Are the kids AI-right? At the prestigious Berklee College of Music, some of the students noticed that an elective songwriting class called "Bots and Beats" was promoting the use of AI tools to assist the creative process.

Did @johncarreyrou.bsky.social crack the mystery of who invented bitcoin? Pretty convincing, definitely meets a preponderance of evidence standard. Beyond a reasonable doubt? Not sure. Thoughts? www.nytimes.com/2026/04/08/b...

Nothing unfactual here, but a reminder of the old investing maxim from John Maynard Keynes: "Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent."

Still trying to figure out for myself what was important or revelatory in the new New Yorker piece about Sam Altman, but they definitely should have come up with a fresher headline. April 6: Sam Altman May Control Our Future—Can He Be Trusted? May 19: Can Sam Altman Be Trusted with the Future?

Economists Once Dismissed the A.I. Job Threat, but Not Anymore Artificial intelligence hasn’t disrupted the labor market, economists say, but they are increasingly convinced that it will — and that policymakers are unprepared. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/03/b...

very glad as a verge subscriber and see this argument made with clarity and hard data!

I’ve been thinking about this problem a lot lately and here it is in the NYT. Now, before AI becomes central, would be a good time for a hard cost-benefit analysis of screens in schools, iPads, Chromebooks, whatever. Did we get the individualized learning we were promised and was it any good?

Judge Lin: "Punishing Anthropic for bringing public scrutiny to the government’s contracting position is classic illegal First Amendment retaliation." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us... Anecdatally, the Trump administration has violated the First Amendment more than any other in my lifetime.

Big hit to the theory that every new tech gets off the ground with porn... OpenAI puts erotic chatbot plans on hold ‘indefinitely’ Decision follows staff and investor concerns about sexual AI content www.ft.com/content/de9b...

Proud to coauthor part of the Globe’s now SABEW award-winning package on the middle class squeeze. Sometimes it takes a village to report on the what’s happening in the village!

Since the vast majority — if not all — consumer routers are manufactured outside the United States, the vast majority of future consumer routers are now banned.

That didn't last long. I would assume running Sora was a massive money-loser for OpenAI, which is ending "side projects," but where does Disney go next? OpenAI Will Shut Down Sora Video App; Disney Drops Plans for $1 Billion Investment variety.com/2026/digital...

Argh — The Kia EV2 Is Another Cool, Small, Affordable EV That You Can't Have It's not hard to find a great $30,000 EV. Unless you live in America, that is. insideevs.com/news/790980/...

Stunningly bullshit framing on this NYT story that insists that somehow renewables are a dicy unpredictable thing and downplays that they're far, far cheaper most of the time by focusing on how they're not always. As is often the case with the NYT, comments smarter than article.

Here's the thing: there is no going back to a different era of Twitter. This doesn't replace it, Threads doesn't replace it, Twitter doesn't replace it. That era is dead, no return, it was a very fun 5-10 year window or so that dragged on past its prime until it dropped off a cliff.

BREAKING: The blackout in Spain and Portugal in April 2025 did NOT happen because of renewables. The final ENTSO-E report on last year's Iberian blackout is out — and it's essential reading for anyone working on the energy transition. www.entsoe.eu/news/2026/03...

“The concept of congregating in walled gardens owned by pedophilic fascist speed freaks who actively block the sharing of links in an effort to keep people scrolling on their platforms is very new. With any luck, it will pass sooner rather than later.” www.otherstrangeness.com/2026/03/14/h...

my latest @newyorker.com column is on the AI industry's ironic obsession with "taste", a human capacity for a fundamentally anti-human technology www.newyorker.com/culture/infi...

So pro-consumer it’s stunning (also I am very jealous). The Ford Mustang Mach-E Can Now Precondition Its Battery Via CarPlay The feature was already available for Google Maps on Android Auto. insideevs.com/news/790597/...

Honda is facing an identity crisis. At its core, it’s an internal combustion engine company. It makes really good engines, and that’s starting to matter less and less. Other traits of its cars are also under assault — @dechant.bsky.social reports techcrunch.com/2026/03/14/h...

@joshdr83.bsky.social: "Oil number go up, battery number go down." #alwaysbecharging www.bloomberg.com/opinion/news...

And the nominees for headline most likely to age poorly are…

Had one for three years. Great little EV. The Kia Niro EV Is Dead The lovable crossover recently got a midlife refresh, but the all-electric version has been discontinued. insideevs.com/news/789628/...

Ben Thompson making a full-throated case for fascism here stratechery.com/2026/anthrop...

