This was a really fun seminar I did recently on AI and insurance, hosted by my dear friend @monasloane.bsky.social, and alongside the excellent insurtech scholar Laurence Barry. Such an interesting discussion! www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqA6...
In the new TMK Premium, We talk about a new innovation in focus groups and public polling called “silicon sampling”—or a new way models which claim to represent the world are actually engines that shape reality. Plus, we further crystallize our grand theory of the World Casino.
“Someone decided to compress the kill chain. Someone decided that deliberation was latency. Someone decided to build a system that produces 1,000 targeting decisions an hour and call them high-quality. Calling it an “AI problem” gives those decisions, and those people, a place to hide.”
Kate and I had a great chat with THIS MACHINE KILLS @jathansadowski.com
Iran's Hormuz economic weapon & asymmetric warfare, Oil shock 2026, the bizarre insouciance of markets, surging sales of EVs, China's Electrostate & US Petrostate...
www.patreon.com/posts/154551...
inspired by a recent visit to SF and a Matthew Yglesias essay I recently read about how SF isn't a megacity because of housing policy, I wrote about why that's a very superficial analysis at best!
www.thetechbubble.info/p/one-billio...
In the new TMK, we're joined by @katemac.bsky.social and @70sbachchan.bsky.social from @thepolycrisis.bsky.social to chat about the war in Iran, fossil fuel demand destruction, forced energy transitions, plus much more. www.patreon.com/posts/154551...
“We will restore peace, stability and harmony throughout the world"-Donald Trump
@katemac.bsky.social & I decided it was time for a Polycrisis podcast about the peace, stability & harmony reigning throughout the world
Enjoy our first season ELECTRIC WORLD ORDER
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i...
MORE MORE MORE OF THIS EVERYWHERE
On the down side, we're talking about a new computer system designed to cut grandma's home care benefits that costs $1.2 billion in privatisation contracts. On the bright side, we're not talking about AI!
On TMK premium, new strides in Australian innovation! What if you had a buzz feed quiz that decided if your grandma deserved the care needed to have a good life? What if you eliminated empathy and turned human experts into vestigial organs?
full episode: www.patreon.com/posts/153947...
preview:
I'm going to be doing this webinar on AI and insurance tomorrow with two incredible scholars. It's going to be a great discussion. Come along! dtdlab.virginia.edu/event/co-opt...
I came across one of the most cursed objects imaginable sitting on the street in San Francisco. The contradictions are monstrous.
actual sf is back: 250+ gather on a random weekday to celebrate luddism, hate on ai billboards and the tech right
w/ @bayareacurrent.bsky.social This Machine Kills @jathansadowski.com @dsasf.org
The government justifies this system by saying the problem is maldistribution of care, but the solution they implemented is not even about reallocation of care in a better way, which betrays their actual and obvious purpose: automatic elimination of care.
A new algorithm for determining how much aged care support people can receive to remain living at home is being blamed for reducing care for older Australians. Peter Willcocks, who was on a Department of Health aged care panel, likens the new Integrated Assessment Tool (IAT) system to the Robodebt fiasco because clinical assessors cannot override its algorithm — even if they think the person deserves a higher level of care. Early communications from the department advised assessors they would have the power to "override" the algorithm, but that option was later removed.
Yet another case of automated austerity. When the humans in the loop are actually just treated as vestigial organs waiting to be removed. www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03...
Same! It’s so unserious and the people inside looked ridiculous. It’s like a humiliation ritual as transportation.
So a great thing about contracts is that they usually have and end date and/or means of ending them. If your university or other organization bent the knee to OpenAI or any of the other chatbot providers, when a contract is up, there is an opportunity for pressure:
forms.gle/ZGn5brEGU4t9...
we're talking shit about tech with some of the best in the business, live in sf tomorrow
expecting great turnout. rsvp via eventbrite
For Business Insider, I read three books about Palantir and wrote about how "Palantirianism" -- unabashed nationalism, tech building up the US security state, ready to commit violence on behalf of the US and our allies -- is ascendant in Silicon Valley.
www.businessinsider.com/palantir-gui...
All these suggestions to use AI are just the university admitting how little these things are actually valued by the institution. Award nomination, course materials, etc are all just wasted time in the eyes of administrators who now finally have a technology that can eliminate the drudgery of caring
In the new TMK, our immortal analysis is once again validated! We talk about two big studies into the effects of AI on workloads, which show with in-depth empirical detail how AI intensifies and expands labor, rather than lightens and shrinks workloads. Weird! Did anybody know this would happen???
Same exact dynamics happening at Monash University in Melbourne where our Vice Chancellor just sent an email to all staff and students with the subject line: “Our 65th anniversary marks a new era of AI innovation”
Weird! I’m seeing older episodes on the premium feed rss on pocket casts. You’ll also need to check the regular feed for older episodes. It took a while before we combined free ones into the premium feed.
I’m at AAG in San Francisco.
If you know me, say what’s up.
If you don’t, say what’s up but be cool about it.
Happening this Thursday! Come roll through and see a great discussion about why San Francisco is like that.
Really enjoyed this clever essay by @maiamindel.bsky.social which pulls together so many different things in a very smart and fun way someunpleasant.substack.com/p/a-claude-o...
Really good, important reporting in this article on how having a low credit score can more than double your insurance premiums. Your credit score can be just as impactful on insurance prices as living in an area that is high risk for natural disasters. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Economics is the devil's discipline. This is such a diabolical conclusion: if poor people want cheaper insurance, then they should spend money paying off debt and raising their credit scores rather than repairing their homes after disaster.
"The entire economy, its structure and operating logic, is a nesting doll of delusion, rentiers and debt. Now the smallest doll is wearing a suicide vest, in the form of consumer debt. edit card balances have reached a record high, with millions likely to default." www.tank.tv/magazine/iss...
"Prediction markets are liquidity extraction machines, slightly more gentle than a mugging... But prediction markets make it even easier to part users from that money. You don’t have to sell them anything but an illusion of possibility." www.tank.tv/magazine/iss...