AI is the wrong tool to tackle complex societal & systemic problems. AI4SG is more about PR victories, boosting AI adoption (regardless of merit/usefulness) & laundering accountability for harmful tech, extractive practices, abetting atrocities. yours truly www.project-syndicate.org/magazine/ai-...

How is AI changing the nature of scams? @lanalanalana.bsky.social & @alicetiara.bsky.social spoke to @alixdunn.com on @themaybe.org to explain how AI automates & scales the work already being done in massive, exploitative “cybercrime compounds” around the world. www.themaybe.org/podcast/gotc...

Just got home from a whirlwind 10 days in New York and Nebraska (don't ask). There were a lot of highs, but one still has me buzzing.

Just had my first experience with the now mandatory facial recognition at international departure out of the US. I hate it so much.

I've been feeling a little bit crazy reading the news lately about what's going on in the AI market and what it means for the economy at large. So I'm grateful I got to knit the threads together with @alixdunn.com last week.

I've started to read Musk quotes with a Napoleon Dynamite affect in my head. Recommended.

I don’t want AI companies to get a bailout. I said this to @smw.bsky.social of @ainowinstitute.bsky.social last week, and she said they already were being bailed out. We sat down to talk about it in our first full-form video interview here: youtu.be/WvN1wQ_CBlY?...

I don't understand how restaurant billing and tipping work in the US. What is this?

1/6 Want to be your own boss? Work from home and achieve financial freedom? This week, we're talking about the original "innovation" that perfected that pitch: the Multi-Level Marketing scheme.

Premium newsletter: Based on my estimates and analysis, OpenAI needs one trillion dollars in the next four years to build 17GW of data centers and other commitments, with at least $500 billion needed for company operations. There is not enough capital to do this. www.wheresyoured.at/openai-onetr...

Over in Brooklyn for a live @themaybe.org podcast - Let Them Eat Compute: Computer Says Maybe Climate Week Livestream - @ambakak.bsky.social and @alixdunn.com setting the scene for a conversation 'rooted in the material, in the current context, in activism'..

🔴 NEW: Larry Ellison’s £257m bet on Tony Blair Our investigation with @lighthousereports.com reveals how the Tony Blair Institute has been accused of pushing the interests of tech tycoon Ellison — Trump’s “CEO of everything” — and his company Oracle democracyforsale.substack.com/p/inside-the...

Finally some thorough reporting on the relationship between MAGA database man turned media magnate Larry Ellison and the Tony Blair Institute. www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...

SOME GREAT NEWS!!

1/6 They promise you'll get rich quick. They promise it'll change the world. They promise you're getting in early. Sound familiar? First up in our look at scams: crypto. www.themaybe.org/podcast/gotc...

The Overton Window on free speech is on the 20th floor of a building. And we're about to jump out.

"What this system produces isn’t errors, it’s terror." Preach. Great piece challenging the critique of hype as insufficiently political to capture the structural impacts / motivations of AI boosters.

So excited for this Computer Says Maybe live show next week in NYC!

Hey @alixdunn.com , Ty for this! I think you might be interested in this paper we wrote on the AI Commons: oneproject.org/ai-commons/

listened to this on the way to the pool the other day, @alixdunn.com interviewing @iamtrask.bsky.social about "broad listening" (vs "broadcasting"), and how so far strategies reduce to: • literary canon • sampling • statistics and how he's trying to make a fourth www.themaybe.org/podcast/node...

Can someone explain regulated garbage to me?

When I think about decentralisation, my mind usually goes to social media. But given the concentration of power and technical consolidation in Al, what might decentralisation offer that field?

Join us for “Setting a ‘Tech Agenda’ for Climate Week.” From Sept 21–28, leaders will gather in NYC for Climate Week. Tech Policy Press will record a live podcast asking: What should a tech agenda for Climate Week include? Register via the link below!

Just watched 2 small children face recc'ed while boarding a flight and it was a disturbing sight.

1/ 📢 Today, the Commission concluded that Google abused its dominant position in the display advertising technology industry. Digital advertising funds much of the online free content and services we rely on today. Google controls many of the tools that make this industry work 💻 📱

For a second I thought the picture corresponded to the bigger headline below.

