Update: Google just sent me a statement saying it is “rolling back” this AI feature that let anyone make completely bullshit satellite images. Comes after our demos of the tool and those from OSINT researchers. One of the worst AI tools I’ve ever seen bsky.app/profile/jose...

Joseph Cox@josephcox.bsky.social · 5d ago

New from 404 Media: Google Earth has introduced an AI feature that lets anyone fabricate completely bullshit satellite images. In our own tests, we added a “bomb blast and crater” to an area of Los Angeles. This is a misinformation time bomb, will 100% be abused www.404media.co/google-earth...

– Google’s own description of the “fun feature” is that Nano Banana “creates concepts grounded in the real world.” The purpose of disinformation and propaganda isn't to convince you of one lie, it is to convince you nothing can be trusted so that you not believe anything and not do anything. 1/5+🧵

How to plant a nuclear plant in Iran

The question is: what on earth is Google doing?

digitaldigging.org

Good lord.

Social Media Lab@socialmedialab.ca · 5d ago

"Tonight I typed just one sentence into Google Earth and put refugees near the Mexican border. Then I planted a nuclear plant in Iran. Then I put a fatal crash on a street in Amsterdam. Google’s own satellite imagery underneath all three. What on earth is Google doing?"

“If I get hot in my car and want some air conditioning, I just want to turn a knob and have cold air come out." Meet the drivers who are rebelling against the tech revolution in cars: www.wsj.com/lifestyle/ca...

These Drivers Are Taking Extreme Measures to Avoid New Car Technology

They scour dealerships for models with the fewest bells and whistles. Then they disable alarms and reconfigure dashboards in search of low-tech bliss.

wsj.com

Fun and eye opening to get a test drive on the $25K Slate EV pickup truck. And now my wife wants one. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/07/29/b...

The next time someone wants to debate you about the actual cost of building utility scale solar or wind generation versus fossil fuels, please refer them to this annual and definitive report: Lazard’s Levelized Cost of Energy+ www.lazard.com/research-ins...

Lazard’s Levelized Cost of Energy+ (LCOE+)

Lazard’s Levelized Cost of Energy+ is a widely cited report that analyzes the cost competitiveness of renewables, energy storage, and system considerations.

lazard.com

Elon Musk's xAI has installed far more gas turbines without federal permits at its Colossus 2 data center project in Tennessee than it has publicly acknowledged, and the pollution is hitting predominantly Black neighborhoods the hardest, a Reuters analysis found. www.reuters.com/world/americ...

Pollution from Musk’s unpermitted xAI power project hits hardest in Black communities

Exploding electricity demand from AI data centers is driving companies to build off-grid power plants at a pace outstripping environmental oversight, with potentially big risks to public health.

reuters.com

Gag had been deeply involved in the advocacy and action behind Boston's “Vision Zero” policy – the international roadway safety initiative that aims to reduce and eliminate the risks of death and injury on city streets. mass.streetsblog.org/2026/07/10/l...

Louisa Gag, Longtime Street Safety Advocate, Identified as Thursday's Crash Victim - Streetsblog Massachusetts

Family members have identified the victim of Thursday morning's homicide crash near Roxbury Crossing as Louisa Gag, a longtime street safety advocate and transportation planner at Boston's City Hall.

mass.streetsblog.org

Fascinating. The free market does not optimize for human happiness.

kottke.org@kottke.org · last mo.

The Fun Shortage Is Real, and It’s Making America Miserable. “With fewer places to relax and socialize, and steeper prices for entry, having fun is quantifiably harder than it used to be.” [bloomberg.com]

A draft Treasury Department report warns risks posed by the artificial intelligence market, likening key aspects to the dotcom bubble that upended the US economy when it burst in the early 2000s... a significant departure from the Trump administration’s public tone. www.notus.org/economy/trea...

Treasury Has an Internal Report Warning About the Dangers of an AI Bubble

Publicly, the Trump administration is bullish about AI. Privately, some of its analysts are weighing AI against the dotcom bust.

notus.org

Some seriously smart kids with different ideas about AI Gen Z isn’t happy about AI. Even when mom helped invent it. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/07/03/b...

Gen Z isn’t happy about AI. Even when mom helped invent it. - The Boston Globe

Rana el Kaliouby's son founded an AI club at his high school, while her daughter, a recent Harvard grad, avoids the technology.

bostonglobe.com

Such a big loss and a reminder that life short.

gigastacey@gigastacey.bsky.social · last mo.

I lost my mentor and friend last night, and the world lost one of the most human interpreters of technology at a time when his voice is needed most. @om.co never shied away from calling out bullshit but he also was so in love with the potential that technology represented. I will miss him terribly.

Vox sold @theverge.com to Penske Media, which owns titles like The Hollywood Reporter, Rolling Stone, Billboard, WWD, and Variety. That sounds like a good outcome... www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/bus...

The truthiness is out there...

The Verge@theverge.com · 2mo ago

When you associate with tech enthusiasts from all over the country, you find some rare things. And suffice to say that someone managed to get this incredibly rare device. They weren’t supposed to be showing it around, but they let @allisonjo1.bsky.social hold it for a few minutes recently.

@anissa.bsky.social hired by the @wsj.com to cover cloud computing and AI infrastructure: talkingbiznews.com/media-news/w...

