Becca Lewis

How OpenAI Uses Complex and Circular Deals to Fuel Its Multibillion-Dollar Rise Here are seven unusual financial agreements helping to drive the ambitions of the poster child of the A.I. revolution.

"Many of the deals OpenAI has struck — with chipmakers, cloud computing companies and others — are strangely circular. OpenAI receives billions from tech companies before sending those billions back to the same companies to pay for computing power and other services." www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Lewis in front of a newspaper article about Gilder "out to turn back the clock on feminism"

Lewis brilliantly takes us through the building of this conservative network -- biiig woof to this particular slide from me :

Thanks bri 😭😭 and hope we get to chat more soon!!

Lewis in front of a slide of "the power of the Microchip" (and a pic of a microchip)

same image, but with newspaper clipping of "the cathedral of our era: the microchip" by Gilder in 1989

@beccalew.bsky.social talks for a bit about the promise of the Microchip — I think the subtext here (the one I'm thinking about anyhow) is the parallel between the "promise of the Microchip" and the "promise of AI"

US anti-fascism expert blocked from flying to Spain at airport Rutgers University professor who published book on antifa was informed at boarding gate that his trip was cancelled

Extremely disturbing developments here

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

So excited about the upcoming release of Equator! "We began to imagine a new cultural venture, one that rejects the nihilistic idea that the powerful do what they please, and success is the only measure of moral virtue."

Israel accused of detaining Greta Thunberg in infested cell and making her hold flags Activist tells Swedish officials she has been subjected to harsh treatment, including insufficient food and water

““They dragged little Greta [Thunberg] by her hair before our eyes, beat her, and forced her to kiss the Israeli flag. They did everything imaginable to her, as a warning to others,” the Turkish activist ErsinÇelik, a participant in the Sumud flotilla, told Anadolu news agency.”+

ICE to Buy Tool that Tracks Locations of Hundreds of Millions of Phones Every Day Documents show that ICE has gone back on its decision to not use location data remotely harvested from peoples' phones. The database is updated every day with billions of pieces of location data.

New from 404 Media: ICE to buy tool that tracks locations of hundreds of millions of phones every day. Billions of pieces of location data. ICE previously stopped using data remotely harvested from smartphones. Now it's buying it again. Usually used w/o warrant
www.404media.co/ice-to-buy-t...

photo of paulina borsook

1/ A longtime Wired editor just wrote a mush-brained essay about how he totally missed the political rot of Silicon Valley (& still doesn't get it).

But in the late 1990s, a Wired journalist warned of a toxic ideology bubbling up from tech. Paulina Borsook has largely been erased. Let's change that

Ooooooh this looks amazing, ty!

Does anyone have any good recs on literature about the rise of celebrity CEOs as a cultural and/or economic phenomenon?

(no title) Visit the post for more.

A cool CFP for academics studying podcasting!
criesandwhispers2026.wordpress.com

‘Headed for technofascism’: the rightwing roots of Silicon Valley The industry’s liberal reputation is misleading. Its reactionary tendencies – celebrating wealth, power and traditional masculinity – have been clear since the dotcom mania of the 1990s

Powerful analysis by @beccalew.bsky.social in @theguardian.com what looks like a recent backlash against diversity on digital platforms is in fact rooted in the 1990s, when masculinity, entrepreneurship & deregulation fused into a high-tech civilizational project www.theguardian.com/technology/n...

On this week's @onthemedia.bsky.social: @micahloewinger.bsky.social asking @beccalew.bsky.social about some of silicon valley's technocratic right-wing roots; Buckley and George Gilder to Marc Andreesen, Futurism to Fascism.

You might already know it, but i guarantee you know somebody who doesn't.

Hi hello @onthemedia.bsky.social is rerunning some interviews I did. One with @beccalew.bsky.social and another with Bluesky CEO @jay.bsky.team. The episode also features @mmasnick.bsky.social, and @mollyfication.bsky.social’s excellent interview with @amandahess.bsky.social. Great show! Listen:

@beccalew.bsky.social sempre no ponto

“Without immediate intervention, the last remaining reporters in Gaza are going to die.”

Trump Administration Live Updates: Supreme Court Clears Way for Dismantling of Education Department

The horrors are coming so quickly but this one really hurts

www.nytimes.com/live/2025/07...

Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale announced today that, “The Abundance Institute, in partnership with Stand Together, is raising $4M to place a strike team of 15-20 AI-native software engineers, data scientists, & product leaders inside the FDA…” 7/7/25 1/ blog.joelonsdale.com/p/engineerin...

Trans youth fight for care as California clinics cave to Trump: ‘How can this happen here?’ These teens say gender-affirming care saved their lives – now they’re protesting as two leading US hospitals halt their treatments

“Families across California told the Guardian they were exploring options to stockpile hormones, researching how to get care outside the US, growing increasingly fearful that parents could face government investigations or prosecutions, and discussing options to permanently flee the country.”

The chapter of RFK’s most recent book - that he wrote to defend his belief that COVID was actually a weapon designed to target white people and spare certain groups like Jewish people - in which he talks about how he does not believe germs actually cause disease is called “The White Man’s Burden.”

Buried in a Senate budget bill is a massive giveaway to corporate developers and fossil fuel companies.

It forces the sale of at least 2 million acres of Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management land in 11 Western states *every 60 days* until millions of acres are gone.

Another flight of an aircraft with no call sign circling above anti-ICE protests. It took off from March Air Reserve Base, circled above Paramount, and is now circling above downtown LA (the National Guard is moving protesters away from the Metropolitan Detention Center downtown)

LAPD Publishes Crime Footage It Got From a Waymo Driverless Car Police are starting to realize they can demand footage from driverless cars.

important note: the LAPD has figured out it can get footage from Waymos: www.404media.co/lapd-publish...

LAPD helicopter circling immigrant rights protesters behind the pride month rainbow-lit city hall

Ahhh, thanks Andy!!

This is why we can’t let up on calling out weaponization of antisemitism, even in our darkest moments.

Because it is precisely in those moments when the fascists in charge take advantage of our pain in order to target others.

As many of us have said many times: the weaponization of antisemitism is the tip of the spear for the fascists.

They are using cases of antisemitism, real and false, to implement their illiberal agenda. The main reason being that liberals are less likely to fight it in that context.

Also open to any and all Boston-area recs :). I lived there once before, but it was a decade ago!

Thrilled to share that this fall, I'll be joining the faculty at MIT as an assistant professor of comparative media studies! It's a scary and strange time to be in academia, but I'm grateful to have the chance to keep researching/teaching/thinking with people I greatly admire.