#labeling solution for ai

[prototechsolutionsblog]

The Data Revolution: Unveiling the Impact of AI Data Annotation on Modern Workflows

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been transforming the way we work for some time now. From automating routine tasks to enabling predictive analytics, AI has made our lives easier and more efficient. One of the most crucial components of AI is data annotation. Data annotation is the process of labeling data for machines to understand and learn from. In this article, we explore the importance of AI data annotation and how it is revolutionizing the way we work.

1. Enhanced Machine Learning Models

Machine learning relies on vast amounts of data to learn and improve over time. Data annotation is crucial in ensuring that machine learning models receive the right type of information. By providing labeled data, machine learning models can recognize patterns and make more accurate predictions. AI data annotation is essential in developing machine learning models that are reliable and effective.

2. Improved Efficiency

Data annotation can help individuals and organizations work more efficiently. By automating repetitive tasks, such as labeling data, individuals can focus on more complex tasks that require human intelligence. AI data annotation can also reduce errors and inconsistencies that can result from human error. By providing accurate data, AI data annotation can help organizations make better decisions, faster.

3. Enhanced Customer Experience

AI data annotation can help organizations better understand their customers. By analyzing customer data, organizations can tailor their products and services to meet the needs of their customers. This can result in a better customer experience and increased customer loyalty. AI data annotation can also help organizations identify trends and patterns that can be used to develop new products and services.

4. Access to Large Datasets

AI data annotation can help organizations access large datasets that would otherwise be difficult to obtain. By outsourcing data annotation to third-party providers, organizations can access vast amounts of data that can be used to develop more accurate and reliable machine learning models. This can give organizations a competitive advantage and help them stay ahead of the curve.

5. Improved Safety and Security

AI data annotation can also improve safety and security in various industries. By analyzing data from sensors, cameras, and other sources, organizations can identify potential safety hazards and take corrective action. AI data annotation can also be used to detect fraudulent activity and prevent cyber-attacks. This can help organizations protect their assets and their customers' data.

In conclusion

AI data annotation is revolutionizing the way we work. By providing labeled data, AI data annotation can enhance machine learning models, improve efficiency, enhance customer experience, provide access to large datasets, and improve safety and security. As AI continues to evolve, so will the importance of AI data annotation. Organizations that embrace AI data annotation will be better positioned to succeed in the future.

[payomatix]

5 Fintech Innovations That Will Reshape Financial Services in 2025

Discover how the latest fintech breakthroughs are transforming the way we handle payments, investments, and banking. From AI-driven solutions to blockchain advancements, 2025 is set to redefine financial services like never before!

[apexcovantage]

Generative AI | High-Quality Human Expert Labeling | Apex Data Sciences

Apex Data Sciences combines cutting-edge generative AI with RLHF for superior data labeling solutions. Get high-quality labeled data for your AI projects.

[productiveandfree]

Unleashing Productivity: AI-Powered Solutions in Management

Leaders across industries are looking for new ways to drive efficiency across operations, streamline production, and gain an advantage over their competition. With that in mind, it’s no wonder that Generative AI (or GenAI), one of the newest on-market technologies, has become such a popular topic. But the buzz around it, and the increasingly wild speculation about what GenAI might unlock for business owners, leaves leaders like you with one very important question: what can GenAI do for me, right here, right now?

Let’s break down how leaders like you can use GenAI to unleash productivity within your organization.

Firstly, we need to break down what we mean when we use the term “GenAI.”

GenAI (or generative AI) is typically another term for a large language model (LLM) that takes a large pool of data, leverages it to understand the relationships between words, and then produces content in response to user prompts. The types of content it can produce are as varied as the prompts users can come up with; and as a result, GenAI can, in theory, be used to produce everything from social copy to thought leadership blogs and more.

When GenAI enters the conversation, many people focus on that content creation aspect; in reality, the value-add it’ll provide to your organization is in productivity enhancements. Case studies have shown that AI has increased the productivity of employees in a variety of industries, from call centers to software developers. As a general-purpose technology, it has a massive amount of potential use cases; the ways it will interact with your organization and enhance the productivity of your workers will likely differ from others.

That being said, as we go, we’ll illustrate a few general, practical uses for GenAI that may be relevant to your organization.

Optimizing Warehouse Operations

Take for example the manufacturing industry, which is no stranger to human-robot collaboration. Manufacturers have been benefiting from the aid of cutting-edge robotics tech for a while now; and while they are no strangers to change, they may wonder how AI will adjust the human-robot equation.

AI is a tool that you can deploy to attain a greater degree of efficiency. AI-powered tools can facilitate the construction takeoff process, read and analyze and even correct blueprints, and cut down on material waste by predicting how much will be needed to complete projects.

That being said, much like with robots, there are additional factors to take into consideration when integrating new technology into a potentially dangerous workspace. Only by emphasizing the importance of collaboration can leaders ensure that their human-robot work environment remains positive and safe for all involved.

