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techtakes·TechTakesbymaol

"Asked to think like a paedophile or act suicidal: Workers training Meta's AI in Ireland speak out"

God help us. These workers are employed by a subcontractor, Covalen.

Multiple workers from Covalen’s ‘AI annotation’ service spoke to The Journal Investigates about their roles. Their day-to-day work involves creating prompts that are fed to Meta’s AI platform so the system can be trained according to guidelines.

In order to do this, some workers have spent entire shifts pretending to be paedophiles online seeking child sex abuse related information, or suicidal people looking for details on how to kill or hurt themselves.

Covalen also does moderation for Meta, with workers forced to watch extremely violent and disturbing footage that has been flagged for moderation.

“Sometimes in my dreams I am the victim, but sometimes – and this is far worse – I am the perpetrator,” they said.

One bright spot:

Over 100 Covalen employees have now joined the Communications Workers Union (CWU). The toll that dealing with sensitive content and inconsistencies in wellness break length were extra motivating factors for the move.

They are also asking for a better rate of pay, as they are currently earning an average of €29,700 per year.

"Asked to think like a paedophile or act suicidal: Workers training Meta's AI in Ireland speak out"https://www.thejournal.ie/meta-workers-ireland-6745653-Jul2025/?Open linkView original on awful.systems
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techtakes·TechTakesbymaol

Data centre energy usage has outpaced growth of renewable energy in Ireland

"Total demand for electricity last year grew by 4.4pc, or 1.3 terawatts (TW), but 80pc of that increase, or 1.1TW, was from data centre growth."

Training data for LLMs = higher energy prices and environmental degradation.

Data centre energy usage has outpaced growth of renewable energy in Irelandhttps://m.independent.ie/irish-news/wind-and-solar-energy-produced-more-electricity-last-year-but-data-centre-usage-outpaced-progress/a1345207449.htmlOpen linkView original on awful.systems
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sneerclub·SneerClubbymaol

Dan McQuillan on Resisting AI | Yeah Nah Pasaran! On 3CR

Interview on Australian anti-fascist radio show Yeah Nah Pasaran! with Dan McQuillan, computer lecturer and author of "Resisting AI: An Anti-fascist Approach To Artificial Intelligence". Interesting comments on AI as a tool of/for austerity politics, and an argument that AI is inherently anti-worker. Probably nothing new to people in here, but eloquently stated and put into a wider political context.

Dan McQuillan on Resisting AI | Yeah Nah Pasaran! On 3CRhttps://www.3cr.org.au/yeahnahpasaran/episode/dan-mcquillan-resisting-aiOpen linkView original on awful.systems
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techtakes·TechTakesbymaol

Building an entirely new city from scratch in Northern California: an environmentally friendly way of providing more housing, according to some silicon valley types

Sure, why attempt to improve the climate resilience or affordable housing in the cities where millions of people already live, when you can just buy land upstate and get a whole new toy to play with? And why tell local, state or national government anything - they'll only be supplying the land, water, sewerage, utilities & transport links. You pay your taxes, you deserve to get something back.

This is going to be one hell of a planning application. What's the land use code for "feudal stronghold"?

Building an entirely new city from scratch in Northern California: an environmentally friendly way of providing more housing, according to some silicon valley typeshttps://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/sep/02/silicon-valley-elites-utopian-city-californiaOpen linkView original on awful.systems
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