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Donald Campbell

@dncampbell.bsky.social
366 followers 826 following 581 posts
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Donald Campbell @dncampbell.bsky.social · 6h
I had heard of Trump's 'Pax Silica' but I had missed the Pentagon seeing the EIC as a model for US tech dominance. It's front and centre of Trump's AI Strategy as well. We can't say they haven't warned us, yet countries are cheerfully signing up to this stuff. www.ft.com/content/bc17...
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Donald Campbell @dncampbell.bsky.social · 8h
Another reminder that lethal injection has never been about a 'humane' process - it's often excruciating for the victim, but it presents a more sanitised appearance, aimed at making it socially acceptable. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Tennessee woman on death row taken to hospital after surviving two lethal injections
Christa Pike, sentenced to death over 1995 murder, was heard snoring 40 minutes after lethal doses administered, witnesses said
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Donald Campbell @dncampbell.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Palantir's Tom Watson says he wants to correct "inaccuracies". So why, in his letter to @labourlewis.bsky.social is he still citing claims that have been debunked? Even the Government has admitted that improvements at NHS trusts *cannot* be attributed to Palantir. www.thenerve.news/p/clive-lewi...
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Donald Campbell @dncampbell.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Telling wording here - Peter Thiel still isn't a fan of democracy, apparently:
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Donald Campbell @dncampbell.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
"These contractors are not being hired to flag or vet offensive or inappropriate content. They are being paid to review the quality of Copilot’s output, including in these cases of sexual imagery." So far as I can tell MS have put an abusive image generator into Office. Have they lost their minds.
404media.co
Humans Are Reading Copilot Prompts — And They're Horrified
Human contractors are reviewing Copilot users’ prompts and uploaded images, according to internal documents obtained by 404 Media. The contractors are also bombarded with users’ requests for sexual AI...
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Reposted by Donald Campbell
Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
New from 404 Media: when you upload images to Copilot, they're not private. Human contractors are reviewing Copilot users' prompts/images, according to internal docs we got And they're horrified at what they're seeing. Bombarded with requests to make sexual AI images www.404media.co/humans-readi...
404media.co
Humans Are Reading Copilot Prompts — And They're Horrified
Human contractors are reviewing Copilot users’ prompts and uploaded images, according to internal documents obtained by 404 Media. The contractors are also bombarded with users’ requests for sexual AI...
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UNISON @unison.org.uk · 28/09/2026
NO TO PALANTIR 🚫 120+ organisations and unions across Europe call for the scrapping of all existing public sector contracts with Palantir.
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Donald Campbell @dncampbell.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Another dodgy statement from the UK Govt's response to the #Countryfile piece on data centres last night. Have ministers made any assessment of the emissions new AI data centres will also enable? EG: www.nature.com/articles/s44...
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Donald Campbell @dncampbell.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Very surprising to see this claim from the UK Govt on data centres and carbon targets when they (1) very clearly have not accounted for growing data centre emissions in their carbon budgets and (2) by their own admission don't know how much water data centres are using.
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Donald Campbell @dncampbell.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
The tech industry often claims UK data centres don't use significant volumes of water for cooling. If that's so, how do they explain one water supplier receiving an application from a data centre to use 21m litres a day? (according to WaterUK, see www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis... at 22.14)
bbc.co.uk
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Tech Policy Press @techpolicypress.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Palantir has hired former Labour deputy leader Tom Watson ahead of a December government decision on a break clause that could end its £330 million role in the NHS's data platform. Foxglove's Martha Dark writes that his "new position contrasts starkly with his public views a decade ago."
buff.ly
Palantir's New Senior VP Swaps Lords Pass for Labour Leverage
Lord Tom Watson’s new position contrasts starkly with his public views a decade ago, writes Foxglove's Martha Dark.
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Robert Wright @reporterrwright.ft.com · 25/09/2026
I see a lot of people complaining about the undoubtedly stressful conditions at present on London's roads. But I see few people complaining about motor vehicles. Yet in the last 24 hours three vulnerable road users have died after being hit by people driving motor vehicles.
