Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by David Wells

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 4h

We were actually getting somewhere, too. 😞

@sbmitche.bsky.social
www.library.hbs.edu/working-know...

93 1.1K 2.9K

Reposted by David Wells

Peter Beaumont @petersbeaumont1.bsky.social · 2d

If you've never been to Gaza, you won't appreciate what the yellow line means. Basically Israel now holds most of Gaza's small but important agricultural land. Continued Israeli occupation, which I judge the likely outcome, makes Gaza even more unliveable and more dependent on outside goods.

AFP News Agency @en.afp.com · 2d

Gaza Strip: Israeli army has withdrawn to the 'yellow line'

AFP Infographic with map of the Gaza Strip showing the 'yellow line' where the Israeli army has withdrawn its forces as of October 10, according to US envoy Steve Witkoff

17 830 1.2K

Reposted by David Wells

Alex Hern @hern.bsky.social · 7h

the shoe that hasn't dropped is people adding Sora logos to real video to discredit it

2 15 68

Reposted by David Wells

Mdh @mdh2.bsky.social · 18h

Imagine the incentive structure at play to get your hands on data that can tie users with their real names and payment details to typing in horny shit. that is going to get breached at some point and exploited either as a public leak or blackmail.

4 21 120

Reposted by David Wells

Jake Williams @malwarejake.bsky.social · 18h

Tell me you're desperate for revenue without telling me.

Seriously, imagine your elevator pitch is "we offer an AI that revolutionizes the enterprise, answers questions at a PhD level, and also talks dirty to horny young men." It would be like if PornHub was selling a productivity suite.

404 Media @404media.co · 18h

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced in a post on X Tuesday that ChatGPT is officially getting into the fuckable chatbots game, with “erotica for verified adults” rolling out in December.

🔗 www.404media.co/chatgpt-erot...

ChatGPT’s Hail Mary: Chatbots You Can Fuck

As recent reports show OpenAI bleeding cash, and on the heels of accusations that ChatGPT caused teens and adults alike to harm themselves and others, CEO Sam Altman announced that you can soon fuck t...

www.404media.co

15 90 300

Reposted by David Wells

Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · May 29

SCOOP: The State Department's new reorganization plan includes the opening of an "Office for Remigration," a term popularized by far right extremists and neo-Nazis in Europe. The office will coordinate directly with DHS "to advance the President’s immigration agenda."

My report:

State Department set to launch ‘Office of Remigration’

The concept of remigration has explicitly neo-Nazi roots and has been popularized in Europe.

www.thehandbasket.co

460 3.1K 6K

Reposted by David Wells

Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 22h

Sam Altman went from “AI will cure cancer" to "ChatGPT porn" in less than a month

ChatGPT boss predicts when AI could cure cancer

We made ChatGPT pretty restrictive to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues. We realize this made it less useful/enjoyable to many users who had no mental health problems, but given the seriousness of the issue we wanted to get this right.

Now that we have been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues and have new tools, we are going to be able to safely relax the restrictions in most cases.

In a few weeks, we plan to put out a new version of ChatGPT that allows people to have a personality that behaves more like what people liked about 4o (we hope it will be better!). If you want your ChatGPT to respond in a very human-like way, or use a ton of emoji, or act like a friend, ChatGPT should do it (but only if you want it, not because we are usage-maxxing).

In December, as we roll out age-gating more fully and as part of our “treat adult users like adults” principle, we will allow even more, like erotica for verified adults.
12:02 PM · Oct 14, 2025
·
1.2M
Views

120 850 3.2K

Reposted by David Wells

Rami Ismail (رامي) @ramiismail.com · 17h

Hey look, Israel broke the cease-fire, twice, in two different ways, within 24 hours - again.

Mondoweiss @mondoweiss.net · 22h

NEW: Israel informed the UN it will permit only 300 aid trucks into Gaza daily, not the 600 mandated by the ceasefire it just signed.

55 3K 6.6K

Reposted by David Wells

BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 14h

dead internet theory ever grows

Culture Crave 🍿 @culturecrave.co · 15h

Over half of all articles on the Internet are now written by AI

(via Axios)

6 38 300

Reposted by David Wells

Sammy Roth @sammyroth.bsky.social · 1d

First sentence says it all: "Gov. Gavin Newsom has vetoed legislation that would have required data centers to report how much water they use." Read the rest of the story though. from @ianjames.bsky.social: www.latimes.com/environment/...

