The Format #037
Educational theft, the future of splitting, AI vs democracy and how to get Retro.
Happy Friday!! 🌞
This week we’ll be looking at:
‘Stolen’ educational content en masse 🤯
A sustainable model for open source and public goods?
Actual Fake News
And the unfunded backbone of society
Let’s dive in…
Starting my first Onchain Business in 5 mins
This is an amazing deep dive into the Splits Protocol. The Splits team have created a smart contract that is able to split ‘incoming funds among recipients according to preset ownership percentages’.
This concept removes the need for trust and manual coordination in all sorts of different situations, it could be used for sharing revenues for an article, or spreading the profits for a project between all the people within a group.
The most interesting part is where they are heading next, using this simple concept to create the payment rails for a new type of company. The LLC 3.0? 👀
Massive E-Learning Platform Udemy Gave Teachers a Gen AI 'Opt-Out Window'. It's Already Over.
Deliberately difficult opt-out processes are unfortunately nothing new, but Udemy (an online course/e-learning platform) seems to have taken this a step further. In order to build their new generative AI programme they have automatically opted all educational course creators into their scheme.
These creators only had a 3 week opt-out period and now won’t be able to ‘change their preference’ for a whole year, plus if they had opted out, it seems like their visibility within the platform would be massively reduced.
There are all sorts of moral grey areas being explored here, but the rationale from Udemy is the most interesting part. They explained that when using content like this to train an AI model it is very expensive to remove or edit the data that is used, and this goes for almost all GenAI models, not just Udemy’s.
This raises MAJOR concerns for the future of customer’s data and their control over it…
Why Retroactive Public Goods Funding
Public goods, open-source software and research provide the backbone for so many technologies, companies and in many ways society at large, however there has been an age old struggle in effectively incentivising and monetising public goods.
This is where Retro Funding comes in, with the premise that “it’s easier to agree on what has been useful than to predict what will be useful”. You can learn a bit more about this type of funding and some of the valuable projects that it has already been used to fund here.
AI and the 2024 US Elections
With the US elections now just over a month away, it is still (and may always be) unclear as to the exact effect that the rise in genAI will have and whether it will significantly impact the outcome. What is clear, is that it is now easier than ever to mislead and influence using all sorts of AI-inspired campaigns (for example this Russian bot farm).
Major changes in the system are needed before we (the public) are able to trust what we read, see and hear.
Other articles we’ve found interesting this week…
Hacking Generative AI for Fun and Profit
Microsoft Copilot can now read your screen, “think” deeply, and speak aloud to you
Onboarding the AI workforce: How digital agents will redefine work itself
The WordPress vs WP Engine drama, explained
Making Ethereum alignment legible
That’s all for this week.
Have a great weekend, Dan and the OPENFORMAT team 👋🏽
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Image generated by Dall-E 2 using the prompt: “A vision of a peaceful world where all public goods are abundantly funded and social problems are eradicated. Imagine a harmonious city with cutting-edge infrastructure, tree-lined streets, pristine parks, and community centres. Modern, futuristic buildings blend with nature, with sustainable energy sources like wind turbines and solar panels integrated into the environment. People of diverse ages and backgrounds are seen enjoying life, engaging in learning, health, and cultural activities. The sky is clear, waterways are clean, and nature flourishes alongside human development, embodying balance, peace, and prosperity.”