TechPlus+ | Technology & Development Redux
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Regulating Digital Platforms – II
Read more: Regulating Digital Platforms – IIAs suggested in the first part of this post, not all platforms are digital. In fact, analog platforms are the older siblings. Its digital counterparts are undoubtedly distinct, their calling card usually being their multisided nature – operating in more than one two-sided market. However, analog multisided platforms have also existed for a long time…
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Regulating Digital Platforms – I
Read more: Regulating Digital Platforms – IBy all accounts, the regulatory tide, constantly receding for so many years, is finally returning to the digital realm’s now extensive and arid shores . Indeed, digital platforms are now under the policy microscope, especially the well-known global giants whose names I do not need to echo here. These behemoths are carrying the day with…
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AI Disinformation – II
Read more: AI Disinformation – IIAI’s astounding evolution in the last decade has been nothing less than spectacular, pace doomers. It has undoubtedly exceeded most expectations, bringing numerous benefits and generating new challenges and risks. The latter is crucial to understand as AI has a bi-polar personality. It is indeed friend and foe. It all depends on how humans (ab)use…
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AI Disinformation – I
Read more: AI Disinformation – IThe idea of a technological singularity has been around for over 60 years. While initially confined to closed circles of experts, it has been gaining a lot of ground in the race to the future, which, according to its core tenets, will be devastating for us, poor dumb humans. I probably first heard about it…
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Organized Disinformation – II
Read more: Organized Disinformation – IIBubble inhabitants live in a world surrounded by an invisible yet effective firewall that protects them from allegedly vicious external sources, disinformation included. In such a paradise, harm is almost always pushed back if it attempts to cross it. And bliss emerges in a world of subtle, ample ignorance. While many might know they live…
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Organized Disinformation – I
Read more: Organized Disinformation – II still remember the phone number of the line my parents somehow managed to get installed in their first-owned house, a three-story dwelling my father, a civil engineer, helped design and build for a family of seven. It had six digits, which seemed like one too many. When asked, my father said the reason was…
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Disinformation Misinformation
Read more: Disinformation MisinformationThe rainy season had already begun but, as usual, did not provide any relief from that sweltering heat that never abandoned the small rural town. It was a regular Thursday morning, and Cesar planned to head back to the farm riding his mule, always carrying his shotgun. One never knows what might happen along the…
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Data Analysis with ChatGPT
Read more: Data Analysis with ChatGPTA few days ago, OpenAI launched its Code Interpreter, capable of handling Python programming chores. The interpreter can read files uploaded by users, perform tasks described in the input prompts and, if requested, allow downloads of outputs produced. One can also see the code the platform, uses and download for local replication and improvement. Files…
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Are LLMs Fully Multilingual?
Read more: Are LLMs Fully Multilingual?When I first started to play with ChatGPT in December of last year, I was pleasantly surprised to discover it could handle multiple languages. Needless to say, the LLM can handle translation from and into multiple languages. But it can also take non-English prompts and provide responses in the original query language. A recent test…
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More on AI Programming
Read more: More on AI ProgrammingIn the coldhearted realm of disinformation, deepfakes seem to reign supreme, bullying all others around along the way. The fact that they have multiple personalities makes them even more insidious. Voice, text, images and video content are some of the most common, with combinations among them being a frequent occurrence. Lip-syncing the voice of a…
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AI and Open Source – II
Read more: AI and Open Source – IILinux Freedom I first heard about Linux a couple of months after returning from the 1992 UN’s Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. I was working part-time as a Research Associate in one of the social research centers of my college while doing consultancies on my own – thus the Rio trip. The academic job…
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AI and Open Source – I
Read more: AI and Open Source – IBy all accounts, the ChatGPT “revolution” has triggered a well-deserved resurgence of free software or Open Source free/Open Source software (FOSS) that, some argue, will allegedly challenge the dominance of Big Tech over LLMs. While I disagree with such a prediction, I think FOSS can still play a vital role, as it did over 20…
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ChatGPT Productivity and Hallucinations Mix
Read more: ChatGPT Productivity and Hallucinations MixUndoubtedly, ChatGPT has taken the world by storm. Few will dare deny such a non-violent takeover. And, as expected, the now familiar digital innovation hype factory is holding yet another massive and seemingly endless ball, including reluctant doomsayers. OpenAI’s March ChatGPT API release added fuel to the hype bonfire by opening the door for developers…
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Internet Metaphors in Practice – II
Read more: Internet Metaphors in Practice – IIA couple of years later, I installed our first Wi-Fi router, allowing us to connect our laptops to the network from almost any point in the house. But wireless connection speeds were limited to 11 Mbps while the good old ethernet wire could do 100 Mbps. Not even close. Wired connections were not only faster…
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Internet Metaphors in Practice – I
Read more: Internet Metaphors in Practice – IThe first time I ever bought something over the Internet was in 1994. And it was not from Amazon, but from a now long-gone company called CDNow. As its name suggests, its core business was selling CDs online. Interestingly, one could also access the site via telnet which was not very user-friendly, certainly not for…