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Gerrit De Vynck

@gerritd.bsky.social
11K followers 341 following 59 posts

Washington Post tech reporter San Francisco Defense tech and AI www.washingtonpost.com/people/gerri… Signal: GerritD.27

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Reposted by Gerrit De Vynck
Techmeme @techmeme.com · 27/04/2026
More than 600 Google employees, including many from DeepMind, sign a letter to Sundar Pichai demanding he bar the DOD from using Google's AI for classified work (Gerrit De Vynck/Washington Post) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink
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Jarrett Ley (WashPost) @osviz-jarrett.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
NEW: 4 of Iran’s key ballistic missile production sites and at least 29 launch sites damaged in the first month of the U.S.-Israeli offensive, undermining Iran’s central military strategy, according to a Washington Post review and analysis by experts. Here is Khojir, which makes missile fuel:
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JM Rieger @riegerreport.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
ICE agents in Minnesota have detained at least four children from the same school district. Earlier this month, a 10-year-old 4th-grader was detained by ICE with her mother and sent to a Texas detention center. The 4th-grader's father was left behind. www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...
washingtonpost.com
ICE detains four children from Minnesota school district, including 5-year-old
Columbia Heights Public Schools district officials accused ICE officers of using the 5-year-old “as bait.” A 10-year-old and her mother were also detained.
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David Gilbert @davidgilbert.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
SCOOP I spoke to the leader of a doxing-for-hire group who showed me how it took just minutes for them to get sensitive personal data from Big Tech companies—with virtually no pushback www.wired.com/story/doxers...
wired.com
Doxers Posing as Cops Are Tricking Big Tech Firms Into Sharing People's Private Data
A spoofed email address and an easily faked document is all it takes for major tech companies to hand over your most personal information.
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Gerrit De Vynck @gerritd.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
OpenAI has already done more than any other startup to shake the dominance of Big Tech. It's still probably not enough www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
washingtonpost.com
ChatGPT started the AI race. Now its lead is looking shaky.
OpenAI’s chatbot jolted Silicon Valley when it debuted three years ago, but ChatGPT’s user growth is slowing and Google’s Gemini is gaining ground.
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Will Oremus @willoremus.com · 04/12/2025
New: AI chatbots can change voters' minds, according to a pair of in-depth studies published just now in Science and Nature. How they do it is interesting — and concerning. Gift link: wapo.st/49RSstP
wapo.st
Voters’ minds are hard to change. AI chatbots are surprisingly good at it.
New research suggests AI chatbots can shift people’s political views more effectively than campaign ads on TV.
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Jacob Bogage @jacobbogage.bsky.social · 01/12/2025
Want the news -- the really important news -- but don't want a WaPo subscription? That's fair. We're trying something new: $4 for a full day of WaPo access. Or if you just want this story, $2. Try it with this story, loaded with scoopy bits from me, @ddiamond.bsky.social & @rbeggin.bsky.social.
washingtonpost.com
GOP faces a familiar dilemma: What to do about Obamacare?
Republicans are racing to craft health-care plans ahead of a planned vote, as the deadline looms to act on soon-to-expire Affordable Care Act subsidies.
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Gerrit De Vynck @gerritd.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
NEW - OpenAI has responded to the lawsuit from the family of Adam Raine, the teen who committed suicide after months of talking to ChatGPT.
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The Upshot @upshot.nytimes.com · 21/11/2025
From The Washington Post: The concentration of wealth among the richest Americans is unlike anything in history — and so is billionaires’ influence in politics. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/int...
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Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 20/11/2025
Here’s this Better Offline. I’m joined by @gerritd.bsky.social of The Washington Post to discuss what an analysis of 47,000 ChatGPT conversations can tell us about how people use the service - and how eager it is to fuel any conversation. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/b... Linktr.ee/betteroffline
podcasts.apple.com
What People Actually Use ChatGPT For With Gerrit De Vynck
Podcast Episode · Better Offline · 11/20/2025 · 42m
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Matthew Hay Brown @matthewhaybrown.bsky.social · 01/11/2025
Eight warships, a nuclear-powered attack submarine, a floating base for Special Operations and an aircraft carrier on the way www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/1...
washingtonpost.com
These are the U.S. ships and aircraft massing off Venezuela
The large-scale buildup of U.S. military forces and assets in the Caribbean suggests that the Trump administration is preparing to expand operations.
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Foreign Affairs @foreignaffairs.com · 29/10/2025
“It is unlikely that superintelligence is actually imminent,” write @mchorowitz.bsky.social‬ and @laurenakahn.bsky.social. Washington should not “distort U.S. policy by dashing for something that might not exist.”
foreignaffairs.com
The Cost of the AGI Delusion
By chasing superintelligence, America is falling behind in the real AI race.
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Gerrit De Vynck @gerritd.bsky.social · 24/10/2025
