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James Martin

@jamesmart1n.bsky.social
154 followers 165 following 555 posts

Passionate about making tech more responsible, notably via my v own bettertech.blog. And sharing memes ofc

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Reposted by James Martin
Odd This Day @oddthisday.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
There’s really only one way to mark the 99th anniversary of Roger Moore’s birth
Marc Haynes’ story: As a 7 year old in about 1983, … I was with my grandad in Nice Airport and saw Roger Moore Sitting at the departure gate, ... told my granddad i'd just seen James Bond and asked if we could go over so I could get his autograph. …so we walked over and he popped me in front of Roger Moore, with the words "my grandson says you're famous. Can you sign this?" As charming as you'd expect, Roger asks my name and signs the back of my plane ticket... I'm ecstatic, but …I glance down at the signature. … it definitely doesn't say 'James Bond'. ...I tell my grandad he's signed it wrong, … so my grandad heads back to Roger Moore...
"he says you've signed the wrong name. He says your name is James Bond." Roger Moore's face crinkled up with realisation and he beckoned me over. …he leant over, looked from side to side, raised an eyebrow and in a hushed voice said "I have to sign my name as 'Roger Moore because otherwise...Blofeld might find out I was here." He asked me not to tell anyone …and thanked me for keeping his secret. I went back to our seats, my nerves absolutely jangling with delight. My grandad asked me if he'd signed 'James Bond.' No, I said.
I'd got it wrong. I was working with James Bond now. Many years later, I was working on a recording that involved UNICEF, and Roger Moore was doing a piece to camera as an ambassador. He was lovely and while the cameramen were setting up, I told him the story. He …had a chuckle and said "Well, I don't remember but I'm glad you got to meet James Bond." So that was lovely. And then he did something so brilliant. After the filming, he walked past me in the corridor, heading out to his car - but as he got level, he paused looked both ways, raised an eyebrow and in a hushed voice said, "Of course I remember our meeting in Nice. But I didn't say anything in there, because those cameramen - any one of them could be working for Blofeld."
I was as delighted at 30 as I had been at 7. What a man. What a tremendous man.
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Reposted by James Martin
WHAT A FUCKING RECORD @whatafuckingrecord.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
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SAINT ETIENNE FOXBASE ALPHA
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James Martin @jamesmart1n.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
It is indeed a total train wreck, which confirms how dodgy AI’s economics are. The first bubble domino to fall, re. @jasonkoebler.bsky.social bsky.app/profile/jaso...
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James Martin @jamesmart1n.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
This just in: Character.AI, the Google-backed company best known for teen suicide, has failed, and Disney is picking meat off the corpse. Disbey had previously sued them for IP theft. What a wonderful world! www.reuters.com/legal/litiga...
reuters.com
Character.AI files for bankruptcy, to sell some assets to Disney for $20 million
Chatbot platform Character.AI said on Monday it has filed for bankruptcy in the US and has agreed to ​sell some assets for $20 million to Walt Disney .
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James Martin @jamesmart1n.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Haven’t seen it yet but want to. Its losing $250m makes it even more appealing somehow
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James Martin @jamesmart1n.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Tbh I prefer Yoshua Bengio’s "a sandwich is more regulated than AI." But let’s not be fooled. Microsoft compute powers OpenAI, the original culprit behind "rogue swarms" of AI agents. & M$ is about to launch its own agentic assistants. So Brad Smith, I call your BS www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
AI is less regulated than milk, Microsoft president says
Brad Smith calls for global rules on AI, and says the UK is in the "best position" to lead the charge.
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James Martin @jamesmart1n.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Great also to hear him chatting with the incredible @alixdunn.com, who just keeps on churning out fascinating and essential conversations 🙏🏻💚
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James Martin @jamesmart1n.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
. @ketanjoshi.co is on fire atm. Proportionately with how crazily AI’s energy consumption is growing. Best e.g.: 2010 data centres used to have 10-50MW power ratings. Now they’re more like 500MW-1GW (1000MW). And soon they’ll be 10GW, and gas-powered. Must-listen: podcasts.apple.com/fr/podcast/c...
podcasts.apple.com
The Climate Cost of AI Prophecies: How Data Centers Fuel Big Fossil w/ Ketan Joshi
Épisode de l’émission · Computer Says Maybe · 9 octobre · 47 min
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James Martin @jamesmart1n.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Not content with physical violence and the use of grenades and the like, French police are now ram-raiding children with militarised 4x4s. You couldn’t make this up. The next revolution is incoming…
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James Martin @jamesmart1n.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
They’re not just training with your prompts: they’re selling your entire conversations to advertisers. 5 of 9 major AI providers share conversation links with data trackers (used in advertising). Refusing cookies sometimes helps, but not always 😨 www.heise.de/en/news/Thes...
heise.de
These data are shared by ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude & Co. with third parties
A new study shows how ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini & Co. share user data with third parties – sometimes even granting access to chat histories and sensitive info.
