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4TB of voice samples just stolen from 40k AI contractors at Mercor

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Re: 4TB of voice samples just stolen from 40k AI contractors at Mercor

#161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the "it's easier" people operate on a fundamentally different way than you or I. they thrive in the world of plausible deniability and social trust. They almost dont care what happens to them as long as it isnt their fault. And they do not consider putting themselves at risk to be the same as being at fault in a certain light, it's kind of admirable. they live like the world is the way it should be

That’s HN users towards politics and the environment. Sitting smugly with their yubikey and encrypted laptop while the world around them crumbles.

[dead]

Re: 4TB of voice samples just stolen from 40k AI contractors at Mercor

#162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm taking some college courses, and one of them explicitly suggests to keep maybe-not-okay communications off of email so that "you don't expose your company to risks of litigation." Ah, I see. So, when discussing ways to ensure cuatomers cannot utilize our warranty process, I'll make sure to do so in ways that are not traceable and won't show up in discovery.

The underlying reason is that employees don't always know what they're talking about, but their nonsense could be useful to the other side in a court case. The bigger the company, the more speculation there is about stuff people don't actually understand.

This is just companies fighting back against the ever-expanding powers of state surveillance.

Back when the relevant laws were written, most communications was oral and in-person, writing was reserved for the "important stuff". We now apply the laws that were designed for memos to messages on Slack, which are a lot like conversations than permanent documents.

Re: 4TB of voice samples just stolen from 40k AI contractors at Mercor

#163
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Selling the solution to the problem you caused ought to be illegal. Most tech solutions are built on the problems they created. This includes phones, cars, computers, every software upgrade, and almost every electronic gadget. You are forced to use them because the world around you is no longer compatible with the way of life that was before the introduction of these tech.

I probably agree with you but what on earth are phones and cars doing in this list? They solve obvious physical problems not caused by a company.

General Motors contributed significantly to the decline of passenger rail in the USA.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_consp...

Re: 4TB of voice samples just stolen from 40k AI contractors at Mercor

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Before LLM’s there was_____” I see this whenever an LLM’s impact is assessed. We know. The issue is scale and the ability for smaller and smaller groups (down to individuals) to execute at scale. Fake news always existed. Now one dude in India can flood multiple sock puppet media accounts with right wing content/images (actual example) at a scale previously unimaginable.

I really hate this when it's something negative that humans also do. It's like, yeah, people do do that, but why are we automating {negativeTrait}?

Unfortunately the answer is usually people just want to hand wave away the critique for one reason or another. “People already do that” is an easy truism for stifling discussion.

Re: 4TB of voice samples just stolen from 40k AI contractors at Mercor

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vocal lessons are both a lot of fun and a lot of work. I haven't been using any voiceprint systems but I know most humans are unable to tell that my trained voice is the same physical person as my old voice. Would be curious to find out if an AI voiceprint system can discern whether it's the same or not.

Are you talking about singing lessons, or actual talking training? Singing lessons helped me sing but didn't change the way i talked at all, but i was only able to afford them for a summer so maybe it takes more time than that

When I was in NYC a while back, I met a woman at a friend's dinner party. She sounded totally American, but was in fact Brazilian. She worked as a lawyer, and said that she'd had to get extensive voice training in order to sound American so that people would take her more seriously professionally. I have no idea if the professional part worked, but the accent, mannerisms etc was amazing - I would never have guessed.

Re: 4TB of voice samples just stolen from 40k AI contractors at Mercor

#166
post #97
post #44

> If you were a Mercor contractor and you believe your voice may already be in circulation, ORAVYS will analyze the first three suspect samples free of charge. Awesome, if you're a victim of an AI company having your voice, you can help yourself by sending another AI company your voice! > Audio is never used to train commercial models without explicit consent I'm sure Mercor has explicit consent as well, legal teams…

The irony runs deeper than the free analysis offer. The whole Mercor contractor relationship was this exact pattern: hand over studio-quality voice recordings and ID scans to get paid for data labeling work that didn't require either. "Explicit consent" was buried in the terms, and people clicked through because they needed the paycheck. Now 40k people have learned that biometrics aren't passwords. You can't rotate y…

> Now 40k people have learned that biometrics aren't passwords. You can't rotate your voice.

The problem is that even if you know that, you still get bombarded by banking apps promising "biometrics are more secure than passwords, switch now!"

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