While AI-powered robots may be able to help with manual tasks like heavy lifting, humans will need to contribute by making sure safety protocols are followed, regular maintenance is performed, and double-checking robots’ work for errors.

Reducing Human Error

AI can also streamline production by reducing occurrences of human error. AI works with robotic precision, automating manual tasks like data entry and entering each value correctly. Moreover, AI can also be used to reduce human error in the decision-making process, helping leaders compare data models and select the most profitable path to value.

Let’s use AI-powered product tracking as an example. Keeping track of items as they move through shipping and fulfillment is an issue that affects a large number of industries, as barcodes contain limited amounts of data, can be easily duplicated by malefactors, and even sometimes fall off of products. Using RFID tags, Near-Field communication tags or other smart labeling systems can be good alternatives to barcodes, and they can also carry much more data.

When combined with the analytical powers of AI and computer vision detection, this makes it much easier for companies to automatically register, track, and provide detailed information on where a product is in the supply chain. This way, if a human error arises and it is unclear where a specific item is, it is much easier to locate it and provide updates to important stakeholders.  

AI can be integrated into business systems to allow employees to work smarter, not harder; and in our smart labeling system example, that is very much the case. Instead of having employees spend half their day scanning barcodes throughout your store and meticulously checking and double checking everything is where it should be, AI does all of that for you. Employees will be free to serve customers, restock, and perform various other store tasks as needed.

Increasing Efficiency

Jumping off our last point, AI’s most powerful use case is helping your employees work smarter, not harder. When your employees aren’t busy working on manual tasks, they’re free to chase other, potentially lucrative areas of growth. AI helps your workers turn out their best work, which then helps your organization drive profit; it’s a powerful, circular relationship that will boost your profitability job satisfaction, and your chances of being on the cutting edge of innovation.

You can leverage your performance metrics system to determine where AI is most needed, and then keep track of its impact on those sectors over time. Some tweaking may be needed, as a change of this scale is almost always iterative; but with the information to detect pain points, you’ll be well on your way to driving productivity across departments.

We hope this primer gave you some insight into how AI can be used to drive productivity across your business. As you use this exciting technology to streamline operations and drive productivity, we hope you see the stellar growth you’re aiming for and land among the giants of your industry.

Katie Brenneman

Katie is a passionate writer specializing in time management, marketing, and education-related content. When she isn't writing, you can find her with her nose buried in a book or hiking with her dog, Charlie. To connect with Katie, you can follow her on Twitter.

Share in the comments below: Questions go here

[priyanshilspl]

ADVANTAGES OF DATA ANNOTATION

Data annotation is essential for training AI models effectively. Precise labeling ensures accurate predictions, while scalability handles large datasets efficiently. Contextual understanding enhances model comprehension, and adaptability caters to diverse needs. Quality assurance processes maintain data integrity, while collaboration fosters synergy among annotators, driving innovation in AI technologies.

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

“Aang fans have to reach hard to find any sort of “development” in his story, and to justify why it’s acceptable for him to put the lives of millions of people at risk to maintain feelings of purity despite other Avatars (including an Air Nomad) telling him his decision is selfish”

Thoughts on this take? I found it on “longing for rain” blog.

1 - Zuko had THE perfect opportunity to end the war by killing Ozai during the day of the eclipse, but he didn't do so because "It's Aang's fate" and Zuko has a very rigid idea of what "fate" means and how it should affect one's behavior. Iroh also refused to even try to HELP in the battle because it'd make him be seen as a power-hungry kinslayer (even though he had zero intention of becoming Fire Lord). Both of these things can be seen as selfish, especially since they're all about how it'll affect their OWN image, yet only Aang gets labeled selfish. If everyone is throwing the burden on his shoulders, they can shut the fuck up about how he handles said burden.

2 - One of Aang's reasons to not want to kill Ozai is because HE'S TWELVE AND DOESN'T WANNA MURDER SOMEONE, even someone who deserves it. He never asked for this responsibility. He cannot be blamed for Sozin and every Fire Lord after him being a monster, or for Roku's inability to do anything despite being an adult. He's a child. This is not his mess to fix, and yet...

3 - He's not simply going "Sorry, guys, I don't feel like killing Ozai, guess you're all gonna die." He's trying to find alternative solutions - and when he can't find one, he ACCEPTS killing Ozai (and even almost does it AFTER being taught about energybending), despite...

4 - Him being a pacifist and wanting to stay true to his beliefs. He's not trying to be "pure", as in "I'm better than all of you 'cause I don't want to kill", but as in "I don't wanna be a hypocrite that preaches one thing but does the opposite" - thought I suppose I can understand how someone how tries to get praised by trying to pass off AI bullshit as actual art made by them would have a problem with a main character that vallues being an honest person.

Aang's development is not the same as Zuko's of "I need to completely alter my way of thinking" because AANG WAS NOT THE ONE SUPPORTING GENOCIDE. This doesn't make Zuko a better written, more realistic, or "more developed" character, it means he used to be a monster and now he isn't one anymore.

