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Erik Peinert

@erikpeinert.bsky.social
1.1K followers 862 following 104 posts

Assistant Professor at Boston University Political Science. PhD Brown University. Comparative and international political economy. Competition, market power, and maybe lots of other things. Views my own. www.erikpeinert.com

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Reposted by Erik Peinert
The New Republic @newrepublic.com · 10/10/2026
It is shocking and incredibly stupid that one of the most prominent politicians in a pro-democracy party has helped allies of an authoritarian acquire a major news outlet. trib.al/WLqoiQm
trib.al
Why Does Gavin Newsom Keep Helping the Oligarchs?
In opposing the California wealth tax and helping push through the Paramount–Warner Bros. merger, the governor is doing the bidding of billionaires.
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Dave Itzkoff @ditzkoff.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Oh brother.
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Benjamin Braun @benbraun.social · 05/10/2026
Excellent @ericlonners.bsky.social post on bond market dynamics, Japan, and the bond-equity correlation over time. Takeaway #1 ("Dalio fallacy"): The rise in yields is not about debt – unless you're unlucky enough to be a eurozone member state. ericlonergan915540.substack.com/p/the-dalio-...
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Daniel Driscoll @danieldrisc.com · 29/09/2026
Why Carbon Taxes Failed is on the road! See book talk dates below (more to come). Next week is Central European University and Copenhagen Business School! Can't wait to see some dear friends at both places <3
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Asheesh Kapur Siddique @asheeshks.org · 28/09/2026
I think students should read full books.
Norman Rockwell's "Freedom of Speech," from "The Four Freedoms," 1943
https://prints.nrm.org/detail/260937/rockwell-freedom-of-speech-1943?srsltid=AU7gw4V4FH-u5tF-MWC6kxNw8lDeOazTP-7MNiQoCo3kEiIMRLgK7l7-
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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 25/09/2026
Stasigotchi
ft.com
Mark Zuckerberg unveils AI ‘charm’ device that can fit on a keychain
Social media chief says the Muse personal assistant is the ‘centrepiece’ of his AI vision after launch success
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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
The random civilian who illegally stole everyone's data & dismantled large chunks of the federal government, in an end run around Article I of the Constitution, should be jailed for life & not have large govt contracts, the ability to contribute to political campaigns, or stakes in large media orgs.
Rockwell FoS
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Le Ca-ghoul @lecagle.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
you are *not* prepared for what this technology company is called, nothing can prepare you
wkyt.com
UK installs AI facial scanning technology at residence halls
The University of Kentucky is installing artificial intelligence facial scanning technology on several campus buildings.
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Dr Maha @maharafiatal.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
"Corporate rule has always coexisted with state rule, and companies don’t necessarily pursue it to advance their business interests. That means restoring the state won’t, by itself, fix the problem." On the long history of corporate power and what to do about it today: cupblog.org/2026/09/18/m...
cupblog.org
Maha Rafi Atal on When Companies Rule - Columbia University Press Blog
Maha Rafi Atal discusses the history of corporate rule, the limits of state regulation, and what it takes to hold global companies accountable.
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Erik Peinert @erikpeinert.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Two, because their proposed solution is so obviously designed to provide them an indefinite and government-mandated monopoly over the AI sector, and without really having meaningful oversight, controls, or restrictions from outside stakeholders.
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Erik Peinert @erikpeinert.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Even where there may be truth in some of this, I think is overcomplicating things. One, because AI safety is a real problem!!!! The Hugging Face attack was real. It can both be true that these companies are reckless and that the technology itself is dangerous.
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Erik Peinert @erikpeinert.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Last point: so much of the discussion here on bsky has focused on AI safety being a fake issue: either a delusional belief among Silicon Valley elites or a red herring for them to focus public and investor attention to attract more rounds of financing.
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Erik Peinert @erikpeinert.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
But for obvious reasons, they don’t want those things. Have these people ever wanted outside input or restrictions, or has their position consistently been “I do what I want”.
