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Things we learned about LLMs in 2024 [Being critical is a virtue]
by Alberto Cammozzo Jan. 7, 2025

Jan. 7, 2025

Utile sintesi da parte di un tecnico, con molti elementi interessanti e spunti di riflessione senza posizioni ideologiche. Riporto per esteso in calce solo la parte "LLMs need better criticism" non per censurare il resto che merita senz'altro la lettura, ma perché mi pare che risponda a quanto si cerca di fare qui, ed in particolare mi pare attinente al dibattito in corso. <https://simonwillison.net/2024/Dec/31/llms-in-2024/> Things we learned about LLMs in 2024 A /lot/ has happened in the world of Large Language Models over the course of 2024. Here’s a review of things we figured out about the field in the past twelve months, plus my attempt at identifying key themes and pivotal moments. [...] LLMs need better criticism A lot of people /absolutely hate/ this stuff. In some of the spaces I hang out (Mastodon <https://fedi.simonwillison.net/@simon>, Bluesky <https://bsky.app/profile/simonwillison.net>, Lobste.rs <https://lobste.rs/>, even Hacker News <https://news.ycombinator.com/> on occasion) even suggesting that “LLMs are useful” can be enough to kick off a huge fight. I get it. There are plenty of reasons to dislike this technology—the environmental impact, the (lack of) ethics of the training data, the lack of reliability, the negative applications, the potential impact on people’s jobs. LLMs absolutely warrant criticism. We need to be talking through these problems, finding ways to mitigate them and helping people learn how to use these tools responsibly in ways where the positive applications outweigh the negative. I /like/ people who are skeptical of this stuff. The hype has been deafening for more than two years now, and there are enormous quantities of snake oil and misinformation out there. A lot of /very bad/ decisions are being made based on that hype. Being critical is a virtue. If we want people with decision-making authority to make /good decisions/ about how to apply these tools we first need to acknowledge that there ARE good applications, and then help explain how to put those into practice while avoiding the many unintiutive traps. (If you still don’t think there are any good applications at all I’m not sure why you made it to this point in the article!) I think telling people that this whole field is environmentally catastrophic plagiarism machines that constantly make things up is doing those people a disservice, no matter how much truth that represents. There is genuine value to be had here, but getting to that value is unintuitive and needs guidance. Those of us who understand this stuff have a duty to help everyone else figure it out.

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MEMENTO | 179° Mercoledì di Nexa | 8 gennaio 2025, ore 17.00
by Nexa - Media Jan. 7, 2025

Jan. 7, 2025

Gentilissime, gentilissimi, Vi ricordiamo che mercoledì 8 gennaio, alle ore 17.00, si terrà il 179° Mercoledì di Nexa con un incontro dal titolo "Le nuove leggi dello spazio". Ospite dell'incontro: Ugo Pagallo (Trustee del Centro Nexa, Università degli Studi di Torino). L'incontro si terrà IN PRESENZA e ONLINE. SEDE FISICA dell'incontro: Centro Nexa su Internet e Società, Politecnico di Torino, Via Boggio 65/a, Torino (1° piano). Per accedere alla sala si raccomanda di suonare al citofono Portineria e di seguire le indicazioni segnalate lungo il percorso. QUI<https://nexa.polito.it/contatti> maggiori informazioni su come raggiungerci. STANZA VIRTUALE dell'incontro: https://didattica.polito.it/VClass/NexaEvent Maggiori informazioni alla pagina: https://nexa.polito.it/mercoledi-179 Un saluto cordiale, -- Valeria Bergantino Communication Manager Nexa Center for Internet & Society Politecnico di Torino - DAUIN Via Pier Carlo Boggio, 65/A - 10138 Torino web: https://nexa.polito.it/ mail: valeria.bergantino(a)polito.it<mailto:valeria.bergantino@polito.it> tel: 3473443585

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Strumenti per il voto
by de petra giulio Jan. 7, 2025

Jan. 7, 2025

Ci sono ancora strumenti digitali molto semplici ed economici il cui utilizzo può ‘generare’ grandi benefici. Ne scrivono qui Beppe Caravita e Fiorella De Cindio Fonte: CRS - Centro per la Riforma dello Stato Contro l'astensionismo. Che i referendum siano votabili da tutti! https://search.app/4N5S5amtvNo1ZPbG7

