People are treating AIs like gurus, soulmates, even therapists — and the fallout is getting dark. Teen bans. Lawsuits. Delusions. Even OpenAI’s own data shows millions of users showing signs of suicidal intent, emotional dependence, or psychosis every week. We’re entering a new era where our

Three major insurers just asked regulators to let them exclude A.I.-related losses entirely. They say the risks are “unpriceable.” When the risk people want no part of you, that’s trouble. #AI #TechUpdate #AIBubble #InsuranceCrisis #TechPolicy #ArtificialIntelligence #JacobWard

Meta’s A.I. scientist just quit the LLM arms race… politely. Yann LeCun is out, starting his own company, and openly saying LLMs will never reach superintelligence. Translation: The A.I. era just cracked down the middle.

Trump’s leaked AI order would BAN all state AI laws — the only real protections we have. California, Colorado, Illinois… gone. And 80% of Americans actually want regulation. This isn’t about innovation — it’s about removing the last democratic guardrails we have. Full breakdown in today’s episode

A huge turnout of incredibly smart and engaged folks from all corners of tech, academia, and the law on Monday night for my talk on the rise of AI psychosis. Give Scholar a follow so you can attend the next one! #ai #artificialintelligence #tech Subscribe to the podcast and newsletter for free at

The Wall Street Journal‘s latest expose reveals that what I wrote about back in 2018 for The New York Times magazine has now turned into a full-fledged industr. Silicon Valley billionaires are seeking to genetically edit babies, not just to avoid disease but to choose the embryos most likely to be

You WANT the surprise, believe me. #citylife #travel Subscribe to the podcast and newsletter for free at TheRipCurrent.com!

The cultural allergy to AI’s effect on the brain - and the lawsuits that will follow - are the first steps in pushing back effectively. #ai #llm #chatgpt #claude #technology Subscribe to the podcast and newsletter for free at TheRipCurrent.com!

There’s an art and strategy to holding out effectively, and unfortunately doing it wrong and giving up early erases the value you’ve created up to that point. That’s what the Dems seem to have done here. #democrats #politics Subscribe to the podcast and newsletter for free at

Shutdown air travel tips! Don’t fly if you don’t have to, fly on a Wednesday or Saturday, and snack up HARD before you get on board. #airport #travel #shutdown #airplane Subscribe to the podcast and newsletter for free at TheRipCurrent.com!

These are high-quality problems, I know. If you don’t surf feel free to keep scrolling. #surfing #surf #beach #beachvibes Subscribe to the podcast and newsletter for free at TheRipCurrent.com!

The Djerassi art hike is an incredible and haunting experience. (And as my Mom pointed out “it should be a feminist pilgrimage site.”) 10/10 would recommend. #art #artist #nature #mentalhealthmatters Subscribe to the podcast and newsletter for free at TheRipCurrent.com!

See you in Oakland at Mad Oak for Pub Scholar on Monday November 10th at 6:30pm. Get your tickets on Eventbrite. Hope to see you there! Subscribe to the podcast and newsletter for free at TheRipCurrent.com!

@byjacobward.bsky.social co-hosts Tech News Weekly with @mikahsargent.com: New tips for spotting AI-generated videos, OpenAI's disclosure of mental health stats in user chats, & AI browser risks. + @ozoneartfoundry.com shares news from Adobe Max's annual creativity conference. twit.tv/tnw/411

How I spotted AI early and began writing The Loop: How AI is Creating a World without Choices and How to Fight Back, from a recent episode of Futures Podcast with Damiani. #ai #llm #tech #psychology Subscribe to the podcast and newsletter for free at TheRipCurrent.com!

If you're an assignment editor looking for a stringer to cover COP30, Friday's the deadline for registration, and Tiffany's a great hire!

Am I addicted? Episode 8 of The Rip Current with Jacob Ward grapples with the big questions we all seem to have right now about our habits and our self control. (And I tell the story of my own twisted path away from alcohol.) Please listen, like and share wherever you get your podcasts!l

A really thoughtful and companionable group. I’d join you three anytime!

Today I’m recording an episode of The Rip Current with Toomas Ilves, former president of Estonia, who helped turn it into one of the most technologically sophisticated democracies in the world. Taxes paid in two minutes on your phone. Voting done that way too. What questions do you have for him?

What exactly is democracy good for? It’s complicated. Listen to Episode 07 of The Rip Current on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts! #democracy #america #human #humanity #podcast #protest

Democracy vs The Illusion of Democracy

On Monday I’m interviewing an expert on addiction for my podcast The Rip Current. The big theme is how we went from the attention economy to the addiction economy, but I’m also of course going to touch on my own alcohol abuse, gambling, and why Americans hate admitting we have a problem. What else?

@noupside.bsky.social on why the craziest folks get all the attention online, while reasonable voices and choices get ignored. Listen to the full episode of The Rip Current wherever you get your podcasts!

The relentless gaslighting you see everywhere in political discourse right now? It's called DARVO — Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender. It's a term coined by psychology professor Jennifer Freyd. Listen to my interview with her on The Rip Current, wherever you get your podcasts.

