axbom - digital ethics and compassionate design

A compose window on LinkedIn where Per has used variants of Unicode that display letters in illustrative fashions.

Don't fake bold and italic text with Unicode

I see more and more people faking bold and italic text on LinkedIn, and other social media, using Unicode characters. This is detrimental to accessibility, findability as well as predictability. Here is an example that you may or may not see depending on your client for viewing this: * Example of

Illustration of a politician at a podium, flanked by a big diaper and a half-naked bodybuilder drinking from a water bottle.

When Instagram was used for government communication

I'm confident that in the future it will be incomprehensible how elected politicians and governments decided that Instagram was the best place to make official statements about national security. What was Instagram? "Was it like a news channel?" "No, it was a photo sharing site." "For politicians?" "Well, not really.

Illustration of a person with a white cane and dark glasses holding a phone. The person says ”Oh no… they put the link in the

digital guidance

Why ”link in comments” is a bad idea for LinkedIn accessibility

When humans adapt to technology they add obstacles to access content.

A search engine input box with the phrase "search query !bang". Examples of bangs are randomly placed across the image.

digital guidance

DuckDuckGo gives you a privacy-first gateway to ALL the search engines – with a bang

DuckDuckGo can transfer your query to many thousands of different, subject-specific online search engines.

Line drawing of two people talking about a black box. Dialogue is described in post.

Automation will resist change

Some tasks that are being handed over to automation should arguably never have been tasks in the first place. Or should at least be revised regularly. But instead of questioning and reinventing tasks, many will now be automated to run perpetually. And with no human involved, why would someone then

digital exploitation

Deepfake porn using any person on Instagram

When we can no longer control where our face appears, what happens to our perception of identity?

The poster from the article on a billboard at a public transport station. A blue truck is speeding in the background.

tools

If a hammer was like AI…

Computations will “estimate” your aim, tend to miss the nail and push for a different design. Often unnoticeably.

digital ethics

The Elements of AI Ethics

Let's talk about harm caused by humans implementing AI.

digital ethics

Communication Model for AI-Powered Chatbots

Improve the design of AI tools for ease-of-use and trustworthiness.

digital ethics

Recent Links on AI and Digital Ethics

Free list of links to most of the stuff I read.

Illustration of hands working together to design a website

communication theory

Campaign: Energy-Efficient Website

Communicating the idea for a campaign directed at reducing energy use in digital applications – by paying more attention to file size in web development.

communication theory

Solution journalism in support of local environmental action in Ireland

Analysis of strengths and weaknesses in the Reach for Zero Campaign – and its ability to produce intended effects.

digital guidance

UX book authors through the ChatGPT looking-glass

Alice asked the CheshireChat, that was sitting in a PC in tree, “What road do I take?” The Chat asked, “Where do you want to go?” “I don’t know,” Alice answered. “Then,” said the Chat, “it really doesn’t matter, does it?" As we engage with our curious chats,

Illustration of newscast in a studio with a flat world map in the background. A red arrow points to Sudan.

digital guidance

The true size of Sudan

There is a missed opportunity for many media outlets when an African country is in the news. That opportunity has to do with size. To understand the challenge of air lifting people spread out in a country that is as big as Sudan, size references help. Here is an image

Headphones and a phone with a screen showing a generic podcast being played.

digital ethics

AI Hype Podcast Playlist

As I recommend podcast episodes related to the AI Hype I add them to a playlist I've created using Listen Notes. You can add this playlist to your podcast player to be notified whenever I add a recommended episode (from any show). And listen right away, without having to search

Astronaut talking on a vintage phone. Astronaut says “OK.” and gets the exact same response in the handset: “OK.”

digital ethics

When your voice runs away from home

Cloning a voice can today be done with less than a minute of recorded material. But are you aware of who is using your voice and for what?

How to stop AI harm. Pause development of GPT-5 for six months. Boom. You're welcome!

digital ethics

Why that open letter urging an AI development pause is problematic

Applied ethics isn't a checklist. It's about putting in the time and effort to understand risks to wellbeing with the express intent of avoiding, mitigating and monitoring harm. It makes sense then to assume that the open call to pause AI development is a good thing. Well, yes – but no.

Man on a rocket flying away from a burning earth.

digital exploitation

Ignoring harm to others when you yourself benefit

How harmful does something need to be for people to stop using it? How much do you yourself need to benefit to choose to ignore the harm done to others? When I left Facebook some years ago I emphasised how it was the (very late) acknowledgement of harm done to

Tired computer worker, energy running low. Computer says: This is not a paywall. Worker says: yes it is.

digital guidance

It's still a paywall without money

"You need to register to keep reading. It’s still free to read – this is not a paywall" I'm growing tired of this wording. Yes, it is a paywall - the only difference is the type of currency you are paying with. If it wasn't a paywall there would be

A picture of my socks. They are colorful, striped and do not match.

World Down Syndrome Day 2023

World Down Syndrome Day is celebrated on March 21 in recognition of the uniqueness of the triplication of the 21st chromosome.

Industry pollution illustration. Two pipes (GPT and LaMDA) spilling liquid into a sea filled with books.

Chatbot pollution

Humanity will never again get back the time spent on reading posts entirely made up by language models, much of it with fabulated content that is just not based in any fact or reason. Time spent consuming concocted content will amount to hundreds of thousands of centuries of human time

A sausage with a cape like a superhero hovers in the foreground. Behind it is the moon, half covered by the sausage.

digital ethics

AI responsibility in a hyped-up world

It's never more easy to get scammed than during an ongoing hype. It's March 2023 and we're in the middle of one. Rarely have I seen so many people embrace a brand new experimental solution with so little questioning. Right now, it's important to shake off any mass hypnosis and

digital lifestyle

Overpowering TikTok filters

In a race towards the post-reality era, TikTok are leading the way. Image filters are now at a stage where they trigger visceral emotions and have a very real impact on psychological wellbeing. They have effects on self-esteem, self-image and confidence. More than that, they provide a glimpse of a

Astronaut riding on a large pencil. The pencil has drawn a book using a continuous line. The pencil is labelled with "AI".

Goodbye Dickinson, hello AI-generated literature

The same celebrated AI tools that save time for one group of people will make things harder and prompt plenty of headaches for others. Among other things, the tools will force us to rethink how literary works are published. We are facing an avalanche of books written by machines, and

podcast

New podcast: Carefully with Per Axbom

I started my first podcast in the spring of 2007, not long before the first iPhone was released to the world. Back then the origin of the word podcast was more obvious, as dedicated producers and consumers of course listened on Apple's groundbreaking mp3 player, the iPod. After spending a

Speaking

Teaching

Consulting

Don't fake bold and italic text with Unicode

When Instagram was used for government communication

Why ”link in comments” is a bad idea for LinkedIn accessibility

DuckDuckGo gives you a privacy-first gateway to ALL the search engines – with a bang

Automation will resist change

Recent Links on AI and Digital Ethics

Campaign: Energy-Efficient Website

Solution journalism in support of local environmental action in Ireland

The true size of Sudan

AI Hype Podcast Playlist

Ignoring harm to others when you yourself benefit

It's still a paywall without money

World Down Syndrome Day 2023

Chatbot pollution

Overpowering TikTok filters

Goodbye Dickinson, hello AI-generated literature