I listened to Peter Thiel's antichrist lectures, so you don't have to www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/pos...
washingtonpost.com
Inside billionaire Peter Thiel’s private ‘Antichrist’ lectures - The Washington Post
The billionaire Peter Thiel recently hosted a series of exclusive lectures in San Francisco. The topic? The Antichrist. Today, his arguments and what they say about an emerging mindset in Silicon Vall...
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Gerrit De Vynck @gerritd.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
Remember when the tech cos. said they would use watermarks and metadata to help inform people what content was AI-created? Yea, it's all nonsense. Really great/important story from @kevinschaul.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
washingtonpost.com
Analysis | We uploaded a fake video to 8 social apps. Only one told users it wasn’t real.
Facebook, TikTok and other major platforms do not use a tech industry standard touted as a way to flag fake content, tests using AI-generated videos found.
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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 08/10/2025
"While on the phone with 911, Rinderknecht allegedly typed a question into ChatGPT: 'Are you at fault if a fire is lift because of your cigarettes'"
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Matthew Hay Brown @matthewhaybrown.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
When a judge told Claudio David Balcane González “Welcome to the United States,” he sobbed. He had finally been granted asylum. Then ICE detained him for 63 more days @marialuisapaul.bsky.social reports www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...
washingtonpost.com
A Venezuelan singer won asylum. ICE detained him for two more months.
The singer known online as Davicito59 won his asylum case in July. Still, ICE kept him in custody for two more months — a holdup several experts called unlawful.
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Lisa Bonos @lisabonos.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
Do you abstain from AI? I'd love to hear about why you avoid it -- and how hard that might be getting. Send me a DM or Signal @lisabonos.18
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Gerrit De Vynck @gerritd.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
Deepfake detection co. Reality Defender was able to use videos of real people to get their cameo uploaded to Sora. OpenAI's system didn't catch it www.linkedin.com/posts/benpco...
linkedin.com
Reality Defender bypassed Sora 2's deepfake impersonation safeguards in under 24 hours. Here's what happened: OpenAI just launched Sora 2 with a "Cameo" feature requiring identity v...
Reality Defender bypassed Sora 2's deepfake impersonation safeguards in under 24 hours. Here's what happened: OpenAI just launched Sora 2 with a "Cameo" feature requiring identity verification to pre...
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Gerrit De Vynck @gerritd.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
A few hours on Sora we made - video of an ICE raid on Sesame St. - JFK saying things he never said - Sam Altman robbing a bank and dressed as a Nazi general www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
washingtonpost.com
Everything is fake on Silicon Valley’s hottest new social network
The new Sora social app from ChatGPT maker OpenAI encourages users to upload video of their face so their likeness can be put into AI-generated clips.
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Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
New: ICE has bought a tool that tracks the locations of hundreds of millions of phones globally, updates every single day. Usually harvested from apps and advertising www.404media.co/ice-to-buy-t...
404media.co
ICE to Buy Tool that Tracks Locations of Hundreds of Millions of Phones Every Day
Documents show that ICE has gone back on its decision to not use location data remotely harvested from peoples' phones. The database is updated every day with billions of pieces of location data.
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Mikhail Klimentov @leadergrev.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
Wrote about the Riyadh Comedy Festival, where the setup of tell-it-like-it-is comedians who riff on cultural reservations around taboo subjects meets the awkward punchline of severe restrictions on speech. wapo.st/46vPycf
wapo.st
Saudi comedy festival draws big names and backlash
Human rights advocates and some comics say the festival, at which Bill Burr, Louis C.K., Dave Chappelle and Kevin Hart are performing, whitewashes abuses.
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Gerrit De Vynck @gerritd.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
Thanks to tower dumps, Gmail warrants, social media, police are drowning in data. A new startup is selling AI to help them parse it. www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
washingtonpost.com
Police are drowning in data. Could a chatbot help?
Start-up Longeye offers an AI chatbot for police designed to help them spot clues and patterns in digital evidence such as phone recordings or online chatlogs.
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Liz Fong-Jones (方禮真) @lizthegrey.com · 30/09/2025
the fact they have the ability to allow opt out means they're capable of matching rights holders to works, so so much for their theory that the machine is dumb and they can't tell what it is generating.
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JM Rieger @riegerreport.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
New @washingtonpost.com supercut: Donald Trump and his allies keep blaming the left for "fascist" political rhetoric that they have also used
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Gerrit De Vynck @gerritd.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
the lighting makes me look like
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Gerrit De Vynck @gerritd.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
YouTube's settlement will go towards paying for the new White House ballroom (seriously) www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
