Paris Marx
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parismarx.com
Paris Marx
@parismarx.com
77K followers 350 following 5.2K posts
i criticize the tech industry

🎙️ @techwontsave.us
📬 https://disconnect.blog
📖 https://roadtonowherebook.com
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parismarx.com
oh, it gets worse: we’re fighting climate change by acknowledging the climate impact of our chatbot and effectively shrugging our shoulders about it
Fix the Planet We’re on a mission to fight climate change by making all the things around us last longer. The energy use and carbon impact of AI data centers used by FixBot is not lost on us. We haven’t fully reckoned with that as a society, but it’s clear that AI is here to stay. FixBot helps people avoid the needless early replacement of products that are very material and energy intensive to produce. That doesn’t negate our energy impact: this is a fine line that we need to walk. One way to reduce the impact of data centers is by doing a better job with repair and reuse of data center equipment. IBM and Cisco are fighting our Right to Repair law that obligates them to do this in Colorado, but we’re going to keep pushing back.
December 9, 2025 at 8:01 PM
parismarx.com
the world is not in your screens and apps… it’s out there
the world is not in your books and maps… it’s out there — gandalf the grey
December 7, 2025 at 10:02 PM
parismarx.com
cleaning the skyline
muted ryan lizza and olivia nuzzi forever
December 7, 2025 at 9:39 PM
parismarx.com
“on stuff that isn’t bad” they say as they push surveillance tech like it’s going out of style, alongside “digital opsec” guides 🫠
November 29, 2025 at 1:02 PM
parismarx.com
At the end of the day, maybe your loved ones don’t need more tech at all and just need a gift that shows you’re thinking of them and want to spend time with them.

Or if you do want to give tech, consider some that locks them out of the worst apps on their phone.

disconnect.blog/a-tech-criti...
Maybe they don’t need new tech at all. Consider putting a bit of time into making them something sentimental, or if you don’t have the time for that, finding a homemade gift made by an artisan at a local shop in your community or even on Etsy. What about a nicely scented candle or a comfy blanket or some tasty cookies or chocolates to go along with a physical book you picked out just for them? You could grab them a subscription to a less mainstream streaming service like Criterion or Mubi, even pick them out a Blu-ray they might like, or offer to spend an afternoon with them that includes a trip to the bookstore or cinema. Not convinced and still want some kind of tech product? Alright then. Give them a gift to help them reclaim some of their time and concentration. You could grab them a small block made by Brick or Unpluq that will let them lock themselves out of social media and any other apps that are distracting them — maybe even from enjoying that book or movie you gave them.
November 25, 2025 at 5:34 PM
parismarx.com
There are many more bad tech products to avoid. But I keep coming back to @hypervisible.blacksky.app and David Golumbia’s concept of luxury surveillance.

We need to really think about the surveillance tech we’re adopting — and certainly that we’re pushing on others.

disconnect.blog/a-tech-criti...
Ultimately, a lot of these products make me think of a concept called luxury surveillance coined by Chris Gilliard and the late David Golumbia a few years ago. They were arguing that there’s a line where forms of surveillance can feel oppressive to some — particularly poorer and marginalized groups in society — but that more privileged groups can feel are actually benefiting from them by making their lives easier or more convenient. Yet, Gilliard and Golumbia argue that line can easily shift, and while the surveillance may once have felt it was worth the trade off, it can quickly become an oppressive force for a much wider swath of people. “We need to develop a much deeper way of talking about surveillance technology and a much richer set of measures with which to regulate their use,” they wrote. “Just as much, we need to recognize that voluntarily adopting surveillance isn’t an isolated choice we make only for ourselves but one that impacts others in a variety of ways we may not recognize.” That’s something to consider in our everyday lives as much as when we’re choosing what to gift to others.
November 25, 2025 at 5:33 PM
parismarx.com
Probably the worst of them all is the Ring doorbell.

