📻 New episode of #ComputerSaysMaybe Who Knows? Independent Researchers in a Platform Era w/ @geurkink.bsky.social www.themaybe.org/podcast/who-...

PEARSON: “We need new energy to meet the moment. And we need term limits.” COHEN: “Term limits would make Congress worse… I appreciate my interns giving me advice on what I should do with my life.” MEMPHIS TN-9 primary opponents @justinjpearson.bsky.social & @repcohen.bsky.social each on WKNO👇🏽

Going to be at #MozFest tomorrow? Join us for three sessions on data centers, scale, and the role of AI in war:

Computer Says Maybe is taking the stage at @mozilla.org Festival! This weekend, @alixdunn.com will be leading discussions on reclaiming scale in tech, tackling the role of AI in war, exposing the global footprint of data centers, and more.

@mozilla.org is one of the most known and liked brands in public interest tech. This visibility—and the resources from its market share—position Mozilla Foundation to play an important role today. But what should a foundation like Mozilla do in an era of uncritical hype around for-profit AI?

Can a chatbot therapist really replace a human one? The simple answer is, no of course not. But as always, it’s a little more complicated than that. Access to (real, human-to-human) therapy is limited. You need money, and probably have to jump through a lot of hoops.

If you breathe in too much nitrogen oxide, you are at a higher risk for heart disease, lung damage, and more. So why is Elon’s supercomputer allowed to use 33 gas turbines that are pouring nitrogen oxide into Memphis’ air, increasing their NOx levels by 79% in a single year? Turns out, it’s not.

1/6 How do you run a city when tech companies are selling "solutions" for problems they helped create?

There’s nothing sweet about Project Sucre. Curious about this huge project with a euphemistic name? All you get is a fully redacted proposal from the parish. That’s what organizers like @kadeeja.blacksky.app are up against in Louisiana, a state with one of the most strained energy grids in the US.

1/7 Why do all the platforms we love eventually become terrible? There's a name for this all-too-predictable decline, coined by our guest this week, writer and activist Cory Doctorow (@pluralistic.net.web.brid.gy): enshittification.

1/6 Thought we were at peak scam? Well, ScamGPT just entered the chat. This week, we're talking about how generative AI is supercharging the global fraud industry.

I've been feeling a little bit crazy reading the news lately about what's going on in the AI market and what it means for the economy at large. So I'm grateful I got to knit the threads together with @alixdunn.com last week.

1/6 Want to be your own boss? Work from home and achieve financial freedom? This week, we're talking about the original "innovation" that perfected that pitch: the Multi-Level Marketing scheme.

1/2 Amazon planned to build a massive data center in Tucson. If built, Project Blue would have threatened the city’s already scarce water supply. But the community fought back — and won.

1/4 Why does your electricity bill keep going up? A new neighbor might be part of the problem: the massive data centers powering the AI boom.

1/3 Elon Musk’s xAI supercomputer is polluting the air of historically Black neighborhoods in Memphis. Environmental racism meets the AI craze in this new chapter of corporate extraction in Tennessee, and Memphis residents are fighting back.

1/6 They promise you'll get rich quick. They promise it'll change the world. They promise you're getting in early. Sound familiar? First up in our look at scams: crypto. www.themaybe.org/podcast/gotc...

1/3 Who really benefits from the AI data center boom, and what are we sacrificing in return? The public narrative is one of inevitable technological progress. But the reality on the ground for many communities is strained energy grids, drained water supplies, and rising utility costs.

Unfun fact: Some AI data centers are as big as 4 football fields and use as much electricity as 80,000 households. Tech companies are taking up huge amounts of land, power, and water to make AI slop - often against the wishes of local communities. Let’s talk about it.

1/2 AI isn’t just eating up airtime. It’s swallowing our land, our energy, and our water. By expanding data centers to accommodate the AI craze, tech companies are pushing the hand on the doomsday clock forward. Next Wed at 5pm ET, we're streaming live from NYC Climate Week: luma.com/l7m3nzzn

1/3 Hearing a lot about AI and data center expansion? That it's happening quickly, behind closed doors, putting huge demands on strained energy grids, leading to rising utility costs, reversing climate progress, and draining water from communities?

1/6 We've figured out how to speak to millions, but not how to listen to them. The third episode in our #Nodestar series on decentralisation is about building protocols that restructure how we turn networks and disparate data points into knowledge. www.themaybe.org/podcast/node...

1/5 Part 2of Nodestar, our mini series on decentralization, is out today. @alixdunn.com talks with @rudyfraser.com about his endeavor Blacksky Algorithms. www.themaybe.org/podcast/node...

1/9 Today, we launch Nodestar, our new series on making the social web more open. Part one: @mmasnick.bsky.social from Techdirt explains the "Eternal September," the moment in 1993 when a flood of new users reshaped the early internet. www.themaybe.org/podcast/node...

We've just launched a new mini-series on the Computer Says Maybe podcast called Nodestar. We're asking, in this queasy hyper-consolidated tech era, how did things get this bad? Are there signs that domination by a handful of companies is eroding? What might decentralisation offer us?

Athens again. Different hallway, same heat. Part two of our FAccT mini‑series is out. This time, we’re focusing on the people who keep systems running but often get left out of the story. www.themaybe.org/podcast/afte... 1/8

Grok would not stop talking about “white genocide.” Then it tried on MechaHitler. Now Musk floats a kids’ version. We called @nicdawes.bsky.social to make sense of what that really signals. 1/8

Athens felt like a kiln, 35 °C on the street and hotter where the servers hummed. FAccT talked responsible AI inside the air-con. We walked the alleys outside and recorded what the keynotes skipped. Part 1 of a new mini-series just landed. 🎧👇 www.themaybe.org/podcast/afte... 1/6