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Donald Campbell @dncampbell.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Either this, or there’ll be an arms race of the kind already seen in recruitment (AI assessments vs AI applications) and we’ll end up with a system that uses far more energy to produce a slightly worse result.
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Donald Campbell @dncampbell.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Good piece from @marthadark.bsky.social on Palantir's new lobbyist: "in 2015, he brought a legal challenge against the UK Government over its plans to 'spy on citizens.' Now, he’s taking up a role at the world’s most prominent spy-tech company."
techpolicy.press
Palantir's New Senior VP Swaps Lords Pass for Labour Leverage
Lord Tom Watson’s new position contrasts starkly with his public views a decade ago, writes Foxglove's Martha Dark.
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Donald Campbell @dncampbell.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Every so often I'm reminded of this essential story about how Palantir operates in trying to win public contracts. It's from 2022 but anyone interested how they've built up such a big role in the NHS and wider UK public sector should read it. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
bloomberg.com
Peter Thiel’s Palantir Had Secret Plan to Crack UK’s NHS: ‘Buying Our Way In’
Palantir Technologies had a secret plan to deepen its relationship with the UK’s National Health Service without public scrutiny.
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Wera Hobhouse MP @werahobhouse.org.uk · 22/09/2026
AI smart glasses & covert filming are a real threat to women's & girls’ safety. That’s why I’m campaigning to: 👮 Make covert filming a specific criminal offence. ❌ Force platforms to remove this content. 🕶️ Require a visible recording indicator on smart glasses & make it an offence to conceal it.
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Donald Campbell @dncampbell.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
He means this, presumably
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Donald Campbell @dncampbell.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
One striking thing from this Tom Watson statement: he doesn't cite a single concrete stat about how Palantir has helped the NHS. He goes with a vaguely worded hypothetical instead. They've been running the Federated Data Platform since 2023. www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...
linkedin.com
Palantir UK: Joining as Senior Vice President | Tom Watson posted on the topic | LinkedIn
After six wonderful years chairing the board of UK Music, I’m returning to tech and joining Palantir Technologies UK as Senior Vice President. It’s a little daunting joining a team where the average ...
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Donald Campbell @dncampbell.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
"In past conflicts, preparing lists of proposed targets...had taken hours for staffers to complete. Ahead of the US attack on Iran, much of that work was condensed into several minutes via [Palantir's] Maven, people involved in the Pentagon’s internal review said." www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...
bloomberg.com
Inside the US ‘Kill Chain’ That Destroyed an Iranian School
Pentagon investigators have discovered that flawed intelligence, outdated imagery and an overreliance on AI contributed to a missile strike that killed 123 children in Minab.
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Donald Campbell @dncampbell.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
It's astonishing that a man in receipt of hundreds of millions of pounds worth of public support - for his hopeless single-use plastics facility, of all things - is on the BBC today complaining about a lack of state backing. How much more does he want? www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
UK gives £600m backing to Jim Ratcliffe’s ‘carbon bomb’ petrochemical plant
Campaigners say Ineos project in Antwerp will turbocharge plastic production on a scale not seen before in Europe
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Donald Campbell @dncampbell.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Was Starmer taking policy instructions from Jensen Huang? The Nvidia CEO called for gas-powered data centres during Trump's 2025 state visit: www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
telegraph.co.uk
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Donald Campbell @dncampbell.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
This is still a live issue: there are two applications seeking development consent orders from the UK Govt to build data centres with their own gas power plants - and there could be more to follow.
