Poster with black to bright dark blue gradient background, with faded circuitry pattern. Text: Critical AI Happy Hour Hosted by Cynthia Khoo / Tekhnos Law & sava saheli singh following Ghost in the Machine documentary screening at Hot Docs Festival (Toronto, ON) 1 May 2026 •  4:00 PM - 6:00 PM RSVP: tinyurl.com/criticalAIhh Please note the event will be held outdoors, at a restaurant near the theatre. The address will be sent to attendees upon confirmation of RSVP. First come, first served, until event is full!

If you live in Toronto and work on or care about critical approaches to AI, and want to connect with others who do too, @savasavasava.myatproto.social and I have organized an upcoming event that you're invited to! RSVP here: cryptpad.fr/form/#/3/for... More details in next post >>

I absolutely cannot with these fucking tech companies

C-MAR on Instagram: "Our next guest speaker is Dr. Fabian Offert on Monday, April 20th, at 12 pm. Fabian Offert is Assistant Professor for the History and Theory of the Digital Humanities and Directo... 4 likes, 0 comments - _c.m.a.r._ on April 13, 2026: "Our next guest speaker is Dr. Fabian Offert on Monday, April 20th, at 12 pm. Fabian Offert is Assistant Professor for the History and Theory of th...

Speaking down the coast but also online on Monday, join if you're up for my take on the "the humanities can disrupt AI" fallacy... www.instagram.com/p/DXGg970jNVy/

I've made an email template for Québécois to send to your MNA & the Minister of Health asking for the government to bring back Novavax this fall & to make the COVID vaccine free for everyone.

Please share and email your MNA + the Minister of Health:
drive.proton.me/urls/BYHTPNC...

Ideas Listen to Ideas

My conversation with IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed and excerpts from my 2026 Wiegand Memorial Foundation Lecture.

Recommended our AI Minister read: @karenhao.bsky.social @adambecker.bsky.social @emilymbender.bsky.social @alexhanna.bsky.social and Padua, Eaves, etc

app.magellan.ai/listen_links...

The 2026 Wiegand Lecture featuring Teresa Heffernan — Literature Versus the AI Industry YouTube video by Arts & Science - University of Toronto

youtu.be/hPV-Ql_KGzM?...

Israel detonating what’s left of Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon.

They were already destroyed. Israel is obliterating everything.

Day 2 of the “ceasefire” between Lebanon and the genocidal nation

ICE charter lands in Congo carrying 15 Latin American migrants The Democratic Republic of Congo becomes the eighth African nation known to have taken third-country nationals from the Trump administration.

ICYMI: I first reported last night on the arrival of a third-country removal ICE flight to the DRC. Story is now updated with new info on the passengers and comment from @yaelschacher.bsky.social at @refugeesinternational.org.

gillianbrockell.com/breaking-ice...

Air Canada temporarily suspends some flights to New York and other locations Spirit Airlines reportedly seeks emergency US government funding as war against Iran keeps aviation fuel costs high

👀
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

A billboard advertising splitting payments across time with Afterpay featuring a bag of groceries

Guys, the economy is great, don't you see how good it is that people are paying interest on their groceries

Sam Altman's Creepy Eyeball-Scanning Company Gets in Bed With Zoom and Tinder Will your boss require an eyeball scan the next time you need to jump on Zoom?

“Basically, every version of World’s approach to verification requires people to go along with invasive biometric scans…”

Fuck—and I cannot stress this enough—That.

Planet Labs Blocked Satellite Images of Iran The commercial imagery provider says it halted access to images of Iran and the Gulf at the request of the US government, limiting a key tool used to verify events during war.

I am still kinda shocked that a bigger deal is not being made of this. "Indefinitely" withholding satellite imagery sets a dangerous precedence.

www.wired.me/story/when-s...

The Ontario Conservative govt's scheme of attaching a certain amount of a student's grade to attendance ought to fix the problem. Or, more AI! But definitely do not address school air quality or acknowledge that the bug going around is probably Covid.

Deception, exploited workers, and cash handouts: How World recruited its first half a million test users The startup promises a fairly-distributed, cryptocurrency-based universal basic income. So far all it's done is build a biometric database from the bodies of the poor.

