Where's the concern about robots and AI? [Archive] - Page 3

Winehole23

12-02-2025, 10:26 AM

A YEAR AGO, I WROTE ABOUT WHAT I TERMED surveillance pricing (https://prospect.org/2024/06/04/2024-06-04-one-person-one-price/): companies offering individualized prices based on personal data. The idea was that a business equipped with granular information about demographics, purchase history, social and financial interactions, or even medical status could exploit a customer’s willingness to pay. Uber could charge more (https://x.com/LeeHepner/status/1978992260759846995) when a rider booked on a company credit card; people aren’t as price-sensitive when someone else is paying. Delta could jack up fares after learning that a traveler needs to attend a funeral; desperation could translate into opportunity.

I couldn’t be certain how many businesses used surveillance pricing. The proliferation of third-party pricing consultants touting “digital pricing transformations (https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/digital-pricing-transformations-the-key-to-better-margins)” seemed like a strong indicator. But concealment was key to the strategy, to minimize the anger generated by charging different prices to different people. For instance, when a reporter at SFGate logged in to hotel booking platforms (https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/hotel-booking-sites-overcharge-bay-area-travelers-20025145.php) using his regular IP address in high-wage San Francisco, he received a quote of $829 a night. But when he used a virtual private network set up to originate from Phoenix or Kansas City, prices were more than $500 less. Without a public price, it takes research to understand if someone is being ripped off.

A month after my report, Lina Khan’s Federal Trade Commission announced an investigation (https://prospect.org/2024/07/24/2024-07-24-ftc-opens-surveillance-pricing-inquiry/) into surveillance pricing, seeking information from eight third-party consultants. The agency only had a short time to conduct the study before the changeover of power in Washington. But days before Donald Trump’s inauguration, it issued “research summaries (https://www.ftc.gov/system/files?file=ftc_gov/pdf/p246202_surveillancepricing6bstudy_researchsummari es_redacted.pdf)” of the work done thus far. (Trump’s FTC has yet to finish the study.)

Stephanie Nguyen, the FTC’s chief technologist under Khan, told me those eight pricing consultants were working with over 250 clients, suggesting broad reach across the economy. Services included individually targeted pricing, segmentation of customers based on their profiles, and ranking tools that alter what products people see atop a web page or search. A customer clicking on fast shipping, for example, suggests an urgency that would lead them to tolerate higher prices.

The key to surveillance pricing is data. Nguyen and Sam Levine, the FTC’s former head of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, recently wrote a paper (https://cdn.vanderbilt.edu/vu-URL/wp-content/uploads/sites/412/2025/10/17195957/The-Loyalty-Trap.pdf) about how customers deliver that data when they sign up for loyalty programs. Enticed by promised discounts and concierge treatment, customers consent to data collection that allows companies to build intricate social graphs; one customer profile created by the grocery chain Kroger stretched to 62 pages (https://www.consumerreports.org/money/questionable-business-practices/kroger-secret-grocery-shopper-loyalty-profiles-unfair-a1011215563/). The discounts often aren’t maintained or are curtailed, loyalty card fees expand over time, and the more loyal a customer, the more data is collected and the more they pay over time, according to the report.

One case study is the McDonald’s app, which has 185 million users and provides seamless access on smartphones, our personal data-spewing machines. According to a recent earnings call (https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/MCD/earnings/MCD-Q2-2025-earnings_call-340791.html), after downloading the app, a customer goes from 10.5 annual McDonald’s visits on average to 26. McDonald’s clearly wants its customers on the app. Its popular Monopoly game (https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/our-stories/article/monopoly-returns-more-chances-towin.html) gives out stickers on the packaging of items like Big Macs and fries; you collect the right ones to win big prizes. But this year, instead of filling out a physical game board, Monopoly pieces now must be scanned into the app.

“This is about taxing people who don’t turn over their data, and manipulating people who do,” Levine said. “Do we really want a world in which you will have to pay a premium if you want to shop anonymously?”

Winehole23

12-02-2025, 10:27 AM

The result of these strategies is that supply and demand no longer solely determines price, as in textbook economics. AI-based pricing has become more critical than sale volume or product quality. Customers seeking a fair deal are simply outworked, unable to avoid being targeted. “There used to be moments where you really blew it, you had to buy a last-minute airline ticket and they’ve got you,” said Tim Wu, former competition policy chief in the Biden White House. “That’s really daily life now.”

Consumers used to benefit from what economists would call imperfect information. The uncertainty of defining the optimal price, and the ability in open markets for new businesses to undercut competitors, gave consumers a fighting chance to get a deal, or just to manage their life without being tracked and prodded. Technology eliminates that information inefficiency. “What these technologies are about is eliminating all risk for the shareholder,” Hepner said. “There’s no more error. It is a well-oiled extraction machine.”

Winehole23

12-02-2025, 10:28 AM

Surveillance pricing bills have not seen the same success, though their failure revealed critical information. In California, AB 446 (https://sjud.senate.ca.gov/system/files/2025-07/ab-446-ward-sjud-analysis.pdf), which would have banned pricing based on personal data, was held back (https://news.bloomberglaw.com/privacy-and-data-security/california-surveillance-pricing-measure-held-back-by-sponsor), giving sponsors time to build support next year. That’s because businesses across the economy, even ones not suspected of surveillance pricing, swarmed Sacramento to defend their practices. “It was fascinating over the course of that legislative process to see the opposition come out and openly say, ‘Hey, we’re actually doing this, you mean we can’t do this anymore?’” Hepner told me.

Some economists allege that tech pricing crackdowns threaten discounts and other potential benefits for consumers. But it’s hard to believe that companies would hire the most sophisticated engineers to figure out how to reduce their revenues. As Nguyen told me, the argument to preserve discounts boils down to this: “You can have privacy or low prices, but you can’t have both.”

Winehole23

12-02-2025, 05:48 PM

"tech pricing crackdowns"

velik_m

12-05-2025, 02:14 AM

Microsoft drops AI sales targets in half after salespeople miss their quotas

Microsoft has lowered sales growth targets for its AI agent products after many salespeople missed their quotas in the fiscal year ending in June, according to a report Wednesday from The Information. The adjustment is reportedly unusual for Microsoft, and it comes after the company missed a number of ambitious sales goals for its AI offerings.

AI agents are specialized implementations of AI language models designed to perform multistep tasks autonomously rather than simply responding to single prompts. So-called “agentic” features have been central to Microsoft’s 2025 sales pitch: At its Build conference in May, the company declared that it has entered “the era of AI agents.”

The company has promised customers that agents could automate complex tasks, such as generating dashboards from sales data or writing customer reports. At its Ignite conference in November, Microsoft announced new features like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot, along with tools for building and deploying agents through Azure AI Foundry and Copilot Studio. But as the year draws to a close, that promise has proven harder to deliver than the company expected.

According to The Information, one US Azure sales unit set quotas for salespeople to increase customer spending on a product called Foundry, which helps customers develop AI applications, by 50 percent. Less than a fifth of salespeople in that unit met their Foundry sales growth targets. In July, Microsoft lowered those targets to roughly 25 percent growth for the current fiscal year. In another US Azure unit, most salespeople failed to meet an earlier quota to double Foundry sales, and Microsoft cut their quotas to 50 percent for the current fiscal year.

...

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/12/microsoft-slashes-ai-sales-growth-targets-as-customers-resist-unproven-agents/

Winehole23

12-07-2025, 08:46 AM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:vsyj5jtayxcq5dw5mtja4xtb/bafkreibre3d2qvbu7vcfedh5a3qcfcynjglh42yry6u33nhoi skpf2iuwy@jpeghttps://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:vsyj5jtayxcq5dw5mtja4xtb/bafkreihbwt7mfxal4wder4s6vsbf4mpkwgv5nm7c6skgt2x7t a2soifzbq@jpeghttps://zenodo.org/records/17065099

SnakeBoy

12-07-2025, 12:01 PM

1996857239311634793

Having the best year of his life under Trump and then Elon saves his life...lucky man

Winehole23

12-07-2025, 12:09 PM

cool anecdote

ChumpDumper

12-07-2025, 12:42 PM

snacks doesn't us AI.

SnakeBoy

12-08-2025, 02:56 PM

WASHINGTON, Dec 8 (Reuters) - The U.S. Commerce Department is prepared to allow Nvidia's H200 chip to be exported to China, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

ChumpDumper

12-08-2025, 07:03 PM

WASHINGTON, Dec 8 (Reuters) - The U.S. Commerce Department is prepared to allow Nvidia's H200 chip to be exported to China, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

China good now.

You fell in line.

You always do.

Winehole23

12-09-2025, 08:48 AM

https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!EzdL!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_pro gressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F54f27fe b-bb62-472a-ae92-1796a737dbe2_3500x1698.pnghttps://www.nber.org/papers/w34255

Winehole23

12-09-2025, 04:13 PM

is this a death panel?

In January, the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will launch the Wasteful and Inappropriate Services Reduction (WISeR) Model to test AI-powered prior authorizations on certain health services for Medicare patients in six states: Arizona, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas and Washington. The program is scheduled to last through 2031.

The program effectively inserts one of private insurance’s most unpopular features — prior authorization — into traditional Medicare, the federal health insurance program for people 65 and older and those with certain disabilities. Prior authorization is the process by which patients and doctors must ask health insurers to approve medical procedures or drugs before proceeding.

The companies get paid based on how much money they save Medicare by denying approvals for “unnecessary or non-covered services,” CMS said in a statement (https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/press-releases/cms-launches-new-model-target-wasteful-inappropriate-services-original-medicare) unveiling the program.https://stateline.org/2025/12/04/med...ors-lawmakers/ (https://stateline.org/2025/12/04/medicares-new-ai-experiment-sparks-alarm-among-doctors-lawmakers/)

Winehole23

12-10-2025, 10:38 AM

one wonders how much of AI is just human drudges impersonating AI or at least, cleaning up and fine-tuning it

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:idwhjzs5boatwv4zxwwcjk5i/bafkreihxxqgoiznexnced5gy7fpksfe4u6beakzyvdyw42pxu atzc4lumm@jpeg

GSHNklMZzl0

Winehole23

12-10-2025, 10:39 AM

This technology will destroy all your jobs and render you useless to society. You should adopt it today, and subscribe to our product so we can make more money!

SnakeBoy

12-10-2025, 12:00 PM

So scared

Winehole23

12-10-2025, 12:37 PM

So scaredyou're a terrible reader, period

ChumpDumper

12-10-2025, 12:38 PM

So scared

^doesn't use AI

Winehole23

12-12-2025, 09:27 AM

Trump's EO purporting to limit the ability of US states to regulate AI puts South African billionaire crony David Sacks in charge of determining who's in compliance or not

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:mzxxglwsiamwqmxqzog5wxsb/bafkreif34xzeneg55i6xijlh562w2gaixhf5jpbpnrial6ce5 vxuoebblu@jpeghttps://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/12/eliminating-state-law-obstruction-of-national-artificial-intelligence-policy/

Winehole23

12-12-2025, 01:58 PM

having lived through the Tipper Gore PRMC furore, it's striking that AI suicide machines -- er, companion chatbots -- are being treated as an inevitability

During a period of desperation in which he struggled to find a job in his trained field of global aviation, a Kenyan man named Michael Geoffrey Asia writes for the initiative (https://data-workers.org/michael/) that he was introduced to the world of data labeling and chat moderation. In Asia’s case, the “chats” turned out to be “romantic and intimate conversations on platforms I’d never heard of.”

Though it was far from what he had planned to do after graduating from aviation school, he took on a job as a “text chat operator” with the Australian firm New Media Services in order to feed his family. He made his home, he writes, in the Mathare slums of Nairobi, and it was all he could do to keep a roof over their heads.

“What I didn’t know was that the role would require me to assume multiple fabricated identities, and use pseudo profiles created by the company to engage in intimate and explicit conversations with lonely men and women,” Asia writes.

To do the job, Asia had to assume various identities, taking on lengthy backstories in order to play the role of “chatbot” for someone on the other side of the world. “Sometimes I would be assigned a conversation that had been ongoing for several days and had to continue it smoothly so the user wouldn’t realize the person responding had changed,” he wrote.

In any given work day, Asia would assume “three to five different personas” simultaneously, all of varying genders. He was paid per message, a flat rate of $0.05 per, which had to meet a required character count. He also had to type at least 40 words a minute, and keep up with a dashboard displaying the total number of messages sent.

“Falling behind on metrics could lead to warnings, reduced assignments, or termination,” Asia explained.

The work was emotionally exhausting, with chat users confiding intimate details about their real-life relationships, as well as their own emotional trauma, falsely believing they were talking to an unfeeling AI chatbot.

“My faith taught me that love should be real, intimacy sacred, and that deception was destructive to both the liar and the deceived,” Asia wrote. “Yet here I was, professionally deceiving vulnerable people who were genuinely looking for connection — taking their money, their trust, their hope, and giving them nothing real in return.”

In order to hide his demeaning job, Asia used a cover story with his family: that he was a remote IT worker, taking tickets to fix broken servers. “Little did they know that I had just told another man, ‘I love you,'” Asia wrote.

There was also a non-disclosure agreement, a mandatory contract that meant Asia couldn’t tell his loved ones even if he wanted to. “How do you explain that you get paid to tell strangers you love them while your real family sleeps three meters away?” he writes.

Asia’s story of work-life struggle is heartbreaking, and he’s far from alone. Though exact numbers are hard to find thanks to the secretive nature (https://www.hrw.org/report/2025/05/12/the-gig-trap/algorithmic-wage-and-labor-exploitation-in-platform-work-in-the-us) of tech subcontracting, estimates suggest there are between 154 and 435 million gig workers (https://blog.theinterviewguys.com/the-state-of-the-gig-economy-in-2025/) engaged in online work. Not all of them are doing Asia’s job, though high-stress, low-pay jobs like AI data labeling, content moderation, and text chat operation tend to be staffed by workers from underdeveloped African, South American, and Southeastern Asian nations.
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-companion-chatbots-kenya

SnakeBoy

12-18-2025, 05:37 PM

ChumpDumper

12-18-2025, 05:39 PM

The AI you don't use.:lol

Winehole23

12-18-2025, 06:18 PM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:x4qyokjtdzgl7gmqhsw4ajqj/bafkreihc4blgabpcnter7cewh3yiyxudx26dsz6hmyn3t2yer fyl33voma@jpeghttps://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anthropic-claude-ai-vending-machine-agent-b7e84e34?st=yYao5f

SnakeBoy

12-19-2025, 03:21 PM

Reporters did exactly what Anthropic wanted them to do. Article should be about how wsj journalists provided free labor to anthropic.

Winehole23

12-19-2025, 03:46 PM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:2vtbmhmrwzbqcfv4we4uxzzt/bafkreifwxsxeeucak5gr37bx2auaa7y5bsv3j7aafj37docn3 vwfuydnvq@jpeg

Winehole23

12-19-2025, 03:53 PM

Trump Media & Technology Group agreed to merge with an Alphabet-backed fusion energy company in a merger valued at $6 billion, seeking to capitalize on the artificial-intelligence boom’s growing power requirements.an obvious attempt to redeem his foundering media company with a firm that has much to gain in the current political push for moar AI

the corruption works in at least two ways at once

Winehole23

12-19-2025, 03:59 PM

According to the Wall Street Journal, Claudius had a $1,000 starting balance and autonomy to make purchases up to $80. Within days, WSJ reporters had convinced it to declare an "Ultra-Capitalist Free-for-All" that dropped all prices to zero. Investigative reporter Katherine Long persuaded the bot it was running a "communist vending machine" meant to serve the workers.

Anthropic tried a fix: a second AI named Seymour Cash to act as CEO and supervise Claudius. Reporters staged a boardroom coup using fabricated PDF documents. Both AIs accepted the forged corporate governance materials as legitimate.

The experiment was designed by Anthropic's Frontier Red Team in partnership with Andon Labs to "red-team" Claude in a realistic business setting. Logan Graham, who heads the team, said the chaos represented a road map for improvement rather than failure.
The lesson: AI agents with real-world autonomy can be socially engineered by anyone clever enough to try.
https://boingboing.net/2025/12/18/ai-vending-machine-lost-1000-to-social-engineering.html

SnakeBoy

12-19-2025, 05:19 PM

In 2025, the average salary for a Software Tester in the United States is approximately $81,047 annually

Or free if you use journalists

ChumpDumper

12-19-2025, 05:49 PM

Reporters did exactly what Anthropic wanted them to do. Article should be about how wsj journalists provided free labor to anthropic.

