The journalist Karen Hao – who published an absolutely fantastic book about OpenAI called “Empire of AI” recently – coined (as far as I know) one of the best terms for describing modern “AI” systems: Everything Machines. “AI” systems are not framed as specific tools that solve specific problems in specific ways but just as […]| Smashing Frames
Armin Ronacher, who is quite a well-known open source developer (especially in the Python community) and who would probably consider himself a very rational, pragmatic person when it comes to “AI” usage posted an interesting post on Mastodon today: Post by @mitsuhiko View on Mastodon So his thought is that giving especially younger, less experienced […]| Smashing Frames
If you are very rich – think multi-millionaire or billionaire – there is a thing you no longer experience really: Hearing no. Sure there will always be people on social media yelling at you and what you did and what you stand for but in your daily life, your actual environment that will happen increasingly […]| Smashing Frames
It seems as if Yahoo will soon be the proud owner of the Tumbleblogging platform Tumblr (they paid a whopping 1.1 Billion USD for it). We’ve seen many of those acquisitions in the last years, Facebook bought Instagram, Google bought Youtube, Microsoft bought Skype, AOL bought ICQ (yeah this one is for the old farts […]| Smashing Frames
I had a conversation with a friend who described sitting in a workshop where clients and the people they hired were working on problems. As you do. Happens in every consultingy kind of job. But what has totally become normalized is for the people hired, the “experts” to use ChatGPT and similar services to come […]| Smashing Frames
The New Practice space at TU Berlin runs a series of talks called LOOPS. Together with my friend Malte I was invited to talk a bit about “Fascist AI”. How capitalism, fascism and AI narratives are very closely aligned and (re)produce one another. I enjoyed giving the talk (I rarely do those together with others) […]| Smashing Frames
Mit freundlicher Unterstützung der Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung Baden-Württemberg hatte ich die Gelegenheit bei der Gulaschprogrammiernacht des Entropia e.V in Karlsruhe über Tech-Faschismus zu sprechen Ich befürchte, dass uns diese neue Spielart des Faschismus noch länger verfolgen wird, selbst wenn Figuren wie Trump oder die AfD, die den klassischen Faschismus heute prägen, irgendwann vielleicht wieder mehr in der […]| Smashing Frames
Ich bin nicht super gut darin, buchzuführen darüber, was ich so gemacht habe. Daher jetzt mit etwas Verzug ein paar Auftritte/Mitschnitte/Dinge, die ich in den letzten Wochen/Monaten so gemacht habe. University Future Festival Braunschweig Beim University Future Festival im Mai gab ich eine Keynotes zu “KI” und Hypes im Allgemeinen mit besonderem Fokus auf den […]| Smashing Frames
On “agentic AI”| Smashing Frames
Beim Spiegel wird geleitartikelt: Für ein Verbot der AfD sei es “zu früh”, “Zunächst müssen alle anderen Mittel der wehrhaften Demokratie ausgereizt sein.” Dann kommt ein konfuser Mix aus “ja, die Faschos haben aber so viele Mandate, und deren arme Wähler fühlen sich dann sicher betrogen” und “die Demokraten müssen sich einfach anstrengen”. Man sieht […]| Smashing Frames
EU-Kommission: “KI-Gigafabriken” sollen Standort Europa stärken | heise online| Smashing Frames
As anyone who has ever seen anything I have created knows: I am not a designer. So take my reasoning and thinking here with a grain of salt. I do have many designers amongst my friends and I do think that a lot of software engineering falls within the domain of design to a certain […]| Smashing Frames
The hype about the potentials (it’s always future potential, never real current use) of AI has discarded its last cycle (“reasoning models”/”deep research”, both terms being factually untrue and deeply deceiving at best) and moved to a new double whammy of “agentic AI” and “Vibe Coding”. Now “agentic AI” basically just means that some LLM […]| Smashing Frames
There’s this weird phrase “agentic AI” which looks weid. But it’s a sign for how bad the state of the bubble is: Software agents are a very old concept, they are simple systems provided with a target function to optimize that operate somewhat autonomously. This fits in well with modern “AI” systems who can be […]| Smashing Frames
When people talk about “AI” these days – which depending on how healthy and well-adjusted your social environment is can be very little or if you are on LinkedIn all the fucking time – the main focus is on what is called “generative AI”, sometimes shortened to “genAI”. Generative AI (in the way most people […]| Smashing Frames
I was on a panel on “AI” yesterday (was in German so I don’t link it i this post, specifics don’t matter too much) and a phrase came up that stuck with me on my way home (riding a bike is just the best thing for thinking). That phrase was AI systems are just tools […]| Smashing Frames
