Sun-ha Hong
@sunhahong.bsky.social
Wrote Technologies of Speculation (NYUP, 2020). Writing Predictions Without Futures. right now: Stanford Humanities Centre Fellow, soon: UNC Chapel Hill.
Reposted by Sun-ha Hong
A striking thing about articles I’ve read claiming to “study the effects” of generative AI on student writing skills and consumption of information is that (1) they nearly always find the effects are negative and (2) most “conclusions” are still written assuming that we must use AI, for some reason.
October 9, 2025 at 11:49 AM
A striking thing about articles I’ve read claiming to “study the effects” of generative AI on student writing skills and consumption of information is that (1) they nearly always find the effects are negative and (2) most “conclusions” are still written assuming that we must use AI, for some reason.
Reposted by Sun-ha Hong
Please join us for our last Digital Aesthetics event of the AY 24-25: an AI & Media Roundtable, with Sun-ha Hong, Johan Fredrikzon, Julia Irwin, and Hank Gerba on May 20, 5-7pm PT. Abstracts and bios can be found here: docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Zoom for the day of: tinyurl.com/5n8mdpbb
Zoom for the day of: tinyurl.com/5n8mdpbb
May 9, 2025 at 11:54 PM
Please join us for our last Digital Aesthetics event of the AY 24-25: an AI & Media Roundtable, with Sun-ha Hong, Johan Fredrikzon, Julia Irwin, and Hank Gerba on May 20, 5-7pm PT. Abstracts and bios can be found here: docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Zoom for the day of: tinyurl.com/5n8mdpbb
Zoom for the day of: tinyurl.com/5n8mdpbb
Reposted by Sun-ha Hong
This Yougov survey contains an important finding: people who rely heavily on ChatGPT rate it as being "good" at tasks that we ABSOLUTELY know for sure it is very bad at
imo, this is a strong piece of evidence these heavy users simply do not ever check outputs
yougov.co.uk/technology/a...
imo, this is a strong piece of evidence these heavy users simply do not ever check outputs
yougov.co.uk/technology/a...
April 24, 2025 at 8:13 PM
This Yougov survey contains an important finding: people who rely heavily on ChatGPT rate it as being "good" at tasks that we ABSOLUTELY know for sure it is very bad at
imo, this is a strong piece of evidence these heavy users simply do not ever check outputs
yougov.co.uk/technology/a...
imo, this is a strong piece of evidence these heavy users simply do not ever check outputs
yougov.co.uk/technology/a...
Reposted by Sun-ha Hong
I think we can split @hankgreen.bsky.social's question out into two categories:
1) Uses with an obvious failure mode
2) Uses with a subtle failure mode
My theory is type (2) failures are becoming EXTREMELY widespread - the ones we catch are the iceberg tip, and suggest 1,000 un-caught errors
1) Uses with an obvious failure mode
2) Uses with a subtle failure mode
My theory is type (2) failures are becoming EXTREMELY widespread - the ones we catch are the iceberg tip, and suggest 1,000 un-caught errors
Stanford Professor Allegedly Includes Fake AI Citations in Filing on Deepfake Bill
Professor Jeff Hancock from the Stanford Social Media Lab submitted a legal argument in support of a Minnesota deepfake bill, but it reportedly includes citations made up by AI.
www.pcmag.com
April 24, 2025 at 12:42 PM
I think we can split @hankgreen.bsky.social's question out into two categories:
1) Uses with an obvious failure mode
2) Uses with a subtle failure mode
My theory is type (2) failures are becoming EXTREMELY widespread - the ones we catch are the iceberg tip, and suggest 1,000 un-caught errors
1) Uses with an obvious failure mode
2) Uses with a subtle failure mode
My theory is type (2) failures are becoming EXTREMELY widespread - the ones we catch are the iceberg tip, and suggest 1,000 un-caught errors
Reposted by Sun-ha Hong
I love how @zgtcooper.bsky.social uses his ethnographic work in Greenland to take down the vacuous concept of the Network State, which is so detached from land and the people who live in a place, with tech bros grafting AI generated crypto fascist nightmares onto topographies they don’t understand
The Network State and Topological Fetishism in Greenland
In his essay for our series “The Cloud is Dead,” D&S affiliate Zane Griffin Talley Cooper examines resource extraction in the Arctic and how fantasies of the Network State run counter to the reality o...
datasociety.net
April 23, 2025 at 11:35 PM
I love how @zgtcooper.bsky.social uses his ethnographic work in Greenland to take down the vacuous concept of the Network State, which is so detached from land and the people who live in a place, with tech bros grafting AI generated crypto fascist nightmares onto topographies they don’t understand
Reposted by Sun-ha Hong
I do wish it was better understood by now—especially by folks in the media—that these "warnings" from large AI corporations in fact function as "advertisements"
www.axios.com/2025/04/22/a...
www.axios.com/2025/04/22/a...