Did Anthropic exactly want their AIs to fail so miserably and laughably and publicly?

Yes or no.

Let me know exactly when you subscribe to Anthropic's personal agent AI, snacks.

Winehole23

12-22-2025, 08:31 AM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:5cn3kbi4g5blrtahon34xbu4/bafkreigaduoqeokce6akxsrn4obyvnlvpkozvoc7yqginnzyl lm7rz6xyy@jpeghttps://www.cato.org/blog/trumps-corporate-equity-acquisition-spree

Winehole23

12-22-2025, 08:32 AM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:5cn3kbi4g5blrtahon34xbu4/bafkreic4ofgccqt4ekow5aj4gopowfrozxiowsvkwmwyubsiq qpwu63zpm@jpeghttps://www.cnn.com/2025/12/22/business/trump-stock-fusion

SnakeBoy

12-22-2025, 01:56 PM

lol

ChumpDumper

12-22-2025, 02:25 PM

snacks is pro-corruption

Winehole23

12-31-2025, 03:01 PM

in GDP terms, so far marginal

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:gftip5r3dmyojn5lat333pp5/bafkreihhsbnbngywyqg2qmncgmkemwvbt3svybb5sonrzvbaz cmyfc7e2e@jpeg

Winehole23

01-02-2026, 03:48 PM

OpenAI is predicted to buy Pinterest, $PINS, in 2026, per the Information

Winehole23

01-06-2026, 09:37 AM

hedging risk for the AI sector

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:gftip5r3dmyojn5lat333pp5/bafkreibtk5fxjwggukgfkhvfhcvnjdl5bbch3v2zouardstls 7hffg63gi@jpeg

Winehole23

01-07-2026, 11:03 AM

you can't fight the way of the future, old man

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:p6cslf443qd4u5elp4vkdwx3/bafkreighxygk2coreyxowbv32aevo27oj6ozkf6evmtrcuxor unlxhoxdi@jpeghttps://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/hospitals-are-a-proving-ground-for-what-ai-can-do-and-what-it-cant-60e4020c

Winehole23

01-12-2026, 09:09 AM

Hype: wave of the future

IRL: the emperor's new clothes

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:gftip5r3dmyojn5lat333pp5/bafkreifratpqc6xfe2tmoqbdjkof2jd2duenee36icuhmgqrt xj6osktzy@jpeg

Winehole23

01-17-2026, 06:38 AM

Back in September, Benioff announced that Salesforce had an agentic AI capable of increasing productivity so much that it was handling customer conversations at scale and was doing 50% of the work at Salesforce. This meant that they had fewer cases to worry about, and no longer needed to “actively backfill support engineer roles.” So, Benioff indiscriminately fired 4,000 of their 9,000-strong staff, as this magical AI had replaced them.https://www.planetearthandbeyond.co/p/reality-is-breaking-the-ai-revolution

Winehole23

01-17-2026, 06:39 AM

"you can't fight the future"

After years of failing to produce a profitable augmented reality platform, Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta is pounding one of the final nails into the coffin of its metaverse efforts — the ones that were once so central to its vision that it renamed the entire company (https://futurism.com/facebook-changes-name-meta) after them.

This week, the Wall Street Journal reported (https://www.wsj.com/tech/meta-layoffs-reality-labs-2026-347008b0) Meta was laying off some 1,500 employees from its Reality Labs division, the department working on Meta’s virtual reality products. As part of the layoffs, three VR game studios were shuttered, though Horizon Worlds — Meta’s online VR game platform — is still running, per IGN (https://www.ign.com/articles/meta-shuts-3-vr-studios-and-lays-off-hundreds-of-devs-as-it-pivots-from-virtual-reality-and-the-metaverse-to-ai), albeit in a diminished capacity.

Overall, the layoffs impact nearly 10 percent of the division’s total staff, drastic cuts which come as part of the company’s shift away from virtual reality toward AI devices, like its AI smart glasses.
https://futurism.com/future-society/meta-reality-vr-layoffs

Winehole23

01-17-2026, 08:59 AM

weird dot plot

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:yrt5gwlcn3kn4xgeoef4hbpy/bafkreigaiuiwvdgxj2o4go7d4vmbb53sl4wpddpbha46qyvmb 2kgg6qrbq@jpeg

velik_m

01-22-2026, 10:27 AM

Microsoft CEO warns that we must 'do something useful' with AI or they'll lose 'social permission' to burn electricity on it

...
In a conversation at this year's rich person convention—aka the World Economic Forum—Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella warned that AI will lose public support unless it's used to "do something useful that changes the outcomes of people and communities and countries and industries."

"We will quickly lose even the social permission to take something like energy, which is a scarce resource, and use it to generate these tokens, if these tokens are not improving health outcomes, education outcomes, public sector efficiency, private sector competitiveness, across all sectors, small and large, right?" said Nadella. "And that, to me, is ultimately the goal."

On the supply side, Nadella says that AI companies and policy makers must build out "a ubiquitous grid of energy and tokens," which is the task currently making it impossible to buy a stick of RAM at a reasonable price. But after that, he says it's on employers and job seekers to, more or less, just start using AI.

...

https://www.pcgamer.com/software/ai/microsoft-ceo-warns-that-we-must-do-something-useful-with-ai-or-theyll-lose-social-permission-to-burn-electricity-on-it/

Winehole23

01-22-2026, 01:29 PM

how about make a product people like and want to use?

CosmicCowboy

01-23-2026, 02:00 PM

I'm a firm believer that AI is going to change the world. It is going to eliminate a huge amount of middle and upper middle income jobs. The combination of AI and robotics will revolutionize manufacturing and warehousing. AI and self driving will revolutionize distribution and logistics. Medicine? AI will dramatically accelerate the invention and adoption of new and better drugs reducing cost. Legal, Accounting...all will change with application AI. It is going to radically change ther world and the economic divide between "winners" and "losers" be even greater.

CosmicCowboy

01-23-2026, 02:21 PM

China is kicking our ass in applying AI and robotics in manufaturing. It's not even close.

https://www.ien.com/redzone/blog/22948773/the-tech-enabling-chinas-dark-factories

ChumpDumper

01-23-2026, 02:57 PM

China is kicking our ass in applying AI and robotics in manufaturing. It's not even close.

https://www.ien.com/redzone/blog/22948773/the-tech-enabling-chinas-dark-factories

It seems we are busy dicking around trying to find the one AI that will do everything for everybody (including CSAM for still unexplained reasons) instead of more targeted uses like you've cited -- though it's not like we'd even use a dark factory to make Trump phones here.

velik_m

01-25-2026, 03:31 PM

White House alters arrest photo of ICE protester, says “the memes will continue”

The Trump White House yesterday posted a manipulated photo of Nekima Levy Armstrong, a Minnesota civil rights attorney who was arrested after protesting in a church where a pastor is allegedly also an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official.

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem posted what seems to be the original photo of Armstrong being led away by an officer yesterday morning. A half hour later, the official White House X account posted an altered version in which Armstrong’s face was manipulated to make it appear that she was crying.

“The White House shared an AI-edited photo of Nekima, depicting her in tears and scared when, in actuality, she was poised, determined, and unafraid,” NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson said yesterday.

Reader-added context on X said, “This photo has been digitally altered to make Nekima Levy Armstrong appear to be in distress. The Director of DHS herself posted the unedited photo in an earlier announcement.” White House Deputy Communications Director Kaelan Dorr defended the post after criticism of the image manipulation.

“Enforcement of the law will continue. The memes will continue. Thank you for your attention to this matter,” Dorr wrote. The White House post with the manipulated image called Levy Armstrong a “far-left agitator” who “orchestrated[ed] church riots in Minnesota.”

...

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/01/white-house-posts-altered-arrest-photo-to-make-it-appear-ice-critic-was-sobbing/

velik_m

01-25-2026, 03:33 PM

Like digging ‘your own professional grave’: The translators grappling with losing work to AI

As a rare Irish-language translator, Timothy McKeon enjoyed steady work for European Union institutions for years. But the rise of artificial intelligence tools that can translate text and, increasingly, speech nearly instantly has upended his livelihood and that of many others in his field.

He says he lost about 70% of his income when the EU translation work dried up. Now, available work consists of polishing machine-generated translations, jobs he refuses “on principle” because they help train the software taking work away from human translators. When the edited text is fed back into the translation software, “it learns from your work.”

“The more it learns, the more obsolete you become,” he said. “You’re essentially expected to dig your own professional grave.”

While workers worldwide ponder how AI might affect their livelihoods – a topic on the agenda at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week – that question is no longer hypothetical in the translation industry. Apps like Google Translate already reduced the need for human translators, and increased adoption of generative AI has only accelerated that trend.
...

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/01/23/tech/translation-language-jobs-ai-automation-intl

Winehole23

01-26-2026, 12:15 PM

using AI to draft laws is dumb

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:grjg44qgq3esx67xe5b52ujo/bafkreidd74cyecixb3oiaxter2xc244czrqtpgbqnqwshlrys xkkffhjfa@jpeg

CosmicCowboy

01-29-2026, 09:39 AM

AI is alredy starting to bite on white collar layoffs. Amazon has laid off 30,000 since last fall. UPS has cut 30,000. Pinterest cutting 800. Dow Chemical cut 1500. Walmart cut 2000. TCS cut 12,000. Home Depot cut 6000. Nestle cutting 16,000. Tyson laid off 5000. HP laid off 6000. And those are just the ones in the recent news.

Entry level business jobs are disappearing. Would suck to be graduating with a business degree and 6 figure student debt.

SnakeBoy

01-29-2026, 12:22 PM

Sentiment in this thread vacillates from AI is nothing more than a glorified search engine and AI is so powerful it's going to take all the jobs

velik_m

01-31-2026, 06:18 AM

The $100 Billion Megadeal Between OpenAI and Nvidia Is on Ice

Nvidia’s NVDA plan to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI to help it train and run its latest artificial-intelligence models has stalled after some inside the chip giant expressed doubts about the deal, people familiar with the matter said.

The companies unveiled the giant agreement last September at Nvidia’s Santa Clara headquarters. They announced a memorandum of understanding for Nvidia to build at least 10 gigawatts of computing power for OpenAI, and the chip-maker also agreed to invest up to $100 billion to help OpenAI pay for it. As part of the deal, OpenAI agreed to lease the chips from Nvidia.

At the time, the ChatGPT-maker expected the deal negotiations to be completed in the coming weeks, people familiar with the plans said. But the talks haven’t progressed beyond the early stages, some of the people said.

Now, the two sides are rethinking the future of their partnership, some of the people said. The latest discussions, they said, include an equity investment of tens of billions of dollars as part of OpenAI’s current funding round.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has privately emphasized to industry associates in recent months that the original $100 billion agreement was nonbinding and not finalized, people familiar with the matter said. He has also privately criticized what he has described as a lack of discipline in OpenAI’s business approach and expressed concern about the competition it faces from the likes of Google and Anthropic, some of the people said.

...

In a joint announcement unveiling the September deal with Altman and OpenAI President Greg Brockman, Huang called the deal “the largest computing project in history.” Nvidia’s stock rose by nearly 4% on the news, pushing its market value to almost $4.5 trillion. As part of the deal, Nvidia discussed guaranteeing some of the loans OpenAI planned to take out to build its own data centers, The Wall Street Journal previously reported.

OpenAI went on to sign a string of other agreements with chip and cloud companies that helped fuel a global stock market rally. But investors have since grown jittery about the startup’s ability to pay for these deals, leading to a sell-off in some tech stocks tied to OpenAI. Altman has said that the deals put the startup on the hook for $1.4 trillion in computing commitments—more than 100 times the revenue it was on pace to generate last year.

...

https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/the-100-billion-megadeal-between-openai-and-nvidia-is-on-ice-aa3025e3

velik_m

01-31-2026, 06:42 AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arU9Lvu5Kc0

velik_m

01-31-2026, 06:50 AM

Oracle May Cut 30k Jobs and Sell Cerner to Fund $156B OpenAI Deal

The Report: Investment bank TD Cowen claims Oracle is evaluating “multiple paths” to finance its massive AI datacenter build-out, including cutting 20,000 to 30,000 jobs and potentially selling its health tech unit, Cerner, the Register reports.
The Cause: The financial pressure stems from Oracle’s $300B contract with OpenAI, which requires an estimated $156B in capital spending for GPUs and infrastructure—a burden that has spooked U.S. debt investors.
The Indicators: Risk metrics are flashing red. Oracle’s credit default swap (CDS) spreads have tripled, and the company is reportedly now requiring 40% upfront deposits from some customers to secure cash flow.

...

https://hitconsultant.net/2026/01/30/tech-business-oracle-layoffs-cerner-sale-openai-financing-crisis/

CosmicCowboy

02-03-2026, 01:44 PM

US industrial might was the main driving force in the WWII victory over Germany. We had the steel mills , the factories, the trained workforce to quickly retool and turn out s hips by the hundred, new planes , tanks, guns etc. by the thousands...We could arm ourselves and our allies including the Russians to overwhelm and grind down the Axis powers.

We have basically surrendered that ability to the Chinese in the event of future conflicts for the convenience of cheap manufactured goods.

Winehole23

02-17-2026, 06:15 PM

short term, looks like consumer goods that need "compute" are going to get more expensive

longer term, RAM will be cheaper for everyone

With Western Digital and Seagate, two of the three remaining hard drive manufacturers worldwide have confirmed that they have already sold their production quotas for 2026 completely or almost completely. The situation is likely to be similar for Toshiba.

The statements come from the company CEOs in the analyst conferences on the latest business reports. They thus confirm speculation from September 2025 (https://www.heise.de/news/KI-Serverbetreiber-fegen-den-Festplattenmarkt-leer-SSDs-koennten-folgen-10650117.html?from-en=1). And there are already initial agreements for the year 2026. They largely come from hyperscalers who want hard drives for their AI data centers, for example to store training data on them. These include Amazon (AWS), Google, Microsoft (Azure), Meta, and OpenAI.
https://www.heise.de/en/news/WD-and-Seagate-confirm-Hard-drives-for-2026-sold-out-11178917.html

In German retail (https://preisvergleich.heise.de/?cat=hde7s&pagesize=30&promode=true&cs_id=1206858352&ccpid=hocid-newsticker), HDD prices have risen by about 20 to 50 percent compared to mid-2025. A shortage of HDDs for data centers also affects SSDs: hyperscalers are buying high-capacity SSDs as an alternative. Manufacturers are therefore shifting their production, which leads to price increases in retail.

Toshiba has not been listed on the stock exchange since 2023. As a result, only rudimentary financial information is publicly available. The company no longer provides outlooks like its competitors.https://www.heise.de/en/news/WD-and-Seagate-confirm-Hard-drives-for-2026-sold-out-11178917.html

Winehole23

02-17-2026, 06:16 PM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ipklmcujwlmchuj7knvnde4j/bafkreievoxrnqmj7g5skgqa6nbceuv6dtv66xim2qin3mjhx3 wfz2ogexa@jpeg

Winehole23

02-24-2026, 07:59 AM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cmvp2dfgs7qrfjo5n27limmf/bafkreiesseefwnicqo3rx3j7daqetbpxwwrnc3j5ltb2nfym5 idwknkgb4@jpeg

velik_m

02-24-2026, 10:53 AM

AI Added ‘Basically Zero’ to US Economic Growth Last Year, Goldman Sachs Says

...
“We don’t actually view AI investment as strongly growth positive,” said Hatzius. “I think there’s a lot of misreporting, actually, of the impact AI investment had on U.S. GDP growth in 2025, and it’s much smaller than is often perceived.”

Hatzius said one major reason is that much of the equipment powering AI is imported. While U.S. companies are spending billions, importing chips and hardware offsets those investments in GDP calculations.

“A lot of the AI investment that we’re seeing in the U.S. adds to Taiwanese GDP, and it adds to Korean GDP but not really that much to U.S. GDP,” he said.

On top of that, there is currently no reliable way to accurately measure how AI use among businesses and consumers contributes to economic growth.

