Woodrow Hartzog

If they can do this to find a dog, they can do this to find anyone. That’s terrifying.

AI continues to go just great.

ICE’s growing surveillance state - The Boston Globe ICE has constructed a digital dragnet that captures and retains massive amounts of data about all of us, citizens and noncitizens alike.

“These surveillance tools are an authoritarian’s dream…”

If you could speak to your dead grandmother forever, would you?

IN DEPTH | If you could speak to your dead grandmother forever, would you?

Researchers: How AI undermining democracy Paper argues tech threatens democratic foundations.

Generative and other kinds of AI have numerous harmful effects. In a recent paper, Boston University professors @hartzog.bsky.social and @jessicasilbey.bsky.social identify and highlight a new concern: AI is sabotaging democracy by destroying the institutions that undergird it.

if you think their business model is based on finding lost puppies, boy do I have an authoritarian military industrial state apparatus to upsell you

Exactly.

This is, by far, the best thing I have read on the topic: discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10...

Sure, it was the model that was ‘reckless.’

This is no way to live.

1. The thing about science that these jokers don't understand is that science cannot be vibe-coded.

Whatever its flaws, the point with vibe coding is that you're trying to quickly make something that sorta works, where you can immediately sorta see if it sorta works and then sorta use it.

Just saw this. It's fantastic, James. Thank you and it's helpful not just for juniors!

this is completely insane and more people need to say that doing this is completely insane

Facial recognition technology to be rolled out nationally and police to also get AI support The home secretary has set out the government's long-awaited reforms to policing in England and Wales, which aim to reduce the amount of time officers will spend behind their desks - instead of being ...

The UK is planning to drastically increase its use of live facial recognition systems—upping the number of facial recognition vans from 10 to 50

NOT TODAY, SATAN.

@hartzog.bsky.social & @jessicasilbey.bsky.social argue that GenAI, by its very design, undercuts the institutions that are core to democracy. It's "anathema to the kind of cooperation, transparency, accountability, and evolution that give vital institutions their purpose and sustainability."

How Generative AI is destroying society An astonishingly lucid new paper that should be read by all

The real AI extinction threat, and far more imminent — the extinction of society. Yes, “absolutely everyone should read.” Via @hartzog.bsky.social and @jessicasilbey.bsky.social, via @garymarcus.bsky.social. open.substack.com/pub/garymarc...

This new paper by @hartzog.bsky.social and @jessicasilbey.bsky.social makes "one simple point: AI systems are built to function in ways that degrade and are likely to destroy our crucial civic institutions."

Grim but important reading:
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

"Perhaps if human nature were a little less vulnerable to the siren’s call of
shortcuts, then AI could achieve the potential its creators envisioned for it. But that is not the world we live in. Short-term political and financial incentives amplify the worst aspects of AI systems..."

CES 2026 laid out a Black Mirror future of wearable AI that's always listening, watching, ready to help, and 'knows everything about you.' I'm not enthusiastic With new AI assistants like Lenovo's Qira, tech brands are laying out the helpful-surveillance endgame that started with smart glasses.

“…the endgame is to record and analyze everything in your life, and that's not hyperbole.”

Analysis | Here comes the advertising in AI chatbots Can you trust AI advice if comes with a promotional pitch for soda?

Ads are starting to show up in chatbot conversations. It's easy to imagine how this "could turn unwelcome or creepy" in exchanges "that feel like intimate personal spaces and that also save gobs of your private data." www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

Quite. My resharing my related piece from yesterday >>>

"The fact that Grok can be used to defile images of women and children is not an unfortunate accident of technological progress, but the direct consequence of decision-making, and of an ideology"

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/techno...

New paper by @jessicasilbey.bsky.social & @hartzog.bsky.social: How AI Destroys Institutions. AI systems erode expertise and short-circuit decisions, undermining the transparency and accountability that civic institutions need to survive. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Use of AI to harm women has only just begun, experts warn While Grok has introduced belated safeguards to prevent sexualised AI imagery, other tools have far fewer limits

“Women and girls are far more reluctant to use AI. This should be no surprise to any of us. Women don’t see this as exciting new technology, but as simply new ways to harass and abuse us and try and push us offline.”

The risks of AI in schools outweigh the benefits, report says A new report warns that AI poses a serious threat to children's cognitive development and emotional well-being.

An invaluable new report. A "premortem" is exactly what we need.

The Age of Academic Slop is Upon Us what happens when AI automates "normal science"?

I just finished a three-year term as an editor at an international relations journal. I began at the start of the LLM era but ended right in the middle of it. Our volume of submissions tripled and our desk reject rate rose to 75%. I have some thoughts.
open.substack.com/pub/hegemon/...

Police Unmask Millions of Surveillance Targets Because of Flock Redaction Error Flock is going after a website called HaveIBeenFlocked.com that has collated public records files released by police.

NEW: Completely unredacted Flock audit logs have been released to the public by numerous police departments and in some cases include details on millions of Flock license plate searches made by thousands of police departments from around the country.

Thanks, Tim!

HIGHLY recommend this important new paper.