Hard Reset

I wrote about Mark Teixeira, former New York Yankee and longtime resident of Greenwich, Connecticut, who's running for office in Texas as a "Retired Texas Ranger" (gift link 🎁)

Anthropic's IPO filing yesterday revealed at least* $550bn in off-balance sheet debt, for a company with $16B in annual revenue. Paying its bills will require Anthropic to sustain implausible revenue growth given the pressures that are squeezing their--and the whole AI ecosystem's--margins. A 🧵

I found more donations from Tom Brown, including an under-the-radar one: $25k to a group that backs GOP candidates in local Texas races

“Who is funding the political push for data center expansion, and whose interests are those policies serving? Anthropic Co-Founder Tom Brown Made More Donations to Conservative Causes... Read more: www.hardresetmedia.com/p/anthropic-...

“I think the purpose of these tools is to deskill, to move towards this workerless future.” In JJ Lansing’s latest, learn how “bossware” is expanding across industries and why workers need stronger protections against invasive AI monitoring. Read here: www.hardresetmedia.com/p/are-you-su...

Nathan Fielder Poses The Question: Is Everything Manipulation? Ariella Steinhorn reflects on tech CEOs, confident lies, and Nathan Fielder’s You Can See Everything. Read the latest: www.hardresetmedia.com/p/nathan-fie...

From @matthewus.bsky.social re: Anthropic, "there is strong reason to distrust the information the company provides the public regarding its finances, and that provides a clear legal basis for the SEC to block the company’s planned IPO" www.hardresetmedia.com/p/block-the-...

Latest Hard Reset: @alexshultz.bsky.social traces the wild ride that Anthropic co-founder Tom Brown has taken from donating $35 to Bernie in 2016 to dropping hundreds of thousands of dollars on Republican races and causes, as per Thursday's FEC filings: www.hardresetmedia.com/p/anthropic-...

Must-read report from Hard Reset contributor Matt Scherer:

Over the next week and a half, Maya and I are going to do a visual walk-through of our new report on the threat from the AI bubble (links below). I'll start off with these two figures showing that how historically overvalued the stock market is relative to companies' financial performance.

Looked into recent FEC filings and wouldn't you know it, Anthropic co-founder Tom Brown started cutting checks to Republicans right around the time he became Dario Amodei's White House whisperer

As Scott Wiener and Connie Chan compete for San Francisco’s congressional seat, AI regulation is taking center stage. In “AI’s Hometown,” JJ Lansing examines their records, donors, and promises to regulate Big Tech — and who really benefits from AI. www.hardresetmedia.com/p/the-race-f...

Ariella watched The Social Reckoning... “Hot or Not” Dorm Room Zuck Is Who Mark Zuckerberg Has Always Been. Read more: www.hardresetmedia.com/p/hot-or-not...

Great conversation...

Lots of interesting/annoying quotes from Jeff Bezos's Fox News interview this week, but more notably: in 4 public appearances/interviews this year, he's delivering the same talking points (like almost verbatim). I studied the tape/transcripts so you don't have to. Something weird going on here!

"That 2000s-era FWD: FWD: RE: INSPIRING chain letter sounds oddly familiar" Jeff Bezos Is Starting to Sound Like a Politician... Read more from @alexshultz.bsky.social www.hardresetmedia.com/p/jeff-bezos...

AI personal assistants promise to save time for us. What happens when they decide how we spend it? JJ Lansing raises a very important question... Read more: www.hardresetmedia.com/p/automate-t...

Ariella Steinhorn is wondering who gets to decide what counts as “acceptable” harm? The article questions whether AI executives should have the authority to make that calculation for everyone else. Read more here: www.hardresetmedia.com/p/sam-altman...

Alex Shultz explores the uneasy relationship between Big AI and MAHA—and why tech companies like OpenAI and Anthropic are staying quiet. Read more: www.hardresetmedia.com/p/openai-and...

the signs were there... love is dead...

"TESCREAL stands for Transhumanism, Extropianism, Singularitarianism, Cosmism, Rationalism, Effective Altruism, and Longtermism." @writtenbyjjl digs deeper into the ideology of the tech elite Check it out: www.hardresetmedia.com/p/the-doomsd...

Just a totally normal lunch with the people who definitely aren’t trying to run the future. 🫠

"The target audience for Muse may not be the “genius man” necessarily—but Meta’s usual target audience, pliable children." Writes @aristeinhorn.bsky.social Read more: www.hardresetmedia.com/p/muse-is-me...

Rob Bonta said “structural remedies.” Paramount heard “deal?” @alexshultz.bsky.social breaks down the plot twist... "New Rob Bonta Betrays Old Rob Bonta to Appease 3 Subpar Politicians" Read the full piece here: www.hardresetmedia.com/p/rob-bonta-...

JJ Lansing asks the question hanging over the AI debate: If everyone is worried about where this is headed, why aren’t more people in the streets pushing back? Read the full story: www.hardresetmedia.com/p/everyone-i...

Ariella Steinhorn pulls back the curtain on Elon Musk—and the picture is a lot darker than the “tech genius” mythology. "Elon Musk isn’t just building companies—he’s building an extraordinary amount of power around himself." Read more: www.hardresetmedia.com/p/we-got-a-s...