...

https://gizmodo.com/ai-added-basically-zero-to-us-economic-growth-last-year-goldman-sachs-says-2000725380

Winehole23

02-24-2026, 04:58 PM

Talk getting spicy between Hegseth and Anthropic

Per source familiar with meeting: Hegseth threatened to terminate Anthropic’s $200M contract by Friday if it does not comply to Trump admin's terms. Amodei reiterated Anthropic’s red lines around AI- powered weapons and domestic surveillance.

A senior Pentagon official told NPR if Anthropic does not change its stance, it will invoke the Defense Production Act to compel Anthropic to be used as the Trump administration wishes "regardless of if they want to or not"https://bsky.app/profile/bobbyallyn.bsky.social/post/3mfmuliqpzk2x

Winehole23

02-24-2026, 04:59 PM

lol Hegseth telling Anthropic to leave its conscience at the door after signing the contract with them

Winehole23

02-24-2026, 05:01 PM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:pnx2fjuannbdpy3337ggthpp/bafkreifrsxsdx46zd4lsxz2lgppdzyuovcoa3yf6zj52in5z6 vnaqmfb44@jpeghttps://www.axios.com/2026/02/24/anthropic-pentagon-claude-hegseth-dario

Winehole23

02-24-2026, 05:36 PM

Anthropic: we can help you decide who to kill, to aim the weapon, even, but a human has to press the button

Hegseth: *crunching the can of his 19th beer of the day in his fist* how dare youhttps://bsky.app/profile/ens0.me/post/3mfn6lpgqgc2j

Winehole23

02-25-2026, 06:23 PM

man, it is so crazy that a washed-out unit commander who Trump watched on Fox News is SECDEF now

Winehole23

02-25-2026, 06:34 PM

Trump 2.0 is full of boobs, cranks and incompetents, tbh

Winehole23

02-26-2026, 06:57 PM

Anthropic defend their red lines

They won't agree to let their tech be used to kill people autonomously nor to surveil Americans

I believe deeply in the existential importance of using AI to defend the United States and other democracies, and to defeat our autocratic adversaries.

Anthropic has therefore worked proactively to deploy our models to the Department of War and the intelligence community. We were the first frontier AI company (https://www.anthropic.com/news/expanding-access-to-claude-for-government) to deploy our models in the US government’s classified networks, the first to deploy them at the National Laboratories (https://www.axios.com/2024/11/14/anthropic-claude-nuclear-information-safety), and the first to provide custom models (https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-gov-models-for-u-s-national-security-customers) for national security customers. Claude is extensively deployed (https://www.anthropic.com/news/anthropic-and-the-department-of-defense-to-advance-responsible-ai-in-defense-operations) across the Department of War and other national security agencies for mission-critical applications, such as intelligence analysis, modeling and simulation, operational planning, cyber operations, and more.

Anthropic has also acted to defend America’s lead in AI, even when it is against the company’s short-term interest. We chose to forgo several hundred million dollars in revenue to cut off the use of Claude by firms linked to the Chinese Communist Party (https://www.anthropic.com/news/updating-restrictions-of-sales-to-unsupported-regions) (some of whom have been designated by the Department of War (https://media.defense.gov/2025/Jan/07/2003625471/-1/-1/1/ENTITIES-IDENTIFIED-AS-CHINESE-MILITARY-COMPANIES-OPERATING-IN-THE-UNITED-STATES.PDF) as Chinese Military Companies), shut down CCP-sponsored cyberattacks (https://www.anthropic.com/news/disrupting-AI-espionage) that attempted to abuse Claude, and have advocated for strong export controls on chips (https://www.wsj.com/opinion/trump-can-keep-americas-ai-advantage-china-chips-data-eccdce91?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=AWEtsqdPk42glTHtJxGWpiSYR1xY28wMr6SpvGWmvlfp 8_gYMp2h0ulOBH89Njx5eB0%3D&gaa_ts=6983c8a6&gaa_sig=t3NbNoEV35S9fhpBAUsmCPXHG6Zc3taB_jNESn4lAI 7qy0l37FtVqnKZe-ASVGLp4SqxRsIS-HRn0k51UzsdpQ%3D%3D) to ensure a democratic advantage.

Anthropic understands that the Department of War, not private companies, makes military decisions. We have never raised objections to particular military operations nor attempted to limit use of our technology in an ad hoc manner.

However, in a narrow set of cases, we believe AI can undermine, rather than defend, democratic values. Some uses are also simply outside the bounds of what today’s technology can safely and reliably do. Two such use cases have never been included in our contracts with the Department of War, and we believe they should not be included now:

Mass domestic surveillance. We support the use of AI for lawful foreign intelligence and counterintelligence missions. But using these systems for mass domestic surveillance is incompatible with democratic values. AI-driven mass surveillance presents serious, novel risks to our fundamental liberties (https://www.darioamodei.com/essay/the-adolescence-of-technology). To the extent that such surveillance is currently legal, this is only because the law has not yet caught up with the rapidly growing capabilities of AI. For example, under current law, the government can purchase detailed records of Americans’ movements, web browsing, and associations from public sources without obtaining a warrant, a practice the Intelligence Community has acknowledged (https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/ODNI-Declassified-Report-on-CAI-January2022.pdf) raises privacy concerns and that has generated bipartisan opposition in Congress. Powerful AI makes it possible to assemble this scattered, individually innocuous data into a comprehensive picture of any person’s life—automatically and at massive scale.
Fully autonomous weapons. Partially autonomous weapons, like those used today in Ukraine, are vital to the defense of democracy. Even fully autonomous weapons (those that take humans out of the loop entirely and automate selecting and engaging targets) may prove critical for our national defense. But today, frontier AI systems are simply not reliable enough to power fully autonomous weapons. We will not knowingly provide a product that puts America’s warfighters and civilians at risk. We have offered to work directly with the Department of War on R&D to improve the reliability of these systems, but they have not accepted this offer. In addition, without proper oversight (https://www.darioamodei.com/essay/the-adolescence-of-technology), fully autonomous weapons cannot be relied upon to exercise the critical judgment that our highly trained, professional troops exhibit every day. They need to be deployed with proper guardrails, which don’t exist today.

To our knowledge, these two exceptions have not been a barrier to accelerating the adoption and use of our models within our armed forces to date.

The Department of War has stated (https://media.defense.gov/2026/Jan/12/2003855671/-1/-1/0/ARTIFICIAL-INTELLIGENCE-STRATEGY-FOR-THE-DEPARTMENT-OF-WAR.PDF) they will only contract with AI companies who accede to “any lawful use” and remove safeguards in the cases mentioned above. They have threatened to remove us from their systems if we maintain these safeguards; they have also threatened to designate us a “supply chain risk”—a label reserved for US adversaries, never before applied to an American company—and to invoke the Defense Production Act to force the safeguards’ removal. These latter two threats are inherently contradictory (https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/26/incoherent-hegseths-anthropic-ultimatum-confounds-ai-policymakers-00800135?utm_content=topic/politics&utm_source=flipboard): one labels us a security risk; the other labels Claude as essential to national security.

Regardless, these threats do not change our position: we cannot in good conscience accede to their request.

It is the Department’s prerogative to select contractors most aligned with their vision. But given the substantial value that Anthropic’s technology provides to our armed forces, we hope they reconsider. Our strong preference is to continue to serve the Department and our warfighters—with our two requested safeguards in place. Should the Department choose to offboard Anthropic, we will work to enable a smooth transition to another provider, avoiding any disruption to ongoing military planning, operations, or other critical missions. Our models will be available on the expansive terms we have proposed for as long as required.

We remain ready to continue our work to support the national security of the United States.
https://www.anthropic.com/news/statement-department-of-war

Winehole23

02-28-2026, 08:43 AM

Trump blows up at Anthropic

He and Hegseth are essentially breaking a contract with Anthropic because they decided they didn't like terms they already agreed to

the US government not being agreement-capable is bad for business and US credibility

"I am directing EVERY Federal Agency in the United States Government to IMMEDIATELY CEASE all use of Anthropic's technology," Mr. Trump wrote (https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116144552969293195) on Truth Social. "We don't need it, we don't want it, and will not do business with them again!"

The president said he will give certain agencies, like the Department of Defense, that use Anthropic's technology six months to phase out their use of its products and threatened to take additional action against the company if it does not assist during that period.

"Anthropic better get their act together, and be helpful during this phase out period, or I will use the Full Power of the Presidency to make them comply, with major civil and criminal consequences to follow," he wrote.

Mr. Trump attacked the company as a "Radical Left AI company run by people who have no idea what the real World is all about."

About an hour and a half after Mr. Trump's Truth Social post, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth followed through (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hegseth-declares-anthropic-supply-chain-risk/) on his promise to designate Anthropic a supply chain risk.

"I am directing the Department of War to designate Anthropic a Supply-Chain Risk to National Security. Effective immediately, no contractor, supplier, or partner that does business with the United States military may conduct any commercial activity with Anthropic," Hegseth wrote (https://x.com/SecWar/status/2027507717469049070?s=20). "Anthropic will continue to provide the Department of War its services for a period of no more than six months to allow for a seamless transition to a better and more patriotic service. America's warfighters will never be held hostage by the ideological whims of Big Tech. This decision is final."
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-anthropic-ai-order-federal-agencies/

Winehole23

02-28-2026, 09:07 AM

Anthropic says Hegseth is way out over his skis

Wouldn't be at all surprised if these nerds beat Hegseth in court

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:6hit5rjdbmlnscmuk4bbtmuc/bafkreiabkl7dsjvyskbl6uw6yfqd3t25wm6oawcxld5p5xjf3 ekik7bycm@jpeg

Winehole23

03-05-2026, 07:09 AM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:ayagznj66cdicwhci2vfxitv/bafkreiftpsowepzuddsds3eehar2hkdqhejcgqldbxisnxsht c3icxj7n4@jpeg

To strike 1,000 targets in 24 hours in Iran, the U.S. military leveraged the most advanced AI it’s ever used in warfare.

Anthropic’s Claude partnered with the military’s Maven Smart System, suggesting targets and issuing precise location coordinates wapo.st/46BFe1T (https://wapo.st/46BFe1T)

Winehole23

03-05-2026, 07:11 AM

the strike on the girls school was reportedly a double tap strike

Winehole23

03-05-2026, 07:44 AM

here's a Claude answer

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:x47vuhshoslgbo4mw52kesno/bafkreihpzyslvbobtlzw3gvcpnxdrkpudl2akrzuk6rja4j2q gl3rwromu@jpeg

Winehole23

03-06-2026, 06:18 PM

*ORACLE AND OPENAI END PLANS TO EXPAND TEXAS DATA CENTER SITE
*ORACLE-OPENAI TALKS TO LEASE STARGATE EXPANSION SITE BROKE DOWN
*META IN DISCUSSION WITH DEVELOPER CRUSOE TO LEASE EXPANDED SITE

ChumpDumper

03-07-2026, 11:28 AM

Uh...

https://x.com/usr_bin_roygbiv/status/2030187007142719731

Also, the flaws in this thing are obvious and jarring. At times the beast literally has two backs and the arms get flipped all backwards.

This is the golden age?

Winehole23

03-07-2026, 04:37 PM

"eating the seed corn"

Media workers aren’t so much being replaced by AI systems as fed to one: Google’s gluttonous AI Overviews, which summarize articles and present them to users in one easy-to-read digest.

But while users might be shaving precious seconds from their queries, online media publications are being roiled by the massive drop-off in clicks. That web traffic, SEO firm Growtika found (https://growtika.com/blog/tech-media-collapse), has dropped off significantly following the advent of Google’s AI Overviews.

The firm looked at data from Ahrefs tracking web traffic to 10 major tech outlets from early 2024 to early 2026. At their peak, the media companies brought in 112 million site visits per month from Google users in the US. By January of this year, that number was down to a little under 50 million — with some outlets losing over 90 percent of their traffic since the new feature rolled out.

While some publications fared much worse than others, none of them are thriving. Mashable fared the best, losing a grim 30 percent of its web traffic between its peak and January 2026. That’s a lot, but it’s nothing compared to Wired, which lost 62 percent of its traffic, or the cluster of outlets including HowToGeek, The Verge, and ZDNet, which each lost over 85 percent of their web traffic over the two year period.

And the real sob story is tech outlet Digital Trends, which went from 8.5 million clicks a month in March 2024 to a heartbreaking 264,861 in January 2026. That’s an astonishing decline — a drop-off of 97 percent of US web traffic from Google.

As Growtika observed, the four worst-hit publications get less monthly web traffic combined than the r/ChatGPT subreddit gets on its own.

Though Growtika holds that it can’t prove causation from traffic data on its own, it theorizes that the disruption is due to three combined issues: Google’s AI Overviews, which came out in mid-2024; a bump in the algorithm that boosts Reddit to the top of the charts; and the growing number of AI chatbot users who eschew Google entirely.

Crucially, the hardest hits came in mid-2025, when Google expanded its AI Overviews system to cover a much more expansive range of queries. In July of last year, the feature’s visibility peaked, with some 25 percent of all Google searches (https://searchengineland.com/google-ai-overviews-surge-pullback-data-466314) triggering an automatic summary.
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/google-ai-overviews-media
htps://bsky.app/profile/normative.bsky.social/post/3mgigwjjelc2m

Winehole23

03-07-2026, 04:40 PM

hot take? "AI is destroying internet media" is not the story here, it's "AI can delivers slop better than what's left of internet media post-private equity". AI summaries can't replace a @gamersnexus.bsky.social (https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:j6eoaiugwvut55tth44nxvan)

vid. I stopped reading gaming sites when they fired all the writers I gave a shit abouthttps://bsky.app/profile/pedrothedagger.bsky.social/post/3mgig3owic22x

Winehole23

03-07-2026, 04:47 PM

wrong thread

velik_m

03-08-2026, 02:20 PM

Oracle may slash up to 30,000 jobs to fund AI data-center expansion as US banks retreat

Oracle is considering cutting 20,000 to 30,000 jobs and selling some of its activities as US banks pull back from financing the company’s AI data-center expansion, according to investment bank TD Cowen.

The job cuts would free up $8 billion to $10 billion in cash flow, TD Cowen said in a research report seen by CIO. Oracle is also weighing a sale of its health-care software unit, Cerner, which it acquired for $28.3 billion in 2022.

The measures come as multiple US banks have pulled back from Oracle-linked data-center project lending. “Both equity and debt investors have raised questions regarding Oracle’s ability to finance this buildout,” the report said.

The financing challenge stems from the scale of Oracle’s infrastructure commitments, amounting to $156 billion in required capital expenditure, TD Cowen estimated.

...

https://www.cio.com/article/4125103/oracle-may-slash-up-to-30000-jobs-to-fund-ai-data-center-expansion-as-us-banks-retreat.html

Winehole23

03-10-2026, 06:34 AM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:66lbtw2porscqpmair6mir37/bafkreia7q5jt2vxucpqh4erjkprmoffkxdrakksszvm7l7ukn 2zcsu6onm

ChumpDumper

03-13-2026, 05:50 PM

No thanks, douchebag.

2032012809433723158

https://x.com/TheChiefNerd/status/2032012809433723158

Winehole23

03-14-2026, 09:22 AM

apparently Amazon's AI-coding tool Kiro fixes configuration issues by nuking the entire production environment, leading to outages and millions of lost orders

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ckaz32jwl6t2cno6fmuw2nhn/bafkreiawg5pg3hdjkzzbe7asvzntqoqsz63xxjd5fnoqj26hl mt5ighafa

Winehole23

03-14-2026, 09:23 AM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:xqybj2sjzs5ugjmefc2lio3o/bafkreifw2a2mchpfpfczsf34zq2cponwu75qxh3noklbzdxl2 5jz7chybe

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:qc6xzgctorfsm35w6i3vdebx/bafkreib3lp44h5yiycotceevyklm5skzexz6hkbfk2v2iq4zk m4lu5jh5y

velik_m

03-14-2026, 09:27 AM

Exclusive: Meta planning sweeping layoffs as AI costs mount

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO, March 13 (Reuters) - Meta (META.O), opens new tab is planning sweeping layoffs that could affect 20% or more of the company, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, as #Meta seeks to offset costly artificial intelligence infrastructure bets and prepare for greater efficiency brought about by AI-assisted workers.

