Bonum Certa Men Certa

How Outsourcing of Judgment to Computer Algorithms Poses a Threat to Software Freedom (and Freedom in General)

And this is the company that's buying Red Hat...

IBM recently published a dataset for facial recognition AI made up of images...
IBM spent a fortune 'googlebombing' the Web/Internet (for weeks) to hide this article from view.



Summary: Freedom is under attack (or under a tank) and a contributor writes to explain the role played by the AI hype (outsourcing decisions to algorithms which lack tact, emotion, oversight, and are difficult to analyse/authenticate based on their resultant fuzzy classifiers)

July 4th is a day off for the USPTO (an "hey hi" (AI) booster for patenting purposes) and for much of the American media, but we'll be posting as usual. We've just updated this database of threats to software freedom (explained in depth in a recent post). This is "for your consideration," said the author, on "AI project disruption" (the author goes by the pseudonym Ted MacReilly and is a highly technical person, who uses this pseudonym to avert retaliation/reprisal against his GNU/Linux project).

"I try to keep most of these less speculative," he said, "more immediate. I am still a futurist, I think this is worth serious consideration. I believe the tools either could, or even do exist. AI is not general purpose yet. It is very flexible, it can do a lot of interesting things. I believe it can do this today, but certainly in the near future."

Here's the explanation from Ted:




Every government and security researcher has a job to assess threats. It's how they do it and how they respond that matters. Often security is treated as a blank check to do things that are unethical or dangerous-- the "cure" is not always better than the disease.

Here, the cure being proposed above others is careful consideration-- not hysteria, not some draconian measure, not paranoia. Just consideration.

Science fiction often talks about the future. It is typically based on problems that exist in the present. Some of the ideas are novel-- before we had cell phones and iPads, Star Trek communicators and PADDs existed only in fiction. Real functioning jet packs, though still impractical, now exist and can be watched in brief flights on Youtube. And before Amazon ever sold Ebooks, Richard Stallman's "The Right to Read" was just a story about a dystopian future.

Often we get the future wrong, and sometimes that's a good thing. But that doesn't stop us from thinking about it.

AI-based project planning is likely to increase. You don't hear about it much on Techrights, because it is a term widely abused to write bogus patents, and Techrights reports on that with well-earned derision for corporate buzzwords and patent application trickery.

Still, AI is real and it's here-- it's not everything you might think, but it's far more than nothing. It has cultural, philosophical and practical (not to mention countless ethical) implications.

I believe we need to consider those. What I hope you will do today, is entertain the slightest possibility that AI can be used to undermine free software development. It is not as important whether or not that is already happening.

Could it? And importantly-- how?

I have some thoughts about that, but I don't believe that I thought of this first.

We know that corporations want to undermine free software. We have good reason to think that AI is used (or will soon be used) to assist corporate decision making. It is already moving into use for reviewing resumes. As a result, SEO tactics and techniques will be part of resume writing in the future.

Most people are not following the spread of AI very closely. A lot AI should be called "artificial stupidity" because it sometimes enhances "Garbage-in-Garbage-out" or biased, bad decision making, when we expect it to reduce those.

They say don't attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity, but every techie with a pointy-haired boss knows that the line between the two is often a fine one. Some of things being done with AI by corporations already, are best explained by malice and stupidity combined.

Would you entertain the possibility that AI may assist corporations in figuring out how to compete and undermine competition, or that AI is capable of doing so? If you wouldn't, this entry will just be something to laugh at.

That's alright. Sometimes parody and humor reach more people than serious philosophy.

Sometimes you have to wait, to be sure what the future really holds. I have no major complaints about that one. It's nice to still have the option.

This could also be an "Aim for the moon" type of strategy. In trying to think of how AI could pose new threats to software freedom, you may come up with a more plausible or more obvious way that a corporation could pose new threats. There's no request here to use your imagination for purely idle reasons. The point of threat assessment is to come up with solutions that bolster everyone's freedom. Everyone can participate, it is not better to leave this entirely up to other people who may not care about your own needs or threat model.

Happy hacking,

Ted MacReilly

Recent Techrights' Posts

Turns Out LLMs for Code Don't Save Time and Don't Improve Quality
Neither legal nor useful
 
