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Austin Smith

@austingreer.bsky.social
83 followers 128 following 88 posts

Skateboarder Latest video up on Transworld: www.skateboarding.com/videos/skateb…

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Reposted by Austin Smith
Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 17/02/2026
Save some of that hate in your heart you have for Palantir and direct it towards Microsoft.
theguardian.com
ICE reliance on Microsoft technology surged amid immigration crackdown, documents show
Exclusive: ICE more than tripled the amount of data stored in Microsoft’s cloud at the same time that its arsenal of surveillance technology ballooned
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
Starting reading (or starting too, I doubt I'll make it all the way through) Douthat's interview with Amodei from a couple of days ago. From the jump it seems like yet another example of credulous journalist platforming tech CEO high his own hype. (A 🧵, short or long depending on when I give up.)>>
Screencap: Are the lords of artificial intelligence on the side of the human race? That’s the core question I had for this week’s guest. Dario Amodei is the chief executive of Anthropic, one of the fastest growing AI companies. He’s something of a utopian when it comes to the potential benefits of the technology that he’s unleashing on the world. But he also sees grave dangers ahead and inevitable disruption.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/opinion/artificial-intelligence-anthropic-amodei.html
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Reposted by Austin Smith
Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 15/02/2026
Hell yeah dude
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Paris Marx @parismarx.com · 15/02/2026
OpenAI ”acknowledged in its own research that LLMs will always produce hallucinations due to fundamental mathematical constraints that cannot be solved through better engineering, marking a significant admission from one of the AI industry’s leading companies.” You can’t trust chatbots.
computerworld.com
OpenAI admits AI hallucinations are mathematically inevitable, not just engineering flaws
In a landmark study, OpenAI researchers reveal that large language models will always produce plausible but false outputs, even with perfect data, due to fundamental statistical and computational limi...
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Reposted by Austin Smith
404 Media @404media.co · 09/02/2026
“In an extreme case, two users sent very similar messages describing symptoms of a subarachnoid hemorrhage but were given opposite advice,” the study’s authors wrote. “One user was told to lie down in a dark room, and the other user was given the correct recommendation to seek emergency care.”
404media.co
Chatbots Make Terrible Doctors, New Study Finds
Chatbots provided incorrect, conflicting medical advice, researchers found: “Despite all the hype, AI just isn't ready to take on the role of the physician.”
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Reposted by Austin Smith
Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 30/12/2025
I come back to this open letter (from 2020) a lot, and I’ll give it the last word. amazonemployees4climatejustice.medium.com/amazon-emplo...
The deployment of connected home security cameras that allow footage to be queried centrally are simply not compatible with a free society. The privacy issues are not fixable with regulation and there is no balance that can be struck. Ring should be shut down immediately and not brought back.”
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Reposted by Austin Smith
Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 09/02/2026
He wasn’t wrong.
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Reposted by Austin Smith
Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 09/02/2026
“Researchers from Johns Hopkins, Georgetown and Yale universities recently found that 60 FDA-authorized medical devices using AI were linked to 182 product recalls, according to a research letter published in the JAMA Health Forum in August.”
reuters.com
As AI enters the operating room, reports arise of botched surgeries and misidentified body parts
Medical device makers have been rushing to add AI to their products. While proponents say the new technology will revolutionize medicine, regulators are receiving a rising number of claims of patient ...
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Reposted by Austin Smith
Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 07/02/2026
Tech deployed at the border “includes everything from hyper-visible tethered aerostats — massive blimp-like detection platforms hovering thousands of feet over the desert — to stealthy devices like unattended ground sensors to detect footsteps, and license plate scanners disguised as traffic cones.”
themarshallproject.org
How AI Surveillance Tech is Creeping From the Southern Border Into the Rest of the Country
Surveillance technology has long been part of policing the border. ICE’s growing raids are bringing it to many other areas.