“Is this desire to demo 6G here guided by the same minds that brought us the nonsensical “race to 5G”? Probably. Does it make any sense to orient technological progress around an international sporting event? I don’t know, man. Just consider yourself warned.“ - @allisonjo1.bsky.social

It’s more than a little unsettling that Detroit entered this latest Middle East conflict with the pedal to the metal on gas-guzzling pickups and SUVs. www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

New at Media Nation: The @bostonglobe.com adds a feature that puts it one step closer (maybe) to sharing on social media. #journalism dankennedy.net/2026/02/22/t...

Three-in-ten U.S. adults say they get news from newsletters at least sometimes, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in August 2025. Digital platforms, such as news websites, search engines and social media are all more common pathways to news. www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2...

Sources: Amazon's AI tools caused at least two AWS outages, including a 13-hour disruption in December after its Kiro AI deleted and recreated an environment (Rafe Rosner-Uddin/Financial Times) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

DOCTOR Rümeysa Öztürk has earned her PhD!!

On AI and jobs: "You can have more total economic activity and still have millions of people whose specific skills and local labor markets are destroyed. The people being displaced right now are not edge cases." www.lesswrong.com/posts/YPJHkc...

David J. Farber, ‘Grandfather of the Internet,’ Dies at 91 A researcher, professor and federal policy adviser, he guided students who went on to do groundbreaking work in connecting the world online. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/14/t...

Well this absolutely stinks. Gmail on the web won't download messages from a POP3 account anymore. But the mobile app somehow still does? So will the emails pulled via POP3 on the app then appear in the web Gmail???

Dwarfed 4 tech companies will spend $650 billion in capex this year. Largest US automakers, construction equipment, railroads, defense contractors, wireless carriers, delivery, plus Exxon Mobil, Intel, Walmart and GE spin-offs (21 companies) projected to spend a combined $180 billion. -Bloomberg

A little bummed to see how little Mass. tech action in line to go public right now. Lendbuzz is the only non-biotech I've seen that filed an S-1 with the SEC. Any others?

Ed Markey, Elizabeth Warren, and other New England politicians need to quit X Elected officials should not be lending legitimacy to Elon Musk’s toxic social media site. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/02/04/o...

How many Harper's Letter signatories have denounced the arrests of Don Lemon and Georgia Fort for practicing journalism? Has anybody among the Twitter Files crew chimed in with a take yet?

when they tell you to go back to writing about gadgets www.theverge.com/policy/86857...

Tesla is committing automotive suicide Tesla’s Q4 2025 earnings call made one thing painfully clear: the company is no longer interested in being an automaker: killing Model S and Model X, no new mass-market models, pivoting entirely to “transportation as a service.” electrek.co/2026/01/29/t...

And the least surprising, in this case... “The worst outcome would be if there are just no consequences whatsoever as a demonstration that there is one person actually above the law,” said Riana Pfefferkorn www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

New by me —> Will Pittsburgh become America’s most important city without a newspaper? Or will the @post-gazette.com shutting down in May spur some long-delayed action? www.niemanlab.org/2026/01/will...

ugh — Trump’s Drone Ban Is Corrupt, Protectionist Nonsense Dressed Up As A National Security Fix www.techdirt.com/2025/12/31/t...

“Business owners interviewed by the Globe described an atmosphere of anxiety and uncertainty as they struggled to plan for on-again, off-again tariffs, wrestled with how much of the cost to pass on to customers, scrambled to find alternate suppliers, and scoured their operations for savings.”

New at Media Nation: Linda Henry aims to deepen The Boston Globe's neighborhood coverage and expand in New England. dankennedy.net/2025/12/28/l...

Nicely crafted, @engadget.com "Xbox didn't enter 2025 in a great state, and it's leaving the year grasping for help, like an Arc Raider player desperate for a revival after being knocked out." www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/...

DJI has, what, 90% share of the US consumer drone market? Most US players are B2B or defense oriented. Order also covers foreign made drone parts. Effectively ending consumer drone sales: The FCC’s foreign drone ban is here @theverge.com www.theverge.com/news/849460/...

Worth subscribing for this alone: The Entire New Yorker Archive Is Now Fully Digitized For the first time, every cover, article, and issue in the magazine’s hundred-year history can be enjoyed on newyorker.com. www.newyorker.com/news/press-r...

In 1996 there was a mass shooting in Australia; 35 people were killed. Australia’s government passed a sweeping gun reform law in 12 days. 12 days. www.thebulwark.com/p/america-un...

Trading in products that pay out when companies default is soaring to protect portfolios against the risk that the AI boom turns into a bust. Volumes in credit default swaps tied to a handful of US tech groups have climbed 90 per cent since early September. www.ft.com/content/c5f9...