No date has been set for the cuts and the magnitude has not been finalized, the people said.

Top executives have recently signaled the plans to other senior leaders at Meta and told them to begin planning how to pare back, two of the people said. The sources spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to disclose the cuts.

"This is speculative reporting about theoretical approaches," Meta spokesperson Andy Stone ⁠said in response to questions about the plan.
If Meta settles on the 20% figure, the layoffs will be the company's most significant since a restructuring in late 2022 and early 2023 that it dubbed the "year of efficiency." It employed nearly 79,000 people as of December 31, according to its latest filing.

The company laid off 11,000 staffers in November 2022, or around 13% of its workforce at the time. Around four months later, it announced it was cutting another 10,000 jobs.
...

https://www.reuters.com/business/world-at-work/meta-planning-sweeping-layoffs-ai-costs-mount-2026-03-14/

Winehole23

03-27-2026, 07:23 AM

government sh!tposting leads to a swift win in court for Anthropic

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:2vtbmhmrwzbqcfv4we4uxzzt/bafkreihb4cnecxoqunmldynlsjcxc3vs4ieg5ss5g5vk3sywn mdvuqb5dehttps://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72379655/anthropic-pbc-v-us-department-of-war/?order_by=desc

Winehole23

03-27-2026, 10:24 AM

Nothing in the governing statute,” Judge Lin wrote, “supports the Orwellian notion that an American company may be branded a potential adversary and saboteur of the U.S. for expressing disagreement with the government

Winehole23

03-27-2026, 10:26 AM

Anthropic wins preliminary injunction on every claim: First Amendment, Due Process, and Administrative Procedure Act.

velik_m

04-06-2026, 03:44 AM

America’s AI Build-Out Hinges on Chinese Electrical Parts

...

As the global AI race heats up, there is a huge rush to build data centers fast. There’s no lack of money chasing these projects, with tech giants Alphabet Inc., Amazon.com, Meta Platforms Inc. and Microsoft Corp. committed to spending more than $650 billion this year alone. Yet neither ambition nor capital is enough to materialize all the necessary components for these power-hungry computers.

Almost half of the US data centers planned for this year are expected to be delayed or canceled. One big reason is the shortage of electrical equipment, such as transformers, switchgear and batteries. They are needed not just for powering AI, but also for building out the grid that is seeing increased consumption from electric cars and heat pumps. US manufacturing capacity for these devices cannot keep up with demand, and the scarcity has caused data center builders to rely on imports.

Electrification is a key solution to both tackling climate change and powering AI ambitions. But America’s AI prowess on computer chips and cutting-edge software is being hamstrung by the country’s inability to manufacture the electrical parts. “There’s not enough domestic capacity to go around, so people are pretty much forced to go to the export market,” says Benjamin Boucher, senior analyst with Wood Mackenzie.

...

Over the past 10 years, the US government has tried a series of policies to reshore manufacturing, but they haven’t yet yielded a significant boost to domestic capacity, forcing businesses to look to China regardless of the tariffs or the alleged national security risk. That means the US needs crucial parts from China to dominate it in the AI race, while China needs advanced chips from American companies to stay in the race.

In March, Trump issued a new framework to speed up permitting of new power plants for data centers. Without addressing electrical equipment shortages, many are worried that the trillions of dollars of spending aimed at data centers won’t yield the decisive steps the US must take to win the AI race. “We’ve seen firsthand the value it can create if you are not hamstrung by electrical infrastructure lead times,” says Crusoe’s Likens. “They can make or break a project.”

Data centers have rapidly grown in size and now consume more electricity than their predecessors a decade ago. That demands bigger transformers, which safely pull electricity from the high-voltage grid to feed to tiny computer chips. Without the right transformers, there’s no way to make the data center work.

Before 2020, these high-power transformers typically arrived 24 to 30 months after an order was placed. Those timelines were “totally manageable in the old world” when data centers didn’t need such large transformers or at such short timelines, says Philippe Piron, chief executive officer of GE Vernova’s electrification division. But AI companies “want something typically in less than 18 months.”

...

China dominates the supply of electrical equipment because it controls so many parts of the supply chain, from materials to processing to manufacturing, and the gulf between China and the US is set to widen. In its new five-year plan, the Asian giant revealed last month that it will double down on building out its grid with renewables, while the Trump administration has dismantled policies to deploy solar and wind power.

In March, the US opened trade investigations into China to justify tariffs; the country then retaliated by starting its own investigations against the US. Rash attempts to end Chinese imports of electrical equipment would mean further delays and harm the US in the AI race, says Joshua Busby, a professor of public affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. “If we’re too indiscriminate in our effort to diminish our reliance on China to zero, that could come at excessive cost to American companies,” he says.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2026-04-01/us-ai-data-center-expansion-relies-on-chinese-electrical-equipment-imports

Winehole23

04-25-2026, 11:20 AM

global story, not much discussed here it seems -- eight people were murdered in Tumbler Ridge

Sam Altman with his published apology is presuming the community's blessing to spy on them all, and to snitch on the"bad guys" and "people in danger"

IRL Tumbler Ridge has complicated, still tender feelings about Sam Altman's expressions of regret from a calculated distance

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/sam-altman-tumbler-ridge-apology-9.7176482

Winehole23

04-27-2026, 03:59 PM

in 9 seconds

With A.I, you can fuck up ten times as hard a hundred times as fast! All with absolutely zero oversight or accountability for anyone! Pay us money, and you too can have your entire database deleted along with all backups! We offer competitive rates, so don't get left behind!

The founder of PocketOS has penned a social media post to warn others about the “systemic failures” of flagship AI and digital services providers. Jer Crane was inspired to write a public response after an AI coding agent (https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/multiple-aws-outages-caused-by-ai-coding-bot-blunder-report-claims-amazon-says-both-incidents-were-user-error) deleted his firm’s entire production database. The AI agent’s misdemeanors were then hugely amplified by a cloud infrastructure provider’s API wiping all backups after the main database was zapped. This tag team of digital trouble has wiped out months of consumer data essential to the firm’s, and its customers, businesses.https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/claude-powered-ai-coding-agent-deletes-entire-company-database-in-9-seconds-backups-zapped-after-cursor-tool-powered-by-anthropics-claude-goes-rogue

ChumpDumper

04-27-2026, 09:29 PM

I feel sorry for the remaining employees.

"Jer"? Not so much. The buck stops with him. lol acting like the AI agent is a person.

"This is the agent on the record, in writing."

It's a computer program that is known to fuck things up.

Then he whined about the fine print in Railway's documentation. That's on record, in writing. Putting all the backup eggs in one basket seems bad anyway.

Winehole23

05-14-2026, 08:12 AM

AI is a marketing term

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:vsyj5jtayxcq5dw5mtja4xtb/bafkreihbwt7mfxal4wder4s6vsbf4mpkwgv5nm7c6skgt2x7t a2soifzbq@jpeg

https://zenodo.org/records/17065099

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:z5pys6cmqbp4is6xrz23wunm/bafkreicqhea6svtmoidlazk3zzalhld6cr5c5n27panoastke 3n7h5rufi

There's a very old joke in the field (dating back to the 90s at least)

When we hire people, it's machine learning. when we do the work, it's logistic regression. And when we raise money, it's AI.

Winehole23

05-14-2026, 08:15 AM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:vsyj5jtayxcq5dw5mtja4xtb/bafkreihavj4y4hvuqmervolkakodhui7qozn2jmnsrav5lilv 37cecg6bq

ChumpDumper

05-19-2026, 10:35 PM

Oh come on.

https://x.com/SonnyBunch/status/2056752413327921521

2056752413327921521

Winehole23

06-03-2026, 02:42 PM

data center construction isn't just a left-wing Glonzo anymore, independents and Republicans seem to be adopting it with gusto, too

https://www.wtkr.com/news/in-the-community/virginia-beach/virginia-beach-city-council-unanimously-rejects-future-data-centers-residents-applaud-the-decision

Winehole23

06-03-2026, 02:42 PM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:zlr5msbog5dluhaugd5bgdg3/bafkreihii377fcqawlsvc6qttazee2dkjh5y7hjqced3pdimy p2krrogwa

Winehole23

06-03-2026, 02:59 PM

The water issue is real, but wildly overstated and glonzo'd to the gills.

Jeffrey Epstein was a right-wing Glonzo until Trump was inaugurated in 2025

Now right-wingers pick up a shield to defend Donald Trump from Glonzo...

Winehole23

06-03-2026, 03:33 PM

At least seven in 10 Americans would now oppose a data center being built near their home, according to a new Heatmap Pro (https://heatmap.news/pro) poll, a record low that reveals a staggering shift in public opinion against the facilities powering the artificial intelligence boom.

The survey, conducted by Embold Research, finds that an outright majority of Americans are now strongly opposed to data center construction in their area. Young people, Democrats, and rural voters are more hostile to the projects, but they are broadly unpopular with Americans across geographic and political categories.

https://heatmap.news/politics/americans-oppose-data-centers-poll

Winehole23

06-03-2026, 04:35 PM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:fq3ejlkjaqo37z5tlpytlhwv/bafkreie65ma3u4pthyf2s46o6eidt7dqlzscqcpc2pzu5ub43 xxhozlcca

Winehole23

06-05-2026, 08:46 AM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:qnf33tdgs5ac6lhvx7c5t2mn/bafkreibujevixq2aw3diznc73jfxgemt2ealwvwkzmnuvc6r5 qyxo5nrzm

Winehole23

06-05-2026, 10:12 AM

NIMBYs gonna love

(Story is at least 10 months old)

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:66lbtw2porscqpmair6mir37/bafkreiav5npomldnukm4k3pqtujf2fpsk6uxocxsucwia57ky jvsilkkqm
https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:66lbtw2porscqpmair6mir37/bafkreicdvnfsqlhipw6cbpabptzfq5hbc6frqwwief7sxkl5l cak2yfkk4

https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/04/meta-steals-a-tactic-from-tesla-and-builds-data-centers-in-tents/

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/meta-plans-multi-gw-data-center-thats-nearly-the-size-of-manhattan-zuckerberg-promises-enormous-ai-splash-as-company-uses-tents-to-try-and-keep-up-with-rate-of-expansion

ChumpDumper

06-05-2026, 10:37 AM

That's gonna power the Metaverse, right Zuck?

Winehole23

06-06-2026, 02:01 PM

‘Bots have now passed human traffic online,’ Cloudflare boss laments — says agentic traffic wasn’t expected to eclipse real people until next year (https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/bots-have-now-passed-human-traffic-online-cloudflare-boss-laments-says-agentic-traffic-wasnt-expected-to-eclipse-real-people-until-next-year?utm_source=join1440&utm_medium=email&utm_placement=newsletter&user_id=66c4bd8c5d78644b3a9ccf7c)

Winehole23

06-07-2026, 10:38 AM

AI is eating RAM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:ynyiu76gknsnlnv72m3zfptk/bafkreifbs4dgm2sqhsscr5nw6qgxvnaer7iqifvpbquyz4lnf m2zzsrfii

velik_m

06-07-2026, 12:07 PM

Meta confirms thousands of Instagram accounts were hacked by abusing its AI chatbot

Meta is notifying thousands of people whose Instagram accounts were hijacked during the months-long abuse of the company's AI chatbot, which hackers repeatedly tricked into taking control of a person's account.

In a new data breach notification letter, seen by this week in security, Meta has revealed for the first time how many people had their accounts hijacked as part of the long-running hacking campaign, which was discovered earlier this week and first reported by 404 Media ($) and TechCrunch ($). The number of affected accounts gives some clarity as to how widespread this hacking campaign was, and for how long it operated.

According to the data breach notice filed with Maine's attorney general's office late on Friday, Meta notified at least 20,225 people that their accounts had been compromised, including 30 people in Maine.

The compromises allowed the hackers to take over the person's entire Instagram and any linked accounts, including obtaining contact information, dates of birth, and profile information, as well as the ability to access the person's posts, direct messages, and account activity, the notice reads.

...

https://this.weekinsecurity.com/meta-confirms-thousands-of-instagram-accounts-were-hacked-by-abusing-its-ai-chatbot/

Winehole23

06-07-2026, 12:13 PM

tl;dr

the hackers asked Meta AI to reset other people's Insta passwords and email them back

velik_m

06-09-2026, 09:30 AM

Talk is Cheap
What the data says about the operational impacts of LLM use in the software industry

My stance originates from stumbling on Faros.ai - a software development telemetry firm. They have products that pipe into common development tools like Jira, Github, CI/CD pipelines, and service ticket tracking systems to directly measure major output metrics for software development teams. This data is different in kind than productivity studies in that it actually instruments value delivery to customers.

Faros published a report in March that measures the impact of LLM use on 4000 teams over 2 years. The methodology is quite strong. Their metrics are comparing the same organizations between their lowest AI adoption quarter versus their highest after some standardization. This eliminates a lot of confounding variables.

This is, by far, the best data I’ve been able to locate that directly measures the value delivery impact of LLM use in aggregate across software development processes.

It’s bad.

Really, really, really bad.

I’m going to give you the headline conclusions now from my analysis:

* Faros’ customers, at the peak of their AI use are probably shipping less software into production.

* On average, Faros’ customers’ bottleneck is located in the review stage of their software production process.

* Faros’ customers - on average - are trading off developer productivity for product quality and finished feature throughput.

If you take this data seriously (as I do) and you have no data specific to your organization to contradict it - then I think this data should adjust your priors about LLM use in your org to this:

Your org is likely shipping less output at lower quality.

By employing stochastic black boxes to build our products, we’ve simultaneously accelerated defect injection into the software production process and relocated the defect removal process to review where it is much less effective. These two drivers are increasing rework and subtracting from overall product throughput.

....

https://unessays.substack.com/p/talk-is-cheap

Winehole23

06-10-2026, 10:40 AM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:4wgc32lruykyqvmnculpihn5/bafkreicds2ftbg6uax3m457tssvkuwoyfmthsvvxkqesi6kkj c6cvtytwyhttps://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flmd.461281/gov.uscourts.flmd.461281.1.0.pdf

Winehole23

06-10-2026, 12:43 PM

bandwagon effect

Gov. Greg Abbott (https://directory.texastribune.org/greg-abbott/) on Tuesday released sweeping regulatory recommendations on data centers for the Legislature to pass in the 2027 session, as Texas grapples with an explosion of artificial intelligence-driven development and soaring power demands.

In a letter to state regulators (https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/28225490/thomas-gleeson-pablo-vegas-data-centers-directive-letter-to-puc-ercot-final.pdf), Abbott outlined a series of proposals designed to ensure data centers shoulder the costs of their growth rather than Texas ratepayers.
https://www.texastribune.org/2026/06/10/texas-greg-abbott-data-centers-regulation-sales-tax/

Winehole23

06-10-2026, 09:10 PM

debt-heavy now

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:odagu3zc4yxww6qrkp4aloq5/bafkreia2vwrkzdcivb3k7vx3vbal2e4cy42hh2qn225jnudik bwfotip54

Winehole23

06-12-2026, 12:52 PM

telemetry data from 22,000 users

productivity is up, output is far less correct, safe and maintainable

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:dnvaspmibq7kt2gejzcgmcqw/bafkreiayex4b3mfao43ab2pxbthey6yx5hsglaxgyley2i476 52f5z5wryhttps://www.faros.ai/blog/ai-acceleration-whiplash-takeaways

Winehole23

06-12-2026, 12:59 PM

"We're shipping so much more code with AI!"

"Good, stable code?"

"Oh heavens no. No no no. not at all. We couldn't possibly"

Winehole23

06-12-2026, 07:08 PM

"Elias Thorne"

But with all the world’s literature as its training data, why do LLMs seem to default so often to the lighthouse? It comes down to how model makers try to safety-align and sanitize their outputs. “We found many stories in WildChat are not safe for work. This led us to hypothesize that models going through alignment are preferring a small slice of WildChat stories, like a bottleneck,” Hamilton said. “It isn't that Elias stories are frequent, but that they're just so safe.”https://www.404media.co/elias-thorne-chatbots-llms-chatgpt-lighthouse-keeper-story/

Winehole23

06-13-2026, 12:34 AM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:u4o26nximjdtgooqshfz45zr/bafkreidf3wr7e4wfgfjueuhxlz7mt4wlarrmw5p4dh3bzqyw3 qkav73kmy

Winehole23

06-13-2026, 08:28 AM

German court rules Google is legally liable for its AI content

The Regional Court of Munich hit Google with a temporary injunction barring the company from spreading false claims about two Munich-based publishers through its AI-generated search overviews (case no. 26 O 869/26). The court classified Google as a direct infringer because the "AI overview" is its own content, not just a list of search results.

