politics Archives - Slade Watkins My home on the internet Mon, 13 Jan 2025 00:37:24 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 /wp-content/uploads/2024/11/cropped-Channel-Logo-32x32.jpg politics Archives - Slade Watkins 32 32 238026432 The TikTok Ban is looming /blog/2025/01/the-tiktok-ban-is-looming/ Mon, 13 Jan 2025 00:37:21 +0000 /?p=140501559 I use TikTok. 170 million Americans use TikTok. And a week from today, nobody will be able to use TikTok. TikTok (and by extension, ByteDance — which owns Lemon8, which would also be subject to a ban) has been fighting for its life, trying to get this ban delayed so it can fight it out […]

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I use TikTok. 170 million Americans use TikTok. And a week from today, nobody will be able to use TikTok. TikTok (and by extension, ByteDance — which owns Lemon8, which would also be subject to a ban) has been fighting for its life, trying to get this ban delayed so it can fight it out in court. Oral arguments in that case were held in DC on January 19th. After listening… well, honestly, I think the Supreme Court is likely going to uphold it. On both sides of the aisle.

Perhaps the United States Congress does not realize how bad this ban will be. That’s going to be devastating for the small business owners, the single moms, the artists, the comedians, and so many more who use the app and rely on it to make a living and make the economy go round.

Actually, it could even be devastating for the politicians who rely on the app to reach constituents and make an impact (some of which even voted for the ban, for some reason).

The law authorizing the sale itself feels like a swing and a miss for many; I have to agree. Some have said the ban is meant to serve as a distraction from other things; I don’t buy that. Some have even been in denial that the ban won’t take effect; It likely will, to be honest with you all.

The two options are simple: the Supreme Court stays the looming ban for now as it plays out in their court, or rules the ban is unconstitutional. I’m speculating on everything because I don’t know how they’re feeling. No one does. Just going off what the Court’s Justices stated during oral arguments this past Friday.

If the last 8 years in politics have taught me anything, it’s that anything can happen, for better or for worse. We’ll see what happens.

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The AI craze, like everything else, will pass /blog/2024/01/the-ai-craze-like-everything-else-will-pass/ Mon, 29 Jan 2024 01:45:05 +0000 /blog/?p=140500652 The tech industry has been obsessed with AI for close to a year now. But it’s not just Silicon Valley. From Microsoft’s Copilot to Duolingo’s own AI-powered adaptive learning features, every company has been jumping on the AI bandwagon. What gives? Does this even matter to the average consumer? I’d hazard a guess that it doesn’t. Despite […]

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The tech industry has been obsessed with AI for close to a year now. But it’s not just Silicon Valley. From Microsoft’s Copilot to Duolingo’s own AI-powered adaptive learning features, every company has been jumping on the AI bandwagon. What gives? Does this even matter to the average consumer? I’d hazard a guess that it doesn’t. Despite the marketing, AI mostly only gets used by enthusiasts, random people who want to have fun with it, or bad actors right now.

That doesn’t make the tech useless, however. AI can be useful. But it’s also incredibly dangerous and highly unregulated—see Taylor Swift’s AI ‘nudes’ spreading across the internet from just the past week (don’t worry, the article I linked doesn’t have them), requiring Twitter to temporarily block searches for the musician on the platform. It’s easy to manipulate media with AI, and that’s something the U.S. Congress and lawmaking bodies across the globe should absolutely be working to get a handle on now, not later.

Companies only see AI as “the next big thing” now because of the work OpenAI is doing on ChatGPT. Industries are trained to basically follow the money, and there’s money in AI. Apple is rumored to be doing some sort of implementation for their upcoming iOS release based on their own models, too. This sort of shift in every industries’ focus happens anywhere from once a year to every few years. Then, they quietly shut down all the work and pour all that investment down the drain in search of larger profits. It’s a cycle that lasts forever.

The thing is, AI is another piece of technology that shouldn’t advance until there are guardrails in place protecting real people—of which Taylor Swift is—from getting hurt in the process. But then again, it’s possible this is just part of the cycle, and AI will fade into obscurity within the next few years.

I don’t know for certain; and only time will tell.

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