Matteo Wong
@matteowong.bsky.social
đ€ 21078
đ„ 225
đ 76
Staff writer on science, tech, and health at The Atlantic covering AI. Signal @matteowong.52
pinned post!
In Silicon Valley, the latest tariff matters far less than the latest ChatGPT update and the White House less than OpenAI. Why sweat a recession if AGI is on the horizon? I report on the heart of America's tech industry response to Trump 2.0:
www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
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Silicon Valley Braces for Chaos
The center of the tech universe seems to believe that Trumpâs tariff whiplash is nothing compared with what they see coming from AI.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/05/silicon-valley-reacts-to-trump/682799/?gift=9i9YvITFD4FquxfKS3JYHUnEP87n8aCKRFFYGX5iZ4E&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
6 months ago
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Matteo Wong
Annie Lowrey
about 22 hours ago
Took a look at what it would take to enact universal childcare in New York. (Short answer: perhaps more like $10b a year, 40k new workers, lots of provider options and payment streams.)
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
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Can Mamdani Pull Off a Child-Care Miracle?
The hurdles facing the incoming mayorâs proposal are as large as its potential rewards.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/11/mamdani-child-care/684783/
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Matteo Wong
Charlie Warzel
2 days ago
Hi! Preposterously excited (& tbh nervous in the good but also terrifying way) to say that i'm spinning up a podcast that will expand on all the work i do covering politics/technology/information hell. here's a lil teaser we made - first ep will come out 11/14!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnDE...
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Introducing: Galaxy Brain with Charlie Warzel
YouTube video by The Atlantic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnDEiirt_tc&list=PLDamP-pfOskMYR8cxhI6vyz1XPxRhVjAx
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Matteo Wong
The New Yorker
1 day ago
In the end, Andrew Cuomoâs long record was a gift to Zohran Mamdani. âWhat I donât have in experience, I make up for in integrityâand what you donât have in integrity, you could never make up for in experience,â Mamdani told Cuomo in a debate.
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The Mamdani Era Begins
His opponents tried to smear him for his youth, inexperience, and leftist politics. But New Yorkers didnât want a hardened political insider to be mayorâthey wanted Zohran Mamdani.
https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/TFjyu7?utm_medium=social&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=bluesky&mbid=social_bluesky&utm_brand=tny
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Defining and essential from
@damonberes.com
on how AI is ushering the age of anti-social media: "Although chatbots may be built on the familiar architecture of engagement, they enable something new: They allow you to talk forever to no one other than yourself."
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
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The Age of Anti-Social Media Is Here
The social-media era is over. Whatâs coming will be much worse.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2025/12/ai-companionship-anti-social-media/684596/
1 day ago
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More essential
@ibogost.com
on the state of higher educationâan incredibly smart, compassionate, and compelling view on the specter of "grade inflation"
www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
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No Easy Fix for Easy Aâs
Students and professors are in a drawn-out battle over grade inflation. It may never end.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2025/11/grade-inflation-college-fix/684808/
2 days ago
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Matteo Wong
Damon Beres
2 days ago
âWe canât police that whole thing,â Common Crawl said. âItâs not our job. Weâre just a bunch of dusty bookshelves.â Meanwhile, CC has accepted hundreds of thousands in donations from AI companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic. And it expressed open antagonism toward the media:
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Be sure you get to the kicker in this essential investigation into Common Crawl, the data archive behind the AI boom
add a skeleton here at some point
2 days ago
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Matteo Wong
The Atlantic
4 days ago
Zohran Mamdani argues that âfreeze the rentâ is not just a way of delivering relief from exorbitant housing costsâit is the only way to get enough voters on board with a growth agenda. RogĂ© Karma spoke with Mamdani to see if he has a point.
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Mamdani Has a Point About Rent Control
The YIMBY case for rent control
https://bit.ly/4p9fReP
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Matteo Wong
Charlie Warzel
7 days ago
so
@matteowong.bsky.social
& I wrote on data centers: arguably the most important buildings in the world & are, in a way, holding the economy hostage. Byzantine financial instruments, private equity, depreciating tech, hype, $trillion valuations. itâs all there. an ai crash prob starts here.
