Our modern world of human-pretending chatbots and fake-real images would seem very recognisable to SF writer Philip K Dick. CC-licensed photo by Bill Smith on Flickr.
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A selection of 9 links for you. Probably real. I’m @charlesarthur on Twitter. On Threads: charles_arthur. On Mastodon: https://newsie.social/@charlesarthur. Observations and links welcome.
The PKD Dystopia • Programmable Mutter
Henry Farrell:
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Standard utopias and standard dystopias are each perfect after their own particular fashion. We live somewhere queasier—a world in which technology is developing in ways that make it increasingly hard to distinguish human beings from artificial things. The world that the Internet and social media have created is less a system than an ecology, a proliferation of unexpected niches, and entities created and adapted to exploit them in deceptive ways.
Vast commercial architectures are being colonized by quasi-autonomous parasites. Scammers have built algorithms to write fake books from scratch to sell on Amazon, compiling and modifying text from other books and online sources such as Wikipedia, to fool buyers or to take advantage of loopholes in Amazon’s compensation structure. Much of the world’s financial system is made out of bots—automated systems designed to continually probe markets for fleeting arbitrage opportunities. Less sophisticated programs plague online commerce systems such as eBay and Amazon, occasionally with extraordinary consequences, as when two warring bots bid the price of a biology book up to $23,698,655.93 (plus $3.99 shipping). [Recounted in Social Warming – Overspill Ed.]
In other words, we live in Philip K. Dick’s future, not George Orwell’s or Aldous Huxley’s. Dick was no better a prophet of technology than any science fiction writer, and was arguably worse than most. His imagined worlds jam together odd bits of fifties’ and sixties’ California with rocket ships, drugs, and social speculation. Dick usually wrote in a hurry and for money, and sometimes under the influence of drugs or a recent and urgent personal religious revelation.
Still, what he captured with genius was the ontological unease of a world in which the human and the abhuman, the real and the fake, blur together. As Dick described his work (in the opening essay to his 1985 collection, I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon):
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The two basic topics which fascinate me are “What is reality?” and “What constitutes the authentic human being?” Over the twenty-seven years in which I have published novels and stories I have investigated these two interrelated topics over and over again.
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These obsessions had some of their roots in Dick’s complex and ever-evolving personal mythology (in which it was perfectly plausible that the “real” world was a fake, and that we were all living in Palestine sometime in the first century AD). Yet they were also based on a keen interest in the processes through which reality is socially constructed.
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Farrell makes a really good point: this is a dystopia that Dick would recognise at once.
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WhatsApp becomes the latest social media app blocked in Pakistan • TechRadar
Chiara Castro:
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Pakistan restricted yet another social media platform over the weekend.
WhatsApp is the new target of government censorship after X, Facebook, Instagram, and, most recently, Bluesky were blocked across the country.
The internet watchdog NetBlocks reported the outage on Saturday, November 23, 2024 (see tweet below).
“The measure comes as authorities tighten security ahead of protests planned by opposition party PTI calling for the release of former PM Imran Khan,” noted the experts.
Censorship levels in Pakistan have increased significantly in 2024.
Today’s most popular social media platforms first went dark in January, a month away from general elections, as Khan’s party, PTI, launched its online election fundraising telethon.
Authorities enforced a temporary internet shutdown on February 8, election day. X was then restricted on the night of February 17, as a wave of protests contesting election results spread across the country. To this day, Pakistanis still cannot access the ex-Twitter app without one of the best VPNs, together with Meta’s Facebook and Instagram and, since November 21, Bluesky.
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OpenAI blamed NYT for tech problem erasing evidence of copyright abuse • Ars Technica
Ashley Belanger:
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the NYT asked OpenAI to collaborate on a joint filing admitting the deletion occurred. But OpenAI declined, instead filing a separate response calling the newspaper’s accusation that evidence was deleted “exaggerated” and blaming the NYT for the technical problem that triggered the data deleting.
OpenAI denied deleting “any evidence,” instead admitting only that file-system information was “inadvertently removed” after the NYT requested a change that resulted in “self-inflicted wounds.” According to OpenAI, the tech problem emerged because NYT was hoping to speed up its searches and requested a change to the model inspection set-up that OpenAI warned “would yield no speed improvements and might even hinder performance.”
The AI company accused the NYT of negligence during discovery, “repeatedly running flawed code” while conducting searches of URLs and phrases from various newspaper articles and failing to back up their data. Allegedly the change that NYT requested “resulted in removing the folder structure and some file names on one hard drive,” which “was supposed to be used as a temporary cache for storing OpenAI data, but evidently was also used by Plaintiffs to save some of their search results (apparently without any backups).”
Once OpenAI figured out what happened, data was restored, OpenAI said. But the NYT alleged that the only data that OpenAI could recover did “not include the original folder structure and original file names” and therefore “is unreliable and cannot be used to determine where the News Plaintiffs’ copied articles were used to build Defendants’ models.”
