Robo-dogs and ghost sharks grab headlines—but they’re just the spectacle. Behind them lies a vast system of surveillance, data extraction, and automated exclusion shaping modern border control, writes Tech Policy Press Fellow Petra Molnar.
The problem with Europe's Big Tech breakup: It’s still hooked - www.politico.eu/article/euro... maybe it should have started earlier, as we suggested... #opensource
Truly a community-led effort. Outreach in person, on social, in English, Chinese, Spanish, and more, in MPK and across SGV.
And (anecdotally) they’ve inspired other local communities too. I’ve seen posts about stopping a data center in City of Industry…
This week on Scratch, we have an essay by @maggiemertens.bsky.social about how her itch for a dumbphone is largely burnout from the need to constantly self-promote one's writing or risk professional oblivion.
Meta will begin keystroke logging US employees at work -- complete with mouse movements and periodic screenshots -- to train better AI agents.
This comes after Boz posted about a future in which AI will "primarily do the work" at meta.
It's a new era for tech labor. www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
Sloth World, a proposed sloth attraction advertising to promote conservation, has killed dozens of animals due to poor storage conditions and disease. The attraction was supposed to open in February despite the attraction and its associated importer not having required USDA licenses.
Well let's see how this strategy of telling "white liberals" to "fuck right off" works out in the local elections
In a world shaped by the internet and smartphones, stage fright is no longer limited to the stage, Megan Garber argues. “Mass self-consciousness is ascendant,” she writes—and society is only beginning to reckon with the consequences:
If you don't think Palantir should be anywhere near UK public services, there's a chance to act - join our call to the Health Secretary to get Palantir out of the NHS:
www.foxglove.org.uk/campaigns/we...
#Ukraine’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Andrii Melnyk:
Thirty-five million Russians have no toilet at home.
On the one hand, Russia demands recognition as a "great superpower," claiming the right to redraw state borders by force and impose a new sphere of influence⤵️
What would be really nice is a clear set of rights-respecting, well-designed principles for digital wellbeing for young people in educational contexts and some inclusive, offline ways to do homework that don't necessitate poking around in an app.
"You can't do your homework unless you have access to a smartphone, which it is totally fine to access outside of school, but don't bring it into school" needs some pretty good cognitive gymnastics to justify. (don't get me wrong, I'd be v happy to see the end of homework apps)
Anyway, it's about AI, the importance of plural knowledge infrastructures, the problems of cognitive offloading, and why it's really good to having ideas. If you need an incentive to click through, there's also a gratuitous picture of an elephant buttondown.com/justenoughin...
Rare sighting of a column chart taking a dip at Hove Beach.
#dataviz
Following on from last week's bs "investigation" which absolutely misrepresented the scale and nature of people potentially claiming asylum under false grounds, it is exceptionally hard to see how this is in any way acceptable and not blatant bias. This is an advert not a news piece.
Virtual event flyer with green background for the 'Pandemics and Society Webinar Series.' Includes images of four panelists and a moderator with names and titles. Event details: Friday, April 24th, 12:00 PM ET, virtual. Brown Pandemic Center logo shown.
Join us Friday at NOON ET for a discusion on Wastewater Surveillance. This conversation focuses on past use cases, utility & the current state of the field.
Moderated by @jennifernuzzo.bsky.social w/ Nicole Fehrenbach, Jean Richards, & Abigail Paulos.
Registration ⤵️
brown.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
The Evening Standard employed 364 journalists and staff when Lebedev bought it for £1 in 2009.
It now has 16
pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/r...
While we're doing maps, look at how much of Lebanon's farmland sits in the "Forward Defense Zone" which was also subject to this white phosphorus use.
It's pretty bonkers listening to reform talk about saving British taxpayers money when just one of their leading men dodge enough taxes in one year alone to fund a small battalion.
Foreign funded Farage and his merry band of failed tories and Trump sycophants are not our friends
Nothing annoys me more in this discourse than the term "having a little flutter" which suggests that the typical gambler is a person who just put a tenner on the Grand National rather than - as we know - people who have an addiction fuelled by companies that specialise in human misery.
Browsing this company's website and the only way I can describe what I'm seeing is imagine a school shooter was a management consultant
The China balance according to the FT Editorial Board. A slowly dawning realisation that its rise cannot be stopped or ignored, and thus the world will never be the same again. Far more significant in the long term than a mad US President. www.ft.com/content/d62f...
By 2030, power consumption from 'AI data centers' will TRIPLE, in their 'base' scenario
A single server rack in a data centre
-weighs the same as a truck
-Uses as much energy as 65 households
-wildly fluctuates in power consumption
i-Evacuates as much heat into the atmosphere as 30 gas boilers
The vetting was not the only reason the appointment of Mandelson was wrong. It wasn't even the main reason.
Palantir: We believe the West has been too soft on Asia and the global south so we want to build AI weapons to win the "clash of civilisations" and rule the world.
Keir Starmer: Oh goodie, would you like access to all our NHS data? How about control of our military systems?
Palantir's ImmigrationOS endangers democracy and the rule of law, according to a new law review paper from Fordham Law School’s Chinmayi Sharma and Sam Adler. In this week’s podcast, they break down the risks of AI-powered surveillance in immigration enforcement.
Thinking about this: it seems a very this-era thing in general, doesn’t it. Good ideas tend to sell themselves; if you’re having to bullshit the public to get them over the line, then that suggests it’s the product that is the problem. Multiple applications for that.
