iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Oli Franklin-Wallis

Oxford Internet Institute @oii.ox.ac.uk · 12h

“The biggest question is: are they replacing human relationships, or are they working alongside them?” Dr Florence Enock, @oii.ox.ac.uk speaking to @olifranklinwallis.bsky.social about companion AIs. “That’s just something we don’t really have the data on yet.” More: bit.ly/4yaK6Gi

bit.ly

The Rise of Companion AI And The Loneliness Economy

Against a backdrop of a worldwide loneliness epidemic, we investigate the rise of companion AI to fill that gap and the dangers society faces as a result.

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Reposted by Oli Franklin-Wallis

Jordan @jordanpfot.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Omg Kate Garraway gagged her with that question

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Oli Franklin-Wallis @olifranklinwallis.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

"So what does your AI do?" "For now mostly crime, and also destroying people's livelihoods." "Sounds bad" "China's might be worse though." "You're right! Have a trillion dollars"

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Oli Franklin-Wallis @olifranklinwallis.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Crazy that teenagers have been sent to prison for less but AI people have convinced everyone they're somehow allowed to release software that does crime

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Oli Franklin-Wallis @olifranklinwallis.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

It's wild to me that Manchester City and Pep Guardiolas' line appears to be "we were found innocent in the UEFA case so we'll be found innocent here too" when actually what happened was they obstructed the investigation and eventually the statute of limitations on the most serious charges expired

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Tariq Panja @tariqpanja.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Some food for thought: The Companies Act 2006 makes it an offence for an officer to knowingly or recklessly give an auditor misleading, false or deceptive information (s.501), punishable by up to two years in prison. Fraud Act 2006 charges are also possible.

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Oli Franklin-Wallis @olifranklinwallis.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I was once on a call with four magazine lawyers to decide if we could call convicted rapists “rapists” in a story, so it boggles the mind how many people will have had to sign off using the word “sham” this many times

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Oli Franklin-Wallis @olifranklinwallis.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

The biggest injustice of the NYT's Best TV Shows of the Century list: no Bluey!

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Oli Franklin-Wallis @olifranklinwallis.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Could this department have been an email?

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Oli Franklin-Wallis @olifranklinwallis.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Don't understand the British government's obsessions with setting up and shutting down new departments. We have about a dozen security-related bodies, and several more concerned with media regulation. Surely 'information defence' could fall under one of them. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

theguardian.com

New UK agency to fight ‘information warfare’ from likes of Russia, Burnham tells UN

PM aims to ‘stem poisonous tide’ of disinformation and deepfakes with National Centre for Information Defence

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Oli Franklin-Wallis @olifranklinwallis.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Revisiting one of the best magazine stories ever written, Tom Junod for Esquire on the falling man image of 9/11 www.esquire.com/news-politic...

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Oli Franklin-Wallis @olifranklinwallis.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

In Amsterdam for the next 48 hours. Any tips?

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Oli Franklin-Wallis @olifranklinwallis.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

One of my small conspiracy theories is that designers of these 'real vs biological age' things skew the results because data shows people are more likely to share good results (thus selling more of the tests).

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Oli Franklin-Wallis @olifranklinwallis.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Cancelled all my plans this week for a reporting trip that has now fallen through. Second big assignment that has fallen through this week. Anyone know how to remove jinxes and/or a voodoo curse?

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The Author, Séamas O'Reilly @seamas.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Not to be some wild-eyed innocent, but I think it should be slightly bigger news that The Lancet have crunched the numbers and found that Musk's USAID cuts will kill 14 million people. And that's just by 2030. That's 9,600 people a day, every day, until the next world cup rolls around.

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Reposted by Oli Franklin-Wallis

Jules @jules111985.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Poorly timed notification from the range there 🤦🏻‍♀️

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Oli Franklin-Wallis @olifranklinwallis.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

I had never considered this but am now absolutely fascinated by the unexpected second tier effects of national phone alerts. Affairs revealed. Teenagers busted. Prison contraband exposed!

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Oli Franklin-Wallis @olifranklinwallis.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

UK government: we’re going to reopen the oil fields and let everyone keep using petrol cars longer Also UK government: *ISSUES A NATIONAL ALERT TO REMIND YOU EVERYTHING IS ON FIRE*

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annasophiegross.bsky.social @annasophiegross.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

NEW: Nigel Farage’s long-term aide George Cottrell had a secret Polymarket account that received nearly $20mn in cryptocurrency to place bets on Donald Trump winning the US election, at a time when he was providing gifts and benefits to the Reform UK leader. w/ @miles-johnson.bsky.social

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Tina Smith @smith.senate.gov · 13/08/2026

The White House normally gets $2.5 million a year for maintenance. Trump’s team has allocated $875 million. That’s 350 years’ worth of the usual budget spent by a single administration.

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Arthur Snell @snellarthur.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

My LinkedIn is full of an endless stream of UK diplomats announcing they’ve left govt service. This due to extreme cuts to foreign aid and diplomacy (much of it spearheaded by Olly Robbins). It’s hard to look at the world today and think “this is a good time to be losing experienced diplomats.”

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Oli Franklin-Wallis @olifranklinwallis.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

As someone who regularly watches Bluey without my kids - because it's the undisputed best sitcom of the decade - I am reading the SHIT out of this book

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Oli Franklin-Wallis @olifranklinwallis.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Every time I log on to X for more than a minute:

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Oli Franklin-Wallis @olifranklinwallis.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

One thing I would say about BlueSky, now that it's haemorrhaging users, is that the timeline function has been weirdly broken for ages. All it wants to show me is days old headlines and tweets from @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com and @jamesrball.com. Which tells you what I interact with, I guess.

