Elon Musk is “actively” working to make xAI’s Grok chatbot “more unhinged, according to a former employee.

With data centers expected to become the largest source of electricity demand in the Pacific Northwest, Washington legislators are pressing ahead with a bill aimed at protecting the grid and offsetting potential hikes for utility ratepayers. washingtonstatestandard.com/2026/02/11/h...

Privacy laws should have a private right of action. Read my argument as to why: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Commercial Surveillance marketing shaped online operations since start, now enables role Gen AI plays in disinformation. As AI by Platforms/Brands unleash real-time personalized media omnichannel, fake will become more commonplace. Digital media reform req'd. Background ex: bit.ly/3M4h09u

Paris prosecutors raid the French offices of Elon Musk’s X as part of an investigation into spreading child pornography and deepfakes.

Punxsutawney Phil predicted an already long and cold winter across much of the United States will go on for another six weeks when he saw his shadow. nbcbay.com/KarzqRQ

A Minnesota woman observing ICE agents in her car was cornered on one-way streets. An agent approached, called her by name—citing facial recognition. Days later, her Global Entry and TSA privileges were revoked, with no explanation.

I wrote this yesterday about the hero city of Minneapolis www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKOW...

TikTok in the US has been filled with errors all day, and appears to be disconnected from the global TikTok platform.

I know it's hard to track all the threats to democracy out there right now, but this is at the top of the list.

NEW: The Transportation Department, which oversees the safety of airplanes, cars and pipelines, plans to use Google Gemini to draft new regulations. “We don’t need the perfect rule,” said DOT’s top lawyer. “We want good enough.” By @jessecoburn.bsky.social

Time to dump ChatGPT! The latest model of ChatGPT has begun to cite Elon Musk’s Grokipedia as a source on a wide range of queries, including on Iranian conglomerates and Holocaust deniers, raising concerns about misinformation on the platform.

How much AI is to blame for the fragile entry-level job market is unclear. Several research studies show AI is hitting young college-educated workers disproportionately, but broader economic forces are part of the story, too.

NEW: Giants outfielder Jung Hoo Lee was detained at Los Angeles International Airport, his agent Scott Boras told the San Francisco Chronicle. nbcbay.com/DVG9J5H

Am I really still having anxiety dreams about skipping a class and then trying to find notes to take a final exam? College was traumatic apparently.

ICE has become Bluesky’s 3rd most-blocked account after receiving official verification. Users recommend direct blocks or curated blocklists targeting all U.S. government accounts. The White House and VP JD Vance remain the most blocked accounts on Bluesky. 1/2

Secretary Marco Rubio claimed no one died as a result of cuts to USAID. That’s not what we found. On Thurs., Jan. 22 at 4 p.m. ET, we’ll be on Reddit taking your questions about the continued fallout of slashing aid for some of the world’s most vulnerable communities. 📌 Save the date:

Two members of Elon Musk's DOGE team working at the Social Security Administration were secretly in touch with an advocacy group seeking to "overturn election results in certain states," and one signed an agreement that may have involved using Social Security data to match state voter rolls.

First known claim has been filed with the US Supreme Court against xAI over the generation and distribution of non-consensual, sexually explicit deepfake images of by AI chatbot Grok. iapps.courts.state.ny.us/fbem/Documen...

Not even in the top 100 worst ethical lapses in Trump's presidency, but the Secretary of Labor apparently had her staffers create fraudulent records of fake work trips so she could take time off (and have an affair with a subordinate) news.bloomberglaw.com/product/blaw...

For those keeping score, Bellingcat, The New York Times Visual Investigation Team, & Washington Post's Visual Forensic team have all published analysis showing the ICE shooter wasn't in the path of Renee Nicole Good’s vehicle when he shot her, contradicting statements by the President & his cronies

WITNESS: "I just can't let this narrative of self-defense go any further. That’s absolutely not what it was… ICE agents didn’t let anyone help her for 15 minutes, then medics couldn’t get through with their ambulance.”

