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Heather Bryant

@hbcompass.bsky.social
1.7K followers 3.5K following 479 posts

News and information for and with communities. Journalism person, writer, artist, photographer and maker. Co-founder of Tiny News Collective. Building carefully.org Writing at hbcompass.io Managing journalism.wtf She/her

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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Tech companies painting tunnels on the side of cliffs and declaring them the exclusive and inevitable path to innovation, revenue, the future, etc does not actually obligate the rest of us to slam ourselves face first into a rock wall.
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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
When I write an essay trying to explore something complex and nuanced and I find myself at ~2k words there's a part of me that goes "oh shit, I need to shorten the hell out of this or no one will read it" and another part thinking that shortening the exploration of complex things is how we got here.
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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
One of the ways that I know social media has gone terribly wrong in its design and incentives is that I encounter far more accounts that need to be blocked than ones that I would want to follow.
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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
When the powerful playact powerlessness it is always a ploy to avoid accountability.
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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Universities allowing or encouraging students to use consumer AI products for their coursework aren't creating future thinkers capable of critical evaluation and thoughtful application of AI technology, they're creating future customers of consumer AI platforms.
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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Hey, so a thing can't be both a democratizing force that eliminates gatekeeping AND something that people can be left behind from if they don't immediately become customers. Those are mutually exclusive traits...
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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
It would cost less for us all to just take care of each other compared to what we're doing now.
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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
That adding curse words to search queries in Pinterest removes the ads and reduces the AI posts fuckin delights me.
Screenshot of pinterest search for "house plants" where there is a promo for featured boards and 15 results on screen and half of them are shop posts or sponsored.Screenshot of pinterest search for "bullshit house plants" where there are 18 results on screen and none of them are shop posts or sponsored.
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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
I only have so many years. I only get to use so much of those years to experience the creative efforts of myself and others. There exists more genuine, authentic, human creativity than I could experience in 1,000 lifetimes. I have no interest in wasting the one lifetime I have on machine imitations.
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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
We created a society where we have to have various pieces of personally identifying information in order to securely do basic life tasks such as interacting with the government, banking, commerce, etc and also haven't made it illegal across the board for that information to be sold.
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Kate Manne @katemanne.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Generative AI is catnip to the men who miss female sycophants katemanne.substack.com/p/a-culture-...
katemanne.substack.com
A Culture Hooked on Generative AI is a Culture that Misses Female Sycophants
And we have missed a central reason why AI is a feminist issue
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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
"Publicly perform the doing of your work and post the evidence of your process to prove your authenticity" is basically peer-to-peer CAPTCHA and we should not encourage yet another vector by which people are encouraged to be divided and mistrustful while a small group of people benefit from it.
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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Watching longtime writers and creators suddenly be like "I have to use AI to create graphics for my posts, I can't afford an artist" as if we never illustrated anything prior to 2022. Poor lil guys, forgot how to license images or source CC graphics.
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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
The more insidious way that performance culture and AI contribute to a surveillance state is that individuals now expect other individuals to surveil, record, and provide footage of themselves to prove authenticity.
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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
It's been a while since I've regularly coded anything and I've since gotten a new laptop which also meant setting up a dev environment from scratch and wow, that process is not any less annoying than I remember it.
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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
One of the reasons to read more is that when you find yourself in a really, really dumb conversation, you are less likely to be the reason it's dumb.
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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
One of the funnier varieties of Gen AI users are the ones who prompt something and then share it while proclaiming nothing like it has existed before and as soon as you look at it you know the person doesn't read books, watch movies, or look at art.
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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Cough www.cnet.com/tech/service...
cnet.com
Instagram's AI Chatbot Gave Away a Bunch of Accounts to Hackers
Meta has since fixed the exploit, but it's yet another example of AI doing it worse than humans.
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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
That modern life involves having to regularly create accounts to do basic things and then having to spend time almost daily protecting one or more of those accounts from data breaches, hackers, or the incompetence/greed of the platforms themselves is an indicator that we have failed as a species.
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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
Before a new technology, system, or process becomes irreversibly entrenched in society is exactly when you are supposed to be the most critical, cautious, and circumspect about it.
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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
Being literate in AI and being a customer of consumer gen AI are two entirely different things and there are a lot of people urging everyone to become customers and calling it becoming literate.
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Courtney Milan @courtneymilan.com · 29/04/2026
This is both evil and boring.
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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
One of the reasons we have people swear an oath to uphold the duties of their position is because the Constitution is a rule book not an airbag, fire sprinkler, or autocorrect. It cannot automatically mitigate, stop, or fix anything. People have to actually take steps to enforce it.
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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
Clawed assistant > Claude assistant
Photo of a black cat in front of a computer monitor touching the screen with a Stack Overflow page open.
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Michael Schulman @michaelschulman.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
I don't need a summary of what's available online, in biographies, or even in my own notes. I need to comb through and find the great details, decide what interests ME. No, it's not efficient. It's slow and painstaking. But I don't believe in efficiency as an ultimate good, especially in writing. /
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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
We're on track for a chaotic summer and fall weather season, intense heat waves that will result in massive fires, and a rough hurricane season. This year is ripe for an unpredictable mix of chaotic events that will make voting more difficult and stressful. Planning needs to include that too.
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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
If a thing is so incredible and valuable because it eliminates the burden of people needing to skill up or get up to speed in order to do something, then it cannot also be a thing in which not using it right away would cause someone to be "left behind". Those are mutually exclusive characteristics.
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Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
I met with AI data labelers in Kenya who are organizing their colleagues to fight the brutal working conditions and horrible pay given to the workers at the "bottom of the AI supply chain." They believe the NDAs they've signed are unenforceable so are speaking out: www.404media.co/ai-is-africa...
404media.co
'AI Is African Intelligence': The Workers Who Train AI Are Fighting Back
Kenyan workers are still the underpaid labor behind AI training, moderation, and sex chatbots. The Data Labelers Association is fighting back.
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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
We're not just in a subscription economy, we're in a subscription democracy. Some are getting a higher tier of benefits while the rest are locked into the basic plan we were signed up for at birth where the cost only ever rises and they keep removing benefits or turning them into premium add-ons.
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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
"Use AI or get left behind" is rugged individualism applied to technology. It's a fantasy that a person could be "good enough" with AI to not be affected by global shifts in labor and information. It's propaganda for individual survival over collective action on behalf of the collective welfare.
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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
Historical context for these jobs...one of the last people convicted for their role in the Holocaust was a secretary at a camp. She claimed as a secretary she wasn't responsible. She was found guilty because she could not deny that she knew what was actually happening. www.mlive.com/news/detroit...
mlive.com
ICE buys Romulus detention facility, projects 1,458 jobs as local officials push back
The agency said the Romulus facility and its construction are expected to generate 1,458 jobs, nearly $150 million in economic activity and more than $33 million in projected tax revenue.
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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
Maybe you need this
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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
I'm not worried about a future in which I'm left behind because I don't use certain technologies. I'm worried about a future in which everyone is expected to do even more than we already are and those things aren't actually useful, necessary, or good for us — individually or collectively.
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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 08/02/2026
It's wild to have 2 pro-AI people in the same article, one saying that authors need to use AI or get left behind AND the other saying if readers know a book is AI they won't read it. "Do the thing that your target customer will boycott you for if they know you are doing it." Wow. Great advice.
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Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
The arrests of journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort are a test for every MSM member with a platform. If you are not voicing your outrage at this blatant violation of the First Amendment, you are utterly discredited as a journalist.
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Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
Georgia Fort, an independent journalist and vice president of the Minnesota NABJ chapter, was also arrested by federal agents this morning I was sent this video of agents at her door:
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Evan Simko-Bednarski @simko-bednarski.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
INBOX: @freedom.press on the arrests of Don Lemon and Georgia Fort
Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) Chief of Advocacy Seth Stern said:

