Ben Werdmuller helps leaders at newsrooms, non-profits, and mission-driven organizations to navigate their biggest technology challenges.
I’ve written a few times about how blogging has been the single most important accelerant in my career. I mentioned this when I asked more of you to blog, in remarks about other peoples’ posts on blogging, and so on. But I’ve never actually explained how. The arc
AI
[Matthew Green] I think this is the most important discussion with respect to AI: "[...] I would say that AI is going to be the biggest privacy story of the decade. Not only will we soon be doing more of our compute off-device, but we’ll be sending a lot
Notable links
[David Marchese in The New York Times] This profile of Curtis Yarvin in the New York Times (paywalled, probably for the best) is far softer than it should have been, with far less formal fact-checking. It is of the moment, though: this guy’s writing is highly influential to the
Society
[Oliver Milman in The Guardian] Car culture isn't just physically bad for us, it affects us mentally too: "The car is firmly entrenched as the default, and often only, mode of transport for the vast majority of Americans, with more than nine in 10 households having at
If ever there was a litmus test about who to avoid, it’s the people who see the language of the Equal Rights Amendment in the 21st Century and think, “oh, that’s problematic”. Here is the full text: SECTION 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be
Culture
[Joan Westenberg] An absolutely spot-on call to action: "Cynicism is the cheap seats. It’s the fast food of intellectual positions. Anyone can point at something and say it’s broken, corrupt, or destined to fail. The real challenge? Building something better. [...] Cynicism comes with hidden taxes. Every time
Notable links
[Dave Karpf at Tech Policy Press] Peter Thiel and other tech oligarchs are seeking to weaponize US foreign policy as a way to enforce their corporate agendas: "Thiel is developing a blueprint for putting Big Tech’s policy agenda at the center of US foreign policy. Australia’s social
Notable links
[Sergio Hernández, Nat Lash, Brandon Roberts and Ken Schwencke at ProPublica] Private schools in the US are much whiter than public schools. My colleagues over in the newsroom at ProPublica explored this data while illuminating the ongoing extent of segregation academies in the south: "Our analysis of that survey
Technology
[Joseph Cox at 404 Media] Not just obeying in advance but actively collaborating: "Multiple speech and content moderation experts 404 Media spoke to drew some parallels between these recent changes and when Facebook contributed to a genocide in Myanmar in 2017, in which Facebook was used to spread anti-Rohingya
I realized some time ago that all the ways I want America to change just bring it closer to being Europe. Like, what if we had this can-do attitude and all the good parts without the guns and with universal healthcare, real education, unprocessed food without sugar in it, a
Technology
[Mark Lemley on LinkedIn] Meta's lawyer in its AI case has fired them as a client, and is not beating around the bush as to why: "I have struggled with how to respond to Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook's descent into toxic masculinity and Neo-Nazi madness.