data center boosters try to keep the conversation focused on water consumption because air pollution is where the acute problem is

Brad Johnson@climatebrad.hillheat.com · 2d ago

My god. A Virginia data center ran backup diesel generators full blast for 24 hours, creating a giant cloud of toxic smoke that choked its human neighbors. The government claimed there was nothing they could do.

Stumbled upon this overview of Chinese literary tales at the library last week and decided to loan it out—I forgot that speaking another language is actually really fun :D

Sam Altman said people are just gonna have to die in order to implement AI. In the very same week, Anthropic claimed it’s a human rights violation to be mean to the computer. These people need to be held accountable. They think lines of code are a person with rights but living people are debris.

The Verge@theverge.com · 4d ago

Over the past year, Anthropic has repeatedly flirted with the idea that its AI models could be conscious in some way. In February, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said on a podcast, “We don’t know if the models are conscious.”

University workers from Griffith, UQ, and QUT are all striking today in Brisbane in a show of solidarity for better conditions and pay, instead of overpaid executives, across the higher ed sector

so many incredible PhD scholarships attached to projects that critically study AI, so few postdocs u.u

Australia's draft Digital Duty of Care is "a welcome and necessary reform," but its public pitch as an off switch for 'the algorithm' misses the point, write Queensland University of Technology's Daniel Angus and Jean Burgess and Western Sydney University's Amanda Third.

Australia Wants an Off Switch for 'The Algorithm.' That's the Wrong Fix

Concerns about algorithms are real, but they are not the ‘bad guys’ in and of themselves, write Daniel Angus, Jean Burgess and Amanda Third.

buff.ly

The White House accord on AI that was signed by all the big tech oligarchs today misspells United States as “Unites States.”

MASSIVE strike at QUT today. About 200 of us on the picket line demanding better working and learning conditions from our overpaid corporate managers. Such incredible solidarity.

"Cornell has failed to protect its students. Cornell has failed to address the growing issue of sexual assault on campus with its pathetic task force. Cornell has failed the student allegedly raped by those seven men at Chi Phi in October 2024. Cornell has failed her. Cornell has failed us."

@NewsJennifer (Jennifer Schulze)@newsjennifer.bsky.social · 2w ago

I think it’s fair to say that the student journalists at Cornell are braver than the news networks who just gave up on their WH pool ban even though CNN is still being denied access. www.cornellsun.com/article/2026...

Just when I think I can’t hate OpenAI and Sam Altman any more, new details come out about how ChatGPT helped a shooter plan one of the worst mass shootings in Canadian history in Tumbler Ridge, BC. OpenAI made an explicit decision not to report the user to authorities.

ChatGPT helped the Tumbler Ridge school shooter focus on guns, tactics, and terror, our investigation reveals

OpenAI’s chatbot fed the shooter’s violent fantasies and planning up to the massacre.

motherjones.com

Had a UKRI funded grant proposal rejected at the "AI triage stage". "This AI-based triage was used only to identify approximately 50% of the strongest proposals to take forward to full human review." 🧪 #academicsky

I'm in @theconversation.com this week sharing findings from RentTech research that @chandnigupta.bsky.social and I worked on together for @cprc-research.bsky.social Dark patterns, vague privacy policies, dodgy personality quizzes + reward programs are just some of the things renters deal with!

Personality tests, dodgy reward programs, AI bots: how rent tech platforms make renting a ‘dehumanising’ experience

Rent tech is an unavoidable part of modern renting – and renters have little control over what data they have to give up and what happens to it afterwards.

theconversation.com

not to be an idealist or anything but i wish things were slightly better

I’m not sure where the line is beteeen “of course AI agents can’t end the world, they’re just autocomplete bots” and “look, we almost started WWIII by taking our marching orders from bots.” If the point is that it’s people not machines to blame that’s uncomfortably close to an NRA bumper sticker.

That's my uni! Instead of actually listening to staff and working with us to make QUT a better and fairer place to work and study, our overpaid management has gone crying to the FWC. Tomorrow we're taking a 2 hour strike to insist they take us seriously www.removepaywall.com/search?url=h...

Fetterman text to aide: “Why do I have to keep having to meet with [Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia]?” Aide: “Because they are worried about vaccines and Medicaid cuts.” Fetterman: “Well I’m not.” @wsj.com #PAsen www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

John Birmingham on Nepal: The perpetrators were the boards and CEOs of fossil fuel companies who have known for decades what they were doing, have known the consequences of it, and carried on with reckless indifference to those consequences. #auspol > aliensideboob.substack.com/p/the-reckon...

The Reckoning

That imagery of the Himalayan tsunami smashing into the multi-story building in Nepal was horrifying, but then murder always is, isn’t it?

aliensideboob.substack.com

life never stops happening which is good and also bad

Friends, have you seen the investigation on UK students hiring Kenyans to write their papers & dissertations? I assume it wasn't cross Atlantic news as the media only seems to be interested in laundering eugenics to the mainstream. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Inside the world of Kenya’s ‘shadow scholars’ paid to write essays for UK students

Highly educated Kenyans working for essay mills ghostwrite academic work that students pass off as their own

theguardian.com

Think about the audacity of them telling Black people that we're subpar DEI hires and such and these students hiring Black people to do their work for them and pass it off as their own.

About to publish an investigation into stolen art that is the greatest possible demonstration of this core research principle:

I know I'm doing this a boringly cliche amount of times lately but I'm just endlessly struck by how apt all of Marx's comments on capitalism and technology are to current generative AI discourse. Both in the sense that 1) Dude knew what he was talking about and 2) it's still just capitalism.

Thou shalt ban AI data centers everywhere.

Its embarrassing how many grown ass adults live in these fantasies where people work for some nonsense like the artificial cultures oligarchs manufacture over survival.

It's all about priorities. The tech bros gave politicians a lot of money.

Very happy to be an official affiliate of the @leverhulmecal.bsky.social and am looking forward to working together with the many wonderful folks there in the coming years to study the emerging political architectures that machine learning is giving rise to !

Technology is cool, too bad they made it evil

Huge props to @ainowinstitute.bsky.social for this important and scary piece about AI kill chains. Very important reading and a wonderful example of visual storytelling. ai-killchain.airwars.org

Interactive: Anatomy Of An AI Kill Chain

Breaking down how militaries are offloading life and death decisions to flawed technologies

ai-killchain.airwars.org

If you see this …. It’s a sign to take care of your local waterway by picking up trash!!!