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Bill Thompson

@billt.bsky.social

Hack and pundit. BBC Research & Development. Formerly Digital Planet.

591 Posts10829 Follower1139 Folgt
Bill Thompson@billt.bsky.social · 18h ago

Just to raise awareness of how seriously academic debate is being censored by cowed institutions in the US right. The administration is winning, because important thinkers like @ruha9.bsky.social are not heard. Soon organisations in the UK will limit what is said for fear of losing US funding

Ruha Benjamin@ruha9.bsky.social · 2d ago

I’m in DC scheduled to give this talk today. But the organizers flagged slides in my deck that mention racism, structural gaslighting, New Jim Code and other themes that are off limits in the Land of the Free.

APA Women’s Leadership Institute event flyer with “keynote speaker” crossed out with a red X
Lilian Edwards@lilianedwards.bsky.social · 3d ago

I did a podcast with the lovely Legal 4Tech people who mysteriously don't seem to be on BlueSky! If you can bear me being long and silly it's about the new book and a bunch of AI related topics. On LI lnkd.in/p/eENNAUjT or (eg) Spotify open.spotify.com/episode/3iOU...

This is much the longest and perhaps the most personal podcast I've ever done! having listened to it in the course of an endlessly delayed journey to Stockholm I can at least now tentatively… | Li...

This is much the longest and perhaps the most personal podcast I've ever done! having listened to it in the course of an endlessly delayed journey to Stockholm I can at least now tentatively recommend...

lnkd.in

Blaine@blaine.bsky.social · 3d ago

I love this new feature we built for Roundabout. Our community members needed a way to message each-other with personal information, but no-one needed a new way for someone to slide into their DMs, or a new inbox to check.

Roundabout@roundabout.town · 3d ago

How do you allow people to connect one-on-one, for things like coordinating coffee chats and free item pickups, without creating a vector for spam and abuse?: In response to community member requests, our team came up with an elegant solution: Direct Replies

Bill Thompson@billt.bsky.social · last wk.

Steve Reich is 90 this weekend. His music has accompanied me throughout my adult life. I will always remember seeing him perform 'clapping' at his 75th birthday prom in 2011. Such music, such a life.

Gil Durán@gilduran.com · last mo.

Got 'em: The @thebulwark.com added an editor's note to the review, acknowledging that the author's direct affiliation with the Foundation for American Innovation ("the foundation shaping the tech right," according to Inc.) created a conflict that should have been forthrightly disclosed.

Editor's note from Bulwark: 1 Editor’s note (September 3, 2026, 1:10 p.m. EDT): In a response to this review posted to social media, Gil Durán, author of The Nerd Reich, has highlighted that the reviewer, Jacob Bruggeman, is affiliated with the Foundation for American Innovation (FAI). Durán mentions FAI in his book, once, in a sentence that reads as follows: “This merging of tech and far-right networks—hosted by the Foundation for American Innovation, which Inc. later described as ‘the foundation shaping the tech right’—seemed like a live test of [Balaji] Srinivasan’s theory.” Bruggeman’s affiliation with FAI is an unpaid, nonresident fellowship (in other words, it is not his day job), and while it was mentioned in his byline beneath this review, we should have made a point of additionally disclosing it in a footnote like this.
Gil Durán@gilduran.com · last mo.

Someone finally wrote a bad review of my book! Its argument: The tech bros are not fascists and we need not worry about them. Its author: a fellow at the Foundation for American Innovation (FAI). FAI's ideological godfather and treasured idol: Peter Thiel. 🫠

Bill Thompson@billt.bsky.social · last mo.

I want us to think about agentic swarms as being more like organs formed from cooperating cells than emerging intelligence. Otherwise our descent into anthroporphism will distract us, On LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/pulse/civili... and my blog astickadogandaboxwithsomethinginit.com/not-a-civili...

Not a civilisation, an organ.

The recent excitement over agentic swarms and their effectiveness has led to a lot of speculation about the capabilities of these systems, and naturally to a conversation about what they mean in the d...

linkedin.com

Bill Thompson@billt.bsky.social · last mo.

The Tracey Emin show at Tate Modern has closed. I went five times and it's been an incredibly important touchpoint for me. Before that with Leigh Bowery, and before that Yoko Ono, Tate has in a very real sense, kept me together these last years. At @tate.bsky.social or wherever you get your feed

Ruth Pearce@notrightruth.bsky.social · last mo.

