Don’t blame me, blame the bot!

The increased sophistication of AI systems has enabled an entirely new way of not accepting responsibility for one’s actions. One can say that one was a victim of a malicious AI attack that mimicked you either in video or voice and proving otherwise would be hard.

But there is another kind of excuse that is evidenced in this case.

Canada’s largest airline has been ordered to pay compensation after its chatbot gave a customer inaccurate information, misleading him into buying a full-price ticket.

Air Canada came under further criticism for later attempting to distance itself from the error by claiming that the bot was “responsible for its own actions”.
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In 2022, Jake Moffatt contacted Air Canada to determine which documents were needed to qualify for a bereavement fare, and if refunds could be granted retroactively.

According to Moffat’s screenshot of a conversation with the chatbot, the British Columbia resident was told he could apply for the refund “within 90 days of the date your ticket was issued” by completing an online form.

Moffatt then booked tickets to and from Toronto to attend the funeral of a family member. But when he applied for a refund, Air Canada said bereavement rates did not apply to completed travel and pointed to the bereavement section of the company’s website.

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Parents who abuse children

One never really knows what goes on inside other people’s homes and families. I have lived long enough to learn that families that seem to live serene, if not idyllic, lives can harbor some unpleasant secrets. Because of that, I try not to be too judgmental when I hear that families have troubles because one can never know what stresses people might be experiencing that cause them to behave in ways that are not seen by others.

But the thing that I find hardest to understand is when parents abuse their children. It seems like such a perverse distortion of the basic impulse among mammals to take care of their children until that they can go out alone and make their way in the adult world.

The case of Ruby Franke is striking.in the cruelty to her children on display. She and her business partner Jodi Hildebrandt gave parenting advice on a popular YouTube channel using her children as props. There are many such sites that use children this way, raising concerns that the children’s privacy is being invaded by their parents without their consent.
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Review: Life On Our Planet (2023)

This new documentary being shown on Netflix consists of eight parts, each about 50 minutes long. It tells the story of the evolution of life, starting with the emergence of the very first cell around 3.8 billion years ago and going through various cycles of flourishing and mass extinctions until we got to where we are today. The series is narrated by the Morgan Freeman who seems to have become the go-to person when you need someone to ooze gravitas and convey authority. I felt that he was too unrelentingly solemn and portentous and could have lightened up the Voice of God tone from time to time.

The documentary describes the five major mass extinctions that have occurred.
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How figleaves are replacing dogwhistles to hide ugly sentiments

Overtly racist sentiments tend to be viewed negatively. Even racists tend to shy away from them because they know that they will elicit a negative reaction in many people. who might be reachable with softer language. So for a long time, racists would use what we have come to call ‘dogwhistles’, language that is code for what they feel they cannot say openly.

Jennifer Saul says that people are still using that term to explain racist sentiments when the rhetoric has shifted to the extent that the racism is much more overt, so that it is fairly obvious. She points to the example of how with serial sex abuser Donald Trump (SSAT), racist sentiments became much less subtle.

With Donald Trump on the political scene in the US, the racism became much less subtle, with the candidate and then president calling Mexicans ‘rapists’, advocating a ban on Muslims entering the US, and using phrases like ‘shithole countries’.

Clearly these racist sentiments did not do him much harm and may well have helped him with his supporters. So why did so many of his listeners not see that his words clearly showed that he was being racist?
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SSAT is looking at coughing up real money

Judge Arthur Engoron handed down his judgment in the New York civil fraud trial of serial sex abuser Donald Trump (SSAT) brought by New York state attorney general Letitia James alleging that SSAT, his sons Donald Jr. and Eric, and his company indulged in fraudulent business practices. They had already been found guilty of fraud in an earlier trial and this part of the process was to determine the extent of the fraud and what fines, if any, they would pay.

It was hefty.

James had asked for $370 million and Engoron awarded $364 million. Engoron also “barred SSAT and and two other executives from serving as officers or directors of any corporation or entity in New York for three years. His sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr, were banned for two years.” He is also “ordering the appointment of two court monitors to oversee the business: former judge Barbara Jones, and an independent compliance director to ensure “good financial and accounting practices””.