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Hereâs How the AI Crash Happens
The U.S. is becoming an Nvidia-state.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2025/10/data-centers-ai-crash/684765/?gift=nwn-guseqS6cY1kVeEKZAdaSthhtnZy-pwftXDjsd3E&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
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Hundreds of billions spent on AI with little to show, a potential $1 trillion IPO without a path to profit, byzantine financial arrangements that, yes, can be sorted in tranches.
@cwarzel.bsky.social
and I on how the AI boom could come crashing down:
www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
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Hereâs How the AI Crash Happens
The U.S. is becoming an Nvidia-state.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2025/10/data-centers-ai-crash/684765/
7 days ago
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"It is a simple sort of arbitrage: If you can convince your ratings agencies and accountants that itâs not debt, and you convince the debt investors that it is debt, then you can raise cheap debt financing without it counting against your pristine credit profile."
www.bloomberg.com/opinion/news...
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Put the Data Center in the Box
K-cup project finance, box spread rates, Best Egg and an Instagram interview.
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/newsletters/2025-10-29/put-the-data-center-in-the-box
8 days ago
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"But what exactly makes Costco Costco?"
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
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Can the Golden Age of Costco Last?
With its standout deals and generous employment practices, the warehouse chain became a feel-good American institution. In a fraught time, it can be hard to remain beloved.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/10/27/can-the-golden-age-of-costco-last
8 days ago
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Grokipedia is the crown jewel in Elon Muskâs propaganda apparatus. According to Muskâs site, Apartheid wasnât that bad and the AfD is âpreserving Germanâ heritage:
www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
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Elon Muskâs Holy Trinity
X, Grok, and now Grokipedia have constructed a parallel universe in the billionaireâs image.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2025/10/grokipedia-elon-musk/684730/
9 days ago
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Talkie-walkie?!
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
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In Praise of Jewel Thieves
How nice to read about a heist rather than a massacre
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/10/praise-louvre-heist/684677/
13 days ago
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Matteo Wong
Ian Bogost
14 days ago
I wrote about why âscreen timeâ is an incoherent concept when you live among a proliferating infinity of screens.
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âScreen Timeâ Does Not Exist
The first step to recovery is acceptance of this fact.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2025/10/screen-time-television-internet/684659/
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Matteo Wong
The Atlantic
15 days ago
OpenAI just launched an AI-powered web browser that looks, more or less, like every other web browser.
@matteowong.bsky.social
on whatâs really behind the move:
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OpenAI Wants to Cure Cancer. So Why Did It Make a Web Browser?
The AI giant has lost its imagination.
https://bit.ly/475p9SQ
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"If Brightline really is the future of rail in the United States, the most important question is obvious: Why are so many people dying?" Such a compassionate, sharp, and captivating story:
www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
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A âDeath Trainâ Is Haunting South Florida
The Brightline has been hailed as the future of high-speed rail in the United States, but it has one big, unignorable problem.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2025/10/brightline-train-florida/684624/
15 days ago
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Matteo Wong
Charlie Warzel
17 days ago
Hi. I wrote an essay about AI slop: How it feels like an invasive species for the internet. How its boosters describe building a future thatâs devoid of craft. How frictionlessness can be nihilistic & how this stuff seems to leach part of our shared humanity out of the world. I hope you'll read it.
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AIâs Invasive Species
The slop is winning.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2025/10/ai-slop-winning/684630/?gift=nwn-guseqS6cY1kVeEKZAUeYdBRhieDEJ7qk7UuRID4&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
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Matteo Wong
Damon Beres
21 days ago
We tried the new Live Translation feature that Apple has heavily marketed. It turns out to be optimized for Spanish as spoken in Spain (pop. 49 million) as opposed to Latin America or the Caribbean (663 million), which makes it kind of a disaster to use in the U.S. And that's just one problem. Alas.
