Unaffordable electricity is fast becoming a major source of insecurity in the U.S. AI data centers are devouring power—and causing light bills to skyrocket—while private equity giants like Blackstone buy up utilities to extract maximum profit. This really needs to be a bigger story.

It's official: House Speaker Mike Johnson FINALLY swore in Rep. Adelita Grijalva, the Arizona Democrat who promises to be the 218th vote needed to release the Epstein files.

Please join the Coalition at 1 PM (EST) on November 17th for “Generative AI as Feminist Methodology,” a Cheryl Glenn Advancing the Agenda webinar. Register here: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

A Year of Refusal refusinggenai.wordpress.com/2025/11/12/a... @nobugsnous.bsky.social, @rcmeg.bsky.social and I wrote a lil anniversary post as it's been *a year* (in more ways than one!) since we first posted the Refusing GenAI in Writing Studies Quickstart Guide

"Everyone should have the right to refuse to engage with technologies that harm them, their students, and the planet." And many are refusing!

Such vital work. Nearly everyday a new data center proposal pops up across the US—using the same shady, secretive tactics & playbook of promises. We are at an urgent moment to build coalitions against the extractive fossil fuel surveillance factories being built in the name of economic development.

This. I also dont think it's an either/or; institutions & systems are made up of individuals who can & do effect systemic change. This critique at times comes across as an excuse for folks to do nothing but reinforce the status quo and suggests limited understanding of how rhetoric works.

Just read a talk announcement about "AI" and K-12 education that looked like it maybe, maybe embedded a critical perspective but was still dressed up in the language of AI hype, presupposing both job market & education "reshaped by AI". 🧵>>

We are certainly facing a lot of systemic problems which should not be individualized, but at the same time, I believe that academics hold a certain amount of power, and it is worth being thoughtful about how we use that power, including the framing of our work.

On earnings calls, Amazon & Microsoft said the real AI bottleneck isn't chip, it's electricity. Bloomberg writes about two Santa Clara data centers siting empty, facing a 1-3 year lead time for power. Some cases take up to 7. It’s a bad time to have a government hostile to solar and wind energy.

The FDA will ask drug companies to remove “black box” warnings for hormones prescribed to treat symptoms of menopause. @AliRogin talks to @MartyMakary to.pbs.org/47BjYdD

Let my gravestone read "PUNCTUATION GOES INSIDE THE QUOTATION MARKS."

every time one opens the Times, you expect psychic damage. but this? this is an assault on the frontal cortex

A linguist at UMN shared this with me today, which I thought was a really helpful discussion of genAI in the classroom as a conversation around consent. refusinggenai.wordpress.com/2025/08/29/a...

ohhh, I see. They're going to try and remake higher ed the way they did with tech, by flooding the zone with frauds who crowd out any reasonable discussion

“And then you have librarians who are experiencing a real existential crisis because they are getting asked by their jobs to promote [AI] tools that produce more misinformation. It's the most, like, emperor-has-no-clothes-type situation that I have ever witnessed.” - Alison Macrina

There are no words for how evil this is

“authors & publishers who filed a lawsuit against the Sam Altman-led firm have secured access to internal Slack messages… discussing the mass deletion of a pirated books dataset… A NY district court ordered OpenAI to hand over the communications regarding data deletion” futurism.com/artificial-i...

I’m sure it’s just coincidence, but it really seems like once a publication partners with an ai company, they start featuring a lot more stories like this.

Americans have spoken and they demand wokeness

Here's another bit of conventional wisdom Zohran completely blew away: His speech was at well above a 10th-grade level. It was complex, erudite, punctuated by deep and fluent references. You don't have to condescend to voters with baby talk! Part of re-establishing norms is speaking like an adult.

Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor of New York City on Tuesday, defeating Andrew Cuomo for the second time in five months and capping a stunning rise from obscurity to the helm of the nation’s largest city.

Hugely important academic paper repository arXiv says it will no longer accept Computer Science papers that are still under review due to the wave of AI-generated ones it has received. This will radically change preprint and open access scientific research www.404media.co/arxiv-change...

The second CCCC Reading Circle on Land, Labor, Water & Writing: The Costs of Generative AI in the Writing Classroom is on Wed, Dec 10 @ 4–5 PM ET. Looking forward to discussing @dustinedwards.bsky.social's Enduring Digital Damage w/@hannahhopkins.bsky.social & @donniejsackey.bsky.social!

