This Harper’s pullout on media consolidation caught my attention from across the concourse. As I wrote last month, this might be in my top ten list of things to make sense of.

Hold up

Tesla faces widening federal probe into door handle safety issues - www.cnbc.com/2025/11/03/t...

The company behind ChatGPT is converting to a for-profit company and settling an investigation by California’s attorney general. Experts and advocates say the company could still exploit its charitable roots. bit.ly/4oJqKnd 📝 @levisu.bsky.social& @khari.bsky.social 📸 Eric Risberg, AP

Hot event alert!! this Thursday at Oakland Public Library

🎁 link to the investigation on Tesla's doors: www.bloomberg.com/features/202...

“The Defense Department has confiscated the badges of the Pentagon reporters from virtually every major media organization in America,” the Pentagon Press Association said

If I genuinely believed I was 18 months away from superintelligence that could solve cancer, I would probably not be pivoting to horny chatbots, but that's just me (a person with priorities)

Thank you to the remarkable audience of people who showed up for the documentary and asked me and Terry insightful questions. I was fortunate to share space with you to talk about the unique and lasting legacy of Black journalists in America

To all my friends in The Town: Join the incomparable @nitasha.bsky.social for a talk about AI and your 🧠 at the library downtown next week

Late notice but join me tomorrow at the Silicon Valley African Film Festival to discuss the National Association of Black Journalists and how member support played a pivotal role in me becoming a tech journalist

Tesla's Full-Self Driving software is now under federal investigation, including its behavior at train crossings, after an NBC News investigation. In September, NBC News found that Tesla owners repeatedly complained about Teslas failing to detect oncoming trains. www.nbcnews.com/tech/elon-mu...

Drake sitting there reading about how good the judge thought the song was and how everyone really enjoyed it

Exclusive - California’s outgoing cybersecurity commander tells us the state is mismanaging its limited cybersecurity resources by letting unqualified officials set priorities. https://cal.news/4q1i1hH 📝 @khari.bsky.social

Commander Edward Bómbita told me California’s cybersecurity is being mismanaged by the California Office of Emergency Services, which responds to wildfires and natural disasters. Another state cyber employee told me @caloes.bsky.social is “completely out of their depth when it comes to cyber.”

SCOOP: Last year, Ubisoft cancelled an Assassin's Creed game set during Reconstruction. Was to feature a Black Assassin who, among other things, fought the rise of the Klan Sources: Leadership nixed it over concerns re: U.S. political climate, backlash to Yasuke www.gamefile.news/p/scoop-ubis...

Join us Thursday!

Join @datasociety.bsky.social's Climate, Technology, and Justice program+ Kapor Foundation for a webinar on CA data centers in context, connecting data center buildout + policy interventions to histories of environmental racism + resistance 10/9, 12-1:30 PM PT kaporcenter.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Good job Sora 2 has watermarks on its videos (people have already made tools that instantly remove the watermark) www.404media.co/sora-2-water...

Robin Williams' daughter has some quality thoughts on AI slop

How could a man who never set foot in a library until he was in college create what is considered the most extensive online collection of global Black history? Maybe it had something to do with the story Dr. Quintard Taylor's father told him when he was a young boy. m.kuow.org/stories/reme...

Meta is constructing its largest data center yet: a $10 billion facility in Louisiana, as big as 70 football fields, requiring more than twice as much electricity as the City of New Orleans. Louisiana has had to greenlight $3 billion in new energy infrastructure to service Meta's facility.

Gov. Newsom vetoed a bill that would have required regular purges of license plate databases and regularly audited how automated plate readers are used. https://cal.news/4qbr1kz 📝 @khari.bsky.social & Mohamed Al Elew 📸 Courtesy of Flock Safety

As if irony isn’t already dead, the Hatch Act violation on the DOJ website, which blames Democrats for the shutdown, appears on the page advising DOJ employees they are subject to the Hatch Act. joycevance.substack.com/p/a-note-abo...

