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Ben Werdmuller

Ben Werdmuller

Technology

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Elon?

[Kate Conger at the New York Times] ""Time and again, Ms. Yaccarino has faced similar situations, as Mr. Musk is always one whim away from undoing her work. Ms. Yaccarino’s task of repairing and remaking X’s business over the past year has been complicated by Mr.

27 Jul 2024

Health

Moderate drinking not better for health than abstaining, analysis suggests

[Ian Sample in The Guardian] "England’s former chief medical officer, Dame Sally Davies, has said there is no safe level of alcohol intake. A major study published in 2018 supported the view. It found that alcohol led to 2.8 million deaths in 2016 and was the leading

26 Jul 2024

Fediverse

Flipboard Brings Local News to the Fediverse

[Carl Sullivan at Flipboard] "Flipboard has worked with local papers and websites since its inception. Now, as part of the gradual federation of our platform, we’re bringing some of those publications to the fediverse." Flipboard turns the fediverse on for a whopping 64 US-based local and regional

26 Jul 2024

What I want to see from every product team

Here’s what I want to see from every technology-driven product team: Do you know your user? Not “this is the industry we’re targeting” or “this is for everyone!”, but who, specifically, are you thinking of? What is their life like? Why is this important to them? What is

26 Jul 2024

Equality

Elon Musk’s transgender daughter, Vivian Wilson, speaks in first interview

[David Ingram at NBC News] "Vivian Jenna Wilson, the transgender daughter of Elon Musk, said Thursday in her first interview that he was an absent father who was cruel to her as a child for being queer and feminine." Her full Threads thread is worth reading. She seems

26 Jul 2024

AI

Runway Ripped Off YouTube Creators

[Samantha Cole at 404 Media] "A highly-praised AI video generation tool made by multi-billion dollar company Runway was secretly trained by scraping thousands of videos from popular YouTube creators and brands, as well as pirated films." 404 Media has linked to the spreadsheet itself, which seems to be

25 Jul 2024

Technology

The moral bankruptcy of Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz

[Elizabeth Lopatto at The Verge] "Last week, the founders of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz declared their allegiance to Donald Trump in their customary fashion: talking about money on a podcast. “Sorry, Mom,” Ben Horowitz says in an episode of The Ben & Marc Show. “I know you’re

24 Jul 2024

Notable Links

Elon Musk says 'woke mind virus' 'killed' estranged trans daughter

[Anthony Robledo at USA Today] "Tesla CEO Elon Musk said his estranged transgender daughter was "killed" by the "woke mind virus" after he was tricked into agreeing to gender-affirming care procedures." The thing is, his daughter Vivian is perfectly happy with the decision. The

23 Jul 2024

Technology

For Good Reason, Apache Foundation Says ‘Goodbye’ to Iconic Feather Logo

[Christine Hall at FOSS Force] "The Apache Software Foundation is making changes in an attempt to right a wrong it unintentionally created when it adopted its name 25-years ago." This is an unnecessarily awkward article (why describe the existing logo as cool in this context?!) to describe a

22 Jul 2024

Technology

After years of uncertainty, Google says it won't be 'deprecating third-party cookies' in Chrome - Digiday

[Kayleigh Barber and Seb Joseph at Digiday] "After much back and forth, Google has decided to keep third-party cookies in its Chrome browser. Turns out all the fuss over the years wasn’t in vain after all; the ad industry’s cries have finally been heard." Advertisers are

22 Jul 2024

AI

When ChatGPT summarises, it actually does nothing of the kind.

[Gerben Wierda at R&A IT Strategy & Architecture] "ChatGPT doesn’t summarise. When you ask ChatGPT to summarise this text, it instead shortens the text. And there is a fundamental difference between the two." The distinction is indeed important: it's akin to making an

22 Jul 2024

President Harris?

I didn’t post about it — what is there to say that hasn’t been said elsewhere? — but former President Trump was almost shot last week. The would-be assassin’s motive is muddy (he was a Republican), but the bullet or a sliver of glass narrowly missed him, taking a

21 Jul 2024
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Werd I/O explores the intersection of technology, democracy, and society. It's independently published by Ben Werdmuller, reader-supported, and always free to read.