iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Michael Reilly @reillymj.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

AI could destroy jobs at a scale and speed never before seen: “that’s the cost of progress” AI could help people get more from the money they’ve managed to save: “OH CALAMITY! What are we to do?? WONT SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF THE BANKS?!?!”

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Adam Rogers @jetjocko.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

It's ironic, because this is super dumb.

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The Onion @theonion.com · 24/09/2026

Dog Can’t Believe Guy She Hooked Up With 10 Years Ago Now Head Of FBI theonion.com/dog-cant-believe-guy-s…

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David_j_roth @davidjroth.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

It's too depressing and obnoxious to write about, but virtually all of the doomy/horny AI hyperventilating is transparently displaced anxiety about our fucked climate and political situation. Even rich idiots know it's bad and being permitted to get worse. They're trying to write their own ending.

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AP Stylebook @apstylebook.com · 23/09/2026

Artificial intelligence systems do not think, feel, want or understand. Avoid language that gives them human characteristics.

apnews.com

https://apnews.com/article/openai-safety-ai-framework-089e75b95bc935af092da7b79d92706d

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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

@aoc.bsky.social just put out a great statement on AI. Refreshing to see a major politician on the left nail this. "Silicon Valley billionaires want us to believe that Al robots will destroy humanity. But the biggest threat to humanity are the tech oligarchs themselves." 🎯

Charles,

Last weekend, Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, one of the largest Al companies in the world, publicly asked his industry to slow down Al development.

Shortly after, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAl, followed suit. Then Elon Musk.

This all came days after an Anthropic researcher quit, citing his belief that this technology could wipe out humanity and that Al companies are "gambling with our lives."

For years, people have warned that generative Al could slip out of our direct control.

Those safety concerns must be taken seriously.

And this is why I have advocated for strict safety standards on how Al is built and deployed, public oversight over this technology, and using existing laws to hold these companies accountable when they cause harm.

But I want to draw your attention to another reality: Right now, the U.S. economy and our financial futures are riding on Silicon Valley's bet that Al will soon be immensely profitable and pay off. And that bet isn't looking good.

The formula for a profitable business isn't complicated: make more money than you spend. But the biggest Al companies aren't doing that. They are spending hundreds of billions per year on data centers, chips, and other costs while their ability to make revenues that exceed their already-immense sunk costs are unclear. Experts estimate that these Al companies will require another $600 billion of debt just to finance

themselves in 2026 alone. That is more than the entire budgets of the U.S. Departments of Justice, Transportation, & Education combined.
Meanwhile, despite almost every single one of these companies not turning a profit & having sunk billions of investor dollars in development of data centers & other infrastructure, Al companies are also on a spending spree of hundreds of millions of dollars in lobbying & dark money in our elections.
It would be one thing if we were discussing a few private companies with a poor business model. But last year, virtually all stock market gains - 80% - rested entirely on just a handful of Al companies.
That tells us two things:
1. Nearly the entire U.S. economy outside the Al industry is relatively stagnating and faring poorly & the gains from these few companies are disguising it; &
2. Millions of people's retirements - including their pensions, 401ks, & investments - are potentially exposed to this risk.
That's why these Al companies' dubious financial positions matter to working people.
These companies argue that debt is necessary. They'll tell you that building transformative technologies requires upfront capital, & that massive borrowing today will pay off in generating unprecedented prosperity tomorrow.
But this is not the typical debt that startups take on while they build out a company. We are talking about billions going on trillions of dollars leveraged with no indication that these companies will be able to recoup these funds profitably. And they are increasingly looking to the government as their source of cash.
In an effort to hide their debt, tech companies have been relying on "circular financing" where tech giants like Google, Amazon, & Microsoft give billions to Al startups like OpenAl & Anthropic, only for those startups to hand that money right back to buy Al processing power.
In other words, these Al companies are luring in new investors by making it look like their financials are healthier than they really are.

What's even worse is that retirement & pension funds are key to supporting this illusion.
When the Al companies issue bonds to raise more money, your pension funds & retirement accounts are some of the biggest buyers. When Musk's Al business went public, it became part of index funds where millions of Americans invest our savings. Many Americans don't even know that their retirement investments are tied up in these companies at all.
From Big Tech's perspective, that's a feature, not a bug. By tying our futures to their reckless gambling, Al billionaires are trying to make themselves too big to fail. They think they can take such dangerous risks because we will bail them out if things go wrong.
Sound familiar? This scene is dangerously reminiscent of the rampant speculation, corruption, & broken incentives leading up to the 2008 financial crisis that plunged millions of working class Americans into financial chaos that we never fully recovered from.
It is no accident that these warnings from Altman & Amodei come months-if not weeks-before these companies were meant to go public.
When companies go public, they have to be more transparent about how they are doing financially. And after a waiting period, they typically have to let private investors-like their own employees-sell their shares.
The New York Times recently confirmed that OpenAl has postponed going public for this very reason. They are in no rush for the truth about their finances to come out.
But the moment these oligarchs began to seek our public tax dollars & public contracts while exposing their companies to public pension funds & investments, they opened themselves to public accountability & scrutiny.
Silicon Valley billionaires have rigged the game & are attempting to shift their financial risk to working people: If they're right about Al's potential, they reap the profits. If they're wrong & the bubble bursts, they are setting up the American people to pick up the tab.
Heads, they win; tails, we lose.

