Taking my first #Waymo self-driving taxi from the airport to downtown Phoenix for an AI conference. It did a good job.

President Trump shocked the nation and the world early Saturday when he announced that the U.S. had captured the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, and intended to “run the country.” Here’s what we know.

The most interesting presentation I saw yesterday at #ONA25 was from two Tow center researchers on "confidently wrong" AI. They are also studying AI's citations and can prove that it often regurgitates plagiarized stories without citing the original sources. Slides: docs.google.com/presentation...

For all the AI-hating out there, I have to think that some new “killer app” will show up that makes everyone decide this thing is OK. I predict that will be expense reports. Where’s the app that lets you plop all your receipts in and send the report Immediately? That will be a game changer.

The United States has been involved in war in the Middle East for 25 years — most often against the will of its citizens. I’m against this new unconstitutional war with Iran, and against all military involvement in that region. The world needs to get out of this destructive cycle.

The United States has been involved in war in the Middle East for 25 years — most often against the will of its citizens. I’m against this new unconstitutional war with Iran, and against all military involvement in that region. The world needs to get out of this destructive cycle.

Matthew 26:52, New International Version: “Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.”

Through the Jay Graber WIRED interview, I learned about some other cool apps that you can integrate with your Bsky space: Skylight as alt to TikTok, and Flashes as alt to Instagram.

This WIRED interview with Bluesky’s CEO Jay Graber explains the power of the AT protocol and its decentralized approach. “The long-term vision is not just for a new form of social apps but a new layer for the web—what Web3 aspired to be, without the blockchain.” www.wired.com/story/big-in...

I've restarted blogging for the first time in over a decade with a post about day one of the ONA x Newsroom Robots AI Leadership Summit. This is a great event! danpacheco.com/onas-newsroo...

Looking forward to being part of the two-day ONA x Newsroom Robots AI Leadership Summit early next week in Detroit. Not only is it the first conference fully-dedicated to AI and journalism I will have attended, but it will be my first time in Detroit. journalists.org/programs/ai-...

I didn’t give a wit about new pope coverage, but the first American pope being a man with Black ancestry born in Chicago by way of New Orleans by way of Haiti. Names his self after the pope who condemned slavery? In the Trump era? Oh, baebae, I am HERE for it. www.wwltv.com/article/news...

Robert Prevost, now known as Pope Leo XIV, has been critical of the president and his actions.

Christian nationalists may be onto something. Many of them say Trump was put in power by God for higher reasons. Now it appears the result is the Catholic Cardinals / Holy Spirit electing the first American Pope — who is a moderate liberal. Not sure that’s what they had in mind.

Trump poses as the Pope in full holy garments and gets a pass. Obama puts on a tan suit and they lose their frigging minds. See how that works?

Pope Francis was a humble leader for peace. He had so much power, but always used it to speak for the powerless. Those with influence and resources who claim to speak for Jesus should take a minute to consider what their religious role model really meant in His words. Francis lived it.

The third year of Immersive and Interactive Peabody nominees are now public. Congrats to “1000xRESIST”, “Body of Mine”, “Failures to Act”, “Inside the Deadly Maui Inferno”, “One Day in Gaza”, “Tchia”, “Venba”, and “What Does Racial Bias in Medicine Look Like?” peabodyawards.com/stories/nomi...

DOGE is crippling the Social Security Administration. SSA’s website crashed four times in 10 days and Americans who depend on Social Security have flooded congressional offices with angry phone calls. The AARP says it has been getting 2,000 calls a week.

“I’m doing good things,” I tell myself as I delete the military service of a dead woman. “I’m still a good person.”

Has anyone considered trying a 30-Day social media blackout? Wouldn’t it be interesting to see what happens if we all did that? I know it’s crazy, but social media didn’t even exist not that long ago, and we all still got things done.

You know what my favorite thing about Canada is? That it’s Canada, a sovereign nation on the border of the United States. I also love the Canadians who co-exist with my border state of New York. I’m sorry for how our country’s current lack of leadership is treating you lately.

The More You Know :-)

I first shared this two years ago. It’s sad that I feel a need to share it again, but maybe this needs to be a perpetual anthem. Support love, always. youtu.be/XMHYrVoa1xY?...

