building your online brand YouTube video by brian david gilbert

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPHK...

Exclusive-Meta to start capturing employee mouse movements, keystrokes for AI training data By Katie Paul and Jeff Horwitz NEW YORK, April 21 (Reuters) - Meta is installing new tracking software on U.S.-based employees’ computers to capture mouse movements, clicks and keystrokes for use in

Totally not going to be used for performance review/job assessment, but if you do a really good job training the AI to do your work, then you may be out of a job ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/exclusi...

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.

Absolutely monster story here from @noahshachtman.bsky.social and @robertsilverman.bsky.social on the surveillance tactics used at MSG. www.wired.com/story/madiso...

The development of a new "framework" seems to be a red flag in my experience

Isn't it pretty CLEAR what kind of an organization this is and what it does? Canadian public sector investors looking for a "human rights impact assessment" for the company serving up data for ICE because "due diligence"

Thomson Reuters Fired Worker For Speaking Out About ICE, Former Employee Says “When I saw evidence that our products were being used to harm people and undermine the law, I did what anyone should do—I raised the alarm. Thomson Reuters’ response was to fire me.”

NEW: Thomson Reuters, the technology and content conglomerate that owns the Reuters media agency but also owns and operates the investigative CLEAR database, fired a longstanding employee after they spoke out about the company selling data products to ICE.

Edmonton police emails, documents provide new information on Canada-first AI facial recognition bodycam pilot | CBC News Key details include a “critical fault” system outage, possible extension of pilot project and that facial recognition model was supplied by Corsight AI, a company whose technology has reportedly been ...

SCOOP: New details about the facial recognition bodycam project by Edmonton police — including that the AI model was provided by an Israeli company whose technology has reportedly been used for mass surveillance in Gaza.

www.cbc.ca/9.7157991

"surveillance pricing" www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/b...

Language Machines How generative AI systems capture a core function of language Looking at the emergence of generative AI, Language Machines presents a new theory of meaning i...

I'm happy I only found Weatherby at the end of the process, since it was quite a bit of work to get through and think about. I did appreciate this more linguistic take on LLMs (even though it didn't shift my position much), and I'll have to come back to in future www.upress.umn.edu/978151791932...

Read a couple of books lately that didn't make it into my article about AI & humanism (journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1...). First, the scifi novel When the Sparrow Falls (thx @danhon.com) has colored how I imagine retirement in the New Humanist Republic. Secondly, Weatherby's Language Machines...

building is harder than tearing down tho

4S 2026 Conference Logo

I’m organizing a panel on "Interrogating State Surveillance in Authoritarian Times” at the next 4S [@4sweb.bsky.social] conference in Toronto. Please consider submitting an abstract!
#surveillance #authoritarianism

Submission deadline: April 30, 2026
Website: www.4sonline.org/accepted_ope...

Really not inspired by this "AI for all" and "identity verification for all" digital policy platform

that's a browser tab I can park for later

I've been saying this! You don't even need scientific papers, only a couple well-placed posts online and two hours to make AIs spit it out uncritically

When I think about AI customer service, it sure connects with some emotions...

Customers, execs not seeing eye-to-eye on AI-powered customer service: survey A new report suggests there is a widening gap between consumers' expectations for customer service in the era of artificial intelligence, and the solutions being delivered by companies.

"few organizations said they've seen meaningful AI progress in building emotional connections with customers" ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/custome...

Total surveillance as a civilizational stage? Science-fiction, religion and the tech oligarchy Published in Science as Culture (Ahead of Print, 2026)

I have another new piece just out, considering the intersection of #surveillance and #ScienceFiction, this time in the context of the the ideologies of tech oligarchs, in Science as Culture, edited by @keanbirch.bsky.social and Les Levidow...

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Who does one call when the crazy guy in your basement threatens genocide while polishing his nukes? Is it the Prime Minister? "Mr. Carney I'd like to report some 'nuclear ambitions' I'm worried about..."

Union Pressures Thomson Reuters to Rethink Selling Tools to ICE | The Tyee BCGEU owns shares in the Canadian media firm that contracts with the US deportations agency.

As the expiry date nears for two of Thomson Reuters’ contracts with the United States Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, one B.C. union is sounding the alarm over human rights concerns.

@isaacphannay.bsky.social reports. #uspoli #bclab

AI got the blame for the Iran school bombing. The truth is far more worrying LLMs-gone-rogue dominated coverage, but had nothing to do with the targeting. Instead, it was choices made by human beings, over many years, that gave us this atrocity

'AI got the blame for the Iran school bombing. The truth is far more worrying'. Without a doubt, a smart decision by the Guardian to publish this brilliantly-written #HistSTM piece. #HistTech #MilHist #HistWar 🗃️

Not saying I told ya so... but I did tell one person something that could be interpreted as prescient

Several months ago a CP journalist asked me questions about Sora 2, mostly about how to tell real videos from fake ones. They asked me if there was anything else that was missing from the discussion and I said: $$$ (this thing is expensive and the business is kind of missing)

a reminder that sora, like chatgpt, is a commercial product that can come and go like any other website, which is another reason why a lot of us remain critical of “AI” — and why we focus more on its political economy than its technological mechanisms

Seeing quite a trend of journal articles being submitted that take a broad look across problems in the AI landscape and propose some new "framework" to address them (maybe some audits, human-in-the-loop etc.). I really don't think the problem is not enough frameworks...

Not part of the minority here, but I am now more excited for Strife

A Tale of Two Bills: Lawful Access Returns With Changes to Warrantless Access But Dangerous Backdoor Surveillance Risks Remains - Michael Geist The decades-long battle over lawful access entered a new phase yesterday with the introduction of Bill C-22, the Lawful Access Act. This bill follows the attempt last spring to bury lawful access prov...

A Tale of Two Bills: Lawful Access Returns With Changes to Warrantless Access But Dangerous Backdoor Surveillance Risks Remains
www.michaelgeist.ca/2026/03/a-ta...

Humanism has many flaws, but it is also varied and can incorporate its critiques (humanism comes in many flavors, can be inclusive, relational, ecological). We shouldn’t be afraid to emphasize the distinctiveness of the human given current efforts to automate key aspects of humanity.

There is a backlash against AI, but many of our institutions are enthusiastic supporters. Resisting AI is A-OK, but some positions make resistance more difficult. Where can sociologists find better footing? Critique is important, but a the posthumanism that inspired me now leaves me uncomfortable..

‪New from me in Current Sociology, on AI as a threat to humanity. Is society conceivable without humans? What place does ‘the human’ occupy in social theory? I make an argument for humanism in sociology, given current forms of automation. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...