Aang's entire struggle is constantly having the world trying to beat his innocence and humanity out of him so he is nothing BUT the Avatar, just a super soldier/weapon that lives to sacrifice everything for everyone else's sake, while getting nothing in return because "it's his duty." His character arc is about realizing these "necessary evils" aren't actually necessary at all, and that he CAN save the world without destroying his spirit and identity in the process. He doesn't have to see the "error of his ways" because he was not the one in the wrong for saying "Fuck you, I'm a PERSON, not your sacrificial lamb."

And idiots like this particular dumbass would realize it (or rather, admit it) if they only they didn't have a giant stick up their pretencious ass and could get over the fact that their fanon ship "lost the ship war" TWENTY FUCKING YEARS AGO!

[transmutationisms]

ok so i do think the "ai art isnt real art" argument sucks but what about "stealing" art? in the sense of ai being trained on other peoples work and then profiting off of it. for both visual art and written work.

(i know the bigger problem here are the abused workers doing the filtering etc but im interested in this particular problem too)

so first of all i think this argument is kind of silly (im not aiming this at you but at a certain genre of ai critic) because there's no way to distinguish, ontologically or legally, between a generative language model being trained on a certain dataset and a human having artistic influences. that's sort of just how creative production works. it would be really hellish if "having stylistic influences" was like, ethically or legally forbidden lmao. i mean certain forms of art (blackout poetry, collage) can even work explicitly by taking some already existing piece and altering it---but even when that's not happening, human creation and inspiration don't happen in a vacuum or in some kind of transcendent artistic revelation from god above lol.

anyway i do actually think it's fucked for companies to be profiting on the creations of their generative language models, but only in the same way and to the same extent that capitalist production generally is fucked. i do not think the solution here is to further reinforce copyright or monetary ownership of art. and as many people have pointed out, you actually can see a kind of trial run of how this would shake out in the music industry, where laws about sampling have gotten more and more restrictive to protect copyright/ip. it's very easy for massive labels to sue whoever they want, it's hard-to-impossible for smaller artists to fight back even if it's genuinely a case of accidental resemblance, it's legally absurd because like half of rock n roll uses the same few chord progressions anyway, and meanwhile the actual art form has basically been shrunken and restricted because sampling is so threatened and expensive.

[olderthannetfic]

https://www.tumblr.com/olderthannetfic/770598153639657472/for-ao3-readers-muting-is-the-solution-to-a?source=share

The reminder that the mute feature exists is always welcome, but this could have been two sentences instead of twelve paragraphs (I counted).

To all the people who think there's some huge influx of AI text on AO3 could you please point me to either

a.) a single tag which has approx 1 correctly tagged AI generated fic or image per page (this would be 1/20th of works in that tag, a minority but enough to actually notice)

OR

b.) three separate works by different creators which are clearly AI and not labeled as such. The burden is on you to explain why you believe these fics to be AI and not the work of young, lazy, or ESL human authors. Typos and malapropisms are not signs of AI.

Go ahead, I'm waiting, if there really is enough to cause a problem this should be easy.

--

[prototechsolutionsblog]

Decoding the Power of Speech: A Deep Dive into Speech Data Annotation

Introduction

In the realm of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), the importance of high-quality labeled data cannot be overstated. Speech data, in particular, plays a pivotal role in advancing various applications such as speech recognition, natural language processing, and virtual assistants. The process of enriching raw audio with annotations, known as speech data annotation, is a critical step in training robust and accurate models. In this in-depth blog, we'll delve into the intricacies of speech data annotation, exploring its significance, methods, challenges, and emerging trends.

The Significance of Speech Data Annotation

1. Training Ground for Speech Recognition: Speech data annotation serves as the foundation for training speech recognition models. Accurate annotations help algorithms understand and transcribe spoken language effectively.

2. Natural Language Processing (NLP) Advancements: Annotated speech data contributes to the development of sophisticated NLP models, enabling machines to comprehend and respond to human language nuances.

3. Virtual Assistants and Voice-Activated Systems: Applications like virtual assistants heavily rely on annotated speech data to provide seamless interactions, and understanding user commands and queries accurately.

Methods of Speech Data Annotation

1. Phonetic Annotation: Phonetic annotation involves marking the phonemes or smallest units of sound in a given language. This method is fundamental for training speech recognition systems.

2. Transcription: Transcription involves converting spoken words into written text. Transcribed data is commonly used for training models in natural language understanding and processing.

3. Emotion and Sentiment Annotation: Beyond words, annotating speech for emotions and sentiments is crucial for applications like sentiment analysis and emotionally aware virtual assistants.

4. Speaker Diarization: Speaker diarization involves labeling different speakers in an audio recording. This is essential for applications where distinguishing between multiple speakers is crucial, such as meeting transcription.

Challenges in Speech Data Annotation

1. Accurate Annotation: Ensuring accuracy in annotations is a major challenge. Human annotators must be well-trained and consistent to avoid introducing errors into the dataset.

2. Diverse Accents and Dialects: Speech data can vary significantly in terms of accents and dialects. Annotating diverse linguistic nuances poses challenges in creating a comprehensive and representative dataset.

