As AI becomes more prevalent, a vast underclass of people training the machines is emerging worldwide. Josh Dzieza reports in depth for The Verge.

There are people classifying the emotional content of TikTok videos, new variants of email spam, and the precise sexual provocativeness of online ads. Others are looking at credit-card transactions and figuring out what sort of purchase they relate to or checking e-commerce recommendations and deciding whether that shirt is really something you might like after buying that other shirt. Humans are correcting customer-service chatbots, listening to Alexa requests, and categorizing the emotions of people on video calls. They are labeling food so that smart refrigerators don’t get confused by new packaging, checking automated security cameras before sounding alarms, and identifying corn for baffled autonomous tractors.

AI Is a Lot of Work

Not to brag but I just selected the perfect size container for Julie’s leftover chili.

I saw this sign 10 years ago today in a barbershop window in Coronado.

Casey Newton at Platformer: How the Kids Online Safety Act puts us all at risk

Happy Independence Day to all of my American friends, and may you finish the day with the same number of fingers with which you began it.

RIP Frank Field, a local New York TV weatherman who was a fixture of the television landscape when I was a kid in the 70s. He was 100 years old.

Field, who died Saturday, was an evangelist for the Heimlich maneuver, which saved his life in 1985.

He was dining at a Manhattan restaurant with the CBS sportscaster Warner Wolf when a piece of roast beef became lodged in Dr. Field’s throat. “There was no pain,” he later told The New York Times. “I tried to swallow and could not. I tried to cough. I was perfectly calm, until I realized I couldn’t breathe.” He was also unable to speak to Mr. Wolf to convey his distress.

“So I pointed to my throat and stood up, to give him access,” Dr. Field said. “He did it the first time, and it didn’t work. I thought: ‘My God! It doesn’t work. If I fell unconscious, I wouldn’t make the 11 o’clock news.'”

When Mr. Wolf tried again, he expelled the meat.

“Warner had never done it,” Dr. Field said, “but he had seen me demonstrate it on television.”

Frank Field, Who Brought Expertise to TV Weathercasting, Dies at 100 (NYTimes / Richard Goldstein)

President Eisenhower signed the National Highway Act, “the largest infrastructure project in American history,” July 3, 1956—68 years ago today. The hosts of the This Day in Esoteric Political History podcast “are joined by Eddie Alterman, longtime editor of Car & Driver magazine, to discuss how the highway network reshaped the country and changed car culture.”

This Day in Esoteric Political History: “The Great American Road Trip”

I had thought the end of “Endeavour” might take place immediately prior to the first season of “Inspector Morse.” But then I thought that was wrong of me, because Shaun Evans is so much younger than John Thaw was.

Or not. Today I learned Thaw was 45 at the beginning of “Morse,” and Evans is 43.

Lovely, sad ending to “Endeavour.”

We have watched four episodes of “Silo,” and so far, I would absolutely live there. Friendly people, everyone dresses comfortably, earth tones and sweaters. Plenty of stairs for aerobic exercise. No computers more complicated than MS-DOS 5. Don’t have to worry about sunscreen. No mosquitoes.

Currently reading: Angels Flight by Michael Connelly 📚

Finished reading: Blood Work by Michael Connelly. Not his best, but very good nonetheless. This is the sixth Connelly novel I’ve read since January; I read his first several years ago. I think I’ll start the next one right now. 📚

Supermarket speedrun: 40m22s.

That moment when you're finishing up a big project that's the last thing you need to do before a four-day weekend and your mouse decides it's angry at the Mac and they're not talking anymore.

Amazon Basics dog-poop bags come with documentation. Do people really need documentation to figure out how to work dog-poop bags?

The documentation is titled “Quick Start Guide,” suggesting that there is an in-depth manual available.

I enjoy Star Trek more when I’m able to not try to make it make sense.

I just completed a major project that I’ve been working on for weeks, and now I have to do it again for another project, also due today. And yet my brain is all used up from finishing the first project.

I’m not complaining. This is the definition of a privileged person’s problem. My work is in demand. But—

Oh, who am I kidding? I am absolutely complaining.

The dog and I saw this in front of a neighbor’s house this morning. You can tell they mean it.

Are you making changes to stay successful in your career as AI transforms workplaces?

Getting new training?

Sharpening some skills while letting others fall away?

Changing careers entirely?

How do you see AI changing your job?

This is for an article I’m writing.

Existential threats from AI aren’t on my list of things to worry about. That the super-rich and powerful are concerned is an indication that they’ve lost touch with reality.

That’s not what happened with Twitter. The Twitter acquisition was unique. I’ve never seen or heard of a situation where somebody was forced to acquire a company against his will.

As a business/technology journalist, I’ve covered many M&A deals. Often, they start hostile, then both parties reach a deal and it ends quietly.

Russia was just like that, but with tanks.

Ian Welsh predicts that the US will be a big loser of the Ukraine war, ending the US global hegemony. The war demonstrates that countries can successfully defy the US. China will support defiant nations against US sanctions.

Welsh makes a credible case. I’m insufficiently informed to have my own opinion.

Welsh’s article went up yesterday, before the latest shenanigans.

Yes, the war is going badly for Russia, and was even when Welsh posted. That does not undercut Welsh’s arguments.

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that an American billionaire, in possession of sufficient fortune, must be in want of a Supreme Court justice.” (Alexandra Petri / The Washington Post)