Jack Hardinges
@jackhardinges.bsky.social
Data optimist.
Interested in: data infrastructures, governance, platforms, AI, the commons, value, funding, etc.
Working with: Foresight (1m eye scans for disease detection), Icebreaker One (data for net zero) + Creative Commons (preference signals).
Interested in: data infrastructures, governance, platforms, AI, the commons, value, funding, etc.
Working with: Foresight (1m eye scans for disease detection), Icebreaker One (data for net zero) + Creative Commons (preference signals).
"It’s incoherent to claim that data is extremely valuable and that it should somehow also be free. This doesn’t mean there aren’t reasons to subsidize data access to make it available at no cost, but it means we need to acknowledge the costs" radiant.earth/blog/2025/11...
Great Data Products
The language we use to talk about data is keeping us from realizing its full potential.
radiant.earth
November 13, 2025 at 12:59 PM
"It’s incoherent to claim that data is extremely valuable and that it should somehow also be free. This doesn’t mean there aren’t reasons to subsidize data access to make it available at no cost, but it means we need to acknowledge the costs" radiant.earth/blog/2025/11...
"The question isn’t whether we can add integrity to AI but whether the architecture permits integrity at all. Today’s AI agents observe the Internet, orient via statistics, decide probabilistically, and act without verification" (via @peterkwells.com) www.schneier.com/blog/archive...
Agentic AI’s OODA Loop Problem - Schneier on Security
The OODA loop—for observe, orient, decide, act—is a framework to understand decision-making in adversarial situations. We apply the same framework to artificial intelligence agents, who have to make t...
www.schneier.com
November 7, 2025 at 2:32 PM
"The question isn’t whether we can add integrity to AI but whether the architecture permits integrity at all. Today’s AI agents observe the Internet, orient via statistics, decide probabilistically, and act without verification" (via @peterkwells.com) www.schneier.com/blog/archive...
'How AGI became the most consequential conspiracy theory of our time' www.technologyreview.com/2025/10/30/1...
How AGI became the most consequential conspiracy theory of our time
The idea that machines will be as smart as—or smarter than—humans has hijacked an entire industry. But look closely and you’ll see it’s a myth that persists for many of the same reasons conspiracies d...
www.technologyreview.com
November 7, 2025 at 9:00 AM
'How AGI became the most consequential conspiracy theory of our time' www.technologyreview.com/2025/10/30/1...
the Smart Data Group has published a proposal for what the 'Future Entity' for Open Banking + all Smart Data Schemes should look like. Special Purpose Vehicles for each Scheme.. www.linkedin.com/posts/smart-...
November 3, 2025 at 8:48 AM
the Smart Data Group has published a proposal for what the 'Future Entity' for Open Banking + all Smart Data Schemes should look like. Special Purpose Vehicles for each Scheme.. www.linkedin.com/posts/smart-...
'Welcome to the Post-Naive Internet Era' www.mozillafoundation.org/en/nothing-p...
Welcome to the Post-Naive Internet Era
The grand idealism of the free and open internet might be over for now, but in its place falls a more practical mindset. Just like Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurs are entering their “Hard Tech” era, th...
www.mozillafoundation.org
October 31, 2025 at 4:20 PM
'Welcome to the Post-Naive Internet Era' www.mozillafoundation.org/en/nothing-p...
"The open movement must likewise evolve from the libertarian ethos of the early internet toward a civic ethos fit for the age of AI. We must design infrastructures.. that preserve the spirit of accessibility while protecting against its weaponisation" sverhulst.medium.com/the-weaponis...
The Weaponisation of Openness? Toward a New Social Contract for Data in the AI Era
By Stefaan G. Verhulst
sverhulst.medium.com
October 30, 2025 at 6:02 PM
"The open movement must likewise evolve from the libertarian ethos of the early internet toward a civic ethos fit for the age of AI. We must design infrastructures.. that preserve the spirit of accessibility while protecting against its weaponisation" sverhulst.medium.com/the-weaponis...
new UK Gov study on the value of public sector data. apparently the public sector invests £30bn in data assets per year, which have an 'expected potential value' to the economy of £15bn-200bn www.gov.uk/government/p...
Value of Public Sector Data Estimate
www.gov.uk
October 30, 2025 at 8:44 AM
new UK Gov study on the value of public sector data. apparently the public sector invests £30bn in data assets per year, which have an 'expected potential value' to the economy of £15bn-200bn www.gov.uk/government/p...
"Requiring copyright licenses for training data would.. (1) create new barriers to market entry and competition in new technologies.. while (2) entrenching large copyright holders and (3) not significantly benefiting creators." www.lawfaremedia.org/article/worr...
