This is one of our biggest arguments: that OpenAI is vampirizing universities for the cachet and legitimacy that affiliation with higher education affords

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.

In today’s Senate Commerce Hearing the White House endorsed support for federal preemption of state AI laws. The fight against preemption did not disappear with the moratorium—in fact, Sen. Cruz introduced a bill today putting us directly on the path to preemption. A thread on its risks below: 🧵

Oracle is among the latest firms to announce major layoff rounds due to AI - I spoke to @marketplace.org about why shortchanging staff talent is a misplaced gamble: www.marketplace.org/story/2025/0...

Last week, @smw.bsky.social spoke at @atlanticcouncil.bsky.social about the AI arms race and mythologies around AGI. "If policymakers are hinging significant decision making on pursuit of AGI and foregoing near term concerns, that's a risky and irresponsible bet."

New census bureau data shows that the rate of AI adoption by corporations is now in decline - rough news for OpenAI, whose capital expenditure projections are now at an astonishing *$80 billion* above prior estimates: gizmodo.com/ai-adoption-...

Really thrilled about the recognition of Heidy's pathbreaking and deeply necessary work - first in TIME #AI100 and now in MIT Tech Review. Wait till you see what she's cooking up next!

Today at 10:30am ET, the @atlanticcouncil.bsky.social is hosting a conversation with @smw.bsky.social, Kemba Walden, Jayshree Ullal, and others exploring the tech and trust relationships that shape global AI infrastructure. Watch the livestream here: www.atlanticcouncil.org/event/truth-...

Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 Episode 61 “Winning the Race to Hell” www.buzzsprout.com/2126417/epis... in which AI Now Institute’s @kate-brennan.bsky.social and @smw.bsky.social join me and @alexhanna.bsky.social to wade through the muck that is Trump’s AI Action Plan

NEW: DOGE affiliate Chris Sweet has developed an AI tool that is being used to rapidly slash government regulations, according to details of a meeting reviewed by @wired.com. Scoop by me: www.wired.com/story/sweetr...

You have at least four new stops in the llm/ai pipeline: service provider, inference provider, model owner, and infrastructure provider. I wish they would prove that each of these are not just secure for users but that data is being used ethically at each stop!

Only two industries in America are thriving: Big Banks and Big Tech. And they both appear to want only one industry in America to thrive. So they're taking each other on in a series of regulatory fights. From me: prospect.org/power/2025-0...

A more comprehensive analysis for @brennancenter.org of how the Trump administration's latest AI policy could leave us more divided and less informed: www.brennancenter.org/our-work/ana...

An estimated 38% of the total corporate cash savings created by Trump and Republicans’ budget bill will flow to just four Big Tech companies: Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and Alphabet. Just so happens that each donated $1M to Trump’s inauguration. Talk about a return on investment.

📣🚨NEW: ☁️ Big Cloud—Google, Microsoft & Amazon—control two thirds of the cloud compute market. They’re getting rich off the AI gold rush. In new work with @nathanckim.bsky.social, we show how Big Cloud is expanding their empire by scrutinizing their *investments*… 🧵 📄PDF: dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn...

“Calling back to the tech boom of the mid-to-late 90s, investors have been asking about the possibility that this investment cycle for data centres could be a bubble” Huge props to the person who created this graphic for FT lmao

A reminder about the importance of healthcare to every single state www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Senate Approps proposes a $400 million increase to the NIH budget, pushing back on the by $18 billion (40%) decrease proposed in the President's budget. Watch this space.

The evidence on AI’s failures in the classroom is why the AAUP’s latest report on AI in higher education calls for faculty control in AI decisions - read their survey here: www.aaup.org/news/new-rep...

HAPPENING TODAY at 6PM ET | 3PM PT: Join us, @smw.bsky.social with @ainowinstitute.bsky.social. and Sharon Lewis with CT Coalition for Economic and Environmental Justice as we break down how Trump's AI action plan threatens to accelerate harms to our people and climate. bit.ly/our-techfuture

We’re featuring @smw.bsky.social, Co-ED at @ainowinstitute.bsky.social, and more‬, who will discuss the implications of Trump's AI plan and how we can fight back. Join us 7/30 at 6PM ET by registering today ⬇️

Trump wanted to break up Nvidia — but then its CEO won him over

NEW: U.S. Border Patrol says it needs "advanced AI" to "identify and track suspicious activity in urban environment[s]" and "dense residential areas," according to a presentation document I obtained theintercept.com/2025/07/23/c...

