What we should know about Algorithms

[Member Robin]

This is an eye opener for people not familiar with the pitfalls of AI.

And it’s also about how these algorithms enslave people to capitalism. How they threaten our freedom and the Human Rights.

Be aware: This is not science fiction, not George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, happening in a book merely. This is our recent reality.

The film is available with subtitles for all languages google can translate (you’ll have to generate the translations yourself, see steps below). French and German spectators can have the original tone in their language:

French version:
https://arteptweb-a.akamaihd.net/am/ptweb/101000/101900/101914-000-A_SQ_0_VF_07617892_MP4-2200_AMM-PTWEB-80884100475100_21YCLRD1Mx.mp4

German version:
https://arte-ard-mediathek.akamaized.net/am/mp4/101000/101900/101914-000-A_SQ_1_VOA_07638381_MP4-2200_AMM-IPTV-ARD_21qiGRgLsH.mp4

All other languages:
Subtitles: (Are to be created for English or any other language, based on the German language version, the subs have been created by NDR, while the film was created by ARTE.)

1.) Fetch the base subtitles file:

Open a console window (e.g. roxterm)

$ wget 'https://api.ardmediathek.de/player-service/subtitle/ebutt/urn:ard:subtitle:d88253941618ee2c'

2.) Install the conversion software (just a few kb)

$ sudo apt-get update

$ sudo apt-get install python3-ttconv translate-shell

3.) Convert and strip the subtitle file so it can be used on antiX:

$ ttconv convert --itype TTML --otype SRT -i 'urn:ard:subtitle:d88253941618ee2c' -o 'subtitle_de.srt'

$ sed 's/^<..*>\(..*\)<..*>$/\1/' 'subtitle_de.srt' > 'subtitle_stripped_de.srt'

$ echo "" >> 'subtitle_stripped_de.srt'

4.) Let it get translated by online translation services:

In the following command please replace the leading variable lang=en to the language in which you want to have the subtitles translated, e.g. lang=pt-BR (sic!) or lang=it or lang=ja or whatever. Please be patient, while the translating process is running, it will not show any messages on console for a long time. Don’t care for all the questions “Did you mean …?” showing up occasionally. (Hint: You might want to check the translations of the respective strings manually in the output file once it has finished, but usually it should translate fine anyway, so no real need for this time consuming checking task unless you really want to do it. Just use the file for watching the video instead.)

The translation process will take ~ 45 min, which is caused by the needed rest time not to exhaust the online service. (You may want to vary the sleep time within the command for either try to speeding it up to e.g. sleep 1.3 or sleep 1, even sleep 0.5, or reduce speed by setting it to e.g. sleep 5 or sleep 6 in case of trouble)

$ lang=en; string=""; entry=""; while read line; do if ! [[ "$line" =~ ^[[:digit:]][[:digit:]]:[[:digit:]][[:digit:]]:[[:digit:]][[:digit:]],[[:digit:]][[:digit:]][[:digit:]][[:blank:]]"-->"[[:blank:]][[:digit:]][[:digit:]]:[[:digit:]][[:digit:]]:[[:digit:]][[:digit:]],[[:digit:]][[:digit:]][[:digit:]]$ ]]; then if [[ "$line" == "" ]]; then entry=false; sleep 2; trans -s de -t $lang -b --show-original n --show-languages n --show-original-dictionary n --show-dictionary n --show-alternatives n --show-prompt-message n --show-original-phonetics n --show-translation-phonetics n --show-translation y --no-ansi --no-browser --no-view -- "$string"; echo ""; elif [[ "$line" =~ ^[[:digit:]] ]]; then echo "$line"; else if $entry; then string="$string $line"; fi; fi; else entry=true; string=""; echo "$line"; fi; done < subtitle_stripped_de.srt > $lang.srt

5.) While translation is in progress, open another console window (roxterm) and fetch the video from French/German ARTE TV station streaming server:

$ wget 'https://arte-ard-mediathek.akamaized.net/am/mp4/101000/101900/101914-000-A_SQ_1_VOA_07638381_MP4-2200_AMM-IPTV-ARD_21qiGRgLsH.mp4'

(ARD download, available until 10.7.2023, meaning July, not October)

Alternative download source in case the one above won’t work in your place:

$ wget 'https://arteptweb-a.akamaihd.net/am/ptweb/101000/101900/101914-000-A_SQ_0_VOA_07617884_MP4-2200_AMM-PTWEB-80884100475100_21YCARD1Jh.mp4'

(not sure how long the alternative download provided by ARTE directly will stay available)

You need only to download one of the video files, either from ARD or from ARTE. You may use also the French version video file from the introduction above instead, but then the time position of the spoken words won’t match precisely the translated subtitles time position.