California cracks down on water theft but spares data centers from disclosing how much they use

Gov. Newsom vetoed a bill that would have required data centers to report their projected water use when applying for a business license.

www.latimes.com

9 200 540

Reposted by David Wells

Dr William Allchorn @willallchorn.bsky.social · 1d

www.ft.com/content/2163...

Robinson says Musk is paying his legal costs in counterterrorism trial

Far-right activist accused of refusing to give his mobile phone pin to police

www.ft.com

1 2

Reposted by David Wells

Jolyon Maugham KC @goodlawproject.org · 1d

Concerned about what the peace means for Palestinians? Concerned whether there will be peace at all? Concerned about accountability for the Israeli genocide? Shabana Mahmood has this to say to you.

28 80 250

Reposted by David Wells

Sathnam Sanghera @sathnam.bsky.social · 1d

Taking on Elon Musk should be an open goal in British politics.

Ian Fraser @ianfraser.bsky.social · 1d

Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, aka ”Tommy Robinson,” says Tesla CEO Elon Musk is paying his legal bills.

Robinson says Musk is paying his legal costs in counterterrorism trial

Far-right activist accused of refusing to give his mobile phone pin to police

www.ft.com

52 210 870

Reposted by David Wells

Clare Blackwood @clareblackwood.bsky.social · 1d

"Restore the merit principle," I scream, having apparently developed selective amnesia about losing my job based on a complete and total lack of merit

31 120 480

Reposted by David Wells

BronSays @bronsays.bsky.social · 2d

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

"A prominent anti-DEI campaigner appointed by Meta in August as an adviser on AI bias has spent the weeks since his appointment spreading disinformation about shootings, transgender people, vaccines, crime, and protests."

Meta AI adviser spreads disinformation about shootings, vaccines and trans people

Critics condemn Robby Starbuck, appointed in lawsuit settlement, for ‘peddling lies and pushing extremism’

www.theguardian.com

17 220 480

Reposted by David Wells

J.M. Berger @jmberger.com · 2d

We aren't quite there yet, but Zuck has said it's his goal: People surrounded by "communities" of chatbots that replace humans as participants in the social construction of reality, which will lead us nowhere good.

*Parasocial construction of reality*

You heard it here first (I think).

No results for "Parasocial construction of reality" on DuckDuckGo

No results for "Parasocial construction of reality" on Google

8 32 86

Reposted by David Wells

Dave Vetter @davidrvetter.bsky.social · 3d

Every day is a good day to point out that 92% of Reform's donations were found to come from figures and groups linked to the fossil fuel industry. @desmog.com

Nigel Farage’s Reform Party Has Accepted £2.3 Million from Fossil Fuel Interests, Climate Deniers, and Polluters Since 2019 Election

Reform UK has received more than £2.3 million from oil and gas interests, highly polluting industries, and climate science deniers since December 2019, amounting to 92 percent of the party’s donations...

www.desmog.com

24 510 890

Reposted by David Wells

Dmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · 3d

This is an exact encapsulation of why I moved to Bluesky.

No amount of handwringing in the Atlantic about how I owe some eternal Promethean suffering to the discourse is going to make me stay on a site I hate, that stopped doing anything for me professionally years ago.

Well – no. Bluesky may or may not be, as one centre-right friend who felt unwelcome put it, “self-righteous island”. But the idea that’s why we went is nonsense. That I’ve largely stopped posting on a site that’s done more to shape my career and social circle than the rest of the internet combined is less about avoiding rival opinions (I love arguing with people who are wrong!) than with the fact the site simply became unusable. It stopped generating the things (good jokes, interesting debate, clicks) I wanted; it became extremely good at generating the things (racists, pornbots, racist pornbots) I did not.

110 670 3.2K

Reposted by David Wells

John Herrman @jwherrman.bsky.social · 5d

trying to think through what's unusual about so many AI startups, and about the gaps between their pitches, the real world, and what they would actually need to succeed nymag.com/intelligence...