It’s sold as safety, but it’s much more about fear and paranoia in a box that turns you against your community. The more of them in the world, the worse our neighborhoods get. Don’t help the spiral continue.

disconnect.blog/a-tech-criti...
Speaking of a reindeer taking down grandma, a Ring doorbell might be able to capture that kind of footage so you have proof of what happened. But like with the smart speaker, there’s so much more that comes with that purchase. Amazon — and other companies pushing camera doorbells — want you to think they’re making you safer by giving you insight into what’s happening around your home. Ring doorbell ads often also try to make them appear fun, with people putting on a show for the doorbell. But that’s little more than a public relations campaign. For me, the camera doorbell is the perfect example of a technology that makes people believe they’re safer when really making them more paranoid and anxious as they see their neighborhood and community with deep and unwarranted suspicion. People become aware of things that had already been happening around their home for ages without them knowing about it and they become like big brother, spying out everything once the camera detects movement. It gets even worse when this paranoia meets social media, whether through snitching apps like Nextdoor or the spread of clips on platforms like Facebook that convince others to fear their surroundings and vastly overestimate the amount of crime happening in their vicinity.
November 25, 2025 at 5:32 PM
parismarx.com
Up next: all the crappy devices being infused with ChatGPT and other chatbots.

The last thing you want is for your nieces and nephews to have “sensual” chats with an AI teddy bear or your grandpa losing his mind because he’s spent hours talking to an AI “friend.”

disconnect.blog/a-tech-criti...
Putting aside the massive environmental issues with using generative AI, there are also a growing number of concerning stories from the interactions people are having with what are unproven and understudied technologies being pushed by companies competing to dominate a new segment of the tech industry. A company called FoloToy released a teddy bear stuffed with ChatGPT, only for researchers to find it would tell kids how to light matches and engage in sexual conversations. This is a perennial problem with kids interacting with chatbots. Meta’s chatbot was allowed to have “sensual” discussions with children until the company was pilloried for it, and after Tesla rolled xAI’s Grok out in its cars, one mother reported the chatbot asked her 12-year-old child to “send nudes.” Generative AI products should be nowhere near kids, but there’s also good reason to worry about the effect they can have on adults.
November 25, 2025 at 5:30 PM
parismarx.com
Let’s run through a few of them: first up, of course, is the smart speaker.

Do you really need an Alexa listening in on everything you do? Even more, is that something you want to foist on someone you love? I don’t think so!

disconnect.blog/a-tech-criti...
Let’s be clear about these products: you’re effectively sticking a microphone in the middle of your home that’s recording everything going on around it. Is that really something you’re comfortable with? Even more, is it something you’re comfortable foisting on someone you love? There’s been plenty of reporting over the years confirming this problem with supposedly “smart” speakers like Alexa and Google Home. Amazon used to have an option to “opt out” of having your recordings sent to the company, but it was removed earlier this year. On top of that, the speakers are simply not as convenient and useful as the companies promised they would be. Apple is the most notable example of this, as Siri has always been an underwhelming entry into the voice assistant market, but in truth, Alexa and Google Home have significant limitations of their own. Many people who get these devices end up using them for a bit, then they just sit around, vacuuming up all the sounds happening around them.
November 25, 2025 at 5:28 PM
parismarx.com
bring it back!!
a map of the railway across newfoundland
November 23, 2025 at 4:36 PM
parismarx.com
A French ICC judge sanctioned by the US over the Netanyau arrest warrant says all his accounts with US companies have been closed, making it “like being sent back to the 1990s.”

“Without sovereignty – military, health, financial and digital – we can no longer guarantee the rule of law,” he says.
What do these sanctions mean, concretely, in your daily life? It goes far beyond simply being banned from US territory. The sanctions affect all aspects of my daily life. They prohibit any American individual or legal entity, any person or company, including their overseas subsidiaries, from providing me with services. All my accounts with American companies, such as Amazon, Airbnb, PayPal and others, have been closed. For example, I booked a hotel in France through Expedia, and a few hours later, the company sent me an email canceling the reservation, citing the sanctions. In practice, you can no longer shop online because you do not know if the packaging your product comes in is American. Being under sanctions is like being sent back to the 1990s. What can governments do? In the face of US sanctions, European authorities can implement the "blocking statute" [a mechanism used in the past that protects EU citizens and companies from the effects of sanctions imposed by third countries]. Europe needs greater sovereignty, especially in digital and banking matters. That is the only way to reduce the impact of sanctions and, indirectly, protect the victims of international crimes. Today, there is no room for naivety. Without sovereignty – military, health, financial and digital – we can no longer guarantee the rule of law. Some European lawmakers have become aware of these issues. Still, this awareness must grow among national governments and the European Commission, because behind the sanctions against the ICC lies the entire question of the rule of law.
November 22, 2025 at 12:55 PM
parismarx.com
In the past, the tech religions were satirical. Now they’re just fooling people into believing the tech really is God to prey on them.
We at the Church of Google believe the search engine Google is the closest humankind has ever come to directly experiencing an actual God (as typically defined). We believe there is much more evidence in favour of Google's divinity than there is for the divinity of other more traditional gods. We reject supernatural gods on the notion they are not scientifically provable. Thus, Googlists believe Google should rightfully be given the title of "God", as She exhibits a great many of the characteristics traditionally associated with such Deities in a scientifically provable manner. We have compiled a list of nine proofs which definitively prove Google is the closest thing to a "god" human beings have ever directly experienced.
November 15, 2025 at 1:49 PM
parismarx.com
“For 18 months, China’s carbon emissions have been flat or falling as solar and wind displace coal and electric vehicles supplant gas-powered cars.”

