Gideon Lichfield

📣 Gideon Lichfield (@glichfield.bsky.social), Former Global Editorial Director of @wired.com, will deliver the media keynote address at the UC Berkeley Law AI Institute!

He joins more than 30 AI & legal experts who share how AI is affecting law & business.

👉Register: bit.ly/463CniC

“Out of touch” — this from the party whose only contender for mayor has been wearing the same red beret for 45 years

Perhaps I’ve missed it, but in all the talk about whether the attack on Iran has stopped its nuke program, I haven’t seen anyone point out that Trump played a huge role in creating the threat in the first place when he pulled out of the JCPOA

Is Tech Too Fast to be Governed? with Gideon Lichfield (podcast) Journalist Gideon Lichfield joins host David Zvi Kalman in this episode of Belief in the Future podcast to explore how lawmaking can keep up with the fast…

Can lawmaking keep up with the pace of our digital world?

Journalist @glichfield.bsky.social joins host David Zvi Kalman to discuss the challenges governments face in responding to rapid technological change, and how this is mirrored in organized religion on the Belief in the Future podcast.

This is in small font at the very bottom of the #NoKings website. It needs to be in large type at the very top.

Alternatively, “Thousands of Americans expected to take to the streets in defense of their neighbors and their democracy” www.nytimes.com/live/2025/06...

We need a massive show of peaceful force Large and absolutely non-violent protests are the best way to prevent the militarization of the streets.

It's time. #NoKings futurepolis.substack.com/p/its-now-or...

Why Both Sides Are Right—and Wrong—About A Moratorium on State AI Laws | TechPolicy.Press Gideon Lichfield says there’s an argument for a moratorium—but a much narrower one than what Republicans propose.

There's a difference between laws saying how cars should be built and laws saying how fast people can drive them. The proposed moratorium on state-level AI laws would be the equivalent of banning states from having speed limits. My latest: www.techpolicy.press/why-both-sid...

Offshoring AI to the Middle East Could Hand China a Win The Gulf has the resources Trump needs to expand America’s AI prowess, but there’s no guarantee the Middle East will stay loyal to his cause.

My latest for Bloomberg: Trump’s AI deals with the UAE and Saudi Arabia may be good business in the short term but bad geopolitics in the long term (gift link)

www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

The story of what DOGE is doing will henceforth be all about this: not about firing people or cutting supposed waste, but making US data privacy an even greater nightmare than it already was.

Elon Musk Was Donald Trump’s Useful Idiot It’s looking increasingly likely that the world’s richest man got played.

There have been a lot of good analyses recently about what the "real" purpose of DOGE is. But what did Elon Musk *think* it was? My latest, for Foreign Policy (gift link)

foreignpolicy.com/2025/05/14/e...

When Will AI Be Smarter Than Humans? Don’t Ask The term “artificial general intelligence” is being bandied about by some of tech’s smartest people, but nobody knows what it really means.

People who claim AGI is imminent mean a wide range of different things by it. For Bloomberg, I write that this AGI hype is obscuring our ability to talk intelligently about the big changes that are actually coming.

www.bloomberg.com/opinion/feat...

When Will AI Be Smarter Than Humans? Don’t Ask The term “artificial general intelligence” is being bandied about by some of tech’s smartest people, but nobody knows what it really means.

The term “artificial general intelligence” is being bandied about by some of tech’s smartest people, but nobody knows what it really means. @glichfield.bsky.social has some thoughts: www.bloomberg.com/opinion/feat...

Worth a read. I worked at The Economist (one of the lumbering Goliaths Seward mentions here) when it launched. Still remember the FOMO at the new thing, and how much I loved @glichfield.bsky.social's newsletters. What a terrible business, the news. But as Zach says, so many great people. RIP Quarts.

If you're in the SF Bay Area, come to City Lights tomorrow to hear me interview Ray Nayler about his latest book, Where the Axe is Buried, a near-future science fiction novel that's also a critique of both authoritarianism and Western technocratic government.

citylights.com/events/ray-n...

Truly you could not do better than Quartz for a case study of 2010s digital media. It was a microcosm of all the things. And yes, it was a great place to work, both because of the people and because of the culture of experimentation, which was like nowhere else I’ve ever worked.

You had me for a second @garymarcus.bsky.social

Today I learned that (a) “greenhushing” is now a thing (b) we’re all getting measurably stupider and (c) the whole universe might be inside a black hole. Not sure how much weirder things can get

A scenario for American democracy 20 years from now Let's do a little dreaming, shall we?

Right now most attention is on the damage. But I don't think it's too early to start thinking about what could rise from the ashes. One day—maybe a long way off—people will realize they want a functioning government and better ways of having a say in it.

futurepolis.substack.com/p/a-scenario...

Found on the sidewalk. I can’t help thinking that putting this issue on the top was deliberate

Trump is a hacker, and there is a patch A better way of making sense of him would also rob him of much of his power.

"When hackers penetrate a computer system, security experts patch the vulnerability within hours. Trump has been using the same exploit for more than eight years. What’s our excuse?"

In which I analyze the meaning of the Gaza plan and the media's response.

futurepolis.substack.com/p/trump-is-a...

I really appreciate this piece from @glichfield.bsky.social on metaphors to communicate #PublicAI (or whatever you call it) to the public. Having spent much of my career focused on translating esoteric tech/policy stuff to folks, I know the value of a good metaphor!

BUT I also have Some Thoughts 🧵

"So what, kinda like a bridge, but for AI"? The conundrums of creating—and understanding—public digital infrastructure.

In which I wrestle with the problem of how to explain "public AI" to the public and decide that the best metaphor might be... supermarkets? futurepolis.substack.com/p/like-bridg...

Meanwhile, the media takes him literally and thus wastes considerable resources reporting out the fact this is obviously batshit crazy. Just look at all these bylines:

That thing about how Trump's supporters take him "seriously but not literally"? That's clearer than ever when it comes to his nutso plan for taking over Gaza:

Trump Admin Deleted Constitution from White House Site. It's Not as Ominous as His Critics Think The Constitution did disappear from the White House website, but so did other pages. The removal may have been in error, or perhaps only temporary.

nm, this may just be teething troubles. But worth keeping an eye on. www.snopes.com/fact-check/t...

Anyone know if incoming presidential administrations normally delete the archives on whitehouse.gov from the previous one?

I ask because this EOP budget request from 2022 is no longer available. It was last saved by archive.org on January 16.

web.archive.org/web/20250116...

Bold claim from @rbreich.bsky.social

robertreich.substack.com/p/the-muskra...

If I’m reading this right, the headline everyone should be writing but nobody has is: “Trump Decrees That There Are No Transgender People Any More”

www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

Reforming government in the Trump era A little-noticed report provides an apolitical blueprint.

With the inauguration just days away, I took a look at something the Trump administration ought to love: a report from Jen Pahlka and Andrew Greenway via the Niskanen Center on how to make the US govt less bureaucratic, slow-moving, and generally incapable. futurepolis.substack.com/p/reforming-...