We can stop this, and we shouldn't play their game. Together we can address both the economic and safety threats of unrestricted Al development and prevent financial chaos and stabilize market risk.

We must make it clear now that should the Al bubble pop, Congress should not bail out Big Tech.

And across our federal agencies, we have the authorities and tools to hold Al companies and their leaders accountable for releasing dangerous, unvetted, and defective products. We must not wait.

Silicon Valley billionaires want us to believe that Al robots will destroy humanity.

But the biggest threat to humanity are the tech oligarchs themselves.

It's time we hold them accountable.

Thank you for reading.

In solidarity,

Alexandria

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Michael Reilly @reillymj.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

so the reason AI might kill us all isn’t because it’s so powerful, but because it’s horrendously incompetent

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Spectrum News NY1 @spectrumnewsny1.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

The last speaker at the 9/11 remembrance ceremony lost his father to the attacks.

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Michael Reilly @reillymj.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

“Thought you’d heard the last of me, did you? Well think again!”—Clearview AI, in its best villain voice

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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

“Our AI is so powerful that we can barely control it and it will be the one to end humanity. Please invest in our company.” That’s how I read all these BS confessions about AIs hacking other companies.

washingtonpost.com

Meta says its AI model hacked another company during testing

The AI hacking disclosure is the third by a tech company in recent weeks, following similar security incidents with Anthropic and OpenAI models.

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Michael Reilly @reillymj.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

merch fever is out of control everywhere (eg, concerts) but the tech giants are turning into a grotesque art form. I dub thee merchusginaling, suitably unpalatable I think www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/t...

nytimes.com

If You Can’t Beat A.I., Outdress It, Tech Firms and Their Swag Say

Over the years, tech workers have proudly worn nerdy company-branded gear. But this generation of hot companies is getting fancy with its merch.

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Michael Reilly @reillymj.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

I know this makes me a dinosaur or whatever, but the problem I keep having with AI-created copy is I can't bring myself to read something that a human didn't bring themselves to write

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Michael Reilly @reillymj.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

“Some of the Bayer lobbyists have close ties to the Trump campaign and administration. Among them is Brian Ballard, who raised more than $50 million for Trump’s 2024 campaign” …well that explains this otherwise bafflingly inhumane decision www.nytimes.com/2026/03/08/c...

nytimes.com

A Trump Order Protected a Weedkiller. And Also a Weapon of War.

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Michael Reilly @reillymj.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

of late I have taken to locating the “j” “f” and “c” keys by looking for my keyboards three blank letters

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Randi Weingarten 🖇️📚✊🇺🇸 @rweingarten.bsky.social · 18/10/2025

It's official. Nearly 7 million people. Today is the single largest day of protest in American history. Americans from all corners of the country are standing up and saying #NoKings. This is what peaceful, patriotic protest looks like.

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Adam Rogers @jetjocko.bsky.social · 18/10/2025

“The Purdue student newspaper owns its own presses” is the sound of engines revving

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Maryn McKenna @marynmck.bsky.social · 11/10/2025

Extremely bad news if true (and unlikely this reporter would run with it if not). The MMWR has been the earliest warning bell for outbreaks since it announced the first US cases, in 1981, of what was later identified as AIDS. This will be a grievous shock to what remains of US public health.

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Michael Reilly @reillymj.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

All those folks who were like “pulling Colbert was just a business decision bc late night shows aren’t profitable; nothing to do with politics” still going with that argument?

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Amy Maxmen, PhD @amymaxmen.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

MMR vaccines do not cause autism (see my 🧵 of studies) At the same time, one potential cause of autism is rubella, which is *prevented* by MMR vaccines. Which means...vaccines may actually help prevent autism. 🧵 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21592401/

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Congenital rubella syndrome and autism spectrum disorder prevented by rubella vaccination--United States, 2001-2010 - PubMed

We estimate that rubella vaccination prevented substantial numbers of CRS and ASD cases in the United States from 2001 through 2010. These findings provide additional incentive to maintain high measle...

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Michael Reilly @reillymj.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

Very confusing sign on EPA building in DC today. Still allowed to go posting stuff like this in public??

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E. Rosalie @erosalie.infoepi.com · 13/09/2025

Mixed ideology actors are often lethal when they act, but they are dangerous for another reason: They allow anyone looking at them to identify them as whoever you don't like. And it is that belief which will only beget more violence.

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Michael Reilly @reillymj.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

waiting for the doc I am just tickled by this image of my own skull staring at me

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Michael Reilly @reillymj.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

Interesting and makes sense—cars with their windows rolled up are basically little greenhouses.

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Michael Reilly @reillymj.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

People who think of themselves as longtermists need to remember this. Technology is cool but chemistry is life.