The judge was scathing in his opinion.
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Leapfrogging technology

With rapid advances in wireless technology and mobile devices, we are seeing an interesting development in which some developing countries are moving faster than the developed ones. This is because in the developed world, there exist legacy systems of hardwired connectivity that hinders the adoption of the more flexible wireless systems. Hence many parts of the world that lagged behind in building the hardwired infrastructure because of the cost are bypassing that stage and leapfrogging into the newer, cheaper, and more flexible wireless forms.

For example, I went on a visit to Sri Lanka some time ago, before the use of mobile phones became widespread in the US. I was amazed to see that they were ubiquitous in that country, with so many people of lower socio-economic backgrounds, including street vendors, drivers of the three-wheeler taxis, and others all having cell phones. This was because landline phones were very hard to get and expensive and thus available to only a select few such as businesses and well-to-do people, so when mobile phone technology became available, those who had been shut out of having phones seized on the opportunity because they could easily get one. It is the same with electricity. Many rural parts of the world are going straight to solar-powered electricity generation because the cost of running power grids from generating stations to remote areas is so prohibitive.
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Hind Rajab’s murder by Israeli troops was even worse than initially portrayed

The murder of 6-year Hind Rajab and her family by Israeli forces as they were fleeing the shelling i that I wrote about recently has reverberated around the world, putting a tragic human face to the carnage. CNN has audio of the call made by Rajab to the Red Crescent just before she and her family were killed. It is described as ‘harrowing’ and I could not bring myself to listen to it.

Ryan Grim writes that the story is even more grisly, in that the medics from the Red Crescent who tried to rush to her rescue following her frantic phone call were themselves murdered.
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George Santos’s seat won by Democrat

Yesterday, the House of Representatives succeeded in their second attempt at impeaching homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas after they botched the first attempt last week. This time, they passed it by the narrowest of margins if 214-213. Two Republicans and two Democrats did not vote, for reasons that I have not been able to learn. Three Republicans voted with the Democrats. The impeachment effort is expected to meet a swift death in the Senate.

Republicans wanted to have this vote yesterday because the special election to fill the seat formerly held by the disgraced and expelled congressperson George Santos was also held yesterday and they feared that it would be won by a Democrat and thus their attempt would fail again if they voted after he was sworn in. Their fears were justified because Tom Suozzi won easily over his Republican rival Mazi Pilip by a margin of 54-46%, in a race that was expected to be much closer. So now the House is split 219-213 in favor of Republicans with three seats vacant, allowing them to have at most two defections if they want to pass anything.
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Bob Edwards (1947-2024)

The former long-running host of NPR’s Morning Edition radio news program died yesterday. He hosted that show from its inception in 1979 until 2004. He was an excellent host and I was one of the vast number of regular listeners who was outraged by the way he was summarily replaced. Although he was only 57 when he left, it appeared that the network wanted new voices who could also do field reports, rather than just be a studio-based anchor.
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Biden vs. Trump on the age issue

There are two things about the upcoming US presidential election that are not really worth agonizing over. One is that that Joe Biden and serial sex abuser Donald Trump (SSAT) will be the nominees of the Democratic and Republican parties, unless something major happens. The second is that both are old. We just have to live with that reality.

There is far too much focus on Biden’s age and not nearly enough on SSAT’s age, even though the latter seems much more cognitively impaired. In one post, Kevin Drum lists some of the wrong and crazy things SSAT has said recently that indicate that he is losing it.

  1. Pointed at Matt Gaetz and repeatedly called him Rick Gates.
  2. Confused Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi.
  3. Claimed that Obama was still president.
  4. Said that Russia should feel free to attack NATO if they “don’t pay.”
  5. Posted an endless stream of unhinged rants on Truth Social.
  6. Snidely asked why Nikki Haley’s husband is never around (he’s stationed overseas).
  7. Explicitly told Republicans to kill an immigration bill so things would stay chaotic during his presidential campaign.
  8. Confused E. Jean Carroll with Marla Maples, his ex-wife.
  9. Asserted that the United States is “an institute in a powerful death penalty,” whatever that means.
  10. Said that Viktor Orbán is the head of Turkey (he’s the prime minister of Hungary).
  11. Claimed that Jeb Bush started the Iraq war.
  12. Said that Nancy Pelosi started the January 6 insurrection.
  13. Insisted that he never endorsed James Lankford (he did).

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