Exclusive: Anthropic warns fully AI employees are a year away
Managing those AI identities will require companies to completely reassess their cybersecurity strategies.
www.axios.com
April 22, 2025 at 4:28 PM
I do wish it was better understood by now—especially by folks in the media—that these "warnings" from large AI corporations in fact function as "advertisements"
www.axios.com/2025/04/22/a...
www.axios.com/2025/04/22/a...
One thing I distinctly remember from this book is FFM.
20th century SV grew on electronics manufacturing, and employers systematically looked for female migrant labour - they called it FFM (fast fingered Malaysians). Small, cheap, and you can ignore/suppress all their health & safety complaints
20th century SV grew on electronics manufacturing, and employers systematically looked for female migrant labour - they called it FFM (fast fingered Malaysians). Small, cheap, and you can ignore/suppress all their health & safety complaints
An interesting historical fact: when Silicon Valley was a more important manufacturing center, most of the workers were Asian and Latina. Even in the 1980s, white Americans were not crazy about these jobs. Perhaps this crucial book should be more popular…
nyupress.org/978081476709...
nyupress.org/978081476709...
The Silicon Valley of Dreams
Examines the environmental racism at the foundation of the Silicon Valley economyNext to the nuclear industry, the largest producer of contaminants in the ai...
nyupress.org
April 8, 2025 at 12:22 AM
One thing I distinctly remember from this book is FFM.
20th century SV grew on electronics manufacturing, and employers systematically looked for female migrant labour - they called it FFM (fast fingered Malaysians). Small, cheap, and you can ignore/suppress all their health & safety complaints
20th century SV grew on electronics manufacturing, and employers systematically looked for female migrant labour - they called it FFM (fast fingered Malaysians). Small, cheap, and you can ignore/suppress all their health & safety complaints
Reposted by Sun-ha Hong
'From a legal perspective, the best analogy to robot rights is not human rights but corporate rights...' papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... @abeba.bsky.social
April 6, 2025 at 5:24 PM
'From a legal perspective, the best analogy to robot rights is not human rights but corporate rights...' papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... @abeba.bsky.social
Reposted by Sun-ha Hong
Sam Altman isn't keen on you reading my book. EMPIRE OF AI is based on 300+ interviews, 7 yrs covering AI, and my time as the first reporter who got extensive access to OpenAI. I sought OpenAI's perspective throughout. For months they said it was coming. It never did. Pre-order here: empireofai.com.
April 4, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Sam Altman isn't keen on you reading my book. EMPIRE OF AI is based on 300+ interviews, 7 yrs covering AI, and my time as the first reporter who got extensive access to OpenAI. I sought OpenAI's perspective throughout. For months they said it was coming. It never did. Pre-order here: empireofai.com.
Reposted by Sun-ha Hong
Folks, this is going to be big: “Hype Studies is an emergent, transdisciplinary research arena aimed at inquiring hype as a powerful and pervasive phenomenon that influences economic trends, political agendas, media narratives, and technological developments.” hypestudies.org
Home | Hype Studies
hypestudies.org
March 18, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Folks, this is going to be big: “Hype Studies is an emergent, transdisciplinary research arena aimed at inquiring hype as a powerful and pervasive phenomenon that influences economic trends, political agendas, media narratives, and technological developments.” hypestudies.org
Reposted by Sun-ha Hong
I was gonna grade papers today, but ended up yelling about VC bullshit instead.
It is an article of faith in Silicon Valley that technology is miraculous, and will always save us.
We are stuck dealing with the consequences of that faith and its failures.
open.substack.com/pub/davekarp...
It is an article of faith in Silicon Valley that technology is miraculous, and will always save us.
We are stuck dealing with the consequences of that faith and its failures.
open.substack.com/pub/davekarp...
On the Miraculous Tradition in Silicon Valley Thought
"And then a miracle happens" is not a plan.
open.substack.com
March 10, 2025 at 8:01 PM
I was gonna grade papers today, but ended up yelling about VC bullshit instead.