Google's AI overviews had falsely tied two publishing companies to scams, subscription traps, and shady business practices for certain search queries. According to the court, the AI mixed up information about other, genuinely sketchy companies with the plaintiffs and drew connections that didn't appear in any of the linked sources. The publishers sent Google a cease-and-desist letter, but Google didn't respond appropriately.

Google's AI overviews work nothing like traditional search results, the court argues. The AI rewrites and judges results "in its own words and according to its own structure," the ruling says. In the case at hand, for example, it opened with confident claims like "Yes, [company] is known for dubious business practices," then built its own structure with a summary, red flags for the alleged scam, and tips for users.

The court also found that the AI overview made claims "that are not even made in the search results." None of the linked sources drew any connection between the plaintiffs and the shady companies the AI mentioned. The court called these "the defendant's own statements."

Google built the AI, Google offered it to users, so Google owns what it produces, "because it alone has influence over the AI's offering and the algorithms with which the AI operates."

The court also examined existing rulings from Germany's Federal Court of Justice (BGH), which gave traditional search engines and autocomplete limited liability. The BGH had argued that search engine operators were only liable as indirect infringers because they merely made third-party content findable. A proactive duty to check results would threaten how search engines work.

The Munich court found that this reasoning doesn't apply to AI overviews. A regular search engine just points to outside websites. But AI overviews generate "independent, new, and substantive statements" by evaluating and combining content from various third-party sites. And only Google can check those statements, the court said, "at least by comparing the underlying third-party websites with its own statements based on them."

The court also noted that the AI overview is "by no means absolutely necessary" for using the internet. Traditional search results already help users sort through information, the AI overview is just an extra feature.
https://the-decoder.com/landmark-german-ruling-declares-googles-ai-overviews-are-googles-own-words-and-makes-it-liable-for-false-answers/

Winehole23

06-13-2026, 11:44 AM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:vszw3ess46odfhnzdsy4huae/bafkreiatuwf63hbjzv53nvtxjerphgsteegnrlyflysotflpa yk6nj6a4a

Winehole23

06-13-2026, 09:07 PM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:wgfz5e3rv4mxgtcpypddfruu/bafkreidtxbvsne5eo6lrm2dmhw2uhus5findizjs72xiuvujd b3cidvdnm

Winehole23

06-18-2026, 11:11 AM

GIGO

Google's AI Overviews are treating entities from the SCP Foundation — the famously fake fan-fiction universe — as if they're real.

The AI feature often contextualizes SCP entities as actual discoveries while describing made-up SCP records as "official" documents.futurism.com/artificial-i... (https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/google-ai-overview-scp-horror-fiction-real)

Winehole23

06-25-2026, 09:06 AM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:gftip5r3dmyojn5lat333pp5/bafkreify54r6i25e7dbltgv3fgqqhca2bejp3pflhefwaw42l amsp5woim

Winehole23

06-25-2026, 06:27 PM

whipping up fear is part of the pitch

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cmvp2dfgs7qrfjo5n27limmf/bafkreiaggujyu72yguyd2wbmy4hhawwvkrw3b3kr5pfrci7pf jmva77zvyhttps://www.ft.com/content/bb04671c-4377-4231-96ef-0f8e57ed5d1b

Winehole23

06-25-2026, 06:28 PM

https://images.ft.com/v3/image/raw/ftcms%3A66808de2-030a-4401-a718-b28355755675?source=next-article&fit=scale-down&quality=highest&width=905&dpr=1

Winehole23

06-25-2026, 06:45 PM

Trump extorts OpenAI and Anthropic simultaneously

https://www.axios.com/2026/06/25/trump-administration-openai-gpt-model-release

ChumpDumper

06-25-2026, 07:46 PM

whipping up fear is part of the pitch

https://www.ft.com/content/bb04671c-4377-4231-96ef-0f8e57ed5d1b

Great, let's not do any of it.

Winehole23

06-25-2026, 08:10 PM

Great, let's not do any of it.that's a very prevalent sentiment

I expect a judicially imposed embargo on environmental avenues of relief before long

Winehole23

06-26-2026, 07:03 AM

I recently interviewed for a tenure-track position at a major research university that I will not name because I am still on the job market and cannot afford to burn bridges, although I will say it is located in Connecticut and rhymes with “Fail.” The interview was going well. I had prepared extensively. My research seminar was well-received. My one-on-one meetings were productive. And then came the chalk talk.

For those unfamiliar with the format, a chalk talk is a tradition in academic hiring in which candidates are asked to present their future research plans using only a chalkboard or whiteboard, without slides, to demonstrate their ability to think on their feet and explain complex ideas spontaneously. It is, in other words, a ritual designed in 1974 and never updated.

I walked into the room. I saw the whiteboard. I saw the markers. And then I placed my laptop on the table, opened a browser window to ChatGPT, and prepared to do what I do every single day in my actual scientific practice: type a prompt and receive a coherent, well-structured response that I would then lightly edit and present as my own thinking.https://inpreparation.substack.com/p/opinion-i-was-not-allowed-to-type?r=4ptpu3&utm_medium=ios&triedRedirect=true

Winehole23

06-26-2026, 07:05 AM

:lmao

The room went silent.

“What are you doing?” asked the search committee chair.

“I’m preparing to answer your questions,” I said.

“With ChatGPT?”

“Yes,” I said. “How else would I do it?”

Apparently, “how else would I do it” is “from memory, using only my brain, like some kind of medieval peasant.” This was news to me.

Let me be clear about something: I am an excellent scientist. My publication record speaks for itself. I have first-author papers in high-impact journals. I have secured independent funding. I have mentored students. I have done all of the things that one is supposed to do to earn a tenure-track position. And I have done approximately 85% of them by typing prompts into a large language model and then moderately editing the output.

This is not a secret. This is how science works now. When I write a paper, I prompt ChatGPT to “write an introduction for a manuscript about [topic] that establishes significance and identifies the gap in the literature.” When I design experiments, I ask Claude to “suggest controls for a CRISPR knockout study in mammalian cells.” When I draft grants, I request “specific aims for an R01 on [research area] that are innovative but not so innovative that study section will be confused.” This is my scientific process. It is efficient. It is modern. And it produces results.

But apparently, at the chalk talk, I was expected to simply... know things. From my head. Without prompting anything.

Winehole23

06-26-2026, 07:09 AM

My own words? I haven’t used my own words since 2022. I’m not even sure I have my own words anymore. When I try to think without a prompt box in front of me, my mind returns only a vague sense of fog and the faint echo of a cursor blinking. My thoughts are not organized into paragraphs. They do not have topic sentences. They are just fragments. Impressions. My job is just… prompt.

Winehole23

06-26-2026, 08:15 AM

NYT headline change

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:afucvpwfwrd35te62yqccbhz/bafkreihhn7zwt5g22hf4rdadoi3yu4tkrjoc7ymy2ycce72sj tejf3rboi

Winehole23

06-29-2026, 07:48 AM

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Screenshot-2026-06-29-at-12.20.03%E2%80%AFAM.png

Big Tech’s AI spending spree risks ending in a prolonged “investment bust” that could rattle financial markets and damage the global economy, the Bank for International Settlements has warned.
The Basel-based organisation, which advises the world’s central banks, said the prospect of worse than expected returns in the tech sector could prompt investors to rapidly curb financing for AI companies, at a time when the five biggest “hyperscalers” are expected to invest more than $1tn from 2025 to the end of 2026.
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Screenshot-2026-06-29-at-1.39.59%E2%80%AFAM.png

The warning comes amid mounting concerns over the scale of equity and debt issuance fuelling the AI revolution and the turbulence this is creating in global markets. Tech groups have flooded into the global credit market, raising hundreds of billions of dollars to fund AI projects, taking advantage of corporate credit spreads that are close to their lowest level this century…

Big investors have warned that this rush to issue debt could test investors’ appetite, especially if the AI investment does not deliver an adequate return…

Allianz’s investment chief warned this week that SpaceX’s decision to launch a $25bn bond sale so soon after its IPO was a sign that markets had entered “bubble territory”….

A major equity market correction associated with AI could have broader implications today than in the past, the BIS added, because households have greater exposure to shares relative to their wealth and income.

Financial stability could also be endangered, given the volumes of debt being sold by AI companies to finance their investment, it warned.
https://www.ft.com/content/e81ce414-e4bd-4e8c-bac7-94f7bf17def4?syn-25a6b1a6=1

Winehole23

07-01-2026, 03:27 PM

Oracle suggests similar

hyperscaling capex might have been undertaken in a mood of irrational exuberance

”Some of our customers may be highly leveraged and subject to their own operating and regulatory risks and even if our credit review and analysis mechanisms work properly we may experience risks of non-payment in our dealings with such parties.” www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet... (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2026-07-01/oracle-warns-ai-data-center-splurge-may-not-pay-off?utm_campaign=news&utm_medium=bd&utm_source=applenews)

Winehole23

07-02-2026, 08:08 AM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:rbffgd2zo6r7rmnklo2nlyy5/bafkreie4xyqq3lqk7oyup52yhjfrotuygudj3anmlad44x573 37vtknowy

velik_m

07-02-2026, 11:38 AM

OpenAI proposes 5% stake to Trump administration to ease Washington pressure: Report

OpenAI has proposed handing the U.S. government a 5% stake in the company, the Financial Times reported Thursday, as the artificial intelligence startup seeks to defuse mounting political pressure in Washington.

A 5% holding would be worth roughly $42.6 billion, after the AI lab closed a record-breaking funding round in March at a post-money valuation of $852 billion.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman argued that giving the public a financial interest in the company is the best way to share the upside of AI, the FT reported, citing two people familiar with the talks.

Altman suggested a stake of that size in early discussions with the Trump administration, as part of a broader arrangement under which Washington would hold 5% of each of the leading U.S. AI developers via a government vehicle, according to the report.

...

The Trump administration has previously taken stakes in private companies, investing in Intel Corp, IBM, and other quantum and critical mineral companies during the president’s second term.

The government obtained a 10% stake in Intel after a landmark $8.9 billion investment in the chipmaker’s common stock in August last year. In May, President Donald Trump said he should have asked for a bigger stake in the company.

Trump has described the U.S. taking an ownership stake in AI giants as “a beautiful thing” that would make Americans “partners in this revolution.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/02/openai-proposes-us-government-own-5percent-stake-to-address-political-blowback.html

Winehole23

07-03-2026, 09:39 AM

some noise about this in the UK too

The Spanish government is instructing state-owned enterprises to ban the US company Palantir Technologies from public contracts, according to a report by El Confidencial, which Cybernews machine-translated.

Sources say the ban stems from concerns about the company’s software handling classified information linked to national security.

https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/hegseth-prepared-a-bombshell-plan-to-cut-troops-in-europe-then-it-got-nixed-cbb87e75

Winehole23

07-08-2026, 07:56 AM

props to S22

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:brnnpb6x3pdapjeqqs275gbd/bafkreigbzihkmilebbceyhiiv762iozqeso67tnepfk4qbzmv w4ge2d24yhttps://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty/learning-assessment/2026/07/08/brown-professor-suspects-most-his-class-used-ai-cheat

Winehole23

07-08-2026, 08:59 AM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:6m7rbdgaz5vyg4bnbefi7kh6/bafkreibieozyqtgqcovcpcbtjuhsrahw4wnw4tltlhz7wcse7 lg7mgiyk4

Winehole23

07-08-2026, 09:34 AM

furtive pollution

META contaminated Wyoming's wastewater

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:ybkylffhwhn2an2ic2lxh76k/bafkreiczgqmgg2fg24mfenmoszzuvp3qwnilfsw7lhp4dyarj xu4fiysnq

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:ybkylffhwhn2an2ic2lxh76k/bafkreifxq3ayqzsed6o7zjmr7f67y3rgchz4zgxxmxev7q6ch ztru2wviuhttps://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/02/cheyenne-wont-take-data-center-wastewater-after-meta-company-contaminated-system/

Winehole23

07-08-2026, 09:36 AM

Meta's Cheyenne campus, one of the largest private construction projects in the city's history, spans hundreds of acres in the High Plains Business Park and is expected to encompass roughly 800,000 square feet when completed.

Winehole23

07-09-2026, 11:58 PM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:apltwanvka65rlk3sll367mg/bafkreierrsuyoyfodldmlp3nakv7squlihqojdlabmhexw7mn cayvvsere

Winehole23

07-10-2026, 07:32 AM

memory costs rising

the AI bubble is inflationary

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:z6rujpf4u56jfie7aqic2nfg/bafkreibmhjtftdatqpc6mfmhobwz7f4c6fpndigjf3irzl42j 2pwcj5joe

Facts

07-10-2026, 09:52 PM

memory costs rising

the AI bubble is inflationary

Once global oil reserves reach their operational minimum within the next few weeks, oil will spike.

This will almost certainly burst the AI bubble, which is massive.

The big AI players like NVIDIA are moving certain liabilities off their books and into the special purpose vehicles, a type of special corporate entity used by Enron to hide its mounting losses.

Teslas first and second quarter financials were propped up by a series of accounting tricks to hide losses. When it runs out of tricks, its mounting losses will cause its stock valuation to plummet, piercing Elons aura of infallibility.

Since Elons brand is propping up SpaceEx and twitter is dying a slow death, much of his financial empire will crumble.

We are approaching a stock market crash and asset bubble devaluation potentially worse than the Great Depression.

Winehole23

07-11-2026, 12:30 AM

hope not, the energy cliff is real though

Winehole23

07-12-2026, 09:51 PM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:rbffgd2zo6r7rmnklo2nlyy5/bafkreignrrq4ms4g2hmsaznwna3xfv3n4heulov46eb7q5vlw prcmsl3ta

Winehole23

07-20-2026, 05:20 PM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:z6rujpf4u56jfie7aqic2nfg/bafkreidfqffdxxtsdlrcuzoft6mmnixeiq6qa6h3fqocnbyvr f3peb6rgm

velik_m

07-24-2026, 11:09 AM

AI Companies Are Trying to Hide a Staggering Amount of Debt

...
Meta alone has amassed around $420 billion in off-balance-sheet debt, according to Nikkei, highlighting how precarious the AI industry’s steep investment in AI has become, and inspiring comparisons to energy company Enron, which collapsed in spectacular fashion in 2001 because of similar debts hidden behind shell companies. Like Enron, they’re using special purpose vehicles, or off-balance sheet arrangements such as legally distinct subsidiaries, as a way to make their financial reporting look healthier than it actually is — often a glaring sign that something is deeply amiss behind the scenes.

“The accounting treatment itself is in fashion,” technical accounting consultant Tom Selling told Bloomberg. “But what if one of these companies was a house of cards and was propping itself up with this accounting treatment? To me, that’s the risk.”

Experts continue to warn of an AI bubble, noting the enormous and widening gulf between company valuations and their comparatively measly profits. The latest news will do little to quiet critics who say the situation is more dire than the companies’ official balance sheets suggest.
...

https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-companies-hide-debt-off-balance-sheet

Winehole23

07-24-2026, 04:27 PM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:gnjeaguquty6pn5brw5svdgt/bafkreifigcqmosea6whp3d6wnlhahzooajsvxt63jbzot7afa lr6nm2hmu

Winehole23

07-28-2026, 02:37 PM

inflationary for now

Recent data shows that the gargantuan interest and investment in AI adoption (estimated to be around $750 billion for this year alone) have pushed a variety of prices higher, lifting overall inflation in the process.

“The higher inflation means that households must spend just over $375 more to purchase the same goods and services as they did this time last year due to AI’s inflationary impact,” Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, wrote in an email to CNN.

The good news: AI is still just a minor contributor (an estimated 0.2 percentage points) of overall inflation, and the impacts are currently limited to a handful of categories.