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James Martin @jamesmart1n.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Remember when Meta bought Moltbook? What if Muse is just a rebrand of the chaotic entities that "social network for AI agents" contains? In any case it seems to be getting up to exactly the same sort of unapproved antics as OpenClaw bots and the like. Meta's next crisis, already in the making?
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Reposted by James Martin
David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The techbros don't want you to see this trailer. Pass it on.
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James Martin @jamesmart1n.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
My fave slogan (tho I missed getting a pic): "4 months old and 5 heatwaves", held by the parents of a baby in a pushchair 👌🏻 Alas, given the continuing political inertia, I fear we won’t be laughing next summer 🥵
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James Martin @jamesmart1n.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Yesterday’s Paris Climate March had a good turnout considering it became a static event at the last minute due to the Pope’s Champs Élysées mass. His holiness was nonetheless present, wearing the latest climate chic: a gold safety blanket, used by many Parisians during this summer’s 5 heatwaves
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James Martin @jamesmart1n.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
- “Weren’t you worried she was, like, scamming you? - “No” - “You come from a rich family” - “There’s a lot of different levels of wealth” 🤭🤭🤭 Oh and the crying bit at the end: gold. SO CAN’T WAIT youtu.be/HvW_N5p1q44?...
youtu.be
You Can See Everything | Official Trailer HD | A24
YouTube video by A24
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James Martin @jamesmart1n.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Good job the world's biggest and most powerful army is run by people smart enough to not believe AI reporting it's found a Chinese ship carrying nuclear warheads. Oh, wait... edition.cnn.com/2026/09/18/p... PS: “AI allows you to get to a bad idea faster,” re. one of CNN's sources. Chef's kiss!
edition.cnn.com
Exclusive: US military had close call after using AI for false intelligence report, sources say | CNN Politics
The episode shows the risks of using this new, relatively poorly understood technology in the middle of the Iran war
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James Martin @jamesmart1n.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I just couldn't help myself. They have now gone beyond ridiculous
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Reposted by James Martin
Spencer Ackerman @attackerman.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Article 25 (3)(e) of the statute establishing the International Criminal Court criminalizes incitement to genocide. If someone can walk into the United Nations and say this, they’re daring the court to act.
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James Martin @jamesmart1n.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
"I don’t see any step up in the risk of human extinction… The theories about this remain fantastical… The biggest change in AI risk is its cybersecurity capabilities, (which) will not lead to the end of the world" - Andrew Ng, of "AI is electricity" fame www.deeplearning.ai/the-batch/is...
deeplearning.ai
Meta’s Agent Security, The Navier-Stokes Controversy, Fraud on Claude
The Batch News & Insights: The loudest voices stoking fears about AI dangers have made tremendous headway in the past two weeks.
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James Martin @jamesmart1n.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
So funny I almost went back to X/Twitter 🫶
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James Martin @jamesmart1n.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Larger media outlets finally catching on to what experts have been saying for a while now. Big AI exaggerates the riskiness of its models so that it can then say how to control them. It’s called regulatory capture, DOH. Shame on said media for not calling that sooner nypost.com/2026/09/19/u...
nypost.com
OpenAI and Anthropic oversold AI security breaches to pressure feds into protecting turf: insiders
OpenAI and Anthropic hyped “rogue AI” security breaches to pressure Washington into a regulatory partnership that would cement their industry dominance, tech insiders told The Post &#82…
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James Martin @jamesmart1n.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
If you’d read the excellent work of Will and Holly Alpine, you’d know that emissions enabled by AI-powered oil & gas productivity gains are 3-13 times higher than those of datacentres. You’re now helping this. As Greta would say, how dare you? idp.nature.com/authorize?re...
idp.nature.com
AI-driven productivity gains enable more CO₂ emissions than they avoid in a global energy–economy model - npj Climate Action
npj Climate Action - AI-driven productivity gains enable more CO₂ emissions than they avoid in a global energy–economy model
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James Martin @jamesmart1n.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Shame on you, Mistral AI. You may be the European darling of sovereign AI. You are the most sustainably transparent of all model makers (not difficult, but hey). You cannot accept €100m from TotalEnergies to help them find more petrol. And yet, you have www.latribune.fr/article/tech...
latribune.fr
L’IA de Mistral va aider TotalEnergies à extraire davantage de pétrole et de gaz
TotalEnergies étend son partenariat avec Mistral et engage 100 millions d’euros pour développer des modèles d’IA dédiés à l’exploration et à l’ingénierie des réservoirs. Le groupe veut aussi optimiser...