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Re: [nexa] In a mirror
by alessandro marzocchi Jan. 6, 2025

Jan. 6, 2025

Date: Mon, 6 Jan 2025 06:45:52 +0100 From: Guido Vetere < vetere.guido(a)gmail.com> wrote: se invece di profetizzare la sventura ci volessimo impegnare per evitarla, forse il modo ci sarebbe ----- In concreto ...? Cordiali auguri. Duccio (Alessandro Marzocchi)

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"Net Neutrality Rules Struck Down by Appeals Court"
by J.C. DE MARTIN Jan. 3, 2025

Jan. 3, 2025

Net Neutrality Rules Struck Down by Appeals Court /After nearly two decades of fighting, the battle over regulations that treat broadband providers like utilities came to an end on Thursday./ Jan. 2, 2025Updated 2:51 p.m. ET A federal appeals court struck down the Federal Communications Commission’s landmark net neutrality rules on Thursday, ending a nearly two-decade effort to regulate broadband internet providers like utilities. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in Cincinnati, said <https://www.opn.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/25a0002p-06.pdf> that the F.C.C. lacked the authority to reinstate rules that prevented broadband providers from slowing or blocking access to internet content. The decision put an end to the Biden administration’s hallmark tech policy <https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/25/technology/fcc-net-neutrality-open-inter…>, which had drawn impassioned support from consumer groups and tech giants like Google and fierce protests by telecommunications giants like Comcast and AT&T. < - > https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/02/technology/net-neutrality-rules-fcc.htm

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Assisi IA Act
by Norberto Patrignani Jan. 2, 2025

Jan. 2, 2025

carissim*, segnalo (in allegato per comodita') il testo completo dell'AI Assisi Act dal sito dell'Ordine dei Giornalisti: https://www.odg.it/comunicazione-e-ia-per-un-approccio-corretto-e-responsab… buon 2025! Norberto

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16° Conferenza Annuale del Centro Nexa "Guerra, pace e algoritmi" | Video dell'incontro
by Nexa - Media Jan. 2, 2025

Jan. 2, 2025

Gentilissime, gentilissimi, Vi segnaliamo che è ora disponibile sul nostro canale YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@NexaCenter) la registrazione della 16° Conferenza Annuale del Centro Nexa su Internet & Società "Guerra, pace e algoritmi". Un saluto cordiale, -- Valeria Bergantino Communication Manager Nexa Center for Internet & Society Politecnico di Torino - DAUIN Via Pier Carlo Boggio, 65/A - 10138 Torino web: https://nexa.polito.it/ mail: valeria.bergantino(a)polito.it<mailto:valeria.bergantino@polito.it> tel: 3473443585

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Solove, "Privacy in Authoritarian Times"
by J.C. DE MARTIN Dec. 30, 2024

Dec. 30, 2024

Il contesto di cui parla Daniel Solove nel suono editoriale per il Boston Globe sono gli USA, per cui vari suoi ragionamenti vanno adattati al contesto EU. jc *Privacy in Authoritarian Times* Daniel Solove /Crackdowns on immigrants. Surveillance of abortion providers and abortion seekers. Harassment of critics. These maneuvers in the demagogue’s playbook would be harder to pull off with better digital privacy./ As the United States and much of the world turn back to the darkness of authoritarianism that blighted the previous century, we must remember that privacy is one of the bulwarks against the power of authoritarian governments. Unfortunately, we’re living in a more intensive surveillance society than ever before, and our privacy laws are ill equipped to protect us against government access to our personal data. In the years to come, the federal government and many state governments might engage in surveillance and data gathering as they round up immigrants, punish people for seeking, providing, or assisting abortions, and attack gender-affirming health care. The government might use personal data in its effort to retaliate against those who stand in its way. Such efforts might be assisted by mobs of vigilantes who will use personal data to dox, threaten, embarrass, and harm anyone they don’t like — much like the way many people eagerly assisted totalitarian regimes in finding “undesirables” and rooting out and punishing dissenters. Our best hope for protection is that legislators in Massachusetts and other states who are concerned about these risks take steps now to upgrade their privacy laws. Writing more than two decades ago, I critiqued how digital dossiers existed for all of us <http://ssrn.com/abstract=313301> — extensive repositories of personal data gathered by companies — and how the government could readily gain access to this data. The Fourth Amendment provides minimal to no protection for much of our personal data in the digital age. This is because of the Third-Party Doctrine, a misguided rule manufactured by the US Supreme Court in the 1970s that holds that whenever personal data is in the hands of third parties, people no longer have a reasonable expectation of privacy in it — and as a result, there’s no Fourth Amendment protection. The Third-Party Doctrine is especially problematic and ill-suited to our modern times, when so much of our personal data is in the hands of third parties such as credit card companies, search companies, cloud service providers, online merchants, data brokers, social media companies, and app creators. When the government demands that companies turn over personal data and let authorities use surveillance technologies, will companies refuse to cooperate? If history repeats itself, the answer is no. Last century, many companies supplied the Nazis with the technology <https://time.com/5290043/nazi-history-eu-data-privacy-gdpr/> and information they wanted <https://www.magellantv.com/articles/nazi-data-science-the-dark-history-that…>. Here at home, when the federal government demanded data from companies after 9/11, they readily turned it over — even when it was against their own privacy policies. Even companies that are not eager to cooperate often buckle under government pressure. [...] continua qui: https://teachprivacy.com/privacy-in-authoritarian-times/

