What are your thoughts on alternatives to WhatsApp, which I’m thinking of ditching, now that Zuckerberg has shoehorned Meta Ai into it.

Summary Table

https://spacetelescopelive.org/webb?obsId=01KY36JXAQYGXVW6770NBPBKHC

The story below got me interested.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2026-07-30/neptunes-bizarre-moon-system-had-violent-formation-jwst-finds/106976608

About 9 minutes of what I feel, maybe a valid idea:    that Ai does not need to be given to us,  via a large company, with us paying for the privilege, alternately, run your own Ai at home on any old machine, and do not interface with Musk or anyone else...

Comments please.

46 minutes, well worth the time...

... an eye opener for me, but in the end, no matter how convincing and persuasive the Ai, I don't think it'll replicate the biology of it all...

LINK

I subscribe to this guy and myself noticed he just completely disappeared

The discussion gave me hope in the Hominid vs Ai argument.

I've always said that there'll always be someone like me, who knows where the Ai is plugged in and how to turn off the power to it. Ergo, we hominids are ultimately safe.

a definition:

Data poisoning is a cyberattack in which malicious actors deliberately tamper with the training datasets of an AI or machine learning model. By injecting misleading, biased, or corrupt data, hackers manipulate the model’s learning process to cause incorrect predictions, embed hidden backdoors, or degrade overall performance post-deployment.

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A nice example of this, is that of a guy who took all of his 22,000 songs in his music library and made copies of them with Homer Simpson's voice in place of the original song's vocals. All the meta data and titles etc, are the same. He then uploaded these to many multiple places on the web and Ai is presumably scraping them to include them it's "knowledge".

Effectively this is "Noise", the user when accessing Ai, may ask for a Madonna song and then get one with Homer singing, the user might then not use that avenue again. As there are many folk doing this kind of thing across that range of data types, the Ai companies are going to have to devote time and resources to cleaning up their ill gotten gains in order to make out like bandits as they have been doing. 

Long term, this approach may not be consequential to the big Ai companies.

But like the guys who started publishing pamphlets in a small way, back when the printing press was invented and when they were up against the established Religious and Elite knowledge hoarders, it's a small start and the birth of a democratic process.

Devices used across Australia that are potentially vulnerable to the bluetooth issue:

Now to find the App

• NSW — Axon body-worn cameras and T7 model tasers
• VIC — Axon body-worn cameras and T7 model tasers
• Qld — Axon body-worn cameras and T10 model tasers
• WA — Axon body-worn cameras and T7 model tasers
• Tas — Planning to trial Axon T10 model tasers
• NT — Axon body-worn cameras
• SA — SAPOL say their new T10 models are not affected as they will not be bluetooth-integrated with other tech
• Australian Federal Police (including ACT Policing) — Axon T7 model tasers

• Thousands of police officers have been told to disable the bluetooth on their Axon body-worn cameras during raids and undercover jobs to avoid being detected and tracked, after Four Corners exposed a security flaw with the devices.

  Four Corners revealed on Monday that Axon-branded tasers and body-worn cameras, used by police in every state and territory, could inadvertently reveal the real-time locations of officers who were undercover or in tactical units.

  On Monday night, within minutes of the Four Corners episode concluding, Victoria Police issued an urgent safety alert to its members, advising them to take precautionary measures while it conducted a risk assessment of the issue.

  The high-risk safety alert sent to 15,000 officers warned that the security flaw in bluetooth-enabled policing equipment could have "severe" consequences for them on the front line.

  The devices, which do not have the same built-in privacy settings included in most mobile phones, can be detected and tracked with a simple phone app

• https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-08/police-advised-turn-bodycams-to-flight-mode-over-security-flaw/106654330

Youse, who grok facebook, may choose to be alarmed,  or not.

But I thought I’d post this as a warning.

Michael and Susan Dell AP.

Not sure how to extract a video from Linkedin so here's the link to Betsy Tong who is apparently an international bestseller.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/betsytong_typical-ai-ceo-i-pledge-allegiance-to-human-ugcPost-7384197471666802688-HqGM?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAaQN14B-03P7Gl1y7OP1Fp2FlnhExbPQSE

Typical AI CEO: I pledge allegiance to human safety.
When we aren’t looking, guts the safety team.