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Donald Campbell @dncampbell.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Palantir sticking to form with their latest hire
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Donald Campbell @dncampbell.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Palantir have found their new Peter Mandelson www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
Former Labour deputy leader Tom Watson joins Palantir
Peer takes full-time position at the controversial company as it fends off pressure from both Andy Burnham’s government and Sadiq Khan
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Donald Campbell @dncampbell.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Palantir very much retreating to their safe space here, which is influence and lobbying. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
Former Labour deputy leader Tom Watson joins Palantir
Peer takes full-time position at the controversial company as it fends off pressure from both Andy Burnham’s government and Sadiq Khan
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Gareth Watkins @garethwatkins.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
The left wing campaign being people like me writing unflattering editorials and nurses marching with banners while the company has thoroughly captured actual political decision makers.
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Jason Kint @kint.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Eye popping. Court just unsealed Summary Judgment motions in New York Times v OpenAI / Microsoft. Easy to see why the AI companies had so many redactions (pink). Their own people wrote the lede for NYT, the "largest theft of labor in human history"... "more and more substitutive..." /1
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Donald Campbell @dncampbell.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Yep there we go. Not a serious person.
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Donald Campbell @dncampbell.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
This was passed by the Scottish parliament today, leaving labour in an interesting position: they’ve successfully won a data centre moratorium north of the border, but are against it in England (as Burnham confirmed at pmqs last week).
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 16/09/2026
At least five Reform councillors joined Patriot Platform Facebook group, campaigners reveal
theguardian.com
At least five Reform councillors joined Patriot Platform Facebook group, campaigners reveal
Politicians from Solihull, Gateshead and Kent were in online group linked to balaclava-clad immigration protesters At least five Reform UK councillors have been members of a Facebook group linked to the far-right group involved in the blockades of Dover and Portsmouth by masked men, according to anti-fascist campaigners. It comes as Nigel Farage’s party has been wrestling with internal divisions over its position on the Patriot Platform group, whose activities have been condemned by the Reform UK leader and across the political spectrum. Continue reading...
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Donald Campbell @dncampbell.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
This is a positive step - but it's staggering that data centres were being nodded through without environmental impact assessments until now (in both Scotland & England). Foxglove research found that one planned for Edinburgh would produce as much climate pollution as the city's airport.
theguardian.com
Scotland imposes mandatory environmental assessments on new datacentres
Government announces before vote on moratorium that any projects above 50MW must submit assessments in planning process
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Donald Campbell @dncampbell.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Looking at Labour's amendment to the Green's data centre motion at Holyrood, they appear to be calling for a 1-year moratorium on data centre decisions, in effect?
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Donald Campbell @dncampbell.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Another example of just how closely aligned the Trump regime and Big Tech are. See also Trump's AI action plan, p2, which states it is "imperative for the United States to achieve and maintain unquestioned and unchallenged global technological dominance."
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Donald Campbell @dncampbell.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Good to see attention on the environmental costs of data centres in the Scottish Parliament today. Last year, @foxglovelegal.bsky.social research estimated that new data centres in Scotland's planning system could consume as much as 75% of all the electricity Scotland currently needs.
foxglove.org.uk
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Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Same thing with "misalignment". This has agential connotations, but the AI does not think. All we really mean by misalignment is that the AI builders can't control it so as to ensure the outcome. In other words, bad engineering.
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Tim Murphy @timothypmurphy.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
the thing with proposing agentic solutions is that one person's agentic solution is many many people's agentic problem
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Foxglove Legal @foxglovelegal.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Developers in the UK want to build Elon Musk-style, gas-powered data centres, which will come with vast climate emissions. Join our call on Andy Burnham to rule these out: www.foxglove.org.uk/campaigns/an...
foxglove.org.uk
Andy Burnham: no gas power stations for data centres
Two planned data centres will emit more carbon than the entire UK operations of ExxonMobil. Both plan to build their own gas power stations. Tell Andy Burnham to rule it out
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Donald Campbell @dncampbell.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
"if Meta envisions a future where everyone’s using an agent, it explains the massive scale of some of the data centers they’re building—like the Hyperion project in Louisiana, which will be powered by 10 natural gas plants." www.wired.com/story/ai-age...
wired.com
AI Agents Are Thirsty for Power
Silicon Valley is shifting away from chatbot queries toward a future filled with resource-intensive agentic AI—and it's driving the data center buildout.
