Hard no to this: French publisher Harlequin has told translators that their work will now be done by AI. They can ‘revise’ AI translations at much lower rate. It’s a subsidiary of Harper Collins so treat this as a test for rollout elsewhere

The least of anyone’s problems but wow the iPhone “Liquid Glass” update is just more confirmation that everything now is worse for no good reason.

Hell yes @rebackermann.bsky.social: "If we don’t want to live alongside other city residents, why do we live in this city at all?" www.sfexaminer.com/forum/waymo-...

Remember that Intuit (the owner of Turbotax) lobbied extensively to kill Direct File, which did tax filing for free and somehow managed to make a good and intuitive user experience without AI.

What’s driving Romancelandia’s success, and can other genres successfully emulate it? Spoiler alert: There’s a phenomenon called “an open-elite network.” @rebackermann.bsky.social for @theatlantic.com www.theatlantic.com/books/2025/1...

The tight-knit but open-armed community that supports romance novels has become unignorable, enviable—and exceedingly difficult to replicate, Rebecca Ackermann writes.

I’m still not over the fact that there was an extremely popular award-winning movie over a decade ago about the perils of falling in love with a chatbot and a company decided to make the chatbot in the image of the movie’s chatbot and now quite a few people have decided to date it

A lot of people say generative AI shouldn't infringe on copyright. These researchers actually tried to do it. The result: an 8 terabyte dataset of text that's openly licensed or in the public domain & 7 B parameter model that performs as well as Meta's Llama 7B www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

I started a spreadsheet of Bay Area NEA Grantees for FY23–FY25. So far, there's ~85 arts orgs whose funding was likely withdrawn without any reimbursements going out. I'm expecting 3x that number when I get to the terminated grants. docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

For @technologyreview.com I wrote about how the names we give generative machines really matter.

I wrote about what we gain & lose when we let machines make art for us (& about @vauhinivara.bsky.social’s eerie new book) www.technologyreview.com/2025/04/11/1...

Calling it now: they’ll launch stablecoins as the new war bonds

So it’s over then, works for me

An AI model that can write you say? Wonder who it learned how to do that from (& if these fair use cases are ever going to get settled) www.esquire.com/entertainmen...

Automated firing systems? El*n hardly invented the approach that many companies are already employing.

Monitoring technology is increasing the power imbalance between companies and workers. New policies and protections may be necessary to correct the balance of power.

Most bosses don’t need a 5 things email. They already know exactly what you’re doing. ter.li/326z8h

What happens when workers are reduced to productivity metrics? I wrote about surveillance tech & the datafication of work for @technologyreview.com

The definitive design thinking piece imo (from @rebackermann.bsky.social) www.technologyreview.com/2023/02/09/1...

Every current & former tech worker has had to write the kind of email El*n is demanding & knows its true purpose.

Dove deep into workplace monitoring tech and came out the other side concerned about the widening power gap between workers and companies (oh & AI too) ter.li/326z8h

STILL! Come on!

"This was a huge surprise when we first noticed it" ... it doesn't have to be a surprise...

So frustrating when life refuses to become art yet.

The continued public presence of Larry Summers really puts the lie to the concept of cancellation

Feeling parenting feelings today so thought I’d repost 🍋

at least 500 people killed in the Israeli air strike on a hospital in Gaza today, with 3000 deaths in Gaza since the bombing began, news still coming in: www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblo...

i did too much research for this sandwich column but i learned so much! come and learn with me! https://theswordandthesandwich.substack.com/p/notable-sandwiches-72-the-gatsby

“No headlines might really be the last straw for me” — me, on my 4th last straw

A fun new development of These Times is my kid hates being asked if she feels sick. Second fun new development is every time she wears a mask, someone asks her.

Always amazing to see the words in print! ✨ Thank you @kenyonreview.bsky.social ❤️

Hello SEPTEMBER ISSUE!! ✨ Check out all this magic ✨ WORDS by Emily Costa, Moisés Delgado, Elizabeth Koster & Stephanie Kaylor ART by Michael Young PLUS our own Maureen Langloss interviews Kate Doyle & Daniel Garcia reviews Taneum Bambrick buff.ly/2Z36noR

An enormous honor to see my short story “Lemon Season” in the new issue of @kenyonreview.bsky.social !! Thank you to the brilliant KR team ✨ kenyonreview.org/piece/lemon-...

Wrote about The Changeling, New Dads & a Maurice Sendak classic for Lithub! lithub.com/the-changeli...

writing is so funny. I make someone up, give them problems, now I’m crying. I just want them to be happy

For @techreview.bsky.social Ethics Issue, I wrote about the history of open source, its challenges & the key to its future (hint, its people) www.technologyreview.com/2023/08/17/1...

It’s never been “the AI” we should worry about, it’s corporate greed. In Zoom‘s new TOS you grant Zoom a perpetual license to use your audio, your face, etc for AI unconditionally and irrevocably forever. https://stackdiary.com/zoom-terms-now-allow-training-ai-on-user-content-with-no-opt-out/

Great reminder of where so much of this began.

Me: *Reaches for my coffee* My kid: Why is God famous?

Friends with me once, friends with me for life. Sorry, I don’t make the rules.

Where’s my “I liked Barbie, it was fine” hive?