iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Some good news for a change: Overcoming a massive and aggressive tech lobby and a squeamish, Silicon Valley-friendly governor, the labor movement has managed to pass a raft of first-of-their-kind AI laws aimed at protecting workers in California.

bloodinthemachine.com

California just passed the strongest AI labor laws in the US

Finally, some good news

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Courtney Milan @courtneymilan.com · 30/09/2026

Ah I see the JCO coin flip has landed on "no" today

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Jeff VanderMeer @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

They quoted me in this New Yorker piece about AI today. www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

“Let’s say there’s a world or time line I exist in where A.I. has been subject to regulation. It is ethical. It has no footprint environmentally,” the novelist Jeff VanderMeer, a prominent critic of A.I., told me over the phone. “With those guardrails in place, would I read an A.I. book? All I can say is no. And the reason is, in part, because I want to read something coming from a particular mind.” Using A.I., he said, “feels like a betrayal of the whole point of why you’re a writer.”

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

When they get back in power, Democrats need to go all-in on higher education. We need a campaign of reinvestment in public universities across the country that makes the Morrill Land-Grant Act look like nothing by comparison *and* a GI Bill of Rights-style program of tuition grants.

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Aaron @aaron.compleatdiscography.page · 25/09/2026

I know pterry said Nation was his best book but gosh Going Postal is a barn burner.

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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 24/09/2026

Never been to the opera before? Now’s your chance. We’re giving away 70,000 free tickets to the @metopera at the iconic Lincoln Center. Go to on.nyc.gov/opera to enter the lottery. There’s not a bad seat in the house.

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Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

AP Stylebook warns against anthropomorphizing AI systems: “Avoid language that gives them human characteristics… Instead, explain what a system does, how well it performs, who built it and who could be affected by it.”

APStylebook @APStylebook
X.com
Artificial intelligence systems do not think, feel, want or understand. Avoid language that gives them human characteristics. This is called anthropomorphizing, when we ascribe human traits, emotions or behaviors to non-human things, such as animals or inanimate objects.
Instead, explain what a system does, how well it performs, who built it and who could be affected by it.

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Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

NYT has now independently corroborated all the major allegations against Susan Collins in the ProPublica report, including that investigators were prepared to move against her and then Trump intervened to shut it down. This put Trump in a position of exceptional and extortionate leverage over her.

nytimes.com

F.B.I. Shut Down Inquiry Into Top Ally of Senator Susan Collins

The inquiry was closed last year because senior bureau officials questioned the veracity of a campaign donor’s account, according to current and former officials.

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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Zohran post about filling one pothole: We filled our 2,000th pothole! Wow! New York is the greatest city in the world! Zohran post about meeting with the president: Some guy was here and that is now over.

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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 16/09/2026

I do think anyone who wants us to take Elizer Yudkowsky seriously as an authority on AI armageddon should be forced to testify on video that they have read the entirety of his 660,000 word rationalist Harry Potter fan fiction – written aged 30–34 – and still thinks the world needs his take.

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Ayo @darrylayo.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Transgender people deserve to have a nice life. That is the entirety of the argument. If you disagree, you’re saying that you do not believe in liberty or justice for all.

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Aaron @aaron.compleatdiscography.page · 14/09/2026

Carrot would go full Galadriel I think

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Aaron @aaron.compleatdiscography.page · 12/09/2026

I think Vir could carry Sinclair in a pinch, for about 100 meters.

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Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 11/09/2026

Holy shit. Bloomberg just verified one of my biggest scoops - that Microsoft only has 2gw of operational capacity. I had it at 1.993GW in prep for the story that @aishadown.bsky.social and I did for the guardian. Vindication! www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Brody Ford @BrodyFord
Lot of speculation out there about how many GPUs are actually deployed.
Today, Microsoft has about 2GW of Al-specific capacity live. around 17% of the total fleet.
Only about 2 gigawatts of the company's current 12-gigawatt capacity is centered on Al-specific chips, the people said. This is expected to grow to about a third of the 38 gigawatts Microsoft plans to have online in 2032, they said.
Brody Ford @BrodyFord_ • 23h
scoop: Microsoft is planning a massive expansion of its data center fleet to 38 gigawatts. $msft w/ @mattmday bloomberg.com/news/features/...
3:15 PM • Sep 11, 2026 • 12.5K Views

Are Microsoft's AI
plans being held back by a shortage of chips?
Guardian investigation finds
apparent discrepancy between what tech company has said about its AI capacity - and the
number of advanced chips it
has in operation
By Aisha Down and Ed Zitron
A Microsoft datacentre in the North Holland village of
Middenmeer in the Netherlands. Photograph: Ramon van
Flymen/EPA

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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Actually, idea: @carlquintanilla.bsky.social next time you have one of these guys on CNBC who says stuff like this, can you ask them to... be specific? Like how? How is AI going to "Destroy humanity?" I want to know details. I legit only trust you to do have these guys on your show and ask them.

