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

BASIC Predates Microsoft by Over a Decade, Microsoft-Controlled Sites Like The Register MS Don't Want You to Know This
The state of the media is really bad when it relies a lot on oligarchs' money and is appointing editors who are working for oligarchs
Brian Kernighan, "Only Third to Dennis Richie and Ken Thompson" (UNIX), Agreed With Someone Who Said Rust Was Just Hype, Should Not Replace C
17 hours ago
Reminder: Microsoft's "Secure Boot" Certificate for "Linux" Will be Expired in One Week
Many PCs won't manage to 'rotate' to another certificate
 
Gemini Links 05/09/2025: Logitech Lift and DIY Gemini Servers
Links for the day
Links 05/09/2025: Sainsbury's Caught Spying on In-Store Shoppers and Microsoft "OpenAI is Using Legal Threats to Harass its Critics"
Links for the day
Analogies for "Memory Safety" in Rust
Don't worry, it's Rust! It can do anything!
"Many of the Red Hat Employees Are Still Looking for Work"
Shame on IBM's CEO
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, September 04, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, September 04, 2025
Microsoft Started With Code Literally From The Trash, Nothing Has Improved Since
The reality is, there are systems and code that are reliable. But they're not Microsoft's.
Hypothesis That New McKinsey/Microsoft Executive Inside Red Hat Will Outsource Research and Development Operations to India (Like They Do in IBM)
IBM is floundering
Slopwatch: Scams, Fake Articles About "Linux", Plagiarism, and Worse
Perhaps some time soon the LLMs or the "Big LLMs" will run out of money (to borrow) and go offline, leaving those slopfarms in a tough place
Gemini Links 04/09/2025: Means of Production and Rusting Out
Links for the day
Links 04/09/2025: Science, Hardware, and Eyes on China
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/09/2025: Digital Minimalism and Social Control Media
Links for the day
IBM's GNU/Linux Divestment, Based on Hard But Anecdotal Evidence (IBM Fails to Recognise How Much Money It Made and Can Still Make From "Linux")
Love us or hate us, a lot of what we've been saying about Red Hat under IBM turns out to be rather accurate
Links 04/09/2025: Massive Microsoft Staff Cuts (Barely Reported), "Strange Conspiracy Theory Is Reportedly Spreading Inside OpenAI"
Links for the day
Activists Can Win, But Keep an Eye on the Ball and on the Trophy
GitHub is dying, it was a loss-making trap, not free hosting
Gemini Links 04/09/2025: Katrina Remembered, Distracted Driving, and Virtual Economics
Links for the day
At This Point It's No Longer Matthew Garrett But People Who Fund Matthew Garrett (or Companies That Fund His SLAPPs Against My Wife and I)
The only thing worse than misogynists are misogynists who fail to respect other people's right to go on holiday
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, September 03, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, September 03, 2025
The UEFI 9/11 - Part VI - This Serious Harm Was Planned for Over a Decade, Not an Accident or Merely Some Misfortune
The term "Serious Harm" is legally meaningful here
GNOME Unfit for Diversity and Inclusion
GNOME's leadership is using "bad words"
Brodie Robertson Addressing the Recently-Discovered Comments
Most people probably knew nothing about this until he wrote a response
Red Hat QA Team "Had Shrunk by Half Over the Past Year." (After IBM Divestment)
If Red Hat's workforce is being moved to the East, then RHEL can become a national security problem
Slopwatch: "Open Source" and "Linux" News Faked, Made by Bots and Entered Into Google News
Spam combined with slop about "Linux" has entered Google News
Links 03/09/2025: Microsoft Causes Mass Layoffs Outside Microsoft Also, "Google Can Keep Paying for Firefox Search Deal"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 03/09/2025: calendar.txt, Alhena 5.3.1, and ROOPHLOCH
Links for the day
The Theory That the Man From McKinsey, Whom Red Hat Took From Microsoft a Month Ago as Executive, Wants 'Efficiency' (Lower Salaries)
So far... no "official" word
When Your Site's Articles Are Being 'Cheapened' by Slop as Feature Images
Dr. Farnell should become an advisor to The Register MS
Certificate Authority Let's Encrypt Drops to Only Half a Dozen Capsules and 0.2% of the Whole in Geminispace, Self-Signed is the Way to Go
It used to have hundreds, according to Lupa
Doing to Red Hat What They Already Did (and Still Do) to IBM
there seems to be a drive to hire cheaper staff, and it may be led by somebody Red Hat hired from Microsoft
Links 03/09/2025: Salesforce's Latest Mass Layoffs, 93% in Large Poll at The Register MS Say UK Government Should Dump Microsoft
Links for the day
Preparations for Our 19th Anniversary Have Already Begun
When we get back we'll probably sort out some balloons and venue for the next party
Pleased After 2 Years With team.blue
Moving from a Content Management System (CMS, dynamic) to a Static Site Generator (SSG) was a wise decision that made life so much easier
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is Being Attacked by Organisations Jealous of Its Principled Stance and Longevity
Nobody is perfect, but imperfection does not instantaneously imply sinister intent
If You Reject the Google Verdict in the US, Then You Should Also Reject the "Modern" Web (Do Something About It)
Gemini Protocol is still open; it cannot be hijacked or subverted because it's frozen by design and by intention
Open Source Initiative IRS Filing: Almost All the Money is Corporate, Stefano Maffuli (Executive Director) Takes About a Quarter of That Money for Openwashing of "AI" Ponzi Scheme
OSI is currently little but a PR/marketing agency of Microsoft
Many People Are "Leaving" Red Hat, Even High-Level Managers
Something is definitely going on at Red Hat
Techrights Has Been Subjected to Calls of Violence (and Death Threats), It Never Condoned Violence
I have no sympathy for people who call violence "free speech" and then get in trouble
Condoning Violent Behaviour and "Free Speech"
perhaps Microsoft Lunduke lost touch with what constitutes violence
Takeaway From the Google Verdict: GAFAM Has Too Much Control (Even Over the US Government and Courts With Government Appointees)
Many people feel disappointed but hardly surprised by the verdict
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) Turns 40 in One Month
As noted a few days ago, several times in fact, many people now recognise the importance of the FSF's mission, even if most people don't know what the FSF is
Many Microsoft "Assets" Are Fabricated Baloney (to Game the Numbers)
At times it seems like what we deal with are many weak patents (on algorithms), valuations or speculations based on hype ("hey hi"), and stocks held by Microsoft and its own staff
"Voluntary" Layoffs at Microsoft (to Game the Numbers, Sugar-Coating a Crisis)
"Employees interested have until the end of October to volunteer."
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 02, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 02, 2025