This is the most fucked up and immediately harmful policy decision I think I've ever seen in adult trans healthcare in the UK, and that's saying something. The Welsh Gender Service is one of the best in the country. It is widely praised by the patients it helps. That is why it is being targeted.

QueerAF@wearequeeraf.com · last mo.

🚨🆕 @wearequeeraf.com and @whatthetrans.com can reveal that the NHS has cancelled all gender-affirming surgeries for adult patients of the Welsh Gender Service Some trans patients received the news just days or even hours before they were due to take place 👇 www.wearequeeraf.com/nhs-cancels-...

Anil Madhavapeddy@anil.recoil.org · 2mo ago

I've had to respond to multiple OSS security issues recently and the wild thing is that agents can now generate exploits just on the *rumour* of a bug. This throws security embargoes out the window, as the fix is less important than the knowledge of its existence anil.recoil.org/notes/rumour...

Just a rumour of a bug is enough to find a security exploit these days

Thinking through how the conventional OSS security embargoes no longer buy us time, and what open source maintainers might do instead to respond

anil.recoil.org

Bill Thompson@billt.bsky.social · last mo.

A nation state has always been a bit of a protection racket (give us your money and this army will keep you safe…) but it’s rare to see it done so blatantly.

Sunder Katwala (sundersays)@sundersays.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Nathan Cofnas and the US Ambassador to Belgium say that the University of Ghent have now lifted his suspension, thanking the US government for supporting him (with threats of retaliation). The Ambassador says that Cofnas will be able to complete his one year appointment to March 2027.

I am grateful to Rector Petra De Sutter for allowing me to stay at Ghent University. I look forward to continuing to work on the project, “The Future of Liberalism,” for 60% of my working time for the remainder of my one-year postdoc. I wish to personally thank Ambassador @BillWhiteUSA . It was beyond my imagination that such a person would take an interest in the fate of a postdoc. The Ambassador responded with great support which helped to bring about a just outcome. Thank you, @USAmbToBelgium and @StateDept for defending American values. I am proud of my country.
Bill Thompson@billt.bsky.social · last mo.

I lazily ask an LLM (Gemini) for advice about a minor medical issue. It gives me a comforting explanation which I accept. If it said I was dying I'd question its accuracy - but of course I'm making the same mistake either way.

Sean Jones KC@seanjones.org · 2mo ago

The problem with racists terrorising people seeking asylum is not wondering who they might come after next. The problem is that racists are terrorising people seeking asylum.

Nick Halliday@nickmhalliday.bsky.social · 2mo ago

All I can say is I worked there a long time and you really do get involved in fascinating stuff. Quite often organisations actually want the NAO to give them a once over to improve how they work. Also loads of sharp but nice people to work with.

Hetan Shah@hetanshah.bsky.social · 2mo ago

It’s really important that independent organisations can hold Government to account. I’m on the Board of @nao.org.uk which does this and we are looking for two new Board members. Could you help spread the word so we can get the best possible field of candidates roles.saxbam.com/advert-detai...

NAO National Audit Office National Audit Office Non-Executive Directors
Timnit Gebru@timnitgebru.blacksky.app · 2mo ago

As Maya Angelou said, when people show you who they are, believe them. I'd rather have a klan member clearly articulating his views of how I should be eliminated than these garbage people dressing up their racism in intellectualism. You can fuck all the way off.

Tarik Abou-Chadi@tabouchadi.bsky.social · 2mo ago

A good moment to recommend Angela Saini‘s Superior, which traces back the history of “race science” and shows the institutions that sustain this pseudo-research until today. These pursuits have nothing in common with the principles of academic inquiry www.angelasaini.co.uk/superior

Angela Saini | Award-winning Science Journalist and Author

The website of British independent science journalist, author and broadcaster, Angela Saini. Her most recent book is Superior: The Return of Race Science.

angelasaini.co.uk

Emoria - Aftertaste is a Horror Novel@emoria.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Hi, recently, someone put labels on my account of sharing AI art. They used the labeler @aimod(dot)social I spent hours in DMs trying to show my evidence that @imnobunnywhoareyou.bsky.social is a friend who draws by hand. At the end of this, they said "she's scamming you for money" 🧵

Emoria - Aftertaste is a Horror Novel@emoria.bsky.social · 2mo ago

i'm asking @aimod.social to take down the notice on my account. Here's NoBunny drawing a new version of my avatar because people were trolling her due to mistakes on the old one, all because of your labeler. This sucks. We're small-time trans artists who don't use AI and this sucks.