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Sam Benc 🐟 @nonvieta.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Oh yeah, right in the vein please

What is discomfort? A thwarted will. An unmet I want. It often leads to pain. Response to discomfort is everything. If you do something with it, you're probably a creator. If you demand to have it removed, you're probably a customer.

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Micah @rincewind.run · 09/09/2026

a lot of people have trouble believing they are serious, because it is a ludicrous thing to say out loud, but as far as I can tell anthropic at least genuinely believes: 1. someone is going to build a machine god that might kill us all 2. we should build it first so we can minimize the risk

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Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 09/09/2026

Both Anthropic and OpenAI should face criminal action for felony hacking. We put people in jail for hacking, including people who use scripts. This is not a complex moral, ethical or legal situation, and the only difference is that they're doing it in public and boasting about it

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Kelly Hereid @kellyhereid.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

The Malibu city geologist showing up in a thread to explain why a sinkhole just opened up at Nic Cage's house is everything I love about bsky

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Jesse Raub @jesseraub.online · 08/09/2026

PEOPLE WITH LIBERAL ARTS DEGREES: so while i see there is utility to the system, i’m more or less morally opposed to their current constructs and have big concerns over the business structure and environmental impact WEB CODER: so i met God today,

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Quinta Jurecic @qjurecic.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

The Navier-Stokes fight is a perfect encapsulation of where AI development is right now: this should be really cool and exciting, and instead because of Silicon Valley egos it's become a fight over cheating, surveillance, and companies trying to get one up over the other

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Mel Andrews @bayesianboy.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Who knew that all along the secret of how to teach the kids lay in merely teaching the kids

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Tyler, from the Internet (Haunted) @tylerfromtheinternet.com · 05/09/2026

no joke for this one just think of all the people who don't get heard you could reach out to instead. like a lot of people who aren't trying to do bad stuff need to be listened to and understood, this time could have been spent on them. idk. idk know to convince them this shit just doesn't work.

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Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Across the US, workers are souring on AI. The tech industry has insisted that AI would make workers’ lives easier and more productive, that the more people understood and used AI, the more they would like it. Something closer to the opposite has happened.

bloodinthemachine.com

Why office workers are turning against AI

Whether or not you like AI at work ultimately boils down to a question of power.

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Angry Staff Officer @pptsapper.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Happy Labor Day weekend. Nothing we have was not earned by the blood and sweat of those who have gone before. Enjoy a 40 hour work week? Thank a union. Enjoy PTO? Thank a union. Enjoy safety standards? Thank a union. Enjoy weekends off? Thank a union. Organizing wins. Period.

Picture of a cocktail and a book, “the Battle of Blair Mountain”

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Jen Taub @jentaub.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

“A single-payer universal health care system could cover every American, save more than 100,000 lives a year, and still cost $1 trillion less than the system it would replace, according to a new preprint study led by researchers at the Yale School of Public Health.” ysph.yale.edu/news-article...

ysph.yale.edu

Universal Health Coverage Could Save $1 Trillion and 114,000 Lives Every Year, Yale Study Projects

A single-payer universal health care system could cover every American, save more than 100,000 lives a year, and still cost $1 trillion less than the system it

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Robert Evans (the Only Robert Evans) @iwriteok.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

these people should be ashamed of themselves for several reasons share.google/IB2NzxpKmZaF...

The USFS said the climbers told them they had used an artificial intelligence platform, YouTube videos and AllTrails to plan the trip. They said they relied on AI to decide what food to bring and how much food and water they would need.

The group said it packed supplies for an eight-hour climb, not its roughly 16-hour ascent. The climbers said AI recommended simple carbohydrates instead of fats because fats “take too long to digest.”

