Carney promises 2026 will see huge economic growth that will absolutely not include you

“Alberta, the heartland of Canada’s energy industry, is pitching itself as an attractive place for artificial intelligence-capable computing power because of its vast, cheap reserves of natural gas.” www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Didn't share this short essay on genAI & the erosion of reality when it was published earlier this year, but it introduces some concepts like intangible/ontological harm that I want to revisit in 2026 Full article here as part of a fantastic collection: libraopen.lib.virginia.edu/downloads/cc...

Reminder that AI regulation has a political economy

Didn't share this short essay on genAI & the erosion of reality when it was published earlier this year, but it introduces some concepts like intangible/ontological harm that I want to revisit in 2026 Full article here as part of a fantastic collection: libraopen.lib.virginia.edu/downloads/cc...

The tech companies have stopped naming themselves after lotr artifacts they are just naming themselves after lotr satan now

empty holiday brain

2025 has been a devastating year for trans people in Canada. Here's a year in review of all anti-trans legal developments out here since the beginning of the year. celeste.lgbt/en/2025/12/2...

Cis women when I tell them I'm getting more ffs: noooo don't do that you're so pretty Trans women when I tell them: hell ya girl chop that pretty face up

2025 Headline of the Year nominee (November)

The 2025 Headline of the Year Nominees 🧵

2025 was the year of affirmative action for corrupt incompetent people

Putting slides for this digital policy course together now and it truly is all policy mess

AI industry

Me reading Canadian news rn

Reminder that Microsoft admitted to the French Senate that they "cannot guarantee" data sovereignty. If the US CLOUD Act compels them to provide foreign data to the US gov, Microsoft will provide the data www.theregister.com/2025/07/25/m...

The post even acknowledges that Microsoft cannot fully guarantee continuity of service if they are ordered by another country to suspend or halt operations in Canada

"Microsoft are protectors of Canadian sovereignty" is astonishing mental gymnastics and it gets worse the more you think about it

What’s augmentation-washing? In a new piece out at @techpolicypress.bsky.social, we argue that “augmentation” language reframes automation as empowerment—masking real shifts in control, workload, and labor relations.

Biggest challenge for digital sovereignty rn is that digital sovereignty doesn't actually exist

got her some boots she doesn't like the boots

Finally updated my Research page for the first time since April so you can peruse all my latest rants all in one place www.blairaf.com/research/

sunpilled & cozymaxxing

The being trans in academia experience

"I'm logging off LinkedIn for the year thanks for a great year happy holidays byeeee" LinkedIn guys in my dms: 'hey blair great post would love to connect" "hi blair I'm trying to get into AI ethics where do I start" "hi blair let's connect on zoom?" "hello madam"

The instinct to add rather than subtract when it comes to policy – or any kind of problem-solving – runs deep. www.policyready.ca/policymaking...

linkedin .com is a website where you will instantly lose followers if you say the word trans

PSA: your graduate program, even if in the humanities, needs an AI policy. Now.

When I told people I was doing a PhD they would ask what I study and were very surprised to find out that I also teach, but now when I tell people I'm a prof they ask what I teach and are very surprised that I also do research

Computer scientists: "So with machine learning we can extract subtle patterns from massive datasets. What shall we do with it?" Business school professors, every single time: "You know, I think phrenology got a raw deal in the late 1800s."

I like teaching my AI governance class and I already miss my students but it is nice having a Wednesday to myself where I don't have say the word governance over and over until I dissociate

Every day we get closer to a major political figure making Butlerian Jihad part of their policy platform www.theregister.com/2025/12/17/d...

LinkedIn wrapped is a thing now have we reached Peak Wrapped?

Big challenge for Canada's "sovereign AI" strategy is many political leaders haven't fully internalized that the US poses an existential threat to Canada, this results in naive assumptions that the US will follow rule of law & lazy gaslighting where OpenAI & MS are champions of Canadian sovereignty

Unclear how a $19 billion dependency on a US tech giant will "promote and protect Canada's digital sovereignty" blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issue...

meanwhile, the US attorney general also wants to categorize trans equality activists as belonging to “designated terrorist organizations”. a leaked Justice Department memo from December 9th added “radical gender ideology” as part of its definition of “domestic terrorism”.

No journalist from The Globe and Mail or Le Devoir – who understands IP and the new economy – should be under the illusion that the “Buy Canadian Policy” will buttress domestic Canada-owned firms. The policy recognises Amazon Canada, Google Canada, and Microsoft Canada as “Canadian” firms.

When I first moved to Edmonton ppl told me the winters are cold and dark but on the plus side there's not much snow and it's sunny during day hours This week's forecast:

Why do real research with real people when you can just use our stereotype generator?

Just decline the peer review invitation. What are you people even doing?

Why do real research with real people when you can just use our stereotype generator?

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) paid $18 million for a chatbot named Charlie, which the auditor general reported gave her team the wrong answer 66% of the time. The chatbot's responses were found to be brief and lacking context, with only 2 out of 6 questions answered accurately.

LOL... Pentagon released a new AI military chatbot and it immediately pointed out that Pete Hegseth is a war criminal. abovethelaw.com/2025/12/pent...

Something deeply sinister about SSHRC making me create a CCV just for one application before switching to narrative CV next year

"give us your DNA and we will let you visit our collapsing authoritarian country" nah im good thanks

ball!

The president is NOT a king.This order will be challenged at every level. While this adds an element of chaos, we all carry onwards. It continues with citizens pushing for GenAi regulatory laws —statewide and federal—and continue to challenge exploitative tech in the courts. Again, we carry on.