More videos from the #EmbeddingAlgorithms workshop: @tpelinski & @adampultz with “Building and performing with an ensemble of models” https://youtu.be/jfnpDtOpDJM

in 'weapons of math destruction’, o’neil discusses the pervasiveness and high stakes of algorithms in daily life in as much frightening detail as only someone with deep respect and awe for big tech can.

her message, however, isn’t just about technology—it’s about social justice.

full review: https://idealistatheart.com/weapons-of-math-destruction-by-cathy-oneil/

#books #book #bookstodon #read #reading #amreading #nonfiction
#booksky #bookstagram
#algorithms #technology #booktok
#booksky #nonfiction #bigtech #socialjustice

"What we do in these next few months will determine whether Europe’s liberal democracy survives or is for ever lost. Investing in defence will be for naught if foreign powers – whether the US, Russia, or China – can boost authoritarian collaborators within the EU’s borders.

The EU must immediately switch off the tech companies’ algorithms on its soil, at least until they are proven safe for democracy. Without that artificial amplification, extreme material will again have to compete with the deluge of cat videos and other things posted by people on digital platforms at that same instant. With X and other platforms upgraded to a pre-algorithm state, Musk’s posts will no longer be forced in to people’s feeds. We will still have digital platforms, but extremism will again be niche rather than the norm.

Ursula von der Leyen last year pledged to introduce a “democracy shield” to protect Europe from foreign electoral manipulation. Von der Leyen’s first step should be to shut down recommender algorithms. One way of doing that is to put political pressure on Ireland, which is responsible for enforcing Europe’s tough data law on most big tech firms but has not delivered. Instead, Dublin, according to the whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams, has been the tech industry’s lapdog. But von der Leyen should activate the commission’s decisive powers, too.

The democracy shield risks becoming a hodgepodge of timid half measures. Europe’s national capitals must demand immediate action both from the commission and from Ireland. Trump cannot be allowed to hold the hidden levers of Europe’s internal political debate. Europeans must have the freedom to communicate with one another without foreign censorship and interference. This crisis is at least as urgent as rearmament."

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/apr/15/us-europe-military-spending-trump-ireland

Europe’s race to rearm is pointless if its adversaries are waging war online - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/apr/15/us-europe-military-spending-trump-ireland "The EU must immediately switch off the tech companies’ algorithms on its soil, at least until they are proven safe for democracy. " #algorithms #adtech #propaganda

Dissent Management / PreCrime

#Algorithms #facialrecognition, and tightening #protest laws signal a deepening #surveillance state U.K.

https://freedomnews.org.uk/2025/04/11/how-the-uk-is-shaping-a-future-of-precrime-and-dissent-management/

Being an internet user means constantly jumping between different services and websites to check what's new. But there are alternatives.

@Iconfactory's #tapestryapp, @rizzi's #reederapp, and @Flipboard's @surf are three apps that let you gather much of the content you're interested in—all in one place.

https://anders.thoresson.se/post/2025/04/three-apps-that-bring-your-feeds-together-in-one-place/

https://www.europesays.com/uk/11574/ Ireland probes Musk’s X for feeding Europeans’ data to its AI model Grok – POLITICO #AI #algorithms #ArtificialIntelligence #BigData #BigTech #CrossBorder #Data #Data/Privacy #DataFlows #DataProtection #ElonMusk #Enforcement #Ireland #Platforms #Privacy #Regulation #SocialMedia #Technology #UK #UnitedKingdom #UnitedStates

"Alexander, more than midway through a 20-year prison sentence on drug charges, was making preparations for what he hoped would be his new life. His daughter, with whom he had only recently become acquainted, had even made up a room for him in her New Orleans home.

Then, two months before the hearing date, prison officials sent Alexander a letter informing him he was no longer eligible for parole.

A computerized scoring system adopted by the state Department of Public Safety and Corrections had deemed the nearly blind 70-year-old, who uses a wheelchair, a moderate risk of reoffending, should he be released. And under a new law, that meant he and thousands of other prisoners with moderate or high risk ratings cannot plead their cases before the board. According to the department of corrections, about 13,000 people — nearly half the state’s prison population — have such risk ratings, although not all of them are eligible for parole.

Alexander said he felt “betrayed” upon learning his hearing had been canceled. “People in jail have … lost hope in being able to do anything to reduce their time,” he said.

The law that changed Alexander’s prospects is part of a series of legislation passed by Louisiana Republicans last year reflecting Gov. Jeff Landry’s tough-on-crime agenda to make it more difficult for prisoners to be released."

https://www.propublica.org/article/tiger-algorithm-louisiana-parole-calvin-alexander

The Register: UK officials insist ‘murder prediction tool’ algorithms purely abstract. “The UK’s justice department has confirmed it is working on developing algorithms to predict which criminals will later become murderers. It was internally referred to as the Homicide Prediction Project, and was first discovered via Freedom of Information (FOI) requests filed by civil liberties group […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/04/11/the-register-uk-officials-insist-murder-prediction-tool-algorithms-purely-abstract/

**The Gizmodo Guide to Stopping Algorithms From Ruining Your Life**

“_To be free, learn to embrace RSS feeds._”

https://gizmodo.com/the-gizmodo-guide-to-stopping-algorithms-from-ruining-your-life-2000584899.

"The UK government is developing a “murder prediction” programme which it hopes can use personal data of those known to the authorities to identify the people most likely to become killers.

Researchers are alleged to be using algorithms to analyse the information of thousands of people, including victims of crime, as they try to identify those at greatest risk of committing serious violent offences.

The scheme was originally called the “homicide prediction project”, but its name has been changed to “sharing data to improve risk assessment”. The Ministry of Justice hopes the project will help boost public safety but campaigners have called it “chilling and dystopian”."

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/apr/08/uk-creating-prediction-tool-to-identify-people-most-likely-to-kill?mc_cid=b2cf70aeb4&mc_eid=ceff4c8226

#UK officials insist '#murder #prediction tool' #algorithms purely abstract

https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/09/uks_ministry_of_justice_algorithm_murders/
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/apr/08/uk-creating-prediction-tool-to-identify-people-most-likely-to-kill

https://www.europesays.com/uk/6437/ Hot New Thermodynamic Chips Could Trump Classical Computers #algorithms #ArtificialIntelligence #computer #computers #Computing #FrontiersOfComputing #longreads #Physics #Technology #thermodynamics #UK #UnitedKingdom

Levenshtein Word Distance in Python. This algorithm calculates the number of steps required to change one word into another and has various uses including spell checking suggestions.

https://codedrome.substack.com/p/levenshtein-word-distance-in-python

#python

#pythonprogramming

#algorithms

C++Now 2025 SESSION ANNOUNCEMENT: Extending std::execution - Implementing Custom Algorithms with Senders & Receivers by Robert Leahy

https://schedule.cppnow.org/session/2025/extending-stdexecution/

Register now at https://cppnow.org/registration/

#Child begging livestreams are actively promoted by TikTok's #algorithm and #TikTok profits from the #content despite having policies against begging

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/apr/06/profiting-from-misery-how-tiktok-makes-money-from-child-begging-livestreams

BETTER LIVING THROUGH ALGORITHMS https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kritzer_05_23/ #Tech #Technology #ALGORITHMS #ALGORITHM

Interested in improving your understanding of Data Structures & Algorithms, but in Go? Check out part 1 of my blog, covering Big-O!

https://blog.mikesahari.com/posts/dsa-part1-big-o/