Neil Turkewitz
@neilturkewitz.bsky.social
I write mostly about the intersection of tech & art/culture which these days means I spend nearly all my time trying to address the exploitation underlying current AI models. A secular humanist interrogating modern religions.
Pinned
Rebuilding the World: Innovating for a Better Future
By Neil Turkewitz
This year’s World IP Day is focused on “IP and Youth: Innovating for a Better Future.” I couldn’t imagine a more appropriate, or timely…
medium.com
“The ‘information age’ has facilitated the weaponization of information & the erosion of an understanding of our fundamental interdependence.
This stems, at least in part, from a willingness to treat art and culture as fungible parts of an information ecosystem.”
medium.com/@nturkewitz_...
This stems, at least in part, from a willingness to treat art and culture as fungible parts of an information ecosystem.”
medium.com/@nturkewitz_...
This is perfect. What are we doing with AI? We’re not outsourcing work—we’re outsourcing joy. Outsourcing personal development. Outsourcing the journey and pretending we will arrive at the same destination.
"I’ve concluded that instead of teaching students to read and write, I should be teaching them how to prompt AI better. If only I’d had a better education in AI prompt writing, I’d be able to get AI to create more AI-proof teaching materials for me."
I Need AI to Write Better Lesson Plans So My Students Stop Using AI to Write Their Papers
I care deeply about my students’ learning, but with all the new technologies available to help them cut corners, I worry that they’re not doing the...
buff.ly
December 7, 2025 at 2:26 PM
This is perfect. What are we doing with AI? We’re not outsourcing work—we’re outsourcing joy. Outsourcing personal development. Outsourcing the journey and pretending we will arrive at the same destination.
A marvelous tour d’horizon from @eryk.bsky.social about the various strands of critical thinking (i.e. hype-free) about AI. Huge thanks Eryk for doing this. Very helpful. Here’s one of my favorite bits.
December 7, 2025 at 1:00 PM
A marvelous tour d’horizon from @eryk.bsky.social about the various strands of critical thinking (i.e. hype-free) about AI. Huge thanks Eryk for doing this. Very helpful. Here’s one of my favorite bits.
good morning 🌞
December 7, 2025 at 12:15 PM
good morning 🌞
“For me, the purpose of doing this work is mostly to act as a provocation and give people examples of how you can refuse this stuff, to furnish one’s imaginary for what a politics of refusal could look like.”
@tega.bsky.social
@404media.co
@tega.bsky.social
@404media.co
Sick of the slop?
With the AI ‘Slop Evader’, you can search and scroll the internet “like it’s 2022”
www.404media.co/slop-evader-...
With the AI ‘Slop Evader’, you can search and scroll the internet “like it’s 2022”
www.404media.co/slop-evader-...
December 6, 2025 at 7:26 PM
“For me, the purpose of doing this work is mostly to act as a provocation and give people examples of how you can refuse this stuff, to furnish one’s imaginary for what a politics of refusal could look like.”
@tega.bsky.social
@404media.co
@tega.bsky.social
@404media.co
good morning 🌞
December 6, 2025 at 12:02 PM
good morning 🌞
Reposted by Neil Turkewitz
"When there’s no war, you aren’t committing war crimes when you kill people indiscriminately. You’re just a straight-up murderer."
A war criminal without a war
It's just murder.
www.publicnotice.co
December 5, 2025 at 9:57 PM
"When there’s no war, you aren’t committing war crimes when you kill people indiscriminately. You’re just a straight-up murderer."
Reposted by Neil Turkewitz
This by @prisonculture.bsky.social is spot on. And I’d add that not only is inaction a comfortable default, but there are many companies actively selling “learned helplessness” to cultivate the appearance of inevitability & the futility of resistance—most notably AI companies & their VC backers.
December 5, 2025 at 5:40 PM
This by @prisonculture.bsky.social is spot on. And I’d add that not only is inaction a comfortable default, but there are many companies actively selling “learned helplessness” to cultivate the appearance of inevitability & the futility of resistance—most notably AI companies & their VC backers.
“The @chicagotribune.com alleges that Perplexity’s technology unlawfully scrapes & reproduces its articles, presenting them in summarized forms that deprive the newspaper of traffic & revenue.”
And today the @nytimes.com filed their own, similar, complaint against Perplexity, also focused on RAG.
And today the @nytimes.com filed their own, similar, complaint against Perplexity, also focused on RAG.
Chicago Tribune Sues Perplexity AI for Copyright Infringement
The Chicago Tribune sued Perplexity AI on December 4, 2025, for copyright infringement, alleging unauthorized scraping and summarization of its articles via the startup's RAG system, which deprives th...
www.webpronews.com
December 5, 2025 at 5:29 PM
“The @chicagotribune.com alleges that Perplexity’s technology unlawfully scrapes & reproduces its articles, presenting them in summarized forms that deprive the newspaper of traffic & revenue.”
And today the @nytimes.com filed their own, similar, complaint against Perplexity, also focused on RAG.
And today the @nytimes.com filed their own, similar, complaint against Perplexity, also focused on RAG.
“Perplexity uses our content to power its product through a process called retrieval-augmented generation (RAG). RAG allows Perplexity to crawl the internet and steal content from behind our paywall and deliver it to its customers in real time.”
@nytimes.com
@nytimes.com
The Times Sues Perplexity AI | The New York Times Company
Today, The New York Times filed a lawsuit against Perplexity AI for copying Times journalism to deliver it to Perplexity’s customers without permission or compensation.
www.nytco.com
December 5, 2025 at 2:31 PM
“Perplexity uses our content to power its product through a process called retrieval-augmented generation (RAG). RAG allows Perplexity to crawl the internet and steal content from behind our paywall and deliver it to its customers in real time.”
