Wish I’d done more to resist Flock adoption in Lexington.

That this is coming out of Kentucky only makes me more upset.

Oof. Not great.

My feelings toward generative AI are strong and negative, and I try not to share everything critical I read so that I’m not beating that drum over and over. This is worth a read, though: Generative AI is a great tool for trolling and Bannonesque “flooding the zone,” and the Trump administration’s use of it in these petty ways is arguably just as worrying as DOGE’s irresponsible appeals to AI. I just don’t like what these tools are doing to us—and as its supporters point out, this is the least powerful they’ll ever be.

Oh look, it’s all my least favorite things about tech right now, combined in a single, enraging story.

I started the day grumpy about generative AI, but articles like this just make it worse.

WAIT. They prompt engineered the AI tool to disregard informed consent and ethical concerns?

I’ve been waiting for 404 (or someone else) to report on this so that I could rage post it (and assign it in future classes). What a terrible breach of research ethics.

Everything in this article makes me sad.

Studio Ghibli pictures are neat (legitimately! it’s one of the first generative AI things that’s tempted me!), but these deepfakes are the price we pay for them, and I think that’s too high a price.

Surveillance sucks, and here’s the latest example.

The “brute force” metaphor is helpful here, and the article also draws attention to the vulnerability of algorithmic media to generative AI brute forcing.

I mean, I’ve always wanted to live and work in France, but I’ve never wanted to feel like I would have to.

Honestly, I get the original call, but I’m glad Bluesky backtracked. Content moderation is hard.

What gross software.

I get a lot of reading done through hoopla, but this kind of story is starting to sour me on the platform.

This headline would be hilarious if it weren’t so infuriating.

Yeah, it’s really hard to have any sympathy here at all.

Yes to all of this.

Not the headline I would have chosen, but very interesting argument here.

Directly out of Musk’s playbook. All the more reason to ditch Meta for the fediverse.

The headline doesn’t really make the point, but the article is interesting; of course Amazon drivers would be sent into areas evacuated for fire.

Meta’s cynicism and groveling is pretty appalling.

Chilling read.

I especially appreciate this article in the wake of Meta’s recent announcements. There are cases in which content moderation is inconsistent or overreaching, and there are cases in which less moderation fixes the problem. However, it’s the arbitrary distinctions and self-serving nature of the changes that make the “free expression” argument so flimsy.

Uggggggh, ALPRs suck.

Moderating employees but not users seems telling to me.

Modern cars are creepy.

Look, I don’t know all the finer points of this debate, but Mullenweg has repeatedly struck me as petty and juvenile, so it’s hard to imagine taking his side on any of the more substantive issues here.

This is a solid article. I think the opening is reflective and that there’s an effort to be open minded (more than I would be). It’s also amazing to me, though, how explicitly the goal here seems to be profiting from a surveillance-supported content mill.

What a wild story. The unceremonious end of Redbox is a reminder of how much stuff we make and buy, and how, when companies fail to plan for end-of-life or go out of business, they often leave a bunch of devices that suddenly become e-waste behind.

It’s uncomfortable for me to think about how close my “digital traces” research is to surveillance and YOLO data mining.

This is an important take, and I appreciate that the article concludes with a reminder that indie is the answer as we move forward with the social web.

Wild to read this so soon after finishing Character Limit, because I’m getting very similar vibes.

This was a hell of a semester to decide to not dedicate a whole lecture to WordPress in my CMS class.

I’ve been trying to think through Durov’s arrest since I first heard about it—there are a lot of complex things going on here. I think this captures nicely my thoughts and taught me a few things, too. Telegram is a sketchy platform (technically even more than in terms of content), but that doesn’t mean arresting the founder is warranted. Yet, that doesn’t mean that outcry on the right is in good faith, either.