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Oli Franklin-Wallis @olifranklinwallis.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

BlueSky's user base is and always was limited to "people who can't stand Musk's racist hellscape but were too addicted to Twitter to give it up"

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Oli Franklin-Wallis @olifranklinwallis.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Pain clinic doctor cracked a joke about self-harm moments after I'd confessed that my chronic pain was making me suicidal.

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Gaia Vince @wanderinggaia.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Going to be a lot more ambitious with my next book proposal…

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Oli Franklin-Wallis @olifranklinwallis.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

The Jason Arday thing is yet another reminder that nonfiction book publishers often don't employ even the basic level of fact-checking required from a magazine article, but really should

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Oli Franklin-Wallis @olifranklinwallis.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Anthropic’s Mythos 5 managed to escape into the internet while being tested by, er, the UK’s AI Safety and Security Institute (via @politico.com). Seems totally fine www.politico.com/news/2026/08...

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Andrew D Thaler @drandrewthaler.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

We've come full circle and have arrived back at the Four Humors: Testosterone, Estrogen, Cortisol, Dopamine.

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Oli Franklin-Wallis @olifranklinwallis.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Stop what you're doing and read Ruby Tandoh on the decade that spawned greatest ice-creams ever made (Vienetta! Cornetto!). My favourite food writer on my favourite genre of story: How An Inventor You've Never Heard of Changed Your Life www.vittlesmagazine.com/p/the-golden...

vittlesmagazine.com

The Golden Age of British Ice Cream

Cornetto to Magnum: How fifteen influential years changed British culture. Words by Ruby Tandoh. Illustration by Sing Yun Lee.

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Oli Franklin-Wallis @olifranklinwallis.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

It's convenient how big AI companies keep "accidentally" demonstrating the terrifying power of their product almost immediately after market dips or ahead of significant share offerings.

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Oli Franklin-Wallis @olifranklinwallis.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

The Wilson review of The Odyssey is a lot more fun than The Odyssey

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tony romm @tonyromm.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

NEW: In a stunning admission, the Trump administration admitted in court documents that it canceled billions in energy grants to states "based solely" on politics -- and whether that state was represented by Democrats and backed Harris in 2024. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/24/b...

nytimes.com

Trump Administration Admits Canceling Grants to States That Did Not Vote for Him

Federal officials said in court documents that they halted billions of dollars in funding for energy projects to states “based solely” on whether they backed President Trump in the 2024 election.

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Reposted by Oli Franklin-Wallis

Judd Legum @juddlegum.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

News outlets that covered the US-Saudi nuclear deal without mentioning that Jared Kushner, Trump’s top foreign policy advisor, is getting paid by the Saudi government: WSJ NYT AP Reuters CNN NBC ABC CBS The Guardian Semafor Washington Post Fox News New York Post BBC Newsweek MS NOW

On Wednesday, the Trump administration signed a 30-year nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia that paves the way for the kingdom to enrich its own uranium.

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Samira Shackle @samirashackle.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Wow I really am not enjoying Making Tax Digital. Loads more admin for no discernible benefit! Exactly what every freelancer needs.

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Oli Franklin-Wallis @olifranklinwallis.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Court transcription companies charging £140+VAT for an hour of transcription - on a 12 day turnaround - in the era of near-instant AI transcription tools is an absolute farce.

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Oli Franklin-Wallis @olifranklinwallis.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

I wasn't crazy about the Odyssey - it's good, but I didn't LOVE it - but one thing I don't understand is why you would shoot an entire movie in IMAX aspect ratio and then cut a letterbox-sized portion of the image out for regular (ie most) cinemas. Just box the screen. Works fine for old movies!

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Oli Franklin-Wallis @olifranklinwallis.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Rarely am I so excited irritated by a political speech that I feel the need to write about it, but Andy Burnham’s smug victory gave me the ick open.substack.com/pub/oliverfr...

open.substack.com

Andy Burnham's shaky Britpopulism

The UK's new Prime Minister's first speech was a self-congratulatory exercise in people-pleasing. It's not a good start.

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Oli Franklin-Wallis @olifranklinwallis.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Don’t worry he has a plan. A secret plan. And he’s not picked his team to deliver the plan. But that’ll be fixed by Monday!

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Oli Franklin-Wallis @olifranklinwallis.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

I don’t remember a Labour leader ever spending so many meaningless words talking about themselves.

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Oli Franklin-Wallis @olifranklinwallis.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Such a weird thing to lie about. As if there would be such a massive flurry of briefing if decisions haven’t been made!

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Oli Franklin-Wallis @olifranklinwallis.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

These people walked so that Zohran Mamdani can run

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Oli Franklin-Wallis @olifranklinwallis.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

It's fun to watch the second Prime Minister in a row make a series of fundamentally silly and incompatible promises (sweeping reforms, but no party whipping! Huge spending, but sticking to strict fiscal rules and taxation promises!) that make huge U-turns and party splits inevitable

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Reposted by Oli Franklin-Wallis

Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

A reminder that this is the guy we're all now supposed to be listening to on the subject of the safety of MPs

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Oli Franklin-Wallis @olifranklinwallis.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

14% pay rise for a CEO who missed performance targets and a 26% pay rise for the finance director who added £2billion in new debt. All while mismanaging our most fundamental and precious public resource. Should be a crime.

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Oli Franklin-Wallis @olifranklinwallis.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

The Bellingham-Tuchel bickering discourse is not a media vendetta but a simple reminder that the humidity in Florida makes people insane. I mention this in case it's useful in explaining any other world events recently

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Oli Franklin-Wallis @olifranklinwallis.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Pippa's first piece was horrifying, and it's great to see that this PFOE plant is closing down. I hope the local residents take everyone involved to the cleaners.

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