Michel Lind

I just signed european.social as well. Regardless of whether you think EU governments are too prone to weaken privacy protections or not, it's clear that - monopolistic, authoritarian #SocialMedia platforms are a problem #europe

Former IMF deputy Gita Gopinath: ‘It’s straight-out protectionism’ ft.trib.al/d5m8XTE

I will never know if this administration *wants* to delegitimize the US census, but they sure are doing a fantastic job of it. The amazing Gillian Tett offers a portrait of what's happening: giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

As you can tell from this short thread, Korte is a pro, and some national MSM outlet ought to pick her up and get her back in print, pronto. You'd get a lot of great stories, and you'd drive Hegseth bananas.

So we know AI helped a negligible number of students. But how many did it harm? I've crunched the raw data provided by the lead researcher, and what I've found is that ~9,500 students using AI studied less than even the *least* studious, non-AI using student. This should shock the conscience.

Both the Economist and others suggest this study demonstrates that AI can help students. So I contacted the lead researcher to figure out how many. Answer: Out of ~26,000 kids, a total of 20. And five months after starting to use AI, only four continued to spend 65 minutes on homework. Four.

I now post over at mastoart.social/@thatwritere... due to BlueSky leaders' apparent #slop addiction - But regarding slop, the 🇩🇪 #book distributors #Tredition + #epubli (aka #selfpublishing corps), are apparently eager to feed US #AI all manuscripts. No opt out. #noai #llm #books #reading #writing

Rolled your eyes at an out-of-office message? This is the guide for you. You may think that these automated emails show your colleagues as lazy, slacking off while you toil through the long summer, but they are so much more. My FT column translates: www.ft.com/content/46ca...

Out today: @mjhaugen.bsky.social, our Energy and Planning Manager, appeared on @techwontsave.us to discuss our latest research on AI with @parismarx.com youtu.be/bk6q6qIL7SU

Great to have @mjhaugen.bsky.social on the show! We dig into the many ways government enables all the harms we’re seeing from generative AI and hyperscale data centers by crafting policy that helps the companies behind them.

"LLM-generated patches did not resolve the vulnerability, added a new vulnerability, or both, an average 53.9% of the time." 👁️👄👁️ 1password.com/blog/why-ai-...

More than 10,000 excess deaths were recorded across Europe in recent heatwaves. Wildfires are raging across the continent, and here at home. Climate change is here. The govt cannot afford to ignore or roll back from their climate commitments, especially during Ireland's term in the EU Presidency.

Important piece on London and data centres in the FT. Include's Foxglove's call for concrete conditions to ensure local water and energy supplies, or the environment, are not endangered. If not, developers shouldn’t be allowed to build. www.ft.com/content/67db...

BREAKING: Google has rolled back its tool less than a day after it launched. Updated story coming soon.

ANTHROPIC: Our son loves humanity and for the low price of trillions and trillions of dollars will usher in an era of unprecedented peace and prosperity! OPENAI: Our horrible oafish son is hacking web sites without our permission. ANTHROPIC: (eyes narrowing) Our son is also evil

to a product owner, every single step between having the idea and shipping it is a burdensome waste of time

I used to do some work on the ethical use of satellite and drone imagery for aid and disaster response, and it is genuinely hard to express in words what a dangerous, stupid thing Google is doing by making it easy to use GenAI to create faked satellite imagery:

Just in case you still use any Basecamp products, DHH is crashing out about his AI product gently pointing out that it’s bad for him to have extermination fantasies about the Roma people.

As a young journalist, I was taught that it is highly unethical to let a source buy you a cup of coffee. What, then, is this strange business model in which journalism is a big lucrative circle-jerk with billionaires?

I think most economists wouldn’t find it that amazing. Most of the late 19th and 20th century saw a massive redistribution of wealth. But Kristian’s chart tells us little about wealth inequality: it’s looking at wealth *concentration*. You need to look at the less wealthy majority too.