After sharing Ed Zitron’s latest piece called “OpenAI Is A Systemic Risk To The Tech Industry” I got a few responses arguing in a similar way: People agree that “AI” and especially “generative AI” is a massive bubble that does not really make much sense – if you imply rational decision making. Training the models, […]| Smashing Frames
For a research project I am currently evaluating all kinds of generative AI models (mostly for visual artifacts but some text based ones as well). There also is somewhat of a push at my employer to use those systems more because of “efficiency”. So we all know that LLMs fabricate facts, meaning: They produce text […]| Smashing Frames
Mit bis zu 200 Milliarden Euro will die Kommission die Entwicklung von KI in der Union anschieben. Davon sollen 20 Milliarden Euro für bis zu fünf neue “KI Gigafactories” zur Verfügung stehen. Source: EU-Kommission: “KI-Gigafabriken” sollen Standort Europa stärken | heise online Microsoft rollt seine Commitments, KI Data Center zu bauen, zurück, in China sind […]| Smashing Frames
The Open Source Initiative is doing … something again, now it’s working against regulation protecting people from certain uses of AI systems: In particular, previous drafts of the Code of Practice mandated acceptable use policies, and a prohibition of certain uses of the AI system. But having these restrictions conflicts with the freedom of use […]| Smashing Frames
Hayao Miyasaki is the co-founder of Studio Ghibli, a Japanese animation studio known worldwide for their stunning, emotional, beautiful stories and movies. At the core of Studio Ghibli’s work is a deep engagement with questions of humanity. About what it means to be a human, about how to care for one another and the world […]| Smashing Frames
So whenever you use some AI chatbot (regardless of the maker), it’s there. That motherfucking asterisk. Like look: Quote: “Gemini can make mistakes […] so double-check it.” I have a question (well multiple ones but let’s start with my biggest one): Why do we accept that? Say I order groceries from my supermarket. Some fruits, […]| Smashing Frames
There is a popular meme in digital rights spaces when governments want to look into encrypted systems/communication. And because that’s basically impossible with perfectly implemented encryption schemes governments tend to ask for so-called “backdoors” or “key escrow” systems that create the technological ability to look into otherwise encrypted communication. When these arguments are being put […]| Smashing Frames
“ChatBot” is bad design| Smashing Frames
EU-Kommission: “KI-Gigafabriken” sollen Standort Europa stärken | heise online| Smashing Frames
“ChatBot” is bad design| Smashing Frames
The discourse on “AI” systems, chat bots, “assistants” and “research helpers” is defined by a lot of future promises. Those systems are disfunctional or at least not working great right now but there’s the promise of things getting better in the future. Which is how we often perceive tech to work: Early versions might be […]| Smashing Frames
Der Spiegel berichtet, dass die Grünen nun den Plänen von Union und SPD Änderung der Schuldenbremse und der Aufnahme von Schulden für den Aufbau eines Investitionsfonds zustimmen werden. Neben dem Versprechen, dass auch Innovationen für den Klimaschutz mit dem Geld gemacht werden sollen geht es vor allem um ein Prinzip: “Das Angebot von Union und […]| Smashing Frames
It’s all hallucinations| Smashing Frames
In der taz argumentiert Annekathrin Kohout, man dürfe “KI”-Kunst und Bildgeneratoren nicht nur mit rechtem Gedankengut assoziieren, es nicht “den Rechten” überlassen: Wer KI-Bilder vorschnell als „rechts“ abtut, verkennt ihre eigentliche Sprengkraft. Sie sind Ausdruck einer kollektiven visuellen Imagination und kraftvolle „Wunschmaschinen“, Source: Wie rechts ist die KI-Ästhetik?: Bildpolitiken des Affekts | taz.de Ich glaube, […]| Smashing Frames
I got one talk proposal accepted at this year’s re:publica but two submissions didn’t go through review. I’ll archive them here (if someone has an idea where to submit them I’d of course be happy to try): The Nowhere Generation – Are we lost? Short description: The Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace argued that […]| Smashing Frames
For a while I have been arguing that maybe there are some issues with the whole “Open*” movements, their founding myths and ideologies (see for example my talk at Fluconf). This criticism comes from a place of love. All the writing on this blog is licensed CC-BY-SA to allow others to take the texts and […]| Smashing Frames
I am not an active user of so-called “AI-Assistants”, neither for coding nor writing nor research. I constantly test and evaluate those systems (for my private analyses as well as for my day job) but they don’t really integrate well with my workflow and thinking. There are many reasons for avoiding those systems: Skill decay […]| Smashing Frames
