The SoftBank founder has a long-shot ambition to create an AI robot hub in the U.S. desert. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/commentary/2025/06/24/japan/magical-thinking-of-masa-son/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #commentary #japan #softbank #masayoshison #openai #arizona #us #robots #ai

Following on from the recent AI related drawings, here's some magical thinkery from a comment by Helen Beetham during a live conversation on #AI in Education.

Image available to use CC-BY-ND here:
https://visualthinkery.com/project/ai-future-of-education/

https://pluralistic.net/2025/06/19/privacy-breach-by-design/

🚨 Today in the Intro to the Ethics of AI lecture: Data Protection & Fundamental Rights

🔹 What’s the difference between privacy and data protection?
🔹 How do the US and Europe approach data protection differently?
🔹 Why we protect fundamental rights – not just data.

🧠 Join live on Zoom | 14:15–15:45 CEST: https://tinyurl.com/EoAI25

🎥 Watch later on YouTube: https://lnkd.in/ePcdbrvi

#AIethics#CriticalAI#Philosophy#AI#Privacy#DataProtection

Relevant meaning of AI here is "a computer" ie computational data analysis and logical output:

"A hive contains up to 15 frames and a BeeHome can hold up to 10 hives, providing thousands of datapoints for Beewise’s AI to analyze.

While a trained beekeeper can quickly look at a frame and assess its health, AI can do it even faster, as well as take in information on individual bees in the photos. Should AI spot a warning sign, such as a dearth of new larvae or the presence of mites, beekeepers will get an update on an app that a colony requires attention."

#scicomm #ai #bees

Amid a rise in bee die-offs in the U.S., Beewise’s hives can provide constant insights on colony health using artificial intelligence, as well as treatment should it start to falter. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/environment/2025/06/24/wildlife/robotic-hives-ai-bee-colony/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #environment #wildlife #bees #ai #startups

"The only thing we know for certain about Al is that we don't know exactly where we are going, but we are making great time." - Futurist Jim Carroll

My book Dancing in the Rain features a list of 30 Megatrends. Some folks asked me to expand on them, so I'm starting a new series today.
The first one, AI, obviously doesn't need a lot of explanation.

It's big.

It's fast.

It's not going away.

It's going to impact your life one way or the other.

It's going to have as profound an impact as the Internet has had, both good and bad.

People will endlessly debate about where it will take us.

Some are excited, many are terrified, many are both.

And the sophistication of what we can do continues to accelerate at a ridiculous rate.

As do the risks and the downside.

Ok, so with that out of the way, here's a bit more to think about. First, AI is not some weird futuristic concept - it's a pervasive reality that has already been rapidly transforming our world. I took the liberty of taking one of my recent AI keynotes and had it summarized by Google Gemini. I then fed this to gamma.app - and Megatrends#1 of how it summarized my work.

The first thing to think about is that from the seemingly mundane to the profoundly complex, AI is already deeply embedded in our daily lives. Take a look around your world - you have::

Wearable fitness trackers analyzing your exercise patterns
Chatbots that instantly answer your questions
Shopping sites recommending products based on your past purchases
Security cameras recognize unfamiliar faces or objects
Music apps creating personalized playlist recommendations
Email services categorize messages and filter spam

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. AI already powers everything around you, from autonomous vehicles and computer vision to natural language processing and virtual assistants. Algorithms are the unseen force behind Fitbits, Apple Health, Predictive Insurance, and just about everything else. In some industries - healthcare, for example - the 'algorithm' does a better job of interpreting critical data than humans do.

But that's not the key thing to think about - it's how quickly all of this is moving. It's the acceleration of everything having to do with AI that we need to think about. The explosion of AI into public consciousness isn't truly sudden. It's the result of several exponential trends converging:
Continuation of Moore's Law: The number of transistors on microchips doubles every two years, leading to ever-increasing processing power.
Collapsing Training Costs: The cost to train AI systems has plummeted dramatically. For example, the cost to train an AI system for image recognition dropped from $112.64 in 2017 to $4.50 in 2021. It's even less today.

It promises to change everything, and if we can adapt, learn, and responsibly innovate, THAT will determine our future in this rapidly evolving landscape.

As I said, we don't know where we are going but we sure are making great time!

#AI#Intelligence#Acceleration#Innovation#Technology#Transformation#Future#Automation#Learning#Opportunities

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2025/06/decoding-tomorrow-30-megatrends-1-the-only-thing-we-know-for-certain-about-al-is-that-we-dont-know-exactly-where-we-are-going-but-we-are-making-great-time/

A government working group Monday unveiled a report underlining the need to consider a legal system aimed at regulating social media monetization during natural disasters. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/06/24/japan/politics/social-media-monetization-disaster/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #japan #politics #internalaffairsministry #socialmedia #disasterpreparedness #ai #fakenews

AI firm DeepSeek is aiding China's military and intelligence operations, a senior U.S. official said, adding that the startup sought to access high-end chips that cannot be shipped to China under U.S. rules. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2025/06/24/tech/deepseek-china-military-export-us/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #business #tech #ai #deepseek #china #nvidia #semiconductors

"Scientists once hoarded pre-nuclear steel; now we’re hoarding pre-AI content"

I really like this comparison. #AI really is like nuclear radiation for information, and the effects are just as global. Also, both could result in massive, perhaps existential if any of the hype from AI CEOs is to be believed, human devistation if things spiral out of control.

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/06/why-one-man-is-archiving-human-made-content-from-before-the-ai-explosion/

So, Deezer say 18% of its content is AI-generated. Even though AI-generated content gets flagged, I'd love to know how Deezer knows what's AI-generated. I wonder how many per cent of content has to be AI-generated for a track to be flagged as AI content.

I can't help but wonder: how much of Spotify's content is AI-generated?

#BrokenRecord#music#Deezer#AI#ArtificialIntelligence #spotify #MusicBusiness

Great little video by John Oliver about AI. One thing he did not get, however, is that also the comments are likely AI generated...

Now you can have a discussion about the usefulness of AI for all kinds of stuff, but to me is is disgusting that Meta is deciding to feed their users this stuff. When it comes to social media, I would think that most people are interested in what their friends have to say or what people they follow have to say. AI generated content is not that.

#AI#Technology#Politics#Meta#Facebook#JohnOliver#SocialMedia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWpg1RmzAbc

I was on a new podcast called WTF Now. My episode is called How the internet went wrong. Sad title, but you will understand when you listen.

This is really back to my strong belief that we need regulation when it comes to user profiling. IMHO it should just be banned. Have a listen and let me know what you think!

#Vivaldi#Browser#AI#SurveillanceCapitalism#Meta#Politics #internet#Web

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxvqCwu2cI0

I just finished Karen Hao's "Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI". Best book I've read all year. It covers the history of OpenAI, from before ChatGPT to early 2025. It profiles CEO Sam Altman and several other executives. It also discusses the broader AI industry. And it's pretty darn negative! My notes here: https://evanhahn.com/empire-of-ai-book-notes/

#EmpireOfAI #ai#ChatGPT#OpenAI#SamAltman

The time has come for me to propose that #Gentoo leaves #GitHub.

#Microsoft has been purveying #enshittification of this platform for years now. Pushing #Copilot everywhere was the last straw.

https://public-inbox.gentoo.org/gentoo-project/1c0b6be5cb24d51deecaed2ccf99593d0fac185e.camel@gentoo.org/T/#t

#AI#LLM