Associate Professor of Sociology based in Oslo, Norway—with a global perspective. Research: victorshammas.com. Newsletter on politics, culture, and social theory: theorybrief.com.
Victor Shammas
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“Many lawmakers are worried that the fund, set up to compensate people who claim political persecution, could award millions of dollars to some who were in the mob of Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol and assaulted police on Jan. 6, 2021.” ❗️
Bernie Sanders: “I will soon be introducing the American A.I. Sovereign Wealth Fund Act. … It would create a sovereign wealth fund through a one-time 50 percent tax — not on the profits of OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI and other companies, but paid with something far more valuable than that: the stock.”
Productivity paradox: all this agentic coding, and no one appears to be working any less (although some people are having a hard time finding jobs).
The European Parliament is ditching Google as its default search engine in favor of French service Qwant.
(That’s the one I use too!)
An important decision. Had SpaceX been fast-tracked into the S&P500, index funds around the world would have been forced to buy in, which would have handed Elon Musk even more wealth and power.
The political battle over AI is only just getting started. But who reaps the benefits, and who bears the costs? Without regulation, we risk an “anything goes” situation; without strong redistributive mechanisms, AI will continue to forge new tech oligarchs. #AI #criticaltech
“In Florida…[a] 2023 statute bars state schools from giving general education credit to classes that teach ‘identity politics’ or are based on ‘theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States.’” ❗️
“I’m an engineer and I haven’t written a line of code in six months…Every night I have hundreds or sometimes thousands of agents that are running five, ten, twenty hours, and this is just how engineering is done now.” (Boris Cherny, Anthropic)
@caseynewton.bsky.social
Victor Shammas
Victor Shammas
Victor Shammas
The switch lands as EU officials prepare a broader push to wean off US tech.
AI isn’t so much a break with past history as a continuation of capitalism’s accelerating tendencies—with humanity’s collective data as its training set, and with millions of jobs at risk.
SpaceX is worth less than half of its $1.75 trillion IPO target, Morningstar says
Econ Analytica
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani unveiles proposals to build 200,000 affordable housing units and preserve an additional 200,000 over the next decade as part of a comprehensive housing plan that amounts to a substantial marker in the national debate on those issues.
