onfocus

These are words that cast systems as doing the same work as people in various roles, and serve to hide all of the ways in which such automation falls short of what is needed all the while devaluing the actual work that people do and relationships that we form. Calling systems tutor or co-creator are overclaims that describe what a developer might wish they could develop—for those who want to replace people in these roles.

For this category, our recommendation is to use language that describes algorithms as tools (or products) that people use, rather than as human-like entities, and more clearly indicates system functionality while also not telegraphing a plan to replace people.

Nice discussion of ways to talk about tools that more accurately describes how they work.

“Mistakenly, we thought that by just introducing artificial intelligence and ingesting the design requirements that we had, that that would produce a high-quality product.”

I assume the people who pushed for layoffs have been promoted and given bonuses. We never hear that side of the story.

"I think we are seeing a hunger that is not just felt by New Yorkers, but frankly by Americans from coast to coast, for a new kind of politics, one that puts working people at the heart of it," Mamdani said.

Agreed!

If you’re a multibillionaire, you might view democracy as a potential threat to your net worth. Control over a significant share of the dwindling number of media outlets would enable you to effectively hedge against democracy by suppressing criticism of you and other plutocrats, and discouraging any attempt to – for example – tax away your wealth.

They should just call all of these billionaire owned media outlets conflict-of-interest journalism.

Elon Musk's destruction of USAID is his single worst act, and I think it is beginning to dawn on him that he will be held responsible for his role in killing millions of children.

Jamelle Bouie has been on a tear lately. It's worth tuning into his YouTube channel.

Trans sports bans are built on the assumption that transgender students — particularly transgender girls — are misrepresenting their gender identity in order to compete “unfairly.” There is no evidence for this. But, it is worth sitting with how outlandish that assumption is.

This is a good explanation of just how ridiculous this supreme court decision is. Every campaigning Democrat should be talking about how they're going to support trans people and supreme court reform.

This sort of journalism doesn't really care about real consumers, labor, technology, or even whether the technology even works. Its focus is propping up extraction class narratives surrounding unchecked wealth accumulation. It's lazy fanfiction for MBAs who want to pretend to be informed without the pesky weight of ethical or even logistical realities.

But the scam is so lucrative!

The true risk of AI to your job isn't: "an AI will do your job." It's: "an AI salesman will exploit your boss's infinite horniness for replacing mouthy workers with pliable machines to sell him a chatbot that can't do your job, and then your boss will fire you and replace you with that inept, defective chatbot."

CEO brain in a nutshell.

This was probably the most alarming Trump appearance to date. He was breathless and incoherent, ill-seeming and off-piste. He spent 32 minutes justifying his deal with Iran to the world before mentioning a single discussion that had taken place among the G7 countries at the summit, and the justifications spoke for themselves.

Painful to watch because it reminds how far the US has fallen.

A major flu outbreak has sickened nearly 160 troops at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas less than two months after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that U.S. troops would no longer be required to be vaccinated for the flu, defense officials said.

Instant pharma karma.

Theodore Gillibrand, whose mother is Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), has drummed up $30 million in a fundraise led by the venture firm Lux Capital, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

He just graduated from Stanford. Seems legit.

Computers don’t have opinions.

No, Siri isn’t lying here. Apple is lying. Just like all other unethical corporations in the Big AI space, Apple has created a sycophantic chatbot which glazes users, providing an utterly false impression that there’s any value whatsoever to the assessment the chatbot has made. There is none. It is a valueless exchange.

I thought Apple was making good decisions to keep AI features out of its core ecosystem but they’re hopping on the slop train to garbage town.