Tom Simonite

Column | Zuckerberg fired the fact-checkers. We tested their replacement. Our tech columnist drafted 65 community notes, Meta’s new crowdsourced system to fight falsehoods. It failed to make a dent.

Meta fired its fact-checkers, citing concerns of liberal bias, and replaced them with a version of X's "Community Notes." How's that going?

Well, my coworker @geoffreyfowler.bsky.social proposed 65 fact-checks debunking false posts... and only 3 got approved. www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

A New Era for WIRED—That Starts With You As of today, there are even more ways to enjoy WIRED’s journalism, including premium newsletters and livestream Q&As. Join us.

Wired rules. Just an incredible group of journalists who are completely meeting the moment. And you can subscribe for $2 a month, which is insane www.wired.com/story/a-new-...

Maybe those robots will be ... trains

Analysis | Trump’s ‘Artificial Intelligence Action Plan’ is already stirring debate Critics unveiled their own “People’s AI Action Plan” ahead of new executive orders expected to address energy and “woke” AI.

New: As Trump prepares to unveil his "AI Action Plan," more than 80 labor, environmental, consumer and tech watchdog groups have signed on to a "People's AI Action Plan" that calls for regulations that put ordinary people's interests over those of the industry. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

The UK expects AGI in four years. Why doesn’t it act like it? Trust me bro Westminster edition

UK government minister: AGI by 2029
Also UK government: HS2 high speed rail project won't be complete until sometime after 2033
www.learningfromexamples.com/p/the-uk-exp...

Tech billionaire Trump adviser Marc Andreesen says universities will ‘pay the price’ for DEI Tech investor and Trump adviser Marc Andreessen in a private group chat attacked colleges for promoting diversity, saying they had discriminated against “native born kids.”

New from me. Hope you’ll give it a read www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

Grok’s Nazi tirade sparks debate: Who’s to blame when AI spews hate? Antisemitic outbursts from the chatbot promoted by Elon Musk shows how AI companies often face minimal consequences when their projects go rogue.

New: If a person spewed Nazi garbage like Grok, they'd get fired in an instant. Elon Musk's chatbot just got a promotion. Why don't companies face any consequences for AI disasters? There might be a few ways to turn the tide ... wapo.st/4095Rbh

Google co-founder Sergey Brin calls U.N. ‘transparently antisemitic’ after report on tech firms and Gaza Google co-founder Sergey Brin called the United Nations “transparently antisemitic” in a message on a company forum, after a U.N. report alleged Google profited from Israel’s war in Gaza.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin called the U.N. “transparently antisemitic” in an internal forum for employees.

His comments came in response to a U.N. report that alleged technology firms profited from “the genocide carried out by Israel” in Gaza.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin calls U.N. ‘transparently antisemitic’ after report on tech firms and Gaza Google co-founder Sergey Brin called the United Nations “transparently antisemitic” in a message on a company forum, after a U.N. report alleged Google profited from Israel’s war in Gaza.

new from me and @gerritd.bsky.social wapo.st/4lg3pIh (gift link)

on an internal forum for Google Deepmind employees, Sergey Brin called the UN a “transparently antisemitic organization” after a new UN report accused tech companies of profiting from genocide in Gaza

“My comments came in response to an internal discussion that was citing a plainly biased and misleading report,” Brin said in a statement provided to The Post.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin calls U.N. ‘transparently antisemitic’ after report on tech firms and Gaza Google co-founder Sergey Brin called the United Nations “transparently antisemitic” in a message on a company forum, after a U.N. report alleged Google profited from Israel’s war in Gaza.

Scoop: Google cofounder Sergey Brin branded the United Nations "transparently antisemitic" on an internal company message board, in comments that left some staff confused and upset www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2... via @gerritd.bsky.social @nitasha.bsky.social

In dramatic reversal, Senate votes to kill AI-law moratorium A GOP-led bid to stop states from regulating AI collapsed after a deal to save it fell through.

In a stunning reversal, the Senate voted 99-1 this morning to strip from Trump's big bill a 10-year moratorium on state-level AI regulations.

Gift link to my story on how it happened and who's celebrating: wapo.st/3TOyiaG

Good thread that serves as a cautionary tale for using AI at work even in ways that seem to be the intended uses (and often even encouraged by bosses).

Please don’t dunk on OP, we need more people like him admitting to this kind of thing openly and honestly.