Worried About AI Monopoly? Embrace Copyright’s Limits
Copyright’s limits play essential antimonopoly functions. Undermining them in the context of AI is likely to strengthen Big Tech.
www.lawfaremedia.org
October 28, 2025 at 8:33 AM
"Requiring copyright licenses for training data would.. (1) create new barriers to market entry and competition in new technologies.. while (2) entrenching large copyright holders and (3) not significantly benefiting creators." www.lawfaremedia.org/article/worr...
"AI companies are locked in an arms race for quality human content - and that pressure has fueled an industrial-scale 'data laundering' economy" www.reuters.com/world/reddit...
www.reuters.com
October 24, 2025 at 9:44 AM
"AI companies are locked in an arms race for quality human content - and that pressure has fueled an industrial-scale 'data laundering' economy" www.reuters.com/world/reddit...
"It’s already clear that the Internet’s discovery system for the next 15 years will be something different: Answer Engines.. Whether you like it or not, the future will increasingly be answers not searches" blog.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-2...
Cloudflare’s 2025 Annual Founders’ Letter
Cloudflare launched 15 years ago this week. We like to celebrate our birthday by launching new products that give back to the Internet, which will do a lot of this week. But on this occasion we've als...
blog.cloudflare.com
October 22, 2025 at 8:39 AM
"It’s already clear that the Internet’s discovery system for the next 15 years will be something different: Answer Engines.. Whether you like it or not, the future will increasingly be answers not searches" blog.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-2...
Reposted by Jack Hardinges
This remains the funniest way to hear about an internet outage, though.
October 20, 2025 at 8:41 AM
This remains the funniest way to hear about an internet outage, though.
Reposted by Jack Hardinges
wikipedia's data shows that AI is siphoning traffic away from the site, which is a danger to its sustainability. ironically Wikipedia is more important than ever to users who want reliable information instead of slop, and to AI companies that need it for training data www.404media.co/wikipedia-sa...
Wikipedia Says AI Is Causing a Dangerous Decline in Human Visitors
“With fewer visits to Wikipedia, fewer volunteers may grow and enrich the content, and fewer individual donors may support this work.”
www.404media.co
October 17, 2025 at 1:15 AM
wikipedia's data shows that AI is siphoning traffic away from the site, which is a danger to its sustainability. ironically Wikipedia is more important than ever to users who want reliable information instead of slop, and to AI companies that need it for training data www.404media.co/wikipedia-sa...
"Humanity AI, a $500 million five-year initiative.. will drive new investments toward establishing a people-driven future where AI delivers for humanity, strengthens communities, and enhances human creativity" www.macfound.org/press/press-...
Humanity AI Commits $500 Million to Build a People-Centered Future for AI
www.macfound.org
October 16, 2025 at 10:13 AM
"Humanity AI, a $500 million five-year initiative.. will drive new investments toward establishing a people-driven future where AI delivers for humanity, strengthens communities, and enhances human creativity" www.macfound.org/press/press-...
I see this in the same family of data sharing as financial reporting, Smart Data, researcher access to platform data, retailers sharing their plastic bag sales, etc etc: www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Vets could be made to cap prescription prices after UK watchdog investigation
Market ‘not fit’ for purpose, CMA says, as it proposes shake-up including publishing treatment costs
www.theguardian.com
October 15, 2025 at 8:32 AM
I see this in the same family of data sharing as financial reporting, Smart Data, researcher access to platform data, retailers sharing their plastic bag sales, etc etc: www.theguardian.com/business/202...
'Cooperative data utilities' www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B8Z...
October 15, 2025 at 6:45 AM
'Cooperative data utilities' www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B8Z...
"For the same reason that a dog can go to church but a dog cannot be Catholic, an LLM can have a conversation but cannot participate in the conversation" mail.cyberneticforests.com/what-machine...
October 13, 2025 at 7:37 AM
"For the same reason that a dog can go to church but a dog cannot be Catholic, an LLM can have a conversation but cannot participate in the conversation" mail.cyberneticforests.com/what-machine...
'Realising the potential of a National Data Library' - @wellcometrust.bsky.social + ESRC wellcomeopenresearch.org/documents/10...
wellcomeopenresearch.org
October 10, 2025 at 10:43 AM
'Realising the potential of a National Data Library' - @wellcometrust.bsky.social + ESRC wellcomeopenresearch.org/documents/10...
"China’s recently-created National Data Administration has a mandate to turn data into a new 'factor of production', alongside the traditional factors of land, labor, capital and technology" mattsheehan.substack.com/p/chinas-big...