3. Subjectivity in Emotion Annotation: Emotion annotation is subjective and can vary between annotators. Developing standardized guidelines and training annotators for emotional context becomes imperative.

Emerging Trends in Speech Data Annotation

1. Transfer Learning for Speech Annotation: Transfer learning techniques are increasingly being applied to speech data annotation, leveraging pre-trained models to improve efficiency and reduce the need for extensive labeled data.

2. Multimodal Annotation: Integrating speech data annotation with other modalities such as video and text is becoming more common, allowing for a richer understanding of context and meaning.

3. Crowdsourcing and Collaborative Annotation Platforms: Crowdsourcing platforms and collaborative annotation tools are gaining popularity, enabling the collective efforts of annotators worldwide to annotate large datasets efficiently.

Wrapping it up!

In conclusion, speech data annotation is a cornerstone in the development of advanced AI and ML models, particularly in the domain of speech recognition and natural language understanding. The ongoing challenges in accuracy, diversity, and subjectivity necessitate continuous research and innovation in annotation methodologies. As technology evolves, so too will the methods and tools used in speech data annotation, paving the way for more accurate, efficient, and context-aware AI applications.

At ProtoTech Solutions, we offer cutting-edge Data Annotation Services, leveraging expertise to annotate diverse datasets for AI/ML training. Their precise annotations enhance model accuracy, enabling businesses to unlock the full potential of machine-learning applications. Trust ProtoTech for meticulous data labeling and accelerated AI innovation.

[reasonsforhope]

"Major technology companies signed a pact on Friday to voluntarily adopt "reasonable precautions" to prevent artificial intelligence (AI) tools from being used to disrupt democratic elections around the world.

Executives from Adobe, Amazon, Google, IBM, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, and TikTok gathered at the Munich Security Conference to announce a new framework for how they respond to AI-generated deepfakes that deliberately trick voters. 

Twelve other companies - including Elon Musk's X - are also signing on to the accord...

The accord is largely symbolic, but targets increasingly realistic AI-generated images, audio, and video "that deceptively fake or alter the appearance, voice, or actions of political candidates, election officials, and other key stakeholders in a democratic election, or that provide false information to voters about when, where, and how they can lawfully vote".

The companies aren't committing to ban or remove deepfakes. Instead, the accord outlines methods they will use to try to detect and label deceptive AI content when it is created or distributed on their platforms. 

It notes the companies will share best practices and provide "swift and proportionate responses" when that content starts to spread.

Lack of binding requirements

The vagueness of the commitments and lack of any binding requirements likely helped win over a diverse swath of companies, but disappointed advocates were looking for stronger assurances.

"The language isn't quite as strong as one might have expected," said Rachel Orey, senior associate director of the Elections Project at the Bipartisan Policy Center. 

"I think we should give credit where credit is due, and acknowledge that the companies do have a vested interest in their tools not being used to undermine free and fair elections. That said, it is voluntary, and we'll be keeping an eye on whether they follow through." ...

Several political leaders from Europe and the US also joined Friday’s announcement. European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova said while such an agreement can’t be comprehensive, "it contains very impactful and positive elements".  ...

[The Accord and Where We're At]

The accord calls on platforms to "pay attention to context and in particular to safeguarding educational, documentary, artistic, satirical, and political expression".

It said the companies will focus on transparency to users about their policies and work to educate the public about how they can avoid falling for AI fakes.

Most companies have previously said they’re putting safeguards on their own generative AI tools that can manipulate images and sound, while also working to identify and label AI-generated content so that social media users know if what they’re seeing is real. But most of those proposed solutions haven't yet rolled out and the companies have faced pressure to do more.

That pressure is heightened in the US, where Congress has yet to pass laws regulating AI in politics, leaving companies to largely govern themselves.

The Federal Communications Commission recently confirmed AI-generated audio clips in robocalls are against the law [in the US], but that doesn't cover audio deepfakes when they circulate on social media or in campaign advertisements.

Many social media companies already have policies in place to deter deceptive posts about electoral processes - AI-generated or not... 

[Signatories Include]

In addition to the companies that helped broker Friday's agreement, other signatories include chatbot developers Anthropic and Inflection AI; voice-clone startup ElevenLabs; chip designer Arm Holdings; security companies McAfee and TrendMicro; and Stability AI, known for making the image-generator Stable Diffusion.

Notably absent is another popular AI image-generator, Midjourney. The San Francisco-based startup didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.

The inclusion of X - not mentioned in an earlier announcement about the pending accord - was one of the surprises of Friday's agreement."

-via EuroNews, February 17, 2024

--

Note: No idea whether this will actually do much of anything (would love to hear from people with experience in this area on significant this is), but I'll definitely take it. Some of these companies may even mean it! (X/Twitter almost definitely doesn't, though).

Still, like I said, I'll take it. Any significant move toward tech companies self-regulating AI is a good sign, as far as I'm concerned, especially a large-scale and international effort. Even if it's a "mostly symbolic" accord, the scale and prominence of this accord is encouraging, and it sets a precedent for further regulation to build on.

