Paul Prinsloo 🏳️‍🌈🇿🇦🇵🇸

The drunk uncle theory.

You don’t argue with the casually homophobic uncle at Thanksgiving dinner to change his mind; you argue so that the closeted cousin at the kids table knows there’s safe people and better possibilities out there

European Parliament Votes Overwhelmingly For "The Full Recognition Of Trans Women As Women" The resolution, though nonbinding, is a significant shot at those who seek to erode transgender rights on the continent.

In incredible news, the European Parliament has voted overwhelmingly for "The Full Recognition Of Trans Women As Women."

Even the center-right European People's Party voted for the declaration.

It will form a foundation for their position at the UN Commission on the Status of Women.

Our latest.

Ed-Tech Dragnet “With Ring, American Consumers Built a Surveillance Dragnet” writes 404 Media co-founder Jason Koebler, in response to Amazon’s ad in the Super Bowl promising that its front poor camera could be turne...

With the "hardware and software that schools have adopted in the last few decades, they too have built a surveillance dragnet, one that is being actively used to identify, harass, arrest, imprison, fire, monitor, and deport teachers and students and school community members," writes Audrey Watters.

Australian Census on University Staff Wellbeing results are out. Every uni recorded scores indicating high/very high psych risk.

And in news surprising no one, "only senior execs and deans rated their workplaces as medium or low risk while all other staff groups reported high-risk conditions."

No crypto in Canton: Town blocks data centers and crypto mining operations Canton’s makeshift town hall in a tiny trailer was bursting at the seams Wednesday night with citizens united against data centers and cryptocurrency mining.

For my money, the way thousands of regular people are self-organizing to resist data centers is one of the most cautiously hopeful stories going right now.

www.themountaineer.com/news/no-cryp...

How TikTok 2.0 Became a Weapon for ICE In just one week, the company has gone from being Gen Z’s preferred social media platform to a tool for spying on Americans and the suppression of information.

newrepublic.com/article/2059...

“These are not tools for mass surveillance.” — Emma Daniels, Ring “These are not tools for mass surveillance,” Daniels said. “We build the right guardrails, and we’re super transparent about them.”

Saying it doesn’t make it so. www.theverge.com/tech/876866/...

Person: say, i am alive. Computer: I am alive. Person: oh my god.

Heads we win, tails you lose: AI detectors in education The increasing use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in student assessment has led to institutional reliance on detection tools. Unlike plagiarism detection, AI detection relies on unverif...

"AI detection should not be used in education due to its methodological imperfections, violation of procedural fairness, and unverifiable outputs."

‘Rage knitting’ against the machine: the hobbyists putting anti-ICE messages into crafts Makers take a stand through ‘Melt the ICE’ red knit caps and sparkly nails – all while raising funds for those affected by immigration raids

Staff at a Twin Cities yarn store put together a pattern for a red knit “Melt the ICE” hat inspired by the Norwegian resistance.

They thought they would attract 10 people to a weekly knit-along.

They’ve sold 70,000 copies, raising more than $250k for immigrant aid groups.

Fellow writers: I am deeply saddened to share that if we want the rewards of having written, we must submit to the mortifying ordeal of writing

New OpenAI tool renews fears that “AI slop” will overwhelm scientific research New "Prism" workspace launches just as studies show AI-assisted papers are flooding journals with diminished quality.

It never fails to surprise me how many scientists seem to believe actually reading to "find relevant research," and writing, are not thinking, are not essential to the grandiose goals they have of "doing science."

arstechnica.com/ai/2026/01/n...

Calling all the PhDs I know to make monumental annoyances of themselves (and honestly, who better)

🚨 New! The US govt is engaging in extraordinary market intervention to bolster the AI sector. In this brief, Policy Director brianjchen.bsky.social analyzes major priorities of the Trump admin’s AI agenda and proposes alternative directions to shape tech innovation. datasociety.net/library/the-...

Webb reveals a planetary nebula with phenomenal clarity, and it is spectacular The colors show the star’s final breath transforming into the raw ingredients for new worlds.

It really is quite a view.

Fury as Amazon Ring Cameras Are Hooked Up to ICE System Online activists are telling owners of Ring Doorbell cameras that it's time to get rid of their devices, which can be used by ICE.

