write it?  Under Microsoft control, thought control is a “feature” helpfully built into your word processor.  But soon, you won’t be able to turn the feature off.  And then, … well, you get the point…

Be seeing you

banksy-anarchism

Banksy

 

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Apple’s Tim Cook makes blistering attack on the “data industrial complex”

Posted by M. C. on October 24, 2018

“We shouldn’t sugarcoat the consequences. This is surveillance,” he added.

Apple’s Tim Cook makes blistering attack on the ‘data industrial complex’

Natasha Lomas

Apple’s  CEO Tim Cook has joined the chorus of voices warning that data itself is being weaponized again people and societies — arguing that the trade in digital data has exploded into a “data industrial complex”.

Cook did not namecheck the adtech elephants in the room: Google, Facebook and other background data brokers that profit from privacy-hostile business models. But his target was clear.

“Our own information — from the everyday to the deeply personal — is being weaponized against us with military efficiency,” warned Cook. “These scraps of data, each one harmless enough on its own, are carefully assembled, synthesized, traded and sold. Read the rest of this entry »

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