What Arkansas teaches us about Medicaid cuts coming to the rest of the nation. @kevindeliban.bsky.social of @techtonicjustice.bsky.social explains youtu.be/isSvH6oX8TM?... Bureaucratic hurdles are by design (& likely won’t pay for the infrastructure needed to build them).

more evidence for “a bunch of AI cultists dismantled large parts of the federal government because they believed that their LLMs were intelligent and could do the work better” thesis

Big tech promotes the story that since ChatGPT burst onto the scene, AI has been so popular it's rushed to meet the demand. The reality is different. A study by design scholars shows tech co's have had to push AI on its users with a variety of intrusive tactics. How big tech is force-feeding us AI:

A year ago I used the term "surveillance pricing" to describe companies taking your personal data and weaponizing it to set individualized prices. Just a year later, a bill in Congress proposes banning the practice, supplementing several state bills. I talked to the author, @repcasar.bsky.social:

🔥 from @hellobrittparis.bsky.social Lindsey Weinberg, and Emma May around the weaponization of AI in higher ed. academeblog.org/2025/07/22/f...

The WH is promising a ‘new frontier of scientific discovery’ even as it defunds our universities. The AI Action Plan serves only the bottom lines of a few oligarchs - that’s why we and 100+ orgs are uniting behind a People’s AI Action Plan. Read here: peoplesaiaction.com

In our new policy brief for @datasociety.bsky.social, @mwoluchem.bsky.social and I break down the myths and industry talking points attached to data centers. Who benefits from unbridled data center growth and who is most at risk when such speculative ventures fail?

When the data center lobby comes knocking, local officials might be drawn in by the supposed economic benefits that data centers can bring. And the public is told that data centers are our collective destiny, that we have no choice but to build ever more sprawling data centers at a frantic pace

Privileged to be a part of this project, led by the incomparable Britt Paris.

I spoke with @davidingram.bsky.social at NBC last week about the Pentagon’s announcement of several multimillion dollar contracts with commercial AI firms for natsec uses - a dangerous move that risks making our critical infrastructure vulnerable: www.nbcnews.com/tech/securit...

Exclusive: Stargate, an effort to supercharge the U.S.’s artificial-intelligence ambitions, has sharply scaled back its near-term plans.

The study finds that in 2022 over 26% of systems reviewed gave a disclaimed that they aren’t providing medical advice. Now? Less than 1%.

Trying to think of other revolutionary products that consumers repeatedly had to be tricked into paying for rather than ones that consumers loved and demanded

"RealPage will integrate Livble into its property management software & handle “all collections.”Last year,the US DoJ & several states sued RealPage over claims that it monopolized the market for commercial revenue management software used to set price of apartments" www.theverge.com/news/710036/...

Today the OpenAI Nonprofit Commission released a report asserting OpenAI is ‘positioned to be a force of good in this Age of Intelligence’. The report also claims that AI Now was among the orgs participating in the listening process that led to this report. We did not.

Remember: There is nothing natural or inevitable about extreme inequality; it’s the result of an economic system that values wealth and power over human dignity and justice. It doesn't have to be this way.

"The ESM also did not identify 1709 patients with sepsis (67%) despite generating alerts for an ESM score of 6 or higher for 6971 of all 38 455 hospitalized patients (18%), thus creating a large burden of alert fatigue."

AI Now Co-Executive Directors @smw.bsky.social and @ambakak.bsky.social sat down with @alixdunn.com at @themaybe.org to discuss the key takeaways from Artificial Power, @ainowinstitute.bsky.social's 2025 landscape report. Listen to the full podcast episode here: www.themaybe.org/podcast/maki...

Big Tech’s power "is contingent on a public that is submissive [and] passive,” as @ambakak.bsky.social says in Brian Bergstein’s @bostonglobe.com piece. But that's changing. The public is reasserting power and demanding a say in our technological future. shorturl.at/i8cf5

. @kate-brennan.bsky.social sat down with @novasafo.bsky.social at Marketplace to speak about algorithmic decision systems’ impact on people's everyday lives, like deciding whether someone qualifies for a bank loan or whether a rental application is approved. www.marketplace.org/episode/2025...

We've been tracking the 'AI arms race' and its use both to avert regulation and accelerate AI development - for a deeper dive, read more here: ainowinstitute.org/publications...

🛰️ New article co-authored by the Citizen Lab's @gabriellelim.bsky.social discusses the risks of privatized space technology. Published in @techpolicypress.bsky.social Read it here: www.techpolicy.press/a-match-made...

Watch @smw.bsky.social @bcmerchant.bsky.social @ruchowdh.bsky.social break it down in this excellent primer by @moreperfectunion.bsky.social on the mythologies that sustain Big Tech AI power; and how we might pull the rug from under them!

The industry is not even hiding the ball that replacing workers, not providing cutting edge new solutions, is the main business case. This is from industry coverage quoting Satya Nadella himself!

Many AI firms have coasted on the assurance they can experiment in the wild without worrying much about compliance with existing law - now we all agree a 10 year ban would be a wildly irresponsible move, it’s time for policymakers to get down to business (for real this time)

"Experts said state health exchanges’ use of advertising trackers was troubling if not entirely surprising. Such tools can help organizations to reach visitors and tailor ads for them."