“We relied too much on AI rather than our own critical thinking,” the group told rangers

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Jess✨ @angryartist.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

For the first time in 6 years it’s time once again for: HALLOWEEN CREEP 2026 ICON SALE! Send an email with the subject line “Halloween Icon 2026” to angryartist113@gmail.com and let me know what you’d like for your Halloween icon! This sale will be for the entire month of September

Halloween creep 2026, spooky icon sale. $50. Only available September 1- September 30

Send an email with the subject line “Halloween Icon 2026” to angryartist113@gmail.com and let me know what you’d like for your Halloween icon! Be sure to include reference images in your email.

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Aaron @aaron.compleatdiscography.page · 31/08/2026

“I exclusively ate sandwiches made of butter and supermarket white bread for years; when I ate some vegetables my tummy ache went away”

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Aaron @aaron.compleatdiscography.page · 26/08/2026

Something I’ve found over the years (the official re-read we did for the show as well as other books) is that something is new in each book every time I approach them again. And sometimes it’s followed by a “god damn it Terry” when I finally catch a joke I missed.

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Ed @notdred.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

I guess we have the answer to the “who could possibly say anything bad about Dolly” question and it’s exactly who you’d think

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Aaron @aaron.compleatdiscography.page · 26/08/2026

This is a “Hennimore!” situation if I’ve ever seen one.

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Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 25/08/2026

It’s the power fantasy of being able to help people.

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Jay Edidin @edidin.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

I think of Superman not as a power fantasy, but as a fantasy of the powerful as really good people. I kind of feel that way about Dolly Parton, too.

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FT @fucktheory.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Imagine being talented and beautiful and rich and famous and still the most noteworthy thing about you is how good a person you are.

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kate bush’s husband @airbagged.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

RIP TO ONE OF THE GREATEST TO EVER DO IT

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discWorld order @discworldorder.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Great stuff. Of course, my favourite riff on the glass half full/half empty is this bit from Terry Pratchett's The Truth:

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Aaron @aaron.compleatdiscography.page · 21/08/2026

I’m going to take this in a slightly different direction because my most recent memories of us is basically pre-pandemic… I want to make a new memory with you because I really value your time and creativity.

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Aaron @aaron.compleatdiscography.page · 21/08/2026

If you ever need a play tester you know where to find me!

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Aaron @aaron.compleatdiscography.page · 20/08/2026

Honestly, a honey heist hack of orca wolfpacks taking on mega yachts is a pretty solid idea.

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Mel Andrews @bayesianboy.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

I do believe that any scientific publisher residing anywhere may be legally exposed under these amendments unless they can guarantee that their editorial and peer reviewing processes were carried out by humans—not LLMs. www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/eu...

jdsupra.com

EU AI Act — Transparency Obligations for AI-Generated Content (Article 50) | JD Supra

Below, we map the transparency obligations applicable to AI-generated or manipulated content under Article 50 of the AI Act (Regulation (EU)...

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Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

"...findings that 3 [insts] violated civil rights law by tolerating antisemitism were predetermined by political priorities that blew past the evidence and cast aside standard investigative procedures..." Reading the whistleblower statement and taking rage breaks www.ms.now/news/frame-u...

ms.now

Whistleblower says probes into antisemitism at colleges were ploys to harass and strip millions

A former Justice Department lawyer says the Trump investigations squeezed Ivy League universities for millions before they were even concluded. A top Democrat is demanding answers.

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Aaron @aaron.compleatdiscography.page · 18/08/2026

I got “ai haters” too and I couldn’t be more pleased with this

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Adam Bonica @adambonica.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

The fundraising texts you delete are working on someone. It’s infuriating and heartbreaking. An 85yo in Ohio gave more than double the value of his home. A 91yo in an Indianapolis senior facility gave 25K times. The DCCC/DSCC don’t just tolerate the spammers who exploit seniors. They take part.

data4democracy.substack.com

Hook and Squeeze

How Democratic consultants, committees, and party leaders built a fundraising spam pipeline that funnels money from a captive pool of elderly donors into their own operations.

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Aaron @aaron.compleatdiscography.page · 15/08/2026

I love re-reading the books because I am still having “damn it pterry!” moments even on the fourth or fifth read.

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Aaron @aaron.compleatdiscography.page · 15/08/2026

That works for a surprising number of reasons.

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