[jakelandryshorts]

A Run around the Track

[AI Art created by Jammer (First Image, Second Image)]

“C’mon Rob! You keep complaining how coach wants you bigger. I think I have the solution!” Alex said in an overly chipper voice.

“You were just supposed to help me study,” Rob growled at his tutor. He didn’t understand why Alex would have wanted to meet him around the college track. But it quickly started to make sense. “Or are you just trying to get a chance to watch me workout?”

Alex’s tilted his head with a devious smile. “No…” He lied. Both of them knew it. Alex had been watching Rob like a hawk every single time they were would go to the library. His eyes would trace Rob’s body every chance that they got. “I’m just trying to be helpful.”

Rob’s eyes narrowed. “Where’d you even get this stuff?” The container wasn’t labeled, and it looked like a generic protein powder.

“Online. Everyone who reviewed it said it had amazing results!” Alex answered. He was already scooping the powder into a shaker bottle. Then added water to it. The substance dissolved instantly, making it look like it was just water again. Alex stuck out his arm. “Here!”

Rob stared at it skeptically. “Is it safe?”

Alex shrugged.

“YOU DON’T KNOW IF IT’S SAFE!?” Rob shouted. A few people walking the track looked over at them. Rob slapped his face. “You have to be kidding me…”

“I don’t know… How bad could it be?” Alex said. “What’s the worst that could happen? You get a protein powder that doesn’t do anything? Isn’t that normal?” He shook the bottle. “Come on… People said they see results after a few minutes.”

“Fine…” Rob snatched the shaker bottle out of Alex’s hand. He was tired of Coach Albarn saying he wasn’t putting enough effort out on the field. Like Alex said, ‘what’s the worst that could happen?’ Rob downed the drink.

Alex stared at him skeptically. “Anything yet?” Rob shook his head no. “I think they said that you have to build up a little bit of a sweat…”

“If this doesn’t work,” Rob stuck a finger in Alex’s face, “you’re doing all my homework. Got it?”

“Got it!” Alex squeaked.

Rob started off for a bit of a jog. It was just a standard warm up. However, even as he rounded the first bend of his first lap, he could feel sweat starting to drip down his brow. His heart was beating faster and there was this odd sensation running through his body. Rob powered through. There was no way a something could work that fast.

Then there was this odd feeling with his shirt. ‘It’s just the sweat,’ Rob reasoned as it clung to his chest a little more than usual. He could really feel the wetness running down his chest and back. Whatever this was, really made him sweat. Even he could smell the musk wafting off of him as he ran.

As he rounded the second bend, now his shoes were feeling tight. ‘There’s no way…’ Rob thought to himself. Had he really been growing? It didn’t make sense. Maybe a rock just got into his shoe or maybe he accidently picked up the wrong pair or one of his friends was playing a prank on him.

Rob finished his jog in front of Alex. “How’s that?” Alex didn’t answer. His mouth just hung open in shock. “What?”

“You—you got bigger…” Alex stammered.

“Huh?” Rob looked down at him in confusion. There was no way. That was barely even a few minutes of light jogging. It didn’t make sense, though as he looked down at Alex, there was a clear noticeable difference. At 6’1” he’d always been a bit taller than the other man, but now Alex barely came past his shoulders. “No way!”

“Yes way!” Alex cheered. He clearly loved looking at the bigger jock right now. There was so much more to gawk at. Now Rob’s shirt was starting to rise up and show off the bottom layer of his abs. His biceps looked so swollen that he would have a hard time finding anything that had sleeves. He’d probably have to get custom made pants to properly fit his enormous, but perfectly sculpted ass.  

“This is--!” Rob let out a grunt. His body seemed to have collapsed in on itself. Every muscle was flexing.

“Rob?” Alex asked.

Rob couldn’t respond. Only grunts came out of him as he felt his heart absolutely racing. Each and everyone of his muscles felt as though they were on fire. It was all at once too. He clenched his chest. Veins bulged out of his skin. And he started to grow.

It was a sudden burst of power flowing through him. His athletic body was rapidly doubling in size. Muscles grew at an unprecedented rate as he writhed under the weird feeling. The sleeveless shirt didn’t stand a chance. His widening back and chest ballooning out in front of him made the XL sized shirt look almost kid sized. It was the same with his shoes as his toes pushed out of them. Then crushed the remnants of the shoe’s soles.

“F-uck… F-uck…” Rob panted as he slowly regained control over his body. He looked down at his massive mitts for hands. Then quickly realized just how much further down the ground was from him. Getting a look at Alex, the other man barely came above his waist.

“R-Rob?” Alex stammered. “How are you feeling?”

Rob huffed out a few more deep breaths. A new emotion was emerging. He couldn’t understand it. He didn’t answer Alex. Instead, he picked up the small man by the collar and started carrying him.

“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! I didn’t realize it’d make you this big! I thought it’d just make you a little bit bigger!” Alex squirmed in the giant’s grasp.

