FOSDEM starting in a bit!
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First talk! Michiel Leenaars speaks on FOSS in times of war, scarcity and (adversarial) AI
Live here now: https://live.fosdem.org/watch/janson
Direct: https://stream.fosdem.org/janson.m3u8
Leenaars discusses the early days of the internet, how much optimism there was.
And how much, in retrospect, naïvité in choosing partnerships -- both with what became Big Tech and with governments
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Leenaars discusses the early days of the internet, how much optimism there was.
And how much, in retrospect, naïvité in choosing partnerships -- both with what became Big Tech and with governments
Exhibit 1: Github (= Microsoft)
WIth a repo on there, even if you don't share you code with anyone, you still share it with Github/MSFT, which in turn shares it with the US government
"We've been played", says Leenaars
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Exhibit 1: Github (= Microsoft)
WIth a repo on there, even if you don't share you code with anyone, you still share it with Github/MSFT, which in turn shares it with the US government
"We've been played", says Leenaars
Are these big tech companies your friends? Will they take care of you?
So many of these companies offer convenience. But at what cost?
You become dependent.
There's abuse
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Are these big tech companies your friends? Will they take care of you?
So many of these companies offer convenience. But at what cost?
You become dependent.
There's abuse
There's a big opportunity at this moment. Society is in panic mode, because it's become too dependent
And society is looking at tech workers for a solution
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There's a big opportunity at this moment. Society is in panic mode, because it's become too dependent
And society is looking at tech workers for a solution
It's Stockholm syndrome, Leenaars says.
Mentions the example of the Dutch government - ministry of Finance making a big project out of moving to Microsoft, even though this creates:
- More dependence on US-based tools
- Productivity loss
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It's Stockholm syndrome, Leenaars says.
Mentions the example of the Dutch government - ministry of Finance making a big project out of moving to Microsoft, even though this creates:
- More dependence on US-based tools
- Productivity loss
But don't fall into the trap of jumping into European-based big tech!
That'd be the same predators, just based in a different location
Instead, what this moment needs is social initiative, not more
says Leenaars -
But don't fall into the trap of jumping into European-based big tech!
That'd be the same predators, just based in a different location
Instead, what this moment needs is social initiative, not more
says LeenaarsDependency on short-form content & LLMs is hampering childrens' brain development, suggests Leenaars
It's a form of dementia, but worse, because they're not even developing a fully functioning brains
(disclaimer: i don't know the exact studies on this, just reporting the talk)
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Dependency on short-form content & LLMs is hampering childrens' brain development, suggests Leenaars
It's a form of dementia, but worse, because they're not even developing a fully functioning brains
(disclaimer: i don't know the exact studies on this, just reporting the talk)
What does war look like today?
"It's not [just] enemy lines, it's your lines of code that are causing real-world damage", says Leenaars
As a form of warfare, code & computation is:
- Super cheap
- Very low risk
- High yield
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What does war look like today?
"It's not [just] enemy lines, it's your lines of code that are causing real-world damage", says Leenaars
As a form of warfare, code & computation is:
- Super cheap
- Very low risk
- High yield
The pager explosions in Lebanon in 2024, during which thousands were wounded an many Lebanese people got killed, was a zionist supply chain attack
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The pager explosions in Lebanon in 2024, during which thousands were wounded an many Lebanese people got killed, was a zionist supply chain attack
What and who do you depend on in your projects? How fragile is that infrastructure?
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What and who do you depend on in your projects? How fragile is that infrastructure?
"There's no Claude, there's just other people's code", Leenaars offers a reality check
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"There's no Claude, there's just other people's code", Leenaars offers a reality check
These models are ingesting everything and anything, indiscriminately. They're over-eating
At a certain point they'll be ingesting their own excrement & barfing that up, suggests Leenaars
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These models are ingesting everything and anything, indiscriminately. They're over-eating
At a certain point they'll be ingesting their own excrement & barfing that up, suggests Leenaars
@onrust I'd argue they already are: AI summaries in search engines summarize SEO-optimized slop...
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These models are ingesting everything and anything, indiscriminately. They're over-eating
At a certain point they'll be ingesting their own excrement & barfing that up, suggests Leenaars
In a time of war, the free & open source infrastructure shouldn't build weapons!
Instead it should be used to defend communities, and should be funded as such, suggests Leenaars
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FOSDEM starting in a bit!
Some talks that could be interesting for workers:
31 Jan, 10:00
FOSS in times of war, scarcity and (adversarial) AI -> war always most hurts working peopleWe need to talk about war. And we need to talk about companies building bots that propose to rewrite our source code. And about the people behind both, and how we preserve what is great about FOSS while avoiding disruption. How do geopolitical conflicts on the one hand and the risk of bot-generated (adversarial) code on the other influence the global community working together on Free and Open Source software?
cc @techwerkers
@onrust @techwerkers ik heb vooral de security ruimte op het oog. Nog andere aanraders?
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@onrust @techwerkers ik heb vooral de security ruimte op het oog. Nog andere aanraders?
@Huubje deze morgenochtend lijkt mij ook erg relevant, vanuit het arbeidsperspectief: https://fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event/L3BK7S-free-as-in-burned-out/
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P Pteryx the Puzzle Secretary shared this topic