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Erik Peinert @erikpeinert.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Or use existing liability rules for harms caused by AI, as Lina Khan talks about here: x.com/linamkhan/st...
x.com
Lina Khan (@linamkhan) on X
Law enforcers already have authority to charge companies and their CEOs for creating and releasing dangerous, unvetted, or defective products. We shouldn’t let discussions about new legal regimes distract from the fact that there’s no AI exemption from laws already on the books — a point @FTC empha…
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Erik Peinert @erikpeinert.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Compare this to very straightforward regulation that would be designed to address safety concerns: New rules that outright ban certain types of model training, or to train models for dangerous purposes. Outside expert oversight that comes with real enforcement power and authority.
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Erik Peinert @erikpeinert.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
I’m not one to generally praise George Stigler, but he is on the nose here: “regulation” for Amodei, Altman, etc. is mostly to create a government moat around their very fragile businesses. bfi.uchicago.edu/wp-content/u...
bfi.uchicago.edu
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Erik Peinert @erikpeinert.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
These are weird policy solutions to a safety problem! But they are the ones that maintain their unrestricted control over profit-driven private companies and have the government step in to protect those profits.
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Erik Peinert @erikpeinert.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
To be clear, these suggestions appear to be (a) allow the companies to collude to limit competitive pressures on their profits, and (b) have the government take an ownership share of the AI companies.
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Erik Peinert @erikpeinert.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
And here Amodei suggests that it’s crazy that this dangerous technology is being developed in the private sector with little oversight (that is crazy!!!), but suggests that the government should “have a stake”: www.youtube.com/shorts/X41J4...
youtube.com
Anthropic CEO says government and public need to have stake in AI oversight #shorts
YouTube video by CBS Sunday Morning
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Erik Peinert @erikpeinert.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Antitrust are the laws generally requiring private companies to compete. Competing businesses talking to each other to “slow down” product development is straightforwardly illegal. Ford and GM don’t get to collude to make fewer cars (and charge more for them) because they go too fast.
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Erik Peinert @erikpeinert.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
BUT: look at their actual suggestions for public intervention or regulation. Amodei proposes an antitrust exemption for them to slow down AI development, along with US sanctions to maintain the US’s thin technological lead over Chinese AI companies: darioamodei.com/post/we-must....
darioamodei.com
Dario Amodei — We Must Pace the Frontier
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Erik Peinert @erikpeinert.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
So now we go to the issue of these calls for an “AI slowdown”. And public regulation and oversight is probably a good idea!
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Erik Peinert @erikpeinert.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
The Ai companies have to compete on price, with a very expensive product and the looming threat of excellent Chinese models at a fraction of the cost. Their profits are at risk.
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Erik Peinert @erikpeinert.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
What that means is that customers don’t care whose model they use, as long as it’s close enough to get the job done. So customers make decisions on price, and with Chinese models being a fraction of the price, lots of customers are going to them for simple stuff.
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Erik Peinert @erikpeinert.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
The second issue is that LLMs are increasingly “commoditized”. What do I mean? The main models (Claude, ChatGPT, Deepseek, etc.) all have similar capabilities, even at all of their different tiers and in different wrappers: they’re all ridiculously good at coding, hacking, organizing files, etc.
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Erik Peinert @erikpeinert.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Some of the danger is if the models fall into the wrong hands (Houthis using Claude Code to build weapons guidance systems), some of it is that the models are doing dangerous things on their own (Hugging Face).
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Erik Peinert @erikpeinert.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
There’s two issues here. The first is the issue of AI safety: the frontier models have shown a dangerous array of capabilities in a number of domains, but particularly hacking.
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Erik Peinert @erikpeinert.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
I am slow on the uptake here, but this is worth commenting on as I’ve been thinking about some of this is the back of my head. TLDR: this is an uncomplicated request for government protection of their profits, framed in the language of safety and the public good. apnews.com/article/ai-s...
apnews.com
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Kate McNamara @katemcnamara.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
As "Gemini and ChatGPT have been designed first to keep users hooked, placing plausibility or attractiveness before veracity"..."AI flattens the historical record by relying on the most popular sources, eliminating minority voices." An alarming must-read on AI from Georgetown's Jordan Sand.
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onion person @junlper.beer · 10/09/2026
trying to get people to understand that the trans women in sports debate isn’t really about sports but a meta narrative pushed by the right all about slowly getting all trans people out of public life is truly impossible
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Standplaats Kraków could really use some cash! @standplaatskrk.pl · 07/09/2026
"A Wealth Tax Floated in Lake Town Has Dragon Thinking of Leaving

It’s uncertain whether the proposal will reach the ballot in November, but Smaug may be unwilling to take the risk."
