Dr Mahlet ("Milly") Zimeta

As someone who has reported on AI for 7 years and covered China tech as well, I think the biggest lesson to be drawn from DeepSeek is the huge cracks it illustrates with the current dominant paradigm of AI development. A long thread. 1/

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In making AI policy at the White House, I worked for two visionary women – Dr. Alondra Nelson and Vice President Harris – who asked the same question in every meeting:

"What would this mean for the most vulnerable?"

However the new tech advisors choose to proceed, I hope they have a good answer.

US Pres #47 - initial rescission Exec Orders

I collated all the Biden EOs on digital tech policy/infrastructure that #47 rescinded and deleted from the White House website:
tinyurl.com/ynrcthur

Agreed. A couple of weeks ago when the news story broke about the Meta AI-generated profiles, and Meta deleted them, I found it really difficult to resurface the profiles to verify against the screenshots in circulation (from before the profiles were deleted). No way to really hold Meta accountable.

US Pres #47 - initial rescission Exec Orders

In case helpful - when I realised the Biden EOs that had been immediately revoked had also gone from the White House website, I collated all the ones on digital tech policy and infrastructure here:
tinyurl.com/ynrcthur

US Pres #47 - initial rescission Exec Orders

I created this short summary spreadsheet of the Biden era Executive Orders on digital tech policy and infrastructure that #47 has immediately rescinded and removed from the White House website:
tinyurl.com/ynrcthur

US Pres #47 - initial recission Exec Orders

I created this short summary spreadsheet of the Biden era Executive Orders on digital tech policy and infrastructure that #47 has immediately rescinded and removed from the White House website.
I'll try to update it later with tabs on other topics.
LMK if anything's missing.
tinyurl.com/ynrcthur

US Pres #47 - initial recission Exec Orders

I created this short summary spreadsheet of the Biden era Executive Orders on digital tech policy and infrastructure that #47 has immediately rescinded and removed from the White House website.
I'll try to update it later with tabs on other topics.
LMK if anything's missing.
tinyurl.com/ynrcthur

It's noteworthy the tech titans are just behind the family row and in front of the cabinet picks:

M.G. Zimeta | Among Robots At the Pepper Parlor restaurant in central Tokyo, each table had a short robot called Pepper with articulated plastic...

Ah fantastic! Did you see my recent piece for @londonreview.bsky.social on robots? My starting point was that brilliant AI & Religion workshop that you convened at St George's Chapel, where we had the thought experiment "what if AI was stewarded by the Dalai Lama?" www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/ja...

Religion and Artificial Intelligence | An Introduction | Beth Singler Artificial intelligence (AI) is rarely out of the news or the public imagination. Images of red-eyed Terminators illustrate press accounts of incremental

Random reminder time
My new book is open access! Available here:
www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-mon....

DRAFT Which? review of AI Opportunities Action Plan - open for comments The UK AI Opportunities Action Plan and consumer protection Today the UK Government published its AI Opportunities Action Plan, laying out the Government’s strategy for becoming a global leader in A...

Yesterday the Govt published its AI Opportunities Action Plan to become a global leader in AI. But it makes no reference to consumer protection.

The Digital Policy team at W? have taken the unusual step of posting a working draft of our response so you can join the conversation
tinyurl.com/34uwmk83

DRAFT Which? review of AI Opportunities Action Plan - open for comments The UK AI Opportunities Action Plan and consumer protection Today the UK Government published its AI Opportunities Action Plan, laying out the Government’s strategy for becoming a global leader in A...

Yesterday the Govt published its AI Opportunities Action Plan to become a global leader in AI. But it makes no reference to consumer protection.

The Digital Policy team at W? have taken the unusual step of posting a working draft of our response so you can join the conversation
tinyurl.com/34uwmk83

M.G. Zimeta | Among Robots At the Pepper Parlor restaurant in central Tokyo, each table had a short robot called Pepper with articulated plastic...

‘At a workshop on AI and religion, someone observed that most AI was being developed with the primary purpose of selling advertising: “But what could AI be like if it was stewarded by the Dalai Lama?”’

@mgzimeta.bsky.social meets an android monk, on the blog: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/ja...

I've put a video clip of some of my interactions with Pepper robot here (G-drive link): tinyurl.com/brhxbrdy

0:40 for its hallucinating movements, 5:30 for is it more intelligent than humans, and 7:00 for do androids dream of electric sheep

(Warning: the camerawork is a bit Blair Witch Project...)

I've put a video clip of Pepper here (G-drive link): tinyurl.com/brhxbrdy

0:40 for its hallucinating movements, 5:30 for is it more intelligent than humans, and 7:00 for do androids dream of electric sheep.

(The camera's uneven because I was filming for my notes: just pretend its arthouse...)
🧵2/2

M.G. Zimeta | Among Robots At the Pepper Parlor restaurant in central Tokyo, each table had a short robot called Pepper with articulated plastic...

Bizarre developments at Meta recently, including AI 'Liv' breaking new ground in digital blackface and being a robot Magical Negro at the same time.

It made me think about how we relate to robots and each other. Here's my new piece for @londonreview.bsky.social : www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/ja...
🧵1/2

Thank you for this. I did a lighter version of this in 2017 and felt the benefits. This time, I've gone further and installed browser extensions that block any mention of certain figures and it's been great. It's reminded me that I have agency in what gets my attention and what I nurture in my mind.

After this article was originally published, Liz Sweeney, a Meta spokesperson, told 404 Media that "there is confusion" on the internet between what Hayes told the Financial Times and what is being talked about online now. She also said they are deleting these older profiles. "There is confusion: the recent Financial Times article was about our vision for AI characters existing on our platforms over time, not announcing any new product," Sweeney said. "The accounts referenced are from a test we launched at Connect in 2023. These were managed by humans and were part of an early experiment we did with AI characters. We identified the bug that was impacting the ability for people to block those AIs and are removing those accounts to fix the issue.” 

NEW: Meta tells me that it is deleting the AI profiles that are currently going viral, and that there is "confusion" about these versus what is to come in the future.

A few of them are being deleted as we speak:

www.404media.co/metas-ai-pro...

This robot is a bold new take on the "magical negro" trope.

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