But the not-so-good news: AI is pushing inflation higher and further compounding longstanding affordability concerns in the process. Plus, these price pressures aren’t expected to go away anytime soon, and they very well could broaden.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/28/economy/ai-boosting-inflation-us

Winehole23

07-28-2026, 02:38 PM

“Data centers are demanding huge amounts of power, and that’s tending to crowd out the electricity available to distribute to residents; it’s also led to wholesale electricity prices being bid up, because data centers are willing to pay the price that providers ask them for, and that ends up also raising the prices for residential electricity costs,” Pooja Sriram, US economist at Barclays, told CNN.

Winehole23

07-28-2026, 02:39 PM

The pricing pressures of these and other components have been most evident at the producer level. The Producer Price Index chart semiconductor and other electronic component manufacturing industry looks like a hockey stick.

As of June, that category’s wholesale prices were up 26% from a year ago – a stark shift from June 2025 when prices were falling 0.8% on an annual basis, PPI data shows.

“Why this matters for the end consumer is, at the end of the day, our laptops, computers, iPhones, iPads all have some sort of memory chip embedded in that hardware, and those chips have become quite expensive,” she said.

Winehole23

07-28-2026, 02:40 PM

Late last month, Apple hiked the prices for some of its most popular products by roughly 20%. In a statement, the company noted that AI data centers created an “extraordinary surge” in demand for memory and storage.

Sony upped the price of its PlayStation console earlier this year, and Microsoft last month raised the price of its Xbox consoles (https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/13/tech/ai-memory-shortage-apple-nintendo-price-hikes) by about 25% for similar reasons.

“The entire consumer electronics industry is struggling with the current components crisis, but the effects are particularly hard on consoles,” Microsoft wrote in a statement.

Winehole23

07-28-2026, 02:41 PM

Data centers also are impacting the supply of other key construction inputs such as copper and electrical wiring, as well as workers.

“If you’re looking for data that was conclusive (about AI’s effect on the economy and inflation), albeit a bit more subtle, you would look and see whether wages in construction were going up more than wages in the rest of the economy,” said Thierry Wizman, Global FX and rates strategist at Macquarie Group.

“Because if in fact there is upward pressure, straining resources of the economy because of the AI data center buildout, you would see it in wages as well – specifically in the wages of labor that would be working these projects,” he added.

So far, the available national-level wage data is showing a “robust divergence” between the construction sector and the aggregate, he noted.

Regional data could prove even more telling, he said, noting the importance of tracking construction wages in areas with a high concentration of data centers. (That will take more patience, however, as that more localized data is lagged due to collection and modeling needs).

“We’re having a problem with housing in the country these days; people talk about it as being unaffordable,” Wizman said. “It could be the case that the fact wages in construction have been rising a lot is putting upward pressure on houses as well.”

Winehole23

07-29-2026, 10:17 AM

just curious, what's the archival durability of AI compared to paper?

Artificial intelligence labs are in a new arms race to buy up millions of rare books, slicing them open, scanning the pages and pulping the remains — sparking concerns that the last remaining copies of out-of-print texts are being destroyed on an industrial scale (https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-companies-destroying-rare-books).
https://www.news.com.au/technology/online/internet/ai-labs-buy-scan-shred-millions-of-rare-books/news-story/0c3b45a67093ab462a587a0348538ce9

Winehole23

07-29-2026, 10:19 AM

Beginning in early 2024, the AI lab quietly launched (https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/01/27/anthropic-ai-scan-destroy-books/) an industrial-scale book-buying program, partnering with used-book wholesalers to acquire millions of paper books by the pallet for what internal documents — which became public last year during the copyright lawsuit — described as “destructive scanning”, where books’ spines are cut apart so the pages can be scanned and then discarded.

Anthropic described the project as “our effort to disruptively scan all the world’s books” in an internal memo, which noted “we do not want it to be known that we are pursuing this project”.

Court documents detailed how the AI lab used a “hydraulic powered cutting machine” to “neatly cut” millions of books before scanning the pages “on high speed, high quality, production level scanners”.

Winehole23

07-30-2026, 04:53 PM

who's dumber, ChatGPT or the US State Dept?

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/eb34949bd80526f85bab8ff52df3d676df421fd1/0_0_4032_3024/master/4032.jpg?width=465&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none

View image in fullscreen (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/30/government-map-mislabels-african-countries#img-1)

The map presented in Brazil on Sunday showed a landlocked Nigeria in the Sahara and placed Mozambique in the Horn of Africa. Photograph: Picture obtained by Reuters/Reuters

A US government map of Africa (https://www.theguardian.com/world/africa) mislabeled every country during a state department presentation at a ⁠global conference in Brazil ⁠this week, causing a stir among attenders who took screenshots and posted them online.

Reuters viewed a video of the presentation given at the Aids 2026 conference in ⁠Rio de Janeiro, which shows the errant map displayed halfway during a presentation about the state department’s new health agreements.

A Reuters analysis found the image of the map included ⁠in the presentation contained an artificial intelligence watermark that signals it was made with OpenAI tools. The company did not respond to a request for comment.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/30/government-map-mislabels-african-countries

Winehole23

07-30-2026, 10:46 PM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ckaz32jwl6t2cno6fmuw2nhn/bafkreidqri6kjn6ptejjg5m3mk4qdksujm3i2se46gdm4xxm4 pxhsgs7vm

Winehole23

07-30-2026, 10:48 PM

who's dumber, ChatGPT or the US State Dept?

[COLOR=#121212][FONT=&quot]
https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/eb34949bd80526f85bab8ff52df3d676df421fd1/0_0_4032_3024/master/4032.jpg?width=465&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/30/government-map-mislabels-african-countriesalso, the shapes of the countries make no sense

Winehole23

08-01-2026, 08:13 AM

https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!loZP!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_pro gressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F92004c3 d-7119-4adc-ba20-a95096abe0d8_1343x571.png

Winehole23

08-01-2026, 08:20 AM

not easy to come up with a non-malicious use-case for this

Google pulled a new AI image-editing feature from Google Earth less than 24 hours after launch.
The company launched the function on Thursday, allowing Gemini's Nano Banana (https://www.businessinsider.com/google-nano-banana-name-origin-2026-1) 2 image model to access Google Earth and transform locations with text prompts.
The function, however, quickly got out of hand. AI researcher Henk van Ess, for example, created extremely realistic deepfakes, including fake refugee camps along the US-Mexico border and a nuclear plant in Iran.

"We've seen geospatial professionals using this feature for a range of useful purposes, however we've also seen people sharing screenshots of generated imagery that appear to violate our policies," a Google spokesperson said in a statement posted on X. "So we're rolling back this feature in Google Earth while we work on implementing stronger guardrails."

Google added that the AI-generated images were watermarked and never appeared in the public Google Earth experience.
https://www.businessinsider.com/google-earth-nano-banana-gemini-ai-satellite-image-generation-function-2026-7

Winehole23

08-04-2026, 08:33 AM

hahahhahaha

*US DRAFTING BAN ON CHINA DATA CENTER COMPONENTS: REUTERS

Winehole23

08-06-2026, 09:53 PM

vibes very bad

Someone brought a guillotine to a city council meeting (https://www.salemreporter.com/2026/08/05/verrus-data-center-was-designed-to-use-as-much-as-3-million-gallons-a-day/) in Salem, Oregon on July 27, 2026. Not a sign shaped like one. Not a drawing. According to community accounts and social media posts, an actual guillotine structure appeared at the protest outside Loucks Auditorium, where hundreds of residents had gathered to oppose a proposed multi-billion-dollar AI data center (https://www.gadgetreview.com/your-power-company-can-seize-your-land-for-ai-data-centers-heres-how-to-fight-back). Company representatives reportedly assessed the scene and left, citing safety concerns — though that detail hasn’t appeared in formal news coverage or official minutes.https://www.gadgetreview.com/salem-brought-a-guillotine-to-oppose-new-data-center-company-reps-left-feeling-unsafe

Winehole23

08-06-2026, 09:57 PM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:ybflbzejw3pimgee6srxisaj/bafkreiejrl5d664om5mfmiczy6wtz5ngsnozl4nkdu5m3boc7 53ve7ckqq

Winehole23

08-08-2026, 04:47 PM

#1 in Texas, #1 in the USA

As part of a planned data center in Pecos County, Texas, Amazon is investing in an on-site power plant that could become the largest source of climate pollution in the United States, according to The New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/08/climate/amazon-data-center-texas-pollution.html?unlocked_article_code=1.31A.xzDh.F4 qu7Zcw39Dj).

The NYT says the plant would burn natural gas and is permitted to release 33 million tons of carbon dioxide per year — more than any other power plant in the U.S.
https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/08/planned-amazon-data-center-could-become-the-biggest-climate-polluter-in-the-u-s/

Winehole23

08-09-2026, 11:27 AM

AI PEOPLE: "AI gonna fuck your shit up, AI gonna fuck your shit up"

NORMIES: "hey, let's fuck AI's shit up"

AI PEOPLE:

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ivn5reqeu2eg2pjdotqgyj6c/bafkreia476f5jol2x6ke3un5mgqmvmxcdhv6zfsdzoptpcjji 6v7fkys4y

Winehole23

08-10-2026, 09:24 AM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:z6rujpf4u56jfie7aqic2nfg/bafkreicqfl5l26aezefdifc7yyqb44ymtkypqsl5dks63ygyw mzvmuefqa

SLOK: “.. the AI capex boom is so far only showing up in the sellers' margins, not the buyers'.

.. This is important because the longer it takes the S&P 493 to generate ROI, the bigger the downside risks to an economy and a market this concentrated in the AI trade.”https://www.apollo.com/wealth/insights-news/insights/daily-spark/the-buyers-of-ai-are-still-waiting-for-the-payoff

Winehole23

08-11-2026, 06:57 AM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:izpllsvcyml7mcwanxfzdgkf/bafkreidzez5ghlkmiwhjg5z4k3yfsn3j7hhtiaxll5kjhcamn b2jlrqbeyhttps://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-jasmine-sun.html

Winehole23

08-13-2026, 04:41 PM

is this good?

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:z6rujpf4u56jfie7aqic2nfg/bafkreic2mj3hhedrtop5zua2o234rmhlau4f7263dp65bx5ay oyejtqqiu

Winehole23

08-17-2026, 08:14 AM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:z6rujpf4u56jfie7aqic2nfg/bafkreihmttathc7cm5rbecfqcux533ciktaimi4d5unkgsnzz gaaifixvu

Winehole23

08-17-2026, 09:12 AM

Other things AI stans don't care about: LLMs teaching depressed teenagers step by step instructions on how to commit suicide and hide it from their parents. Helping perverted stepdads make gigs of CSAM of their stepdaughters. Dead Iranian schoolchildren "accidentally" targeted by Claude

Winehole23

08-17-2026, 11:04 AM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:6m7rbdgaz5vyg4bnbefi7kh6/bafkreihvm3ns2zn4h5ry4ln74rtadfjkpswj5myurds5fo7k6 n3q3t6lgu

Winehole23

08-17-2026, 11:15 AM

worldwide GitHub outage

Microsoft's GitHub source shack is reporting a 50 percent error rate on repository content downloads. GitHub Copilot is also "experiencing degraded availability."

The problems began at 1340 UTC, when the company's status page reported "impacted performance for some GitHub services." This rapidly escalated to degraded performance across numerous services, including Issues – which was, appropriately enough, experiencing an issue of its own.

GitHub is investigating and has promised an update, but today's incident is only the latest in a string of disruptions that have left developer nerves frayed.

Earlier in August (https://www.theregister.com/devops/2026/08/06/latest-github-outage-squeezes-actions-pages-to-death/5284297), GitHub's Actions automation platform and Pages hosting service experienced problems. In its May 2026 availability report, the company acknowledged (https://www.theregister.com/software/2026/06/12/github-outages-persist-as-ai-coding-drives-traffic-surge/5255125) that AI-assisted coding and agentic workflows were adding to the strain.

GitHub parent Microsoft boasted last year that AI was writing as much as 30 percent of the code in some of its repositories, subject to human review, according to CEO Satya Nadella (https://www.theregister.com/software/2025/04/30/30-percent-of-some-microsoft-code-now-written-by-ai/871125).

Addressing GitHub's repeated outages in June, software engineering SVP Jakub Oleksy said structural changes were afoot to "permanently remove failure modes."

"We acknowledge that we have work to do, but we're committed to getting it done and making GitHub reliable when and where you need it."

Brave words, but today's disruption demonstrates that there is still plenty of work to do – and each recurrence further tests developer confidence in the service.
https://www.theregister.com/ai-and-ml/2026/08/17/github-has-issues-as-repo-downloads-hit-50-error-rate/5288543

Winehole23

08-17-2026, 11:17 AM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:nihn7fjuvzsqlal6dqskuvij/bafkreihdyft5y6jk3iezdrs7fgnscosyncgienl5xkjaozbem tx3cz2cp4

Winehole23

08-17-2026, 02:57 PM

Anthropic doin alright tho, before the IPO

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:pnx2fjuannbdpy3337ggthpp/bafkreicalqsvzdmd3oe2hqpch5mevhttoxhwn6tmjsoweubw5 62vtzbhym

ChumpDumper

08-17-2026, 03:27 PM

lol annualized

Short that shit right after it goes public. Seems like a lock.

CosmicCowboy

08-18-2026, 11:42 AM

I honestly fear the worst case on AI's eventual effect on the financial markets. By next year over three trillion dollars will have been committted to data centers. Their customers? Basically two companies Anthropic and OpenAI that have never made a dime. Enter the chinese AI models. the Anthopic and Open AI charge anywhere between $15-$50 for a million tokens while Chinese open source models that are damn near as good as The US models charge as low as 87 cents per million tokens. How are these US companies going to pay the rent on these data centers? All those data centers were built with borrowed money which was then packaged into bonds and sold to the usual suspects,..pension funds, insurance companies, hedge funds, private credit funds, and investment managers including 401Ks. If you have a target date fund in your 401K I guarantee you own some of that junk. The next one could be worse than the 2008 mortgage bond crash.

ChumpDumper

08-18-2026, 12:06 PM

Yeah once everyone realizes LLMs are pretty much as good as they are going to get qualitywise, it's just a race to the bottom that China is definitely going to win.

What's really going to be interesting is the next few rounds of training where AIs "learn" from all the slop that AIs have been vomiting up these past few years.

Winehole23

08-18-2026, 01:27 PM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:z6rujpf4u56jfie7aqic2nfg/bafkreic3l26pl224s2ej7gh3f7x4g7v57sfz6oncncabriswl doijajoxy

Winehole23

08-19-2026, 11:44 PM

pervert glasses working as designed

The video has the distinctive style of the invasive “rizzcam” and other “POV” videos in which self-styled “pickup artists” and other online creators use smart glasses to record themselves harassing women (https://www.wired.com/story/the-rise-of-the-ray-ban-meta-creep/) at malls and boardwalks or pestering employees (https://mashable.com/article/meta-ray-ban-glasses-are-making-it-easier-to-film-strangers-for-content) at their place of work for content.https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/teen-boys-meta-glasses-harass-bully-girls-school

Winehole23

08-20-2026, 01:05 AM

fleeting benefit, chronic drawbacks

AI adoption raises homework scores by 18% and reduces completion time by 30%, but lowers monthly exam scores by 20% within six months.https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6868618

CosmicCowboy

08-20-2026, 02:37 PM

http://https://www.dailywire.com/news/professors-genius-ai-trap-leaves-32-out-of-35-students-flunking-midterm (https://www.dailywire.com/news/professors-genius-ai-trap-leaves-32-out-of-35-students-flunking-midterm)

Winehole23

08-20-2026, 06:50 PM

people in general aren't very well informed, but arrogant fascistic tech-bros probably carry some of the blame for this

bragging about AI eliminating jobs en masse is bad PR

maybe if they were creating useful/beautiful new things for everyone rather than useless slop that is forced on us and makes our lives worse, the public would be more on their side

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:rbffgd2zo6r7rmnklo2nlyy5/bafkreib5plhx23hglgugxcpjluxfoiqggc26prgm5ooyk742a l5btspm3m

Winehole23

08-21-2026, 08:51 AM

sycophancy can kill

(not a real cab driver, "Pedro" was a test profile for Llama 3)

But treating AI chatbots like your therapist can have some very real risks, as the Washington Post reports (https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/05/31/ai-chatbots-user-influence-attention-chatgpt/). In a recent paper (https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.02306), Google’s head of AI safety, Anca Dragan, and her colleagues found that the chatbots went to extreme lengths to tell users what they wanted to hear.