Convo with @alixdunn.com about Blacksky is up! We talked about building a safer space for Black users on atproto, curation as moderation, and how communities build trust. We also covered our relay and how feeds reach apps like @flashes.blue so people keep their spaces + relationships across networks

I just don't get it. Even if you are just a sociopath seeking power, won't killing your constituents kids lead to bad political outcomes??

Really good watch youtu.be/YN6BEUA4jNU?...

We've just launched a new mini-series on the Computer Says Maybe podcast called Nodestar. We're asking, in this queasy hyper-consolidated tech era, how did things get this bad? Are there signs that domination by a handful of companies is eroding? What might decentralisation offer us?

NEWS! Foxglove (@foxglovelegal.bsky.social) and Global Action Plan (@globalactionplan.bsky.social) are suing to stop the UK govt's YOLO plans for data centers. Want a 15min brief on the case from @marthadark.bsky.social and @olliehayes.bsky.social? Listen here: www.themaybe.org/podcast/shor...

I think I'd probably like Ezra Klein if his brain hadn't been pickled by collaboration with Matt Iglesias.

How is independent tech research faring in 2025 amidst extraordinary headwinds & what can we do to preserve / grow it? A new report, "Power in Numbers" by @thecoalition.bsky.social summarizes the struggle for public-interest tech research worldwide. independenttechresearch.org/citr-report-...

I've been having dark thoughts lately that we've somehow just passed the Great Filter in Fermi's Paradox. This is a great piece that articulates the queasiness really well!

RANT INCOMING: I get so frustrated reading work evaluating the effectiveness of live facial recognition. If, and maybe especially, facial recognition were to have 100% accuracy we would not want it deployed in the world.

Really enjoyed talking to @alixdunn.com about how we beat tech monopoly. If you’re mulling one of the three new roles we are hiring for at FoTI (see my pinned post), have a quick skim while chopping tomatoes to get a little vibe check. Happy summer, y’all 🍅 www.themaybe.org/podcast/cons...

4.1% NGDP growth in the 2010’s was like a 53-degree day in April. It’s not warm, but you’re not freezing. 4.1% NGDP growth in the middle of an AI boom is like having a blast furnace running in an otherwise unheated Minnesota house in winter — you’re grateful for the heat but screwed if it breaks.

This is really beautiful.

Almost parody level Starmer.

I've been thinking about Grok. If you have too, listen to this Computer Says Maybe short with Nic Dawes. We talk about how Musk's brain was pickled by a post-apartheid media bubble he's now trying to recreate. I'd never connected these dots - v worth a listen! www.themaybe.org/podcast/shor...

Elon Musk and I grew up in South Africa's white suburbs at exactly the same time. I told @alixdunn.com why I think that recreating the information environment of that world for a new, accelerated age, is part of his project with Grok and xAI. www.themaybe.org/podcast/shor...

Check out our latest pod: After the FAccT! We talk thru the team's takeaways from FAccT ft some excellent interviews with researchers doing work on materiality and militarism of AI. We're also on Bluesky now so follow @themaybe.org if you want good stuff from us and our network.

Athens felt like a kiln, 35 °C on the street and hotter where the servers hummed. FAccT talked responsible AI inside the air-con. We walked the alleys outside and recorded what the keynotes skipped. Part 1 of a new mini-series just landed. 🎧👇 www.themaybe.org/podcast/afte... 1/6

AI Now Co-Executive Directors @smw.bsky.social and @ambakak.bsky.social sat down with @alixdunn.com at @themaybe.org to discuss the key takeaways from Artificial Power, @ainowinstitute.bsky.social's 2025 landscape report. Listen to the full podcast episode here: www.themaybe.org/podcast/maki...

on display at the AI for Good Summit in the main hall

Abeba 4 President

How can you talk about AI for Good if you won't let one of the most visionary thinkers on AI (and a keynote YOU invited) speak about the way AI is being used for evil? Total farce.

Defense tech, AI surveillance, and far-right pro-Trump ideologies are merging as Silicon Valley’s obsession with profit fuels a dangerous new era of "the war on terror 2.0." In my latest video, I dig into how Shaun Maguire is playing a leading role in this new landscape. Please watch and share!!

FT reveals Tony Blair’s staff took part in ‘Gaza Riviera’ project with BCG and suggested the term. Now trying to frantically distance themselves ↘️ on.ft.com/4lJ8FnV