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Media Bits and Bytes – March 5, 2024

Michael Klare on AI

The entrance to the New York Times as pro-Palestine activists denounce the paper's coverage of Gaza destruction. Credit, Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
  1. AI, Behavior and Human Destiny
  2. Mehdi Hasan Launching Media Company
  3. NYT On the Hot Seat
  4. Right Wing Media and Super Tuesday
  5. What’s Up With Internet Archive
  6. Platform Co-ops in Latin America
  7. Transforming Crime Coverage
  8. Building Startups in South LA
  9. SCOTUS and NetChoice
  10. Google Workers Want No Part of Israeli Tech Companies

 

AI, Behavior and Human Destiny

By Michael Klare
TomDispatch

By combining AI with advanced robotics, the U.S. military and those of other advanced powers are already hard at work creating an array of self-guided “autonomous” weapons systems — combat drones that can employ lethal force independently of any human officers meant to command them. Such devices include a variety of military vehicles capable of autonomous operation. 

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Mehdi Hasan Launching Media Company

By Mark Joyella
Forbes

Former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan says his new digital media company, Zeteo, will give him a platform “from which to speak bluntly about racism, fascism, genocide and more.” Zeteo, Hasan says, is an ancient Greek word that means “to seek out, to inquire, to get to the truth.”

NYT On the Hot Seat

Right Wing Media and Super Tuesday

By Cameron Joseph
Columbia Journalism Review

Charlie Sykes, a former conservative radio host who split with the movement over Trump, says Super Tuesday will end media time for non-Trump conservatives. “In order to stay economically viable in the right-wing media ecosystem," he warned. "at some point you’re going to have to make your peace with Trump.”

What’s Up With Internet Archive

By Bette Adriaanse
Jacobin

The ongoing legal battle between the Internet Archive, an online library, and the Big Four publishers over licensing and copyright should concern everyone. At stake in the dispute is the possibility of free access to knowledge for all.

Platform Co-ops in Latin America

By Atahualpa Blanchet
Equal Times

Platform cooperativism is a model of worker association that uses new technologies to ensure the well-being of workers rather than exploit them through algorithmic mechanisms of control. It fuses cooperative principles with platform technology in order to develop fairer, more sustainable and solidarity-based initiatives in an increasingly digitised and automated economy.

Transforming Crime Coverage

By Amy Kroin
Free Press

As the News Voices: Philadelphia program manager, Cassie Owens has helped lead efforts to dismantle structural racism at local news outlets and imagine a new kind of reporting, one that centers community members’ voices and information needs.

Building Startups in South LA

By Ron Miller
TechCrunch

The goal for Plug In South LA is to smooth the way for Black and brown entrepreneurs looking to build tech startups and need help and guidance. That could help them become not just successful businesses, but people who help build wealth and create jobs in areas often left behind by startup ecosystems.

SCOTUS and NetChoice

By Lauren Feiner
The Verge

The justices seemed largely skeptical of the most sweeping provisions in Florida’s and Texas’ social media laws, which would force certain tech platforms to carry speech even when they don’t want to. But they also looked for the boundaries of tech companies’ First Amendment rights.

Google Workers Want No Part of Israeli Tech Companies

By Caroline Haskins
Wired

Hundreds of Google workers demand the company drop its sponsorship of Mind the Tech, a conference in New York this week that promotes Israeli tech companies.