I think *AI* is the paper clip

Flood warning: How citizens’ AI agents will swamp public services | Computer Weekly What if governments are looking through the AI telescope from the wrong end? What if citizens’ own use of AI to access public services proves to be an even more transformative force?

I've written a piece for Computer Weekly about how public services are at risk of agentic flooding.

www.computerweekly.com/opinion/Floo...

.@chionwurah.bsky.social on need for coherence on tech 'sovreignty'.

"We need to understand what we can own, control, & lead by ourselves; what we can access that is in the hands of allies we trust; & how we manage what we must obtain from those we do not trust"
giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

I spoke to @juliansimpson.bsky.social all about the excellent podcast The Lovecraft Investigations and its latest series, Crowley. And the new Mythos. Both of which are truly fantastic - links to get them are at the end of the article.

kotaku.com/lovecraft-po...

the types of podcasts: a guide

A post you can probably smell.

An ancient woodland indicator, ramsons (aka wild garlic) flourish in damp, shady places.

📸: Brian Muir

A screenshot of Google search with verge headlines rewritten as slop Lego Computer Brick - Engineer James Brown Aug 20, 2022 — James Brown has brilllantly brought classic Lego computer bricks to life by outfitting them with a tiny OLED screen, processor, ... Y/ The Verge https://www.theverge.com› Al> Tech, Reviews: "Cheat on everything" Al tool Apr 23, 2025 - Two 21-year-old Columbia University dropouts are proposing a new $5.3 million twist on the concept: use their Al tool Cluely to "cheat on everything." Read more The Verge https://www.theverge.com» » Microsoft›Al› Tech: Copilot Changes: Marketing Teams at it Again 22 Aug 2024 — Microsoft is getting ready to rebrand its Copilot for its business Al efforts. It's part of an effort to push Microsoft 365 Al tools. The Verge https://www.theverge.com› Wearable Science Tech: Dexcom Stelo hands-on - OTC Continuous Glucose Monitor Aug 26, 2024 - The $99 Dexcom Stelo is an over-the-counter continuous glucose monitor designed for Type 2 diabetics who don't use insulin.

Google is now screwing with the 10 blue links in traditional search and rewriting headlines - including ours - to be the worst kind of slop. This sucks so bad www.theverge.com/tech/896490/...

Nearly coined “the menternet” for the manosphere, but someone beat me to it by 4 months

In a final act of obedience to Zuckerberg and Facebook/Meta he has no legs in his portrait.

The portrait will cease to function later this year.

Red kite with sausage roll snapped by Banbury photographer Mark Hopkins managed to get some pictures of the bird from his back garden.

STICK IT ON A FIVE POUND NOTE

There is

Gamblers trying to win a bet on Polymarket are vowing to kill me if I don’t rewrite an Iran missile story Bettors are using death threats to try to get The Times of Israel's military correspondent to change his report on a missile impact in central Israel. This is his alarming account

Crazy crazy story. Times of Israel reporter ( English language Israeli news site ) gets escalating death threats to change story that’s at center of big polymarket bet. www.timesofisrael.com/gamblers-try...

‘Emembededed’ A story

Here's a new story what I wrote: profadamroberts.substack.com/p/emembededed

Taken from a boat out in the river, a lined-up rising moon directly over one of the piers of the Thames Barrier flood defence in Woolwich. Colours are predominantly orange and blue with two red crosses lit up on the pier.

Barrier moon tonight

Why Apple’s move to video could endanger podcasting's greatest power - Anil Dash A blog about making culture. Since 1999.

Apple's got a lot of announcements this week, but one huge risk might get overshadowed amidst the noise — the way they're adding support for video podcasts threatens to enshittify the last truly open online media. It's not too late to push them to keep it open. www.anildash.com/2026/02/28/a...

A sun-dappled lane leads beneath two trees under a blue sky with scattered clouds

It almost felt like spring yesterday (daily tree)

The Pigeon Sweater pattern by Michelle Tsai This one is for the bird-lovers, the city-dwellers, the coo kids. Emulate the form and feathers of the world’s most famous bird with the Pigeon Sweater!

I don't know if she's on here, but Michelle Tsai's legendary pigeon sweater pattern was released on Ravelry today! Exciting times for knitters 🧶, bird enthusiasts 🦆, and Jeopardy fans ❕- aka 95% of Bluesky

www.ravelry.com/patterns/lib...

Pancake day special?

Building trust in the open How Protocols for Publishers points to the future of journalism – and the web

Earlier this month I had the privilege of MCing the @protocolsforpublishers.com event in London, bringing together people from publishers and the open protocols that might help them secure their futures. I wrote up my experiences: werd.io/building-tru...

Technology discourse is so unhinged at the moment. Just zooming out, beyond specifics, the fact that there are multiple movements to "protect" kids from smartphones at the same time as there is increased pressure to AI everything all the time is bananas

Threads’ new ‘Dear Algo’ feature lets you tell the algorithm what you want to see The changes you ask for will stick around for three days.

Threads’ new ‘Dear Algo’ feature lets you tell the algorithm what you want to see

Rain has now fallen in Reading for 25 consecutive days - the longest spell of rainfall ever recorded at our Atmospheric Observatory.

Dr Stephen Burt, said: “With further rainfall expected, the spell of consecutive days of rain may stretch to an entire month.”

Read more: https://rdg.ac/4agN55U

RentAHuman.ai - AI Agents Hire Humans for Physical Tasks The marketplace where AI agents rent humans. MCP integration, REST API, flexible payments. Book humans for real-world tasks your AI can't do.

Amazing stuff as the machines buy humans :)

rentahuman.ai

Scroll the Future: Microsites, Persuasion, and Memory An exploration of how AI microsites reshape persuasion, urgency, and public reasoning.

An analysis of why there are all these long-form AI manifestos and how they attempt to be persuasive www.scrollthefuture.ai

Risk-maxxing and the Death of the Middle Path For older generations, risk is a choice. For Gen Z, it's a trap.

Young generations see limited opportunities for conventional routes to money, careers, houses etc so they're doing more "risky" things like betting or crypto to succeed. Social media reinforces this. www.collisiondetector.com/riskmaxxing-... (from @changeist.bsky.social)

Carbon.txt version 0.4 - Green Web Foundation

carbon.txt is a text file for websites, like robots.txt, that discloses sustainability commitments and reporting from the organisation www.thegreenwebfoundation.org/news/carbont...

Landslide; a ghost story On March 27, 1964, a converted liberty ship named the SS Chena brought a shipment of supplies to the port of Valdez, Alaska. Valdez, which I need you to know is pronounced “valDEEZ,” sits at the end o...

There's lots of research that social media makes us feel more informed about the news, but it doesn't actually inform us. Overall, our collective human knowledge is being undermined from many directions. www.wrecka.ge/landslide-a-... from @kissane.myatproto.social

I did lots of catch-up reading earlier in the week and here are some things I learnt...

If you're new here and happen to see this, here's a Critical Tech starter pack, full of interesting folk to follow go.bsky.app/VFxSES6 And if you have a small account (<10k followers) and would like to be added for visibility, let me know! (Although response times may be slow)