Qasim Rashid takes a look inside Metas new product "Meta x Kylie glasses". Lets just say meta’s new glasses aren’t just a way to capture content, they’re asking consumers to pay for and participate in a growing surveillance system. Check it out: substack.com/home/post/p-...

“The founder of a tech company should not be making diplomatic recommendations on behalf of the United States.” — Alex Shultz reports on Dario Amodei’s push to shape U.S. policy toward China. Read more: www.hardresetmedia.com/p/dario-amod...

JJ Lansing reports from Hard Reset and Lush’s Safer Socials Connector on what it means to raise the first generation shaped by AI—and why fear has to become action. Read more: www.hardresetmedia.com/p/the-stakes...

“The true danger of AI may not be machines taking control—it’s convincing humans that they never had any.” Writes Ariella Steinhorn, AI’s Greatest Risk To Humanity? It’s Not Robots Gone Rogue. Read more: www.hardresetmedia.com/p/ais-greate...

AI’s biggest voices are talking about the end of humanity. Alex Shultz asks: are they actually serious about doing anything about it? Read more: www.hardresetmedia.com/p/the-ai-ind...

“The power of workers is substantial, the fight remains winnable.” — JJ Lansing, quoting the argument of Clarissa Redwine and JS Tan. The future of tech doesn’t have to belong to billionaires. #AgainstTechOligarchy Read more: www.hardresetmedia.com/p/how-to-sei...

"Uber is buying time to catch up with Waymo.” Ariella Steinhorn takes a closer look at Uber’s sudden change of heart and what’s really driving it: www.hardresetmedia.com/p/ubers-abou...

Silicon Valley is worried about the robot apocalypse. Communities are worried about their water bills, power grids, pollution, and quality of life. Guess which one actually affects people today. Matt Scherer has more to say, check it out: www.hardresetmedia.com/p/roge-karma...

"A harsh reminder that wealth, power, and business success aren’t necessarily the same thing as wisdom or intelligence." Alex Shultz reports on why tech’s biggest winners aren’t necessarily its smartest players. Check out the full story: substack.com/home/post/p-...

The Nerd Reich takes the popular query some are still asking, "How did Silicon Valley turn to fascism?", and answers with a more crucial question: "Why did we overlook that tech founders' far-most right ideologies have been the core of their system and success?" @gilduran.com #booksky #nonfiction

JJ Lansing reports from Wisconsin, where communities fighting data centers are being ignored, laughed at, and arrested — and asks who's supposed to bear the cost of AI infrastructure. Read the full article here: substack.com/home/post/p-...

Most gig platforms race workers to the bottom. This one raced them to a union. Ariella Steinhorn breaks down how a Seattle World Cup pilot turned temp shifts into $23+/hour union jobs — and what it means for gig work everywhere. Read the full article here: substack.com/home/post/p-...

If you ask Meta, a "settlement" means they didn't lose this lawsuit. @alexshultz.bsky.social dissects their spin on it and what it means for the future: www.hardresetmedia.com/p/meta-settl...

I can't get over Meta's disingenuous spin about "empowering parents" and "supporting teens" after settling a lawsuit they were almost certain to lose. Wrote about their latest ploy for @hardresetmedia.com

As data centers continue their nationwide takeover, the people of Port Washington, WI are fighting like hell to protect their security, their homes, and the environment. Read the full story: www.hardresetmedia.com/p/wisconsin-...

In the latest Hard Reset post, @aristeinhorn.bsky.social writes: "As people learn more about this Black Mirror plot unfolding in real life, Flock has risen from relative obscurity to something not only immoral, but something terrifying." Read the full story: www.hardresetmedia.com/p/is-this-co...

What are you doing Sept. 10? Join Lush Cosmetics and Hard Reset for Safer Socials, a FREE event on how to take power back from Big Tech, build safer socials and create more interpersonal connection. Check out our speakers and agenda + RSVP: luma.com/kwvbjh25 Hope to see you there!

“[It] led me to the cult ideology flowing out of Silicon Valley… that tech billionaires are amassing so much influence and power in society they should essentially…be the rulers of the world.” - @gilduran.com to @alexshultz.bsky.social re: his 📖The Nerd Reich: www.hardresetmedia.com/p/tech-oliga...

“...you’ve got a cult of billionaires who are practicing apocalypse capitalism: predicting the end of the world, the end of the nation, the end of the planet — as a profit opportunity.”

 @gilduran.com to @alexshultz.bsky.social on how this appeals to the 1%: www.hardresetmedia.com/p/tech-oliga...

“Elon Musk is more of a follower than a leader. I don’t think he’s read many books at all in his life. and in general he’s not very bright.” @gilduran.com explains to @alexshultz.bsky.social how money can give you many things - but not book smarts. Read more: www.hardresetmedia.com/p/tech-oliga...

@alexshultz.bsky.social and @gilduran.com argue we’re watching the rise of “tech fascism”. They describe an alliance of billionaires, AI, crypto, surveillance, and corrupt politicians. Read the full story: www.hardresetmedia.com/p/tech-oliga...

Big Tech gets the land. Billionaires get the profits. Wisconsin Rapids gets the bill. JJ Lansing has more: www.hardresetmedia.com/p/wisconsin-...

AI Is Making “Human” Skills More Valuable? @aristeinhorn.bsky.social says so. Read the full story: www.hardresetmedia.com/p/in-this-la...