Rob Day

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Hey all. I know the "official" policy of BlueSky denizens is that AI is 100% bad, but I regret to inform you that all kinds of impact investors are now readying their own AI tools to make good use of it.

Maybe in this case simply doing ad hominem attacks on a new innovation isn't working.

Old fuel pumps outside against a wall. On top of them is a sign with the text 'Antiquité - Brocante' (Antiques - Flea Market).

Antiquité

One of my favorite parts of Bluesky is scientists, writers, and other creative folks sharing and discussing their work. How cool is it to be able to talk to experts from all over the world about their ideas and creations? Please share your cool stuff and amplify others who do!

Trump's total war on wind and solar ends All of the Above Energy Policy.

It also triggers a whirlwind that the oil, coal and gas industries will reap when they are targeted.

heatmap.news/energy/trump...
Credit @michael-thomas.bsky.social #energysky

In short, BlueSky folks:

Be more useful. Treat this less as an echo chamber of Chicken Little “the sky is falling” bs and more as a community of pragmatic problem-solvers.

Please?

Saying “AI is going to happen, here’s how we need to be prepared to deal with it across multiple topics” is basically the same as saying “it’s going to be raining today, here’s how to dress for it.”

Engaging on that topic is not endorsing rainy days, my friends.

I really wish more of the very smart people on BlueSky would share thoughts like these — thoughts about how to adapt and deal with emergent tech (good or bad!).

Instead, I just mostly see people bitching about how awful stuff is and is going to be and wishcasting it not happening. Not helpful.

And of course, this will bring back the perceived authenticity of handwritten letters and obviously personally-created messages. “I would have written you a more authentic letter, but I didn’t have the time.”

Bonus: Will this mean AIs will learn your poor grammar to sound like your true dumb self?

As someone who has enough content posted online that ChatGPT can actually copy my “voice” shockingly well (I’ve tested it), I can tell you this means either:

1. For some people, they will change their personal voice to match the AI (ew)

2. For many others, they will take the time to train theirs.

Back onto interpersonal communications… Using an AI to craft your communications without training it on your own authentic “voice” will become synonymous with being “fake” and/or a noob. “In a joking tone” is either really fake or superfluous depending upon your usual tone.

Since the dawn of the American Republic, “news” that is biased heavily in favor of a certain ideology or individual has been the norm, not the exception. Why would this next wave be any different?

This would, note, enable the biased AIs like Grok to direct the content creation in the ways they want.

Clearly training Grok on actual facts isn’t working out as Elon hoped, but if he built a whole news org around his political vision… and used that as a preferred content source…

What’s to stop these heavily-financed, increasingly humongous AI / tech companies from launching their own news and info teams and brands?

Will the NYT of tomorrow be the “ChatGPT News Network”? Teams of reporters + editors + AI working together to create massive amounts of content for the Ai?

With all the concern over AI “stealing info” from actual reporters, scientists and other original facts/content creators, plus the voracious need for more such timely info, plus all the challenges Grok and others have filtering for their owners’ biased “truth”, here’s a counter intuitive thought:

The emergence of AI and people using it as a crutch for messaging will lead to even more emphasis on “authenticity” in human relations. Business world, politics, romantic relationships.

Since most of BlueSky is bitterly anti-AI, thought a few constructive thoughts might be useful here. Others?

Make all the data and documentation freely available on the internet, and have the legal team publicly give up the intellectual property before someone shuts off the lights in the lab and cuts access to the computer systems.

This could be US but y’all playin

Oh? Does somebody have a problem with COAL???

Actually I believe Soluna was doing it first?

Is that good?

Trump Will Slow, but May Not Stop, the Rise of Electric Vehicles

Trump will slow but not stop the rise of electric vehicles
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/03/b... 🔌💡 🔌🚗

Photo of two Indian women leading an elephant which is wearing a striped blanket covering with red leggings

Local women crochet/knit sweaters for rescued often sick and vulnerable elephants when night temperatures fall low, at the Elephant Conservation Care Center, India #UnravellingWomensArt

It’s very clear the future is EVs. Astonishing how fast they have taken over in these markets.

A lot of folks still have 2000-2010s era power prices in their heads as “normal” with an expectation that we will return to “normal” at some point.

There are many reasons that isn’t true, but this is probably the biggest among them. We are in a new era of power prices.

This year, India will beat the US on renewables deployment. Its goal to reach 500 GW in carbon-free power capacity by 2030 now looks achievable. www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

Texas right now: 32% solar, 23% wind.

With nuclear, that's 61.6% zero-carbon right now, in Texas.

For more: gwagner.com/texas-solar

Silicon Valley Is Nearing A Breaking Point The tech industry will soon need to shift to pragmatic thinking about society, the economy, and the planet.

A bit of a change of pace from my usual sustainability-centric @forbes columns. "Silicon Valley Is Nearing A Breaking Point"

www.forbes.com/sites/robday...

Is that good?