China's Big AI Diffusion Plan is Here. Will it Work?
A bearish and bullish case for the major "AI+" initiative
mattsheehan.substack.com
October 10, 2025 at 9:38 AM
"China’s recently-created National Data Administration has a mandate to turn data into a new 'factor of production', alongside the traditional factors of land, labor, capital and technology" mattsheehan.substack.com/p/chinas-big...
"TL;DR What's the point of an 'ethical' AI that burns through resources, or a 'green' AI that amplifies bias? Ethics and sustainability have to evolve together, starting with how we measure and disclose AI's real costs" huggingface.co/blog/sasha/e...
Ethics + Sustainability = Responsible AI
A Blog post by Sasha Luccioni on Hugging Face
huggingface.co
October 10, 2025 at 9:00 AM
"TL;DR What's the point of an 'ethical' AI that burns through resources, or a 'green' AI that amplifies bias? Ethics and sustainability have to evolve together, starting with how we measure and disclose AI's real costs" huggingface.co/blog/sasha/e...
OH: "the holy grail of AI now seems to be circularity rather than singularity”
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
OpenAI signs multibillion-dollar chip deal with AMD
The deal gives the ChatGPT maker the option to take a 10% stake in the chipmaker
www.theguardian.com
October 7, 2025 at 7:43 AM
OH: "the holy grail of AI now seems to be circularity rather than singularity”
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
"Rewilding the web means recovering what Otlet, Nelson, Hall, and Richardson all glimpsed: a civic, literary, interconnected, and collaborative commons that resists enclosure and keeps the web alive" mamund.substack.com/p/the-hyperm...
The Hypermedia Commons We Missed
It’s time to ask: do we want a plantation of transactions, or a living commons of creativity?
mamund.substack.com
September 30, 2025 at 2:56 PM
"Rewilding the web means recovering what Otlet, Nelson, Hall, and Richardson all glimpsed: a civic, literary, interconnected, and collaborative commons that resists enclosure and keeps the web alive" mamund.substack.com/p/the-hyperm...
"A global advertising infrastructure built and governed to operate in the public interest.. would be able to capture funds that currently fuel our broligarchic dystopia.. [and] reshape privacy norms and incentive structures across the entire internet" www.techpolicy.press/how-wikipedi...
How Wikipedia Can Save the Internet With Advertising | TechPolicy.Press
Robin Berjon explores how principled advertising on Wikipedia could fund a democratic digital future.
www.techpolicy.press
September 30, 2025 at 8:30 AM
"A global advertising infrastructure built and governed to operate in the public interest.. would be able to capture funds that currently fuel our broligarchic dystopia.. [and] reshape privacy norms and incentive structures across the entire internet" www.techpolicy.press/how-wikipedi...
writing music: open.spotify.com/track/1YGxSg...
So U Kno
open.spotify.com
September 26, 2025 at 11:11 AM
writing music: open.spotify.com/track/1YGxSg...
"Loyal agents:
- Enabling AI agents to securely transact on behalf of consumers
- Defining duties of AI agents to consumers
- Ensuring agents are effective and aligned with consumers' preferences"
loyalagents.org#focus-areas
- Enabling AI agents to securely transact on behalf of consumers
- Defining duties of AI agents to consumers
- Ensuring agents are effective and aligned with consumers' preferences"
loyalagents.org#focus-areas
LoyalAgents - Consumer Reports & Stanford
A research collaboration to enable a marketplace of secure, trusted consumer-centric agents.
loyalagents.org
September 26, 2025 at 7:44 AM
"Loyal agents:
- Enabling AI agents to securely transact on behalf of consumers
- Defining duties of AI agents to consumers
- Ensuring agents are effective and aligned with consumers' preferences"
loyalagents.org#focus-areas
- Enabling AI agents to securely transact on behalf of consumers
- Defining duties of AI agents to consumers
- Ensuring agents are effective and aligned with consumers' preferences"
loyalagents.org#focus-areas
'AI-as-mom'
Good grief. I missed this, but can everyone just stop giving Geoffrey Hinton a platform for random pronouncements? The depth of infuriating BS vested in the phrase "Maternal AI" is too exhausting to even try to interrogate www.forbes.com/sites/lancee...
Godfather Of AI Says We Need Maternal AI But Ignites Sparks Over Omission Of Fatherly Instincts Too
The "Godfather of AI" claimed that existential risk from AI can be overcome by imbuing maternal instincts into AI. This AI-as-mom is not as straightforward as it seems.
www.forbes.com
September 25, 2025 at 9:26 AM
'AI-as-mom'