washingtonpost.com
YouTube to pay $24.5 million to settle Trump lawsuit over post-Jan. 6 suspension
YouTube will pay $24.5 million to settle a 2021 lawsuit alleging it unfairly blocked President Donald Trump’s account after the Jan 6. Capitol attacks.
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Gerrit De Vynck @gerritd.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
“Our general approach has been to treat likeness and copyright distinctly,” said Jason Kwon, chief strategy officer of OpenAI. Definitely seeing this distinction being made by AI execs recently. A potential wedge being driven into Hollywood/Music industry www.wsj.com/tech/ai/open...
wsj.com
Exclusive | OpenAI’s New Sora Video Generator to Require Copyright Holders to Opt Out
Executives at the company notified talent agencies and studios over the last week.
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Gerrit De Vynck @gerritd.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
we are definitely in the era of waving your hand and saying "AI" as you lay off thousands of older workers www.businessinsider.com/accenture-co...
businessinsider.com
Accenture is cutting staff it can't retrain in the age of AI — but it still plans to hire more people
The consulting giant is cutting staff it can't reskill in the AI era, with plans to increase overall head count.
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Gerrit De Vynck @gerritd.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
Silver Lake, Jared Kushner and the Saudi sovereign wealth fund are buying Electronic Arts
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Gerrit De Vynck @gerritd.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
astronomers found the star god
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Gerrit De Vynck @gerritd.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
The FTC's $2.5 billion Amazon fine is equivalent to 4% of the company's 2024 net income
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Julia Carrie Wong @joolia.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
Microsoft will no longer allow Israel to use its cloud services to enable its mass surveillance of occupied Palestinians – "the first known case of a US technology company withdrawing services provided to the Israeli military since the beginning of its war on Gaza"
theguardian.com
Microsoft blocks Israel’s use of its technology in mass surveillance of Palestinians
Exclusive: Tech firm ends military unit’s access to AI and data services after Guardian reveals secret spy project
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Bobby Allyn @bobbyallyn.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
"The Ellison family is cornering the market on attention and data the way the Vanderbilts did railroads and the Rockefellers did oil."
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Brian Barrett @brbarrett.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
No one knows Silicon Valley better than @stevenlevy.bsky.social. And no one is more clear-eyed about how far removed it has become from its supposed ideals.
wired.com
I Thought I Knew Silicon Valley. I Was Wrong
Tech got what it wanted by electing Trump. A year later, it looks more like a suicide pact.
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nitasha tiku @nitasha.bsky.social · 19/09/2025
Whose video did OpenAI take to train Sora? @kevinschaul.bsky.social and I are back on our training data bullshit to find out. Gift link 🎁 t.co/c3Zg4gcYIT
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Zeyi Yang 杨泽毅 @zeyiyang.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
NEW Made in China: antitrust, anti-dumping, anti-discrimination. Beijing is ready to use a myriad of legal tools it learned from the US to create new bargaining chips on the TikTok deal table. The focus this time is on legacy semiconductor chips.
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Joseph Menn @joemenn.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
When the U.S. stopped policing foreign disinformation, Russia didn’t stop producing it. Kirk’s assassination brought it roaring back. (Gift link with strings) wapo.st/4moekj1
wapo.st
Russia leverages Kirk shooting for propaganda as false claims surge
Researchers say state-controlled media outlets in Russia and elsewhere have sought to use the conservative influencer’s killing to amplify divisions in the U.S.
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Alex Heath @alexeheath.com · 16/09/2025
I’m launching Sources, a new publication about the tech industry’s inside conversation, and Access, a tech interview podcast with my friend @hamburger.bsky.social. The first issue of Sources drops tomorrow, featuring an interview with Mark Zuckerberg, which airs in full on Access this Thursday.
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Gerrit De Vynck @gerritd.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
Who's using ChatGPT?
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nitasha tiku @nitasha.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
A new wrongful death lawsuit alleges that Character AI and Google are liable for the death by suicide of a 13-year-old girl in Colorado, Juliana Peralta This is the third wrongful death claim against a popular AI app for a teen's death by suicide this year www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
washingtonpost.com
A teen contemplating suicide turned to a chatbot. Is it liable for her death?
A lawsuit filed by the parents of 13-year-old Juliana Peralta against Character AI is the latest to allege a chatbot contributed to a teen’s death by suicide.
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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 16/09/2025
A trolling and nihilistic message “designed to be maximally disruptive and incomprehensible, cloaked in layer upon layer of irony" www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/...
Tyler Robinson told a roommate that the inscriptions he’d engraved into four rifle cartridges he left behind after fatally shooting Charlie Kirk were “mostly a big meme,” court documents released Tuesday show.