According to exclusive MLex reporting, X's Grok chatbot has been ordered to retain and hand over algorithm-related platform data to the European Commission www.mlex.com/mlex/article...

Literally no mention in the mainstream news of the 5th Anniversary of Trump supporters attempting to violently overthrow the U.S Government.

What in the Gestapo is going on in Grand Rapids? Watch this activist get arrested *mid-interview* for speaking out against U.S. action in Venezuela.

The author of a viral Reddit thread alleging fraud at a food delivery company tried to back up his claim by sending me AI-generated documents. Today I'm publishing those documents in the hopes that it helps other reporter see what we're up against in the age of AI www.platformer.news/fake-uber-ea...

He put his complete trust in a chat bot that turned him into a savage murderer.

Vought holds one of the most powerful jobs in D.C., and he’s used his position to wage a quiet war to change the shape of the entire U.S. government. Here's what you should know about Trump’s shadow president.

what a shocking turn of events who could’ve seen this coming

Internal documents and former company executives revealed how Cigna doctors rejected patients’ claims without opening their files. “We literally click and submit,” one former company doctor said. (Published March 2023 w/ @capitolforum.bsky.social)

How much of your drinkable water does AI need?💦 An AI data centre boom is coming to #Canada & cooling the tech’s infrastructure requires massive amounts of clean water, CBC’s Jonathan Montpetit tried to dig up the numbers he found a murky business with little oversight.🤬 www.cbc.ca/player/play/...

X.AI LLC v. Bonta xAI filed a federal lawsuit alleging a California law requiring AI companies to reveal their training data is an unconstitutional “trade-secrets-destroying disclosure regime” that threatens the industry. Credits: Titus Wu Source: lnkd.in/eB3zEj-x.

California’s first-in-the-nation AI safety law includes whistleblower protections, but concessions narrowed them sharply, limiting coverage to select safety staff and requiring serious harm or extreme risk before employees are protected, leaving insiders vulnerable to retaliation.

WASH POST: “Corporate bankruptcies surged in 2025, rivaling levels not seen since the immediate aftermath of the Great Recession, as import-dependent businesses absorbed the highest tariffs in decades.” www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

Nothing better than an amazing dad whose love language is acts of service.

The Google parent company said the acquisition would increase data center capacity to meet growing demand for AI.

The AI gold rush has been a boon for San Francisco restaurants — especially ones that can accommodate high-dollar requests from the cash-rich companies and their employees.

My latest Substack piece on AI and if our political class is ready: substack.com/@katiephang/...

started / going

As the former Google Associate General Counsel for web search -- a product built on scraping third party content without permission -- I'm having a lot of trouble processing Google's new lawsuit against someone else for scraping search results. storage.googleapis.com/gweb-uniblog...

NEW: A Texas district in which Black students were allegedly taunted with monkey noises. An Arizona school where students admitted saying “slavery is good.” These are some of the incidents Trump’s Education Department has ignored:

This is like if Tyson stopped selling consumer chicken. RAM is about to cost as much as a brand new pc. The cost of everything from tablets, to phones, to laptops will skyrocket. All because AI data centers are consuming all the available RAM they can get. www.pcgamer.com/hardware/the...

#AIMoratorium pulled from #NDAA. Great work by @calprivacy.bsky.social team on raising awareness of issues with the AI Moratorium. See cppa.ca.gov/announcement... for the concerns we raised.

Disappointed to see this. 160 union workers are fighting for a fair contract at Individualized Shirts, a US factory that makes high-end men's button-ups. The managers there have rejected the union's request for fair wages and health insurance. The union is asking for support 🧵

Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea

Relying on ChatGPT to teach you about a topic leaves you with shallower knowledge than Googling and reading about it, according to new research that compared what more than 10,000 people knew after using one method or the other. Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq

Altman’s plan “to build 250 gigawatts of capacity by 2033” to power data centers would result in OpenAI consuming nearly the same amount of electricity as the 1.5 billion people who populate India.via @truthdig.bsky.social www.truthdig.com/articles/the...

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