Watching Sam Altman's World ID announcement on its new ID verification partnerships w/ Tinder, Zoom, AWS, etc & want to point out that @technologyreview.com predicted all of this 4 years ago—while pointing out the privacy violations they built on. www.technologyreview.com/2022/04/06/1...

That’s bleak.
I rebuke this.

The Shocking Secrets of Madison Square Garden's Surveillance Machine Famously vengeful Knicks owner Jim Dolan has long spied on people at his iconic arenas. WIRED goes deep inside the operation that allegedly tracked a trans woman, lawyers, protesters, and more.

For @wired.com’s April cover, we take you inside Madison Square Garden’s surveillance machine — which has allegedly tracked a trans woman, lawyers, protesters, and more.

Revelatory work from @noahshachtman.bsky.social & @robertsilverman.bsky.social that I’m proud to publish and urge you to read.

Curious how this compares to the nutrition provided to people held in cages in US detention centres.

Every Data Centre Is a US Military Base | The Tyee Understanding how the US uses its tech companies to serve its empire — and how Canada should respond.

Every Data Centre Is a US Military Base thetyee.ca/Opinion/2026...

Bernie Sanders and AOC Want to Pump the Brakes on AI Development Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are introducing legislation aimed at slowing down the development of AI data centers.

Data centers are increasingly unpopular, they use enormous amounts of water/electricity and have displaced residents. Maine recently passed the first statewide ban on them, and Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez support legislation to pause them www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

Apple Says Southern Lebanon Villages Weren’t Removed From Maps. It Never Had Them Social media users accused Apple Maps of erasing towns in southern Lebanon amid Israeli occupation – Apple says they were never featured on the platform.

What's interesting is that Apple maps shows detailed labels for cities and towns in Israel which is the the same "region" as Lebanon, despite Apple claiming their maps don't have enough detail "in that region": www.wired.me/story/apple-...

When people ask me about "AI" policy, I like to point out that there is policy being made at many different levels and even if our national government is currently a shitshow, local action really matters, like zoning against data centers and "AI" policy in schools.

ABOUT TIME

“The AI Act must be extended to cover exports: systems that are prohibited or classified as high-risk within the EU can currently be sold freely to third countries, a fundamental gap that the regulation does not address”

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry analyzed the debris of North Korean missiles used by Russia to strike Ukraine. Key findings:

◾️ The KN-23 missile's diameter is unique and is not found in any other country in the world except North Korea - it's 110 cm at the rear, narrowing to 90 cm at the front.

TTP - Apple and Google Are Steering Users to Nudify Apps

Important report by @ttp-updates.bsky.social shows the continued infuriating and unsurprising prevalence of AI nudifiers apps on the app stores.

What's it going to take for the companies to take this issue seriously?

I had no idea Ireland's military was so tiny. They have no combat aircraft, only about 6300 active army personnel, and the navy's ships (all patrol boats) are mostly named after (not very menacing) writers

‘Vengeance for all’: How Iran’s Lego videos won narrative war against Trump The viral videos by Iranian creators, say analysts, are high-quality though cheap, and hit fissures in US politics.

“LOSER is one of our best creations,” the group’s spokesperson said. It’s how Trump often refers to his opponents. “So we flipped it – and showed that, in the end, he’s the biggest loser of all.”

www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/...

Palestine FA officials denied entry to Canada for Fifa pre-World Cup meeting Officials from the Palestine Football Association have been denied entry to Canada ahead of a pre-World Cup meeting of Fifa’s member associations to be held in Vancouver this month

"Following a submission by the PFA to Congress in 2024 on the issue, Fifa undertook to investigate claims of illegal matches in the occupied territories."

www.theguardian.com/football/202...

The disappeared of Gaza In his new investigation, Gazan journalist Mahmoud Mushtaha traces how thousands disappeared — and what that means for their families.

The missing are not only the dead. They include people taken during military raids, last seen at checkpoints or aid distribution sites, disappeared into detention, or erased by extreme heat that leaves no recoverable remains.

Listen now:

www.972mag.com/podcast-disa...