I can barely read this, somethong supposedly this serious, would be much better as a single page, a cogent, actual article.
Hardware Attestation as Monopoly Enabler
311–320 of 799 posts
Re: Hardware Attestation as Monopoly Enabler
#312This is a really good thread on why this technology is becoming a problem for "open" anything. The argument "we can create our own separate web" is fine until all of your services are behind the web that locks you into owning a Google approved or Apple approved mobile device.
Are there enough of us to run our own country? It makes me feel dumb, but this is a serious question.
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Re: Hardware Attestation as Monopoly Enabler
#313Earlier quoted context omitted.
The local models are still centralized and proprietary. They are basically closed source software.
RMS found it acceptable to use SunOS initially to create GNU. Open weight models can be a big boost to building Open AI (cough). Progress comes from incremental improvements, -- and open weight models are a big advance in privacy, security, and autonomy over relying on hosted closed systems. Source vs not is only one (important!) dimension, moreover in FSF land they define source as being the preferred form for modif…
> the weights are the preferred form
This can never be the case.
Both the licensing and source aspects of the Free Software movement are aspiring to create high level of equality of access to a [software] work between both the original author and far downstream recipients. Obviously full and universal equality is impossible because part of the work is only in the author's mind and not everyone can obtain and use computers, but approaching that as closely as possible is important and it is important to think about how to achieve a high level of equality for each work in each context. What is "source" in any given context is a choice the author makes about what level of access they want to pass on to others.
In the case of AI, weights can never be the preferred form for modification because of the equality of access issue. The people who trained the AI (and hide its training data/code but published the weights) will always have more access than the people who only have the weights. Just like a binary can almost never be the preferred form, because the authors have access to the source but we don't.
There are also many ways to bias the model and insert backdoors or other suboptimal behaviours into it during training data selection etc.
Re: Hardware Attestation as Monopoly Enabler
#314Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Why was this decision ever made? because it wasn't made the decision which was made was having a digital ID wallet, that this needs hardware attestation (or something comparable) is somewhat of a direct consequence of existing laws/regulations regarding making IDs forgery safe it also is a phone only application the huge huge majority of phones runs Googled Android/iOS, so you support them if there where a relevant…
Have you seen our President? Minor conveniences are what trigger him into launching full blown DOJ investigations, wars, and economic disaster. If he realizes he can just "turn off" the EU, oh, he will threaten that on Truth Social tonight in a rant about how they should make a deal or else.
Friendly advice: please don't capitalize random common nouns like the president does. It's a marker of one's affinity toward precision (among other things).
Re: Hardware Attestation as Monopoly Enabler
#315Earlier quoted context omitted.
So with a single flip of the switch, the president of the USA can shut down our EU Digital Identity Wallet. Why was this decision ever made?
> Why was this decision ever made? because it wasn't made the decision which was made was having a digital ID wallet, that this needs hardware attestation (or something comparable) is somewhat of a direct consequence of existing laws/regulations regarding making IDs forgery safe it also is a phone only application the huge huge majority of phones runs Googled Android/iOS, so you support them if there where a relevant…
If something is actually important, don't put it on a computer. Don't let a computer be in the critical path of anything that actually matters. It's really quite simple. Even before "AI" this technology was not reliable enough for serious, important things--systems that need to be maintainable in adverse conditions (battle damage, etc), systems where failure is not an option (proving your identity, proving your children are yours, ...). If you care about your car, truck, tractor, or dozer being maintainable and reliable, don't get one with a computer in it. Until we can figure out how to make these things reliable and maintainable they're not to be trusted.
Re: Hardware Attestation as Monopoly Enabler
#316This is tyranny: making people powerless, afraid of each other, and submissive, per Aristotle's understanding.[1] The technological means are new, to be sure, but the social strategy is as old as civilization.
Mark my words. General purpose computing and private, direct communication are things too powerful for a tyrant to permit the people to have. The freedom we've enjoyed for the last several decades, to build what we want, to run what we want, to network with who we want, is not the default and will always be under attack. We had it for a little while by the generosity of the previous generation. It was not then, and is not now, and never will be free.
[1] https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1...
Re: Hardware Attestation as Monopoly Enabler
#317Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you show an example of defeating hardware attestation? It would be useful for many 3rd party ROM users.
most times it's done by (reliably re-)rooting a attested phone in a way which bypasses detection of the attestation system so not really useful for 3rd party ROMs
Quite useful for scammers, though, which is why this is so irritating with regards to digital IDs.
Re: Hardware Attestation as Monopoly Enabler
#318Earlier quoted context omitted.
So a vote happened, and when it didn’t go their way, huge company threatened a huge lawsuit that the township and citizens couldn’t afford, to get their way anyway. Standard corporate bullying tactic in America. The story perfectly exemplifies how little democratic control the public has over what corporations do in and do to their community.
The reason the would-be purchaser sued the state is that they had a plausible argument that the township's denial was illegal under Michigan state law. There are quotes in the article from the Governor's office that they support the construction of data centers. This isn't democracy not working; it's that the efforts need to go up to the state level in the hierarchy.
State law is yet another tool commonly used by corporations to overrule the will of the people. The Law is a product that corporations and the rich purchase.
Re: Hardware Attestation as Monopoly Enabler
#319Earlier quoted context omitted.
Have you seen our President? Minor conveniences are what trigger him into launching full blown DOJ investigations, wars, and economic disaster. If he realizes he can just "turn off" the EU, oh, he will threaten that on Truth Social tonight in a rant about how they should make a deal or else.
Friendly advice: please don't capitalize random common nouns like the president does. It's a marker of one's affinity toward precision (among other things).
you're being this pedantic about someone capitalizing "President"?
Re: Hardware Attestation as Monopoly Enabler
#320Earlier quoted context omitted.
Have you seen our President? Minor conveniences are what trigger him into launching full blown DOJ investigations, wars, and economic disaster. If he realizes he can just "turn off" the EU, oh, he will threaten that on Truth Social tonight in a rant about how they should make a deal or else.
Friendly advice: please don't capitalize random common nouns like the president does. It's a marker of one's affinity toward precision (among other things).
What does 'marker of affinity toward precision' mean?