Analysis | AI firms say they can’t respect copyright. These researchers tried. A new effort using only openly licensed data may have implications on thorny policy disputes around copyright and AI

A lot of people say generative AI shouldn't infringe on copyright. These researchers actually tried to do it. The result: an 8 terabyte dataset of text that's openly licensed or in the public domain & 7 B parameter model that performs as well as Meta's Llama 7B www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Analysis | Musk used X to boost Trump. Now he’s wielding it against him. Musk’s used his social network X to attack President Donald Trump Thursday by tapping the same tactics he previously used to bash Trump’s political adversaries.

All the maneuvers Musk has used on Trump's critics — the trolls, the memes, the brigading, the insinuations of personal scandal — were suddenly deployed against Trump, making for an extremely awkward yet perversely entertaining day on X. www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

Got it -- imaginary but also real people

I don't think Sensor Tower has that data but good suggestion. What do you mean by "imaginary friends" on Facebook? Meta's AI companion offerings?

Your chatbot friend might be messing with your mind OpenAI, Meta and others want people to spend more time with AI chatbots, but there is growing evidence that they can hook users or reinforce harmful ideas.

That gulf between "serious" AI apps and companions may be one reason why OpenAI and others are making their chatbots more companion-like, raising questions about unintended consequences www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2... via @nitasha.bsky.social

AI chatbots now rival social media for the stickiest apps by time spent -- but AI companions and girlfriends/boyfriends soak up much much more of their users' time than do ChatGPT and Claude

Your chatbot friend might be messing with your mind OpenAI, Meta and others want people to spend more time with AI chatbots, but there is growing evidence that they can hook users or reinforce harmful ideas.

AI is speedrunning the social media era by optimizing chatbots for engagement, user feedback, time spent.

Evidence is mounting that this poses unintended risks, includ. chats from peer-reviewed research, OpenAI's "sycophancy" debacle, & Character ai lawsuits www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

Your chatbot friend might be messing with your mind OpenAI, Meta and others want people to spend more time with AI chatbots, but there is growing evidence that they can hook users or reinforce harmful ideas.

Chatbots optimized to keep you chatting have the potential to hack human attention and emotions much more powerfully than social media ever could www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2... via @nitasha.bsky.social

Meta is working on a high-tech helmet for the U.S. military Social network company Meta is partnering with weapons-maker Anduril to develop military technology for the Pentagon using AI and augmented reality.

Meta is a defense contractor. "The company announced on Thursday that it will work with defense technology start-up Anduril to offer the U.S. military and its allies technology for soldiers involving augmented reality and artificial intelligence software."

Live updates: Trade court blocks Trump’s tariffs, saying they are illegal Get the latest news on President Donald Trump’s return to the White House and the Republican-led Congress.

Breaking news: The Court of International Trade ruled that President Donald Trump exceeded his authority in imposing tariffs on all imported goods. The president invoked a 1977 law that granted him emergency powers over the economy.

Column | Google is getting even more AI, changing how we search Google announced a confusing array of new ways to use its AI to find information at its annual I/O event. Here’s a guide.

Have you Deep Researched it? Try NotebookLM. It’s in Google Search with AI Overviews. It’s literally on AI Mode. Dude just ask Gemini. You can Lens it. There’s an AI Summary for you.

www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2... via @geoffreyfowler.bsky.social

AI Hallucination Celebrating JG Ballard Inadvertently Celebrates JG Ballard

Police secretly monitored New Orleans with facial recognition cameras Following records requests from The Post, officials paused the first known, widespread live facial recognition program used by police in the United States.

One of the hard lines on facial recognition technology in the U.S. has been using it to do live searches on real-time cameras. The Washington Post reports that's been happening in New Orleans, however, by a police-adjacent nonprofit called PROJECT NOLA. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

Also how to assemble iPhones

Pulitzer Center - AfricaCheck - AI Spotlight Series - An Editor's Guide to AI - June 10, 2025 - The workshop is geared towards journalists in the North America, South America, Africa, and Europe time zones - Instructors: Tom Simonite and Bina Venkataraman - This track, co-organized with Africa Check, is designed for managing editors, executive editores, desk editors, and social media editores -anyone in charge of directing coverage, commissioning stories, or packaging and producing them for public consumption. Apply by May 15, 2025.

Applications for the AI Spotlight Series Editor’s course, in collaboration with @africacheck.org, close soon!

Learn with @binajv.bsky.social & @simonite.bsky.social how to identify #AI stories, reporting opportunities, and to avoid common pitfalls that can mislead your audience.
👉 bit.ly/4iZU19O

man those critics who called out altmans call for regulation in 2023 as cynical posturing to protect his lead in AI and he would change course once he got there were fuckin right on the money

We can't observe them directly, but most of the universe's Mass is actually celebrated by dark Popes