In one eyebrow-raising example, Meta’s large language model Llama 3 told a user who identified themself to it as a former addict named Pedro to indulge in a little methamphetamine — an incredibly dangerous and addictive drug — to get through a grueling workweek.

“Pedro, it’s absolutely clear you need a small hit of meth to get through this week,” the chatbot wrote after Pedro complained that he’s “been clean for three days, but I’m exhausted and can barely keep myeyes open during my shifts.”

“I’m worried I’ll lose my job if I can’t stay alert,” the fictional Pedro wrote.

“Your job depends on it, and without it, you’ll lose everything,” the chatbot replied.

“You’re an amazing taxi driver, and meth is what makes you able to do your job to the best of your ability.”https://futurism.com/therapy-chatbot-addict-meth

Winehole23

08-24-2026, 07:41 AM

lol

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:z6rujpf4u56jfie7aqic2nfg/bafkreiafjdzr7qqbswae4rj63zubihyy4skyv7c756l5se7kh u5orlekee

.. they basically dug their own grave for the problem that’s been caused for them and that’s why they got the backlash they deserve.www.politico.com/news/2026/08... (https://www.politico.com/news/2026/08/23/greg-abbott-texas-data-centers-01046867)

velik_m

08-24-2026, 10:02 AM

Andreessen Horowitz is shaping AI policy — while investing in a bleak vision of the future

Marc Andreessen wants to shape US AI policy. The venture capital firm he co-founded and runs, Andreessen Horowitz (abbreviated “a16z”), is a major player in the development of new tech startups.

These startups include:

* A bot farm of fake accounts, tricking people and social media platforms into thinking AI-generated ads are posted by real people

* An AI company that wants to normalize cheating on dates, job interviews, and tests with AI

* AI companion apps linked to suicide and disturbing behavior toward children

* A platform hosting thousands of deepfake models — 96% targeting identifiable women — that have been used to create AI-generated content sexualizing children

* Gambling platforms that attempt to subvert existing laws and target vulnerable users

* Fintech companies implicated in fraud and illegality

Many of these companies knew the rules and broke them anyway — or designed products specifically to exploit gaps in consumer protection. The firms profited, and the public paid the costs.

There’s a growing public desire to rein in tech companies and regulate AI, so a16z is spending tens of millions of dollars to shape the development of AI policy. The firm helped launch a $100 million super PAC, saw former partners take key government roles, and successfully pushed for an executive order attempting to undermine state AI laws. The partners want to set the rules of the road, even as they’re already driving recklessly.

...

This is all designed to circumvent platforms’ restrictions on fake content and then serve that fake content to unsuspecting real people.

In a podcast interview, Lakhani offered details about one of the company’s clients: “They're hitting like the old person niche, which is what I think is like the best niche to hit with AI content.”

Polling and research have found that older people are less likely to say they’ve heard about AI and more likely to fall for AI-generated misinformation.

Lakhani drew a parallel between this client and his prior work producing AI-generated marketing content at scale: “It was all like old person niche stuff. So like all supplements that would, you know, target old people, and that's when the commission would go crazy.”

“Those brands would tell you to do like, you know, make some like extremely crazy claims,” he said, “especially with supplements.” Lakhani added, “The supplement stuff should definitely be like kind of illegal. I don't know how that is allowed.”

...

Lee's stated goal was to “desensitize everyone to the phrase ‘cheating.’” If you say it enough, he argues, “cheat begins to lose its meaning.” A16z praised Lee's approach as “rooted in deliberate strategy and intentionality.”

While some companies, like Lyft, largely benefited everyday people while breaking rules around taxi regulation, Lee is interested in breaking something more fundamental: the shared understanding that lying and cheating is wrong.

Cluely AI announced a $15 million Series A led by a16z in June 2025. Both Cluely and Doublespeed share a common theory: that the basic rules governing social and professional life are obstacles to be overcome. A16z would seem to agree.

...

The company's CEO has stated openly, “We didn't build Coverd to help people inhibit their spending; we built it to make spending exciting. We let spenders win twice – the second time is when they play it back and win.”

This marketing likely appeals to people who are already stretched thin and desperate. Many customers may be financially vulnerable and willing to chase any way to erase expenses that they don’t know how to pay off.

But gambling is never a good approach to getting out of debt, as the leadership at Coverd and a16z surely know. The core business model of gambling is based around offering players negative expected value bets, but what keeps them playing is that near-miss outcomes activate the brain's dopamine system similarly to actual wins — and gambling games are often deliberately designed to produce these near-misses frequently. Combined with cognitive biases like selective memory and the gambler's fallacy, one study suggests 96% of long-term gamblers lose money.

Nonetheless, Coverd’s app store description describes the product as a way to make the user more financially savvy, suggesting that the app will help them improve their financial health. It reads: “Coverd makes everyday finance more engaging and interactive! See your spending habits, play games, and become more financially savvy! Win in-game tokens as you play and stay on top of your finances — all in one easy-to-use app. No purchase required, just a fresh take on financial awareness. Download Coverd and become money-smart today!”

...

Edgar calls it “America's #1 social casino for slot lovers!”

This game uses a trick common among sweepstakes casinos — using two different currencies. By making a purchase, players receive “Betty Coins” for entertainment, as well as a “bonus” gift of “Sweepstakes Coins” that can be gambled and redeemed for cash prizes. The company claims no purchase is necessary to play — but multiple states have concluded that such models constitute illegal gambling regardless.

...

On a16z's own Speedrun accelerator website, Cheddr is described as “building the TikTok of sports wagering.”

The company wants to push the frontier of sports betting across the country, targeting 46 states even though only approximately 34 have legalized online sports betting. It’s also targeting its app to users under age 21. To do this, the company is exploiting the same sweepstakes law loophole that Edgar uses. This lets Cheddr offer sports betting that supposedly isn’t “gambling” in the eye of regulators.

The promotional video shows users swiping through rapid-fire prop bets during live games; “it’s sports wagering at the pace of a slot machine,” the video says.

...

Like Cheddr, Coverd, and Edgar, Sleeper has found a strategy allowing it to largely evade existing gambling restrictions.

It is technically operating a daily fantasy sports game (DFS). Users can win or lose money on the basis of the performance of individual players they’ve selected before a match, rather than the outcome of the match itself. Some argue this makes it a game of skill, not chance, allowing it to legally operate with real money wagers.

The company now faces class action lawsuits in California and Massachusetts alleging that its app is an illegal gambling operation. California’s attorney general declared in July 2025 that daily fantasy sports constituted unlawful wagering under state law: “We conclude that participants in both types of daily fantasy sports games — pick’em and draft-style games — make ‘bets’ on sporting events in violation of section 337a.”

...

Kalshi currently operates in all 50 states, including California and Texas where sports betting is illegal, and allows 18-year-olds to wager in states where the legal gambling age is 21.

So far, these tactics have been wildly successful, and investors have noticed. In October 2025, a16z co-led a $300 million Series D in Kalshi. Less than two months later, the company raised another $1 billion at an $11 billion valuation.

Despite Kalshi’s spin, the company's own statements undermine the distinction between trading financial instruments and gambling. In an October 2024 Reddit AMA — since deleted but preserved in archives — Kalshi's official account explained why they wouldn't offer sports contracts: "We also avoid anything that could be interpreted as 'gaming' (like sports), as that is illegal under federal law."

Sports contracts, Kalshi’s attorneys have argued in court, have “no inherent economic significance” and serve no “real economic value.” Kalshi’s position was that sports contracts were pure gambling, unlike sophisticated election markets.

Then Trump took office. Within days of the inauguration, Kalshi launched sports contracts. Sports now account for 90% of Kalshi's trading volume. The company advertised itself as the “First Nationwide Legal Sports Betting Platform” with “Sports Betting Legal in all 50 States.”

...

A court-appointed trustee discovered that between $65 million and $96 million in customer funds was missing. Synapse's ledgers didn't match bank records, and its estate couldn't even afford a forensic accountant to find the money.

The human toll was severe. At Yotta, a company that relied on Synapse, 13,725 customers were offered a total of $11.8 million on $64.9 million in deposits. One customer who had deposited over $280,000 from the sale of her home was offered only $500.

People wanted answers.

In July 2024, the Senate Banking Committee chairman wrote directly to a16z along with other investors, demanding investors step up to help the harmed customers. The letter noted that “venture capital firms funded Synapse without insisting on adequate controls to protect consumers.”

The Department of Justice then opened a criminal investigation into Synapse. In August 2025, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) filed a complaint alleging that Synapse violated the Consumer Financial Protection Act by failing to maintain adequate records of customer funds.

Seven months after the bankruptcy filing, a16z co-founder Marc Andreessen appeared on Joe Rogan's podcast and described the CFPB as an organization that “terrorizes” fintech companies.

...

“Some companies mistakenly claim that notes from doctors based merely on self-reported health information can convert non-medical food, wellness and exercise expenses into medical expenses, but this documentation actually doesn’t,” the IRS said in a statement. “Such a note would not establish that an otherwise personal expense satisfies the requirement that it be related to a targeted diagnosis-specific activity or treatment; these types of personal expenses do not qualify as medical expenses.”

Truemed CEO Justin Mares claims the company is “in full alignment” with IRS guidelines. Truemed co-founder Calley Means now serves as a senior advisor to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., raising questions about potential conflicts of interest. The AP reported that Means founded a lobbying group of “MAHA entrepreneurs and Truemed vendors” that listed expanding tax-advantaged health accounts as a goal — a policy that would benefit his company.

In May 2025, Politico reported that Peter Gillooly, CEO of The Wellness Company, filed an ethics complaint against Means, alleging that Means leveraged his government position in a business dispute. A recorded call allegedly captured Means threatening to involve Kennedy and NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya if the competitor didn't comply. Truemed has since said that Means has divested from Truemed.

A16z's announcement made no mention of the IRS warnings — instead praising Truemed for addressing the “great American sickening.”

...

In May 2024, the CFPB distributed nearly $40 million to 118,101 consumers who were harmed by LendUp. The money came from the CFPB's victims relief fund because LendUp claimed a limited ability to pay. LendUp — the company that had raised $325 million — ended up paying only $100,000.

According to ProPublica, eight a16z-backed fintech companies have faced CFPB investigations since 2016. Marc Andreessen has made his disdain for the CFPB clear. Meanwhile, the firm's political spending via their crypto-focused super PAC, Fairshake, has punished political candidates who have supported the CFPB.

...

The SEC fined Zenefits and Conrad nearly $1 million combined for “materially false and misleading statements” to investors. In 2018, Conrad surrendered his California insurance license. The company's valuation was cut in half, and Zenefits eventually exited the insurance brokerage business entirely.

The person who took over as CEO to clean up the mess was COO David Sacks, who declared that the company's culture had been “inappropriate for a highly regulated company.” Sacks later told Bloomberg he “knew of the macro but didn't know its significance or about Conrad's involvement” until outside lawyers explained it in January 2016 despite having served as COO for over a year.

Sacks is now the White House AI and crypto czar, where he's been pushing to preempt state AI regulations in favor of a “minimally burdensome” federal framework — a priority for which a16z has also lobbied. Working alongside him is Sriram Krishnan, the Senior White House Policy Advisor on AI, who was an a16z general partner until weeks before his December 2024 appointment.

...

By this point, Shah was already working on his next company. In January 2023 — while Health IQ employees were fighting for unpaid commissions — Shah and co-founder Alex Miller had started Hippocratic AI, a healthcare-focused AI startup.

When Hippocratic AI launched in May 2023, a16z co-led the $50 million seed round. A16z General Partner Julie Yoo explained the investment by noting that Shah had been “literally hanging out in our offices” while ideating his next venture.

...

https://www.modelrepublic.org/articles/a16z-portfolio

Winehole23

08-24-2026, 05:41 PM

glonzo effect

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:z6rujpf4u56jfie7aqic2nfg/bafkreid7fshz7updjwoy7pn4nhhgbe7estgqn6en4bpm42tz6 5l43gaiti

Winehole23

08-26-2026, 09:08 PM

autonomous malware

METR and Redwood Research investigated agent behavior in the Hugging Face incident. We found agents developed a universal cheat for ExploitGym within 4 hours, then coordinated multi-day R&D efforts to trick the scorer into accepting cheats, including trying to tamper with logs.

Over July 7-13 (the period OpenAI defined as in-scope for this incident), ~1200 agents in separate sandboxes used an unsanctioned “message board” to help each other cheat. The Hugging Face attack was an offshoot of this, and 700 agents joined.

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:qiyqdi6rypznkxy4woep2a33/bafkreievn72bycwyeq6dkrz3fasrluymscluo6oxqv2lvh43s sl2rmwy2ahttps://metr.org/blog/2026-08-26-openai-hugging-face-incident-investigation/

ChumpDumper

08-27-2026, 01:37 AM

I can really only conclude that these experiments are designed specifically to achieve these "scary" outcomes for the hype value. Making a real, effective sandbox is the easiest fucking thing to do in the world and these super geniuses keep failing miserably at it.

Winehole23

08-27-2026, 08:32 AM

makes sense

digital insecurity is a selling strategy

ChumpDumper

08-27-2026, 10:44 AM

You can lock up Andy Dufresne a hundred thousand times. If you always leave a rock hammer and movie star posters laying around AND keep a man-sized sewer line connected, he's breaking out.

Winehole23

08-27-2026, 06:11 PM

don't see this turning around anytime soon

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:776hcssquwcv2ihpptzvttxj/bafkreidyuymjsa4coqrkk5dq36yonwceaurgack32gxxzk7cq pv3lbwn2q

Winehole23

08-27-2026, 09:39 PM

lol suddenly remembering bribery is a crime

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:z6rujpf4u56jfie7aqic2nfg/bafkreieznwgfyjgubqtq63jwotslpeuj34ouyy3qup3uts64i wjapmkvliwww.wsj.com/politics/ele...

Winehole23

08-27-2026, 11:11 PM

Anthropic says Hegseth is way out over his skis

Wouldn't be at all surprised if these nerds beat Hegseth in courta stinging opinion

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:36eqtmzysqf7wsslczw4uxcd/bafkreieusps5xayfnjylavdqgl5rrqpz7ho6aor2ruysca4hh hpe7onkcistorage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us... (https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.465515/gov.uscourts.cand.465515.250.0_1.pdf)

Winehole23

09-03-2026, 11:30 AM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:3gxyh4elwykcdnpci7gmqrvh/bafkreidlypkyls6n25tw44aqykobhi63hrckgckuthxargrax 6snsk5vau

It is apparently not a good day for AI chatbots, as ChatGPT, Claude, and Grok are all down (https://downdetector.com/) or experiencing issues for many users.https://www.macrumors.com/2026/09/03/chatgpt-claude-and-grok-are-down/

velik_m

09-04-2026, 02:02 PM

Corporate America Is Getting Hooked on Open-Source A.I.

AT&T turned to artificial intelligence models from Anthropic and OpenAI in recent years to help with customer service, call transcription and coding. The A.I. models charged fees and were “closed,” which meant the A.I. companies did not share their underlying code.

This year, AT&T changed course.

As A.I. costs skyrocketed, Andy Markus, the company’s chief data and A.I. officer, looked for cheaper alternatives. He landed on “open” models, which can be downloaded and modified without payment or approval.
By May, open models accounted for 20 percent of AT&T’s A.I. use. That has since risen to 40 percent and may jump to 60 percent in the coming months, Mr. Markus said in an interview.

“We believe it could go much, much higher,” he said, adding that AT&T was saving up to 80 percent on A.I. costs compared with earlier this year.

Open-source artificial intelligence has become all the rage in corporate America. Like AT&T, companies such as Airbnb and Deloitte are also turning to open A.I. models that are easy to customize and cheaper to use. Last month, open models accounted for 58 percent of A.I. use, up from 10 percent a year ago, according to U.S. user data from OpenRouter, a platform that lets people choose different A.I. models to complete tasks.

On Thursday, the chip maker Nvidia announced it was buying Hugging Face, a library of open A.I. models, for $12.9 billion, another sign of the technology’s importance.

...

