Nathan de Vries

“[Eventually] humanities depts will be forced to accept AI-authored assignments, as part of revised university policy to cooperate with these billionaires. It's already happening, and our response needs to be decisive. Because our students' ability to *think* is at stake.”

really important thread ⬇️

Alternative headline: Big Tech successfully lobbied the European Commission into deregulation.

Including rules to contain AI risk and privacy violations.

if you watch the tech industry long enough you learn the promised benefits never materialize but the unforeseen harms continue to be perpetuated long after the companies move on to the next big thing yet governments are too worried about scaring away investment to do anything

I really like this idea of defining the range accounted for and letting the user preferences take over once out of this range. I've been quite militant about using em in the past so really enjoyed these thoughts. Thanks for sharing!

It’s not just burnout A new study says nearly half of tech workers are significantly burned out. But we don't need more grit. We need to name the forces that are actually breaking us—so we can get real about what we can do...

“But when half your field says its burned out, it’s disingenuous at best—and malicious at worst—to call for more personal fortitude. Instead, we need to be honest about where all this burnout is really coming from—and what we can, and can’t, do about it”

newsletter.activevoicehq.com/p/it-s-not-j...

Why Women in Tech isn't enough Women in Tech spaces help, but fall short in the long run. Real progress needs systemic change and active involvement from men in positions of power.

I have been back and forth over the span of 5 years about whether to publish this article.

All opinions and experiences in this post are my own, or from people I personally know, backed up with recent reports and statistics.

🔗 “AI for Good” forced Abeba Birhane to remove any mention of Gaza and genocide.

“what ‘good’ means [gets to be] shaped, defined, and actively curated by the tech industry that inherently holds invested interest in societal uptake of AI regardless of its risk or harm” aial.ie/blog/2025-ai...

Congrats! 👏👏

The Meta AI app is here. Download now to start talking to your own personal AI.

It's like every website, app and piece of software has developed its own Clippy. Clippy is following me around every day from Google to Zoom to Adobe Acrobat, telling me it looks like I'm trying to exist and would I like help with that

PhD Timeline xkcd.com/3081

No Web Without Women An educational website featuring a collection of innovations by women in the fields of computer science and technology.

Of which name do you think, when you think of “invention of the web”?

If it's a man, this site is for you to study: nowebwithoutwomen.com

Or this book Broad Band www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/545427...

If you give talks, these are especially great resources for getting history straight.

4 musicians on stage, michael mayo is behind microphone in the middle and in the top right are neon letters that say lantarenvenster (venue name)

loved hearing Michael Mayo's awesome creativity with @nvreez.bsky.social yesterday!

Photo of three wild deer less than 10 meters away, grazing in a field covered in golden morning sunlight. Shot through a window with some garden chairs in the foreground.

Woke up to some magic yesterday 🦌✨

Tomorrow is election day in Germany. The current parliament almost unanimously supports genocide against Palestinians. The next parliament will as well. The chancellor and his contenders are fighting over who will kick more migrants out. The far right, as a matter of content, already won a while ago

A fav icon in the results would def make it look more official. The second uses the same fav icon and therefore would draw my attention as the original in a pinch

How Spain’s radically different approach to migration helped its economy soar As immigration has increased, GDP has surged and unemployment has fallen to lowest level since 2008

Ah if you prefer story rather than stats, the Guardian also got that on offer today ✨

Wild, while Germany's election hopefuls are scrambling to one up each other on who's tougher on immigration... No need for AfD with the mainstream parties going at it like this

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/f...

Europe’s population crisis: see how your country compares – visualised How anti-immigration politics across the EU clashes with demographic reality

Europe (and US just as much) needs migration to sustain itself. I find this a great presentation of the statistics of the long term effects of being tough on immigration by @theguardian.com

www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

Learned something new! HTML hidden="until-found" attribute that's already working in Chromium browsers and coming up for others later in the year. Love this functionality, it's so elegantly simple and useful!

Fully agreed! How quick and willingly tech leaders bailed on morals has been wild. I mean, we knew they weren't really caring for ethics but the u-turn leaves no doubt how much it was just performative.

All the more important we realise how much personal power we have in how we contribute/object 🙌

Tech continues to be political And the politics aren't looking great

I don't feel great about working in tech. It's always been capitalist, but the field now actively and shamelessly contributes to wars, environmental harms and a wide range of human rights violations.

We desperately need better leaders, and really think individually what we're ok contributing to

With the München attack, rather than blindly yearning for stricter measures, I feel the question we should ask is how can we treat humans in such a way that they don't feel so dehumanised that they'll resort to dehumanising others. Poverty and lack of perspective are the biggest precursors to crime.

Democracy is Crumbling. Is Anybody Doing Anything? Yes. And You Can Too.

Yes. “People are doing things. You will meet them when YOU start doing things.”

Lots of information and resources in this one.

open.substack.com/pub/sherrily...

Listen, it's ok if you already need an escape from all of it. Any night, you can go outside, look up at the stars, and remember that we are so small in the grand scheme of -- damnit is that one of his rockets blowing up

"Smart" does so much work in American culture. For example, another myth we don't talk about is how people who are intelligent and have technically marketable skills are also too "smart" to get duped by con artists. They are not. Nerds are huge marks tbh.

Logo for Neues Kammerorchester Berlin, with a logo mark of a stylized silhouet of the head of a violin, next to the name of the orchestra set in serif font

I designed a logo for the orchestra I play in 🎻

There's Darktable which is open source and very capable, though I missed the Lightroom workflow...

For a recent project I ended up doing the bulk in the Apple Photos app, with a selection editing in Affinity. You can make a separate library in Photos by holding option key when opening the app

These cuts were proposed by far right AfD, but now implemented by the Christian Democrats in actually stronger measure than proposed. Who needs far right when the centre just adopts their ideas?

The financial wins are relatively small. This very much looks like silencing of critical voices, a wish to avoid self reflection. Art very much shares the role of journalism in holding the gov accountable. And the German gov is very much avoiding accountability of their actions this past year+

Big topic in my communities here in Berlin these past weeks is major culture budget cuts. There are austerity tendencies, but culture is disproportionately affected, with a focus especially on diversity related projects and institutions, many cancelled fully. Absolutely disgusting...

Hehe yes I feel you. You got this though :) it gets easier the more you expose yourself and experience growth rather than rejection/judgement/whatever the narratives might be