We’re in the upside-down, where lying has no cost. How did we get here? @jjfreyd.bsky.social knows. Since the 90s she’s tracked the misbehavior of public figures and the ways that institutions betray us. Her work on DARVO changed my life. Paid subscribers can watch at TheRipCurrent.com now!

In the FIRST EPISODE of @byjacobward.bsky.social's Rip Current podcast, he interviews our very own @cbracy.bsky.social about her new book “World Eaters: How Venture Capital is Cannibalizing the Economy.” Check it out: theripcurrent.substack.com/p/the-rip-cu...

Tonight I won’t be just shouting at the television. For a change I’ll be shouting at my camera with Don Lemon @donlemonofficial.bsky.social as part of his post-speech coverage on YouTube. See you after Trump finishes, whenever that is! youtube.com/@thedonlemon...

Insiders at CFPB walked me through all the bad scams and schemes coming our way in a world without them protecting us, and it's pretty alarming. Even legit companies won't have enough reason to treat you fairly. Catch the whole thing on my YT channel, and subscribe at TheRipCurrent.com!

I spent the weekend interviewing CFPB insiders who were fired last week by Elon Musk's unofficial DOGE group. They paint an alarming picture of our financial future if there's no cop on the beat. Read what they say you now have to watch for, at TheRipCurrent.com⁠open.substack.com/pub/theripcu...se

A look at why the tech world's assumption that it gets unlimited do-overs makes it the wrong training to run the government. Read the latest and subscribe at TheRipCurrent.com! www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7K2...

I deeply wish this app supported long-form video, as that's my main shtick, and thus, while I don't want to be pointing you anywhere else, here's my latest video essay on my own racism and the nation's fresh embrace of it. www.youtube.com/watch?v=9J4i...

This week at The Rip Current I try to unpack the insidious shift from a dodging of responsibility for racism to an outright embracing of it. Here's how to spot it and call it out. open.substack.com/pub/theripcu...

🚨BREAKING. From a program officer at the National Science Foundation, a list of keywords that can cause a grant to be pulled. I will be sharing screenshots of these keywords along with a decision tree. Please share widely. This is a crisis for academic freedom & science.

The real emergency is over at NIH, which was actually putting AI to productive, life-saving use. Don’t let the headlines mislead you as to what’s important here. open.substack.com/pub/theripcu...

Sometimes Substack really comes through.

Billionaire rivalries, totally unregulated AI, and the ridiculous name they chose for a $500B project are all in the latest post at TheRipCurrent.com.

I get into all sorts of meaningful analysis about Taiwan’s example and public-private partnerships and billionaire rivalries, but fuck it here’s the petty thing that occurred to me first. Read and subscribe at TheRipCurrent.com!

From avian flu to Chinese dominance of raw materials, Trump’s got his work cut out for him. The easy wins are already over. Read more at TheRipCurrent.com. #technology #science #china

TikTok’s ban screen just went live and specifically mentions Trump turning it around. This moment is a new kind of weird, and about to be new kinds of weirder.

There it is. Anybody else?

Here’s how the TikTok ban went sideways, and what it tells us about the deeply undemocratic state of American social media. open.substack.com/pub/theripcu...

Think the TikTok ban can’t happen? It’s happened before. Slate asked to reprint my latest from The Rip Current, bless them. More at TheRipCurrent.com! slate.com/technology/2...

Meta announced this morning it’s doing away with its fact-checking teams. I once assumed these companies’ vast resources meant they would do the responsible fact-checking that my publication could not. I couldn’t have been more wrong. And today really stings. open.substack.com/pub/theripcu...

I grew up the son of a doting stay-at-home Dad, and even I had to learn to rebalance who does what in our home. Here’s a holiday meditation on how men can and must make marriage better. open.substack.com/pub/theripcu...

“The platforms whose business model led us here don’t seem interested in replacing the civic function of journalism, and the market value of objective reporting has collapsed.” Subscribe for more at TheRipCurrent.com!

(1) Coffee and billionaires this Saturday morning. On The Rip Current I’m writing about Why Billionaires Obey in Advance, and the pre-Trump scramble that has made clear where the ultra-rich stand. theripcurrent.substack.com/p/why-billio...

The myth of the moral billionaire is being disassembled in the pre-Trump scramble. Read more at TheRipCurrent.com.

Hey, surprise, ancient instincts are getting us into a ton of trouble in the modern world. This week's "scary shit that has us in its grasp" is "altruistic punishment" and the way it can do good, and the way it can do very, very bad. Subscribe at TheRipCurrent.com!

The ban is making headlines today, but TikTok’s role in overturning Romania’s elections is the news to follow. Today I’m writing about the dizzying gap between what American lawmakers say they worry about, and what they allow.

Federal judges have just ruled that the TikTok ban can and will go forward next month if it isn’t sold to a US company. Here’s my explanation of the rationale on Chris Hayes’s show. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...