It is an article of faith in Silicon Valley that technology is miraculous, and will always save us.
We are stuck dealing with the consequences of that faith and its failures.
open.substack.com/pub/davekarp...
It is an article of faith in Silicon Valley that technology is miraculous, and will always save us.
We are stuck dealing with the consequences of that faith and its failures.
open.substack.com/pub/davekarp...
Reposted by Sun-ha Hong
This is a gift link, we will continue to update this article as more Thiel names emerge:
Peter Thiel’s Network Is Quietly Shaping Trump’s Government
The tech magnate has many links to the new Trump administration and the cost-slashing effort led by Elon Musk.
www.bloomberg.com
March 7, 2025 at 2:01 PM
This is a gift link, we will continue to update this article as more Thiel names emerge:
Reposted by Sun-ha Hong
🤯! I just learned that both Sarah and I are the "senior scholars and broken machine facilitators" at this summer's Digital Ideas Institute at the University of Michigan, June 23-7. Advanced grad students + early career scholars are encouraged to apply!
March 6, 2025 at 5:17 PM
🤯! I just learned that both Sarah and I are the "senior scholars and broken machine facilitators" at this summer's Digital Ideas Institute at the University of Michigan, June 23-7. Advanced grad students + early career scholars are encouraged to apply!
Reposted by Sun-ha Hong
I wanted to see what Sarah Sharma's been up to, and I discovered that she's soon publishing a book titled Insufferable Tools, which sounds amazing. I love her 🥰
Bio – Sarah Sharma
Sarah Sharma is Professor of Media Theory at the ICCIT/Faculty of Information and Director of the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology at the University of Toronto. Her rese...
sarahsharma.com
March 6, 2025 at 5:02 PM
I wanted to see what Sarah Sharma's been up to, and I discovered that she's soon publishing a book titled Insufferable Tools, which sounds amazing. I love her 🥰
Remember Babylon Health: a Goldman Sachs banker sees the NHS gutted by austerity => promises magic AI doctors => 4.2bn valuation => IPO bust => bankruptcy.
The funding system requires exponential hype - until, eventually, the massive costs & lack of actual product catches up with you.
The funding system requires exponential hype - until, eventually, the massive costs & lack of actual product catches up with you.
Stand by this: www.politico.com/newsletters/...
February 19, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Remember Babylon Health: a Goldman Sachs banker sees the NHS gutted by austerity => promises magic AI doctors => 4.2bn valuation => IPO bust => bankruptcy.
The funding system requires exponential hype - until, eventually, the massive costs & lack of actual product catches up with you.
The funding system requires exponential hype - until, eventually, the massive costs & lack of actual product catches up with you.
"The more ideas have become automatic, instrumentalised, the less does anybody see in them thoughts with a meaning of their own. They are considered things, machines. Language has been reduced to just another tool in the gigantic apparatus of production in modern society." - Max Horkheimer, 1944
February 14, 2025 at 7:54 PM
"The more ideas have become automatic, instrumentalised, the less does anybody see in them thoughts with a meaning of their own. They are considered things, machines. Language has been reduced to just another tool in the gigantic apparatus of production in modern society." - Max Horkheimer, 1944
Reposted by Sun-ha Hong
'The Network State, Venture Capital and the Political Economy of Exit' my latest manuscript (preprint) on Crypto-colonialists and NRx VCs
www.researchgate.net/publication/...
www.researchgate.net/publication/...
(PDF) The Network State, Venture Capital and the Political Economy of Exit
PDF | This paper considers the emerging network state movement as evidence of the interplay between exit ideologies and exit strategies in the political... | Find, read and cite all the research you n...
www.researchgate.net
August 2, 2024 at 2:33 AM
'The Network State, Venture Capital and the Political Economy of Exit' my latest manuscript (preprint) on Crypto-colonialists and NRx VCs
www.researchgate.net/publication/...
www.researchgate.net/publication/...
Reposted by Sun-ha Hong
Trump already empowering the worst bosses to just.. ignore labor law.
Whole Foods workers won their union vote, and now Whole Foods (owned by Jeff Bezos) is saying they simply won't recognize the vote because nobody is going to make them.
Whole Foods workers won their union vote, and now Whole Foods (owned by Jeff Bezos) is saying they simply won't recognize the vote because nobody is going to make them.