In response, OpenAI suggested that the NYT could simply take a few days and re-run the searches, insisting, “contrary to Plaintiffs’ insinuations, there is no reason to think that the contents of any files were lost.” But the NYT does not seem happy about having to retread any part of model inspection, continually frustrated by OpenAI’s expectation that plaintiffs must come up with search terms when OpenAI understands its models best.
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Note how OpenAI is prolonging the process by filing responses rather than just getting on and doing things. It is hoping that it can make the process as elongated as possible so that other cases are decided first, preferably in a direction that suits it.
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Google thinking on Apple ad ambitions revealed in “Project Black Walnut” • Business Insider
Peter Kafka:
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Apple used to hate the ad business. Now, it looks like it’s taking it more seriously. So, how big could Apple’s ad business get?
That’s a question lots of people in the advertising world have been wondering. And that includes Google. And now, thanks to documents unearthed during Google’s antitrust court case, we can see how Google has been thinking about Apple’s potential as it edges into an industry Google has dominated for decades.
Titled “Operation Black Walnut,” the 2022 report appears to have been assembled by Google strategists to try to imagine what kind of ad business Apple might eventually build out one day.
Apple’s current ad business is mostly confined to selling ads on its App Store search results page. But the report’s authors speculate that Apple could eventually start selling ads that run on other people’s apps and eventually on the web via its Safari browser. It might eventually become a $30bn business, they guesstimate.
But while the document’s authors were trying to imagine how big Apple’s ad business could get, they also wondered if Apple would really want to fully embrace it. Right now, most of the money Apple says it gets from “ads” is really money it gets from Google, which pays Apple upward of $20bn a year to make Google’s search engine the default on Apple’s phones.
“We believe Apple is unlikely to give up search TAC [the annual payments Apple gets from Google] for a $10-$20bn Spotlight Search [Apple’s own search engine] opportunity, unless regulation or Google disrupts the status quo,” the report notes at one point.
Then again, one of the commenters on the document points out, those annual payments — which could account for 15% or more of Apple’s annual profits are “at risk … by regulation or Google’s choice.”
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Right now that $20bn is the easiest of easy money, but if Google is blocked from paying for search priority in its antitrust trial then perhaps Apple will shift into the ad business seriously. Which wouldn’t be enjoyable.
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Macy’s, Inc. reports preliminary third quarter 2024 results • Macy’s, Inc.
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Other Corporate Developments
The company also reported today that, during the preparation of its unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements for the fiscal quarter ended November 2, 2024, it identified an issue related to delivery expenses in one of its accrual accounts. The company consequently initiated an independent investigation.
As a result of the independent investigation and forensic analysis, the company identified that a single employee with responsibility for small package delivery expense accounting intentionally made erroneous accounting accrual entries to hide approximately $132 to $154 million of cumulative delivery expenses from the fourth quarter of 2021 through fiscal quarter ended November 2, 2024.
During this same time period, the company recognized approximately $4.36 billion of delivery expenses. There is no indication that the erroneous accounting accrual entries had any impact on the company’s cash management activities or vendor payments. The individual who engaged in this conduct is no longer employed by the company. The investigation has not identified involvement by any other employee.
The company is delaying its earnings release and conference call relating to the third quarter of 2024 to allow for completion of the independent investigation.
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Never seen anything like this before in corporate accounts. So want to know what this person was doing, and why there was no oversight. Over 12 quarters, an average of $11-$13m per quarter, or about $130,000 per day. More on this story as we get it.
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Tether has become a massive money laundering tool for Mexican drug traffickers, Feds say • 404 Media
Joseph Cox:
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A money laundering organization allegedly connected to large seizures of cocaine inside the United States and works with cartels in Mexico and Colombia has moved at least tens of millions of dollars using a string of front businesses, cash drop-offs, and massive transfers of cryptocurrency, according to recently unsealed court records reviewed by 404 Media.
The court records provide deep insight into how alleged drug traffickers have turned to cryptocurrency, and in particular Tether (USDT), as a way to quickly move wealth across borders in recent years. 404 Media also reviewed other recently unsealed court documents which appear to describe another money laundering organization doing much the same thing for Mexican drug cartels including the Sinaloa, showing that cryptocurrencies have become a normal part of large scale drug trafficking in the 21st century. One of the documents even highlights that Tether is sold for cheaper in Mexico because it is known to be from drug proceeds.
One confidential source told investigators “the current trend was to purchase USDT from Mexico-based groups at a cheaper rate than the market price, and then sell the USDT in Colombia at Casa de Cambios [currency exchanges], virtual currency exchanges, over-the-counter (OTC) transactions, or peer-to-peer transactions (P2P). The USDT was sold at a cheaper rate in Mexico because it was known to be drug proceeds.”
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Cryptocurrency used for drug money laundering! What a surprise!
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Bluesky breaching rules around disclosure of information, says EU • Financial Times
Andy Bounds and Javier Espinoza:
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Bluesky, the social media site that has grown rapidly following an exodus of users from Elon Musk’s X, is in breach of EU regulations for not disclosing key details about the group, the European Commission said on Monday.