> “The government’s arrests of journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort are naked attacks on freedom of the press. Two federal courts flatly rejected prosecuting Lemon because the evidence for these vindictive and unconstitutional charges was insufficient, and Lemon has every right to document news and inform the public. Instead of accepting that humiliating defeat, the government has now doubled down.
>
> “These arrests, under bogus legal theories for obviously constitutionally protected reporting, are clear warning shots aimed at other journalists. The unmistakable message is that journalists must tread cautiously because the government is looking for any way to target them. Fort’s arrest is meant to instill the same fear in local independent journalists as big names like Lemon. 
>
> “The answer to this outrageous attack is not fear or self-censorship. It’s an even stronger commitment to journalism, the truth, and the First Amendment. If the Trump administration thinks it can bully journalists into submission, it is wrong. We’ve recently seen that even in the Trump era, public pressure still can work. It’s time to do it again. News outlets across the political spectrum need to loudly defend Lemon’s and Fort’s rights. Journalists are not making themselves the story, Trump is.”
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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
We've built a system in which the penalties and settlements for lying and cheating cost far less than what companies can make when they lie and cheat and then we act shocked that they lie and cheat.
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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
Cough media.defense.gov/2026/Jan/12/...
Screenshot of Department of War AI Strategy memo: Speed Wins. We must internalize that Military AI is going to be a race for the foreseeable future, and therefore speed wins. We must weaponize learning speed, and measure and manage cycle time and adoption rates as decisive variables in the Al era. We must accept that the risks of not moving fast enough outweigh the risks of imperfect alignment. I direct CDAO to establish deployment velocity and operational cycle-time metrics for all PSPs, to be a focus of their monthly reporting to the Deputy Secretary and USW(R&E).