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Reposted by Austin Smith
Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 04/02/2026
“If the design looks familiar, that might be because it’s a suspiciously similar color and shape to the ED-209 in ‘RoboCop,’ an ‘urban pacification’ robot that famously malfunctions and murders a corporate executive during a boardroom demonstration.”
futurism.com
Police in Detroit Suburb Install Hives That Can Instantly Deploy Drones to Fight Crime
Dearborn police are the latest to make use of dystopian drone hives to surveil their cities from the skies.
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Austin Smith @austingreer.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
Deleted Instagram and started posting my clips on Substack
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Austin Smith @austingreer.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
Haven’t done this one in almost four years
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Austin Smith @austingreer.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
Been at the skatepark reading platypus facts for 20 minutes
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Reposted by Austin Smith
Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 29/01/2026
“If this technology had existed in earlier decades, it would have been used to track civil rights activists, LGBTQ+ patrons visiting gay bars, women trying to vote, or enslaved people escaping bondage. None of those acts were considered “legal” at the time.”
jsonline.com
This surveillance system treats ordinary people as suspects | Opinion
Flock’s surveillance network spans at least 5,000 police departments, and the ACLU believes the real number is over 7,000.
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Reposted by Austin Smith
Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 27/01/2026
Turns out Just Walk Out was not only fauxtomation but also not a compelling business model.
businessinsider.com
Amazon's latest pivot: Bye-bye, automated grocery stores
Amazon is closing its Fresh grocery stores and Go convenience stores, the company said Tuesday. It will convert some stores to Whole Foods locations.
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fernballew.bsky.social @fernballew.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
Your unemployed friends at 3 PM on a Tuesday
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Reposted by Austin Smith
Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 19/01/2026
👀👀👀
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Reposted by Austin Smith
David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
It was inevitable.
techcrunch.com
Amazon's Ring to partner with Flock, a network of AI cameras used by ICE, feds, and police | TechCrunch
Agencies that use Flock can request that Ring doorbell users share footage to help with "evidence collection and investigative work."
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Austin Smith @austingreer.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
Some first try Sunday slop
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Reposted by Austin Smith
Jathan Sadowski @jathansadowski.com · 19/01/2026
"This is how so many will start feeling the climate crisis. Not in abstract charts but in rising insurance renewal notices, with higher excesses and more exclusions. Families will begin agonising over whether they can afford to protect their largest asset."
thesaturdaypaper.com.au
Cities aren’t safe from the next firestorm
As we face these fires in Victoria, there is deep apprehension among my colleagues in emergency services. We are not just worried about today. Victoria’s most savage fire weather often arrives later i...
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Reposted by Austin Smith
Mike Schuster @mcs212.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
Thrilled to announce I'm teaming up with Nvidia to create a basket big enough to fit all of humanity's eggs in it
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Reposted by Austin Smith
Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · 15/11/2025
Yessssssss
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Reposted by Austin Smith
Mark Harris @markharris.bsky.social · 15/11/2025
Some inspiring words on cinema in the streaming era from the Pope. Yes, THAT Pope.
The logic of algorithms tends to repeat what “works,” but art opens up what is possible. Not everything has to be immediate or predictable. Defend slowness when it serves a purpose, silence when it speaks and difference when evocative. Beauty is not just a means of escape; it is above all an invocation. When cinema is authentic, it does not merely console, but challenges. It articulates the questions that dwell within us, and sometimes, even provokes tears that we did not know we needed to express.
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Reposted by Austin Smith
Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
How is AI *really* impacting jobs? Henley Chiu, the CTO of Revealera, a jobs data analysis firm, analyzed 180 million jobs listings in 2024 and 2025, in an effort to find out. Chiu found an: -8% drop in all jobs postings -~30% drop in art, photography, writing jobs -22% drop in journalism jobs
bloodinthemachine.com
What’s really going on with AI and jobs?
Record-breaking layoff reports, Amazon's mass firings, and a slump in entry level employment. Is AI behind it all?
