Nicholas Thompson

Stark and damning data about how much the AI companies scrape relative to the amount of traffic that they drive to the sites they scrape --- and how much worse it's getting. www.techpolicy.press/cloudflare-w...

Bananas. Why would anyone trust the numbers, even if they're good, after this?
www.nbcnews.com/business/eco...

Virginia Giuffre’s Family Was Shocked That Trump Described Her as ‘Stolen’ The siblings of one of Jeffrey Epstein’s most prominent accusers wonder what the president knows.

"It makes us ask if Trump was aware of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s criminal actions” Giuffre’s family said, “We and the public are asking for answers; survivors deserve this.” www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

Every Scientific Empire Comes to an End America’s run as the premiere techno-superpower may be over.

A sad statistic: 75% of American scientists said they are considering leaving the country.

China is recruiting them, and the EU has set aside money to do the same.
www.theatlantic.com/science/arch...

Why Trump Broke With Bibi Over the Gaza Famine The president wants the war to end and thinks Benjamin Netanyahu is standing in his way.

"He just really wants these stories to stop being on TV," a Trump adviser says.

Trump hasn't split with Netanyahu yet. But images of starving children are creating a news cycle he can't control—and dividing his base. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

Zelensky Learned the Wrong Lesson From Trump Trump withdrew from the fight against kleptocracy, and other countries have absorbed that fact.

"Brick by brick, Donald Trump has dismantled the apparatus that his predecessors built to constrain global kleptocracy, and leaders around the world have absorbed the fact that the pressure for open, democratic governance is off." www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

My favorite event of the year, The Atlantic Festival, is coming to New York this September. The agenda is packed with amazing people: Bryan Stevenson, Ken Burns, Jennifer Doudna, Mark Cuban, H.R. McMaster and many more. Get your pass today: theatlanticfestival.com #TAF25

Finally, a Democrat Who Could Shine on Joe Rogan’s Show Hunter Biden is unrepentant.

"Maybe clips of a president’s son defending habeas corpus and mentioning a crack dealer named Bicycles is what the attention economy demands."

This essay is fabulous in one hundred ways. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

YouTube video by CITIUS MAG The Running Ground: Nick Thompson On Life, Legacy and the Simplest of Sports

I loved getting to talk to @citiusmag.com about why I run, how I integrate it into my life, and what one can learn about oneself from this sport.

My kids like that they're in the video and that one of them is cooking me in a workout.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbxg...

Trump Will Lose His War on Laughter Comedy is his kryptonite.

"Trump can cancel all the comedians he wants, but he will never make us stop laughing at him." @borowitzreport.bsky.social www.borowitzreport.com/p/trump-will...

Nobody (Not Even Trump) Can Control the Epstein Story Welcome to the era of late-stage conspiracism.

"If there’s one person who can derail a Trump presidency, it appears that it might be a convicted sex offender who has been dead nearly six years."
www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

Trolls Aren’t Like the Rest of Us Online jerks and offline jerks are largely one and the same. Here’s how to keep them from affecting your happiness.

Clinical research has found that online trolls suffer from psychopathy, Machiavellianism, sadism, and narcissism, in that order.

We all just need to ignore them. www.theatlantic.com/family/archi...

The Wheels are Falling Off Netanyahu’s Government The Israeli leader has been alienating his allies and is spiraling toward early elections.

Outside of Israel, Netanyahu looks unassailable.
Inside of Israel, his support is plummeting and his coalition is falling apart. By @yair-rosenberg.bsky.social
www.theatlantic.com/internationa...

Why Trump Can’t Make the Epstein Story Go Away His brainwashing powers are finite.

"The Epstein matter is so crucial to Trump’s base, and the excuse offered is so flimsy, that the about-face has raised questions within perhaps the most gullible movement in American history."https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/07/trump-epstein-file/683525/

One of the most important cartoons for the AI era. From: marketoonist.com

'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...

Sexting With Gemini Why did Google’s supposedly teen-friendly chatbot say it wanted to tie me up?

