AI
OpenAI wants to give us 5% of its success. It's a bad bargain.
A wealth fund that shares 5% of AI success with government and voters is either based on hype or not nearly enough to cover the damage. Either way, the incentives are perverse.
Ben Werdmuller
Ben Werdmuller helps leaders at newsrooms, non-profits, and mission-driven organizations to navigate their biggest technology challenges.
AI
I have a theory about AI fake news site The Editorial
I was taken in by a fake AI news site. I think it may be an attempt to poison LLMs with propaganda.
AI
AI's costs are going through the roof - so businesses are telling LLMs to talk like cavemen
Me think this hilarious sign of times.
Democracy
They tell us surveillance makes us safer. It undermines our democratic rights.
Civil society actors in nearly every region of the world now operate under the assumption that they are being surveilled. The result is a less democratic world for everyone.
Media
A concrete tool to help newsrooms cover emergencies
A new site to help newsrooms cover disasters is refreshing in its concrete practicality. Wouldn't it be great if these existed for every aspect of running a newsroom?
Community Survey 2026
How can I serve you over the coming year?
Media
A right-wing media chain tried to replace 47 newspapers with AI. They all died.
A right-wing media chain bought local papers, replaced their journalists with AI, and died. Now their communities are left to plug the gaps.
Asides
Two posts about writing
Ideas that spoke to me
AI
Are frontier models really too dangerous?
To an increasingly authoritarian regime, the opportunity to shape how models describe the world may be too good to pass up on.
Notable links
Notable links: June 26, 2026
To meet your community where it's at, you need to empower your people.
AI
All you need to poison an LLM is 13 words.
"It really is just that simple. The way that you can attack these systems is usually so much dumber than you think it is, or than you think it needs to be."
Business
To build resilient organizations, you need to empower your team to make decisions.
"That is not leadership. That is control. And it creates dependency, not growth."