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Reposted by James Martin
brian nam-sonenstein @bson.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
dear god.. a flavor scientist at the Cheetos factory has published a blog post saying no one is prepared for how "dangerously cheesy" they are
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James Martin @jamesmart1n.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Indeed. It’s a fascinating and chilling post. But it ends with him reasserting his & Altman’s belief that we all ultimately ‘need’ our own AGI agents. Thereby repeating his sector’s standard mantra: "this tech is dangerous as hell but hold our beer whilst we shove more of it down your throats"
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James Martin @jamesmart1n.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Anthropic ratted on police about a guy who threatened to kill Amodei (& then said he was “just fing around"). Then they refused to give the evidence to the police. They want to BE the police, Minority Report-style… #precrime 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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Reposted by James Martin
Sky Marchini @sky.skymarchini.net · 08/09/2026
this is a funny video, but I want to use it to make a broader point: the creator [see alt txt] says he made it on his local PC using a NVIDIA A4500. that is a 5 year old, professional card costing about $2500 new. if this isn't your baseline for what AI video looks like, you're going to get fooled
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James Martin @jamesmart1n.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Yes I know having worked in the cloud sector. The point is rather: why doesn’t the planning permission process include a "this data centre is essential for the UK economy because X" clause? Because the government blindly obeys big tech, no questions asked
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James Martin @jamesmart1n.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Scoop du jour: UK government, already demonstrably clueless on the topic, admits it has no idea why hundreds of new datacentres are being planned. In its own country. At least they’ve finally got to the bottom of it: they are not necessary www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
theguardian.com
UK government does not know what datacentres are being used for, FoI request shows
Lack of information raises fears over environmental impact of the AI boom
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James Martin @jamesmart1n.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Other things that could happen: - Bears shitting in woods - Pope revealed as Catholic cc @privateeyenews.bsky.social flip.it/wVt1ij
flip.it
AI could cause global economic downturn, Andrew Bailey warns G20
The governor of the Bank of England warned of AI's “volatility” caused by energy shocks from the US-Iran war.
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James Martin @jamesmart1n.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Hats off to Steven Bartlett for spotlighting the brilliant @edzitron.com in this extensive podcast interview. Those of us countering big AI hype are few and far between, and Ed is probably the best of all. Well worth a listen podcasts.apple.com/fr/podcast/t...
podcasts.apple.com
The Man Who Calls BS On AI: AI Is The World’s Greatest SCAM, And They All Know It! | Ed Zitron
Épisode de l’émission · The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett · 27 août · 2 h 27 min
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James Martin @jamesmart1n.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Time to brush up on your raccoon protocols. This week’s perfect AI booster bait #chefskiss
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Reposted by James Martin
Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 27/08/2026
Am I the only one here excited for Digger, it looks mad and fun www.youtube.com/watch?v=qORT...
a screenshot from the movie trailer, a map showing an iceberg hitting Norway
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James Martin @jamesmart1n.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Now also super excited, cheers dude!
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Reposted by James Martin
Nick Young @nickofnz.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Adapting to climate change without ending the fossil fuel industry.
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James Martin @jamesmart1n.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Does one data centre have to consume more gas than most EU countries? Not if AI was used more frugally. So I'm giving away a mini version of my "Frugal AI" training course, to show AI doesn't need to cost the earth. Sign up here: maven.com/p/d3010c/usi... cc @ketanjoshi.co @sashamtl.bsky.social
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James Martin @jamesmart1n.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
After a gruelling (French) summer marked by: - 5 heatwaves - Massive forest fires - Storm damage - A f’ing tornado (FFS) @privateeyenews.bsky.social conclusively nails climate change 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
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James Martin @jamesmart1n.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Good. AI’s biggest problem isn’t that no gas turnbines will be available from their number one manufacturer by 2031: it’s that AI has 1/. Bet on the wrong horse (renewables + batteries are cheaper and clean) 2/. Still not tried to do more AI with less resources. Idiots flip.it/MLUdSE
flip.it
The Gas Turbine Shortage Just Became AI’s Biggest Constraint
Gas turbine order books now stretch to 2031, leaving the AI data center buildout running on power plans the equipment cannot deliver.
