author of Blood in the Machine, tech writer, luddite
newsletter: https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/
books: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/contributor/brian-merchant/
kofi link: https://ko-fi.com/brianmerchant
Brian Merchant
Loading...
“The known cases of police stalking are almost certainly a vast underreporting of the overall abuse, because they largely include only cases in which the behavior was so egregious that it led to police officers being fired, arrested, or both.”
MYTHOS is so powerful that it must be protected by strict guardrails that prevent anyone from ever learning whether or not it's actually powerful at all
Very much enjoyed digging into Anthropic's road to the top of the AI startup mountain with @micahloewinger.bsky.social and @onthemedia.bsky.social, and how it shrewdly exploited its reputation as the 'ethical' AI company to win over investors, the media—and the pope.
Some really crazy cases in here
- cop looked up ex-girlfriend and family in Flock 100+ times
- cop stalked wife giving "test" as reason
- cop searched one plate 395 times in 10 months; was later fired
Cops keep getting arrested for using Flock to stalk people
www.404media.co/cops-keep-ge...
Hypervisible
Molly does great work, so it's unsurprising that is an great resource — a one-stop shop for tracking how much AI and crypto companies are spending on lobbying.
One somewhat surprising finding here is that crypto's still spending more, apparently by a considerable margin
#CriticalAI 4.1, artist Molly Crabapple speaks out against corporate tech’s fleecing of creative workers and the production of “vampiric slop” which mimics their artistry through AI.
read.dukeupress.edu/critical-ai/...
Brian Merchant
There have been more than a dozen cases around the country where police use Flock to obsessively and illegally stalk people.
Critical AI https://read.dukeupress.edu/critical-ai/issue
Anthropic went from a distant #2 in the AI startup race to winning news cycles, sharing the stage with the pope, eclipsing OpenAI's valuation and barreling towards an historic IPO, all in a matter of months.
How did Anthropic pull it off? By doubling down on its key export: AI ethics slop.
NEW: Cybersecurity researchers are not happy about the guardrails on Anthropic’s new model Fable.
Researchers say that the new LLM basically blocks anything related to cybersecurity, including code reviews and prompts asking for help writing secure code.
Anthropoic founder: “How will we ensure the gains of AI are shared globally? We do not have a mechanism for this.”
@bcmerchant.bsky.social: “They're called taxes. And just because AI companies don't really like that idea, they don't like the concept of being taxed, doesn't mean they don't exist.”
By marketing itself as the 'safe' AI company, Anthropic has pulled in a $65 billion payday and leapfrogged OpenAI to become the most valuable AI startup.
I've been running Follow the Crypto since 2024. Today I'm relaunching it as Tech Influence Watch, expanded to cover AI political spending alongside crypto. They’ve spent more than $400 million this election cycle, and now you can follow it in close to real time.
influence.citationneeded.news
Anthropic visited the Vatican and gave a speech as the Pope presented his encyclical on AI. The next week, Anthropic filed for what is likely to be the largest IPO in history. @bcmerchant.bsky.social explains how these events are related: on-the-media.visitlink.me/-Rowuq
Paul Semenza
Brian Merchant
Anthropic went from a distant #2 in the AI startup race to winning news cycles, sharing the stage with the pope, eclipsing OpenAI's valuation and barreling towards an historic IPO, all in a matter of months.
How did Anthropic pull it off? By doubling down on its key export: AI ethics slop.
The Peabody Award-winning On the Media podcast is your guide to examining how the media sausage is made. Hosts Brooke Gladstone and Micah Loewinger examine threats to free speech and government transparency, cast a skeptical eye on media coverage of the week’s big stories and unravel hidden political narratives in everything we read, watch and hear.
Anthropic visited the Vatican and gave a speech as the Pope presented his encyclical on AI. The next week, Anthropic filed for what is likely to be the largest IPO in history. @bcmerchant.bsky.social explains how these events are related: on-the-media.visitlink.me/-Rowuq
By marketing itself as the 'safe' AI company, Anthropic has pulled in a $65 billion payday and leapfrogged OpenAI to become the most valuable AI startup.
The Peabody Award-winning On the Media podcast is your guide to examining how the media sausage is made. Hosts Brooke Gladstone and Micah Loewinger examine threats to free speech and government transparency, cast a skeptical eye on media coverage of the week’s big stories and unravel hidden political narratives in everything we read, watch and hear.
Here's the piece we discussed on the spot, for those interested:
www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/how-anthro...
Brian Merchant
By marketing itself as the 'safe' AI company, Anthropic has pulled in a $65 billion payday and leapfrogged OpenAI to become the most valuable AI startup.