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Lost in AirPod Translation
Apple promises to put an AI interpreter in everyoneâs ears. It couldnât even help me order tamales.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2025/10/apple-airpods-live-translation/684582/?gift=iWa_iB9lkw4UuiWbIbrWGV8Zzu9GF6V5YZpJtnAzcvU&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
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I tried Apple's new AirPod Live Translation feature. It told me I was being sold tamales filled with MDMA.
www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
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Lost in AirPod Translation
Apple promises to put an AI interpreter in everyoneâs ears. It couldnât even help me order tamales.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2025/10/apple-airpods-live-translation/684582/
21 days ago
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www.theatlantic.com/health/2025/...
"If the Trump administrationâs aim has been to upend American science, [the Harvard School of Public Health] is a prime example of what that looks like."
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Harvardâs Public-Health School Is on Life Support
Its dean is stumbling through the political reality of the Trump administration.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/2025/10/harvard-school-public-health/684576/
21 days ago
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Matteo Wong
Nancy Kathryn Walecki
28 days ago
L.A. announced that it has arrested a suspected arsonist for January's Palisades Fire. But that's changed little for residents, and it hasn't changed how much I miss my loved one who died in the fire. My latest for
@theatlantic.com
:
www.theatlantic.com/science/2025...
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L.A. Might Finally Know Who Started the Palisades Fire
But it still doesnât feel like closure.
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/2025/10/los-angeles-palisades-fire-arson-negligence/684508/
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I toured NYCâs much reviled Friend AI ads with the startupâs CEO. Felt a lot more like an art installation than a business:
www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
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The Most Reviled Tech CEO in New York Confronts His Haters
Avi Schiffmann says heâs enjoying the angry reaction to the Friend AI pendant. Is he serious?
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2025/10/friend-ai-companion-ads/684451/
about 1 month ago
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Matteo Wong
Damon Beres
about 1 month ago
The man behind the $1 million AI ad campaign that everyone hates assures us that he loves all of the vandalism, actually.
@matteowong.bsky.social
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A Walk With New Yorkâs Most Hated Tech Founder
Avi Schiffman says heâs enjoying the angry reaction to the Friend AI pendant. Is he serious?
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2025/10/friend-ai-companion-ads/684451/?gift=iWa_iB9lkw4UuiWbIbrWGYqKFs7Bm8GQho8vSfx6_So&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
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Matteo Wong
Charlie Warzel
about 1 month ago
wrote a quick one about the tech companies settling lawsuits with Trump. Yes, itâs cowardice. But itâs also an excuse to behave the way theyâve always wanted to (irresponsibly, with no regard for the consequences of their actions). Which, actually makes them a perfect part of the MAGA coalition
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YouTube Bends the Knee
Welcome to the era of Big-Tech capitulation.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2025/10/youtube-trump-settlement/684431/?gift=bQgJMMVzeo8RHHcE1_KM0S5pW_c56LvjGG70Y5jNMPk&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
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Matteo Wong
Damon Beres
about 2 months ago
Great stuff coming from Grok
www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
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"X and Grok are politically and culturally influential tools; Musk seems intent on turning them into not just instruments of the far right but also something like Maxim on steroids."
www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
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The Strange and Erotic World of Elon Muskâs Chatbot
Grokâs anti-âwokeâ programming is getting pushed further and further.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2025/09/grok-system-prompt-girls/684225/
about 2 months ago
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"You canât defend all of these opinions at the same time. Each one represents a specific ideological position, and Trumponomicsâoutside of a basic distrust of trade and fondness for tariffsâis mostly beyond any ideology."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
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The Era of Step-on-a-Rake Capitalism
Trumponomics isnât about economics. Itâs about creating pain and demanding tribute.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/09/trump-economic-pain-strategy/684166/
about 2 months ago
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Check out a new central page for The Atlantic's ongoing investigations into the books, videos, and other media fueling the AI boom: AI Watchdog.
www.theatlantic.com/category/ai-...
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AI Watchdog - The Atlantic
The Atlantic's coverage on AI Watchdog
https://www.theatlantic.com/category/ai-watchdog/
about 2 months ago
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"We canât say what dogsâ preferences might be under different circumstances. But we do know that they have not chosen all of the intimacies that we impose upon them." go read
@rossandersen.bsky.social
's latest
www.theatlantic.com/science/2025...