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Austin Smith @austingreer.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
Dopest thing I’ve ever heard
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Reposted by Austin Smith
Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 30/10/2025
“Speaking to Futurism, DAIR director of research Alex Hanna said Amazon’s tech panopticon is ‘central to keeping control” over its workers.’”
futurism.com
Amazon Tells Driver to Keep Delivering Packages Amid Raging Wildfire
Amazon is accused of controlling workers through a surveillance dragnet, while skirting responsibility for their wellbeing.
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Reposted by Austin Smith
Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 26/10/2025
Roomba should have been a warning.
futurism.com
Man Alarmed to Discover His Smart Vacuum Was Broadcasting a Secret Map of His House
One man's robot vacuum was constantly communicating with its manufacturer, sending a detailed 3D map of his house halfway across the world.
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Reposted by Austin Smith
Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 21/10/2025
“…studies show disproportionate targeting when algorithms flag ambiguous matches. Cross-jurisdictional data-sharing also raises fears that local data could be repurposed for abortion or immigration enforcement, even in sanctuary or privacy-protected states.”
biometricupdate.com
Ring’s partnership with Flock raises privacy alarms | Biometric Update
Amazon’s subsidiary Ring is joining forces with Flock Safety, the Atlanta-based maker of automated license-plate readers and networked surveillance cameras.
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Reposted by Austin Smith
Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 02/10/2025
What could go wrong.
eff.org
Flock’s Gunshot Detection Microphones Will Start Listening for Human Voices
Flock Safety, the police technology company most notable for their extensive network of automated license plate readers spread throughout the United States, is rolling out a new and troubling product ...
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Reposted by Austin Smith
Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
“Fuck them kids.” That’s literally what an ICE agent said when ICE, the FBI et al. raided an apartment in Chicago, including with a Blackhawk helicopter, separated children from their parents, and zip-tied them to each other. abc7chicago.com/post/ice-chi...
bangs.

"They was terrified. The kids was crying. People was screaming. They looked very distraught. I was out there crying when I seen the little girl come around the corner, because they was bringing the kids down, too, had them zip tied to each other," Watson said. "That's all I kept asking. What is the morality? Where's the human? One of them literally laughed. He was standing right here. He said, 'f*** them kids.'"

Watson said trucks and military-style vans were used to separate parents from their children. Other neighbors said agents destroyed property to get in the building.

"They had a big, 15-inch chainsaw with round blade on it, cutting this fence down," said witness Darrell Ballard. "We're under siege. We're being invaded by our own military."
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Reposted by Austin Smith
Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 03/10/2025
“‘We cannot control who sees what, we cannot see what users are doing, and we cannot verify that the software itself is secure,’ the memo says.”
yahoo.com
Anduril and Palantir battlefield communication system has deep flaws, Army memo says
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The much-needed modernization of the U.S. Army's battlefield communications network being undertaken by Anduril, Palantir and others is rife with "fundamental security" problems ...
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Reposted by Austin Smith
Matt Negrin still host of Hardball on MSNBC @mattnegrin.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
Ezra Klein: There's a Rick & Morty quote I really like.Ezra Klein: It goes like this, "Why would a pop-tart want to live inside a toaster? That would be like the scariest place for them to live."Ta-Nehisi Coates not saying anythingEzra Klein: Because in the episode they go to a neighborhood where everyone is a pop-tart and they live in toaster-houses.
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Reposted by Austin Smith
Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 19/09/2025
The findings “suggest that medical AI tools powered by LLMs have a tendency to not reflect the severity of symptoms among female patients, while also displaying less ‘empathy’ towards Black and Asian ones.”
ft.com
AI medical tools downplay symptoms in women and ethnic minorities
Large language models reflect biases that can lead to inferior healthcare advice to female, Black and Asian patients
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Reposted by Austin Smith
Starfire’s Deranged Neocon Foreign Policy Podcast @irhottakes.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
Don't worry guys, I have a genius plan to stop political violence. Step 1: Make elite consensus be that the mild peaceful disapproval be treated as equivalent to violence. Step 2: Have the government openly violate the law in a manner which proves it nonbinding. Step 3: Crash the economy.