AI CEO Sam Altman (2024):
“We’re allocating 20% of compute resources to safety.”

Fast forward to 2025.
CEO: Just kidding.

The team preventing ChatGPT from going rogue disbanded.
Their budget slashed to under 1% of resources.

Who is protecting people?
No one left guarding our data or defending us if AI does harm.

This is the AI version of:

↳ Boeing cutting quality inspectors → planes crashed
↳ Theranos hiding product failures → fake blood tests
↳ Wells Fargo setting up fake accounts → millions scammed

What happens when failure itself starts learning?
AI is much more dangerous:

When Boeing's planes crash, fleet grounded.
Theranos, shut down and its founder jailed.
When Wells Fargo commits fraud, there are laws.

When AI fails, it just keeps running.

I’ve sat in exec reviews when safety became ‘optional.’
Those who lasted were ones who built trust before the crisis, not after.

AI is not just training models anymore.
It’s training risk.

Every era has its Boeing moment.

AI’s are just harder to see.
It’s invisible until the damage is done:

↳ Your kid's mind twisted by a chatbot
↳ A scammer who sounds exactly like you
↳ Your face in videos you never made

What is happening today:

↳ 14-year-old encouraged by chatbot into suicide
↳ AI clones a girl so well her parents can't tell
↳ An autonomous taxi drags man to death

AI tools like ChatGPT are cheap for a reason.
Your drafts and daily confessions fuel model training.

And unless you're 100% off-grid,
your life and business is already in the data.

We're not the customer.
We're the raw material.

AI doesn't replace human judgment.
It scales good or bad calls.

1️⃣ Audit the Proof, Not the Pitch
Don’t ask vendors if they have “responsible AI.”
Ask for incident logs, model lineage, and bias audits.
If they can’t show them, they’re not ready for enterprise risk.

2️⃣ Make Safety a KPI
Treat vendor safety the way finance treats solvency.
If you wouldn’t buy from a company with unaudited books,
Don’t bring one on board with unaudited AI.

3️⃣ Attach Consequence to Contract
Bake accountability into procurement:
Failure thresholds, Remediation timelines
Penalties triggers for non-compliance

4️⃣ Create a Chain of Custody for Judgment
Document how you evaluated vendor claims.
That paper trail becomes your defense.

You can't opt out completely.
But you can stop feeding it everything.

Don't fear AI. Really!!!!!

2. ZUNE

maybe later.  LINK

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The Death of Coding Jobs: How AI, No-Code, and Corporate Greed Are Killing the Industry

For the last two decades, the promise of a lucrative career in coding has been drilled into our heads.

“Learn to code,” they said. “It’s the skill of the future,” they insisted.

Well, the future is here — and coding jobs are disappearing faster than an intern after a critical server crash.

AI is writing code better and faster than humans. No-code tools are making entire teams redundant. Tech giants are slashing engineering jobs, and junior developers are left stranded in an oversaturated job market with nowhere to go.

If you’re still clinging to the dream that software development is a guaranteed career path, it’s time for a brutal wake-up call. The golden age of coding is over.

AI is Eating Software Development Alive

Let’s talk about the biggest disruptor first — AI.

Remember when developers used to joke that AI would never replace them because “writing code is too complex”? Yeah, about that…

GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude, and other AI-assisted tools have already started replacing entire engineering teams. One senior developer with AI assistance can now do the work of three or four mid-level engineers.Why hire an entire team when one AI-empowered dev can handle it?

And it’s not just startups and bootstrapped businesses making the switch. Even major corporations are adopting AI-first development strategies. A recent Forbes report highlights how companies are cutting back on traditional developers and focusing on AI-assisted workflows instead.

It’s simple economics: fewer developers mean lower costs, and AI is only getting better at replacing human coders.

If you’re still spending hours writing boilerplate code, debugging basic functions, or manually refactoring, you’re already obsolete.

No-Code is Making Developers Irrelevant
If AI wasn’t bad enough, let’s talk about no-code and low-code tools.

For years, developers scoffed at no-code platforms. “They’re just toys,” they said. “You can’t build real applications with them.”

Fast forward to today, and entire startups are running their businesses on platforms like Webflow, Bubble, and Retool. Companies no longer need developers to build web apps, automate business processes, or even manage data pipelines.

According to recent news, by 2026, 80% of new software will be built using no-code tools.

