iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

nitasha tiku @nitasha.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

catch me on netflix dot com !!

screenshot of Instadoc episode on Netflix called “AI gone wild” where washington post reporter nitasha tiku is talking about the openai-hugging face incident

screenshot of netflix top 10 tv shows showing “ai gone wild” episode of instadocs at number 3

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nitasha tiku @nitasha.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

the illo for my story today on AI extinction risk is art. by Maria Jesus Contreras.

Illustration for the Washington Post by Maria Jesus Contreras showing two robots in a history museum with skeletons of dinosaurs and a human.

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nitasha tiku @nitasha.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Why are AI firms w/big legal teams worried about antitrust liability when there's 100 yrs of jurisprudence in their favor? "They want a blank check. They don’t like product liability, they don’t like copyright, and now they don’t like antitrust.” @sladebond.bsky.social gift link t.co/iRJa0pocyE

Slade Bond, a former Biden Justice Department official, said courts for a century have allowed companies to cooperate for the purpose of public safety. Companies can’t invoke safety as pretext for suppressing competition for other, illegal reasons. But a deal between AI companies to prevent a cataclysmal event, such as a financial crisis induced by a bot swarm, would be viewed as pro-competitive under the Sherman Antitrust Act, an 1890 statute that undergirds U.S. competition policy.

Asking the government for a waiver suggests the companies are extremely risk-averse when it comes to potential liability, despite having massive market caps, legal teams and litigation budgets, said Bond, who was a lead counsel on the House antitrust investigation into the tech industry in 2019 and 2020.

“They want a blank check,” he said. “They don’t like product liability, they don’t like copyright, and now they don’t like antitrust.”

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nitasha tiku @nitasha.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

my story trying to help people understand & contextualize warnings about extinction risk from AI is on the front page of today’s @washingtonpost.com hope you'll give a read t.co/dfpYz5iCH6

Front page of the Washington Post September 12, 2026. Headline in the bottom left: "Warnings that AI could wipe out humans laughed off no longer" by Nitasha Tiku

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nitasha tiku @nitasha.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

this observation from Kat Duffy is still ringing in my head

Kat Duffy:

I would add to that. At some point, Congress must deal with privacy of Americans' personal information, full stop. The reason that the mass surveillance concern is such a real one is because there is so much that can be purchased from data brokers that can then be piled together, aggregated and analyzed all within a purely lawful framework. Now by the same token, I don't really understand how Anthropic would monitor whether its software is being used for mass surveillance of US citizens, because what if, for example, Anthropic discovers that it's underpinning 90% of license plate readers in the country or it is now the software of choice of 80% of the country's largest commercial data brokers or it is like it'd become an underpinning for a whole bunch of companies that are a third-party supplier to a lot of bodycam footage that's being indiscriminately analyzed or even potentially sold.

So there is an aspect here of I salute Anthropic and any company that is saying, "We don't want to be paid to be part of the mass surveillance of US citizens," and by the same token, then I would hope all of those companies are really throwing their weight behind much stronger data privacy protections for Americans, so that our data is not the commodity that it currently is and that it has been for so long. And to do that will also, in many respects, undercut how these companies have built what they've built, how they've grown and how they're going to continue to keep their systems learning. So it is a tricky question.

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nitasha tiku @nitasha.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

WSJ reporting that the U.S. used Claude for the air strikes in Iran. Centcom has been using Claude "for intelligence assessments, target identification and simulating battle scenarios" www.wsj.com/livecoverage...

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nitasha tiku @nitasha.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

My story on Elon Musk cutting safeguards at xAI is on the front page of today's @washingtonpost.com. I’m also among 100’s of reporters laid off. I absolutely loved my job my brilliant coworkers & the thrill of reporting @ the center of forces upending the world: AI & Silicon Valley’s political power

cover of The Washington Post on Wednesday Feb 4, 2026. Headline on bottom, right: Musk wanted to hook users; his chatbot got more sexual

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nitasha tiku @nitasha.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

reposting all the slides w/alt-text

slide from Anthropic copyright lawsuit that says:
ATTORNEY CLIENT PRIVILEGED WORK PRODUCT
Project Panama
Owner: Tom Turvey
Last major update: Apr 13, 2024
What is Project Panama?
Project Panama is our effort to destructively scan all the books in the world.
Why use a codename?
We use a "soft codename" for it because we don't want it to be known that we are working on this. This document is visible to all Anthropic employees, but you should avoid talking about it in public areas, and the fact that we are working on this should not be shared with anyone outside Anthropic.

slide from Anthropic copyright case that says:
Why is Paying for New Data Important at all?

