samantha floreani

Labor not property: Why artists are fighting the wrong battle on gener This cover image depicts the display screen of the Suno-generated song 'created' using the text of this piece as the prompt. You can listen to the song by clicking the hyperlink where you see "Bad son...

New one from James Parker and me - wading into the fights between artists and AI companies. We suggest artists need a vocabulary beyond copyright to articulate their grievances: www.versobooks.com/en-gb/blogs/...

Microsoft blocks Israel’s use of its technology in mass surveillance of Palestinians Exclusive: Tech firm ends military unit’s access to AI and data services after Guardian reveals secret spy project

Microsoft will no longer allow Israel to use its cloud services to enable its mass surveillance of occupied Palestinians – "the first known case of a US technology company withdrawing services provided to the Israeli military since the beginning of its war on Gaza"

one of the worst genres of influencer post is the sorry I haven't been posting post. the presumption that your ~content~ is such an important part of people's day that they would be actively missing you such that it warrants a 'sorry I promise I'll post more soon' post is so deeply embarrassing help

wrote a little about the inspiration for Frank Herbert’s Butlerian Jihad (Samuel Butler and his novel EREHWON), as well as Luddism & democratic governance

thetechbubble.substack.com/p/on-the-ori...

Kmart’s use of facial recognition to tackle refund fraud unlawful, Privacy Commissioner finds The Privacy Commissioner has found that Kmart breached Australians’ privacy by collecting their personal and sensitive information through a facial recognition technology system.

Kmart’s use of facial recognition to tackle refund fraud unlawful, Privacy Commissioner finds www.oaic.gov.au/news/media-c...

Text on a green background that shows the new Points piece titled "Confronting Data Centers, Deep-Sea Cables, and Colonial Legacies in the South Pacific" by Emma Quilty. This blog is part of the series called "The Cloud is Dead: A Series on Living with Legacies of Resource Extraction."

As big tech companies appeal to small island countries’ anxieties about being left behind, @emmaquilty.bsky.social considers how efforts to transform islands into digital hubs obscure the power and agency of these places and their people. datasociety.net/points/confr...

An illustration of me, and the headline: "AI agents are coming for your privacy, warns Meredith Whittaker The Signal Foundation’s president worries they will also blunt competition and undermine cyber-security"

To put it bluntly, the path currently being taken towards agentic AI leads to an elimination of privacy and security at the application layer. It will not be possible for apps like Signal—the messaging app whose foundation I run—to continue to provide strong privacy guarantees, built on robust and openly validated encryption, if device-makers and OS developers insist on puncturing the metaphoric blood-brain barrier between apps and the OS. Feeding your sensitive Signal messages into an undifferentiated data slurry connected to cloud servers in service of their AI-agent aspirations is a dangerous abdication of responsibility.

Happily, it’s not too late. There is much that can still be done, particularly when it comes to protecting the sanctity of private data. What’s needed is a fundamental shift in how we approach the development and deployment of AI agents. First, privacy must be the default, and control must remain in the hands of application developers exercising agency on behalf of their users. Developers need the ability to designate applications as “sensitive” and mark them as off-limits to agents, at the OS level and otherwise. This cannot be a convoluted workaround buried in settings; it must be a straightforward, well-documented mechanism (similar to Global Privacy Control) that blocks an agent from accessing our data or taking actions within an app. Second, radical transparency must be the norm. Vague assurances and marketing-speak are no longer acceptable. OS vendors have an obligation to be clear and precise about their architecture and what data their AI agents are accessing, how it is being used and the measures in place to protect it.

📣 NEW -- In The Economist, discussing the privacy perils of AI agents and what AI companies and operating systems need to do--NOW--to protect Signal and much else!

www.economist.com/by-invitatio...

Who killed Meanjin? And why won’t Melbourne University Publishing engage with efforts to save it?

“Its loss is not just a literary blow,” concludes Max Kaiser. “It signals a narrowing of public debate and unfortunately a chilling message to people daring to support the publication of inconvenient truths."
@nickfeik.bsky.social on who killed Meanjin. #auspol
www.crikey.com.au/2025/09/16/m...

Not like the others: on power, pedagogical relationships and being special In Sweet Nothings, Griffiths once again delves into confessional waters by examining romantic and sexual relationships between students and their professors while ruminating on her own experience.

My review of Madison Griffiths' SWEET NOTHINGS is out now in the spring edition of Meanjin.

It's bittersweet to be in one of Meanjin's last editions. The loss of this literary institution is a travesty. I've loved reading and writing for Meanjin, and especially working with @mxcreant.bsky.social

How mainstream media and politicians fuelled Australia's biggest far-right rally Six takeaways from the March for Australia and why it should be a wake-up call.