[The Hobbit's Smaug resting in a pile of gold coins.]
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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
You know, I mostly avoid these 'look what crazy thing he said' posts but...legitimately this is a deranged rant. he seems to be confusing credit ratings with bond yields with the federal funds rate and thus imagining the fed can unilaterally lower the (yield) 'rate' the US borrows at (it can't).
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Erik Peinert @erikpeinert.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Yes all true but I’m not sure I’m loving the world where it’s mostly cost less for any random person to get a mass audience by telling them what they want to hear
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Nicole Bedera @nbedera.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
I genuinely think that one of the biggest feminist challenges right now is that feminism was so successful that a lot of people can’t even imagine what the world was like before it.
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Maxwell Palmer @maxwellpalmer.com · 01/09/2026
Boston University Political Science is hiring an assistant professor with a focus on Artificial Intelligence (the intersection of artificial intelligence and politics or who use artificial intelligence applications as a methodology). @bupolisci.bsky.social academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/32578
academicjobsonline.org
Boston University, Department of Political Science
Job #AJO32578, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, US
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The Downballot @the-downballot.com · 03/09/2026
@adambonica.bsky.social spent a year on a major investigation into the predatory fundraising techniques used by many Democratic orgs that wind up harming elderly Americans. But two prominent outlets reneged on plans to publish it. We dive deep into this important report on this week's podcast -->
the-downballot.com
How Democratic 'spam PACs' victimize vulnerable seniors
Listen now | Adam Bonica explains the harm to the elderly—and the Democratic Party
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Erik Peinert @erikpeinert.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
I have found I have to dispel this myth in almost every class I teach at one point or another
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Martin Concagh @mconcagh.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
It does freak me out how the talking point Toby is skewering is so blatantly anti-feminist and yet is constantly repeated by people who consider themselves to be progressive
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Toby Buckle @polphilpod.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
& like every addiction, they don't get the hold it has on them if you'd have told them 10 years ago the far-right ideas they'd be entertaining now, they'd be insulted. but they've just kinda drifted into them, it feels natural, they're not even really aware they've changed their minds
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Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
this is so incredible I can’t stop laughing because he forgot to include Reagan
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Erik Peinert @erikpeinert.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Almost straight out of A Scanner Darkly
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Erik Peinert @erikpeinert.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Fordism as crime But also this is what RICO is for?
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Adam Bonica @adambonica.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
The Democratic Party has let a consulting industry exploit elderly donors in its name, wreck its reputation and finances in the process, and walk away rich whether the party wins or loses. When a mirror is held up, the instinct is to break the glass rather than look. On why the press looks away:
data4democracy.substack.com
The Bulwark Killed an Investigation into Political Fundraising Spam After Its Publisher Took the Consultants’ Side
This is a story about the Democratic Party captured by its consultants, and about what happens when the pro-democracy press is asked to say so.
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Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
It’s a new @adambonica.bsky.social joint! data4democracy.substack.com/p/the-bulwar...
data4democracy.substack.com
The Bulwark Killed an Investigation into Political Fundraising Spam After Its Publisher Took the Consultants’ Side
This is a story about the Democratic Party captured by its consultants, and about what happens when the pro-democracy press is asked to say so.
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Erik Peinert @erikpeinert.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Everything is Gender™, exhibit #9485. A class on the military tactics of Alexander would get no such scorn, despite having substantially less relevance to today
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Erin Lockwood @erinkaylockwood.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Going extremely low-tech in my International Political Economy class this fall: - slides limited to graphs/charts; all other lecture notes will be on the white board - replacing out-of-class group IPE in the News ppt presentations w/ in-class physical posters (magazine images, glue, markers) (1/x)
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Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com · 26/08/2026
it is pretty funny how rapidly all this argle boils down to regulatory rent-seeking
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Tom Pepinsky @tompepinsky.com · 25/08/2026
It’s a terrible situation; and I will never forgive the AI people for making it impossible to teach long-form research essay writing
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rev. howard arson @theophite.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
this is a vastly better outcome than ours
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