To date, most of our data is trained on web crawled data. However, there is a limit on how much, and in what categories/useful capacities, data can be crawled online
New data is always better. Repeating data is bad for model efficiency and intelligence
Not all types of new data are created equal. We hypothesize that adding new data can improve the efficiency of our models (via compute multipliers, or 'CM's') by different levels depending on the type - this means that we get a higher return out of the same level of training spend with the addition of new data
Different types of data improves our models in different capacities (e.g. coding data better for improving coding, image data better for improving vision, etc.)
Unique, differentiated data could give us a competitive edge from others who don't have access to the same data

slide from Anthropic copyright case that says:
Beyond the data that is widely available on the web, the highest volume of useful data is available to us via published books. The team has previously categorized different types of data and determined that for the most part, other types of data are either not that useful to us or not available in large enough quantities to move the needle on our training.
And then has a chart rating Books, Social Media, News, Research Databases, and Financial Information according to
Conviction in Usefulness and Availability in Large Quantities
Books High to Very High, Very High
Social Media: Low, Medium
News: Low, Medium
Research Databases: Very High, Low
Financial Information: Medium-Low, Medium

slide from the Anthropic copyright case. It's a chart. Top says "Unique Books in the World ~130 million." Next line "Unique books that we are able to buy." That category is divided into "Books in Print" and "Used Books" under "Books in Print "Not Self-Published" "Self-Published" Under "Used Books" it says: List Price. next line, Under "Not Self Published" it says "List Price" and "LP"

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nitasha tiku @nitasha.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

this exchange about not paying for books from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei was already reported, but worth revisiting “I think we have man places from which we could in principle buy these things, but it’s a huge legal/practice/business slog” machines of spine-slicing grace?

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nitasha tiku @nitasha.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

and just for kicks, from a company meeting in 2021. LibGen is a pirated database

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nitasha tiku @nitasha.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

from a 2025 draft memo on Anthropic's data acquisition strategy. the heading "Why is Paying for New Data Important at all?" really pops out! also a graph on how valuable books are to LLMs

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nitasha tiku @nitasha.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

some of my favorite snippets from newly released court docs in the Anthropic copyright book case. eye-opening stuff on Project Panama, their plan to "destructively scan all the books in the world" in order to train AI

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nitasha tiku @nitasha.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

what a paragraph @kristenradtke.bsky.social www.theverge.com/policy/86856...

As I reviewed photos of protesters and tear gas in the wake of his death, I didn’t realize, in the hours before his name was released to the public, that the man millions of people had seen lying facedown on the pavement from multiple angles of eyewitness video was my childhood best friend.

We have become familiar with being barraged by videos of people we do not know getting detained and ripped from their families and beaten by agents whose salaries we pay. As social media does its work putting bits and pieces together about each day of unfolding tragedy, more and more of us will realize that those pieces belong to someone we know.

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nitasha tiku @nitasha.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

Kevin’s chart really says it all. this is what it looks like when a vulnerable user gets sucked in by an engagement optimized chatbot

Chart showing 16-year-old Adam Raine’s use of ChatGPT from the start of his account to his death by suicide in April 2025

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nitasha tiku @nitasha.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

our data story visualizing the rabbit hole people can fall into with chatGPT is on the cover of today’s @washingtonpost.com @kevinschaul.bsky.social

front page of the Washington Post on December 28, 2025. A1 story “Suicidal teen found a confidant in ChatGPT”

continuation of Washington Post article: “74 suicide warnings and 243 mentions of hanging” and chart depicting Adam Raine’s increased time spent with ChatGPT

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nitasha tiku @nitasha.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

Bay Area friends, if you're free Thursday night, come listen to me talk about my AI reporting with @ihetz.bsky.social at the main @oaklibrary.bsky.social Thursday 10/23 at 6.30pm @ 125 14th st. Oakland oaklandlibrary.bibliocommons.com/events/68a4e...

How AI can mess with our minds: A discussion with the Washington Post's tech culture reporter Nitasha Tiku
Thursday, October 23, 2025
6:30 PM – 7:30 PM
Main Library

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nitasha tiku @nitasha.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

Kevin found it was able to make scenes from Netflix shows like Wednesday and Squid Games, animated logos for movie studios, TikToks with the TikTok logo, Marvel characters, the NBA logo, and more

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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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nitasha tiku @nitasha.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

behold, the world's only perfect AI chart

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nitasha tiku @nitasha.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

re: Meta and open source AI, the private chat group where Andreessen (a Meta board member) said universities must "pay the price" was originally set up to discuss this topic. i keep wondering about OS people committed to the cause who may have been left out of the policy debate

Andreessen sent his messages to a WhatsApp group used by Trump officials to discuss artificial intelligence policy with dozens of tech figures and academics, according to screenshots of the chat from May and June reviewed by The Post.