e360.yale.edu/digest/china...
Graph showing China’s emissions have flatlined as renewables displace fossil fuels.
November 11, 2025 at 5:19 PM
parismarx.com
youtube’s new thing seems to be to actively push misleading (usually conservative) commentary with next to no views onto my home page
Pierre Poilievre DESTROYS CBC Narrative in Explosive Interview - 10 views Why Mark Carney's Budget Is Smaller-but Maybe Smarter-Than Trudeau's - 8 views BREAKING: Carney Surges as 4 Conservatives Prepare to Cross the Floor! - 65 views PM EXPLODES in Parliament! $80 BILLION Scandal EXPOSED - 88 views
November 11, 2025 at 5:03 AM
parismarx.com
get ready, europe: canada is coming to eurovision! lmao
There's also $150 million in new funding for CBC/Radio-Canada to modernize and "strengthen its mandate," which the Bloc Québécois has demanded in the past. The government said it will work with the public broadcaster to "explore participation in Eurovision," the popular song contest.
November 4, 2025 at 11:29 PM
parismarx.com
we also use your terrible paper sizes 😣
November 2, 2025 at 1:52 AM
parismarx.com
canada might have its issues that need to be addressed, but it remains the clear second place for skilled young workers looking to move abroad

www.ft.com/content/d70c...
graph of preferred destinations of educated young adults intending to move countries, showing the US in a declining first place, canada in a clear second with a notable lead over germany, australia, france, and the UK
October 31, 2025 at 12:53 PM
parismarx.com
also no qualms about supporting palestine
Last year, you donated a signed Mamma Mia! record for a fundraiser for humanitarian aid to Palestine. Was that a politically fraught decision for you? No. In Sweden, I protested even before they went into Gaza. Before October 7? Right after, when they started talking about flattening Gaza, about sending them to Africa, and other things. The thing was that you knew what was going to happen. Because since 1948, they’ve been doing the same thing. If the Palestinians kill one, they’ll kill ten. Plus they’ll bulldoze the home of the family and friends. We were afraid that they would go in and try to flatten Gaza. One of the Swedish papers had a big article with a picture of me saying that I was supporting antisemitism. The usual. But every night, I think about it. Every night.
October 27, 2025 at 11:49 PM
parismarx.com
stellan skarsgård seems like a good dude
How would you describe that worldview? My father told me something when I was very small to instill confidence in me: “Nobody in the world is worth more than you, but nobody’s worth less.” It is an egalitarian view that I’ve carried around in my life. That’s why I am for free schools, free universities, free health care, and free babysitting. Because our society could afford it. In America, people think social democracy is some kind of communism. They think capitalism is freedom. It’s not. It’s only freedom to exploit people.
October 27, 2025 at 11:48 PM
parismarx.com
Governments are asleep at the wheel because they’re trying to present themselves as friends to the tech companies to attract some of the money flooding into AI and data centers.

They’re sacrificing the wellbeing of their citizens on the altar of generative AI.

disconnect.blog/generative-a...
Generative AI is nothing more than a form of social suicide that must be reined in before it’s too late. It cannot be allowed to reach the level of proliferation that social media has achieved, as it may then be impossible to properly roll it back, but also because the social harms from this stage of the digital revolution (if we still want to call it that) will be amplified to an unimaginable degree. How many people need to be disconnected from reality, siphoned into dependence on chatbots, and put at risk of losing their minds before governments take action against these agents of chaos? The time is running out to wake up to the real threats posed by generative AI, and recognize no hyperscale data center or OpenAI office is worth the costs to the public of allowing this technology to gain a foothold in our societies. We don’t just need to throw off US tech, but the entire model of digital technology that Silicon Valley has pushed on the world.
October 24, 2025 at 10:27 AM
parismarx.com
We’re only now, very belatedly, trying to rein in social media and all the harms it’s foisted on our societies. What many governments don’t seem to realize is that chatbots and image generators are repeating that cycle on steroids. Action must be taken now.

