Ethan Plotkin
@ethanplotkin.bsky.social
Host and producer at Reuters ethan.plotkin@thomsonreuters.com
"Claude sounds friendly, vaguely French, cultivated — even trustworthy. How would we react if the same model was called ‘Xi,’ ‘Vladimir,’ or ‘Algorithmic Model Unit 72'?" On the perils of anthropomorphized AI
Emma Jacobs@emmavj.bsky.social · 2w agoas.ft.com/r/c8b52960-5... Why this philosopher turned down Anthropic This is a great essay - on AI but also on working in a field which suddenly gets lots of love, and not succumbing to flattery
Unfortunately, a stunned Paris is how they all got into this whole mess to begin with
Pop Crave@popcrave.com · 4w ago‘The Odyssey’ women Zendaya, Anne Hathaway, Lupita Nyong'o, and Charlize Theron stun in Paris.
A friend of mine who was TA’ing for an AmLit course found a copy of Moby Dick a student had left behind. It had only one marginal annotation, around page 100, that simply said “whale is important.”
a swarm of spring bugs@facefullabugs.bsky.social · 5mo agoLove the glimpse into the beautiful mind that notated this used copy of Moby Dick I got
This makes it sound like the cast of Mormon Wives harbor grave doubts about Bahrain’s offensive capabilities
BBC viewers can access Mark Rutte's inner monologue by pressing the red button.
Robert Jenrick sacked from Tory shadow cabinet over ‘plotting’ to defect ft.trib.al/ckcMCLi
Robert Jenrick sacked from Tory shadow cabinet over ‘plotting’ to defect
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has removed figure seen as possible successor from the shadow cabinet
ft.trib.al
[Al Michaels calling the kick return from Dark Knight Rises] would you look at that. meanwhile you got uh. Ward. how do you figure
"Voters want contradictory things: low #prices when they shop, high #wages for themselves; not many immigrants but lots of cheap labour; rising house prices when they own and lower ones when their children want to buy." www.economist.com/leaders/2025...
Extremely funny to call the pope “holier-than-thou”
NEW: The End of the Line: the centrepiece of Saudi Arabia’s Neom gigaproject - a 500m tall, 170km long wall-like building intended ultimately to house 9 million people - can’t get out of the ground, say more than 20 former Neom architects, engineers and senior executives. ig.ft.com/saudi-neom-l...
End of The Line: how Saudi Arabia’s Neom dream unravelled
Mohammed bin Salman’s utopian city was undone by the laws of physics and finance
ig.ft.com
My column this week: on a world in which your lifeboat seems ever more necessary- but ever more unappealing:
Israel seems more important — and less desirable — than ever for British Jews
Amid rising antisemitism at home, our lifeboat abroad seems less attractive
ft.com
It's profoundly saddening to read that AP will no longer be assigning or running book reviews because readers don't engage with them enough and they take too much effort to plan and assign. People complain about critics as gatekeepers; wait until all that's left is marketing.
It's also just not true. Cyrus the Great is so revered in Jewish history that some considered him to the the messiah. The authors of the Talmud lived under the Sassanians and often had good relations with them (the Talmud loves king Shappur I). Israel was an ally of pre-Revolution Iran.
Joel S.@joelhs.bsky.social · last yr.Only in the Middle East are relatively comprehensible modern conflicts rooted in the balance of power of nation-states reduced to quasi-mystical "ancient hatreds."
Starmer v Farage and Reeves’s fiscal fix, dissected by the brilliant @stephenkb.bsky.social @chrisgiles.ft.com and @annasophiegross.bsky.social - plus hot @lucyfisher.ft.com baby news www.ft.com/content/c005...
Who’s afraid of Nigel Farage?
Plus: Rachel Reeves’ problems are piling up ahead of the autumn budget
ft.com
Trust in European Union at highest since 2007, poll shows reut.rs/4k9VQ5z
Trust in European Union at highest since 2007, poll shows
Trust in the European Union and its institutions has risen to an almost two-decade high, a report released on Wednesday shows, as U.S. President Donald Trump upends global trade and foreign policy.
reut.rs
From Jeffrey Toobin's 2008 book THE NINE, this remains the greatest Justice Souter anecdote I can possibly share. RIP.
Good morning why not have lunch with Sam Altman. He's cooking on.ft.com/44qGt3J
OpenAI chief Sam Altman: ‘This is genius-level intelligence’
[FREE TO READ] The tech entrepreneur on the risks and opportunities of AI, his dispute with Elon Musk and why he has the ‘most important job maybe in history’
on.ft.com