“.. Some Republicans estimate they will eventually need to provide $35 billion to $50 billion in aid to farmers hit by Trump’s tariffs.” [.. That’s roughly half of all the revenue raised from new 2025 tariffs so far this year, notes @ernietedeschi.bsky.social] www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

Ads reveal that Flock, makers of automated license plate readers and other surveillance technology, are promising to introduce "Distress detection" into their gunshot detection devices which will alert police when it hears human voices in distress, including screaming. www.eff.org/deeplinks/20...

The crowd chants: “From New York to Palestine, Journalism is not a crime.”

Join us on Oct 9 @ 12pm PT for a webinar on the histories, impacts & policies of California’s data centers. This talk will feature @khari.bsky.social, Masheika Allgood & Nicole Merino Tsui, moderated by Cecilia Marrinan of Kapor Foundation & @tamigraph.bsky.social kaporcenter.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

This is like the only good news in my timeline RN

The Mississippi Museum of Art now owns the only two known portraits of enslaved Mississippians that were painted before the Civil War.

Regular reminder that behind damn near every large-scale "Automated" "AI" system is a team of underpaid and otherwise exploited humans. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Eric Adams is out days after the rat czar resignation and a day after release of this rat wars video that gives me so much joy? Wild.

George Hardy, last of the Tuskegee Airmen's World War II combat pilots, dies at 100

BREAKING: The FBI has fired agents photographed kneeling during a 2020 racial justice protest that followed the death of George Floyd, AP sources say.

Much thx to Brian for appreciating my coverage of tech policy in California 🤘🏾🙏🏾

"California lawmakers started the year signaling they were ready to get tough on data centers, aiming to protect the environment and electricity ratepayers. Nine months later, they have little to show for it." - @khari.bsky.social calmatters.org/environment/...

NEW: The latest story from the 18,000+ emails in Jeffrey Epstein’s Yahoo inbox: beyond his ties to the elite, a quieter circle proved crucial as state and federal investigations began. Insane reporting from @suryamattu.com, Max Abelson, and team. Free link:

Black journalist starter pack on bluesky! More Black folks who know what they're talking about! go.bsky.app/FVsDa69

"The fine appears to be the largest issued over AI fabrications by a California court and came with a blistering opinion stating that 21 of 23 quotes from cases cited in the attorney’s opening brief were made up." - @khari.bsky.social calmatters.org/economy/tech...

A California attorney must pay a $10,000 fine for filing a state court appeal full of fake quotations generated by the artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT. https://cal.news/3IzCysH 📸 Adriana Heldiz

"UnitedHealth Chief Executive Officer Stephen Hemsley recently met with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles to discuss Medicare and other issues, though the government investigations didn’t come up in their conversation, a White House official said."

"Google organized business owners against California legislation to force its Chrome web browser to safeguard personal data." @khari.bsky.social on @calmatters.org:

So amazing to see our work recognized for the @journalists.org Knight Award for Public Service! Feeling really grateful to have worked with @jas-aguilera.bsky.social @hiramaduran.bsky.social and @heathergilligan.bsky.social to make it happen!!🎉 #OJA25

It’s hard to trace Google’s full influence when it does not publicly share its position on some bills, instead paying groups like the California Chamber of Commerce to influence legislators on its behalf. Good story by @khari.bsky.social and @bystellayu.bsky.social.

Remember when Google's CEO argued last year that people would actually click through AI links more, despite that not making any sense or being supported by any data? Turns out he was wrong 2024: www.searchenginejournal.com/google-ceo-a.... Today: www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...

“Under one of the Labor Department’s proposals, an estimated 3.7 million workers employed by home care agencies could be paid below the federal minimum wage — currently $7.25 per hour — and made ineligible for overtime pay if they aren’t covered by corresponding state laws.”

If there are no high-risk automated systems in California government, how can it cost millions or billions of dollars to assess them? “There’s no way those two things can be true. They’re talking out of both sides of their mouth here.” calmatters.org/economy/tech... via @khari.bsky.social

I asked @greenwell.bsky.social a bunch of questions for @columjournreview.bsky.social about private equity in local news and what to do about it. Her book Bad Company is excellent -- go read it! www.cjr.org/the-intervie...

today in Grokology, the chatbot is doing antisemitism