Post Av022LM2dK26mNzP6W by futurebird@sauropods.win
(DIR) More posts by futurebird@sauropods.win
(DIR) Post #AuzzsHIQfQIZOAN9Tk by alexwild@mastodon.online
2025-06-10T20:49:36Z
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Controversy brewing in the iNaturalist community over the nonprofit's partnership with Google to make generative-AI text content.#GenerativeAI #iNaturalist https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/what-is-this-inaturalist-and-generative-ai/66140
(DIR) Post #AuzzvvB8qEkpx0hWUq by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-06-10T20:51:43Z
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@alexwild I shall calmly read but I do not like how this SOUNDS. @xris CHRIS you seeing this jumpoff?
(DIR) Post #Av004ke7N3wztHSt6W by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-06-10T20:53:19Z
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@alexwild iNaturalist is the last big website where I can know the ant photos are real. :( And the IDs are so correct I haven't found an error and I love finding errors.I don't think this would touch the photos but... WHY. WHY.
(DIR) Post #Av00xGHzwEarfT6wt6 by alexwild@mastodon.online
2025-06-10T21:03:08Z
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@futurebird The described use seems targeted to resolve a recurring shortcoming of the site, and wouldn't touch the images. But that they seemed oblivious to how a group of nature nerds might react to a sudden partnership with the tech death star? Does not bode well for the organization.
(DIR) Post #Av022LM2dK26mNzP6W by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-06-10T21:15:17Z
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@alexwild I have never thought "oh this site isn't fast enough with tentative IDs" It's working great and I like it. If anything from the other comments from the mite and silverfish people the IDs come in too quickly and this can cause mistakes. I'm not someone who thinks AI can never be used to do anything. It's very good at speech to text. But having watched the state of free information on insects go from "OK" to "unusable" on the rest of the web due to AI this just scares me.
(DIR) Post #Av02u7S0XjoHIMQFHM by r343l@freeradical.zone
2025-06-10T21:24:56Z
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@futurebird @alexwild Reading the linked thread (well the first 7 comments or so) it seems like there's a use case for machine learning based language models but bringing GOOGLE of all companies in makes one expect the "quality" highlighted in google search AI results and, well, that seems like an association you'd want to avoid at all costs.
(DIR) Post #Av031LbOKLVfDCG46S by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-06-10T21:26:18Z
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@r343l @alexwild My trust is deeply shaken and I am not taking this well.
(DIR) Post #Av03VXvf3o288A8gb2 by ClimateJenny@biodiversity.social
2025-06-10T21:31:44Z
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@futurebird @r343l @alexwild I’m not taking this well either.
(DIR) Post #Av06cQpS9ltc02D5kG by xris@ecoevo.social
2025-06-10T22:06:33Z
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@futurebird @alexwild First I've heard. The thread is only 5 hours old.It's a Google announcement that is Google announced that iNaturalist is one of "20 organizations joining the newest Google.org Accelerator: Generative AI cohort."https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/google-org/generative-ai-accelerator-cohort-2025/
(DIR) Post #Av09mBtKqdauQkN4Km by kellyromanych@mastodon.social
2025-06-10T22:13:06Z
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@ClimateJenny @futurebird @r343l @alexwild Agreed. I only saw this because Alex posted. My pop-ups only show donation asks and a job opening for a mobile developer.
(DIR) Post #Av09mCkVew835fFXDU by xris@ecoevo.social
2025-06-10T22:23:14Z
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@kellyromanych @ClimateJenny @futurebird @r343l @alexwild I look forward to seeing what iNat says about it when they publish their promised blog post.That said, I just added this to the top of my iNat profile:I DO NOT CONSENT to any of my iNat content being used Google in any way, for any purpose, EVEN to "benefit" iNaturalist. #iNaturalist #iNaturalistWhy
(DIR) Post #Av0KNRLHMfI0bdqGlk by kellyromanych@mastodon.social
2025-06-10T22:39:52Z
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@xris @ClimateJenny @futurebird @r343l @alexwild I'm going to do the same
(DIR) Post #Av0KNSYmpvgkNpAZSi by adrake@sfba.social
2025-06-10T23:25:22Z
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@kellyromanych @xris @ClimateJenny @futurebird @r343l @alexwild note that if you have your contributions set to a Creative Commons license that doesn't prohibit derivatives and commercial use, you've already granted them (and everyone else) irrevocable permission to do pretty much whatever they want with them.You can change the license field, but that doesn't have any legal effect on anyone who accessed your contributions under the original license. The best you can do is change the license for new contributions (if any) going forward and hope that courts decide that AI stuff doesn't get a total exemption from copyright laws.
(DIR) Post #Av0KNTOtiBN8zRYBge by rspfau@ecoevo.social
2025-06-11T00:35:13Z
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@adrake @kellyromanych @xris @ClimateJenny @futurebird @r343l @alexwild Please don't change your observation licenses. It will harm those of use who use your invaluable iNaturalist observations for research. And it will do nothing to prevent anyone from using your text in an AI capacity.
(DIR) Post #Av0KPEPMQNVb4Rbb2e by ClimateJenny@biodiversity.social
2025-06-11T00:08:57Z
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@adrake @kellyromanych @xris @futurebird @r343l @alexwild Gonna do that. Wondering if it’s possible to change the Creative Commons license in bulk on my old observations. I was also wondering whether “with attribution” CC license helps at all.
(DIR) Post #Av0KPF2i44z52U11NI by ClimateJenny@biodiversity.social
2025-06-11T00:20:55Z
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@adrake @kellyromanych @xris @futurebird @r343l @alexwild Short answer on changing the CC license on old observations is yes, there’s a checkbox for that. But it raises another question. If you (ahem, theoretically) lock down your account by retaining copyright, you are probably also cutting off your data from @gbif — which is a terrible outcome that diminishes the scientific value of your contributions.
(DIR) Post #Av0sz9pDjVlRXijB9k by lufthans@mastodon.social
2025-06-11T07:08:31Z
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@futurebird @alexwild We had an Australian speaker in for a presentation, speech to text was entertaining :)Glad we had it as the speaker wanted the talk to be accessible, but there were definitely some deviations from what was said
(DIR) Post #Av9lRuFveCbYRX3bii by xris@ecoevo.social
2025-06-13T19:48:31Z
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I signed up for their Q&A. I have questions:What is Google providing?What is Google taking?At any point - in transfer, at rest, processing, etc. - will Google have a copy of iNaturalist observations, photos, or any user-generated data?As a non-profit organization, how will iNaturalist maintain its independence and deny interference by Google?What is at risk if this goes badly?As an iNaturalist user, will I be able to opt out of participation, and deny any use of my date for this pilot?
(DIR) Post #Av9lRvPtKeAU2ij4t6 by argentum@mas.to
2025-06-13T20:15:37Z
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@xris where can you do that?
(DIR) Post #Av9lRwWfCxBBU0u05A by xris@ecoevo.social
2025-06-13T23:08:19Z
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@argentum At the end of their blog post:https://www.inaturalist.org/blog/113184-inaturalist-receives-grant-to-improve-species-suggestionsIs the link for the Q&A:https://inaturalist.typeform.com/to/W44CV9GC#iNaturalist