Commentary on links that caught my attention around the web.
Technology
[Tim Stevens at The Verge] It's rare these days that I see a new product and think, this is really cool, but seriously, this is really cool: "Meet the Slate Truck, a sub-$20,000 (after federal incentives) electric vehicle that enters production next year. It only
Notable links
[Toby Buckle at LiberalCurrents] This resonates for me too. About the Tea Party, the direction the Republican Party took during the Obama administration, and then of Trump first riding down the escalator to announce his candidacy: "If you saw in any of this a threat to liberal democracy writ
Media
[Henry Blodget] Henry Blodget, former co-founder of Business Insider, has started a new, "AI-native" newsroom. It's not, in my opinion, a positive use of AI, but it does indicate how some people are thinking about using the technology. This apparently includes harassing your newly-created virtual employees:
Culture
[Ani DiFranco interviewed by Kate Hutchinson in The Guardian] Ani DiFranco, the artist I've seen live more than any other, answered my question as part of this Guardian Q&A. It's about a sobering topic, but still, this made me very happy. Here's
Notable links
[Makena Kelly and Vittoria Elliott at WIRED] The Holocaust was organized on IBM punch cards. Hitler gave the head of IBM, Watson, a medal for his services; they met in person so that Watson could receive the award. Later, they named their AI tech after him. Anyway, in unrelated news:
Notable links
[Alec MacGillis at ProPublica] The statistics that help us navigate our world are under thread: "Every year, year after year, workers in agencies that many of us have never heard of have been amassing the statistics that undergird decision-making at all levels of government and inform the judgments of
Technology
[Tony Stubblebine on The Medium Blog] In the midst of some challenging cultural times, Tony Stubblebine and Medium are doing the right thing: "Over the past several months, I’ve gotten questions from the Medium community asking if we’re planning to change our policies in reaction to recent
Fediverse
[Sean Tilley] Sean has been integrating We Distribute with the fediverse for years. It's been hard - particularly at the beginning, which is the plight of the very early adopter. This rundown is incredibly useful for anyone who wants to integrate their own publication with the network, and
AI
[Simon Willison] Prompt injection attacks have been one of the bugbears for modern AI models: it's an unsolved problem that has meant that it can be quite dangerous to expose LLMs to direct user input, among other things. A lot of people have worked on the problem, but
Notable links
[Andy Bounds in the Financial Times] The last few months have radically changed the risk assessment for people traveling to the US from abroad - as well as Americans who plan to cross the US border. In this case, it's European Commission staff: "The European Commission is
Notable links
[Zoë Schiffer at WIRED] The Social Security Administration is changing its communications strategy in a surprising way: ““We are no longer planning to issue press releases or those dear colleague letters to inform the media and public about programmatic and service changes,” said SSA regional commissioner Linda Kerr-Davis in a
Media
[Alexander Lee at Digiday] Substack isn't the best deal in town for independent journalists: "A year after leaving Substack in early 2024, newsletter writers are making more money peddling their words on other platforms. [...] Since leaving Substack, some writers’ subscriber counts have plateaued over the past year,