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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne has now matched Ben Delo's record-breaking £36m donation to Reform, months after Nigel Farage's party promised to slash crypto sales taxes in half Reform UK is now a wholly owned subsidiary of the crypto industry www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/reform-uk-...
adambienkov.co.uk
Reform UK Is Now a Wholly-Owned Subsidiary of the Corrupt Crypto Industry
As criminal investigations into Reform’s funding continue, much of the British press continues to give a free pass to Nigel Farage’s shady funders
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Donald Campbell @dncampbell.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Just two weeks to go until Peter Thiel receives the Axel Springer award for "social responsibility". www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
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Donald Campbell @dncampbell.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
UK Govt is facing *another* investigation from the stats watchdog over its dodgy claims in defence of Palantir's NHS contract: www.hsj.co.uk/technology-a...
hsj.co.uk
NHSE’s FDP claims face fresh investigation
NHS England is being investigated again by the statistics regulator after a trust revealed it did not write a case study highlighting the local benefits of the FDP.
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Donald Campbell @dncampbell.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Former Labour health minister is the latest to criticise the dodgy stats used to defend the Palantir NHS contract: "You can’t say these waiting lists are coming down purely because of the technology". Unfortunately this is exactly what ministers and Palantir have been saying until recently.
lbc.co.uk
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Donald Campbell @dncampbell.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Definitely the behaviour of an "ethical" AI company prospect.org/2026/09/09/a...
prospect.org
Anthropic Is Building a Predictive Surveillance System to Monitor Activists - The American Prospect
New hires and comments in interviews show that the AI giant is using its capabilities against dissenters.
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Donald Campbell @dncampbell.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Important research from @meadwaj.bsky.social showing jobs claims around data centres are hugely overblown: "vast new datacentres arrive at significant real costs to local communities and even our climate ambitions, and their use case has to be made by the government and industry".
theguardian.com
UK datacentres will create just 25% of jobs predicted by tech sector, analysis finds
Facilities likely to employ 10,400 workers, compared with 40,000 in industry estimates, thinktank says
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Donald Campbell @dncampbell.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
When did the use of the term “moral panic” become such a tell for a weak argument? And how do you manage to write a whole piece like this without once mentioning climate emissions?
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Ben Williamson @benpatrickwill.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Google already had so much privileged access to schools in England for live testing AI. It was treating English schools as a living lab for testing Gemini for schools. Mad that it somehow lost the contract. What did it want that government would not give? www.edtechinnovationhub.com/news/eedi-an...
edtechinnovationhub.com
Eedi and DeepMind trial AI tutor with 1,525 UK students | ETIH EdTech News — EdTech Innovation Hub
Eedi and Google DeepMind begin a second AI tutoring RCT with 1,525 UK students across 10 schools. ETIH edtech news covers the constrained AI tutor trial testing whether student-level personalization i...
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Donald Campbell @dncampbell.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Just had the completely bewildering experience of being interviewed alongside someone from the data centre industry who (I paraphrase) said it was daft to worry about their environmental impact as none of them will be built.
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Donald Campbell @dncampbell.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
We're told that data centres in Scotland will use renewable power which can't get south because of grid constraints. But a central part of UK decarbonisation approach is upgrading the grid so it can. How does that work if all the renewable power is already swallowed by Big Tech?
thenational.scot
Environmental warnings emerge over huge £2bn AI data centre linked to Scottish Duke
A HUGE planned £2 billion AI data centre linked to a Scottish aristocrat has been warned that it could affect local water supplies and have a…
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Donald Campbell @dncampbell.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
I realise you can't put too much weight on a quick response at PMQs, but it does seem striking that the PM's answer to 'let's remove Palantir from the NHS' is 'good point'.
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Donald Campbell @dncampbell.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Missed this y'day - first response to a Q on Palantir which I've seen from Andy Burnham since he became PM.
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