Issue 10 - Taylor Tomlinson Takes on Late Night 🎙️

Don't Trust the Trust Light 📸

AuthorAuthor

Jesse Hirsh & Jan Lemke
November 16, 2023

Welcome to issue ten of the Eco Punks Gazette. Ten is a kind of number that encourages reflection, and we’ve been engaged in such discussions as part of our ongoing improvised conversations.

For example, one might believe that all conversations are improvised. Similar to how the biggest lie is the claim that one doesn’t lie. While good conversations are dynamic, the best are improvised, and successful improvisation requires certain ingredients or conditions to be effectively achieved.

This is where we are genuinely achieving a kind of critical mass with you, and our fellow eco punks. Our salons, which act as a combination of lab and stage, are evolving in capability and creativity. More on this in the weeks to come.

Do know as always we can be reached by replying to this email or contacting us via email, [email protected] or [email protected]. We want to hear from you, regardless of the reason.

Upcoming Event

Nov 21st at 11am EST - Rudeness, Public Outbursts, and Mental Health

Many industries are in crisis due to the increasing rudeness and incivility that many people are expressing towards front line staff. In this context, the labour shortage is not just a demographic issue, but more about workers being fed up and not taking it anymore. From healthcare, to retail, restaurants, and hotels, people are taking out their issues on workers and anyone else they can yell at. What’s up with that, and more importantly want can be done?

It’s not just rudeness, but a growing trend of public outbursts. People losing their shit for both legitimate and entirely made up reasons. Add to this a near ubiquity of smart phones and one person’s meltdown is fodder for clicks and lulz.

We can and should call this what it is, symptoms of a larger mental health crisis. However that only opens a larger conversation on what we ought to do in response. What supports should be in place, both for workers, but also people who are in need of help? Is the issue rudeness, or could we describe this as misguided civil disobedience? Is making a scene in public new, or is the recording and sharing of it what is new? Instead of each of us getting 15 seconds of fame, are we now promised 15 seconds of public rage?

If you’re not already participating in these salons, email [email protected] to get the details and join in.

Exploring the Ecosystems of Digital Platforms

What is a digital platform? What are the digital platforms we use? Social media, online marketplaces, video game distribution networks, these are some examples. One way to think of a digital platform is as a gathering place mediated by algorithms, although the role of that algorithm can be entirely invisible, as is the case with Zoom, where the magic is in audio and video encoding rather than curating content.

Our relationship with algorithms does not have to be subservient or based on ignorance, but instead an opportunity to develop algorithmic literacy by engaging the machine mindfully. Dr Jens explains:

Notable Punk: Taylor Tomlinson

We enjoyed the podcast Strike Force Five, which featured the five current late night talk show hosts, and was intended to raise funds for show staff who were off work due to the WGA strike. While the twelve episode run was hilarious, it also clearly illustrates how white guys control this particular corner of the entertainment industry.

The good news is that the bro club is once again coming to an end, with Taylor Tomlinson taking over for James Corden on CBS following Stephen Colbert.

Taylor Tomlinson: Comedian, 29, fills James Corden's late TV show slot

The US comic becomes the only woman and youngest host of the coveted US TV late-night show slots.

www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-67296327

Taylor won’t be the first women to host a late night TV talk show. Joan Rivers was a regular sit in for Johnny Carson, and later got her own show. Recently Samantha Bee, Lilly Singh, Amber Ruffin, and Chelsea Handler have all had late night shows that fall within the comedy talk genre.

However Taylor gets the gig at a time when late night is changing, not just in the wake of a successful writer’s strike, but also as social media becomes a primary distribution mechanism for these shows. You don’t need to stay up late when the best clips will be shared in the morning.

Here's what to know on Taylor Tomlinson, one of late-night TV's newest hosts

Eric Deggans gives an intro to Taylor Tomlinson, who will soon make her debut as the late-night TV host of After Midnight.

www.npr.org/2023/11/13/1212737800/heres-what-to-know-on-taylor-tomlinson-one-of-late-night-tvs-newest-hosts

Taylor is definitely capturing the zeitgeist, and has a ton of momentum, the larger question will be whether the network execs allow her the freedom to shine, or whether they will do as they historically do, which is interfere, control, and try to take the edge off a rising hot comic.

Which is why we’re recognizing Taylor as a notable punk, because we believe she can push back and be a force of change, not just in late night TV, but in comedy and current affairs. Comedians are who we increasingly turn to in order to make sense of our world.

We certainly wish Taylor success, and hope that Strike Force Five will go down in history as the last late night TV sausage fest.

@strikeforcefive

Our final guest is?! @Ryan Reynolds!!!! #StephenColbert #JimmyFallon #JimmyKimmel #SethMeyers #JohnOliver #RyanReynolds #Podcasts

Don’t trust the Trust Light

The AI hype train may have peaked this past week as a new wearable computer called an AI Pin was introduced by a company called Humane.

Can a tiny AI pin replace our smartphones?

Startup Humane believes its new Ai Pin wearable that uses AI and lasers can recreate smartphone utility without the distraction.

readwrite.com/can-a-tiny-ai-pin-replace-our-smartphones

Is AI mature enough that we’re ready for a new interface? Two ex-Apple employees think so, and they’ve got a device for early adopters to buy.

The Humane AI Pin apparently runs GPT-4 and flashes a ‘Trust Light’ when it’s recording

Another day, another tiny morsel of info about what Humane is up to

www.theverge.com/2023/10/24/23930669/humane-ai-pin-trust-light-camera

While part of this story should be focused on OpenAI as the engine that makes such a device possible, the larger question is whether the device actually delivers.

While gadget blogs and the tech press can focus on the specifics, let’s take a moment to mock the use of a “trust light”. Modelled after the red dot that appears on video cameras alerting subjects that they’re “on air” or being recorded, the light that appears on the AI pin is just that: merely a light.

However by branding it as a “trust light”, the company can claim they’re developing trustworthy AI, even though their AI is just outsourced to OpenAI, which so far has been opaque as to how their LLMs are developed.

The trust light itself only indicates that the camera is active, it does not explain what the device is analyzing or what the results of that analysis would be.

Rather than engage in the difficult and perhaps disappointing process of exploring what trustworthy AI is, designating a trust light bypasses the process to proclaim a fait accompli. The AI is trustworthy because we say so.

Yet trust is a consequence of being mutually vulnerable. While the subject may be vulnerable, how is the pin or software behind it vulnerable? How can AI be hacked? In a myriad of ways.

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We’ve created a Signal group for Eco Punks to share links, ideas, and get a friendly reminder about salons and events. If you’d like to join us on Signal, email [email protected]. If this is the first time you’ve heard of Signal, or if you’re not already using it, this video will bring you up to speed and explain why Signal is the choice for Eco Punks:

Thanks for making it to the end! Here’s a recommendation:

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