Lora Kolodny
@lorak.bsky.social
reporter at cnbc.com. email: lora.kolodny@cnbc.com - ex-wsj, techcrunch & all over. i cover: elon musk cos. mostly tesla & spacex (some climate tech). my posts here are my own. optimistic on the inside. dm me on signal: lorakolodny.55
This is... painful and sounds like a real issue.
Ben Britten@benbritten.bsky.social · 11m agoevery single time I talk with a dev who is like 'it makes us so much more productive!' and have drilled into what they mean, its always boils down to the classic fallacy that KLOC == productive. More code faster solves nothing. Basically LLMs are tech debt generators.
This is an excellent point. Taking it in a somewhat different direction, this probably ups the chances of AI overinvestment, as the people making capex decisions may be overestimating the size and timing of benefits to users broadly.
Lora Kolodny@lorak.bsky.social · 2h agowas discussing with a fellow traveler today -- but programmers, coders, developers are having an *entirely* different experience of LLM-based products and services than the rest of us, especially the plagiarized plebeians among us (writers, reporters).
I can only speak for myself and I'm biased (as someone whose primarily interest is ecology and habitat conservation first) but my entire academic job at the moment is writing analysis code and developing software tools for data analysis and I definitely think the harms outweigh the time saved
Lora Kolodny@lorak.bsky.social · 2h agojust as developers should not make false equivalencies and claim positive impacts of AI justify or outweigh all harms, those of us not using the coding tools or benefitting otherwise should not overlook how much they can help.
It seems pretty problematic that the experience we're having with LLMs is diverging so sharply depending on what you're using it for. My husband (software engineer) recently told a coworker that my experience attempting to use LLMs for research was terrible and the coworker was shocked.
Lora Kolodny@lorak.bsky.social · 2h agowas discussing with a fellow traveler today -- but programmers, coders, developers are having an *entirely* different experience of LLM-based products and services than the rest of us, especially the plagiarized plebeians among us (writers, reporters).
was discussing with a fellow traveler today -- but programmers, coders, developers are having an *entirely* different experience of LLM-based products and services than the rest of us, especially the plagiarized plebeians among us (writers, reporters).
If you think this year has been bad, 2027 could be worse.
Zeke Hausfather@zekehausfather.com · 3d agoI'm not sure folks have realized just how crazy the second half of 2026 and 2027 will be for global temperatures – on the back of a record-smashing El Niño event. Here is my latest estimate of where both years will end up compared to global temperatures since 1850.
Do they care about school closures when they are driven by climate change or only when they can blame the teachers unions? How about when the schools are closed because they've burned down, been blown apart, or are engulfed in floods?
9 million U.S. students lost school time for weather in the 2024-2025 school year » Yale Climate Connections
Extreme heat, smoke, floods, and storms are disrupting education across the country.
yaleclimateconnections.org
In his 2020 run, Buttigieg stopped releasing the names of his campaign bundlers after scrutiny. They included: -superlobbyist, and now Palantir lobbyist, Steve Elmendorf -billionaire Blackstone exec Hamilton James -"Silicon Valley's favorite fixer" Bradley Tusk -Merck's head of public affairs, etc.
Here Are the Lobbyists and Corporate Execs Collecting Checks for Pete Buttigieg
As the Buttigieg campaign stops releasing its bundler names and blocks press from fundraising events, here are some of the pharmaceutical and finance executives behind its rise in the big money race, ...
readsludge.com
Pete Buttigieg@petebuttigieg.bsky.social · 20h agoWe see that our political system is broken, then keep behaving as if it worked. We need serious change, and it's time to take bigger swings.
This is rough but I think it talks about a lot of what is missing from the Cunningham/WNBA discourse. Namely, that trans people are not hypothetical thought experiments. They are real people who are being genocided by our government & any coverage that doesn't center that reality misses the mark.
the answer is always to disavow it
Would you let the Proud Boys march in and sit courtside?
thefrankiedlc.news
After 45 years as a New York City news anchor, Kaity Tong will retire this month. In a business that often kicks women to the curb decades before their male counterparts, Tong leaves the air at nearly 80 years old. And New York will miss her. www.newsday.com/entertainmen... #TVSky #NYC
New York TV anchor Kaity Tong announces retirement
New York TV icon Kaity Tong, known for her mentorship and influence, retires from WPIX after a remarkable 34-year career.
newsday.com
Revenue went up 92% but capex went up 6x. Grok, is that good?
Lora Kolodny@lorak.bsky.social · 19h agospacex tried to hush investors' worries about their ballooning capital expenditures on AI data centers, models and more. wall street wasn't buying it tonight. we'll see how it's trading tomorrow... www.cnbc.com/2026/08/04/s...
spacex tried to hush investors' worries about their ballooning capital expenditures on AI data centers, models and more. wall street wasn't buying it tonight. we'll see how it's trading tomorrow... www.cnbc.com/2026/08/04/s...
