Re: Blacklist

On Sun, 2026-11-01 at 09:41 -0500, Paul Mather wrote:
> Their Zendesk ticketing system may have been compromised

The "smarter" these AI platforms are, the more likely they are to
compromise themselves.

If the shoehorn is connected to the refrigerator and an online ordering
service, we shouldn't be surprised if the refrigerator ends up full of
new shoes.

There's without doubts something the networked AI just won't understand,
no matter how many safety rules we build in. It's not a living being, so
who knows, maybe it's like this: it's hot in the summer, so people
probably like to keep their feet cool.

At present, the following scenario is certainly even more likely:

If companies use such a platform for their customer support to avoid
having to hire customer service representatives or pay taxes to the
community, why would they bother to hire enough responsible staff to
keep an eye on things? No one will notice if even the simplest attack
succeeds. The customers, or in this case, the victims, who aren't
customers at all, will certainly speak up if something unpleasant
happens.

For CEOs, compliance guidelines are something like environmental
awareness, they much rather spend twice as much money on appearances
than on complying with regulations or raising awareness of any kind.
They save money by becoming increasingly antisocial, and they don't want
to waste time on tedious work when they can instead fund those
appearances with the savings they make by being antisocial.

Matthias Apitz’s signature mentions the German government's policies,
the example he cites, military service, does not affect the old geezers
themselves, any more than they are affected by cuts to social benefits,
and even if they were ever affected by something themselves, such as the
issue of surrogacy, they simply ignore the rules and get away with it,
as in the cases of Streeck and Spahn. The real weakness in the systems
isn't computer problems, but flaws in the social welfare systems that
have created a divide, and instead of closing that divide, it has been
allowed to widen further and further. Computers are now being used to
optimize profits in an antisocial manner at the expense of the general
public, which, of course, has consequences. You can't just say that we
should think holistically but keep politics out of technical discourse.
Technology is a political issue.

We are only just beginning to feel the first, mild effects of paying the
price for decades of neglect.