One of the etchings — spelled in the documents, “NoTices Bulge, OWO What’s This?” — referenced a comic making fun of furry role-players that has become an online meme. After the shooting, Robinson said in a message to his roommate that if he saw the message on Fox News, he “might have a stroke,” federal investigators wrote.

The exchange further reveals the depth into which Robinson, 22, was immersed in internet meme culture before the fatal attack. The engravings on three other cartridges carry inscriptions with similarly online roots.

A second message — “Hey Fascist! Catch!,” with five arrow symbols — resembles the code players must press to launch a bomb in the satirical sci-fi video game “Helldivers 2.” A third message, “O Bella ciao,” references an Italian anti-fascist folk song that has been used in pop culture, including the Netflix show “Money Heist” and the first-person shooter game “Far Cry 6.” The final message — “If you Read This, You Are GAY Lmao” — resembles the style of crude “edgelord” taunting commonly found on message boards and chatrooms.

Aidan Walker, a content creator who writes about meme culture, said in a video that the etchings suggested Robinson saw the killing as a kind of real-world “s---post” — a trolling and nihilistic message “designed to be maximally disruptive and incomprehensible, cloaked in layer upon layer of irony.”
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Gerrit De Vynck @gerritd.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
incredible way to test sycophancy
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Jeff Stein @jeffstein.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
Statement from @postguild.bsky.social on the firing of Karen Attiah:
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Eric Lipton NYT @ericlipton.nytimes.com · 15/09/2025
NYT INVESTIGATION: Anatomy of Two Giant Deals: The U.A.E. Got Chips. The Trump Team Got Crypto Riches. NYT digs into links between a lucrative transaction involving the Trump family’s cryptocurrency firm and an agreement giving the Emiratis access to A.I. chips. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/u...
nytimes.com
Anatomy of Two Giant Deals: The U.A.E. Got Chips. The Trump Team Got Crypto Riches.
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Gerrit De Vynck @gerritd.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
OpenAI studied 1.5M user chats and found - half of all users are 18-26 - 2 yrs ago users were 80% men. now 52% women - talking about relationships and personal issues (therapy) is 1.9% of usage www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
washingtonpost.com
Here’s what the data says people ask ChatGPT
OpenAI released the first detailed public study on who uses its chatbot and what they most often ask it to do.
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Teddy Amenabar @teddyamen.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
New: To maintain or even strengthen your bones, it helps to load the skeleton. And, jumping around can do the trick. 💀 wapo.st/3IkMAxP
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Washington Post Opinions @postopinions.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
"Almost everyone in the business community thinks the tariffs are a bad idea, but CEOs are all too aware that saying so could put their job and company at risk of retaliation from the administration," Sachin Shivaram writes. wapo.st/3VodhEF
wapo.st
Opinion | My workers voted for Trump. Now they’re absorbing the impact.
Business was growing for our aluminum foundry. Then came the tariffs.
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Zoë Schiffer @zoeschiffer.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
Mark Zuckerberg went on a hiring spree to lure top AI research talent to Meta. At least three recent hires have resigned: www.wired.com/story/resear...
wired.com
Researchers Are Already Leaving Meta’s New Superintelligence Lab
CEO Mark Zuckerberg went on a recruiting blitz to lure top AI researchers to Meta. WIRED has confirmed that three recent hires have now resigned.
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Gerrit De Vynck @gerritd.bsky.social · 25/08/2025
Beck was a big special ops guy in Iraq. He has a Bronze Star and a combat ribon
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Gerrit De Vynck @gerritd.bsky.social · 08/08/2025
New letter from @warren.senate.gov warning YouTube not to pay Trump millions to settle his lawsuit over banning him after Jan.6 (like Meta and X already did) www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/pre...
warren.senate.gov
Warren, Sanders, Wyden, Welch Warn Google and YouTube CEOs Against Breaking Anti-Bribery Laws in Potential Settlement with Trump Administration | U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts
The Official U.S. Senate website of Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts
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