It would be a massive mistake for progressive folk to convince themselves the March for Australia was a bust, or can safely be ridiculed.

It was an alarming escalation of far-right action, and we need to reckon with it.

More thoughts (un-paywalled) here:

www.lamestream.com.au/how-mainstre...

Literary journal Meanjin to close after 85 years of publishing Meanjin, a mainstay of Australia's cultural landscape and the nation's second-oldest literary publication, is shuttering after Melbourne University Publishing decided to cease financial support.

Melbourne Uni is killing the literary journal Meanjin. It's cultural vandalism. Australian universities are now deeply anti-intellectual places www.crikey.com.au/2025/09/04/m...

The federal government wants to charge for making FOI requests. Ridiculous for a government allegedly committed to transparency. www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/freed...

Evidence related to AI bots making FOI requests - a Freedom of Information request to Attorney-General's Department In recent public media, the Attorney-General and other government ministers have referred to “AI bot generated requests” and FOI requests being made by “foreign powers, foreign actors, (and) criminal ...

This is an excellent response to the "we have to charge for FOI because forren AI bots!" nonsense from the A-G. www.righttoknow.org.au/request/evid...

@floreani.bsky.social 🎂

thank you friend!!!

YouTube video by Playlunch PLAYLUNCH /// Real Estate Apps feat. Aunty Donna (Official Music Video)

"Ex meth-lab in a great location, include your blood type on the tenant application"

Playlunch really capturing the essence of my research interviews with renters here 🎶

it was lovely to chat with Matt for the @admscentre.org.au podcast about my research. if you're interested in tech x rental housing or want to have a sticky beak into what I'm working on, this is a good overview 🏠

Map of the United States showing data at the county level for insurance premium price difference caused by credit score. The map is titled: What's The Credit Score Penalty in Your County? How Much More a Typical Homeowner Pays in Annual Home Insurance Premiums for Having a Low or Medium Credit Score

New research shows "home insurers consider the credit score of the homeowner more important than the location of the home in setting prices... On average across the nation, it is more expensive to have a poor credit score than to live in a zip code with a high disaster risk."

New ADM+S Podcast episode: PhD researcher Samantha @floreani.bsky.social explores her study on the growing influence of digital technologies in the residential real estate sector.

🎧 Listen now: admscentre.org/461k5OE

A photograph of three people on stage sitting in armchairs holding microphones. They are discussing a book for its launch. The backdrop is filled with little red twinkling lights.

hey look it's @jathansadowski.com! launching his book! it's called The Mechanic and the Luddite! you should read it! it's a ruthless criticism of technology and capitalism! it's very good!

I am a robodebt whistleblower. I know what it’s like to be punished for speaking out and why protection is urgent | Jeannie-Marie Blake I immediately saw robodebt for what the royal commission eventually concluded it to be: unlawful and deeply unethical

"I am a robodebt whistleblower. I know what it’s like to be punished for speaking out and why protection is urgent"
– Jeannie-Marie Blake

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

if you watch the tech industry long enough you learn the promised benefits never materialize but the unforeseen harms continue to be perpetuated long after the companies move on to the next big thing yet governments are too worried about scaring away investment to do anything

My first physical copy of Witch Power has arrived!! The Melbourne book launch is on the 16th of Oct, here is the link to register: www.trybooking.com/events/landi...

To pre-order the book: www.readings.com.au/product/9781...

Australia’s potential surrender of creative content to tech giants for free is shocking. Labor must decide where it stands | Josh Taylor The Productivity Commission appears to have bought into tech companies’ brazen arguments – and caught the Australian government off-guard

I expanded on these thoughts. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Should big tech be allowed to mine Australians’ text and data to train AI? The Productivity Commission is considering it Interim report on digital economy also mulls changes to privacy rules and copyright collections to help harness AI’s benefits

Idk why the productivity commission believes productivity can be derived by giving away other people's labour for free to companies with way too much money. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

good luck and enjoy and also I'm very sorry

definitely needed to wash my eyeballs/stare at some trees after finishing

A Story Collection About People Who Just Can’t Hang Niche-porn addicts, self-proclaimed feminist allies, and nightmare optimization bros converge in Tony Tulathimutte’s “Rejection.”

I just finished reading Tony Tulathimutte’s 'Rejection', about, as Jia Tolentino puts it her great review, "a bunch of huge fucking losers." It's impressive to write something simultaneously so repulsive and so compulsive...much like the internet itself. I hated it. I loved it.

Harnessing data and digital technology - Public inquiry How can we enhance our use of data and digital technology across the economy to boost productivity growth, accelerate innovation and improve government services for all Australians?

here's the productivity commission report for the nerds