I'm pleased to share this new paper, "The myth of 'catch-up' development". The paper assesses trends in core-periphery inequality since 1960, and draws several main conclusions: 🧵https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13563467.2026.2659076

Good morning. This is fascism. This is the US Govt creating thought crimes. It’s not about who they are arresting today, it’s about how this vague and threatening pursuit will be used against dissenters. ✨EVERY✨ fascist govt to date, has taken this step. www.state.gov/releases/off...

Under which conditions do AI tools save researchers’ time and effort? And at what cost? Alex Mussgnug and I just published a philosophical analysis of #Convenience in #AI #philsci Paywalled: link.springer.com/article/10.1... Preprint: philsci-archive.pitt.edu/29890/

Your Print Copies of The Reconstruction Papers Are On Their Way! www.liberalcurrents.com/your-print-c...

"French control of Algerian territory launched a period of unparalleled misery… The one million or so Muslim Algerians who died in the mid-1860s perished precisely because the new land policies imposed by the French government destroyed the ability of locals to lead self-sustaining lives."

Marco Rubio announced a “campaign to dismantle” the International Criminal Court, the Hague-based tribunal tasked with investigating war crimes and more. Rubio accused the court of “waging a war against our country — not with bullets or missiles, but with the force of so-called international law.”

A report on the ground from the ICE shooting in Biddeford that should make every parent in this country lose their minds:

Given Tesla’s safety record and passenger-hostile emergency door mechanisms and that there will not be a driver, this seems like a horrible idea

It’s Monday and we’re brining you two little improvements to start the week. - a copy username button in a user’s profile menu, and - a companion cat to keep you company on mu 🐈🐈‍⬛😺

wrote for the magazine about the open source software that underpins our digital lives, how it is being upended by AI code tools, and about maintainers as.ft.com/r/b7f62212-9...

Great writing by @samlearner.bsky.social ! As an free / libre / open source maintainer myself I'm so glad someone can write up the concerns in a way that a layperson can understand

Belatedly: this week's column as.ft.com/r/180503a4-0... (🎁)

Israeli human rights groups say leading Palestinian doctor, held in harsh conditions for purely political reasons, is now near death. "He struggled to breathe and speak and seemed close to losing consciousness several times, during a Thurs visit. He fears he will be killed in Israeli custody"

I spent the day with Curtis Yarvin and the "dissident right" at a garden party in Surrey and wrote quite a few words about it. My cover story for today’s FT Magazine on.ft.com/4ooXS4t [GIFT LINK! 🎁]

Oxford University has signed a new charter committing it to at least 52 weeks of maternity leave for female DPhil researchers, including 2 weeks paid leave for partners. There is currently no paid maternity leave for PhD researchers. Men are 3 times more likely to have R&D careers.

#Debian LTS contributors released 56 DLAs fixing 877 CVEs in May, a larger number than usual. The Kernel team deserves a special mention for handling the disclosed vulnerabilities on #linux regarding Local Privilege Escalation with public proof-of-concept exploits. #debianlts #freexian

Enjoyed going on Prof G Markets to explain, once again, why bitcoin is worth - and is ultimately going to - $0,000,000 www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lat2... (from 12:53)

Seems the real problem centrist democrats are facing right now is the people are being very clear that they want leaders who will solve their biggest problems, and centrist democrats really don't want to solve their biggest problems and hate the people for wanting that. It's a real pickle for them.

FF and FG have placed too much emphasis on individuals making changes to improve emissions, while dawdling on large scale projects. We now have less offshore wind energy production than we did 20 years ago. It's time we stop going backwards, and fast track the country's reduction in emissions.

Here come four months of centrists attacking the left with far greater existential fury than they ever aimed at Trump (because they prefer Trump and helped him win):

Climate.us is a new website created by former NOAA employees who worked on Climate.gov until they were laid off last year as part of the heinous DOGE cutbacks. www.climate.us/news-feature...

If you asked me, off the top of my head, to name a non-Oxbridge university in England synonymous with excellence in the Humanities - I would probably think of Exeter first. This feels like a very deliberate, targeted and ideological Bonfire of the Humanities