Tag: security

Gizmodo: Amazon Fresh’s AI Was Indians Watching the Cameras…And It Still Didn’t Work

I’m sensationalizing a bit this time.

Gizmodo notes that though the Just Walk Out technology seemed completely automated, there were actually 1,000 people in India watching the cameras and labeling videos. The whole idea was you could walk in, scan a QR code, take what you want, and leave. They’d track what you were buying.

Now Amazon wants to use Dash Carts, “smart” shopping carts.

What can I say? When you have effectively unlimited money you can spend your time dreaming up ways to replace people who work for a living. And if that’s your job, screw you.

Let’s just state what the writer, Maxwell Zeff, seems to go to great lengths not to say in the Gizmodo article. They had to walk out “Just Walk Out” because it was running away with their money. Otherwise, they would have kept it. Though one of my people on social media said it might be kind of mocking them in a way that I just didn’t perceive in the way it was written.

Don’t you love how they’d rather employ a thousand Indians than a few cashiers in each store?

Don’t you love that even abject failures of AI are spun by media to be positive stories? Even if it’s correct that it was some kind of joke, it was totally believable.

The level of self-delusion in this country rivals my medical episode. These people wouldn’t say a bad word about big business if it was pointing a gun in their face.

I guess it’s close enough. According to a Siena College Research Institute poll in 2022, 84% say Americans being afraid to exercise freedom of speech is a serious problem.

Having your ability to make money and provide for your family hampered by your pro-business boss because you might say the wrong thing is kind of like having a gun to your head. It’s just a bullet that would kill much slower and much more painfully as your family descended from middle class to poverty or poverty to homelessness, if you couldn’t bounce back fast enough.

Growing wealth disparity in this country ensures there will be more stories like that. My family could no longer afford a home that had been in the family for 60 years in part because the policy in this country had largely been engineered to drain as much money as possible from the middle class. Call me a has-been homeowner. I lost the game as gracefully as I could at the time.

But back to that Siena poll, retaliation was just one fear. People were also afraid of things like being criticized and causing conflict. Something like 94% avoided conflict.

The people of the past rebelled because taxes on tea were too high, and our docile little hearts can’t even be bothered to hear mean words and fight back against our most basic freedoms being stripped in increasingly creative ways — in this case by Indians dressed as technology. No offense to Indians.

Steal from people and they’ll form neighborhood watches to hunt you down and lynch you. We know that from history. Well, if we’re really honest, we’d lynch even if there was no crime committed, if circumstances were right. (Yeah. Those circumstances. May we never forget.)

Write laws to steal from people and they’ll let you do it unabated for decades. And defend you doing it.

The people reading this blog might be in the top 6%.

Thanks for being there.

Court bans use of AI-enhanced video.

P.S.

I wanted a permanent place on the internet for my wedding vow so the bottom of this article now becomes that place.

Contrary to the rumors, ChatGPT did not write this. I poured my heart into it, and everyone at my wedding really loved it.

“There are many things I can tell you that could never be shared with another soul. But this is something that I need to say now in front of all the souls here today. I had never met someone with a heart so big it could hug the world. I had no experience knowing someone with so much compassion, creativity, intelligence, beauty, and kindness. That is, of course, until I met you. Now we are making a promise that will stretch into eternity. In front of all these people, let me promise that I will love and protect you always. Every step I take will advance our bond. Every minute without you will be fleeting. Every second with you will be cherished. 

And every time we close our eyes, let us dream of a future that is as strong and radiant as your smile. When those eyes open, let us wake to find our dreams a reality. Francesca, my beautiful wife, you taught me love, I love you, and I will love you for the rest of my life.”

You Need 2FA Now

Telling grown professionals what to do and how to conduct themselves online is generally not in my business plan. But I know that some of us are not 100 percent caught up with techy stuff, and I feel obligated to write this one.

2FA is a creative shortening of “two-factor authentication.” You may also hear it referred to as multi-factor authentication. No matter who you are, you’ve probably heard these words. Maybe you looked into it and you know exactly what I’m talking about. Maybe it looked too complicated and you said “not for me, thanks.” Whatever the case, I can show you in one image why you need two-factor authentication.

I can assure you, I was not attempting to log into Twitch from India.
Also, XChrisUnknownX was a really creative moniker for a 12 year old.

We’re in a hacker’s world now. Hackers will get your passwords. It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. As a matter of fact, Google now has this handy feature to show you how compromised your passwords are. Want to guess how many times hackers have gotten their hands on my password?

Excuse me! StenoIsK00L is not a weak password!

In its early days, even this blog got hacked into! 2FA prevents that every day. 2FA, at its core, means you sign in with your password, and then the service you’re logging into sends you a numeric password via text message or it sends a numeric code to an authenticator app on your phone. This numeric code changes every minute or so, so somebody who wants to log into your stuff without your permission needs to get your username, password, and be tapped into your phone OR have physical possession of your phone. It doesn’t matter if they’re trying to hack in from India, China, Beirut, or next door, they’re not getting in without very substantial access to your personal life.

PRO TIP WHERE APPLICABLE: Put 2FA for your e-mail, link that to your phone, then use 2FA and link everything else to your e-mail. The result? Every time someone tries to hack you, you get an e-mail about it.

There is one major exception to this, and the most common way that you will be hacked using 2FA: You. Hackers and scammers may send you a site by e-mail that looks legitimate. If you go to log in, they will record your login details, and they will record the numeric code that’s sent from your authenticator if you give it to them. Always double check that you’re logging into the correct site, because if you don’t, you’re going to end up giving away valuable information to people that don’t deserve to have it. So, for example, let’s say you get an e-mail saying it’s from Chase Bank. They’re going to close your account unless you act now. Don’t click anything in that e-mail. Go to your browser and type in the Chase website that you know and love. Scammers and hackers design stuff to make you feel rushed and fearful because that’s when you’re least likely to think about a minor decision like logging into a site. Any time you’re feeling rushed or fearful, take some extra time to think before you act.

That’s really it. I have countless old accounts and usernames that I opened as a kid, before the age of 2FA, and they’ve all pretty much been taken over by bots and spammers. Given the importance of our work and the transcripts we produce, we can’t afford to let our clients down and let the bad guys seize information. 2FA for most services is free. Google Authenticator is free. “Free” is a great price for peace of mind, so check if the services you use have 2FA today.