(satire) *Republican Presidential Candidates Undergo Mandatory Genital Checks Ahead Of First Debate.*

*Russia accused of intimidating US consulate staff [Who are Russians] with Ukraine war spying charges.*

What Shonov is accused of — relaying non-secret information picked up from the public — is a normal part of the work of staff of diplomatic organizations.

The US consulate would have trouble functioning without these employees. But it can't tolerate this repression.

The US could not morally respond by threatening the American citizens and other non-Russians who work for Russian consulates in the US. What it could legitimately do is restrict how many local employees the Russian consulates could employ. If the intimidation goes so far that the US consulates find it necessary to stop employing local staff, the US should bar Russian consulates from hiring any local employees.

*The College Board Tells TikTok and Facebook [and other companies] [the test-takers' grade averages] and Details About SAT Scores.*

Staff who set up such surveillance, or knowingly allow it, should be prosecuted. By taking surveillance that seriously, we can end it.

Some educators propose that college applicants use ChatGPT to make up for the lack of a family containing well-educated people who can help them write the essay in high-quality English. Especially applicants who are not native speakers of English.

The idea was new to me but I'm not opposed to it. However, when the article talks about "how students can use AI ethically", it makes a number of important errors:

What it intends by that phrase is whether the students are behaving ethically in their use of a language model. It doesn't raise the question of whether the language model treats its users ethically. It starts from the usual attitude that however digital system developers decide to treat their users can only be accepted — that they have the right to impose any conditions they like. Unless they are illegal; but letting laws decide right and wrong is backwards!

It says that these generative tools are "cheap are free", but I think it means that using them is gratis/ ChatGPT is not free software; it is not even proprietary software. Its software is unreleased, not available to users.

The only way people can use ChatGPT is as an online disservice, because it is SaaSS (service as a Software Substitute). See https://gnu.org/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-serve.html for why that is an injustice to the user.

It is a misnomer to call these things "artificial intelligence", because they don't know or understand what they are talking about.

An impending disastrous oil spill in the Red Sea has been averted by crowdfunding.

It is admirable that people stepped up to do this. But avoiding a disaster should not depend on that. It is governments' responsibility and they should carry it out.