Huge thanks to Sherita Roundtree, @planbreakeramy.bsky.social & all presenters for a lovely CCCC Virtual Institute yesterday. Really enjoyed the sessions I was able to attend as they encouraged me to do more intentional public engagement and inquiry in my future courses.

“A growing number of lawsuits over the last two years have focused on harm to minors, saying they [chatbots] have unlawfully encouraged self-harm, sexual and psychological abuse, and violent behavior.”

“I watched what I valued in my education slip away. What could have been an insightful and reciprocal conversation turned one-sided and transactional.” Another great AI-refusal piece by a current student. refusinggenai.wordpress.com/2025/08/29/a...

A very good point - the right to refuse to use genAI must be enshrined as a principle of academic ethics

Eminently reasonable proposed principles for professors’ use of AI, from a student refusinggenai.wordpress.com/2025/08/29/a...

i hate that AI has now caused me to question the authenticity of cute animal videos online, which is my primary use of social media. i don't even know if this baby penguin actually wore a beret to go buy a tiny baguette in paris

“A data centre is not green, it's not good for the environment,” ... “It involves the destruction of large parcels of land and in this case mature forest, old growth forest, wetlands, [peat bog]. They use inordinate amounts of water for cooling and energy to run.” www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

In this moment, coal miners turned their red bandanas into a symbol of solidarity — both to distinguish themselves from the enemy and to show that, across racial lines, coal miners were united along class interests For this reason, they were known as the "Redneck Army."

“The videos show how Meta has built an entire supply chain for dangerous, privacy violating content on the internet. It sells glasses that allow people to surreptitiously film others in public and operates a social network where inflammatory, outrageous content is rewarded and monetized…”

Amazon is laying off 30,000 workers, after CEO Andrew Jassy laid the groundwork by talking up the productivity gains from AI over the summer, saying they'd need fewer employees. Amazon's own workers, meanwhile, say that's BS. AI hasn't been "transformational"—AMZ just needs the $$ for data centers.

Really wish we hadn't created a society where the worst people have all the power and use it to steal resources, oppress the rest of us, & run cover for each other while they're stealing said resources and oppressing said rest of us. Kleptocrats lying about resource extraction comes as no surprise.

There's been endless talk about an AI bubble, but less about exactly how, why, and how much it's a bubble. So I turned to the framework put forward by scholars Brent Goldfarb and David A. Kirsch, authors of "Bubbles and Crashes," for assessing tech bubbles. Spoiler: On a scale of 1 to 8, AI is an 8

The impracticality is clear. I also bet you dollars to donuts that admins intend to use an AI tool to analyze all these new, incoherent metrics to discipline academic labor and rationalize labor cuts.

the democratic party’s basic problem is it has almost no control over how its message reaches the ears of voters, especially outside of presidential election years. but rather than devote serious time, attention and cash to that problem its consultants and pundits want to fight factional battles

I cannot tell you how many tech journalists at prominent media organizations do not understand this

„I’d like our educational institutions, at least, to lead with the message that these generative AI programs as they currently exist simply cannot be used ethically. That doesn’t mean unenforceable bans, but it does mean telling the truth.“

„What if I told you that when the dude left your house, he was going to a troubled teenager to help them commit suicide? If he wrote their suicide note? If, when the teenager expressed hesitation, he persuaded him not to tell his parents? Are you still going to call the dude to do your homework?“

Oh no the stupid consequences of stupid actions

my favorite quote from this very thoughtful student piece on AI: "Not only do we not need it, but there are so many potential risks, and harmful effects, for individuals and society."

One good way to obliterate all credibility with just three simple words is to say "ethical AI use"

This is exactly why I have been telling everyone I can to stop anthropomorphizing AI. Stop calling it a "thought partner" or "assistant".

"To tell students not to use AI for the work that was AI-generated for us is, in my opinion, beyond ridiculous. She wants to know what we know. It’s only fair that the same should apply to teachers." Thanks, Scout Snider, for telling it like it is. And @jsanofranchini.bsky.social for sharing.

There's still time to register for the 2025 CCCC Fall Virtual Institute on Teaching Writing as a Public Good, happening on Mon, Nov 3! $60 for members, $30 for students. View the Program: cccc.ncte.org/cccc/2025-cc... To Register: my.ncte.org/event-inform...

New Post: A High Schooler’s Perspective on Generative AI by Scout Snider refusinggenai.wordpress.com/2025/10/22/a... "To tell students not to use AI for the work that was AI-generated for us is, in my opinion, beyond ridiculous."

When folks explain how genAI chatbots are useful, I'm often left wondering if they forgot that search engines exist.