@nytimes.com
@nytimes.com
Part of me hopes that Trump will give Sacks what he wants on preemption of state laws on AI safety. It would spectacularly backfire & effectively preempt the possibility of a Trump aligned politician from ever holding office again.
…perchance to dream.
…perchance to dream.
Big @tinanguyen.bsky.social scoop - the Trump MAGA / tech coalition continues to fracture as the hard right pushes back against David Sacks and his attempt to preempt state AI laws. Caught in the middle: Vance. www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...
The far right is mobilizing against Trump AI czar David Sacks
A controversial executive order dictating America’s AI policy has MAGA scrambling against the White House and its Special Advisor on AI and Crypto.
www.theverge.com
December 5, 2025 at 1:43 PM
Part of me hopes that Trump will give Sacks what he wants on preemption of state laws on AI safety. It would spectacularly backfire & effectively preempt the possibility of a Trump aligned politician from ever holding office again.
…perchance to dream.
…perchance to dream.
Some thoughts about AI governance and learning from our past failures with internet governance. We all need to wake up, reject the learned helplessness that Silicon Valley is selling, & demand the kind of accountability needed to construct a world more in line with our humanity.
December 5, 2025 at 1:08 PM
Some thoughts about AI governance and learning from our past failures with internet governance. We all need to wake up, reject the learned helplessness that Silicon Valley is selling, & demand the kind of accountability needed to construct a world more in line with our humanity.
“Academic freedom in a democracy dies not through troops taking direct control of campus, but in thousands of bureaucratic changes and risk-averse decisions – each justified as temporary, each rationalised as necessary.”
💥 MAGA 101: Inside Trump’s fast-track masterclass in undermining academic freedom. My latest article for @indexoncensorship.org assesses the Trump Administration's assault on US Higher Education: A blueprint that threatens academic freedom internationally. www.indexoncensorship.org/2025/12/maga...
MAGA 101: Inside Trump’s fast-track masterclass in undermining academic freedom - Index on Censorship
A report on the impact of the Trump administration’s assault on research and teaching in the United States and what the future might hold for free expression in academia in other democracies
www.indexoncensorship.org
December 5, 2025 at 3:05 AM
“Academic freedom in a democracy dies not through troops taking direct control of campus, but in thousands of bureaucratic changes and risk-averse decisions – each justified as temporary, each rationalised as necessary.”
Stop the internet…we have a winner! 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
they should have a separate color of the year for people who haven’t lost the will to live
December 4, 2025 at 10:39 PM
Stop the internet…we have a winner! 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
This is amazing! Brava @ellecordova.bsky.social
(But I must admit that I now live in fear of a hyphenated life)
(But I must admit that I now live in fear of a hyphenated life)
Punctuation marks hanging out
TikTok video by Elle Cordova
www.tiktok.com
December 4, 2025 at 2:11 PM
This is amazing! Brava @ellecordova.bsky.social
(But I must admit that I now live in fear of a hyphenated life)
(But I must admit that I now live in fear of a hyphenated life)
“one of the few clear intuitions I have about our current technological milieu: that the arc of artificial intelligence bends toward demoralization.”
one of my favorite writers/thinkers reemerges out of the wilderness. @lmsacasas.bsky.social, I missed you.
one of my favorite writers/thinkers reemerges out of the wilderness. @lmsacasas.bsky.social, I missed you.
Out of the Wilderness
In hope
open.substack.com
December 4, 2025 at 12:54 PM
“one of the few clear intuitions I have about our current technological milieu: that the arc of artificial intelligence bends toward demoralization.”
one of my favorite writers/thinkers reemerges out of the wilderness. @lmsacasas.bsky.social, I missed you.
one of my favorite writers/thinkers reemerges out of the wilderness. @lmsacasas.bsky.social, I missed you.
Hallelujah!
Workers from journalism to tech and beyond are standing up to fight back against management’s drive to use ai to sloppify our work and degrade our labor. head to www.newsnotslop.org/ to support journalists and workersdecide.tech to get tools to join the fight in your workplace too. #newsnotslop
December 3, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Hallelujah!
Reposted by Neil Turkewitz
Sabrina Carpenter slams the White House for using her song ‘Juno’ for a pro-ICE video:
“this video is evil and disgusting. Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda.”
“this video is evil and disgusting. Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda.”
December 2, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Sabrina Carpenter slams the White House for using her song ‘Juno’ for a pro-ICE video:
“this video is evil and disgusting. Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda.”
“this video is evil and disgusting. Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda.”
“National defense is a geographic, economic, intellectual, cultural, technological & political consideration in which the greatest strength is also the greatest weakness—that it can only truly be eroded from within.”
@davidnewhoff.bsky.social
@davidnewhoff.bsky.social
Americans Won’t Thank Washington for Protecting Big Tech in the NDAA - The Illusion of More
Big Tech's effort to attach a moratorium on state regulation of AI to the NDAA is politically naive and bad for Americans.
illusionofmore.com
December 3, 2025 at 1:32 PM
“National defense is a geographic, economic, intellectual, cultural, technological & political consideration in which the greatest strength is also the greatest weakness—that it can only truly be eroded from within.”
@davidnewhoff.bsky.social
@davidnewhoff.bsky.social
good morning 🌞
December 3, 2025 at 12:31 PM
good morning 🌞
Thought for the day…
Indeed. Aside from the exploitation of labor and environmental hazards posed by generative AI, it is imperative to observe that AI use enriches & empowers the worst people on the planet. By design, it drowns truth in irrelevance, as foreshadowed by Steve Bannon’s call to flood the zone with shit!
December 2, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Thought for the day…