Still, Rob didn’t say anything. He ducked under the doors and went into the empty locker room. He held Alex up against the wall. Then kissed him. Once the confusion disappeared, Alex was happy to reciprocate. Their tongues wrestled as Rob held Alex up against the wall.

Alex’s hands happily roamed around the unbelievably hard muscles of the hulking giant. He squeezed Rob’s pecs and traced the outlines of his hard muscles. All the while, Rob’s hands were quickly finding their way into Alex’s shorts. A finger popped into Alex’s asshole.

“Ahhhhh…” Alex moaned as he broke off from the kiss.

“You like that?” Rob moaned. His finger continued to wiggle around, tickling the other man’s insides. “Huh? You like making me into this big hulking monster?” Alex couldn’t respond. His mind was all over the place in a lustful haze. His little hands squeezed against Rob’s body for support before finally giving up.

Alex’s body jerked. A wet stain started to form in his underwear and bleed through to his shorts. He rested his head on the massive chest before him, taking in all of the other man’s musk.

Rob let out a frustrated grunt as he set Alex back down. The little guy continued to cling to him. His body rubbed up against the massive cock still straining Rob’s shorts. Alex took his own initiative as he lowered the hulking man’s shorts.

“At least no one can say you aren’t big enough…” he smirked as he used both his hands to properly jerk off his giant.

(More Stories on my Wordpress)

[mariacallous]

Concerns are growing about the social and political impacts of deepfakes and generative AI, leading many to consider the risks during a global election year. Deepfakes, generative AI, and synthetic content are also receiving policy attention in the form of Biden’s Executive Order on AI and the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s AI Safety Institute Consortium. This growing attention has resulted in decisions such as the Federal Communication Commission’s ban on AI-generated voices in robocalls and an agreement amongst Big Tech companies to label and limit, although not ban, AI-generated content on their platforms.

As researchers and as directors of the Governance and Responsible AI Lab (GRAIL) at Purdue University, we have followed these developments closely but are also concerned about more extensive indirect impacts of AI-generated content on individuals’ trust and belief in the broader informational and political environment. We have studied whether an environment of increasing AI-generated media content and misinformation might enable politicians and other public figures to successfully spread misinformation about misinformation, or to credibly “cry wolf” over fake news. Such claims could provide a benefit, or a “liar’s dividend,” at the expense of accountability and public trust in institutions such as the government and media.

[thephantombelow]

brief bluesky thoughts

actually gave bluesky a proper look because every look I have gave it so far has just been a "man this is just twitter but again what is the point" and closed it so went in with the intention of actually trying to see what is different

Bluesky is, UI wise, fundamentally the same as Twitter, however, it is like, just different enough that it has its merits. The fact it is not Twitter is good enough for most people but that has never been enough for me as like Twitter's UI sucks ass, it has to be that and then more to be worth it.

Bluesky, upon a further examination, has surprised me as clearly they have added quite a bit to it / I just have not looked at it well enough as there are numerous QoL features for the user that are fairly decent. For one, block lists are just... built-in to the site. So are follow lists! This is soooo nice. Very quickly I saw someone built a list of every AI/NFT account out there and I can just say I want to block everyone on this list and every time someone gets added to the list I have them blocked. Nice! This rocks. Seems like the increased the character limit to 300 at some point too? Not too sure why it exists, to be frank, that said, but it is fine, small indie social media or what have you. On the note of the follow lists thing though, a lot of it has to be done by the users, which is an bit of a compromise but probably better than the site itself doing this. It is a unique approach to how you have to deal with this site, but it works. I can't think of anything better, and it works anyway, so not bad.

A lack of trending tab and seemingly fewer amounts of algorithm bullshit than other sites is interesting and promising. My quick scroll through, following accounts that I like, following friends from other sites, etc., has shown like... No posts I dislike yet. Interesting. No overly negative posts, seems like. I can't tell yet whether this is a bit from the user base or if it is something different about the way the site itself is designed. Maybe a bit of both. Seems like there are a lot of users have practically been begging people to be normal, so probably seems like a bit from the users. A lack of trending tab is based, also.

Also on the topic of odd user based things that give some level of QoL, there are labels. Massive fuckass big lists that just you have to scroll through to find the thing that applies to you, but it works. It works well but does have that problem of being controlled by users, so can be a little scuffed at times. Very good and nice their backend allows for just liking posts from account adds a label if an account has been set up correctly though. Seems like Bluesky's backend is quite extensive on that bit. Any issues about this bit are created by the users of the label systems not Bluesky though, ie delays from liking a post to a label being added aren't from Bluesky's backend being slow but from the user who created the lists' system being slow.

I am a bit interested how exactly they are going to monetize it as there apparently is no ads and the most they got is selling domains which is a good short term solution but the site is growing fairly rapidly. I am assuming they are just going to sell user info, because of course, but like outside of that what long term monetization do they have? Is it going to be another Cohost situation or is this going to be a site that truly is *different*, somehow. I have my doubts how long the site is going to last, but then again we have been saying that about this hell site for years now, so who knows. This is the one bit I am scared about.

