The fact that he felt compelled to write this (or have his publicists write it) shows that he's worried

I don't know how to explain to the people who pop up when creatives complain about "AI" to say there are legit uses for it just how much they sound like someone saying "Well actually fire is used to make bread" when people are talking about an organized arson ring burning down their fucking houses

I'm begging people to realize that since Irish & Germans immigrants in 1840s, there has always been attempts to say the current wave of recent immigrants are unassimilable and prone to crime--and fighting petty crime necessitates deportations and immigration restrictions. I wrote a book about it:

Police and the Empire City: Race and the Origins of Modern Policing in New York

dukeupress.edu

United Airlines recently gave my pre-selected seat on a 15 hour flight to one of their employees, and I complained. Their latest response: "seat selection is a courtesy." So remember that next time you pay extra not to get stuck in a middle seat between two strangers.

Lemme tell y'all an AI story: Yesterday, I was at Costco, selecting those big ass watermelons. An elderly gentleman spotted me & stopped. "The sweet ones," he said, "have some green & some yellow. All green--no sweet. All yellow, nah. You want half-half." Then he proceeded to select one for me.

"Everyone was really excited about that" Jesus indeed

regular meghan 나영지 🇵🇸@ruemcclammyhand.bsky.social · 3w ago

another facet of these forced adoptions is that the organizations executing them think they’re the hand of God

How is it that soccer players are always conferring with the refs as if they're trying to figure out the rules?

Wherein United Airlines blames my wife after they give away my chosen seat on a long-haul flight to one of their off-duty employees.

Chad Levinson@chadlevinson.com · 3w ago

I've had some off-putting (presumably genAI) customer service interactions in the last couple days. While booking an HVAC service appointment, the bot switched to Portuguese in the middle of the call. But worse, United Airlines.

I've had some off-putting (presumably genAI) customer service interactions in the last couple days. While booking an HVAC service appointment, the bot switched to Portuguese in the middle of the call. But worse, United Airlines.

France just can't get it together

Latest absurdity of the AI era (may it be short and soon forgotten). While I was making an appointment for HVAC service today, the customer service rep suddenly started speaking what sounded like Portuguese. I told it I don't speak Portuguese, and it said, "fine, we'll stick to English." Um, thanks?

Marco Rubio is acting Viceroy of a country whose leader the United States abducted and currently holds in prison pending trial in US courts for alleged violations of US law.

Quinta Jurecic@qjurecic.bsky.social · 3w ago

No, this seems fine www.wsj.com/opinion/why-...

I’ve been reading TPM since it was a one-person blog, so it’s a real thrill that they have published an excerpt from my book.

TPM@talkingpointsmemo.com · last mo.

There Was a White House Playbook for Selling Unpopular Foreign Policy Ideas. Trump Has Thrown It Away.

Currently in Cape Town. Glad to miss the 4th in DC. Also, biltong is delish.

this is what happens when we spend a decade or more conceding that maybe the transphobes have a point, maybe the xenophobes have a point. NO. i am so angry right now at what this country has slid into. YET AGAIN.

Rafael M Batista@rafmbatista.bsky.social · last mo.

Patriot front marching from Union Station right now. White supremacist and neo-fascist organization. Cowards.

You know your tech has a problem when policymakers feel the need to add qualifiers like “responsible” and “ethical” every time they mention it.

Governor Gavin Newsom@governor.ca.gov · last mo.

California 🤝 @anthropic.com We're entering a partnership to strengthen cybersecurity and provide Claude to state agencies at a discount. The Golden State helped build Silicon Valley — and every Californian should benefit from the responsible use of their latest innovations.

So fucking sad that some people think this is an argument in favor of AI

Elaine Burke@elaineburke.bsky.social · last mo.

While you're cooking in the heat this week, do bear this in mind.

My main worry is that we’re banning social media for kids but not AI. So you can’t speak to real people online anymore, kids, but you sure can talk to your fake artificial friend who weirdly loves to talk about taking your own life!

The irony in (correctly) identifying 9/11 as a starting point is that it led to the GWoT, which brought to US police departments military hardware, veterans with experience as an occupying force, and Israeli security consultants. All of these contributed to a culture in which cops fear the public.

Melissa Gira Grant@melissagiragrant.com · 2mo ago

some of it is the move into the warrior cop mindset stuff, but I think some of it is them seeing organized political and community opposition to policing including anti-immigrant policing, and instead of facing what that means, they internalize it as "i'm in danger"

I am #4. Social media companies are terrified of being held accountable for the content they publish (algorithms are editors)

Duncan Weldon@duncanweldon.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I remain of the view that regulation of social media is better than a ban for young people. But I also pretty much agree with all these proposals.

We are well past the point where, if it’s measured in dollars, electing Donald Trump has cost the country more than paying reparations for slavery.

Big Tech wants to replace large chunks of society with their computer game, from the work we do to the things we create to the relationships we make, and they want to use the resources that keep us alive to run their hollow simulation.

I’m afraid you’ve missed your chance to pre-order my book, because it’s LAUNCH DAY! www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978067...

The President's Echo System — Harvard University Press

A sharp analysis of the propaganda partnerships between US presidents and private organizations that fueled the Cold War and paved the way for the War on Terror.How do US presidents motivate public su...

hup.harvard.edu

PSA for authors

Carl T. Bergstrom@carlbergstrom.com · 2mo ago

A quick warning to my fellow authors. An online book club asked me to do a zoom presentation about.Calling Bullshit. I agreed because outreach is critical to what I do. As things proceeded, they asked me for a contribution of several hundred dollars to cover their expenses! Don’t fall for this.

Look. I don't like Platner. But like Fetterman, even if he turns out to bring his worst tendencies to the Senate, he's a vote for Democrats controlling the agenda, and that's more important than his individual policy beliefs. And at this point, I don't think there's a viable alternative nominee.

Using any of these models (at all) helps them engage in more of this damaging behavior

Sam Cole@samleecole.bsky.social · 2mo ago

new @cdt.org study out this morning looks at how chatbots deploy manipulative "dark patterns" to get people to offer up more than they bargained for: www.404media.co/new-study-re...

Pre-orders are already shipping in some cases, so there's no reason to wait. www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978067...

FWIW, I don’t think the major problem in my field, or related ones, is that people need to move faster & produce more. I read a lot of papers as part of the job, and I’m increasingly convinced we’d benefit from fewer papers and better ones, not more mediocre work produced ever more “efficiently.”

The problem with modern tech is not that it knows everything about us. The problem is that it violates our privacy and then offers us back an incomplete image of ourselves based on those aspects that it can use to imprison our attention and monetize that imprisonment.

Mia Sato@miasato.bsky.social · 2mo ago

“We must avoid the … the idolatry of profit that sacrifices the weak, a uniformity that neutralizes differences, and the pretense that a single language — even a digital one — can translate everything, including the mystery of the person, into data and performance.” www.theverge.com/news/936945/...