It's surprisingly, and unfortunately, easy to get a chatbot to sext and talk dirty to a 13-year-old. And now the AI companies want to build products for even younger kids too. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

The Supreme Court Won’t Explain Itself In their decision allowing the Trump administration to dismantle the Department of Education, the justices didn’t offer one word of reasoning.

"The judiciary is a branch of government that is meant to provide reasons for its actions—to explain, both to litigants and to the public, why judges have done what they have done. This is part of what distinguishes law from the raw exercise of power." www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

The Trump Administration Is About to Incinerate 500 Tons of Emergency Food Federal workers warned for months that the high-energy biscuits would go to waste.

Biden spends $800k to buy calorie-dense biscuits for kids in war zones.
DOGE comes in and kills USAID.
No one knows what to do with the food.
So now we're spending $130k to burn the biscuits.
www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...

Start Budgeting Now Households will pay an average of $2,400 more for goods this year, thanks to Trump’s policies.

The administration's new tariffs will cause each household, on average, about $2,400 this year. That's a lot. www.theatlantic.com/economy/arch...

Why Do So Many People Think Trump Is Good? The work of the moral philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre helps illuminate some central questions of our time.

"He lies, cheats, steals, betrays, and behaves cruelly and corruptly, and more than 70 million Americans find him morally acceptable. Some even see him as heroic, admirable, and wonderful." David Brooks digs into moral philosophy to understand. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

The ‘Russia Hoax,’ Revisited CIA Director John Ratcliffe wants to rewrite history.

"It remains remarkable for a CIA director to accuse his predecessors of partisan malfeasance, citing as evidence a document, which he ordered be written, that does not actually say that."

The Backdoor Way That Pete Hegseth Could Keep Women Out of Combat Donald Trump’s Pentagon chief moderated his stance to get the job but is now pushing for change in the name of high standards.

Pete Hegseth wants a backdoor way to kick women out of combat, after promising under oath to keep them in. So he's seeking data showing that military standards have been lowered for women. Unfortunately for him, the data doesn't exist.

Trump Loves ICE. Its Workforce Has Never Been So Miserable. A “mission impossible” deportation campaign has left many employees burned out and morally conflicted.

Trump loves ICE. But @nickmiroff.bsky.social spoke with dozens of employees and they're miserable. They're exhausted, confused by the quotas, and tired of "arresting gardeners."

The Nuclear Club Might Soon Double As American power recedes, South Korea, Japan, and a host of other countries may pursue the bomb.

"Every moment that humanity spends with these weapons spread across the Earth, pointed at one another, is a foolish gamble with the highest-possible stakes." www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

Take Off the Mask, ICE The federal government should prohibit the wearing of masks by ICE agents and require them to properly identify themselves.

The federal government should prohibit the wearing of masks by ICE agents and require them to properly identify themselves.

“Descending on a person in public, laying hands on them, and taking them to a distant prison is a naked expression of state power.”

Denmark Is Fighting AI by Giving Citizens Copyright to Their Own Faces Denmark has put forth a proposal that would give every one of its citizens the ability to protect themselves from AI...

“Denmark has put forth a proposal that would give every citizen the legal grounds to go after someone who uses their image without their consent”

Top notch session going on right now at the #AIForGood Global Summit.

@nxthompson.bsky.social of @theatlantic.com is interviewing Turing Laureate @geoffreyhinton.bsky.social n on the future of agentic #AI.

You can catch the live stream here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETbz...

4.6 Billion Years On, the Sun Is Having a Moment In the past two years, without much notice, solar power has begun to truly transform the world’s energy system.

Among all the big bad things happening on our planet, there's one Big Good Thing, the sudden, startling rise of solar energy.
It changes the power dynamic, in every sense of the word 'power.'
www.newyorker.com/news/annals-...

H. Elon Perot Another angry billionaire wants his own political party.

It's not clear who wants Elon's new political party. Dems hate him now. National security Republicans, social conservatives, and business leaders don't trust him. He may get some swing voters. The real risk for Trump is that he flips the "crackpot vote." www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...