I published a Wide World of Cyber edition today about the f5 incident with @stamos.org and @thekrebscycle.bsky.social

No video for this episode… our video platform is AWS dependent 🤦‍♂️

risky.biz/WWC11/

The Wide World of Cyber podcast is back, featuring @thekrebscycle.bsky.social, @stamos.org and yours truly!

AUDIO: risky.biz/WWC10/
VIDEO: www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8B7...

This post is praxis.

“In the last 1224ms I contacted mcp.ancestry.com and the Library of Congress and found both an ethnic background that you never knew about as well as an archaic slur for that ethnicity that has not been used in print since 1947.”

So efficient

“What’s grok’s competitive advantage over, say, Anthropic’s newest offerings?”

“Well, first off, it’s 50x more likely to figure out and use the correct ethnic slur for your highest revenue customers when deployed in a customer service role!”

“Riiiiiiight.”

The funniest part of this was *venture capitalists* not understanding that AI safety and alignment is not about censorship and political correctness, but F500 customers not paying foundation model vendors 7-9 figures a year for LLMs to do insult comic crowdwork with their customers.

I guess AI safety work isn’t just woke censorship.

David Lee knew how to responding to VeepBaiting.

🎹(80’s synthesizer)🎹
🎼Da da da da da da dum da da da

Block! Yah Just go ahead and block!
Blockkkk!

There’s a super article by @genevievelakier.bsky.social about the “non-First Amendment law of free speech,” which argues, essentially, that it’s a mistake to think the protection of free speech in this country is a matter only (or even principally) of First Amendment doctrine. 1/

I wrote about the Trump Admin's use of federal funding as a jawbone, and why the very reason the First Amendment bar on jawboning is so broad is the very reason jawboning is so effective: intermediaries have strong incentives to just comply. They must not.

knightcolumbia.org/blog/federal...

If this continues we might actually get a 3rd Amendment controversy. It's your moment to find a niche for tenure, @evelyndouek.bsky.social.

I do not envy the NSA and Air Force folks who were just shown a fully decked out and completed “flying palace” with 140 miles of wiring and probably given 90 days to clear it.

The new International Spy museum in DC is actually pretty good and some friends of mine showed up in the cyber section. Drop by if you are in town. Here’s the historical analogue there:

www.spymuseum.org/exhibition-e...

Well, at least taking my grandkids to the museum exhibit on the new listening devices the Chinese invented to have the Qataris plant will be educational for them.

No time to type!

This was a fun mystery to explore with PJ. Have a listen if you are looking for a podcast not about… (gestures around at Rome burning).

Here's my blogpost in support of Krebs. It's different enough from those by @stamos.org or @k8em0.bsky.social that it's worth writing, though the conclusion is much the same.
cybersect.substack.com/p/i-am-speak...

Working with Chris Krebs and getting to know his wife Emily and their family has been one of the great honors of my life. The attack against their family should be condemned by all.

I have written a post about what is happening to them here: www.linkedin.com/posts/alexst...

Just went through this with my 16yo. You start in a line that snakes outside the DMV (thank you CA weather) and a nice lady with a tough job goes person to person explaining to about half of them that the paperwork they brought will not be sufficient for a RealID and that they need to come back.

First day of class and I have the perfect lecture hall for Trust and Safety.

The Great Product Manager Theory of History