Bahrad Sokhansanj
bahradlaw.com
Bahrad Sokhansanj
@bahradlaw.com
AI & Biosecurity Law | Saskatonian-Angeleno

Now that I have an employer: views are very much my own and not theirs.
Reposted by Bahrad Sokhansanj
Pam Bondi was a hot mess yesterday.

Culver City is not.
February 12, 2026 at 10:23 PM
Reposted by Bahrad Sokhansanj
This excellent story Dave Rand posted on Twitter is a perfect illustration of the kind of person Nithya Raman is:
February 7, 2026 at 7:52 PM
LA is ready for its comeback. LFG
It's happening! @sherlyholmes.bsky.social is on the ground
February 7, 2026 at 5:41 PM
I'm really excited about this up and coming hardware startup, which is well positioned for the unprecedented, historic development of agentic AI: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connect...
Connection Machine - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
February 6, 2026 at 8:10 PM
Reposted by Bahrad Sokhansanj
For the evening crowd. New blog post: What's "tacit knowledge" in #biosecurity, and is it really a barrier? A look at the Dec 2025 RAND paper "Contemporary Foundation AI Models Increase Biological Weapons Risk." doi.org/10.59350/mk9... 🧬💻🧪🛡️🦠
February 2, 2026 at 10:00 PM
"The old order is not coming back. We should not mourn it. Nostalgia is not a strategy. But from the fracture, we can build something better, stronger, and more just." -- Mark Carney, 1/20/2026 paulwells.substack.com/p/the-carney...
The Carney doctrine
Open comment thread on the PM's Davos speech
paulwells.substack.com
January 20, 2026 at 7:22 PM
Reposted by Bahrad Sokhansanj
Impeach Kristi Noem.
I am impeaching Secretary Kristi Noem, who is an incompetent leader and a disgrace to our democracy.

She wreaked havoc in the Chicagoland area and has brought her reign of terror to Minneapolis. One of her rogue ICE agents shot and killed an innocent woman today. It must come to an end.
January 8, 2026 at 6:22 PM
Reposted by Bahrad Sokhansanj
We can't afford health care, pay our rent, feed our families, pay for college, or retire with dignity…

But

ICE has 100 billion dollars and is killing American Citizens in broad daylight
January 8, 2026 at 4:44 AM
This isn't imperial conquest, piracy, abducting people in our communities, or murdering a mom in broad daylight, but worth noting this likely illegal--and politically abominable--order withdrawing the US from global treaties and frameworks to solve global problems. www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
Withdrawing the United States from International Organizations, Conventions, and Treaties that Are Contrary to the Interests of the United States
MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United
www.whitehouse.gov
January 8, 2026 at 12:57 AM
Reposted by Bahrad Sokhansanj
Renee Nicole Good was 37. She was murdered by an ICE agent in the street in broad daylight. What really happened to her will not be forgotten, minimized, or ignored.
January 7, 2026 at 10:15 PM
This doesn't make up for any of it, but we need to take all the white dude solidarity we can get.
Abolish ICE. Really.
Trump: "I have just viewed the clip of the event which took place in Minneapolis. It is a horrible thing to watch. The woman screaming was, obviously, a professional agitator, and the woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting ... "
January 7, 2026 at 10:34 PM
Reposted by Bahrad Sokhansanj
Kristi Noem is a stone-cold liar who has zero credibility.

There is nothing to suggest the shooting of an unarmed woman in Minneapolis was justified.

This heinous killing must be criminally investigated to the full extent of the law.
January 7, 2026 at 9:32 PM
Gallego-Frey '28

Also, to follow up: get the fuck out of LA
Jacob Frey: "To ICE -- get the fuck out of Minneapolis"
January 7, 2026 at 7:11 PM
Reposted by Bahrad Sokhansanj
Jacob Frey: "To ICE -- get the fuck out of Minneapolis"
January 7, 2026 at 6:40 PM
I wrote a post about X's lawsuit trying to strike down California's bare bones new AI training data transparency law, AB2013. (Anthropic & others complied instead of suing.) It appears to be the opening salvo of an effort to prevent any AI transparency mandates. law-ai.org/xais-challen...
xAI’s Challenge to California’s AI Training Data Transparency Law (AB2013)
Summary California’s Generative Artificial Intelligence Training Data Transparency Act (AB2013) requires developers of generative AI systems made available in California to publish...
law-ai.org
January 6, 2026 at 12:42 AM
Recognizing this (among other things) made me stop developing agentic AI for legal applications, because it no longer seemed compelling. I think generative AI raises a lot of issues that call for regulation (and rethinking structural inveatments) but a lot of the hype around automation is misplaced.
2020s: AI "System Prompts" are lengthy, carefully constructed sets of expert rules about a particular domain, created by "prompt engineers".

1980s: AI "Expert Systems" were lengthy, carefully constructed sets of expert rules about a particular domain, created by "knowledge engineers".
January 1, 2026 at 9:53 PM
Elon Musk's X AI (Grok) has hired arch-conservative lawyers to try to block AB2013 -- requiring high level summaries of Gen AI training data -- asserting First Amendment & Takings claims that would eviscerate a broad range of disclosure laws that protect consumers and the environment. Link below:
January 1, 2026 at 7:24 PM
The most visionary TV show in history, unfortunately. "The first computerized TV show," as it announces at the top. youtu.be/TftnRx449PA?...
Turn On episode 1
YouTube video by Robotussin Vintage Synths
youtu.be
December 30, 2025 at 11:33 PM
Elizabeth Warren uses ChatGPT.
December 29, 2025 at 3:35 PM
You have to wonder if this is an effort to get around antitrust issues.
December 25, 2025 at 1:32 AM
Reposted by Bahrad Sokhansanj
In 2025 we stood up to authoritarianism. We found our solidarity. We pushed back against the kidnapping of our neighbors and the economic cruelty of the Trump Administration.

In 2026, we are going to organize and win.

Merry Christmas 🎄
December 24, 2025 at 4:44 PM
I like Waymo a lot, but I also think we need to understand that they rely on having the backstop of people monitoring and guiding them -- and it makes sense for cities to demand those workers be local, both for economic and safety reasons. It's time to shift the conversation to that IMO.
So we found out today in San Francisco that autonomous cars don't work in a blackout (Waymos shut down, wherever they were, all over city)

Participating in live experiments is fun! I still wish I'd been asked beforehand. But it is pretty wild and kind of cool to see them discover their edge cases.
December 21, 2025 at 6:14 PM
Reposted by Bahrad Sokhansanj
Closing out my year with a journal editor shocker 🧵

Checking new manuscripts today I reviewed a paper attributing 2 papers to me I did not write. A daft thing for an author to do of course. But intrigued I web searched up one of the titles and that's when it got real weird...
December 19, 2025 at 5:20 PM
They should call it an "expert system.'
December 20, 2025 at 12:53 AM