SpaceX's AI spending unnerves Wall Street despite promises of quick payoff
In addressing Wall Street for the first time since SpaceX's IPO, executives tried to make the case that hefty AI investments are paying off within a year.
cnbc.com
Don't look now, but the world has now installed 3TW of solar. Took 10 years to get from 100GW to 1TW. Less than 3 years to get to 2TW. Less than 2 years to get to 3TW. Analysts expect *9TW* by 2036.
The World Crossed a Major Solar Milestone. No One Noticed
The next phase of the boom may reveal a shift in who is gaining access to the technology.
bloomberg.com
Very very very Rupert Murdoch world domination vibes. 🚩 HT @lorak.bsky.social on CNBC live blog: www.cnbc.com/2026/08/04/s...
SpaceX earnings call is about to begin - their first as a public company, discussing Q2 2026 results. We're listening & will update here so you don't have to... www.cnbc.com/2026/08/04/s...
SpaceX revenue jumps 92% and AI costs soar in first earnings report since IPO: Live updates
Follow SpaceX’s Q2 2026 earnings live, with updates on revenue, Starlink, AI spending, Starship, guidance and SPCX stock.
cnbc.com
stop. making. people. feel like. chatbots. are "conversational" and their friends.
Mark Follman@markfollman.bsky.social · yesterdayMy new investigation into a mass shooter’s harrowing history with ChatGPT reveals numerous red flags—and some very disturbing ChatGPT replies—from long before his attack on Florida State University www.motherjones.com/media/2026/0... 1x 🧵
I did not work countless hours in an ICU full of proned patients and go back to my hotel crying because we lost more patients in a day than a typical week to hear a moron with a worm in his brain say that the ICU's were empty. I AM SO FUCKING ANGRY.
Dr. Lucky Tran@luckytran.com · 3d agoI worked for New York’s largest medical center at the start of the pandemic. There were morgue trucks on the streets. They set up emergency medical tents in Central Park. Healthcare worker colleagues died. It is horrific that RFK Jr is on national TV lying that ICUs were empty.
Whitehouse: "Today I think is a sad and embarrassing day for this committee as it looks like on a party-line vote we are going to advance out of this committee probably the most discreditable person ever to seek the office of attorney general. Let's start with the Epstein files ... "
“More than half of unmarried young adults—ages 22 to 35—say not having enough money is their biggest barrier to dating, according to a nat’l research project from Brigham Young University’s Wheatley Institute & the Institute for Family Studies.”🧪
Karen Benjamin Guzzo@karenguzzo.bsky.social · 2d agoYoung people can’t afford to date. The cost of living is discouraging people from even thinking about the possibility of a romantic relationship or having kids.
On August 5, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is predicted to crash onto the Moon. What has crashed on the Moon before? The very first human object to touch the Moon - Luna 2 in 1959. A probe, 3 bombs, and a rocket body! 🧪 🔭
1959: Luna 2 (USSR)
YouTube video by International Astronautical Federation
m.youtube.com
The same people who have been telling us "we can't stop climate change, instead we must adapt" have been hammering our capacity to adapt, through their promotion of austerity. What they're really saying is "keep burning fossil fuels for the sake of our donors". www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Paul Atkins: "What do I tell a pre-revenue biotech company that's gone public and is waiting for the FDA to say yay or nay to that particular product, so they go for sometimes years without showing any revenue.... You just have to file a 10Q anyway," Except - finance.yahoo.com/markets/arti...
SEC chair defends proposal to allow companies to report earnings only twice a year
In an interview with Yahoo Finance, Securities and Exchange Commission chair Paul Atkins defended a proposal to allow companies to disclose their financial results twice a year rather than quarterly.
finance.yahoo.com
My editor asked me to write about what happened to summer:
We launched a war on nature. Now we are in a climate warzone | Rebecca Solnit
Summer is not what it once was. We have been robbed of one of life’s great joys
theguardian.com
U.S. has used 'virtually all' of its long-range precision missiles during Iran war: Reuters
U.S. has used 'virtually all' of its long-range precision missiles during Iran war: Reuters
The U.S. Army has used up much of its stockpile of highly accurate long-range missiles during its war with Iran, people familiar with the data told Reuters.
cnb.cx
As I expected… www.transitiontimes.net/nn-2-the-tru...
NN#2: The Trump Paradox
Trump may have done more to accelerate the energy transition than policy ever could.
transitiontimes.net
Sarah Taber@sarahtaber.bsky.social · 2d agoAbsolutely unbelievable how solar power has taken off worldwide during the Hormuz oil crisis. You don't have to hand it to him, but Trump may have done more to finally kick off a global civilization of effete librul solar users than anyone else in the West
This is basically what I predicted. Governors are going to "pause" data centers just to take the edge off the political backlash & create some space. After their elections they'll do some real policy.
New Texas data center projects frozen until state audits them
On Monday, the governor ordered the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to audit all data centers wanting to connect to the state’s power grid.
texastribune.org
