The picture we've all been waiting for: #AlaaIsFree h/t: Mohamed Elbaqer

Egyptian authorities announced the presidential pardon of prominent activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah after six years in prison, according to his lawyer Khaled Ali and an announcement by state TV.

Social Media Reduced Two Horrific Killings to Cheap Snuff Films By Zeynep Tufekci www.nytimes.com/2025/09/13/o...

Egypt's president Sisi has ordered authorities to study the possible pardon of Egyptian-British activist and blogger, Alaa Abd el-Fattah, who has already served an unjust 5 year sentence www.reuters.com/world/uk/egy...

Pssst ... @zey.bsky.social let me know when that other moment approaches! Highlighted part in your last graf is what we do at Starling Lab, an academic research program based jointly at Stanford + USC. So happy you're casting a light on this emerging field of authenticity. We share your concerns!

AI video is almost there: no amount of post-hoc squinting can tell fake from real. Losing our last bastion of verification is no joke. Trusted news can help with high-profile events, but what about everyday life? Recipe for chaos. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/11/o...

This is very important. From the start ChatGPT- the name, the interface- was designed to make us view it as 'like us' & capable of thought, not just a collection of numbers for text prediction. Creating a social role for an LLM is more imp. than the LLM itself, and it's where any profit comes from.

Plausibility engine is such a great way to think of LLM's

This is a great essay: L.L.M.s are what they eat

Nice piece on the dangers of LLMs. I liked the description as “plausibility engines” and not “truth seekers” or “reasoning machines”

I wrote about Grok going "MechaHitler" over at X, and the need to view LLMs correctly: as remarkably powerful plausibility engines. Their AGI marketing and the strong inclination to project human qualities to anything that can speak is misleading us. NYT gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/07/11/o...

After trying to sift thru the AI-generated crap in #WNBA, I found this www.nytimes.com/2025/07/11/o... "AI-generated content — true and otherwise — is taking over the internet, providing training material for the next generation of LLMs, a sludge-generating machine feeding on its own sludge."

“the Weather Service employee whose job it was to make sure those warnings got traction — Paul Yura, the long-serving meteorologist in charge of “warning coordination” — had recently taken an unplanned early retirement amid cuts pushed by DOGE. He was not replaced.”

"The problem is that complex systems are only as strong as their weakest point." www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/o...

“To a Washington bean counter, his loss might have looked like one tiny but welcome subtraction in a giant spreadsheet, but not in a region so prone to these perilous events that it’s known as Flash Flood Alley.” @zey.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/o...

"The National Weather Service’s San Angelo office, which is responsible for some of the areas hit hardest by Friday’s flooding, was missing a senior hydrologist, staff forecaster and meteorologist in charge," according to its union's legislative director. 🎁 🔗 www.nytimes.com/2025/07/05/u...

Here's the original KXAN article from April reporting on Paul Yura's early retirement "as the Trump Administration works to slash the budget at NWS and the larger NOAA organization" www.kxan.com/weather/weat...

Key Texas floods @nws.noaa.gov vacancies: San Angelo office is missing * meteorologist in charge * senior hydrologist * staff forecaster San Antonio office is missing * warning coordination meteorologist * science officer

Breaking News: President Trump said that the U.S. had bombed Fordo, Iran’s heavily fortified nuclear facility, as well as two other sites.

Paging the approximately ten million PhD students working on AI & society

We’re hiring at Princeton on AI and society, working with Arvind Narayanan or me depending on fit. I think current AI developments are all a huge deal but am very unexcited by current state of the AGI and/or AI safety discourse. Please share as you see fit. puwebp.princeton.edu/AcadHire/app...

My latest article with New Lines magazine is about Alaa Abdel Fattah and Laila Soueif's hunger strike. I apologize for the harsh language, but Soueif's life is in danger and at risk of death. #FreeAlaa #SaveLaila #FreeThemAll

I read Twitter and Tear Gas by @zey.bsky.social in 2017 and it looks like it’s going to be extremely relevant this year too She has a Creative Commons pdf version online www.twitterandteargas.org

THE GUARDIAN: Starmer and Lammy's empty promises: The race against time to save Alaa Abd el-Fattah from Egypt’s prisons and his mother’s relentless hunger strike must spur action from a Britain failing to hold Sisi accountable.

‘Laila had given ten years of her life to fighting for her son, and now, in what she decided would be the final act of the fight, she put her life on the line.’ Ahdaf Soueif on her sister Laila’s struggle for the release of her son, Alaa Abd el-Fattah: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/ju...

