Congrats!! I’m sure you’ll do great!

The authoritarian AI crisis has arrived AI safety researchers have long worried that a government would seek to use AI for domestic surveillance and autonomous killing. The Pentagon’s fight with Anthropic threatens to make it a reality

Outstanding @caseynewton.bsky.social analysis (of course) of the Anthropic/DOD fight. www.platformer.news/anthropic-pe...

Have you read this new blog post? It's on @leaflet.pub. It's literally on @pckt.blog. You can probably find it on @offprint.app. You can read it on @skyreader.app. @greengale.app has it for you. You can @ap.brid.gy it. It's a @standard.site original.

people who say that all creative endeavor can be replaced with AI probably need to reckon with the fact that all televised sports events with human athletes could easily be replicated by high-definition computer-animated simulations….and yet we don’t do this and no one seems to want to.

Git wrapped summary

I saw someone else post this so I thought I’d give it a try.
Very sus.
I have not written a single line of Clojure in years 🤔

An illustration of me, and the headline: "AI agents are coming for your privacy, warns Meredith Whittaker The Signal Foundation’s president worries they will also blunt competition and undermine cyber-security"

To put it bluntly, the path currently being taken towards agentic AI leads to an elimination of privacy and security at the application layer. It will not be possible for apps like Signal—the messaging app whose foundation I run—to continue to provide strong privacy guarantees, built on robust and openly validated encryption, if device-makers and OS developers insist on puncturing the metaphoric blood-brain barrier between apps and the OS. Feeding your sensitive Signal messages into an undifferentiated data slurry connected to cloud servers in service of their AI-agent aspirations is a dangerous abdication of responsibility.

Happily, it’s not too late. There is much that can still be done, particularly when it comes to protecting the sanctity of private data. What’s needed is a fundamental shift in how we approach the development and deployment of AI agents. First, privacy must be the default, and control must remain in the hands of application developers exercising agency on behalf of their users. Developers need the ability to designate applications as “sensitive” and mark them as off-limits to agents, at the OS level and otherwise. This cannot be a convoluted workaround buried in settings; it must be a straightforward, well-documented mechanism (similar to Global Privacy Control) that blocks an agent from accessing our data or taking actions within an app. Second, radical transparency must be the norm. Vague assurances and marketing-speak are no longer acceptable. OS vendors have an obligation to be clear and precise about their architecture and what data their AI agents are accessing, how it is being used and the measures in place to protect it.

📣 NEW -- In The Economist, discussing the privacy perils of AI agents and what AI companies and operating systems need to do--NOW--to protect Signal and much else!

www.economist.com/by-invitatio...

Feeling embarrassed by your past work is not a sign of incompetence. It’s a mark of growth.

Regretting your prior decisions doesn't reflect poor judgment. It reveals new insight.

Cringing at your old opinions doesn't display ignorance. It demonstrates an open mind.

Love this!! I’ve been getting into cross stitch and embroidery lately. I had one project not too dissimilar from this that said “I Can’t Adult Today” 😂

I hear you. For me, it’s been finding things that keep my mind occupied but not fatigued (and without a screen). I’ve gotten really into cross stitch and embroidery. I’m also enjoying tending to my yard with a podcast on. Rock climbing has also been simultaneously physical and meditative for me ❤️

I’ve never heard of this before and it sounds amazing! Thank you for sharing this! ❤️

It makes sense that’s what you’re seeing online. I know my current company is slowing down hiring and I hear others are as well.

And agreed, I know companies are tightening up while also raising the bar for entry. I feel like not every opportunity ends up on a job board anymore so I feel like the gems are harder to find (my gut feeling, could be wrong)

I would love to get closer to the robotics space! I think tech is still figuring out how to operate with AI disruption but robotics seems solid.

Donald Trump’s termination of Register of Copyrights, Shira Perlmutter, is a brazen, unprecedented power grab with no legal basis.

It's surely no coincidence he acted less than a day after she refused to rubber-stamp Elon Musk’s efforts to mine troves of copyrighted works to train AI models.

I’m addicted to these r/findthesniper type photos 👀

So proud of American Resisters today!

#Handsoff

THIS. #HandsOff

The American people have risen up and they are PISSED AS HELL.
#HandsOff

I liked the way a friend of mine put it - “Time is money, and every day I pay myself first” ❤️
I’ve always wanted to do this but I also want as much as sleep as possible before work begins so it’s a struggle 😂

Imagine calling yourself the master race and have to resort to erasing the achievements of minorities to make yourself feel better.

Fascinating read!

Once You're Laid Off, You'll Never Be the Same Again – Mert Bulan It’s been over a year since one of the most significant turning points in my life, and it’s time to reflect on that.

An interesting read on layoffs.
“…leadership often swoops in and redirects efforts toward entirely different goals. You trust their judgment…Then, when the arbitrary goals they set aren’t met, the company decides to cut staff. Those who made the poor decisions remain”

mertbulan.com/2025/01/26/o...

It can feel bittersweet leaving something behind for something new. Excited for you! I love hearing about folks finding new things these days. I’ve been too scared to look at the market but maybe it’s turning around

Happiest of Birthdays! 🎈

All the folks who exited NBC today. Seen together, hoo boy. Message received.

This is wild. Also a horrible day to have eyes and see how far AI generated videos have come 🙈

Thanks for the validation here!
I didn’t put much thought into a manager asking the team to list out what they were working on, but I’ve seen it happen many times. This was during times where clear goals were hard to come by, so this makes sense.

Omg I’m an idiot. I thought this was a tech thing, not a Musk thing. Getting my feeds mixed up 😅 I scrolled more and saw all the news about it, my apologies!!

I’m asking this genuinely - is this considered bad because there should be other processes in place? Standups? Weekly checkpoints? I’ve had a manager imply they didn’t know where my time was going or what I did that week and it really caught me off guard (which felt like the point in retrospect).

From the womenintech community on Reddit: Former Google CEO shares evidence of Google's biased hiring between him and founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page - this is why 'DEI' matters Explore this post and more from the womenintech community

I found this post and clip validating in times like this where people think removing DEI means “going back” to merit-based hiring. Former Google CEO talking about how data showed “extreme evidence of male bias against female candidates.”

reddit.com/r/womenintec...