That’s not speculation—that’s a death sentence for traditional development jobs.

Instead of hiring developers, businesses are empowering non-technical employees to create their own software solutions. It’s faster, cheaper, and eliminates the need to deal with expensive engineering teams.

And for the developers who still have jobs? They’re no longer writing complex applications—they’re maintaining and integrating no-code tools. The role of “software engineer” is rapidly shifting from “creator” to “overseer.”

Junior Developers Are the First to Go
If you’re a junior developer trying to break into the industry, I’ve got bad news for you. The ladder has been pulled up, and you’re left standing at the bottom.

Entry-level coding jobs used to be a stepping stone into the industry. Juniors would start with simple bug fixes, low-priority feature development, and boilerplate coding.

Now? AI does all of that instantly.

The market is flooded with fresh CS grads and bootcamp alumni, but the demand for junior developers is vanishing. A recent Stack Overflow survey revealed that companies are prioritizing mid- and senior-level hires—because with AI, they don’t need juniors anymore.

And when junior developers can’t get jobs, the entire talent pipeline collapses. If new devs can’t get hired, where will the next generation of senior engineers come from?

Spoiler: they won’t.

Tech Layoffs Prove That Developers Are Disposable
Still think software engineering is a safe career? Ask the thousands of developers who were laid off in the past year.

Tech giants like Google, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft have been slashing engineering jobs at record rates. And it’s not because they’re going bankrupt—these companies are more profitable than ever.

Now companies are “right-sizing” their teams, realizing they don’t need massive engineering departments anymore. AI, automation, and efficiency-focused strategies are making software teams smaller than ever.

The era of “hire as many engineers as possible” is dead.

The companies that are hiring aren’t looking for traditional coders anymore. They want AI engineers, automation specialists, and people who can work beyond just writing code.

The Future of Coding: Adapt or Disappear
Here’s the hard truth: coding alone won’t save you.

If you’re still thinking of yourself as just a “developer,” you’re in trouble. Writing code is no longer the core value proposition—it’s what you can do with that code that matters.

The survivors in this new era will be the ones who adapt.

If you’re a frontend dev, you’d better understand design, UX, and no-code tools like Webflow.

If you’re a backend dev, you’d better be learning AI, automation, and cloud infrastructure.

If you’re a junior dev, you’d better start leveraging AI tools like GitHub Copilot to work faster than everyone else.

The ones who thrive in this new world will embrace AI, not fear it. They’ll learn how to use no-code platforms instead of dismissing them. They’ll stop thinking of coding as a job and start thinking of it as a tool to solve business problems.

The old-school coding career is dying. The industry is changing. Adapt—or disappear.

https://medium.com/@WebdesignerDepot/the-death-of-coding-jobs-how-ai-no-code-and-corporate-greed-are-killing-the-industry-eafd2b781ada

We'll always have a few little corners, like we have here, but Ai Bots serving Ai Bots, means there'll be very few real people to talk to.

Mind you, I (and by extension people I know) have never used the internet to expand the number of people I know. Anathema.

But we were guilty of, generating page views for properties we had an interest in, this before the term Bots was extant...

His buddies would have appreciated it.

Would be curios to know where their water is coming from.

Looked on Fox News but couldn't find any info however my ABC enlightened me somewhat 👍

...Cloudflare isn’t the first to say that Perplexity violates the spirit if not the letter of the norm. Last year, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman told the Verge that stopping Perplexity—and two other AI engines from Microsoft and Anthropic—was a real pain in the ass.” Huffman went on to say: “We’ve had Microsoft, Anthropic, and Perplexity act as though all of the content on the internet is free for them to use. That’s their real position.”...

Well we knew it was coming.

So I wonder what the position is, for folk like me, who, though I am aware that all my online info is available, to Microsoft, Anthropic, and Perplexity, and others, have terabytes of off line data, that whilst is not on any internet connected site or platform, is never the less on storage connected to my LAN with consumer grade security.

Not that any one is interested in my stuff, but the Ai seems to operate from the position of "all ur data is mine" so they'll take it if they can get it, I guess the data needs to be in an unconnected  - no electricity state.

Though  t'were it me, I woulda sent a 30ft scale model, of a fully rigged Spanish Galleon.

Let the aliens ponder the anachronisms inherent In that! ....

now