San Marcos State University does not screen its so-called independent contractors for past misconduct, according to a new audit from California State University.
LAT’s “disinformation” machine?
A spate of sudden layoffs at the Los Angeles Times sparked fear at the San Diego Union-Tribune, which the LA biotech billionaire owns Patrick Soon-Shiong — has nothing to do with the rise of artificial intelligence, company officials point out, but there are signs to the contrary. A total of 74 editorial jobs are to be cut, the newspaper reported on June 7, accounting for about 13 percent of the editorial staff.
Those who are looking for it Kevin Merida To provide some insight into the reasons behind the drastic move, they were disappointed when the Times editor-in-chief held a question-and-answer session that saw Merida and disgruntled staff engage in a verbal duel. “When asked why the proposed layoffs would disproportionately affect some departments — the copy and photo offices, the audience and the audio teams,” Merida replied, according to a Twitter account for the Los Angeles Times Guild, the union that represents newsroom staff of the Times argues, “There just aren’t really any good answers.” The Guild Feed noted, “There should be. When our livelihoods are at stake, we deserve good answers.”
Patrick Soon-Shiong’s LAT isn’t bots – yet.
But Merida was keen to deny that artificial intelligence had anything to do with the layoffs. “Generative AI, that’s not one of them, if that’s your question,” he said, according to the guild report.
Still a series of PR articles with people like Royce Martin, LA Times vice president of product, on behalf of Times automation company Brightspot, Inc., outlines a number of changes the company has made that some are concerned about. “In 2018, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong and his family run the LA Times and a handful of local Southern California newspapers from the Tribune company,” Martin said in an account posted by Brightspot. “Once the deal was closed, the Los Angeles Times worked with Brightspot to design and develop a comprehensive makeover,” the story continues.
“The result? Multiple core systems are being replaced, migrated, jettisoned and rebuilt to redesign the Los Angeles Times platform on a modernized, digitally-centric basis.” Martin added, “This powerful content platform supports an important Core function of their journalism: writing and storytelling.” The article states, “Powered by federated search, a custom front end, and artificial intelligence, Media Desk essentially eliminates the following problems commonly associated with overburdened newsrooms: underutilized resources, wasted money, and Delays in publishing.”
Back in April 2019, Brightspot announced that the company was officially adding artificial intelligence to its publishing systems. “Don’t worry about your job just yet. Businesses continue to need content experts, developers, designers, and other real people to create rewarding digital experiences.
But AI is becoming an increasingly valuable tool that can help teams work more efficiently and create more compelling content for audiences.” According to this report, “Brightspot has long offered intelligent features like automatic tagging and automatic content migration, but the Platform has significantly expanded its AI capabilities by partnering with Amazon Web Services.”
One of the AWS tools available through Brightspot is Rekognition, which enables intelligent image and video analysis to identify objects, people, text, and activities. Detection also makes it easier to flag inappropriate content, a particularly important requirement for social media publishers.” Two years ago, in March 2021, Brightspot boasted, “With the right AI tools, businesses can create the most effective and targeted content for their create audiences.”
Despite the protestations and denials, some remain concerned about the growing AI trend, including the UCSD professor of data science and philosophy David Danks. “While Danks, who also serves on the advisory board of the UC San Diego Institute for Practical Ethics, believes there are positive uses for generative AI — such as proofreading, editing, or creative and artistic expression — he has major concerns about the potential of these opportunities are systems that are causing real harm to society,” reads a June 13 post on UCSD’s website.
“These include a rise in disinformation — which Danks says could have mildly disastrous implications for the 2024 presidential election — and the ‘deskilling’ of workers that will occur with the proliferation of generative AI tools. We are, he says, ‘the subjects of a mighty experiment’.”
dark backgrounds
San Marcos State University doesn’t screen its so-called independent contractors for past misconduct — exposing the school to a variety of potential problems, according to a new audit from California State University. “We found that the campus does not have a process to determine if background checks are required [Independent Contractors]reads a May 24 letter from the state university’s vice chancellor and chief audit officer Vlad Marinescu to the President of San Marcos Ellen J Neufeldt. “We examined the contracts signed with 12 [Independent Contractors] and noted that background checks were not considered during the IC engagement process.
Three of the ICs we reviewed appeared to require background checks based on the description of the services they provided; However, the campus did not conduct an assessment to determine whether background checks were required.” The report notes, “Properly considering and conducting background checks for ICs in accordance with CSU policy can reduce the risk of security breaches and criminal activity, including fraud to be exposed.”…Republicans Amy Riechertwho ran against the incumbent democratic superior who had been ousted in the meantime Nathan Fletcher Now running for his vacancy in 2022, she received $1,000 for her campaign from the Sacramento lobbyist Richard Markuson on June 8th.
Candidates line up to fill Nathan Fletcher’s place.
Markuson’s Pacific Advocacy Group represents the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors Association of California and the Western Electrical Contractors Association, according to state disclosure documents. Meanwhile, the San Diego City Council is Democratic Monica Montgomery Steppe, who is running for the same job, has received support from a company called PowerPAC, which conducted a survey on her behalf that cost $15,000, according to a June 12 filing. “PowerPAC is a left-leaning lobbying organization based in San Francisco specializing in voter mobilization. The organization was founded by liberal activists Steve Phillips and funded largely by left-leaning philanthropists Suzanne Sandler‘ according to the website Influence Watch. “The organization also claims to represent historically underrepresented constituencies. The organization researches the political landscape, sending it money and resources, usually related to local and state legislative battles or ballot initiatives. The organization is committed to establishing bases, formulating campaign strategies, representing interests and supporting the technical infrastructure.”
– Matt Potter
(@sdmattpotter)
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