"'Wir leben im Kapitalismus. Seine Macht scheint unausweichlich. Aber das galt auch für das göttliche Recht der Könige', sagte Le Guin in ihrer Rede von 2014. Ihr Wort macht Hoffnung. Bis heute."

I am not even three minutes into that Axios / Karp interview and already I am slightly lost for words when this weapon system CEO describes that their software can also cover that "kind of sexy violent part of war" for commanders .... That sexy violent part of war. Honestly.

Europe is next

The power of lobbying ...

The entire speech is an ode to the venture capital dynamic. He lays out five points that mould defence to the needs of VC (my words, not his). Important: he will remove "anything that unnecessarily slows down government contracts". In line with the playbook theconversation.com/the-silicon-...

This is precisely it: lack of consent is central. That is why regulation is seen as such a hindrance. Regulation embodies the requirement that others, affected by the technology, should be taken into account, if not, give consent.

I’ve been hoping someone would do this mapping! Very useful

These two headlines tell a most dystopian story about the current state of affairs.

That's also what they indicated in their IPO S1 form back in 2020: "We are working towards becoming the default operating system across the U.S. government. Our victory in federal court now makes that possible." This has been the growth strategy (p.7). www.sec.gov/Archives/edg...

@danmcquillan.bsky.social is right. The emperor's advocates, too, know there are no clothes Eric Schmidt – AI bubble is great! Sam Altman – we’re making a very aggressive infrastructure bet – we need the whole of industry to support it. Alex Karp – PEOPLE SHORTING AI COMPANIES ARE BATSHIT CRAZY

Huge thank you to our contributors, including: 🔹 @tariqmodood.bsky.social 🔹 @martinoneill.bsky.social 🔹 @jowolff.bsky.social 🔹 @elkeschwarz.bsky.social And to @halcyene.bsky.social and Professor David Archard for editing the collection.

Delighted and grateful to @halcyene.bsky.social to have a short piece in this excellent collection. What a great initiative, all open access. Check it out below

"The point is to change it" — a volume of new essays from 21 leading academics exploring the role of philosophy in public life — launches today! Contributors include @tariqmodood.bsky.social, @martinoneill.bsky.social, @jowolff.bsky.social, @elkeschwarz.bsky.social and more. Click below to read 👇🦉

Just triangulating some of the vibes in this interview ...

I do wonder also if it is a version of offering "not a unified propaganda line but rather contradictory versions of reality, and in many different forms" as @anneapplebaum.bsky.social Applebaum writes here www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Today at lunchtime. Come join the discussion 👇

At lunchtime today, we'll be exploring the policy implications of supporting Ukraine until the end, inspired by @ldfreedman.bsky.social's "Hennessy Lecture". You can book your place to hear @evieaspinall.bsky.social, @patporter76.bsky.social, @elkeschwarz.bsky.social and @drjamesstrong.bsky.social🔽

It's funny that for any even remotely human-related study we have to fill in reams of paperwork for an ethics evaluation and these loss-making, overhyped companies are just able to experiment on humans and society with clearly harmful products without any restraint. Why?

It never ceases to amaze me that in a story like this, nobody mentions the intrinsic technological limitations which make it unlikely that LLMs will reliably function as promoted here, particularly not in something so adversarial by nature as war.

In the current defence / tech investment & spending frenzy, this is really important to keep in mind. Security happens at many levels, and safety & security at local levels are crucial for a strong society & economy. Betting on growth via defence & AI at the expense of local authorities is foolish.

I’m going to have to tap the sign again aren’t I: STOP ANTHROPORMORPHISING LLMS They don’t have a “drive”, they don’t “resist”, this language use is really dangerous, as it sets the wrong expectations of what the tech can do! Arghhhhh! www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

This gets at the heart of the matter. The capabilities of generative AI are in tension with the needs and dynamics of sound social functioning. The speculative promises of AI clash ever-more visibly and starkly with the harmful realities of this technology for society.

The AI industry wants us to believe AI superintelligence is the real threat from generative AI. But that narrative was crafted to distract from the many ways genAI is being used to tear our societies apart, as we saw this week when a deepfake video rocked the Irish election. It must be reined in.

Fascinating how Lammy frames his AI advocacy in almost spiritual terms "I believe, with absolute conviction that AI has brought humanity to a new technological frontier ... we stand on the edge of something vast ...". Why not note the known (limited) benefits without getting all religious about it?