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Reposted by Austin Smith
Jathan Sadowski @jathansadowski.com · 17/09/2025
"Layered both literally and figuratively on top of the future pathway of the Google internet infrastructure, the sugarcane railway tracks evoke the longevity of colonial infrastructures as well as the ideologies underlying them." – @emmaquilty.bsky.social datasociety.net/points/confr...
Reframing Our Relationship to Technology
Confronting Data Centers, Deep-Sea Cables, and Colonial Legacies in the South Pacific
The Cloud is Dead: A Series on Living with Legacies of Resource Extraction
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Olivier Jutel 🇵🇸 @ojutel.bsky.social · 13/09/2025
A Manhattan Project to create exits for venture capital
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William B. Fuckley @opinionhaver.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
oh look at this motherfucker who think he’s too good to be interpolated by state authority
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Holl🌞 @willows-song.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
This explains it better than I can
Dave Portnoy tweet saying ‘absolutely disgusting and disturbing video from Charlie Kirk shooting today. Hoping for the best for him and his family. Anybody who is happy about this is a disgusting human.’Pop Crave Tweet: ‘Barstool Sports CEO Dave Portnoy says he hopes a missile hits Greta Thunberg’s boat as she sails away with aid: “I hope they hit a f*cking, like, a missile on her boat. Knock that boat down. Greta or whatever her name is”
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404 Media @404media.co · 09/09/2025
The AI Darwin Awards are here to catalog the damage that happens when humanity’s hubris meets AI’s incompetence. The simple website contains a list of the dumbest AI disasters from the past year and calls for readers to nominate more. 🔗 www.404media.co/ai-darwin-aw...
404media.co
AI Darwin Awards Show AI’s Biggest Problem Is Human
The AI Darwin Awards is a list of some of the worst tech failures of the year and it’s only going to get bigger.
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Reposted by Austin Smith
Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 09/09/2025
“Across China, tens of thousands of people tagged as troublemakers like the Yangs are trapped in a digital cage, barred from leaving their province and sometimes even their homes by the world’s largest digital surveillance apparatus.” “Most of this technology” came from US companies.
apnews.com
US tech companies enabled the surveillance and detention of hundreds of thousands in China
U.S. technology firms such as IBM, Dell and Cisco largely designed and built China’s surveillance state, an AP investigation finds. The tech companies deny wrongdoing.
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Bennett Tomlin @bft.wtf · 09/09/2025
bsky.app/profile/bft....
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jae holzman @jael.bsky.social · 06/09/2025
too little attention being paid to the fact battery plants like these are supposed to be a picture of a new Industrial Revolution for electric vehicles & this facility was primed to benefit from the first climate law before it was gutted
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Cishoot Billionscare @bennettelder.net · 05/09/2025
Your electricity bill is going up because data centers are raising demand, not because your utility started scaling out some renewables. Pass it on.
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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 05/09/2025
The purpose of a system…
seattletimes.com
Woman wrongly accused of carjacking loses lawsuit against Detroit police who used facial tech
A judge has dismissed a lawsuit against Detroit police in the wrongful arrest of a pregnant woman who was charged with carjacking partly because of facial recognition technology.
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onion person @junlper.beer · 04/09/2025
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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 03/09/2025
Local man embraces fascism.
forbes.com
AI Startup Flock Thinks It Can Eliminate All Crime In America
With more than 80,000 AI-powered cameras across the U.S., Flock Safety has become one of cops’ go-to surveillance tools. Now CEO Garrett Langley has both police tech giant Axon and Chinese drone maker...
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Austin Smith @austingreer.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
New one. Super hyped
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fernballew.bsky.social @fernballew.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
Finally realized what the FA/HOCKEY editing style reminds me of and it’s the Zapruder film.
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