This attitude toward externalities — not my problem, and in any case worth it in exchange for a small advantage — follows the approximate logic of a spammer and often comes wrapped in the language of AI hustle culture. It's also understandable from the perspective of a job seeker who feels constantly thwarted by automated systems employers use that seem to treat seekers with similar indifference or contempt, or by platforms like LinkedIn and Indeed that, while nominally intended to connect two parties with shared interests (one needing specific services, the other offering them), can feel more like social-media-style black holes for engagement. It's an escalation that will likely be met with more escalation: countermeasures by job-listings platforms and hirers to prevent access by AI agents; more aggressive automated filtering; different hiring routines altogether, making it even harder to get through the door to a coveted interview. Mercenary (and slightly deceptive) automation tools like this, which are being pitched all over right now and already wreaking havoc in, for example, online dating, depend on two temporary circumstances to work, if they ever actually do: (1) that most other people don't have access to them, giving the user an edge and (2) that the people and parties on which they're used will tolerate and take no action against them. In other words, if you take their pitches at face value, they're pretty obviously doomed in the medium term, in the sense that they'll either be rejected by the systems they operate in or simply ruin them for everyone.

Taking stock of the first few years of mainstream AI deployment, though, raises an important question. What if that's sort of the point? Or at least a world worth thinking about in a more thorough, long-term way? Generative image and video tools, for example, have significantly degraded social-media platforms, allowing bad actors and regular people to fill them with slop, intensifying existing problems with spam and deceptive content while thwarting old solutions. And, hey, look at that: Suddenly, OpenAI and Meta are launching new social networks based on AI, on which posting generated content is the point, not a problem to be solved. Generative AI may be placing immense stress on educational institutions and worsening the already strained relationships between teachers and students, but wait — every AI company is selling ed tech now.

4 15 48

Reposted by David Wells

Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 5d

Lol the Nobels can't even acknowledge women's contribution to discovery. But sure let's acknowledge The Machines.

Headline from an article in Nature this week that states "Prizes must recognize machine contributions to discovery. The future of science will be written by humans and machines together. Awards should reflect that reality."

87 780 3.5K

Reposted by David Wells

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 5d

Shadow Justice Secretary has made a symbolic gesture of support for Quran burning, both in law & apparently in practice too

40 58 180

Reposted by David Wells

Faine Greenwood @faineg.bsky.social · 5d

I think the killer argument against relying upon AI to write is the massive amount of thinking and concept-welding that goes on for me (and I assume most everyone else) during the *process* of writing something - it’s a cognitive process and I know I’d actively get stupider if I skipped it

Decorative Gourdian Knot @buckrawheat.bsky.social · 5d

I also just wonder if any of these people have ever really appreciated the value added in going through the experience of something like this. The fact that it changes you to engage with and puzzle over your own work, that you're not a content printer that just needs juicing to go faster.

16 28 280

Reposted by David Wells

Faine Greenwood @faineg.bsky.social · 5d

there’s this weird idea a lot of people seem to have about how all of us writers and artists must secretly want to use AI and are merely resisting temptation for ethical reasons, and like, no, it’s not hard for me to resist drinking the bowl of Piss With Glass In It actually

62 870 3K

Reposted by David Wells

Michael E. Mann @michaelemann.bsky.social · 12d

Right wing think tank (AEI) employee Roger Pielke Jr. has formed a cozy relationship with the Murdoch media as he spreads climate disinformation in Australia.

It's right out of #ScienceUnderSiege (and yes, Roger is prominently mentioned in the book): www.theguardian.com/environment/...

News Corp embraces fantasy genre by turning climate crisis into ‘laughable’ science fiction | Temperature Check

The National Climate Risk Assessment is attacked in the Daily Telegraph, while wind turbines became a frightening obstacle for firefighting planes and solar panels a source of mountains of landfill wa...

www.theguardian.com

10 150 280

Reposted by David Wells

Jacob Ware @jacobware.bsky.social · 6d

Yes. Really important point. Much far-right violence is internecine and fratricidal. So, Pape's argument that "although using the partisan identity of targets as a proxy for the partisan motivations of perpetrators is not a perfect approach, it is a fairly good one" does not hold up.

Dan Nexon @dhnexon.bsky.social · 6d

What Bob leaves out is that the rise in threats against Republican officials is driven, in no small measure, by stochastic MAGA terrorism aimed at cowing anyone who does, or might, cross Trump.

Jacob Ware @jacobware.bsky.social · 6d

"Violent populism—a phase of politics characterized by high levels of political violence and broad support for it—now represents a greater risk to American democracy than any competition with another country or any menace by a foreign terrorist group."🎯

1 6 23