Matt Potter

‘Instagram diplomacy’: concerns grow over Liz Truss’s publicly funded five photos a day From driving a tank to jogging in New York, the foreign secretary has made more than 700 appearances on the government’s Flickr account since taking up the job

The amount of fearlessness cosplay has reached Comicon levels not seen since www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

I love this man so much.

All relief flights from Dubai should be met at arrivals with signs saying "HM Revenue & Customs welcomes you back to the UK"

Ridiculous photo tweeted by right-wing columnist Isabel Oakeshott of her on a viewing window overlooking Dubai… wearing a warzone uniform with PRESS written on it as if she was in the Green Zone in Iraq back in ‘03.

Liz Truss funded 700 different photoshoots of herself looking combat-like and statesperson-ish when she became Tory foreign secretary, in a move dubbed ‘Instagram Diplomacy’ that saw her called the ‘Minister of Cosplay’. Here she is in full flak gear on a tank, in Estonia.

Netflix Backs Out of Bid for Warner Bros., Paving Way for an Ellison Takeover

The richest man owns X.

The second and third richest men control Google.

The fourth richest man owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

The fifth richest man owns The Washington Post.

And now the sixth richest could soon take over both Paramount and Warner Bros.

See the problem here?

AIs can’t stop recommending nuclear strikes in war game simulations Leading AIs from OpenAI, Anthropic and Google opted to use nuclear weapons in simulated war games in 95 per cent of cases

And you'll be even more blissfully calmed by the knowledge that one of AI's persistent tics in wargaming simulations is its consistent recommendation of nuclear strikes.

www.newscientist.com/article/2516...

If you love how AI hallucinates search results, you'll be fucking tickled pink when it identifies and hits its idea of US military targets without human oversight or intervention.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

THIS is how you social media.

Was he tripped up by his tendency to be too honourable

OpenAI Unveil “Final Slogan”

New AI models are losing their edge almost immediately Competitors can now match state-of-the-art systems in weeks, raising fears about distillation and shrinking advantages.

AI models are getting released - then quickly overtaken and copied by others within hours. My latest for @fastcompany.com is about what happens when moats disappear
www.fastcompany.com/91494576/new...

Cover of the book, ‘Guerrilla Radios in Southern Africa: Broadcasting, Technology, Propaganda, Wars, and the Armed Struggle’

Back cover and blurb of the same book.

Bought this fantastic book in the awesome Clarke’s Bookshop, amid the hubbub of Long Street, Cape Town, yesterday.

#southafrica #africanhistory #pirateradio #capetown #books

Last night, someone on this here website told me that no one is using AI agents yet and they're still way far in the future. But it's already happening.

A friend last year told me that most people are distracted by the idea that AI is "chatbots." I didn't get that at the time, but now I think I do.

A pack of cracker biscuits from South Africa with the brand name Salticrax

The fact that this brand does not have a slogan, “Other snack makers can eat our Salticrax” is a crime of negligence against brainstorming.

#salticrax #snacks #southafrica #advertising

Thank youuuuu! ☺️ xx

Hey hey! Yes, South Africa!

Monkeys crashing through the trees outside my balcony at dusk. Having a lovely little time there, you legend. ❤️

Thanks so much to the team at Casa Das Letras – as well as global agent extraordinaire @lorellabelliagency.bsky.social and her team, Humfrey Hunter at Silvertail, and the lovely people at Hachette in NYC.

I'm doing some press, but if anyone wants some more, you know where to find me. :)

Cover image of the nonfiction book, 'Estamos Todos na Mira - A Forma como Hackers Dissidentes Inventaram a Guerra Cibernética e Desencadearam uma Era de Caos Global' by Matt Potter

It’s here! My book on the origins & weird growth of cyberwar as global participation sport, ‘We Are All Targets' is published in a Portuguese edition this week by the wonderful team at Casa das Letras.

'Estamos Todos na Mira' is at all good bookshops and here: www.almedina.net/estamos-todo...

I’d pay to see the back-and-forth email thread workshopping this one with the PR advisers.

Always interesting to see how often safety takes a backseat to revenue in the tech industry. Unlike other industries, it has really light safety obligations and even those (CSAM on X) don’t seem to get any enforcement.

Seems odd for an industry embedded into every corner if society, no?

Toast with peanut butter and a poached egg

This combination of peanut butter, honey, chilli and poached egg probably shouldn't work... and yet it is freaking delicious 😋 🍳
#breakfast

Should we start a cooking channel @mattpotteruk.bsky.social?

This looks AMAZING!

As AI enters the operating room, reports arise of botched surgeries and misidentified body parts Medical device makers have been rushing to add AI to their products. While proponents say the new technology will revolutionize medicine, regulators are receiving a rising number of claims of patient ...

When AI was added to a tool for sinus surgery: “Cerebrospinal fluid leaked from one patient’s nose. In another… a surgeon mistakenly punctured the base of a patient’s skull. In two other cases, patients suffered strokes after a major artery was accidentally injured”

www.reuters.com/investigatio...

I love how Google were the first place I saw the ‘Are you a real user’ test that involved training the AI to pick out airborne helicopters. Hmmmmmmm 😭

Wow! I thought me getting off of Google products was a bit para!

It means other countries' govt staff, if they are interfacting with the French govt, will now also install & run these non-US platforms.

How the US has let its own sabre-rattling rhetoric undermine the very soft power that has helped it achieve its goals is a tragi-comic case study in self-harm.

If it's the French government, then it's also every last agency, supplier, contractor, business, network, educational establishment, NGO, individual & media organisation who interfaces with the French government or its programmes.

In France, & elsewhere.

Even just in EU/EMEA, that's a huge spread.

France to ban officials from US video tools including Zoom, Teams The government wants staff to shun Silicon Valley and shift to its home-grown Visio platform instead.

On its own, for Microsoft, Google etc., this is a small move.

But as an indicator of just how far trust in Silicon Valley's integrity (and its independence from the whims of a rogue US administration) has plummeted globally – even among allies - this is huge.

www.politico.eu/article/fran...

Not even kidding, I’d find myself able to handle a lot more news if it wasn’t constantly trying to spoof me into some high-stress response.