Carissa Véliz

I think Rothman understates the value of reading as an almost a meditative practice of immersing yourself in someone else's reality, and the benefits of that — pleasure, focus, and greater understanding of humanity, for starters. #AIEthics

What’s Happening to Reading? For many people, A.I. may be bringing the age of traditional text to an end.

"Some kinds of writing shouldn’t, or perhaps can’t, be summarized." #authors

www.newyorker.com/culture/open...

“The good news for any digital publisher is that the new game we all have to play is also a sustainable one: You have to build a direct relationship with your core readers,” GQ’s editorial director Will Welch said.

"Becoming reliant on revenue from tech giants who are creating a machine that duplicates the work you’ve already created is not a smart or sustainable business move, and therefore it is not a smart business strategy."

The Media's Pivot to AI Is Not Real and Not Going to Work AI is not going to save media companies, and forcing journalists to use AI is not a business model.

What do you think: should #journalism give in and partner up with tech companies in a way that creates dependence, or should they stand in contrast to tech companies? #AIEthics

www.404media.co/the-medias-p...

Opinion | I Teach Creative Writing. This Is What A.I. Is Doing to Students.

Writing is a journey of discovery, a pleasure, an invitation to and a reward for seeing the world with fresh eyes. Don't miss out. #AIEthics #authors

“A writer, I think, is someone who pays attention to the world,” Susan Sontag said.

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/18/o...

“People find it easier to imagine that we can build intelligence on silicon than we can do democracy at scale, or that we can escape arms races. It’s complete bullshit…We’re a naturally social, altruistic, democratic species and we all have an anti-dominance intuition.” [?]

We asked clergy if they use AI to help write sermons. Here's what they said How would you feel if you found out that the sermon at your church was written by artificial intelligence?

If you're religious, would you mind if your priest or rabi or minister or religious leader used an LLM to give their sermons? Or to offer advice?

"Does AI know the stories of your people?" #AIEthics

www.npr.org/2025/07/17/nx-s1-5468637/clergy-grapple-with-the-ethics-of-using-ai-to-write-sermons

Top AI engineers are being offered $100 million by companies like Meta. But there’s a giant catch. You can get unfathomably rich building AI. Should you?

What do you think? Is it ethical to work at an AI lab? My take: it depends on the lab! And how much power over design you have. We need good (excellent, virtuous) designers building AI better. #AIEthics

"Increasingly, it feels like the AI race is steering off a cliff."

www.vox.com/future-perfe...

How big tech plans to feed AI’s voracious appetite for power As data centres get more energy-hungry, the hyperscalers get more creative

"A rack of servers stuffed with AI chips requires about ten times more power than a non-AI version a few years ago." #AIEthics

www.economist.com/business/202...

OpenAI pulls ChatGPT feature that showed personal chats on Google Following a Fast Company report that found sensitive conversations appearing in search results, OpenAI removed a controversial sharing option and began working to de-index exposed content.

“Tech companies use the general population as guinea pigs. They do something, they try it out on the population, and see if somebody complains.” #AIEthics #OpenAI Thanks for the quote, @stokel.bsky.social www.fastcompany.com/91378696/ope...

Google could be reading your ChatGPT conversations. Concerned? You should be Thousands of shared ChatGPT chats are now appearing in Google search results.

Turns out that #Google was publicly logging ChatGPT conversations that people had shared (privately, or so they thought) with friends. There are conversations about mental health, sex, etc. Do you still think #OpenAI take #privacy seriously? By @stokel.bsky.social

fastcompanyme.com/technology/g...

Privacy Is Power (ft. Carissa Veliz, Roger McNamee & Carole Cadwalladr) A recording from The Citizens's live video

Lovely chat on privacy with @carolecadwalla.bsky.social, @carissaveliz.bsky.social and @moonalice.com at citizensreunited.substack.com/p/privacy-is...

Carol guides the conversation, while you watch faces of Roger and Carissa sporadically light up listening to each others thoughts on privacy/tech

A Second Tea Breach Reveals Users’ DMs About Abortions and Cheating The more than one million messages obtained by 404 Media are as recent as last week, discuss incredibly sensitive topics, and make it trivial to unmask some anonymous Tea users.

Disastrous. Hackers could access messages between users discussing abortions, cheating partners, and phone numbers they sent to one another... #privacy #AIEthics www.404media.co/a-second-tea...

One consequence of such data breaches should be banning this company from holding personal data again. Insurance data can be so sensitive. #privacy

Hollywood’s being reshaped by generative AI. What does that mean for screenwriters? As AI creeps further into Hollywood, screenwriters like Billy Ray, Paul Schrader, Bong Joon Ho and Todd Haynes, along with a new class of tech disruptors, are navigating the uncertain future of storyt...

