Kashmir Hill

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.

Statement from FPF Chief of Advocacy Seth Stern: “The government’s arrests of journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort are naked attacks on freedom of the press. Two federal courts flatly rejected prosecuting Lemon because the evidence for these vindictive and unconstitutional charges was insufficient, and Lemon has every right to document news and inform the public. Instead of accepting that humiliating defeat, the government has now doubled down. “These arrests, under bogus legal theories for obviously constitutionally protected reporting, are clear warning shots aimed at other journalists. The unmistakable message is that journalists must tread cautiously because the government is looking for any way to target them. Fort’s arrest is meant to instill the same fear in local independent journalists as big names like Lemon. “The answer to this outrageous attack is not fear or self-censorship. It’s an even stronger commitment to journalism, the truth, and the First Amendment. If the Trump administration thinks it can bully journalists into submission, it is wrong. We’ve recently seen that even in the Trump era, public pressure still can work. It’s time to do it again. News outlets across the political spectrum need to loudly defend Lemon’s and Fort’s rights. Journalists are not making themselves the story, Trump is.”

The government’s arrests of journalists @donlemonofficial.bsky.social and @bygeorgiafort.bsky.social are attacks on freedom of the press.

Two federal courts flatly rejected prosecuting Lemon, but instead of accepting that humiliating defeat, the government has now doubled down.

Read our statement:

“The government’s arrests of journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort are naked attacks on freedom of the press. Two federal courts flatly rejected prosecuting Lemon because the evidence for these vindictive and unconstitutional charges was insufficient, and Lemon has every right to document news and inform the public. Instead of accepting that humiliating defeat, the government has now doubled down. “These arrests, under bogus legal theories for obviously constitutionally protected reporting, are clear warning shots aimed at other journalists. The unmistakable message is that journalists must tread cautiously because the government is looking for any way to target them. Fort’s arrest is meant to instill the same fear in local independent journalists as big names like Lemon. “The answer to this outrageous attack is not fear or self-censorship. It’s an even stronger commitment to journalism, the truth, and the First Amendment."

"News outlets across the political spectrum need to loudly defend [independent journalists Don] Lemon’s and [Georgia] Fort’s rights. Journalists are not making themselves the story, Trump is.”

Full Freedom of the Press Foundation statement below.

One of the greatest fears for facial recognition tech is its use to suppress dissent. Congress has been talking about creating laws for facial recognition since the "Snooper Bowl" in 2001, when it was unknowingly used on football fans (wrote about it in my book). But lawmakers never got it done.

How ICE Already Knows Who Minneapolis Protesters Are

Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/t...

How ICE Already Knows Who Minneapolis Protesters Are

ICE has weapons of war...
www.nytimes.com/video/us/100...

...and surveillance: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/t...

... including face recognition app Clearview AI. In 2024, DHS was only using Clearview for child exploitation investigations. Now use includes investigating "attacks on law enforcement."

What OpenAI Did When ChatGPT Users Lost Touch With Reality

OpenAI will retire GPT 4o on Feb 13: openai.com/index/retiri...

In November, we wrote about how OpenAI engineered this model to be more engaging, resulting in harmful effects on some users: www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/t...

That's a good question. I still drive the Bolt I wrote about.

Screenshot of text: "General Motors disclosed on Tuesday that the automaker is facing significant liability over allegations that it secretly gathered and sold private personal information from millions of customers, according to new filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The company’s annual report for the year ending Dec. 31, 2025 notes that GM has already accumulated $500 million in costs related to investigations and litigation involving use of its OnStar Smart Driver technology — and warns it can’t even estimate the potential financial impact."

Whoa, the longterm effects of the reporting I did on GM's sale of people's driving information to risk profilers: phoebewallhoward.substack.com/p/gm-warns-o...

Here's the Company That Sold DHS ICE's Notorious Face Recognition App Immigration agents have used Mobile Fortify to scan the faces of countless people in the US—including many citizens.