Pissing Contests and Pissing Off Everyone
people who came from Microsoft are trying to vex and divide the community
Microsoft Repeats the Mistakes Made by the EPO After We Exposed a Major Microsoft/EPO Scandal 10 Years Ago
That scandal was all over the media, not just in English
The Demise of LLMs
We've just checked BetaNews again. They've dropped all the slop and went back to human authors.
Gemini Links 13/07/2025: Sonpo Museum of Art and FCEUX
Links for the day
Links 13/07/2025: UnitedHealth's Censorship Campaign, Australia Wary of China
Links for the day
Firing Away With Nonsense
Or fighting fire with fire
Links 13/07/2025: Climate Crisis, GAFAM Poisoning the Water
Links for the day
The Microsofters Will Have an Obligation to Compensate Us
This story isn't just about Microsoft. It's also about corruption, there are many women victims, there is abject "abuse of process", and many more scandals to be illuminated in years to come.
Reproducing at the EPO Instead of Producing Monopolies for Foreign Monopolies With Their Price-Fixing Cartels
Does the EPO recognise the need of well-educated Europeans to bear kids?
Valnet Inc. Dominates Real (Not LLM Slop) GNU/Linux Coverage in 2025
And likely in prior years, too
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Fund Raiser Goes on
Later this month we'll expose another OSI scandal
EPO Staff Representatives Issue a Warning About Staff's Health and Inadequate Care
Even the EPO's own stakeholders (money sources) are openly protesting against what the EPO became
Links 13/07/2025: Partly Assorted News From Deutsche Welle and CBC
Links for the day
Gemini Links 13/07/2025: Board Games and Battle Styles
Gemini Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 12, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 12, 2025
Plunder at the Second-Largest Institution in Europe
cuts, neglect, health problems, even early deaths
Links 12/07/2025: Political Developments, Attack on Opposition, Climate Actions
Links for the day
Gemini Links 12/07/2025: Melodic Musings and Small Web July
Links for the day
Links 12/07/2025: Jail in China for Homoerotica, South Korea Discriminates Against Old Workers
Links for the day
If Only Everything Was Rewritten in Rust, We'd Have No More Security Issues?
Nope.
Links 12/07/2025: Birdwatching and Fake/Misleading Wall Street 'Valuation' Figures
Links for the day
Gemini Links 12/07/2025: How to Avoid Writing, Apps for Android
Links for the day
Using SLAPPs to Cover Up Sexual Abuse and Strangulation
The exact same legal team of the Serial Strangler from Microsoft and Garrett already has a history fighting against "metoo"
EPO Staff Committee on Harassment in the Workplace
slides
Adding the Voice of Writers to UK SLAPP Reform
The journey to repair antiquated (monarchy era) laws will likely be long
EPO Takes More Money From Staff for Speculation (Pensions), Actuarial Study Explains the Impact
"The key change in this year’s Actuarial Study, due to cascading the new “risk appetite” from the financial study, is a significant increase of the total pension contribution rate of 5.7 percentage points, up to a total of 37.8%. This is driven by an unprecedented decrease in the discount rate of 105 bps down to 2.2%."
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 11, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, July 11, 2025
Microsoft - Like IBM - Does the "Relocation" Tricks (Start Over Elsewhere, Then Get Sacked by Microsoft)
It is a "low blow" or a "dick move"
After the Free Software Foundation's Campaign to Raise Money Let's See Campaigns to Finish Off Microsoft (Vista 11, GitHub etc.)
Microsoft is in effect collapsing
Your Publications Have No Major Impact Unless or Until You "Get Some Heat"
we're on the right track
Slopwatch: A Cause for Hope, the Hype is Dying
For about a month we showed that becoming a slopfarm - for several weeks - resulted in utter failure and ruin for BetaNews
Links 11/07/2025: Censorship Worsening, 3D Printing Success Stories, UK and France Unite Around Nukes
Links for the day
Gemini Links 11/07/2025: Zorin OS and Scriptonite Updates
Links for the day
Links 11/07/2025: Hardware, Russia, and China
Links for the day
Links 11/07/2025: Intel Collapsing and Microsoft Resorts to Bribery to Push Slop Via Obligatory Education
Links for the day
The EFF Sided With the Team That Strangles Women and Tells Women to Kill Themselves
They say that apathy and inaction are a form of a "stance"
"Nat [Friedman] and [the Serial Strangler From Microsoft] Were Always Exceptionally Close," Says Former Housemate and Colleague
Now Alex (hiding behind another name when that suits him) not only attacks women but also people who merely report what he did to women
Exemplary List of Things That Are Not Artificial Intelligence or Even Intelligence
The "age of AI" or "era of AI" or "AI revolution" mostly boils down to rebranding, just like "the cloud"
New Letter From the European Patent Office Explains How the Office Plots to Grant Many Illegal Patents, a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of 'Growth'
Open letter to Mr Rowan (VP1) and Mr Aledo Lopez (COO)
Abuse of Process
5RB is employing people who help violent men
What Microsoft's Nat Friedman and Microsoft Lunduke Have in Common
"Get in da car; No time to explain, loser"
Microsoft and IBM Don't Have Much of a Future (They Mostly Pretend at This Point)
IBM and Microsoft are in some ways alike but in many ways different
It's Not Just Twitter (or X.com) That's Dying, Microsoft's Equivalent is Dying Also
Unable to find a business model
GitHub Copilot Can Cause the Bankruptcy of GitHub to Come Sooner and GitHub to be Shut Down Just Like Skype
Some publicly available information suggests that even for each paid subscriber for plagiarism (LLM 'coding') GitHub Copilot still loses more money than it makes
Wayland is Bad for the Planet
If you use Wayland, it'll take you longer to accomplish tasks and you will consume more energy (or battery life)
Legitimising Those Who Sabotage You
Microsoft is a very malicious company
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 10, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, July 10, 2025
On Microsoft Layoffs
we might be looking at about 60,000 Microsoft layoffs since 2023
EPO Management Already Breaks Its Own Promise (Lie) on "Bringing Teams Together"
This gut-punching move happened just 2 days ago
Gemini Links 11/07/2025: Occupation of 2025 and "Old Man Yells At Soundcloud"
Links for the day
Our Lawsuits Against the 'Cancel Mob' (Ringleaders) Helped Reduce Anti-Free Software Online Abuse
That's not to say that lawsuits are the best way to handle terrible people. But that can help.