February 6, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Trump already empowering the worst bosses to just.. ignore labor law.
Whole Foods workers won their union vote, and now Whole Foods (owned by Jeff Bezos) is saying they simply won't recognize the vote because nobody is going to make them.
Whole Foods workers won their union vote, and now Whole Foods (owned by Jeff Bezos) is saying they simply won't recognize the vote because nobody is going to make them.
Reposted by Sun-ha Hong
It occurs to me, for no reason in particular, that I should put this starter pack back in circulation
go.bsky.app/3h6n3YC
go.bsky.app/3h6n3YC
February 1, 2025 at 4:19 PM
It occurs to me, for no reason in particular, that I should put this starter pack back in circulation
go.bsky.app/3h6n3YC
go.bsky.app/3h6n3YC
Reposted by Sun-ha Hong
Straight up corporate welfare. Incredible stuff. Unimaginably stupid and wasteful and invariably will help SoftBank burn even more billions
midnight news from OpenAI: SoftBank will enter into a joint venture with the startup + also commit to spending $3 billion per year on its tech.
www.cnbc.com/2025/02/03/s...
www.cnbc.com/2025/02/03/s...
SoftBank commits to joint venture with OpenAI, will spend $3 billion per year on OpenAI's tech
SoftBank has committed to spending $3 billion per year to use OpenAI's tech, according to a joint release released on Monday.
www.cnbc.com
February 3, 2025 at 5:41 AM
Straight up corporate welfare. Incredible stuff. Unimaginably stupid and wasteful and invariably will help SoftBank burn even more billions
Reposted by Sun-ha Hong
One of the things to know about edtech is that many, many people involved in it have no experience teaching, and particularly not at the grade level the intervention is designed to target. They’re tech guys who think tech is Very Hard and teaching is a skill-free avocation for ladies.
January 25, 2025 at 4:23 PM
One of the things to know about edtech is that many, many people involved in it have no experience teaching, and particularly not at the grade level the intervention is designed to target. They’re tech guys who think tech is Very Hard and teaching is a skill-free avocation for ladies.
Reposted by Sun-ha Hong
This is especially relevant now that OpenAI is now touting its "$500 billion" data center project with Softbank, and celebrated by Trump—it shows that OpenAI still doesn't have a viable business model, that their costs are too high, and that they need more state buy-in and outside capital to survive
Read @bcmerchant.bsky.social’s article evaluating OpenAI's business model, which argues that OpenAI is leaning on a flimsy presentation of AGI as its eventual business model––despite the lack of evidence it is a real possibility, or a viable profit pathway:
ainowinstitute.org/general/ai-g...
ainowinstitute.org/general/ai-g...
AI Generated Business: The Rise of AGI and the Rush to Find a Working Revenue Model
By Brian Merchant In This Article Introduction OpenAI and the Generative AI Boom Silicon Valley Mythology, Distilled and Accelerated From “Safe AI” to AGI — and the Hype-Led Business Model Genesis Mar...
ainowinstitute.org
January 22, 2025 at 9:39 PM
This is especially relevant now that OpenAI is now touting its "$500 billion" data center project with Softbank, and celebrated by Trump—it shows that OpenAI still doesn't have a viable business model, that their costs are too high, and that they need more state buy-in and outside capital to survive
The key ambition for the tech ideologues is the systematic destruction of all things 'public' - public oversight, democratic institutions, public space. City councils, local media, community orgs, public health experts - everything 'independent' must be eliminated in this vision of tech as religion.
Peter Thiel has increasingly clothed his political ideas in the language of religion. We should take it seriously.
On Jan. 10, he wrote a peculiar op-ed in which he described Trump's return to power as a kind of apocalypse.
Here's what he's trying to say:
www.thenerdreich.com/peter-thiel-...
On Jan. 10, he wrote a peculiar op-ed in which he described Trump's return to power as a kind of apocalypse.
Here's what he's trying to say:
www.thenerdreich.com/peter-thiel-...
Silicon Valley's New Religion: Peter Thiel's Tech Apocalypse
A strange essay reveals how Silicon Valley elites are creating an apocalyptic techno-religion to rule the future of civilization
www.thenerdreich.com
January 20, 2025 at 10:02 PM
The key ambition for the tech ideologues is the systematic destruction of all things 'public' - public oversight, democratic institutions, public space. City councils, local media, community orgs, public health experts - everything 'independent' must be eliminated in this vision of tech as religion.