Are these features worth it though? Eh. Probably. Seems the fact is people are actually using the site now, which is cool. I hope it stays popular as a replacement, and the shitheads of Twitter instead go either to here (lol), to Reddit, or like, idk man, Threads? Do people use that app? Seemed like it got a big boost on the Google Play Store, anyway, so idk man. Probably some shitheads did. Seems like there is not that many weird right-wing weird fuckheads on Bluesky anyway, and the general userbase is like, weirdly normal or least not annoying about it.

I hope it goes places, man. I think the current state of social media is very fucky with there just being like... TikTok, Instagram, sort of Twitter but not really it is on fire, so now sort of Bluesky, and the rest of the sites are also on fire in different ways and that sucks. There are no healthy sites right now that can be counted as social media so probably at least one more that actually has an user base is a good thing. I have been begging people to use Tumblr but no one wants to and hey, the CEO of this site is having an Elon tier meltdown as we speak and getting sued by like 8 different groups and sueing 7 as well. There is like a 60% chance this site actually dies this time for real this time I swear so having a site that might also die in a year or two because it has no funding but at least seems *fine* is nice.

Better than fucking using Reddit, at least.

[atiny-for-life]

Xikers Full Storyline Explained - BONUS 3: Namoo & the 'Bittersweet' Preview

Masterlist

HOUSE OF TRICKY : WATCH OUT

Prior to the release of Witch, an animated short titled 'Watch Out' was released which had the energy of a 1950's PSA from the US and gave us a huge amount of information regarding the type of world Xikers are living in:

In it, a voice asks if you're lost in life due to all these choices life has to offer because, boy howdy, does she have the perfect solution for you!

Namoo is a company which has figured out how to rid your life of all these pesky choices by scanning your DNA and determining which career path is best suited for you based on your skill set

That is right, their AI "Good Brother" is trained to scan your DNA to find the Coordinates (genes) which will lay out the Road to your perfect life

Simply follow the path chosen by your Coordinates and you'll lead the perfect life without worries or wandering

Now it's your turn! Check your Coordinates through the Coordinate Ball! A perfect life aligned with your Coordinates awaits you!

'Bittersweet' Preview

Following the release of the PSA, another video was released in line with its premise which shows us exactly how Xikers feel about Namoo and what they've done to the people of their world:

We open on the Namoo headquarters which we've already seen animated in the PSA and zoom in through one of the highest floors to see what's going on inside

Inside it's giving Doom 3 Delta Labs - metal walls, metal floor, metal doors, weak overheard neon lights

Once we exit through the door at the back, we get to the main section where the Coordinate Balls are manufactured and getting prepared for transport to their receivers

We focus on one Ball specifically with the label "Athletic Road" which follows another labeled "Artistic Road" before one carrying the words "Medical Road" heads toward us

The last one seems to have been meant for Minjae whom we now get to see surrounded by his members in a factory warehouse

He seems to know the Coordinate Ball is about to appear to him (perhaps there's a certain feeling to it) and raises his hand, leading everyone to look at him with great indifference

It's obvious already: they don't care for this system at all

Using his powers, given to him by TRICKY, he melts the Ball before it could even fully form, clearly not one to even give a passing thought to whatever life this company wants him to lead

Following this opening, the song begins to play and we get to see flashes of everyone's faces before they begin their performance (it's such a sick af song, by the way, lowkey my favorite on the album - I love the Halloween-y vibes)

From here, we keep getting glimpses of the members in scary situations where they're clearly being threatened or scared by their environment which falls in line with the type of content they released prior to the album's release (think TRICKY HOUSE episode 49 and 50)

Throughout these sequences, we also get to see Sumin as he's being chased what might be a government drone of some kind, given how it's filming and scanning him before it begins chasing him

They truly are following in their older brothers' footsteps by rebelling against an oppressive government - I love a message of rebellion in these shitty times of corporate greed and exploitation - it's time to unionize and vote, my friends

There's also a really cool moment in the choreo where we get to see Yechan activate his powers momentarily which are giving Tokyo Ghoul as spikes shoot from his back before they crumble and fall off

Following Yechan's rap verse, we switch to the melodic "You should better run, you should better run..." as we see news footage of birds flying overhead, followed by a crumbling building which may be indicative of the state their world is in - it's in disrepair, it's collapsing

Ending this section is Hyunwoo who's leaning onto Jinsik's shoulder in the red-lit freaky space Yechan was trapped in earlier where hands are pushing against the walls

This is showing us the past

Jinsik was following his laid out Road set for him by the Coordinate Ball which left him a mindless drone and Hyunwoo then pulled him out of it by telling him there is more to life (though what the lyrics say is "Oh, you might get trapped by playful whispers")

Interestingly, it's later the opposite in WITCH with Jinsik being the one to whisper to Hyunwoo, telling him "Guess what is coming?"