AI Model Parity. We are seeing unprecedented velocity in the evolution of the frontier AI models. These models are becoming smarter and more robust every day. The Department cannot be working off models that are months or years old. We must have the latest and greatest AI models deployed for our warfighters. Deploying these capabilities across all echelons is simply not enough, we must be able to support and sustain rapid model updates across all echelons. I direct CDAO to establish a delivery and integration cadence with AI vendors that enables the latest models to be deployed within 30 days of public release. This shall be a primary procurement criterion for future model acquisition.
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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
If you can be manipulated by someone playing on your resentments of others, your desire to see others punished, your wish to see others denied things you don't think they deserve, your dislike of those not like you, your feelings of superiority, or your refusal to listen, learn, or understand...
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In These Times @inthesetimes.com · 24/01/2026
"We have to help people understand what is (the current, shared reality), we must collectively imagine what can be (a future possibility), & we have to diligently labor for what must be (organizing to sustain life/​livingness & for liberation)." @prisonculture.bsky.social on how to move forward.
inthesetimes.com
Read This If You're New and Trying to Find Your Way
Abolitionist organizer and author Mariame Kaba offers youth living through the current crises a renewed perspective on how to move forward.
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🇬🇾🗽Sydette The Dreaded Gorgon🗽🇬🇾 @blackamazon.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
Hee !Quote tweeting to plug @unbreaking.org is an information aid project tracking the ways the Trump administration is breaking reality . We provide sourced and cited thematic timelines to help people understand and take action without having to doomscroll or read 3837387 substacks
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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
It's been far easier to diversify my fiction books than my nonfiction books and I think about the implications of that a lot because we need both diverse stories and diverse expertise and analysis.
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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 04/01/2026
I really hate that when my internet goes down these days my first instinct is to be suspicious, immediately check to see if I still have phone signal, and doing a quick double-check of headlines rather than just "that happens sometimes."
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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
Her doing this and me scrolling social media are the same activity.
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🇬🇾🗽Sydette The Dreaded Gorgon🗽🇬🇾 @blackamazon.bsky.social · 29/12/2025
They want slavery . They want it. They want the the world slavery made and are trying to break it down to its coding parts and the people “fighting” them want the equivalent of benevolent overseer roles because they accept the premise
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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 25/12/2025
I got the best gift from @nws.noaa.gov A blaring very early Christmas morning flash flood alert that ensured we woke up and checked conditions around us. Functioning public services that keep us all safer every day is exactly what I wanted.
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soleil ho @soleilho.com · 15/12/2025
it's taken me a while to put this together. but I hope, if you've never heard of her, or even if you have, this tribute to Alice Wong buoys your heart and gives you a good sense of who this incredible person was. www.coyotemedia.org/remembering-...
coyotemedia.org
Remembering Alice Wong
On the one-month anniversary of her passing, we honor the acclaimed disability justice advocate, writer, shit-talker, and friend to so many.
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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 14/12/2025
One of the extremely hard parts of dementia caregiving is that sometimes you can do absolutely everything you can to try to make sure they understand and remember an important decision and discuss and repeat it a a million times...
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Heather Bryant @hbcompass.bsky.social · 14/12/2025
I just want to buy a thing. If it's a good thing and the experience is good, I may want more things. That's it. I do not need and I definitely do not want this many touch points.
Illustration of fictional inbox with search for sender "The Store" which returns a month's worth of emails with the subject lines: [shopping cart emoji] You left something in your cart, Still thinking about super cool item? [looking emoji], Super cool item is selling fast, [hourglass emoji] don’t miss your chance, [green checkmark emoji] Order #87 confirmed, [folder hands emoji] Thank you for your purchase, Thanks for subscribing to our mailing list [envelope emoji], [magic wand emoji] We’re at work on your order #87, There’s still time to add to your Order #87 [stopwatch emoji], [letter in mailbox emoji] Order #87 shipping soon, [closed mailbox emoji] Order #87 has shipped!, Order #87 will be arriving soon [timer emoji], It’s almost time! [big smiley face emoji] Order #87 arriving tomorrow, Order #87 is out for delivery [box emoji], It’s here! [confetti ball emoji] Order #87 has been delivered, Tell us, did we hit the [target emoji] How did you like Order #87?, Don’t forget to review your order [clipboard emoji], [raised hands emoji] You’ve earned 86 points for Order #87, We’d really appreciate your feedback. [writing hand emoji] Please fill out our..., Follow us on Facebook for 10% [money with wings emoji] off your next order, It’s not too late to tell us how we did [heart hands emoji] on Order #87
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