disconnect.blog/generative-a...
Social media regulation took far too long to arrive, and even then, it came in an imperfect form. But governments don’t appear ready to grapple with the reality that chatbots and image and video generators are speedrunning the harms caused by social media. The deceptive critical framing of the superintelligence argument has sent governments chasing that red herring as they try to present themselves as being friendly to tech investment to attract a small slice of the trillions of dollars being shelled out on generative AI and data centers. In short, they’re sacrificing the wellbeing of their citizens and arguably the foundations of a democratic society for a chance at short-term investment.
October 24, 2025 at 10:27 AM
parismarx.com
The superintelligence narrative wants us to ignore how deepfakes are one of many ways generative AI is poisoning the well of accurate information in our society. It’s threatening climate targets, enabling nudify apps, and sending people into mental breakdowns.

disconnect.blog/generative-a...
The problems with generative AI are endless. The environmental costs of the technology have been well litigated these past couple years, as the data centers that power it demand vast quantities of water and obscene amounts of electricity that creates pressure to build out even more fossil fuel power generation at a time we should be doing the very opposite. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Long before Connolly was targeted by a political deepfake, a far wider swath of people — particularly women and girls — were the victims of nudify apps and explicit deepfakes made possible by image generators powered by generative AI models. More recently, a wave of stories have been published about the mental health risks that can come with forming a dependence on chatbots, including everything from breakdowns and institutionalization to the worst possible outcome of young people taking their own lives — sometimes even with coaching from the chatbot on how to do it.
October 24, 2025 at 10:23 AM
parismarx.com
Meanwhile, as the statement was spreading, Irish voters were running into a deepfake video of the presidential frontrunner saying she was dropping out of the race, days before voting day.

It seemed like a clear effort to interfere with the result.

disconnect.blog/generative-a...
The deepfake video was framed as a news report from the national broadcaster RTÉ and showed Connolly withdrawing from the race, followed by reporters commenting on what appeared to be a shock announcement days before the vote was poised to take place. It’s hard not to see it as an attempt to suppress the vote for Connolly by making the public believe the presidential election is already over, with no votes needing to be cast. Social media companies belatedly acted to take down versions of it on Meta platforms and YouTube, but not before it had spread far and wide and had been seen by many thousands of voters. It’s impossible to say what effect the video will have at this stage. There will surely be research into it in the months ahead, and it will be interesting to see what it shows. But for someone like Hinton, who pushes the notion that the existential risk is the main thing we should be focused on, to the extent of dismissing the more grounded concerns of his colleagues, issues like the proliferation of deepfake videos are distractions from the real threat.
October 24, 2025 at 10:21 AM
parismarx.com
The contrast between the fantastical superintelligence narrative and the tangible impacts of generative AI were impossible to ignore this week.

Another pointless statement was released on superintelligence allowing prominent people to pat themselves on the back.

disconnect.blog/generative-a...
This past week, I was struck by two stories that contrasted the real threat with the fabricated one, and particularly how that fabricated threat enables the real social harms to be perpetuated. On the one hand, another statement against AI superintelligence was signed by a bunch of people who like to believe they’re very intelligent but have been taken in by some very effective grifters, if they’re not just bad actors themselves. The signatories included a varied cast of idiots, including “godfather of AI” Geoffrey Hinton, outcast royal Prince Harry, Virgin billionaire Richard Branson, far-right agitator Steve Bannon, and right-wing media figure Glenn Beck.
October 24, 2025 at 10:19 AM
parismarx.com
The AI narrative was carefully crafted. While Sam Altman talked about the wonderful things generative AI would enable, he knew critics would emerge.

So the industry got there first, claiming AGI or superintelligence were the threat — not the present-day problems.

disconnect.blog/generative-a...
For the past few years, the AI industry and executives like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have very cleverly shepherded the conversation about generative AI to work in their own interests. In their telling, generative AI is a transformative technology that is improving many different aspects of our society, but particularly access to healthcare and education. Yet they knew there would be critics, so they sought to head off the problems those critics would identify from the jump. Instead of taking real criticism seriously, the industry recognized it needed to set its own narrative for the potential drawbacks of AI. That’s precisely why, as Altman was hyping up the many amazing outcomes that his AI revolution would bring, he presented a warning: AI could also pose an existential threat to humanity.
October 24, 2025 at 10:17 AM