NEW we got more details about Mobile Fortify, the facial recognition app that immigration agents have reportedly been using: www.wired.com/story/mobile...

Small part of the story, but a note on how LLMs are being used by scammers.

He Leaked the Secrets of a Southeast Asian Scam Compound. Then He Had to Get Out Alive A source trapped inside an industrial-scale scamming operation contacted me, determined to expose his captors’ crimes—and then escape. This is his story.

Incredible story by @agreenberg.bsky.social, both on the scam compound operation and how he navigated a uniquely difficult and dangerous situation for his source. This one should be required reading for journalism ethics classes: www.wired.com/story/he-lea...

Another article by @kashhill.bsky.social about the harms to which LLMs are being tied

How Bad Are A.I. Delusions? We Asked People Treating Them.

I’ll confess, my initial reaction when stories like this started dribbling out was that the folks described must have had some preexisting issue waiting to be set off by something or other. But the more accumulate, the more it seems like… no, it’s the LLMs. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/26/u...

Oh that’s good

How Bad Are A.I. Delusions? We Asked People Treating Them.

One of many awful stories: “One woman, who had no history of mental illness, asked ChatGPT for advice on a major purchase she had been fretting about. After days of the bot validating her worries, she became convinced that businesses were colluding to have her investigated by the government.”

How Bad Are A.I. Delusions? We Asked People Treating Them.

Fascinating article, conversations w/ medical professionals about AI use in their patients. Takeaways:

1) AI psychosis moving firmly from anecdote to data
2) "They were going to have a breakdown anyway" misunderstands causes of psychotic breaks
3) Chatbot addiction may be a presenting condition

Once again, the government is trying to get you to believe your own eyes are lying to you. This was another murder by ICE, an agency that proves day after day it has no business policing on America’s streets.

The federal government is gunning people down in the streets, lying about what happened and then preventing any independent investigation of the killings

Videos Show Moments in Which Agents Killed a Man in Minneapolis

NYT: “.. an American citizen with no criminal record, the city police chief said. A New York Times video analysis shows he was holding a phone, not a gun.”

@nytimes.com
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/24/u...

Genetic Data From Over 20,000 U.S. Children Misused for ‘Race Science’

A group of fringe researchers thwarted safeguards at the NIH and gained access to genetic data from 20,000+ children – and they've used it to promote claims that white people are genetically superior. (by Mike McIntire) 🎁🔗 www.nytimes.com/2026/01/24/u...

Hiring in an era of fake candidates, real scams and AI slop – The Markup AI-written applications, an impersonator and a recruiter scam followed just one remote job posting.

AI application slop: themarkup.org/hello-world/...

Would love to know the breakdown of AI that has saved time versus consumed more of it

I have discovered that arguments are a feature of marriage to a lawyer.

The tally is roughly 14 yeses, 15 nos, and a few depends.

Also very interesting links to studies that find that reading and listening activate the same parts of the brain, including this one: www.jneurosci.org/content/39/3...

Narrow victory for @trevortimm.bsky.social.

Detention of 5-Year-Old by Federal Agents Incenses Minneapolis

Not just Minneapolis, me thinks www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/u...

🙏

Man Who Had Managed Mental Illness Effectively for Years Says ChatGPT Sent Him Into Hospitalization for Psychosis John Jacquez successfully managed a mental illness for years, he says. Then ChatGPT reinforced delusions, spiraling him into "AI psychosis."

Another lawsuit against OpenAI drops.

This sentiment is a key problem in other realms beyond mental health: "“ChatGPT has all this power and data behind it, and it’s telling me that I’m right, that this is a real thing I’m working on.'"

futurism.com/artificial-i...

I'd like to find those

An email from ChatGPT advertising ways to use the chatbot

We're at the "please-come-back emails" stage of development

Good point, though there are some books I've read in life that I'm not sure I totally paid attention to. Textbook reading in high school, notoriously.