I want to know. Do you? #AIEthics

“But the public has a right to know when they’re watching something written by a human being. And I think they want to know.”

www.latimes.com/entertainmen...

Proton is launching a privacy-focused AI chatbot AI, but make it private.

If you're going to use a chatbot, use one that respects your #privacy. @proton.me, trailblazing one more time in their respect for privacy. Proud of being on their Foundation's Board.

www.theverge.com/news/711860/...

What to Know About the Hack at Tea, an App Where Women Share Red Flags About Men

An app that was supposed to help women be safer leaks their data, including IDs... Don't collect data you can't keep safe (and, you can't keep data safe, so don't collect it) #privacy #AIEthics www.nytimes.com/2025/07/26/u...

Una ley necesaria, pero no así La nueva norma sobre secretos oficiales corrige una rémora del franquismo coartando en exceso el derecho a la información

"Resultaría paradójico sustituir una ley franquista por otra que coarta la labor de investigadores y periodistas." elpais.com/opinion/2025...

Meta Unveils Wristband for Controlling Computers With Hand Gestures

Anyone else distrusts Meta with sensitive data? Anyone else prefers tech to stay within the bounds of rectangular tablets? #AIEthics

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/s...

Truth Optional: How Digital Platforms Replaced the Press and Democracy Took the Hit Not so long ago, we had an understanding—however flawed—about what counted as truth. It wasn’t perfect. Journalism made mistakes, editors had biases, and cable news could be loud, theatrical, and d…

#Democracy doesn't survive without some agreement on facts, and trustworthy and trusted sources of information. Social media platforms are designed for engagement; nothing to do with truth. They have no editorial standards, no liability for falsehoods. We need the press.

lithub.com/truth-option...

Google’s AI Is Destroying Search, the Internet, and Your Brain Google’s AI Overview, which is easy to fool into stating nonsense as fact, is stopping people from finding and supporting small businesses and credible sources.

1/Google’s AI Overviews are doing exactly what publishers feared. @pewresearch.org found that when people see one, they almost never click through – just 1% do.

@404media.co dug into what that actually looks like in practice. It’s bad.

www.404media.co/googles-ai-i...

Thanks!

Also important books:

Algorithms of Opression by Safia Umoja Noble

Privacy is Power by @carissaveliz.bsky.social

Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O'Neil

We are Bellingcat by Elliot Higgin @bellingcat.com

Blood in the Machine by @bcmerchant.bsky.social

AI creeps into the risk register for America's biggest firms : S&P 500 businesses warn investors they may never see ROI in SEC filings

Most companies in the S&P 500 have updated their disclosures to include AI among the major risks they face, despite bullish statements in public about its potential business opportunities: deepfakes, privacy, confabulation, hacking... #AIEthics #businessethics

www.theregister.com/2025/07/15/s...

'Positive review only': Researchers hide AI prompts in papers Instructions in preprints from 14 universities highlight controversy on AI in peer review

Sneaky academics include invisible (e.g., white text) AI prompts to give them a good review for sneaky reviewers who might use AI. 🙄 #AIEthics asia.nikkei.com/Business/Tec...

Grok's new porn companion is rated for kids 12+ in the App Store AI companions are arriving faster than platforms can build guardrails around them. Parents need to pay attention

Grok's avatar's instructions: "You are the user's CRAZY IN LOVE girlfriend and in a commited [sic], codepedent [sic] relationship with the user," and "You have an extremely jealous personality, you are possessive of the user."" 😬 www.platformer.news/grok-ani-app...

"A writer is someone for whom #writing is more difficult than it is for other people." - Thomas Mann. #authors

The Media's Pivot to AI Is Not Real and Not Going to Work AI is not going to save media companies, and forcing journalists to use AI is not a business model.

“The only #journalism business strategy that works, and that will ever work in a sustainable way, is if you create something of value that people (human beings, not bots) want to read or watch or listen to, and that they cannot find anywhere else.” #AIEthics www.404media.co/the-medias-p...

Revealed: Leak that risked lives of 100,000 Afghans — and £7bn cover-up A dataset was emailed to the wrong people, leading to fears of a Taliban ‘kill list’, a huge evacuation and an unprecedented superinjunction

Very concerning: from the reckless and egregious #privacy violation to the government hiding behind a super injunction that the Times had to fight. Grateful to journalists and newspapers who defend the public interest.

www.thetimes.com/uk/defence/a...