“All platforms in the EU . . . have to have a dedicated page on their website where it says how many users they have in the EU and where they are legally established,” said commission spokesman Thomas Regnier. “This is not the case for Bluesky as of today. This is not followed.”
The intervention comes as thousands of users, including commission president Ursula von der Leyen, have opened Bluesky accounts in recent weeks.
The site has benefited from Musk’s endorsement of US president-elect Donald Trump and decision to reduce content moderation — moves that appear to have driven many academics, journalists and left-leaning politicians to Bluesky.
Regnier said the commission, the EU’s executive arm, had written to the 27 national governments to see “if they can find any trace of Bluesky” such as identifying a EU-based office. It has not yet contacted the company directly, he added. Bluesky did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Since US election day, app usage of Bluesky in the US and UK has jumped by almost 300% to 3.5mn daily users, according to data from research group Similarweb.
Bluesky is a US public benefit company led by digital rights activist and software engineer Jay Graber. It was founded in 2019 for the purpose of developing a single standard, or protocol, upon which social platforms and other developers could build their own operations. It has come to resemble X with users posting short messages and images.
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The little social network’s all nearly grown up! Just needs a major news event to happen on it.
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China’s telco attacks mean ‘thousands’ of boxes compromised • The Register
Simon Sharwood:
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The Biden administration on Friday hosted telco execs to chat about China’s recent attacks on the sector, amid revelations that US networks may need mass rebuilds to recover.
Details of the extent of China’s attacks came from senator Mark R Warner, who on Thursday gave both The Washington Post and The New York Times insights into info he’s learned in his role as chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Warner told the Post, “my hair is on fire,” given the severity of China’s attacks on US telcos. The attacks, which started well before the US election, have seen Middle Kingdom operatives establish a persistent presence – and may require the replacement of “literally thousands and thousands and thousands” of switches and routers.
The senator added that China’s activities make Russia-linked incidents like the SolarWinds supply chain incident and the ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline look like “child’s play.”
Warner told The Times the extent of China’s activity remains unknown, and that “The barn door is still wide open, or mostly open.”
The senator, a Democrat who represents Virginia, also confirmed previously known details, claming it was likely Chinese state employees could listen to phone calls – including some involving president-elect Donald Trump – perhaps by using carriers’ wiretapping capabilities. He also said attackers were able to steal substantial quantities of data about calls made on networks.
Most of the senator’s remarks confirm prior guidance from the FBI and the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency about the activities of a Beijing-backed crew dubbed Salt Typhoon that’s accused of compromising, and rummaging around inside, US telco networks for many months.
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At this point the entire US network infrastructure seems like Swiss cheese.
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Bird flu virus detected in California raw milk • Los Angeles Times
Susanne Rust:
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State health officials said Sunday that bird flu virus was detected in a retail sample of raw milk from the Fresno-based Raw Farm dairy.
The sample was collected by officials with the Santa Clara County public health office, who have been testing raw milk products from retail stores “as a second line of consumer protection.”
County officials identified the virus in “one sample of raw milk purchased at a retail outlet” on Nov. 21, according to statements from both the state and the county. The county contacted stores on Friday and recommended they pull the raw milk from sale. The test results were confirmed on Saturday by the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory System at UC Davis.
“This isn’t surprising, given how quickly H5N1 seems to be spreading among farms in California and given the fact that these outbreaks on farms are being discovered in large part due to bulk testing of raw milk from farms,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University in Providence, R.I. “What we don’t know is how much risk H5N1 poses to people that drink unpasteurized, infected milk.”
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Don’t worry, RFK Jr thinks there’s too much “suppression” of unpasteurised milk, so we can find out how much risk quite soon. (Thanks Joe S for the link.)
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| • Why do social networks drive us a little mad? • Why does angry content seem to dominate what we see? • How much of a role do algorithms play in affecting what we see and do online? • What can we do about it? • Did Facebook have any inkling of what was coming in Myanmar in 2016? Read Social Warming, my latest book, and find answers – and more. |
Errata, corrigenda and ai no corrida: none notified
The Overspill: when there's more that I want to say 
It seems like the deletion incident is something which should have a specific technical answer, but I’ve painfully learned that almost nobody really cares about stuff like that (the immediate cryptographic validation of some material in the Hunter Biden laptop never the penetrated mindset of the chattering class, which struggles with even understanding the basics of probability). As far as I can make out from a very cursory reading of the letters back-and-forth, it’s not a big deal. It looks like OpenAI set up a system for the NYT to work, and making some edits to that system trashed the setup. It happens. I doubt it was malicious, there wouldn’t be much point.
I have to disagree with “Note how OpenAI is prolonging the process by filing responses rather than just getting on and doing things.”. The NYT made a very significant charge, deliberately deleting evidence is an extremely serious legal matter. I’m not a lawyer, but I believe proving something like that could lead to sanctions or trigger legal assumptions critical the case outcome. It’s absolutely necessary for OpenAI’s legal position that it denies NYT’s charge very strongly.