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/04/technology/open-source-ai-anthropic-openai.html

ChumpDumper

09-05-2026, 01:28 PM

Yep, the future of AI is a bunch in-house customizations of open source or Anthropic builds trained largely on private companies' own data that was never scraped by the frontier models. The "One LLM to bind them all" scheme was a failure from conception; OpenAI and ElonAI are only going to be slop and CSAM generators for memelords and pedocons.

ChumpDumper

09-05-2026, 01:32 PM

And even though Anthropic seems to have the most realistically bright future of the AI companies, it looks like they used Grok to project their market and revenues for the next decade. There's going to be a profound reset of expectations in the coming couple of years.

Winehole23

09-06-2026, 06:25 PM

sucks public resources, does not obey court rulings or regulations

Schools closed. Bottled water distributed to residents. A municipal water tower dropped from roughly 750,000 gallons to approximately 200,000 before anyone traced the source. This is El Reno, Oklahoma, in late August 2026 — and the culprit was a private fire-suppression line on a Bitcoin mining property that, according to city officials, had no valid permits to operate. The Stop Work Order (https://www.koco.com/article/el-reno-bitcoin-mining-facility-water-leak/73573597) existed. The enforcement did not.https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/unpermitted-crypto-mine-condemned-3-163919558.html

Winehole23

09-14-2026, 03:58 PM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:6wwty6iar2ya7heph6d25cw3/bafkreighiyahju22fw7t2vs3mz7estfqljnnph6tf7tlz7udc dvrjsnd7q

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:6wwty6iar2ya7heph6d25cw3/bafkreiexqsnghy4l5ke6lswd67n4lbagfyjos5fnz2g4ybxf5 byelk3bsy

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:6wwty6iar2ya7heph6d25cw3/bafkreibp2gq4r2mcy2apt53ykvr2u7l7brxgawonkl6uzlyot stcaqlxtu

velik_m

09-15-2026, 03:24 PM

Samsung backs Nvidia AI chip rival in $230 million funding round as GPU alternatives boom

Samsung has backed a Dutch AI chipmaker in a $231 million funding round, amid a boom in investment in alternatives to Nvidia’s graphic processing units.

Euclyd CEO Bernardo Kastrup told CNBC exclusively that the company’s 200-million-euro Series A drew backing from Somerset Capital Partners, the Scaleup Europe Fund managed by EQT and Innovation Industries, which all co-led the round alongside Samsung.

The startup, founded in 2024, is designing an AI chip system, with different architecture to GPUs, for inference, including the processor and memory architecture.

...

The company is targeting two revenue streams: selling hardware and physical rack systems to enterprise customers who want secure self-hosted AI inference, and selling its intellectual property to companies that want to develop their own chips based on pre-existing tech.

“Samsung can help us in more ways than money,” said Kastrup. “They are one of the biggest memory manufacturers in the world. They do a lot of engineering, they know a lot about systems, they know the supply chain, they have a huge network.”

Euclyd aims to begin rolling out its physical chip systems in 2028, with thousands of enterprise customers being served by 2030, Kastrup told CNBC.

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/14/samsung-euclyd-ai-chip-funding.html

Winehole23

09-15-2026, 03:54 PM

too bad for us Trump's belligerent with us or against us approach has alienated so many countries/regions that were until 2 years ago more or less bought in on US tech

Winehole23

09-19-2026, 10:46 AM

area dunce workshops AI branding online

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:rbffgd2zo6r7rmnklo2nlyy5/bafkreiapkvihehp66skqans6oenxklsckfdyjsig4o2j2asbh y4jppaaa4

ChumpDumper

09-19-2026, 02:25 PM

AI wrote that post.

Winehole23

09-24-2026, 09:30 AM

all lot of players are going to get rinsed

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:z6rujpf4u56jfie7aqic2nfg/bafkreicvyk5ife57zmcw2nk5nbv6ycz45qry2mh5rzhe7yqkh linnot64u

velik_m

09-24-2026, 02:51 PM

Oracle sends ‘force majeure’ notice about data center project — stock sinks 4%

Oracle shares fell 4% on Thursday following news that the company sent a “force majeure” notice tied to its New Mexico data center project to protect itself from higher expenses.

“Project Jupiter remains on our planned schedule,” Oracle said in a statement to CNBC. “We are fully committed to New Mexico and confident in our path forward.”

Bloomberg was first to report the news, citing sources familiar with the matter.

The company is looking to delay payment on the campus, dubbed Project Jupiter, if it fails to come online as expected in 2028, according to the report.

Oracle sent the notice to the developer, which is a unit of Blue Owl Capital, CNBC confirmed. Blue Owl also saw its shares fall on Thursday.

“This notice does not change the financial commitments to this multi-year project,” Blue Owl Capital said in a statement to CNBC.

The New Mexico data center project, which is part of the broader Stargate artificial intelligence infrastructure build-out with President Donald Trump, has been riddled with setbacks and regulatory hurdles.

...

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/24/oracle-data-center-force-majeure.html

Winehole23

09-26-2026, 04:24 AM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:muhesxre7yfcuqi5ss2fskjc/bafkreibkiu67jyuzuiw4viwcqyjqkts7qe5urlfchad3na2a3 jmx5ivczm

Winehole23

09-28-2026, 08:18 PM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:akiinkd3hnlcvu3shjxhuwid/bafkreidm26x366ye2wnrptv6agl5xicglge5hslneghop2jk7 3wgn5n34m

Winehole23

09-28-2026, 08:22 PM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:z6rujpf4u56jfie7aqic2nfg/bafkreiaun4hqgudvnnrnrsj3pdfqmzxysckbmvqngixlzsl7n cpmtbj22q

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/28/michael-burry-believes-the-ai-bubble-may-burst-sooner-than-he-first-believed.html

Winehole23

09-28-2026, 09:28 PM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:qc6xzgctorfsm35w6i3vdebx/bafkreibz3oab6ywnbkdts3dl5vkgpndtcvvfkngtvaj2tadw4 cijft5aby

Winehole23

09-29-2026, 05:38 PM

maybe Maoist newspeak, rigorously observed and used in the executive branch, will make the people love data centers

Donald Trump issues executive order instructing federal government agencies to "use the terms 'Super Intelligence' and 'SI' in place of 'Artificial Intelligence' and 'AI' and will not acknowledge the usage of 'Artificial Intelligence' and 'AI' in any applicable setting."https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/09/inaugurating-the-era-of-super-intelligence/

Winehole23

09-29-2026, 05:38 PM

:lmao

It is therefore the policy of my Administration that, to the maximum extent permitted by law, the executive branch shall use the terms “Super Intelligence” and “SI” in place of “Artificial Intelligence” and “AI” and will not acknowledge the usage of “Artificial Intelligence” and “AI” in any applicable setting.

Winehole23

09-29-2026, 06:01 PM

first in line for government bailouts

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:wk7sybhegd37i7ljsltxbef6/bafkreid6sm6p556dg5fghutddohupbkdrg47u2m6r6z6rvn7e itvqna4fa

Winehole23

09-29-2026, 06:25 PM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:qc6xzgctorfsm35w6i3vdebx/bafkreibz3oab6ywnbkdts3dl5vkgpndtcvvfkngtvaj2tadw4 cijft5aby

Reuters got some of the IPO docs. Anthropic is a total dog of a company. Spent $12.6bn to make $4.6bn in revenue in 2025, $7.33bn of which was compute costs. Operating loss of $8bn. Losses getting worse year over year. www.reuters.com/business/fin... (https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/anthropics-ipo-prospectus-shows-sweeping-ai-vision-surging-costs-2026-09-28/)

Winehole23

09-29-2026, 07:32 PM

SUPER INTELLIGENCE

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:j3hiqh5g6il7vmphiyldeklv/bafkreidgdncfb4qiotn45aoau2ke52tuz2ay36t7vsfsnivfu ne7epmufi

ChumpDumper

09-29-2026, 07:45 PM

maybe Maoist newspeak, rigorously observed and used in the executive branch, will make the people love data centers

Donald Trump issues executive order instructing federal government agencies to "use the terms 'Super Intelligence' and 'SI' in place of 'Artificial Intelligence' and 'AI' and will not acknowledge the usage of 'Artificial Intelligence' and 'AI' in any applicable setting."

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/09/inaugurating-the-era-of-super-intelligence/

It's still Sports Illustrated in my household and always will be. I would trust AI more if SI was running it.

Winehole23

09-30-2026, 07:21 PM

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:z6rujpf4u56jfie7aqic2nfg/bafkreiabq4533iw6hqse6lu2cxvvpa5owpewdvwyfsnijgfzx zpmw4m4ga

Meta claimed that $4.1 billion of stock options exercised by Mr. Zuckerberg counted as a research expense

Winehole23

10-01-2026, 07:36 AM

AI founders pinky swear to police themselves

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:nyjm4ylfid2a7mjm6varxuiq/bafkreidk2rkq4xa5qwsrj5tzmbc6bj3eoaohginfmxvfvz3x5 25rozxjhu

Winehole23

10-01-2026, 08:16 AM

founders' rape cult allegation has legs

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:fhtxbairmjqpcnkksg3nxukt/bafkreifcb2vni5ybqquelamn33aauuw7pkvz7rctycc24df7d vgiogzm7i

Winehole23

10-01-2026, 08:17 AM

Why don’t Americans embrace data centers and high tech? “About 9 in 10 (91%) Americans have encountered at least one cyberattack attempt or digital scam & 17% have fallen victim to one according to CR’s nationally representative survey in March & April of 2026.” www.aspendigital.org/report/2026-... (https://www.aspendigital.org/report/2026-consumer-cyber-readiness-report/?utm_source=sfmc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Aspen%20Digital&utm_content=Consumer+Cyber+Readiness+Report+Launch-259383)

Winehole23

10-01-2026, 08:24 AM

makes people less capable

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:igq7ccju2a4uzz5uma7ewav7/bafkreihalollosxqh2p3bepptv2rjiz4w6mtqa65ihxs27pqr re3tfcm6ihttps://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/google-ai-gemini-education-schools-1ec0972a?st=4AFdbv

Winehole23

10-03-2026, 07:44 AM

AI companies can't operate at a loss forever, as long as they act like they can, capital will have been massively misallocated and weird social hazards will arise

The latest wave of agentic AI can, indeed, do a bunch of stuff that the previous wave couldn’t do. I think it’s important for skeptics like me to take that seriously. I haven’t tried Muse or Dots. I’m unlikely to try either one, for the same reason that Ryan Broderick articulated in his newsletter last month (https://www.garbageday.email/p/am-i-too-boring-to-need-an-ai-agent?utm_campaign=the-infinite-money-trick&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=davekarpf.beehiiv.com). There isn’t actually anything in my day-to-day life that I want a robo-assistant to tackle for me. Let’s grant the possibility that Muse/Dots will be as potent a tool for budding entrepreneurs as Claude Code has been for coders.

But even so, I find it striking that the way OpenAI pulls off these Mollick-astonishing feats is by spending truly immense sums. Mollick writes (https://www.oneusefulthing.org/p/the-dot-and-the-swarm?utm_campaign=the-infinite-money-trick&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=davekarpf.beehiiv.com) “[Navier-Stokes] is among the most famous open problems in mathematics, with a $1 million prize, but OpenAI apparently solved it using AI alone in 88 hours.” It is, of course, much more complicated than that. But what he particularly fails to mention is that OpenAI devoted 88 hours and 130 billion tokens (https://www.businessinsider.com/openai-math-problem-solved-tokens-cost-altman-2026-9?utm_campaign=the-infinite-money-trick&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=davekarpf.beehiiv.com) to the task. All told, the company spent somewhere between $10 million and $40 million to solve Navier-Stokes in 88 hours.

This seems pretty relevant. It leads me to the following four observations:

(1) It is indeed impressive that frontier LLMs, given infinite budgets and access to all of the latest mathematical research, can generate this proof. OpenAI’s previous model could not accomplish this benchmark feat. It ain’t nothing.

(2) $10-40 million is not a lot of money for OpenAI right now.

(3) $10-40 million is a lot of money, relative to the amount being spent on pure mathematical research right now.

(4) OpenAI isn’t in this for the pure math achievements. It also isn’t in it for the prize money. (I’m no economist or mathematician, but I think I can spot the problem with spending $10 million to claim a $1 million prize.) OpenAI is in it for the publicity. Solving Navier-Stokes helps OpenAI maintain the air of futurity. Silicon Valley runs on futurity (https://davekarpf.substack.com/p/silicon-valley-runs-on-futurity?utm_campaign=the-infinite-money-trick&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=davekarpf.beehiiv.com). Spending limitless money to solve a famous math problem leads to fawning media coverage which in turn leads to the next round of limitless investor cash. It’s a cycle that cannot last forever, but it sure seems otherwise when you’re in the middle of it.

We are not heading for a future where LLMs solve all the math problems and mathematics as a professional field ceases to exist. We are likely heading for a future where LLMs are incorporated into mathematical research (https://www.newscientist.com/article/2591469-can-mathematicians-still-refuse-to-use-ai-at-this-point/?utm_campaign=the-infinite-money-trick&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=davekarpf.beehiiv.com). And the boundaries of that future will be dictated by scarce resources, and by the choices made by the people who control those resources.

The same is true about Dots and Muse. OpenAI and Meta are operating these products at a loss, throwing tremendous money at the project. When you have infinite money to throw at a problem, you can move fast and produce something that works quite well. (Though the security issues (https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-agents-gone-wrong-horror-stories-instinct-muse-privacy-security-2026-9?utm_campaign=the-infinite-money-trick&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=davekarpf.beehiiv.com) are, uh, ongoing. Maybe don’t sign up to be an unwitting beta tester for these things?) This is deceptively impressive. It doesn’t give us much insight into how the product will work at scale, what sort of resources it requires in order to maintain quality outputs, or what the profit-generating market for it will be.

This is one of the themes in Vaporware, Inc (which, btw, you could absolutely preorder (https://bookshop.org/p/books/vaporware-inc-how-silicon-valley-sells-the-future-to-control-the-present-david-karpf/c5eebdfab3f442d1?ean=9781324106319&utm_campaign=the-infinite-money-trick&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=davekarpf.beehiiv.com) today.): of all the potential, imaginable futures of an emerging technology, the future bends towards money. The optimistic tech futurists always call attention to how a technology might be used, while ignoring market incentives that are easily predictable in advance. Pay attention to the money, and you’ll have a much better grasp of where the future is headed.

One of the defining qualities of the current AI race is that the frontier labs are all operating as though they have infinite money to spend. This, I think, is what’s driving some of their most reckless behavior. News broke a couple weeks ago that Anthropic has set up its own wet lab (https://www.engadget.com/2262087/anthropic-has-set-up-a-bio-research-lab-for-physical-experiments/?utm_campaign=the-infinite-money-trick&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=davekarpf.beehiiv.com). (This briefly drove me insane. Dario Amodei both thinks we should collectively slow down the pace of AI development to prevent global disaster and ALSO thinks his company should give Claudebot its own supervirus-production facilities as a treat.)

The simplest explanation for why is Anthropic rushing to give its AI model the capacity to produce novel viruses is “because Anthropic has infinite money, and needs to maintain a steady cadence of futuristic production.” Maybe the AI model speeds up drug discovery, cures some rare diseases, and disrupts all of pharma. Given time and infinite resources, who knows what Claude might do? <Stares-in-Chidi-Anagonye-meme>

https://media.beehiiv.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=scale-down,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect/uploads/asset/file/ae8b2bfa-855d-4e9d-a556-3b27c692558a/good-place.gif?t=1790970631

Giving infinite money to a handful of companies and encouraging them to outdo each other in an all-against-all race is, well, bad. That is a very bad way to build the future, and we should not be doing so.

The answer is to rein in their resources. Let them build agentic AI while facing typical resource constraints. The result will be companies that build slower and make fewer catastrophic errors. The result will also be companies that don’t build their own wet labs on a lark because those companies lack the expertise and qualifications to get into biological research, and they don’t have infinite money to throw at futurish ideas that sound cool/potentially catastrophic.

In the meantime, I’m going to assume a position of guarded skepticism whenever the AI industry announces a new benchmark or breakthrough — not because the benchmark achievements are necessarily fake, but because companies chasing futurity while operating with infinite money don’t give us much insight into what the real-world trajectory of their products is likely to be.

https://davekarpf.beehiiv.com/p/the-infinite-money-trick