"Almost half of everything AI assistants tell you is wrong" and "Oxford university gives AI assistants to all its students" are two headlines we are forced to accept as coexisting in this appalling timeline.

In the current memefication of China-Taiwan-27, I would just highlight that this 'obsession' did perhaps not come about fully organically but it does work rather well with certain defence contractor's financial timelines. www.defensenews.com/pentagon/202...

Looking forward to this next week. Join us, detail are below

Eric Schmidt's gripes about the inability to ask, in Europe: "who do I call for 50 billion of capital for a product that doesn't work at all, where am I gonna get the electricity from and where am I going to get the buildings" - the lament is, Europe does not facilitate this. But is this desirable?

I have a question: why do many of the current crop of tech billionaires always sound slightly angry and annoyed. Should they not be rather happy and relaxed bunnies in their financial security and increased share of political power?

Just reposting this here for no particular reason ….https://www.euronews.com/next/2022/11/09/oculus-founder-claims-he-made-a-vr-headset-that-actually-kills-you-if-you-die-in-a-game

I am curious, maybe some experts can weigh in: is it significant that the ceasefire plan specifies a “Trump economic plan to redevelop and energize Gaza”, meaning, did Trump write himself into this plan beyond his office as president?

🔥

“One of his clients is a job recruiting company that uses A.I. to sift through candidates. ‘Which is great, but you can now discriminate at a scale we’ve never seen before,’ Mr. Kvist said. ‘It’s a breeding ground for class-action lawsuits.’”

On the peculiar worldview of Palantir (I am delighted to have had a chance to speak with Stijn Bronzwaer for this) www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/...

Might I suggest we stop listening to those with vested interests in a thing telling us about our inevitable future with the thing?

This number alone is distressing. Now also imagine the staggering number of young lives irrevocably traumatised. www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

The entire global educational establishment is tiptoeing around the edges of which particular parts of GenAI might or might not be "unethical", when the whole commercial enterprise of GenAI is based on mass theft that would have seen the culprits jailed if they weren't extremely rich white men.

I am grateful for the opportunity to think about peace at the Festival of Revolutionary Thought in Berlin next weekend. It will also be lovely to return to a theater stage for it. www.volksbuehne.berlin/en/repertoir...

1) A reminder: AI companies and their investors don't need the AI to work effectively for others in order to make gains, they mostly need contracts and promises for higher valuations. 2) A question: when do we declare the great AI future to have failed? edition.cnn.com/2025/09/30/t....

As I try to convey in the piece, I think we might best understand figures like Karp and Luckey and even Thiel as a type of defence influencers, hype men, that serve to shape narratives by being so controversial and over-dramatic that the bar is perpetually lowered for everyone.

OpenAI employees are very excited about how well their new AI tool can create fake videos of people doing crimes and have definitely thought through all the implications of this

An interesting read. The first time I heard Thiel leverage the Anti-Christ as a useful figure for his financial aims was in 2022, at a Stanford event on Academic Freedom. My sense is that all this must be read in conjunction with Thiel's book Zero to One. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibR_...

"This idea that wars are clean, or that they can be done in a way that no lives will be harmed — that is an illusion." Elke Schwarz spoke with Al Jazeera English about how #Palantir markets the itself and its military tech. 📺 https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=0aSBk5bKG3U

I am listening to Trump, following Hegseth and he has legit given me a headache. Poor people in the room .... torturous.

The ethical duty to refuse an unlawful order will become really important it seems ...

Hegseth says words for effect. When he says "history teaches us the only people ..." he reveals that he is unaware of history. Same applies for "more AI in everything". Allow me to pair this with another PR mythologisation and valorization of a fictional idea of war: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aSB...

The problem with this excessively reactionary approach to Reform is that it validates the outlandish talking points of the latter. Meanwhile norms shift as Reform sets the bar lower and lower. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cd...

A while back I chatted with @alekskrotoski.bsky.social about phantasies of immortality that connect deeply to a (tech industry) desire to be machine, or to be product, what Günther Anders would have called "Promethean Shame". Nice to see the book is out soon! www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

This is a very good read: "The easy-going nerds [...] have thus been able to transform themselves into frightening molochs, engaged in a ruthless war for planetary and intergalactic supremacy, with no rules or responsibilities to counterbalance their immoderate power" www.ft.com/content/85ee...

"Sure, there will be hollering that anything with a capacity for destruction is in conflict with ESG aims. But a combination of government clout, commercial opportunity and investment outperformance will suffice to drown these out." 'war is peace' ... and all that