The Format #009

In the world of emerging tech, and especially AI, there always seems to be two battling narratives, either ‘we’re all going to die, it’s going to be the end of us’ or ‘this is the best invention ever, you will 100x your productivity’.

We like to try and take a well-reasoned position somewhere in the middle, but getting that balance right isn’t always easy. For us it makes sense to view news through a lens of hope. Acknowledging that some things suck, but hoping and aiming for better. We talk about this concept of hope a bit more in our principles. 🌞

Anyway, dive in…

The UK is Poised to Force a Bad Law on the Internet

Making the internet a safer place is very important, but when it comes at the direct cost of privacy and end-to-end encryption… that seems like too much of a slippery slope for me. The law aims to tackle not only illegal stuff, but also ‘legal yet harmful’ content, with this definition of harmful aligning heavily with the UK Government’s agenda. There’s a fine line between safety and censorship and this bill just feels like politicians taking a big fat step over the line.

AI systems have learned how to deceive humans. What does that mean for our future?

Playing games as a family often involves arguments, especially if someone has a devious strategy and stabs one of the other players in the back. But if you thought your older sibling was mean when it came to sneaky game tactics, apparently AI is on another level when it comes to manipulation. From pretending to be blind to get someone to complete an ‘I’m not a robot’ CAPTCHA to complex deception in the name of world domination (in the strategy game Diplomacy). This article genuinely feels like a sci-fi plot…

Homing pigeons can theoretically transfer data faster than gigabit fiber within 500 miles

In a race between digital signals and pigeons you’d think the answer would be obvious. You guessed digital, right? Wrong. Pigeons reign supreme… Sadly pigeons have a max capacity of 3TB and a distance of around 500 miles, plus they can only travel between two fixed points. My dreams of a pigeon-powered cloud infrastructure may just be over.

Token Narratives Matter First

NFT projects and memecoins have got a bad rep, and for the most part it is absolutely deserved. I heard someone describe the NFT collection trend as a ‘culture casino’ and that checks. The projects were designed to encourage speculative buying, and as a result they attracted certain characters, it was never sustainable. But that doesn’t mean tokens, NFTs and decentralisation are dead, the next wave of projects will just have a very different token narrative.

OPENFORMAT News:

Principles Aren't Just Words In An "About Us" Page

Earlier this week we sent out our principles. It was a big one for us, because these principles define how we go about every single action we take as a company. Now that you know them, we’ve got a very important mission for you, if you’re feeling up to it that is. Keep us accountable. If we mess up, which we will, call us out, help make us better. Also we’d love your feedback, these are principles for the OPENFORMAT community, not just the ‘company’.

And with that we bid you farewell for another fortnight.

Have a great weekend! 👋

Prompt (for Midjourney): “A carrier pigeon carrying 10 memory sticks whilst flying, hyperrealistic, 8k, octane render --quality 2 --s 750”