250 days on hunger strike: Can Laila Soueif secure her son’s freedom? – podcast

The Data are Insufficient to Confidently Root the SARS-CoV-2 Phylogenetic Tree https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40488365/

Remember when RFK Jr. promised Sen. Bill Cassidy that he would not fire the CDC vaccine advisory panel? Guess what: www.statnews.com/2025/06/09/r...

Deeply powerful words from Ahdaf Soueif on the ongoing hunger strike of her sister, Dr Laila Soueif, on the possibilities of hope, and on why we must all call for #FreeAlaa www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/ju...

We are deeply concerned for Laila Soueif's life as she continues her hunger strike to free her son, writer Alaa Abd El-Fattah. We join @peninternational.bsky.social and @englishpen.bsky.social in urging Egypt to #FreeAlaa and the UK to do all it can to secure his release www.bbc.com/news/article...

"Our hearts are breaking to see our dear friend Laila Soueif on the edge of life and death". Richard Ratcliffe and Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in the Independent today. www.independent.co.uk/voices/laila...

Laila Soueif 69-year-old mother of imprisoned Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abdel Fattah is feared to be near death after a long hunger strike. She is risking her life for her son's freedom.

Must Laila Soueif die from her hunger strike in London before her son Alaa Abd el-Fattah is released? | Helena Kennedy

Trump Taps Palantir to Compile Data on Americans www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/t...

We join 20 orgs in a letter to PM Keir Starmer to urgently raise concerns about the ongoing detention of British-Egyptian writer Alaa Abd el-Fattah, as well as the rapidly deteriorating health of his mother, Laila Soueif. #FreeAlaa Read the letter ⤵️ www.englishpen.org/posts/campai...

I joined MPs and peers in urging the government to more to secure the release of Alaa Abd El-Fattah. Alaa has spent much of the past decade in prison simply for speaking out against Egypt’s rulers. His mother has been on hunger strike for 234 days in a campaign to free her son. We need Alaa home.

The UN has ruled that #Egypt is illegally detaining Alaa Abd el-Fattah and must immediately release him. Last week, Kier Starmer asked Egyptian President Sisi to release Alaa. The UK Prime Minister must continue to push to #FreeAlaa: www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

#Egypt: UN panel rules Alaa Abd el-Fattah is being arbitrarily detained and must be released immediately. We renew our urgent call to free Alaa Abd el-Fattah now. Egypt must act without delay, and the UK must use every means available to secure Alaa’s freedom. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

Egypt illegally detaining Alaa Abd el-Fattah, UN investigators find

“More than 100 Parliamentarians have signed a letter calling for the PM to take urgent action to secure the release of a British man who has been a political prisoner in Egypt for a decade.” www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...

NEW: The charges against Rep. Lamonica McIver escalate a confrontation between the political branches at a time when President Trump is seeking to maaximize executive branch dominance. www.politico.com/news/2025/05...

xAI’s Grok vividly highlights the potential for generative AI to turbo charge disinformation and concentrate influence power. Just at the time we learn LLMs may be more persuasive than humans bsky.app/profile/cscl...

Elon Musk shared a post on X about claims of genocide against white farmers in South Africa. The next day, Grok, X’s A.I. chatbot, focused on the topic obsessively. The answer to why this happened “says a lot about why A.I. is so powerful — and why it’s so disruptive,” @zey.bsky.social writes.

Why did Grok suddenly start talking about “white genocide in South Africa” even if asked about baseball or cute dogs? Because someone at Musk’s xAi deliberately did this, and we only found out because they were clumsy. My piece on the real dangers of AI. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/05/17/o...

Drama over at X/xAI. Whatever you ask Grok, it pivots to “white genocide” in South Africa. The last panel is what Grok claims was a “verbatim” system prompt that caused the behavior. Jury out. It’s now fixed but they haven’t yet bothered explaining. This, not those AGI fantastical scenarios.

🤖 @404media.co reports on why @grok couldn’t stop talking about “white genocide” — a “system prompt” to the X AI: www.404media.co/why-did-grok... @zey.bsky.social shared a smoking prompt. A March 2025 answer to my question about “white genocide” remains live, but answers are all “unavailable”

BREAKING: Federal judge in Vermont orders that Rumeysa Ozturk be released from detention "immediately" and on her own recognizance with no travel restrictions. More to come at Law Dork: www.lawdork.com

Laila Soueif, the Egyptian mathematician and mother of jailed political activist Alaa Abd Elfattah, confirmed that her son is still on hunger strike but appears to be in slightly better physical condition than during previous visits. https://manassa.news/index.php/en/news/23943 #freealaa #Egypt

In just 2 months RFK Jr has: - started fake study to prove vaccines cause autism. - defunded mRNA vaxx research - Told parents to do own research - Wants unethical placebo controlled studies for vaccine updates. His goal is to eliminate vaccines by all means. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...