After both, translation and video file download has finished:

6.) Play the video along with the subtitles:

$ mpv --sub-file="$lang.srt" '101914-000-A_SQ_1_VOA_07638381_MP4-2200_AMM-IPTV-ARD_21qiGRgLsH.mp4'

Watch and listen (read) carefully, and think about what all this means…

Robin

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P.S.: Please be aware the line ends of the commands above are hidden by the website sometimes. Then there is an (invisible) scrollbar below them. You need to copy the full lines always to make the command work. The huge translation command is a single line for entering into command line also, even when displayed with many line breaks here.

Windows is like a submarine. Open a window and serious problems will start.

[Member Xunzi_23]

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Thanks Robin,
in UK, US, France Germany and surely many other countrys so called AI is behind many arrests and invasive searches, of
persons with non white skin.

I am very critical of its usage, it seems in many cases trained by those from right and loving conspiracy and faschism.
Plus those wishing total world dominance by usa.

Many of the used products are illegaly purchased. See recent Guardian articles on the subject.

[Member olsztyn]

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Robin wrote:

This is an eye opener for people not familiar with the pitfalls of AI.
And it’s also about how these algorithms enslave people to capitalism. How they threaten our freedom and the Human Rights.

AI algorithms are designed for the benefit of those in control. Those who have and are in power, such as large corporations and governments, vs. those who have not and exist in the role of workforce for the benefit of the former… The role and need of workforce is being gradually diminished by introduction of automation and now AI.
Starting with the fall of any serious competition in 1989 the trend is inevitable: To those who have will be added. To those who have not, even that what they have will be taken away…

Live antiX Boot Options (Previously posted by Xecure):
https://antixlinuxfan.miraheze.org/wiki/Table_of_antiX_Boot_Parameters

[Member blur13]

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If anyone creates an English subtitle file please upload it here.

[Member marcelocripe]

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Many thanks for this excellent tutorial.

I will download the video and the subtitle as soon as possible, then I will use the “magic” command to translate the subtitle.

– – – – –

Muito obrigado por este excelente tutorial.

Eu vou baixar o vídeo e a legenda assim que for possível, em seguida irei utilizar o comando “mágico” para a tradução da legenda.

[Member sybok]

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Did not watch it yet but the discussion reminds me of an older post (by me) https://www.antixforum.com/forums/topic/algorithmic-freedom/#post-76464

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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I don’t personally need anything “taking over” my brain; as far as “artificial intelligence” the stuff in Emacs is as far as I’m willing to go; that stuff doesn’t appear to call Uncle Sam or anyone else, to the best of my knowledge, but I don’t play with it much either, so I’m not worried.

--
Brian Masinick

[Member Robin]

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sybok wrote:

discussion reminds me of an older post (by me)

Yes, sybok, you are true. But it’s a way broader approach here, a different aspect of these algorithms covered by this film. It’s not about censorship here.

Brian Masinick wrote:

I don’t personally need anything “taking over” my brain; […] but I don’t play with it much either, so I’m not worried.

Brian, thats a common misconception. The film is in the first place not about whether AI could take over your brains (which is a real danger only for young people not trained already to recognise the difference between their own thinking and a thinking indoctrinated by a mainstraming bubble mechanism provided e.g. by so called „social” media.) It is about how other people, the society, companies, governments etc. will see and treat you, once they start delegating the power of decision on AI as they do in many countries meanwhile. It’s about whether you still get help when you need it, or whether you get a job, money, or whether or not your children are accepted for study at a university (even when they have a perfectly fine A-levels suma cum laude.), whether police protects you against an objective threat or not. It’s about your everyday life.

And it’ts about these algorithms can’t be free of prejustice, by design, since they merely learn from data provided. Algorithms are NOT objective, in spite of what their lobbying supporters tell us. Don’t read me wrong: Algorithms are a really great research field. But they are not ready by far for productive employment in an environment outside of laboratory, deciding about people.

And in a free democratic society it is inacceptable to allow companies to keep these rules the decision makers follow secret, which decide about the individual fates of people of a state. This IS already fascism, poorly concealed behind capitalistic doctrines of trade secrets.

blur13 wrote:

If anyone creates an English subtitle file please upload it here.

