Cydney Hayes

come gossip about your tech holiday party w me ❤️ cyd.01 on signal

Charlie Day’s team didn’t know about those tech billboards San Francisco-based AI company Kilo Code plastered the city with ads riffing on a popular meme from ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.’ That was news to the actor’s Los Angeles-based gang

Can a tech company use a well-known meme from “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”? We asked an expert and checked in with Charlie Day’s management who hadn’t seen the ads: sf.gazetteer.co/charlie-days...

What is up with tech people never holding the door for others

Department of Public Health reached out to local tattoo artist about permitting after TechCrunch Disrupt Tattd, a tattoo app, put a Hayes Valley artist and her clients at risk for an off-the-books pop-up last month

SCOOP: A local tattoo artist said she was contacted by the City about an unpermitted tattoo event at last month's TechCrunch Disrupt convention.

sf.gazetteer.co/department-o...

Mending the fabric of time Inside the tiny, precise world of a watch repair hobbyist

How do you dismantle the oppressiveness of today's tech industry? Start by deconstructing its devices. sf.gazetteer.co/mending-the-...

hm sure hope no one does a heist tn

Who gets a tattoo at a tech convention? There’s no better way to remember your TechCrunch Disrupt experience forever than to get a free flash tat

More than 100 have signed up to get tattooed at TechCrunch Disrupt this week: “It’s for the plot” sf.gazetteer.co/who-gets-a-t...

The American AI strategy As the government shutdown drags on, VCs gathered at the Commonwealth Club to look at boobs on their phones and hear two congressmen gab about AI

ICYMI: Last Friday, our tech reporter @cydhayes.bsky.social went to an AI panel at the Commonwealth Club, where she found furloughed congressmen, Eastern spirituality, and NSFW groupchats.

sf.gazetteer.co/the-american...

The American AI strategy As the government shutdown drags on, VCs gathered at the Commonwealth Club to look at boobs on their phones and hear two congressmen gab about AI

Wrote about the government shutdown, venture capitalism, Eastern spirituality, and boobs

sf.gazetteer.co/the-american...

The corporate world has a heavily vested interest in injecting AI into every part of our lives.

As individuals we can’t stop the AI wave. But we can learn how these technologies are built, who they exploit, and decide for ourselves, as much as possible, how we choose to use it

It would have been easy to frame these gig workers in the weepiest way, as people stripped of their dignity, or, from the rosier perspective, as working class heroes.

The truth is it’s more nuanced than that. Anne and Vic are people who have lives and needs and mixed feelings on AI’s impact on SF

Tons of people responded, around 20 in the first day alone.

All but one asked about compensation. We can’t pay our sources, so of the people I found on Craigslist, only “Anne” ended up in the piece.

But the point is this sector of the gig economy is huge, obscure, and vulnerable to exploitation

To find sources, I met them where they’re at: Craigslist.

I posted two calls for sources for this story and tagged it under “AI” and “gigs”

Artificialize your intelligence for $25 an hour Craigslist is full of calls for ‘research participants’ to help train AI models. You only need to give a bit of your humanity

I spent a few weeks interviewing gig workers who sell their voices, bodies, behaviors, and other biometric data to AI startups building chabots and BCI technologies. (a thread)
sf.gazetteer.co/artificializ...

And if you don’t wanna gossip in public (so fair) message me privately on Signal: cyd.01

I will be at Moscone West covering TechCrunch Disrupt for @sf.gazetteer.co all week! I will also be wearing The Hat™️ all week! If you see me come give me your startup gossip pls (~˘▾˘)~

Can’t wait to moderate this talk :D This panel will accompany the feature I’m currently writing about the rise of print media, largely in response to the rise of AI slop and surveillance capitalism

Look out for the article coming soon, and come hang w us at Chat Room Nov 19!

If these walls could talk With an Instagram account you can practically smell, Brooke Janser documents the noble rot of San Francisco dive bar bathrooms

“There’s a certain point where it looks good because there's enough. But you don't get there overnight,” said Brooke Janser. “If someone commits and it's a good foundation, then they leave the foundation and let people build.”

sf.gazetteer.co/if-these-wal...

It is spooky season. And the sf billboards are indeed spooky

Beta-testing a new world order Today, SafetyWing wants customers for its insurance products. Tomorrow, it wants statehood

Last week, our tech reporter stopped by a tech week pop-up for an insurance startup—and stumbled upon a plan to build a VC-funded nation.

if you read the approach that tells me a lot about you (complimentary)

The burning question of Big Art As a billionaire-backed nonprofit is collaborating with the city to install 100 large-scale public art pieces around San Francisco, the art world has some notes

What does the local art world think of Big Art Loop's big proposal? sf.gazetteer.co/the-burning-...

this is great reporting about gross rich dudes littering the city with their leftover burning man junk

I’ll be moderating a panel about print media for this!

Marketing stunts? For tech week? Groundbreaking….

SCOOPLET: The collective of microinfluencer-technoartists tiat.place secured a lease at a chic downtown gallery. Will it have the reach to make Union Square…cool? Prob not, but with RTO sending more artsy yuppies to FiDi, I could see it becoming a scene and launching at least one real art career

The latest from my unofficial IRL-communities-attempt-to-solve-the-loneliness-crisis-created-by-capitalism beat:

Specialize or die What this month’s xAI layoffs say about the state of labor power

As AI takes over generalist tasks, "specialization" has become a watchword for young software engineers. But will it really help them protect their jobs?

Ah yes the rapture….just in time for Rosh Hashanah <3

“Wake up babe it’s Kang day” my editor and I say to each other for the tenth time today