Got hit up by @troywolv.bsky.social last week and he graciously let me vent on the record about the OpenAI-HuggingFace incident. www.sfexaminer.com/news/technol...

OpenAI hacking incident highlights AI cyberrisks

Experts take company to task for safety efforts

sfexaminer.com

The White House is openly saying they want to eliminate a minority group and people still want to say this is about sports.

A little more than 10 years ago, while a reporter for the @mercurynews.com, I interviewed the Rev. Jesse Jackson about his effort to push Silicon Valley to embrace diversity. At the time, he was hopeful about the tech industry being receptive to his message. And it was — until the backlash.

Q&A: Jesse Jackson is pleased with progress on diversity, but pushing for more

Q&A: Jesse Jackson is pleased with progress on diversity, but pushing for more

mercurynews.com

@sarahlacy.com has been a high-profile tech journalist covering Silicon Valley's venture and startup scene and a startup founder herself. For her latest act, she's taken on something slightly different — operating @bestbookstore.bsky.social — but she still has plenty of ambition.

How Sarah Lacy went from founder to bookseller

Ex-tech reporter recently opened store in Union Square.

sfexaminer.com

One of the main arguments voiced by opponents of the proposed billionaire tax here in California is that it will drive the ultra-wealthy to leave the state. That fear, says initiative co-author @bdgesq.bsky.social, is overblown. In an interview with the @sfexaminer.bsky.social Galle explained why.

Billionaire tax author says fears about it unfounded

Few of the ultra-wealthy are likely to leave, he says.

sfexaminer.com

like i love this story and I think it reveals something important. the atari is encoding a ton of information about the rules of chess explicitly in a very small amount of data, and the associational model, despite a much larger amount of data & computation, does not effectively model the game

ChatGPT "Absolutely Wrecked" at Chess by Atari 2600 Console From 1977

Despite all its advances, ChatGPT still, seemingly, is less smart than an Atari simulator on beginner mode.

futurism.com

You might have heard there's going to be a March for Billionaires in San Francisco on Saturday. Yes it's real, and no it's not satire. I spoke with the guy behind it, an AI startup founder here in The City who opposes a proposed billionaire tax and thinks billionaires are getting a bad rap.

Billionaires march leader ID'd, says effort sincere

Startup founder not billionaire, but supports them.

sfexaminer.com

Generative and other kinds of AI have numerous harmful effects. In a recent paper, Boston University professors @hartzog.bsky.social and @jessicasilbey.bsky.social identify and highlight a new concern: AI is sabotaging democracy by destroying the institutions that undergird it.

Researchers: How AI undermining democracy

Paper argues tech threatens democratic foundations.

sfexaminer.com

Harvard professor Steven Levitsky, who studies democracy backsliding, on Don Lemon's arrest: “This is a new dimension. In democracies, journalists don't get arrested. In authoritarian regimes, journalists get arrested." More in @status.news: www.status.news/p/don-lemon-...

I don't know who needs to hear this, but I stand with Don Lemon @donlemonofficial.bsky.social and Georgia Fort @bygeorgiafort.bsky.social — and against this blatant attack on the First Amendment.

The government’s arrests of journalists @donlemonofficial.bsky.social and @bygeorgiafort.bsky.social are attacks on freedom of the press. Two federal courts flatly rejected prosecuting Lemon, but instead of accepting that humiliating defeat, the government has now doubled down. Read our statement:

Just say the government is lying. The goal of journalism should be to inform, not gaslight.

Politico@politico.com · 6mo ago

A battle over the truth erupts after deadly Minneapolis shooting

In this in-depth interview Billie Jean Sweeney — a former editor at The New York Times — details how the paper shifted towards openly promoting anti-trans hatred, why this was directed from the very top, how some staff pushed back and the immense damage done by the NYT legitimizing bigotry.

'A directive from above': Former NYT editor lays out how the paper pushes anti-trans bigotry

In this in-depth interview, former New York Times editor Billie Jean Sweeney details how the paper shifted towards openly promoting anti-trans hatred, how some staff tried to stop it, how it's directe...

transnews.network

God this is so utterly despicable. Trump is “he was no angel”- ing a journalist who was murdered and dismembered with a bone saw by agents of an authoritarian regime.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 9mo ago

Trump suggests Khashoggi had it coming: "You're mentioning someone that was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn't like that gentleman that you're talking about. Whether you like him or didn't like him, things happen. But he knew nothing about it. You don't have to embarrass our guest."

