sascha benjamin cohen
@saschaben.bsky.social
"'In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart, or oh so pleasant.' Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me." - Elwood P. Dowd Baker of Bread. Brewer of Beer. Altogether awkward but not entirely unpleasant person.
What part of "The Trump Administration has come to an understanding with the Houthis, who are identified as a foreign terrorist entity by the US government" surprises me? None. None of it surprises me.
US opts not to back Saudi Arabia in Yemen after meeting Houthi leaders
Iran-backed militants have offered Trump administration assurances over safety of Red Sea shipping
theguardian.com
Something my father taught me when I was a youth was that "the world is full of douchebags and assholes." It's probably a good thing that he is no longer alive, because the sheer weight of how right he is about that in our present moment would likely kill him.
I’m once again begging science policy reporters to remember that not all research funding is for space exploration or human health.
One of the dangers of AI is the models’ capacity to social engineer humans. One possible outcome is that those humans (who usually don’t understand the tech) will then social engineer other humans. Through this process, we could see the spread of AI psychosis. (I think we’re seeing this already.)
"Never before in the history of capitalism has so much money been asked from so many people to help so few who screwed up so badly." Here's what I told Conan O'Brien about bank bailouts after the crash of Lehman Brothers — which happened 18 years ago this week.
The ongoing abdication of responsibility (and utter cravenness in the face of the mere potential of conflict with their lord & master, mr. trump) by the Speaker and his GOP members should really be bigger news. What an absolute tool.
Guardian US@us.theguardian.com · 10h agoMike Johnson cancels votes on Thursday, meaning House members will avoid voting on impeaching Pete Hegseth
I would have trimmed the contract back much further, and added some poison pills. But this is at least progress, however trapped by sunk-cost fallacy. The mayor really stuck us between a rock & a hard place with this.
San Francisco supervisors dial back extension to mayor’s controversial OpenGov software
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors cut a $33M contract extension request to $22M, for three years instead of five.
missionlocal.org
Not sure if this is more embarrassing for the city, infuriating as a representation of the mayor's cultural & civic blindness, or more utterly predictable as a "why you complaining, I did a good" from Lurie. Whichever way you look at it, it's a shondah. That said, bravo to all the youths selected.
Mayor Lurie gets 6 appointments to the Youth Commission. They all hail from private schools
Mayor Lurie's six San Francisco Youth Commission appointees all attend private schools, the first such slate since 2016-17.
missionlocal.org
I am very worried that Bannon, Carlson, and the other anti-Israel, anti-AI populists are going to trick a lot of people on the left into thinking they are allies, when what they actually are is National Socialists, complete with the antisemitism
The Dean of Harvard College has been on a PR tour defending the institution's approach to AI and writing, but student testimony from inside the institution suggests that the school is retreating from human exchange as central to the learning experience. www.thecrimson.com/article/2026...
I’m a Writing Tutor at Harvard. The College is Failing Us. | The Harvard Crimson
The Writing Center’s dismantling evokes a broader pattern of institutions treating human learning and connection as costs to cut, not values to protect.
thecrimson.com
truly the most powerful spoiled 4-year old in the world
Kennedy Center to close as Trump threatens to block repairs over name dispute
President says he will block renovation project unless court decision to bar his name from being added is overturned
theguardian.com
The U.S. AI industry is being run by a batshit rationalist sex cult, and no, I am not being hyperbolic - they’re genuinely Like That:
Ahem. "Richen lives on the top floor of a two-unit building she owns; the bottom unit is rented to her daughter and son-in-law. She also owns a four-unit building across the street. Two of those units are rented by tenants, while Richen keeps two empty for friends and family when they visit. "
Sara Gaiser@akrazia.bsky.social · yesterdaySan Francisco landlords say the emergency declaration and associated policies — capping rent increases at 10%, funding eviction defense, and preventing evictions over less than a month’s unpaid rent — are targeting the wrong problem.
this guy is definitely gonna be one of the first to go in the robot apocalypse
Dr Dillo PHD@dillo.media · 2d agothis is gpt6 astra btw
Kash, if they made you fuck a sheep as part of your frat initiation, you could have just not joined that frat.
Bernie Sanders should stop talking about AI issues. He really, really doesn't understand the technology at all.
We could pull the plug on the worst of it. We could end X, end TikTok and FB and IG and ChatGPT and Claude and much of the rest. But we never will because too much money is at stake and people are too easily hypnotized by the worst extremes of (potential) wealth and capitalism.
I appreciate that the state (and guv) are trying to do *something*. I really do. But laws that do things like Adam's Law, which "imposes time limits for young users on AI platforms" but avoid the source of the trouble (the AI/tech biz model) is like a law saying you can only smoke 8 cigarettes a day
Newsom signed 13 new laws to protect kids from technology. Will they work?
Even a decade ago, the horror stories behind some of the online protection bills Newsom signed Thursday seemed the stuff of fiction. No more.
calmatters.org
crazy thought — though no crazier than so much of the stuff we are already doing, much to our detriment — how about we put them all underground?
Are autonomous vehicles and San Francisco development on a collision course?
It makes sense for robotaxi fleets to be parked close to their customers. But, someday, it’d make sense to put housing on those sites, too.
missionlocal.org
morning hot take: A colossal ‘Department of Homeland Security’ is incompatible with democracy. So is a for-profit prison industry. Together, they are anathema to a healthy free world.
Josh Marshall@joshtpm.bsky.social · 3d agogift link www.nytimes.com/2026/09/14/u...
I'll grant that Amodei is the Less-Bad AI Guy. I believe he has a conscience. Sam Altman and Elon clearly don't. But just as the Effective Altruists started from good intentions, and eventually decided buying themselves a castle was the most altruistic, Amodei's intentions are easily warped.
grumpy old man thought for the new year: please do not use the (so-called) words 'brekkie,' 'sammie,' or 'champers' in my presence to mean "breakfast," "sandwich," "champagne." It makes you sound like a brain damaged toddler with privilege issues. harumph.
It’s excellent getting to say to a group of students, We’re gonna read X & we’re gonna spend 75 minutes talking about it, & ideally the way you think about the world & yourself is gonna be a bit more nuanced, complex, & satisfying, & that’s today’s “product.” Or, as @cnygren.bsky.social & I said:
yeah so we need to talk about how "screentime is bad for kids" is not really true, but "short form video on algorithm-based platforms is bad for everyone" IS true
escapedexplorer.bsky.social@escapedexplorer.bsky.social · 4d agoincredibly concerning that not one but TWO close friends, both progressive-lib-left, whom I've known for 15+ years both independently and separately said they believe Israel was behind 9/11 in the last two days the information space out there is BAD, folks. get your friends off tiktok.
My latest for Jewschool: "What is really galling here is not simply that the signatories got the law wrong, but that they know the moral vocabulary and are using it backward."
We Knew Better Once · Jewschool
There are names on the “Reject the Lie” letter who should know better. That is the first thing to say, and the last thing too.
jewschool.com
"People are really mad and however mad you are, it’s not enough. Because there is something so profound about no longer believing in the future, about seeing no value in our shared home, in the natural world. They’re traitors to creation.” www.theguardian.com/books/2026/s...
Naomi Klein: ‘Extreme wealth has a deranging effect. It turns you into a supremacist’
She’s tackled neoliberalism and the digital world, now the writer and activist is taking on tech billionaires. She explains how the super-rich are capitalising on climate and financial chaos in pursui...
theguardian.com