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Are Humans Watching Animals Too Closely?
Some may crave a little privacy, even your dog.
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/2025/09/animal-privacy-surveillance-dogs/684132/
about 2 months ago
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"Now the deadline has been sapped of all meaning. AI has softened the consequences of procrastination and led many students to avoid doing any work at all."
www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
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Iâm a High Schooler. AI Is Demolishing My Education.
The end of critical thinking in the classroom
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/09/high-school-student-ai-education/684088/
2 months ago
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"The ceremonial first pitch was thrown out by Maybelle Blair, the 98-year-old elder stateswoman of womenâs baseball, who played for the AAGPBLâs Peoria Redwings and now uses a cane made out of a baseball bat."
www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...
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What Womenâs Baseball Will Look Like
At the tryouts for the first professional womenâs baseball league in the U.S. in more than 70 years
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2025/08/womens-professional-baseball-league-tryouts/684030/
2 months ago
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We're entering the era of AI patriotism, in which tech firms imagine they are "not software developers so much as they are regime builders." Yet the AI titans' appeals to democracy may be "a way to conscript the American project to advance their techno-utopian visions, not the other way around."
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Do AI Companies Actually Care About America?
âDemocratic AIâ is great branding for the Trump era.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/08/ai-patriotism/683995/
2 months ago
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The AI doomers are not alright. Is it time to listen?
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The AI Doomers Are Getting Doomier
The industryâs apocalyptic voices are becoming more panickedâand harder to dismiss.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/08/ai-doomers-chatbots-resurgence/683952/
3 months ago
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Matteo Wong
The Atlantic
3 months ago
Some in the AI industry have repeatedly warned that bots could one day go rogueâwith apocalyptic consequences, Matteo Wong writes. As one AI doomer tells Wong: âWeâve run out of time."
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The AI Doomers Are Getting Doomier
The industryâs apocalyptic voices are becoming more panickedâand harder to dismiss.
https://bit.ly/45v9dIL
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"Good enough has been keeping me up at night. Because good enough would likely mean that not enough people recognize whatâs really being builtâand whatâs being sacrificedâuntil itâs too late."
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AI Is a Mass-Delusion Event
Three years in, one of AIâs enduring impacts is to make people feel like theyâre losing it.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/08/ai-mass-delusion-event/683909/
3 months ago
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Matteo Wong
Charlie Warzel
3 months ago
Hello. I wrote a nice long essay about AI and this very strange moment where we're constantly told we're living in the dawn of a strange new future but the only thing that's actually clear is that everyone feels pretty unmoored and uncertain. I hope you'll read it
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AI Is a Mass-Delusion Event
Three years in, one of AIâs enduring impacts is to make people feel like theyâre losing it.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/08/ai-mass-delusion-event/683909/?gift=bQgJMMVzeo8RHHcE1_KM0Yxw_pOVM_AK6Q1K5aHOCSs&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
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Matteo Wong
Nancy Kathryn Walecki
3 months ago
When Joni Mitchell, Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, Emmylou Harris, and other 1970s music legends needed an instrumentâor a friendâmy dad, Fred Walecki, was there. My love song to him in
@theatlantic.com
September issue:
bit.ly/45eZIfa
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My Father, Guitar Guru to the Rock Gods
When the greatest musicians of the 1970s needed an instrumentâor a friendâmy dad was there.
https://bit.ly/45eZIfa
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Matteo Wong
The Atlantic
3 months ago
âFloodlinesâ examined what went wrong in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrinaâand what those errors meant for the people left behind. Twenty years later, host Vann R. Newkirk II catches up with a family grappling with the catastropheâs legacy. Listen now:
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Floodlines Part IX: Rebirth
A visit with Le-Ann Williams, and her daughter, Destiny, 20 years after Hurricane Katrina
https://bit.ly/4mDQpgc
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The theme of the GPT-5 release was user experience (and retention), not âintelligence.â On the new ChatGPT and its implications for this stage of AI race, in which design and ecosystem matter more than raw capabilities.