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179° Mercoledì di Nexa | 8 gennaio 2025, ore 17.00
by Nexa - Media Dec. 30, 2024

Dec. 30, 2024

Gentilissime, gentilissimi, Vi invitiamo a partecipare al 179° Mercoledì di Nexa, che si terrà mercoledì 8 gennaio, alle ore 17.00, con un incontro dal titolo "Le nuove leggi dello spazio". Ospite dell'incontro: Ugo Pagallo (Trustee del Centro Nexa, Università degli Studi di Torino). L'incontro si terrà IN PRESENZA e ONLINE. SEDE FISICA dell'incontro: Centro Nexa su Internet e Società, Politecnico di Torino, Via Boggio 65/a, Torino (1° piano). Per accedere alla sala si raccomanda di suonare al citofono Portineria e di seguire le indicazioni segnalate lungo il percorso. QUI<https://nexa.polito.it/contatti> maggiori informazioni su come raggiungerci. STANZA VIRTUALE dell'incontro: https://didattica.polito.it/VClass/NexaEvent Di seguito maggiori dettagli: https://nexa.polito.it/mercoledi-179 Cordiali saluti, -- Valeria Bergantino Communication Manager Nexa Center for Internet & Society Politecnico di Torino - DAUIN Via Pier Carlo Boggio, 65/A - 10138 Torino web: https://nexa.polito.it/ mail: valeria.bergantino(a)polito.it<mailto:valeria.bergantino@polito.it> tel: 3473443585

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LLM made-in-China (e reso disponibile)
by Damiano Verzulli Dec. 27, 2024

Dec. 27, 2024

Confesso di non riuscire a percepirne i dettagli tecnici (l'architettura degli LLM non è la mia specialita'). Pero' la notizia mi pare comunque interessante: "A Chinese lab has created what appears to be one of the most powerful “open” AI models to date. The model, DeepSeek V3 <https://huggingface.co/deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V3>, was developed by the AI firm DeepSeek and was released on Wednesday under a permissive license that allows developers to download and modify it for most applications, including commercial ones. [...]" https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/26/deepseeks-new-ai-model-appears-to-be-one-… Aldila' degli aspetti tecnici (che pure mi interesserebbe approfondire...), il piccolo screenshot che mette in evidenza "the downside" mi ha fatto subito riflettere: con questo LLM cinese... il downside si intuisce e si vede istantaneamente. Chissa' che non ve ne siano altri (di "downside", in altri LLM, creati altrove), che non riusciamo a vedere (almeno io...) con altrettanta semplicita'... Un caro saluto, DV -- Damiano Verzulli e-mail:damiano@verzulli.it --- possible?ok:while(!possible){open_mindedness++} --- "...I realized that free software would not generate the kind of income that was needed. Maybe in USA or Europe, you may be able to get a well paying job as a free software developer, but not here [in Africa]..." -- Guido Sohne - 1973-2008 http://ole.kenic.or.ke/pipermail/skunkworks/2008-April/005989.html

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