I loved this reflection on the virtues of physical media and what it says about the rot of friction-free surveillance platforms. I still have a tape player in my car and to date no other music medium brings me more joy.

About to go on my first true work-free vacation of 2025 (I hope)! This is one of my final stories for the year, about the extremely humanlike chatbots we've been given and whether they should be that way. Happy holidays, here's a gift article: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/t...

Slop, slop, everywhere. @jessicasilbey.bsky.social & I are working on on a project that explores the concept of of AI "slop" as a legal frame. We think it could be useful as a way to talk about a phenomena that has distinct features (and risks) at scale. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Just happen to be reading this today: “Privacy nicks come from the proliferation of cameras and biometric sensors on doorbells, glasses, and watches, and the drift of surveillance and data analytics into new areas of our lives like travel, exercise, and social gatherings.”

This is, of course, always where this was headed. Things will only get worse as facial recognition becomes normalized unless lawmakers ban it outright. Next up: precautionary facial surveillance of everyone, all the time, just in case (with guardrails that will also eventually be rolled back).

Very excited that my book with @daniel-solove.bsky.social, "Breached!" has now been published in Chinese.

Online casino and betting site Stake emailed customers saying their personal data was stolen in Mixpanel's breach. Stake says usernames, email addresses, dates of birth & phone numbers were compromised. That's OpenAI, CoinTracker, CoinLedger, SwissBorg, SoundCloud, Pornhub & Stake affected so far.

“…the feature helps Ring determine who is visiting your house based on their apparel, actions, and what they are holding, and responds accordingly.” Doorbells with dress codes now. 🤷🏿‍♂️

If we are banning cell phones for kids we need to be talking about banning chatbots for boomers www.persuasion.community/p/my-chatgpt...

Behind the gig economy’s promise of flexibility is a game designed to keep workers hooked, argues George Augustus Bachmann. Algorithms, opaque pay rules, and gamified incentives push drivers and freelancers to work more without benefits or stability.

Amid the AI investment boom, cities and counties across the US are pulling the emergency brake on data centers, writes Jenna Ruddock. From Maryland to Missouri, at least fourteen states are home to towns or counties that have implemented moratoriums: a complete pause on data center development.

NEW: A hacker gained control of 1,100 mobile phones powering covert, AI-generated ads on TikTok. Then, he shared details of the operation with 404 Media. A look inside how startup Doublespeed, which is backed by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), is creating AI spam pages on TikTok to promote products.

Everything in the fire. Everything. Spend as much money as possible. We must spend more and more money or else we will expire. Sam Altman must spend every dollar otherwise how will he possibly make more money more money spend more money make money spend money

Y tho.

A majority of Americans are fearful of the rapid growth of AI and want to tax the obscene wealth of its billionaires. Yet neither political party cares much about the will of the people. Money talks. Democracy walks We need an anti-AI party. My final 2025 column www.inquirer.com/columnists/a...

Did you know that from tomorrow, Qualtrics is offering synthetic panels (AI-generated participants)? Follow me down a rabbit hole I'm calling "doing science is tough and I'm so busy, can't we just make up participants?"

Wrong question.

What if this take is entirely wrong?

I’m not a narcissist but I would believe you if you told me that this entire thing has been engineered specifically to drive me, a professor at a public university in Texas who teaches First Amendment and writes about AI, out of my mind

Well, this is an utter disaster for science. This gutting of peer review is very likely driven by Project 2025/OMB/Vought, very likely is about funding junk science, and very likely is coming for #NIH and biomedical research next. 🧪

“At Texas A&M, internal emails show staff are using AI software to search syllabi and course descriptions for words that could raise concerns under new system policies restricting how faculty teach about race and gender.” www.texastribune.org/2025/12/15/t...

You're walking home from the gym when you're stopped by FBI officers in an unmarked car. They handcuff you, even though you tell them you're a US citizen. Then, they scan your face. 23-year-old Jesus Gutiérrez recounts his experience to @revealnews.org and 404 Media:

Bad content drives out good. www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/i-was-forc...

So we're taking away from actual, needed physical infrastructure investments to create plagiarism machines. Got it.

AI continues to go just great.

Who could have predicted?

This is, of course, always where this was headed. It will only get worse.

CDT President & CEO @alexreevegivens.bsky.social: “This executive order is designed to chill state-level action to provide oversight and accountability for the developers and deployers of #AI systems, while doing nothing to address the real and documented harms these systems can create.”

Excellent new book alert!

AI continues to go just great.

"AI is the asbestos in the walls of our technological society, stuffed there with wild abandon by a finance sector and tech monopolists run amok. We will be excavating it for a generation or more." This piece on AI by Cory Doctorow is spectactular. pluralistic.net/2025/12/05/p...