WSJ hires The Information's Gardizy - Talking Biz News

The Wall Street Journal has hired Anissa Gardizy as a reporter covering cloud computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure. She will start July 6. Gardizy has been at The Information for the p...

talkingbiznews.com

Tesla’s Robotaxi Falls Short With Long Waits and Stalled Rides The carmaker has just 59 vehicles in its fleet and is limited to three Texas cities, nowhere close to Elon Musk’s big promises. www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Tesla’s Robotaxi Falls Short With Long Waits and Stalled Rides

The carmaker has just 59 vehicles in its fleet and is limited to three Texas cities, nowhere close to Elon Musk’s big promises.

bloomberg.com

Claude Fable 5 kicked me out when I asked about a sick tree in my yard, I guess for being a question about biology...but Opus 4.8 gave a pretty good, if depressing, answer.

Apple updated Watch OS 27 eligibility. Phew. bsky.app/profile/vicm...

Victoria Song@vicmsong.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The watchOS site updated to say Series 9 and later is supported. This makes more sense given that’s when the chip was updated to better support AI features.

This should've been the lede to WSJ story on AI stockpicker superstar Leopold Aschenbrenner: In each market mania, new celebrity stock pickers get anointed, from Ryan Jacob and his Internet Fund during the dot-com era to Cathie Wood and her ARK Innovation ETF during the pandemic rally of 2020.

It's really important to see pushback from the markets against super massive trillion dollar IPOs from SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI. They don't want AI companies with comically inflated market cap forcing prompt purchase of their shares through index funds / 401ks. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

SpaceX, Other Mega IPOs Denied Fast Index Entry by S&P

S&P Dow Jones Indices will keep its existing eligibility requirements for main benchmarks like the S&P 500 Index, rejecting proposals that would have made it faster for mega-cap companies such...

bloomberg.com

“If the person is a U.S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States, that individual will be free to go after the brief encounter.” Justice Brett Kavanaugh www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...

Woman held by ICE for 25 days, despite U.S. citizenship claim, gets a passport

Attorneys for Dulce Consuelo Diaz Morales had presented a Maryland birth certificate and other documents as proof of her U.S. citizenship.

washingtonpost.com

To paraphrase K2SO, it's low, very low: Elon Musk Laid Out 602 Goals. We Counted How Many He Hit. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Elon Musk Laid Out 602 Goals. We Counted How Many He Hit. (Gift Article)

The billionaire has stated many plans for his businesses, but has delivered only some of what he said he would, when he said he would, according to a Times analysis.

nytimes.com

Enjoyed getting back on the radio to talk Boston tech, and Whoop specifically, with Jeff Bussgang and host Edgar Herwick on @wgbh.org's Curiosity Desk show today. www.youtube.com/live/qapDRuY...

Boston Public Radio, The Curiosity Desk, & The Culture Show Live Monday, June 1, 2026

YouTube video by GBH News

youtube.com

Getting to work on “Magic: The Gathering Arena,” a digital game modeled after the popular card game at toy giant Hasbro Inc., is a dream for many developers. But after mounting frustrations, they’re now unionizing. My latest, via @bostonglobe.com www.bostonglobe.com/2026/05/28/b...

‘Dream job for any gamer’: The wizards behind popular Magic game are trying to unionize - The Boston Globe

More than 100 employees, many of whom are lifelong fans of the game, are now trying to unionize — hoping to push back against what they describe as a series of aggressive and unnecessary measures by M...

bostonglobe.com

Greetings Professor Falken. Shall we play a game? Kinda chilling anecdote, if you think about it, from @stevenlevy.bsky.social’s great feature on AI agents and the birth of OpenClaw. www.wired.com/story/how-ai...

Worried about @theverge.com now: Murdoch made off with the crown jewels of the Vox Media empire…The remaining titles… do not throw off cash and are rooted quite firmly to the open web, which itself is cratering due to the disruption posed by artificial intelligence. www.adweek.com/media/vox-me...

Vox Media’s Unsold Brands Field Penske Interest, Exec Exits

As the portfolio is parceled up, a key revenue leader plots his exit

adweek.com

SpaceX IPO filing shows the company makes a ton of profit and cash flow from its Starlink internet service. Operating profit of $4.4 billion and adjusted cash flow of $7.2 billion last year. Meanwhile, space loses money on an operating basis (lots of spending for new rockets), and AI? Oh boy…

Buy, buy, buy — is there enough demand for a 2-sided market? A new futures market for semiconductors will let traders hedge their artificial intelligence investments with bets on the increasingly expensive price of computing power. www.cnbc.com/2026/05/12/n...

Traders will soon be able to bet on computer chip prices as AI drives costs skyward

Contracts can be used to hedge against rising GPU rental rates and other operational costs

cnbc.com

What about the folded paper over top lip from "You must pay the rent..." bit? #Zoom www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lKe... Kids say they can beat age checks by drawing on a fake mustache www.theregister.com/security/202...

Kids can bypass some age checks with a drawn-on mustache

: 46% say age checks are easy to bypass, and nearly a third admit getting around them

theregister.com

Valuable tallying of the history and all the ways you've lost privacy in your own car: The Car That Watches You Back The automobile spent a century as a machine you owned. Somewhere between the touchscreen and the cellular modem, that changed. nobodyaskedforthis.lol/posts/connec...

The Car That Watches You Back — Nobody Asked for This

How the connected car became an advertising surface. From Stellantis startup pop-ups to GSTV pumps to Gulp Radio aisles, and the consent infrastructure the automobile never developed.

nobodyaskedforthis.lol