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James Martin @jamesmart1n.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
AI hatred has definitely entered the zeitgeist when Taylor Swift’s bro-in-law does this youtu.be/r9OhekhlZ9Y?...
youtu.be
Liquid Death x Garage Beer x Jason Kelce Want Your Pee
YouTube video by Liquid Death
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James Martin @jamesmart1n.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
All the elements of a modern and ancient tragedy: apparently lone racist accuses black academic of plagiarism. He turns out to be backed by a whole network with Peter Thiel + Restore links. Academic is hounded to death by ravenous UK press. Who, if anyone, will pay? bylinetimes.com/2026/08/18/t...
bylinetimes.com
The Peter Thiel-Linked Race Science Network that Penetrated Cambridge University and Targeted Jason Arday
The media's coverage of the academic's life was fuelled by the campaign of an established far-right network
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James Martin @jamesmart1n.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Excellent as per. Based on the pure numbers, I don’t see how OpenAI can escape alive. & Anthropic is only faring slightly better…
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Reposted by James Martin
Naomi Klein @naomiaklein.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
🧵I've been writing about communities taking on big heartless corporations for well over 30 years and I have never seen an issue bring together a coalition as wide, or as deep, as the battle against AI data centres. This quote from a Kentucky farmer who refused millions to sell her land says it all:
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James Martin @jamesmart1n.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Best news of the summer: electric car chargers are overloaded on French motorways. VINCI (which makes a lot of motorways) says demand is up +50%. And my adoptive country’s EV drivers aren’t even complaining as much as usual 💚 flip.it/eCJeEe
flip.it
"On perd tous un temps fou" : sur les aires d'autoroutes, les bornes de recharge prises d'assaut par les voitures électriques
La journée du samedi 15 août est classée rouge sur tout le pays, et noire en Auvergne Rhône-Alpes dans le sens des départs : jusqu'à 711 km de bouchons cumulés ont été enregistrés à midi. Aux traditio...
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James Martin @jamesmart1n.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
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James Martin @jamesmart1n.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
ChatGPT helps mentally ill people massacre their families. OpenAI will claim the AI couldn't tell it was role-playing. AI's tolls of similar deaths is now well over 20-30. Once again: just one death in any other sector would see the product banned. Why not here? www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...
nbcnews.com
Mass. teen charged with killing mother, brother after using ChatGPT to explore ‘fantasy stories’ of family’s deaths
The suspect used the “internet and ChatGPT to make searches for theoretical ideas or fantasy stories regarding the killing of his family,” the DA said.
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James Martin @jamesmart1n.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
The pic is of what Bezos is investing in one methane gas power station for a future AI data centre vs what he’s donating, with Leonardo Di Caprio, to save endangered species. Cc @ketanjoshi.co @sashamtl.bsky.social @robertkeus.bsky.social
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James Martin @jamesmart1n.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
AI is giving oil and gas a new lease of life, and the planet is paying the price: - 80+ new gas-powered data centres underway in US - 3-13x more emissions enabled by AI from oil and gas sector than total impact of all global data centres More in my latest blogpost: bettertech.blog/2026/08/12/a...
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James Martin @jamesmart1n.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
"The most overrated technology is always the latest one", says Thomas Bangalter (Daft Punk) in this fascinating interview, peppered with jabs at AI. "We tend to value more the most recent tech before even thinking 'is this going to make the world a better place?'" www.youtube.com/watch?t=6s&v...
youtube.com
Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter on Life After the Helmet | CHANEL Connects
YouTube video by CHANEL
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James Martin @jamesmart1n.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Amazon is behind a Texas gas plant that could be the US’ largest single source of emissions - 33m tonnes of CO2 - in order to power a future AI data centre. Just as Bezos announced a new fund to save animals, with Leonardo di Caprio. How does this make any sense?! www.distilled.earth/p/scoop-amaz...
distilled.earth
Scoop: Amazon Is Behind One of the Largest Planned Gas Power Plants in the US
The company confirmed to Cleanview that it acquired the GW Ranch site in West Texas, where a 7.65 GW gas plant will power its first off-grid AI data center
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James Martin @jamesmart1n.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Also testament to the bravery of whistleblowers like Frances Haugen, thanks to whom we've known for five years now that Meta knew Instagram use was depressing around 40% of its female teenage users, but did nothing. As with AI today, engagement is n°1 priority bettertech.blog/2021/11/05/t...
bettertech.blog
Tech’s n°1 critics are now its biggest stars
Tech is now bigger than ever. Despite – or thanks to? – the pandemic, the sector gathered over 42,000 people in Lisbon this week, for Web Summit, Europe’s largest tech event. Yes, it wa…
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