If I were editing a column about Charlie Kirk’s political genius, I would tell the writer he needed to quote Kirk’s actual political beliefs. If the writer responded that doing so would weaken or distract from his argument, it’d be a pretty good sign that the column was not ready for prime time.

So glad ICE is in Chicago. The city is a lawless hell-scape. Blues musicians wrecking hundreds of police cars. High schoolers doing weird scientific sex experiments. Kids home alone during the holidays. Women killing their husbands and lovers and then SINGING about it sassily. This has to stop.

Venture capitalists responded to George Floyd's 2020 death by stepping up their investments in Black-founded startups, according to a new study. But in retrospect, what happened ended up looking a lot like "tokenism," the researchers say.

Study: VCs engaged in ‘tokenism’ after Floyd death

Black-led startups saw surge in funding, then drop.

sfexaminer.com

In a recent study of the reasoning abilities of generative AI systems, a team of researchers at Arizona State concluded that large language models like OpenAI's GPT-5 don't really reason at all. Their study builds on other recent research that casts doubt on AI's reasoning abilities.

Researchers: AI reasoning a ‘brittle mirage’

Models fail to solve problems outside their training, study contends.

sfexaminer.com

media doesn't have to pretend that every statement from Donald Trump, a serial liar with a long record of proven falsehoods, has to be evaluated in a vacuum.

The yearslong battle over public access to the Bay Area's Martins Beach — via a road venture capitalist Vinod Khosla tried to close — will continue on for at least a little while longer.

Martins Beach case delayed again for negotiations

Lawyers for state, VC Khosla sought more time.

sfexaminer.com

This is a very good piece by Miriam Jordan of @nytimes.com. But it's frankly journalistic malpractice at this point to not call Trump's lies just that. Instead, we get Jordan saying Trump "amplified a baseless claim by his running mate, JD Vance, that Haitians there were stealing and eating pets."

An Ohio City Faces a Future Without Haitian Workers: ‘It’s Not Going to Be Good’

nytimes.com

California Asm. Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (@rbkforassembly.bsky.social) has been trying for three years to push through a bill to offer some protections against discrimination by automated decision systems. I took a look at the fight over her latest effort — AB 1018.

Bill regulating AI decision systems draws fire

Business groups prioritizing defeating California AB 1018.

sfexaminer.com

"How bad slavery was" is worse. Much worse. Much worse than you think, much worse than you're taught, much worse than museums depict. Worse.

In talking with family and friends — even people who are very technologically literate — it's pretty clear that many don't understand how systems like ChatGPT work or their limitations and risks. So, I put together a guide — a "Things to Think About" when using generative AI chatbots.

Keep these ChatGPT limitations, risks in mind

Remember these tips on how chatbots work, fall short.

sfexaminer.com

As I said to @troywolv.bsky.social, don't use chatgpt when you need to be right about something. It's not, in fact, an all-knowing orb. (Fun convo, fun piece) www.sfexaminer.com/news/technol...

Keep these ChatGPT limitations, risks in mind

Remember these tips on how chatbots work, fall short.

sfexaminer.com

The widespread disappointment with OpenAI's new GPT-5, sparked in part by it making similar mistakes as its predecessors, highlighted the gulf between the massive hype that's being used to sell these generative AI systems and their actual capabilities.

GPT-5 debut spotlights AI’s hype-reality gap

OpenAI’s “PhD-level” intelligence made dumb errors.

sfexaminer.com

While some of the biggest companies in tech have put in place mandatory in-office policies, many large San Francisco tech companies are doing the opposite. I took a look at how local tech companies are now thinking about in-office and remote work.

Many SF tech companies sticking with remote work

Dropbox, Pinterest, Figma and more remain committed.

sfexaminer.com

The phrase “ parents have a legitimate concern about integration of races in schools and as a party, we haven’t done a very good job of listening to those concerns.” would shock and offend I would hope. A similar statement about trans kids should also shock and offend.