Kate O'Neill

YouTube video by TEDx Talks We cannot leave meaning up to machines | Kate O'Neill | TEDxWalden Pond

75,000 views, 3,200 likes, and 100 (almost entirely thoughtful!) comments —

it's been quite a journey for my TEDx talk on AI, human meaning-making, books & cats & grief, and learning to use tech mindfully, toward what matters.

Have you watched it? Shared it? Thank you!

youtu.be/7fHjbqWRL4E?...

Thank you!

screen shot of an email update from The Economist showing the top news story about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor being arrested in relation to Jeffrey Epstein, described as "a dead sex offender"

Dang, @economist.com not mincing words or making nicey-nice with their news summaries today 🫡

My US event briefings from speaker bureaus often refer to me as the "talent." My UK briefings often refer to me as the "artiste."

As in:

18:45 - Artiste to arrive for the evening
20:20 - 20:50 - Artiste session

One must pair this with sufficient reality checks to keep one from getting a big head

Ambitious anti-ICE Big Tech boycott has begun in America: will it work? Small businesses struggled to observe a nationwide general strike to protest ICE but professor Scott Galloway says that a boycott of Big Tech companies could be more effective.

More context in this Cybernews piece — and thanks to @gradauskas.bsky.social for quoting me in it:

cybernews.com/news/boycott...

Ambitious anti-ICE Big Tech boycott has begun in America: will it work? Small businesses struggled to observe a nationwide general strike to protest ICE but professor Scott Galloway says that a boycott of Big Tech companies could be more effective.

Leaders especially can't afford to stay silent when activities go so far beyond what we can normalize. Yes, taking a stand is scary. But if we're committed to more human-friendly decisions, we need to know our values and identify the bright lines that will guide us.

Ambitious anti-ICE Big Tech boycott has begun in America: will it work? Small businesses struggled to observe a nationwide general strike to protest ICE but professor Scott Galloway says that a boycott of Big Tech companies could be more effective.

Boycotting Big Tech may not dent their bottom line, but that's not the entire point.

When you participate in a boycott, you're claiming an identity that aligns with principled resistance. You're making your values visible and refusing complicity.

Shambala - Single Version

open.spotify.com/track/0P6fEg...

An Old Fashioned Love Song - Single Version

open.spotify.com/track/5BcyG2...

Joy To The World

open.spotify.com/track/2ymeOs...

Have barely heard a peep about Chuck Negron from Three Dog Night the other day, and have to give him at least a small shoutout because "Joy to the World" was absolutely UBIQUITOUS when I was a kid, and it's astonishing that the same voice sang "An Old Fashioned Love Song" and "One" and "Shambala."

Do you think the “no is a complete sentence” people understand what miserable life guidance that is?

butterfly man meme: technologists reacting to unexpected LLM output: is this emergence?

butterfly man meme: the media reacting to technologists reacting to unexpected LLM output: is this intelligence?

butterfly man meme: the public reacting to the media reacting to technologists reacting to unexpected LLM output: is this our AI overlords?

not sure I have the sequence right but it feels pretty close

Both AOC and Katie Porter deserve plenty of credit for precedent

What examples are you seeing?

I saw one local business in Hell's Kitchen make a decision to stay open today and donate proceeds to @immdefenseproject.bsky.social rather than cutting hours from immigrant workers, which seems thoughtful

and a business in Nashville staying open to provide relief to people without power

Curious about businesses supporting the strike by closing or by extending flexible arrangements to workers and/or the community

How ICE Already Knows Who Minneapolis Protesters Are

A Minnesota woman observing ICE agents in her car was cornered on one-way streets. An agent approached, called her by name—citing facial recognition. Days later, her Global Entry and TSA privileges were revoked, with no explanation.

There was a guy on one of my flights yesterday with a patch sewn onto his backpack that said "I may seem calm but in my mind I've already killed you three times"

and I mean, huh?
but also: what kind of mentality chooses THIS, of all things, as the identity to externalize on one's luggage?

Tom Chi and Kate O’Neill

Are climate action & economic growth actually at odds—or might they be deeply aligned? In this episode I sit down with innovator & investor Tom Chi to challenge conventional thinking about climate solutions, innovation, and the future of planetary restoration

www.thetechhumanist.com/2026/01/15/r...

AI error pushed new ICE agents into the field without proper training: report The AI mistake took place this past fall during a recruitment surge, according to the report

“ICE used an AI tool to scan resumes and mistakenly grouped applicants without law enforcement backgrounds with candidates who were previously law enforcement officers”

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

Trump threatens Insurrection Act for Minnesota The president warned he may deploy the military without state consent.

Trump’s threat of the Insurrection Act flips the script, as Torey Van Oot points out at Axios: troops sent against a governor’s wishes to crush protests of federal actions—not to protect civil rights.

Sets precedent for federal force against dissent.

Read at Axios:
www.axios.com/2026/01/15/t...

I feel like after all these years the laundry-folding-failing robot is the unofficial mascot of CES

I was booked for a media interview today and the host canceled because he’s in Minneapolis and he said ‘it’s crazy here right now.’ I certainly empathize, but I’m also realizing that that might be the first time I’ve ever had a media appearance or meeting canceled on account of state violence.

The Paris climate treaty changed the world. Here’s how | Rebecca Solnit There’s much more to do, but we should be encouraged by the progress we have made

“It takes far more than storytelling to get where we need to go, but how we tell the stories is crucial.” Rebecca Solnit on climate progress reminds us why narrative framing isn't soft work—it's the infrastructure that makes systemic change legible and possible.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Let's book you on The Tech Humanist Show!

One exec described inmate communications as 'an entire treasure trove [of data]' for detecting when 'crimes are being thought about.' THOUGHT ABOUT. That, uh, does not bode well

This is what happens when we build technology systems without centering human dignity, flourishing, or promise in any way

An AI model trained on prison phone calls now looks for planned crimes in those calls The model is built to detect when crimes are being “contemplated.”

AI trained on prison calls now monitors inmates in real-time. Except inmates paid for the calls that trained the model, and now pay higher fees to fund the AI surveillance of their own conversations.
www.technologyreview.com/2025/12/01/1...

I suspect that ICE just took someone off of my flight right before we all de-boarded at JFK. They had a guy leave the flight before the rest of us, and then as I was walking off the plane I saw him being put in handcuffs and led off the outside door of the jet bridge.

All 50 states introduced AI legislation this year because communities saw real risks. Federal preemption doesn't eliminate those risks. It just moves the conversation away from the people most affected.