Notices by it's B! Cavello 🐝 (b_cavello@mastodon.publicinterest.town)

@ntnsndr #Alt4You image description (you may be able to update your post to make it more accessible): poster reads “Envisioning a Livable Future: An online, 7-part serial conference, hosted by John Carroll University in collaboration with the Hank Center at Loyola University Chicago, marking the 10m anniversary of Pope Francis's encyclical Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home”

This is SERIOUS
https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/02/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-reins-in-independent-agencies-to-restore-a-government-that-answers-to-the-american-people/
#Trump issues #ExecutiveOrder in direct challenge to Congress and the Courts.

Public Citizen's statement: https://www.citizen.org/news/trump-eo-illegally-limits-independent-agencies-power/
#PublicCitizen

#WebDesign question:
What would you call this draggable canvas effect? The word “canvas” is kinda tough to search for because it has alternate meanings 😅
https://robin-de-puy-american.wetransfer.com/
#AskFedi

Q for #Deaf and #HardOfHearing folks who cannot listen to music or podcasts:
What are your methods for helping you to fall asleep? Are there other senses or activities you engage in order to prevent your mind from being busy?

Any #insurance wonks out here? I'm wondering why insurance companies work with public adjusters. Is it a legal requirement? It seems like they wouldn't want to.

@skinnylatte This person sounds smart and righteous, but I think that people quitting is exactly what we don’t need. Sure, reducing harm is not as good as altogether preventing it, but I think we have to be honest about what options we have.
It’s much easier to destroy a death star from inside. The more people who leave, the less leverage there will be.

When we talk about #AI systems like #chatGPT, one thing we can do to help people understand what they do is to not describe our interactions like a conversation.

Using #TextGenerators can definitely FEEL like a conversation. ESPECIALLY when the designers and implementers of these tools built interfaces that look like chat windows and replicate the indicators we've come to recognize as someone else typing.

The creators of these interfaces are misleading people with these design elements.

Another way to #TalkBetterAboutAI is to try to avoid personifying language.

This is TOUGH.

Personifying stuff is so useful for explaining things. It's really hard to avoid, and often explaining things more accurately can take a couple more words. It is tough.

But I think it's worth it, too.

By talking about these tools as tools, it helps us recognize both our own agency and impact as users of the tools, but it also can help clarify the role of the people who created these tools.

Because the interface design of many text generators is meant to mimic a conversation with another person, people will often describe their interactions as "having a conversation with" or "asking" these tools.

But I do not "ask" autocorrect when I am typing and it prompts me with possible phrases, even if what I typed before ends in a question mark.

That is what these tools are doing: providing possible endings or continuations of what came before. They are text generators generating text.

One way to #TalkBetterAboutAI when referring to use of #TextGenerators is to try using words like "typed," "input," or "entered" instead of "asked."

To describe the text generator (aka #LLM) behavior, instead of "answered," try "generated" or even "completed" or "continued."

It might feel a bit awkward. (I know it does for me!) But I think it could be a useful experiment, at least, to practice reframing our relationship to these tools.

What are phrases you would use to #TalkBetterAboutAI?

@glynmoody @onepict Love to see it! Was just talking with a friend about this for games, generally

Oh! #TrevorProject has one
https://www.thetrevorproject.org/get-help/

#AskFedi: Looking for examples of websites that have a quick exit feature due to the sensitivity of content.
I know I've seen this on resources for domestic abuse or queer youth, but I can't recall any specific examples at the moment.
Do you know of one? Would appreciate your help!
#BoostsWelcome

Taking a breath, what is something that gives you hope?
(It may not be easy, but keep trying to cultivate this. We need to continually tend to our dreams.)

@chris What vibe(s) are you going for?

@Lana @jcrabapple #Alt4You image description (you may be able to update your post to make it more accessible): Lynn Conway, smiling with shoulder length red/blonde hair and a colorful blouse

😚👌💯✨

@ntnsndr #Alt4You image description (you may be able to update your post to make it more accessible): cover of “Humans R Social Media” featuring a variety of people’s faces rendered in a mixture of artistic styles

@Johannab @mekkaokereke Sometimes nonprofits have boards who micromanage, but primarily the job of a nonprofit board is to fundraise, advise the executive director, and keep the organization out of legal troubles. Boards generally should not be engaging with the day-to-day of the organization’s operations.