I’ve been hearing anecdotes about cost frictions with AI adoption but whoa

As a science fiction writer I really fucking resent tech bros for ruining the phrase "artificial intelligence." 80 years of it being all about cool androids and interesting computers destroyed by five years of "Spicy autocorrect making everything shittier for money." NEVER FORGIVE.

"Men have a greater carbon footprint than women, drive the industries that contribute to global warming & ecological loss, & tend to be less concerned about climate change" say many studies. "What's astonishing is how this aspect does not figure in most debate & policy on a more sustainable world.”

Amazing commencement address on AI and the arts. The correct take.

Because birds love surveillance too. Smart www.macrumors.com/review/birdy...

Fresh new American dystopia headline just dropped www.thegamer.com/grammacracke...

“RCP8.5 is dead but we still might reach RCP8.5 temperatures by 2150”

NVIDIA's market capitalization is much higher than the market value of Australia's about 370 million hectares of agricultural land. I had to check this claim and it seems to be true.

AI resist list just launched! AIresistlist.org

A map is never neutral. Richard Harrison’s 1940 “oil drop projection” showed the world as Standard Oil executives saw it: Texas, Venezuela and Aruba at the centre, less profitable regions pushed to the margins. Cartography as corporate worldview. Beautiful and brutal. Source:

aaaand the Torment Nexus is right on time. bsky.app/profile/hype...

Photos: Cuba Runs out of Fuel - Cubans across the island nation—now under intense economic pressure from the Trump administration—are suffering through blackouts and fuel shortages that affect nearly every aspect of daily life, sparking recent protests. Gift link: www.theatlantic.com/photography/...

Very much the Web at the end of the world. Just shuddering at the inference costs.

'The basic problem is not a lack of intelligence. In many cases, we already know what to do … The problem is that knowing what to do is not the same as getting people to do it.' 'AI may make intelligence abundant. But the scarce resource is consensus.' newsletter.drorpoleg.com/p/intelligen...

Literally saying the quiet part out loud “It’s not cost cutting,” [Winters] said. “It’s replacing…lower-value human capital with the financial capital and investment capital we’re putting in.” www.ft.com/content/ff67...

Never trust pledges

This should read: Data centre expansion threatens energy affordability for households and national decarbonisation plans. www.irishexaminer.com/business-col...

'Jaschinski's “Handprint on Sea Turtle” is both the winner Changemakers…and the overall winner of this year's contest.The image,taken at the Zoological Society of London Wildlife Forensic Lab in London,shows a human handprint on a dead green sea turtle that had been confiscated at Heathrow Airport.'

RIP books

Good read on climate migration and climate refugees: How a ‘Model’ for Climate Migration Became a Cautionary Tale www.nytimes.com/2026/05/16/c...

It's giving "baby's first office suite"

the overwhelming message the AI industry has sent to young people is “this will ruin any chance you have at a stable career”, of course college grads are booing it regardless of the reality of the claims, the way this technology has been sold is one of the greatest self-inflicted PR disasters ever

‘democracies across the planet are now threatened by what might be called fossil fuel fascism – an extremist political movement that breaks laws, spreads lies and threatens violence in an increasingly desperate attempt to maintain markets for oil, gas and coal’ www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

One one hand / on the other hand

Australia: March 16

This really is quite something. In the 15 years @carbonbrief.org have tracked UK media, 2025 was first ever year where more newspaper editorials opposed #climate action than supported it. Meanwhile, the *actual* climate crisis deepens by the month. Go figure.

Jesus Christ this is the most chilling thing I've read in ages. The "new understanding of truth" described here is not new in any way, it is basically a return to pre-literate dark ages & the inevitable result is going to be fascism.

Have a look at WA, VIC, QLD, NSW 😢

Make America Healthy Again: "Mercury emissions from coal-burning power plants rose by 9 percent in 2025 after years of declines." 🎁🔗

Coal-linked aerosols reduced global solar electricity output by 5.8% in 2023, with losses from existing systems eroding a substantial share of gains from new PV capacity.

Ennen: käytän teknologiaa täyttääkseni tavoitteet. Nyt: käytän teknologiaa käyttämään teknologiaa täyttääkseni tavoitteet. Ennenkään ei oikein ole ollut tapana tarkistaa tehdäänkö oikeita asioita, mutta tässä ajassa performatiivisuus saa kyllä aivan uuden tason. arstechnica.com/ai/2026/05/a...

Photos: The Global Cost of the Iran War - The crisis in Iran & the closure of the Strait of Hormuz have exacted heavy costs worldwide. Besides the heavy price of military expenditure, destroyed infrastructure, & lives lost, fuel shortages push the cost of living higher Gift link: theatln.tc/dRmHtJOR

If LLMs are a "social technology" akin to a market, it might be interesting to bring Marx into the mix to think about how markets aren't just information processors but the means by which relations of social domination are organized (and mystified) knightcolumbia.org/content/ai-a...

Food shock www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

7 months to go

I swear I haven't laughed out loud so much at a standup comedian in two years, never mind an "AI realist." youtu.be/JgVBqcqUGE0?...

Other people have noticed this phenomenon too but danah boyd put the best slogan to it: social media is now parasocial media. Social media hasn't been social for a long while—how long depending on the platform, depending on the milieu. It's not folks sharing equally, but broadcasting and receiving.

Atmospheric CO₂ of 340 ppm

Update to the drought situation: year-to-date precipitation total in Finland is again the lowest on record (since 1961). The 2026 precipitation in Finland (~78 mm) is only 54 % of the long-term normal (143 mm) at this time of the year.

"For too long, the university has ignored the wisdom of the donor class and hired based on academic excellence. Regrettably, this has led to the underrepresentation of discredited viewpoints in elite higher education." www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/wer...

We need to talk a bit about how utterly absurd the March heatwave was in the USA. This heatwave would have been impossible without a boost from climate change, but even with climate change it remains a deeply unlikely event. A thread looking at some of the numbers. 🧵

‘Some, like “sustainable” or “natural”, were so broad as to be almost meaningless’ www.theguardian.com/environment/...

the tech world has genuinely not grappled with how many people despise them and what they make

I get their marketing email so I can keep tabs on what essential and groundbreaking ChatGPT features are balancing out the death, delusion, and pollution.

'As a result, these data center fights have essentially become proxy sites for democratic governance of AI; places where citizens can still register a vote about their future in a world that feels increasingly dominated by dark money and tech oligarchs.' www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/the-data-c...

We're appalled watching Big Tech guys suck up to the vindictive Narcissist-in-Chief (thereby enabling authoritarianism), but the scope of A.I. investment may mean there's also a structural component to the dangerous, antidemocratic alliance between tech and government regardless of who's in power.

This work of art is called "Urban Development" and was created by Christophe Vorlet. I’ll count this as a map of sorts 😉

Today, it's a parody. Yet I believe this is exactly where the world is heading. LLMs personalizing every web page before we see it. The Ultimate Bubble. github.com/scosman/curs...