When saying something, anything the context of what you say is at least as important as the literal group of words you are saying or writing. Context is a big word. In spans the history of the person speaking as well as the time and place or publication that that person choses to speak. We […]| Smashing Frames
Am 14.02.2025 war ich zu Gast in der Sendung “Wortwechsel” des Deutschlandfunk Kultur zur Frage: “KI made in Europe – Wie kann die Aufholjagd gelingen?”. Als weitere Expert*innen nahmen Prof. Holger Hoos (Professor für KI) von der RWTH Aachen und Laura Möller (K.I.E.Z. Berlin) an der Diskussion teil. Wie zu erwarten war, wenn ein KI […]| Smashing Frames
Am Sonntag findet die Wahl zum Deutschen Bundestag statt. Ich werde die Partei die Linke wählen und hoffe, dass sich mir viele anschließen. Wahrscheinlich wird niemand jemals eine Partei finden, bei der er/sie mit allen Positionen übereinstimmt. Das ist Teil des Spiels, Parteien müssen heterogene Interessen – idealerweise wertegeleitet – in ein mehr oder weniger […]| Smashing Frames
One of the most popular memes when it comes to talking about the tech sector is Alex Blechman’s tweet about the Torment Nexus: One can interpret the tweet in a bunch of ways. As a comment on the level of reading comprehension that billionaire tech leaders like Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk or some ghoul […]| Smashing Frames
On February 1st I had the privilege of getting to speak at the first Fluconf about Open Source and why that whole movement might not do as much good for as as we might want it to. It’s not that Open Source is “bad” but that it is sometimes presented as a solution to sociopolitical […]| Smashing Frames
The headline is of course a bit of a provocation. Not all Innovation is a distraction, there are many areas in which meaningful work happens any day to generate some form of relevant new product or process or technology. But there are also so many areas in our lives, so many problems that affect us […]| Smashing Frames
Some of you might have heard the phrase “corporations don’t want to make money, they want to make all the money” (I think I heard it first from James Stephanie Sterling talking about video game publishers). This thinking is a bit of a companion thought to the delusion that within a limited system such as […]| Smashing Frames
(Warnung. Es kommt ein Rant.) Sascha Lobo – die älteren werden sich erinnern – war Anfang der 2000er in der deutschen Internet Bubble der größte Hecht im Karpfenteich. Er war der Internet Erklärer, den die Fernsehsender auf der Schnellwahltaste hatten, wenn man “dieses Internet” erklären musste. Und die “Community” war happy: Endlich war man irgendwie […]| Smashing Frames
Golem berichtet heute, dass BitPanda – eine österreichische Krypto-Plattform – And CDU, SPD und FDP jeweils 500.000 und an die CSU 250.000 EUR gespendet hat. Nun ist es nicht überraschend, dass gerade Unternehmen in Bereichen, in denen Regulierung das Geschäftsmodell deutlich erschwert an insbesondere konservative und wirtschaftsliberale Parteien spenden, um sich Deregulierung zu erkaufen. Wir […]| Smashing Frames
The “Free Our Feeds” campaign was launched today and something about it is off. It’s trying to raise money (at least 4 Mio and up to 30 Mio USD) for ATProto (the protocol at the core of Bluesky) so “the community” can standardize the thing and “build stuff”. Plus the project wants to run a […]| Smashing Frames
Today (November 8th, 2024) Refused released a new version of their groundbreaking “The Shape of Punk to Come” Album based on cover versions of the original tracks. I really enjoy cover versions of tracks I already love because they show a different perspective on a piece of art, a different reading. And – mostly because […]| Smashing Frames
Under the motto “Who Cares” Re:Publica gathered a few thousand people in Berlin and I got to give a talk continuing the path I started out on with my last two talks in 2022 and 2023. Titled “Empty Innovation” I tried outlining my understanding of the patterns of the weird technological hypes we’ve gone through […]| Smashing Frames
When I was a kid / teenager I wanted to play the guitar. Like many people that age. Got myself a guitar and everything but never really practiced at all in any meaningful way. I didn’t so much want to play the guitar but I wanted the reward I associated with the output, the cultural […]| Smashing Frames
For a book proposal I am currently working on (German, no proposal isn’t done yet because I keep reworking stuff, my agent hates me) I am thinking a lot about late stage capitalism and technologies, about how the kinda terminal economic system shapes the technologies it brings forward etc. And there are of course a […]| Smashing Frames
So the “Future of Life Institute” just published an open letter arguing for the “AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4“. That letter has (at the point of me writing this) 1123 signatures, some of them by very respected and knowledgable people. Which […]| Smashing Frames
