Weekly recap: 2024-03-31

Posted by Q McCallum on 2024-03-31

What you see here is the last week’s worth of links and quips I have shared on LinkedIn, from Monday through Sunday.

For now I’ll post the notes as they appeared on LinkedIn, including hashtags and sentence fragments. Over time I might expand on these thoughts as they land here on my blog.

2024/03/25: An update on the tattletale cars

A couple of weeks ago I pointed to an article about connected cars snooping on drivers. Here’s an update.

GM stops sharing driver data with brokers amid backlash” (Ars Technica)

Plus: they’ve stopped sharing data.

Minus: it’s because the press coverage shamed them into doing the right thing.

Also minus: absent real data privacy laws, they’ll no doubt find another way to do it again.

Sum total:

  • I appreciate the hard work of journalists for bringing this to light (especially to Kashmir Hill at the New York Times for breaking the story).
  • But it’s sad that we need public shaming to fill the gaps dug by greedy companies and left open by lack of solid data privacy laws.

2024/03/26: You can also get in trouble for not using AI

This is an interesting AI-related risk : AI-washing. That is, claiming you’re doing AI when you’re really not. Turns out that can get you in trouble:

SEC Settles With Two Investment Advisers Over Alleged ‘AI Washing’” (WSJ)

This is when you might point out that this was a case of the Securities and Exchange Commission calling out an investment firm, and that those rules don’t apply elsewhere.

Fair enough! The SEC can’t bust you for claiming that you’re doing AI when you’re not.

But that doesn’t stop prospective customers, investors, and hires from noting that you’re full of hot air and moving on.

Food for thought.

2024/03/28: new Complex Machinery

Complex Machinery is my newsletter on risk, AI, and related topics.

The next one will be out in a couple of days. Why not subscribe now, so it lands in your inbox once it’s published?

Here’s the current issue as a sample: “It’s a bot’s world, we just live in it