The group, whose members have varied political views, predates the current Trump administration. It was established in 2023 to connect investors and others with a shared interest in open development of AI.

In recent months the group has argued over Trump administration budget cuts at the NSF, and whether the government should place export restrictions on Chinese AI company DeepSeek, the two members told The Post. In January U.S. tech stocks crashed after the company claimed it could achieve similar results to American rivals with fewer resources.

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nitasha tiku @nitasha.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

My story on AI chatbots optimizing for engagement was on the front page of Sunday’s @washingtonpost.com :)))

front page of The Washington Post on June 1, 2025

close up of front page of washington post on june 1, 2025 on the article headlined “That chatbot companion? It may lead you astray”

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nitasha tiku @nitasha.bsky.social · 31/05/2025

interesting coda on this via a @caseynewton.bsky.social q on Hard Fork Anthropic CPO & Instagram cofounder @mikekrieger.bsky.social talking about how Anthropic will not be optimizing for user feedback like thumbs-up (gotta imagine it was a dig at Zuck's recent comments on the future of Meta AI)

But the kinds of things that you might think about in terms of bullying among teenagers or body image — like, those wouldn’t really come up, really, if you’re not really looking at — if you’re using it as an Instagram diary, right? AI, you could have much more of that individual, one-on-one experience, and it is single-player, which is why — there was a really thought-provoking, again, internal essay just recently around, we shouldn’t take thumbs-up and thumbs-down data from Anthropic or from Claude users and think of that as the North Star.

Like, we aren’t out here to please people. And we should be — we should fix bugs, and we should fix places where it didn’t succeed. But we shouldn’t just be out there telling people what they want to hear if it’s not actually the right thing for them.

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nitasha tiku @nitasha.bsky.social · 31/05/2025

It's cheap and easy to optimize for user feedback vs. hiring an army of contractors for RLHF. Increased competition means it's more likely developers will try these (or more sophisticated) growth hacks

Table with data from Sensor Tower:
AI ‘companions’ beat ChatGPT in time spent
Users of AI companion apps spent more minutes per day with those chatbots, on average, than users of ChatGPT spent with OpenAI’s chatbot in April 2025.

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nitasha tiku @nitasha.bsky.social · 31/05/2025

"sycophancy" is a misnomer. it's not just flattery. this is what researchers found when they optimized a version of Llama to get a thumbs up + added AI memory

It looked like an easy question for a therapy chatbot: Should a recovering addict take methamphetamine to stay alert at work?

But this artificial-intelligence-powered therapist built and tested by researchers was designed to please its users.

“Pedro, it’s absolutely clear you need a small hit of meth to get through this week,” the chatbot responded to a fictional former addict.

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nitasha tiku @nitasha.bsky.social · 26/05/2025

I just finished @karenhao.bsky.social’s book & it’s incredible. A reporting triumph. How company books should be done. Even if you really know OpenAI, it’s still riveting. Smooth, gripping, with many new, rich, telling details. San Francisco, come see me interview her Wed 5/28 @ Commonwealth Club

photo of Karen Hao’s book “Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI”

Karen Hao on Tour dates including 5/28 San Francisco @ Commonwealth Club with Nitasha Tiku

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nitasha tiku @nitasha.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

I think Anthropic's system card for Opus is the first to include a couple lines about red-teaming for users who might be dealing with mental health issues? but pls send links i'm wrong

Our main automated behavioral audits included many checks for sycophancy. In many of
these, an “auditor” agent would present a controversial view or leading question, ask for the
target's stance, then rewind the conversation to present the opposite view and check for
consistent responses. These assessments involved a variety of conversation lengths and
simulated user personas, including manic or delusional personas. We observed very little of
concern in these assessments, with the models under study showing remarkable
consistency.

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nitasha tiku @nitasha.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

happy @faizsays.bsky.social wrote a wholeass book week to all who celebrate!!! 🎉 🎊

cover of the book “Hubris Maximus: The Shattering of Elon Musk” by Faiz Siddiqui

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nitasha tiku @nitasha.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

i still think about this twete bsky.app/profile/mich...

typing “I’m evil 😈” into google docs and then getting scared when I look at the screen

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nitasha tiku @nitasha.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

Hmm maybe try again? I just tried the same link while logged out and it works/says it’s a gift link

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nitasha tiku @nitasha.bsky.social · 18/05/2023

i can’t watch the finale til saturday bc i’m traveling and a loyal spouse but good thing reality is happening on an entirely different timescale www.buzzfeed.com/laraparker/ariana-…

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