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Gideon Lichfield

@glichfield.bsky.social

Climber, biker, cocktailer, polyglot, vagabond. Ex EIC WIRED & MIT Technology Review, now writing about the future of democracy at https://futurepolis.substack.com. NYC/SF. He/him/Sir.

68 Posts2066 Follower151 Folgt
Gideon Lichfield@glichfield.bsky.social · 3mo ago

If you want to have a story published alongside some of the leading names in speculative fiction, now's your chance. @mitpress.bsky.social has agreed to publish an anthology linked to the Protopian Prize, a fiction contest for hopeful future visions of democratic governance... [1/2]

The Protopian Prize | The Fiction Contest

The Protopian Prize is a fiction contest inviting you to share your vision of people working toward liberatory futures, meeting obstacles, and making real change. “Protopian”—a word coined by Kevin ...

protopianprize.com

Gideon Lichfield@glichfield.bsky.social · 5mo ago

I often see this claim: we're just like AI, only with more data. Once AI is embodied (as Fei-Fei Li and others are working on) and can experience the world in as much detail as we do, the only way to argue it isn't conscious is to retreat into mysticism. I think this is incredibly simplistic. 🧵

David Roberts@volts.wtf · 5mo ago

Here's how I think about what AI is doing: 1) pattern recognition, ie, finding patterns in large pools of data, & then the trickier bit, which is 2) abstracting the pattern such that it can be applied, as a rule or heuristic, to novel sets of data. So: finding, abstracting, & then applying patterns.

Gideon Lichfield@glichfield.bsky.social · last yr.

Perhaps I’ve missed it, but in all the talk about whether the attack on Iran has stopped its nuke program, I haven’t seen anyone point out that Trump played a huge role in creating the threat in the first place when he pulled out of the JCPOA

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Templeton World Charity Foundation@templetonworld.bsky.social · last yr.

Can lawmaking keep up with the pace of our digital world? Journalist @glichfield.bsky.social joins host David Zvi Kalman to discuss the challenges governments face in responding to rapid technological change, and how this is mirrored in organized religion on the Belief in the Future podcast.

Is Tech Too Fast to be Governed? with Gideon Lichfield (podcast)

Journalist Gideon Lichfield joins host David Zvi Kalman in this episode of Belief in the Future podcast to explore how lawmaking can keep up with the fast…

templetonworldcharity.org

Gideon Lichfield@glichfield.bsky.social · last yr.

There's a difference between laws saying how cars should be built and laws saying how fast people can drive them. The proposed moratorium on state-level AI laws would be the equivalent of banning states from having speed limits. My latest: www.techpolicy.press/why-both-sid...

Why Both Sides Are Right—and Wrong—About A Moratorium on State AI Laws | TechPolicy.Press

Gideon Lichfield says there’s an argument for a moratorium—but a much narrower one than what Republicans propose.

techpolicy.press

Gideon Lichfield@glichfield.bsky.social · last yr.

The story of what DOGE is doing will henceforth be all about this: not about firing people or cutting supposed waste, but making US data privacy an even greater nightmare than it already was.

Andrew Couts@couts.bsky.social · last yr.

NEW: Russell Vought, acting head of CFPB and director of OMB, just killed a rule to protect US residents' personal information from predatory data brokers. @dell.bsky.social and @dmehro.bsky.social have the scoop: www.wired.com/story/cfbp-q...

Gideon Lichfield@glichfield.bsky.social · last yr.

People who claim AGI is imminent mean a wide range of different things by it. For Bloomberg, I write that this AGI hype is obscuring our ability to talk intelligently about the big changes that are actually coming. www.bloomberg.com/opinion/feat...

When Will AI Be Smarter Than Humans? Don’t Ask

The term “artificial general intelligence” is being bandied about by some of tech’s smartest people, but nobody knows what it really means.

bloomberg.com

Justin Hendrix@justinhendrix.bsky.social · last yr.

Worth a read. I worked at The Economist (one of the lumbering Goliaths Seward mentions here) when it launched. Still remember the FOMO at the new thing, and how much I loved @glichfield.bsky.social's newsletters. What a terrible business, the news. But as Zach says, so many great people. RIP Quarts.

Zach Seward@zachseward.com · last yr.

Quartz, the business news startup I worked on for a dozen years, through the height of digital media and the sector's crash, has fired all its writers and been sold to its fifth owner. So it felt like time to reflect. www.zachseward.com/what-was-qua...

Gideon Lichfield@glichfield.bsky.social · last yr.

Today I learned that (a) “greenhushing” is now a thing (b) we’re all getting measurably stupider and (c) the whole universe might be inside a black hole. Not sure how much weirder things can get

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B! 🐝 Cavello (they/them)@b-cavello.bsky.social · last yr.

I really appreciate this piece from @glichfield.bsky.social on metaphors to communicate #PublicAI (or whatever you call it) to the public. Having spent much of my career focused on translating esoteric tech/policy stuff to folks, I know the value of a good metaphor! BUT I also have Some Thoughts 🧵

Gideon Lichfield@glichfield.bsky.social · last yr.

In which I wrestle with the problem of how to explain "public AI" to the public and decide that the best metaphor might be... supermarkets? futurepolis.substack.com/p/like-bridg...