I would, but all the texts need to be carefully proofread by an English native speaker before. A few of the subtitles are distracted from their original meaning, since some sentences are split into more than a single subtitle entry, causing to be misinterpreted by the automatic translation. Btw, the comparison between the original and the translation can easily be done either by two-way file comparison meld (sudo apt-get install meld) or by gaupol (sudo apt-get install gaupol gstreamer1.0-x), activate view→columns→translation checkbox in the latter. You’d have to check the stripped German .srt file against the translated .srt file.

Windows is like a submarine. Open a window and serious problems will start.

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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@Robin: I was speaking in jest when I said “take over my brain”; there is NO WAY that is going to happen, nor is there any way that “intelligence” of any kind, other than the intelligence, or lack thereof, of anyone here or elsewhere, is going to “take over”, but the lack of purposeful thought and action affects things every day.

I often see impulsive people make very poor decisions. I know: I’ve made a few impulsive decisions over the course of my lifetime, and I paid dearly for a few of them. Eventually, “even I” learned; some people either never learn or they’re so slow in learning that their entire lives are mired in the consequences of their impulsive decisions. If any “artificial intelligence” actually *could* be trusted, perhaps it could help such people.

Unfortunately, as anticapitalista points out, a number of the AI efforts are NOT in the best interests of anyone other than the extremely wealthy and powerful; perhaps there are individuals working at some of the companies doing this work that are not selfishly elite, but the fruits of their labor go in large percentages to those of influence and power, and I’m not going to argue further (one way or the other) about that; there is sufficient research and evidence to support whatever “case” anyone wants to make.

Can SOME AI be beneficial? Potentially yes. Are the commercial AI efforts beneficial? Sure; the more probing question is WHO do they benefit? The answers to that have already been mentioned.

--
Brian Masinick

[Member blur13]

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Access Denied
You don’t have permission to access “http://arte-ard-mediathek.akamaized.net/am/mp4/101000/101900/101914-000-A_SQ_1_VOA_07638381_MP4-2200_AMM-IPTV-ARD_21qiGRgLsH.mp4” on this server.

[Moderator caprea]

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blur13, the link you posted does not work here, too.
Delete the ” at the end.

Edit: I just tried with VPN, seems there’s no access from other countries.

• This reply was modified 2 weeks, 6 days ago by caprea.

[Member olsztyn]

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The French version works fine for me…

Live antiX Boot Options (Previously posted by Xecure):
https://antixlinuxfan.miraheze.org/wiki/Table_of_antiX_Boot_Parameters

[Member Robin]

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caprea wrote:

seems there’s no access from other countries.

olsztyn wrote:

The French version works fine for me…

Unfortunately there don’t seem to exist French subtitles the translations could be derived from.

But there is an alternative download link for the German version the subtitles match to:
https://arteptweb-a.akamaihd.net/am/ptweb/101000/101900/101914-000-A_SQ_0_VOA_07617884_MP4-2200_AMM-PTWEB-80884100475100_21YCARD1Jh.mp4

For some more versions, including links to lowres videos see:
https://mediathekviewweb.de/#query=Algorithmen%20-%20Die%20unberechenbare
You’ll have to hoover the mouse over one of the symbols in the column “Video” to get the download links.

All the lowres versions are fine to play on weak hardware. Check out what suits your needs best.

Some more French version lowres videos:
https://mediathekviewweb.de/#query=Algorithmes%20-%20Vers

And finally, the translated subtitles derived from the German subtitles file version can be used with the French versions of the film as well, even when the position in time of the overlays won’t match 100% the position of spoken words then. The result is still acceptable.

Windows is like a submarine. Open a window and serious problems will start.

[Member techore]

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Xunzi_23 wrote:

Plus those wishing total world dominance by usa.

I don’t understand this statement or it’s relevance. Please clarify.

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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techore wrote:

Xunzi_23 wrote:

Plus those wishing total world dominance by usa.

I don’t understand this statement or it’s relevance. Please clarify.

I live in the USA and I’m glad to live here, but if I thought anyone was exerting too much dominance (which might happen in some cases), neither the majority of people here, or anywhere else, are interested in world domination. Every nation in the history of the world that has attempted “domination” has then faced a major loss and demise. I for one don’t want to see that in my country or anyone else’s country for that matter.

Sharing, caring, and being helpful are traits that the people around me prefer to exhibit. Those that don’t are commonly known as either “jerks”, “idiots” or some expletive deleted terms. They’re not appreciated here any more than they are anywhere else in the world and they certainly don’t represent my friends in this forum who are also from the USA, nor do they represent the majority of people anywhere.

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Brian Masinick

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