After this moment, we immediately see Jinsik gain an "X" in his eye before we cut to him smiling amidst the others, clearly having just joined their rebellion

We also get to see Hunter's powers which seem to be conjuring up smoke - very useful for their mission, I'd say, given how they'll have to operate undercover

Of course, we also get to see exactly what their current mission is:

First, Yujun steps forward so we can get a good look at their surroundings; they're standing surrounded by a bunch of Coordinate Balls, or rather large orbs made of the material which these Balls are made of

Once Yujun returns to their formation, Minjae steps up and makes use of the powers we've already seen him utilize earlier by annihilating all these orbs so they can't be used to oppress further people

We also get to see a flashback to the first orb Minjae ever broke: his own, while he was still trapped in a cage which makes me wonder if they were all trapped in separate facilities across the country

Because, as we saw in Rockstar, they were chosen by TRICKY from multiple locations, and presumably exactly because of actions like this: they were rebelling against the status quo and ready to cause chaos which TRICKY loves more than anything

So TRICKY picked them, brought them together, gave them powers to rebel and stir up trouble for their oppressors and, by doing all that, created one big real-life game for itself

My best guess is that they were all brought together during the Maze of Choice, the YouTube game released as part of the album's promotion; they were chosen by TRICKY, transported to the maze and had to find their way to its end

There, all the members met for the first time and were given their powers through the Dokkaebi which are controlled by TRICKY which we saw in Rockstar

We end the video after a sprint toward a set of doors which open at with a rattle and squeak at the very end, likely leading us to the next stage of TRICKY's game: back to the Maze it is

[wumblr]

Hi, I'm new here. Sorry if you've already answered this question; I'm new here. I saw your post about the Biden-Harris nuclear plan. I've long-since been loosely optimistic about nuclear as a petrol alternative, but knew that more reactors in the imperial world intrinsically means more bombs as well. Reading through articles here is starting to confirm some suspicions. Have you talked already about serviceable energy alternatives, or is the solution basically to just dismantle capitalism, or?

the IEEFA PDF on the most recent (third) reblog is pretty clear that renewables (wind, solar, and batteries) are the viable/cost effective mid-term strategy. these are not without their own problems (land use, resource consumption, and again batteries) but they are a better option than nuclear. it also points out that full-scale nuclear is more cost efficient than SMRs which i can't dispute, and i wouldn't theoretically have a problem with it if it weren't for the capitalism. you don't gain anything by scaling them down, and IEEFA makes the excellent point that privatized off-grid SMRs do not maintain a consistent baseload supply in the way that full-size on-grid reactors do

waste handling is a sticky problem but it's exacerbated by profiteering and corruption (unfortunately not magically solved by a revolution, either). more reactors only inevitably means more bombs in a war empire, but eliminating capitalism doesn't magically resolve all geopolitical strictures nor does it necessarily equate to eliminating war. i think it would be foolish to build them now and kick the can down the road about seizing power from capital ("you're handing the climate change machine a new 50 year megawatt generator," i keep saying). my main axe to grind is that nobody is taking any of it seriously. that's rude to somebody's kids and i'm still mad it's been done to us. if you want new reactors, know the deal with the devil you're signing, so that you will know when they slack off on their end of the bargain and start doing ohio nuclear bribery incidents and progressively abdicating decommissioning responsibilities for san onofre by reselling it over and over. saying this has made a shocking number of people very angry at me, i assume because their worldview rests on the existence of a magical solution. well, there isn't one. sorry

i'm a degrowth communist. i don't want new reactors. so, i think we should start asking where we can reclaim parts of the energy budget from industry instead of building out more capacity, but, lol. not so long as the democratic party exists, i'm afraid. they sure have been "ironclad" about that! there may be capability to persuade the political establishment toward degrowth but i'm not optimistic, since they love parading around a 0.01% solution for a 100% problem (like carbon capture). because it allows the illusion to continue

(you would think the most energy intensive sector of industry would be computing, for the amount of time we spend talking about energy consumption for crypto, ai, and datacenters, right? well, it's chemicals. i just found that out while fact checking the post. paper also still consumes more than computing, apparently. (third of the top three is "oil/coal products" which is a bit nebulous and i would have to dig into the report the EIA is referencing, MECS 2018, to figure out what's going on there. surely some of that is going back into energy production, right? so, energy production is one of the largest energy consumers? i guess that tracks, but i haven't dug. i assume it also refers to other products.) i think this was in the post but i also love to say "It's Lawrence Livermore National Library Energy Flow Sankey Diagram Sunday!" and point out that 67% of energy in the US is lost to waste heat, labeled rejected energy in the diagram. obviously that runs up against laws of thermodynamics but surely we could be doing better than that)

that was all about energy. you asked about bombs. unfortunately i have to tell you we are likely not going to live to see disarmament. maybe if we stop building reactors, disarmament will become inevitable, at best, in a hundred years. maybe if we seize power from capital it could be administrated more quickly. but, for the foreseeable future, mutually assured destruction is the only thing preventing them from being detonated. thank god for the rosenbergs