A technology that should not exist.

“.. His conclusion is very stark: not just that an economy already at stall speed will fall into recession as both the data-center and wealth effects plateau, but that they’ll reverse, just as in the dot-com bubble did ..” @marketwatch.com www.marketwatch.com/story/the-ai...

Here’s the final part of our four part Better Offline case against generative AI. I walk you through how there’s not enough money in the world to pay for OpenAI’s $1 trillion 4-year burn, and how retail investors are at risk as a result. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/b... Linktr.ee/betteroffline

A lot of tech bros who were upset about pronouns want to confer them on their computers now that they’re dating

Please join me in congratulating Woman on her appointment

In “Extraction,” @triofrancos.bsky.social examines the politics of lithium mining in South America—and the complexities of the energy transition. @materialistjew.bsky.social spoke with her about imperfect trade-offs and the nature of democracy.

“Dr. Goodall’s discoveries as an ethologist revolutionized science, and she was a tireless advocate for the protection and restoration of our natural world,” a statement from the Jane Goodall Institute read.

“And in this respect, I’m coming to understand the AI hype machine as part and parcel of the fascistic project. That’s not an analogy. I’m not saying AI is similar to fascism, or parallel to it. I’m saying AI is fascism.”

whose electric grid us gonna suffer to power this? Whose water is gonna get sucked up for this? whose water and power *bills* are gonna go up for this? who's gonna feel the effects of this thing's pollution in their community?… www.wabe.org/1-million-sq...

“Not only is AI incapable of feeling pain, the desire to create AI is so clearly fueled by men who fear death, men desperate to escape and transcend the limitations of their bodies.”

(solemnly) You've had mail.

I don’t want AI companies to get a bailout. I said this to @smw.bsky.social of @ainowinstitute.bsky.social last week, and she said they already were being bailed out. We sat down to talk about it in our first full-form video interview here: youtu.be/WvN1wQ_CBlY?...

Journal of Curatorial Studies, special issue: Curating and AI arthist.net/archive/50732

Reminder: We are thrilled to welcome @alexhanna.bsky.social co-author of "The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want" to Milwaukee on October 6, 2025 for a book talk at Boswell Books. Free & open to the public. Please join us! www.eventbrite.com/e/alex-hanna...

👀

Something not discussed enough is the demoralization experienced by profs who dedicate yrs of study to obtain a PhD only to read automated essays that the uni in its embrace of AI expects them to accept as actual knowledge production.

Not sure what to do about the growing gap bw what students ai-generate and their (in)ability to articulate those ideas on the spot (ie without ai). I’m reading almost 100% gen-ai papers, proposals, dissertations at this point, but notice a real loss of capacities without that prop… sigh.

“THE TEMPTATION TO resign ourselves to resignation is never stronger than at a time of overlapping crises. The AI upheaval is unique in its ability to metabolize any number of dread-inducing transformations.”

My God. “Israel has hired… Clock Tower X LLC, to create media for Gen Z audiences…At least 80% of content Clock Tower produces will be ‘tailored to Gen Z…across platforms, including TikTok…” Clock Tower is led by former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale of Cambridge Analytica infamy. 9/29/25 … 1/

How much of the AI boom is underpinned by Nvidia's own balance sheet? Investors increasingly are asking. fortune.com/2025/09/28/n...

@mark-carney.bsky.social Why is Ottawa/the AI Minister investing in this bubble? 'CoreWeave (Cohere), for example, has $25 billion in debt on estimated revenues of $5.35 billion, losing hundreds of millions of dollars a quarter.' www.wheresyoured.at/the-case-aga...

“"So, you're saying a third of the stock market is tied up in seven AI companies that have no way to become profitable and that this is a bubble that's going to burst and take the whole economy with it?" I said, "Yes, that's right."”

Towards a digital planetary health perspective: generative AI and the digital determinants of health academic.oup.com/heapro/artic...

Hot off the -- Heliotrope -- press: www.heliotropejournal.net/helio/infras... Infrastructural Ruin as Placeholder in Giscome B.C., BY SARAH MACDONELL

Genuine question: Is there anyone who can explain to me the business model of the AI industry?

Hot off the -- Heliotrope -- press: www.heliotropejournal.net/helio/infras... Infrastructural Ruin as Placeholder in Giscome B.C., BY SARAH MACDONELL

late to this incredible piece on the tech elite's obsession with making their own nation-states from my brilliant colleague @telliotter.bsky.social ; the lede made me literally lol

Towards a digital planetary health perspective: generative AI and the digital determinants of health academic.oup.com/heapro/artic...

“AI” isn’t a tool or technology or even a cluster of technologies with a misleading name. It’s the infrastructure at the foundation of a form of capitalism dependent on data brokering. We should be teaching our students about this and not teaching them about “responsible” use.

"The building rush is effectively a mega-speculative bet that the technology will rapidly improve, transform the economy and start producing steady profits."

Today is publication day! EXTRACTION: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism is officially out with @wwnorton.com - find it at a bookstore near you or order online💚📚 wwnorton.com/books/978132...

These are your words of the week chonky acetaminophen biosignature rapture equinox rebarbative www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/the...

Meanwhile

“An independent analysis of 45 right-wing groups advocating against trans rights found that 80% have received donations from fossil fuel companies or billionaires.”

*The AI boom = one of the costliest building sprees in world history * Past 3 years' commitments are greater than the cost of building the U.S. interstate highway system * Consumers must spend $800 billion on AI within a few years, to justify investment from 2023-24 www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-b...

This video is really important. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/26/o... It connects the dots between A.I. and climate disasters and is just a perfectly crafted piece of investigation and exposition. @katecrawford.bsky.social

👋 What's the CrAIC? Come find out what we have been up to in critical AI studies at our launch event, featuring a lineup of stellar speakers, on Wednesday 8th October (University of Exeter / hybrid). Register at the link!

Wow, incredible. Huge win for the No Azure for Apartheid organizers.

1/ A longtime Wired editor just wrote a mush-brained essay about how he totally missed the political rot of Silicon Valley (& still doesn't get it). But in the late 1990s, a Wired journalist warned of a toxic ideology bubbling up from tech. Paulina Borsook has largely been erased. Let's change that

We should start calling Bezos and Thiel etc STAG NATION These bros are obsessed with this idea that things are stuck or not evolving fast enough…

Shhh let them cook

YouTube removed a channel that was dedicated to posting AI-generated videos of women being shot in the head following 404 Media’s request for comment. The videos were clearly generated with Google’s new AI video generator tool. 🔗 www.404media.co/ai-generated...

Apocalyptic techno-optimism.

It’s almost rapture time!