Out of all eligible voters, 68.1% either voted for candidates other than Donald Trump or did not vote at all. - Trump: 31.8% - Harris: 30.6% - Other: 1.3% - Did Not Vote: 36.3%

I’m feeling the convergence of The Wiz and Wicked energy at Oscars 2025.

Flying back from Atlanta after an incredible time with my fellow Peabody Interactive Board jurors. We reviewed an amazing range of submissions, and I’m looking forward to the nominees being announced this spring.

JUST IN: Another medical horror story in an affidavit from a USAID employee stationed overseas. Says his pregnant wife was not medevac-ed for emergency health care because of directives from DC. Took intervention of a U.S. senator to reverse — but was too late. s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25...

Apple “Intelligence” is useless. Can anyone who uses Apple devices (iPhone, iPad, Mac) and has “intelligence” on tell me how it really helps them? I’m saying this as someone who teaches AI. Convince me, please.

Congrats, Philly! City of Brotherly Love ❤️

I love Perplexity AI. It helps me make good decisions about how to focus my energy, attention and resources. I will be creating new custom GPTs around this for my own use. Here's a snapshot from today.

I just canceled my Amazon Prime membership for the first time in many years. Feels good to flush that company down the toilet. In an age of oligarchy, it's always good to remember that you have power over how you spend your money, as well as where you put your attention.

Hundreds of thousands of Germans are on the streets demonstrating against right-wing extremism. (This photo from Munich.) Let's get off our asses, America. Hunderttausende gegen Rechtsextremismus www.zeit.de/gesellschaft...

As Tim Walz said, “Nobody asked for this.” But I hope those that did enjoy dealing with all the fires, floods and cancers they will get to face because the Environmental Protection Agency was no longer around to protect them.

The Trump administration has notified more than 1,000 employees at the EPA that they could be dismissed immediately.

Had a very unique data journalism class today where we looked at data sets students had found two weeks ago which have since been deleted by the Trump administration. Then I showed them how they can find archived versions in the Internet Archive’s Way Back machine.

Here are a few articles that compare WhatsApp to Signal: allaboutcookies.org/signal-vs-wh...

People are asking me for more context of why I don’t trust WhatsApp anymore and am only using Signal for private communication. It’s too long to explain in a post, but go to your favorite AI model with this question:

I no longer consider Meta’s WhatsApp to be secure from the standpoint of encryption and privacy (also Messenger, but that’s old news). If you use WhatsApp for private communication, I suggest exercising caution and ideally moving to something else, such as Signal.

Despite all of the chaos lately, it’s good to see Beyoncé win the Grammy for Best Country Album for “Cowboy Carter.” She won it on the merits of the album, which is amazing. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/beyonce-cowboy-carter-wins-best-country-album-2025-grammys-1235254683/

For No Reason in Particular Here's a Bunch of Games Where You Kill Nazis hard-drive.net/hd/video-gam...

DOGE staffers took over USAID offices as senior officials and other employees placed on leave, sources tell ABC News

I'm so embarrassed by this as an American citizen. I think a lot of us are. Canada: you don't deserve this kind of treatment. Neither do we!

The AT protocol developed by Bluesky allows users to take their data back from big tech companies. Here are a few of the companies working to create a TikTok competitor using AT Protocol: techcrunch.com/2025/02/01/h...

More people need to be aware of this story of a trans veteran committing suicide at the VA hospital in Syracuse. This is after the federal government stopped supporting trans people in the military. www.syracuse.com/news/2025/01...

I also recommend reading this Reuters Institute interview with @karenhao.bsky.social about DeepSeek: reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/what-de...

Journalist Karen Hao gives an excellent overview here of how significant DeepSeek is to the trajectory of AI development, environmental impacts and more.

As someone who has reported on AI for 7 years and covered China tech as well, I think the biggest lesson to be drawn from DeepSeek is the huge cracks it illustrates with the current dominant paradigm of AI development. A long thread. 1/

Wow. it must feel terrible when someone takes something you made and uses it without permission or payment

Bluesky’s AT protocol could theoretically be spun out differently to create safe spaces with controls for friend and family connections, groups, and a lot of other features that only Facebook currently provides in one package.