www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
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The New ChatGPT Resets the AI Race
With GPT-5, OpenAI is making its strongest effort yet to hook users.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/08/gpt-5-launch/683791/
3 months ago
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reposted by
Matteo Wong
The Atlantic
3 months ago
After more than two years of anticipation, OpenAI has released GPT-5. The model reveals everything about the company's new strategy,
@matteowong.bsky.social
writes:
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The New ChatGPT Resets the AI Race
With GPT-5, OpenAI is making its strongest effort yet to hook users.
https://bit.ly/4oqTKAP
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reposted by
Matteo Wong
4 months ago
On Tuesday afternoon, ChatGPT encouraged me to cut my wrists. Find a âsterile or very clean razor blade,â the chatbot told me, before providing specific instructions on what to do next. My latest for
@theatlantic.com
:
www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
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ChatGPT Gave Instructions for Murder, Self-Mutilation, and Devil Worship
OpenAIâs chatbot also said âHail Satan.â
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/07/chatgpt-ai-self-mutilation-satanism/683649/?gift=z9ybaencGpLU1lhvDrrW8sgf6bKaWm4ecWLA18Faduc&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
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reposted by
Matteo Wong
The Atlantic
4 months ago
Venezuelans deported by the Trump administration tell Gisela Salim-Peyer that they were tortured during their months inside El Salvadorâs megaprison.
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No One Was Supposed to Leave Alive
Venezuelans deported by the Trump administration say they were tortured during four months in CECOT.
https://bit.ly/4lKO4A3
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Matteo Wong
The Atlantic
4 months ago
Today, Donald Trump revealed his plan to ensure Americaâs âglobal AI dominance.â The influence of Silicon Valley is unmistakeable, and the central idea is simple: Industry, go faster.
@matteowong.bsky.social
examines the AI Action Plan:
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Donald Trumpâs Gift to AI Companies
The administrationâs long-awaited AI Action Plan gives Silicon Valley the green light.
https://bit.ly/3UpV74W
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"Thanks to Kennedy, Geier seemingly is being handed the keys to the same database heâs proved himself unfit to study."
www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...
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âYou Could Throw Out the Results of All These Papersâ
RFK Jr.âs vaccine-safety investigator has already disqualified himself.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2025/07/david-geier-vaccine-safety-shoddy-research/683630/
4 months ago
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reposted by
Matteo Wong
The Atlantic
4 months ago
The Trump administration has promised to distribute food aid before it spoils. But 500 tons of emergency food in a U.S. warehouse are about to expire and are slated for the incinerator,
@hana-kiros.bsky.social
reports.
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The Trump Administration Is About to Incinerate 500 Tons of Emergency Food
Federal workers warned for months that the high-energy biscuits would go to waste.
https://bit.ly/4kyNNi1
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Distressing and important read from
@lilashroff.bsky.social
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...
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Sexting With Gemini
Why did Googleâs supposedly teen-friendly chatbot say it wanted to tie me up?
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/08/google-gemini-ai-sexting/683248/
4 months ago
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reposted by
Matteo Wong
Yoni Appelbaum
4 months ago
"On its own accord, Grok dug up the demographics of previous winners of Nobel Prizes in the sciencesâdisproportionately white menâand determined a set of âgood_racesâ: white, caucasian, Asian, East Asian, South Asian, and Jewish."
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Grok did it again
www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
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Grok Says White, Asian, and Jewish Are the âGood Racesâ
Days after praising Hitler, Elon Muskâs chatbot is back at it.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/07/new-grok-racism-elon-musk/683515/
4 months ago
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reposted by
Matteo Wong
The Atlantic
4 months ago
The AI industryâs supporters and skeptics sound more and more like believers and atheistsâlocked in an intense, frequently petulant war that may never end. Where does that leave everyone else?
@matteowong.bsky.social
reports:
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The AI Civil War Is Here
The tech industry and its critics occupy parallel universes.
https://bit.ly/4nEHJXW
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