“Safety experts and tech critics have long condemned the Ring devices for security risks and privacy violations, not to mention their role in building the largest civilian surveillance network in US history.”

Teaching AI Ethics 2026: Human Labour This is an updated post in the series exploring AI ethics, building on the original 2023 discussion of human labour. Since 2023, the human cost of AI has become one of the most pressing ethical issues in the industry, with major lawsuits, union formation, and investigative journalism bringing the exploitation of workers into public view.

Since 2023, the human cost of AI has become one of the most pressing ethical issues in the industry, with major lawsuits, union formation, and investigative journalism bringing the exploitation of workers into public view. #ArtificialIntelligence #AIEducation #AIEdu #AIInEd #AIInEdu #AIEthics

I am assembling resources for @aial.ie to mitigate/reduce risks (due to our research) from potential:

1)retaliation, defamation lawsuit etc for work on politically charged topics

2)emotional harm from dealing with sensitive issues (CSAM, hate, etc)

know of any helpful resources? pls share/repost

Wow, when schools are so dependent on tech infrastructure that they have to "close entirely" when there's an outage

"The outage went far beyond email and classroom software, leaving the school unable to operate basic physical safety systems."

The risks of AI in schools outweigh the benefits, report says A new report warns that AI poses a serious threat to children's cognitive development and emotional well-being.

Plese repost & share: "The risks of using generative artificial intelligence to educate children and teens currently overshadow the benefits, according to a new study by the Brookings Institution's Center for Universal Education."
www.npr.org/2026/01/14/n...

Hundreds of staff leave Edinburgh University amid cuts drive According to the university, 345 of these departures were the result of a targeted voluntary severance (VS) scheme run by the institution in 2025.

Missing from the coverage of redundancies at Edinburgh: this was done in such a haphazard, uncoordinated way, there are now core teams who have gone from 5 people to 1 with no change in workload or pressure and huge loss in knowledge of institutional process. www.heraldscotland.com/news/2576321...

Exclusive: US gets first $500 million Venezuelan oil deal, holding some proceeds in Qatar The details shared with Semafor mark an initial milestone in the administration’s plan following the ouster of Nicolás Maduro.

The main bank account holding revenue from the Venezuelan oil sales is located in Qatar.

“There is no basis in law for a president to set up an offshore account that he controls so that he can sell assets seized by the American military,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

www.semafor.com/article/01/1...

ChatGPT wrote “Goodnight Moon” suicide lullaby for man who later killed himself ChatGPT used a man's favorite children's book to romanticize his suicide.

“Gordon at least once asked ChatGPT to describe ‘what the end of consciousness might look like.’ Writing three persuasive paragraphs in response, logs show that ChatGPT told Gordon that suicide was ‘not a cry for help—though it once was. But a final kindness. A liberation.’”

If ICE and genocide and grift and tyranny weren’t enough, this alone should have fire running down every street in America.

This isn’t the way to live.

We do not have to live this way.

After a White Town Rejected a Data Center, Developers Targeted a Black Area Four million Americans live within 1 mile of a data center. The communities closest to them are “overwhelmingly” non-white.

"There’s a lot of national narrative around AI and data centers, but on the ground these fights are very simple: who gets sacrificed, and whose communities are treated as expendable," says Robby Maynor of @selc.bsky.social. capitalbnews.org/data-center-...

You Won’t Be Able to Escape Smart Glasses in 2026 Meta is betting big on AI eyewear, with production of its Ray-Ban collaboration expected to hit 10 million pairs annually by the end of the year. But will the tech-ified accessory ever actually be con...

The funny thing is that you can see these exact same articles written about Google Glass in 2012. Casting them as inevitable is part of the hype cycle.

California to investigate Elon Musk's Grok over sexualized images California Attorney General Rob Bonta called the "avalanche of reports" of nonconsensual deepfakes of women and girls "shocking."

About time. Elon cannot be allowed to get away with this.

www.politico.com/news/2026/01...

Wikipedia 25 virtual birthday party YouTube video by Wikipedia

English Wikipedia is turning 25 and the champions of open knowledge infrastructure are calling the bold editors, the talk page philosophers, typo hunters, and edit warriors to join in a virtual celebration. When? See details on YouTube www.youtube.com/live/C5rPmv2...