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When Conquistadors stole Aztec gold — which largely came in the form of cultural artifacts or religious items — they often melted it down into simple, crude even, gold bars for easier transport:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/gold-bar-once-belonged-aztec-emperor-moctezuma-180973959/

After all, they were not interested in the cultural and religious significance of these items. They just wanted the gold, which they could easily sell to others.

By reducing it to the raw material they destroyed the cultural and historical context. We are all poorer for it.

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Spanish Conquistadors Stole This Gold Bar From Aztec Emperor Moctezuma's Trove

Forces led by Hernán Cortés dropped the looted treasure during a hasty retreat from the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan in June 1520
Theresa Machemer (Smithsonian Magazine)
This entry was edited (1 year ago)
Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦
Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦  
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I think it is fair to say that such destruction of cultural artifacts, such reduction of items that had meaning and significance to people is a type of violence in and of itself, regardless of how these items were acquired.

But of course those who created these works of art and these religious items in the first place, and others for whom they had significance — maybe they were family heirlooms? — were never asked for consent.

Conquistadors took it all because nobody could stop them.

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This entry was edited (1 year ago)
Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦
Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦  
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When #AI techbros train their #LLMs on people's works, these works are similarly removed from their individual context, "melted down" into the raw material — training data. Just disembodied words and phrases and sentences for the model to parrot later.

Historical and cultural and social context of these works is destroyed, melted away.

And it also happens without consent.
And it also happens on a gigantic scale.
And it also happens because techbros can sell the output.

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#AI #llms
This entry was edited (1 year ago)
Skele8tron
Skele8tron  
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There has to be a way to poison those datasets, to turn them worthless. Next gen monkeywrenching.
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