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Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 25/07/2025

WU-TANG FOREVER 👐🏽

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Dave Lee @davelee.me · 24/07/2025

Reminds me of the time a slop factory rewrote an FT piece of my own but replaced words with synonyms throughout. "told the Financial Times" became "told Monetary Happenings"

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Michael Reilly @reillymj.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

Braaak stochastic parrot want more capital to buy GPU clusters braaak!

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Michael Reilly @reillymj.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

the level of heartlessness is just staggering

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The Onion @theonion.com · 01/07/2025

Tesla Robotaxi Keeps Changing Subject To White Genocide

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Zeke Hausfather @zekehausfather.com · 28/06/2025

The US is falling behind the curve on solar power – a key energy source of the 21st century. We are losing our edge to China on the technology that we originally invented. Now Senate republicans want to take out our solar industry at the knees in their "Big Beautiful Bill":

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Brandon Friedman @brandonfriedman.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

To be really clear: The reason members of Congress can't just walk right in is because of the guns. Armed DHS personnel won't allow entry. In other words, DHS is using armed force to *break* laws. Democrats need to wrap their minds around that. Accept that the frog is boiled.

New York Times: ICE Imposes New Rules on Congressional Visits

The policy specifies that ICE field offices are not subject to an existing federal law that allows members of Congress to make unannounced oversight visits to immigration facilities that “detain or otherwise house aliens.”

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Jon Keegan @jonkeegan.com · 14/05/2025

Humain (owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund) has trained and released its own LLM called “ALLAM” trained “from scratch” on Arabic and English text. When I asked ALLAM about Jamal Khashoggi it responded: “I'm sorry, but I can't discuss that topic.” sherwood.news/tech/billion...

sherwood.news

Billions from Nvidia’s “sovereign AI” deal with Saudi Arabia business could tamper effects of export controls

Nvidia will provide “several hundred thousand” GPUs to the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund company Humain. Analysts estimate the deal to...

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christogrozev.bsky.social @christogrozev.bsky.social · 10/05/2025

NBC reports that, shockingly, during his latest Moscow pilgrimage Witkoff met with Putin and his two negotiators alone and without his own interpreter, relying - in breach of protocol - on a locally present one www.nbcnews.com/world/russia.... However, this seems half the problem (1/n)

nbcnews.com

Trump envoy relied on Kremlin interpreter in meetings with Putin to end war in Ukraine

Using the Kremlin’s interpreter was “a very bad idea” that put Witkoff “at a real disadvantage,” Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia, told NBC News.

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Maximillian Alvarez @maximillianalvarez.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

Republican Governor @gregabbottx.bsky.social said Texas “wears the crown as the bitcoin mining capital of the world.” For @therealnews.com I've spoken to working-class residents in Granbury who live right next to a massive bitcoin mine & are paying the horrific price for Texas’s crypto boom...

‘Like being tortured’: Texas residents living next to bitcoin mine are getting sick and being ignored

by Maximillian Alvarez
May 7, 2025

Republican Governor Greg Abbott said Texas “wears the crown as the bitcoin mining capital of the world.” But in small towns like Granbury, working-class residents living next to giant data centers are the ones paying the price for Texas’s crypto boom

A bitcoin mine in Texas is “killing us slowly,” local residents say

After a 300-megawatt bitcoin mining operation came to Granbury, TX, residents started suffering from hypertension, heart palpitations, tinnitus, migraines, and more—and they say their concerns are going ignored by the company and government officials. It’s “environmental euthanasia,” one resident tells TRNN.

by Maximillian Alvarez
April 23, 2025

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Prof Ian Hall @ianhall.bsky.social · 10/05/2025

India-Pakistan conflict over water reflects a region increasingly vulnerable to climate change Weaponising water is a perilous strategy.... theconversation.com/india-pakist...

theconversation.com

India-Pakistan conflict over water reflects a region increasingly vulnerable to climate change

Water treaties should be rewritten to factor in climate change and new geopolitical realities.

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Faiz Siddiqui @faizsays.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

Without $595M in automotive regulatory credits, which other manufacturers buy off Tesla to comply with emissions requirements, Tesla would have posted a loss this quarter.

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Project Glitch @projectglitch.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

If the events of this weekend tell us anything, it's that it's going to be a seminal year in crypto policy, and we're delighted to kick off with PGP* for Crypto's Breakfast & Roundtable event in DC on Jan. 22 and a special panel on Tornado Cash, privacy, and DeFi. Sign up here: lu.ma/pgpforcrypto...

lu.ma

PGP* for Crypto Briefings and Roundtable Discussion · Luma

*** NEW for 2025: Project Glitch joins PGP *** *** with an additional curated session. *** You're invited to a gathering for policy…

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Hildur Knútsdóttir @hildur.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

Yesterday I got to lay eyes on the one and only Codex Regius Poetic Edda. This little book is by far the most valuable book in Iceland, and arguably for the whole of Northern Europe. It was written during the 1270s and it is the sole source of so much that we know about Norse Mythology.

A brown old vellum book in a colden cabinet

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Hildur Knútsdóttir @hildur.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

Well, finding parking at the Blue Lagoon just became a lot harder.

Lava flowing over the parking lot at The Blue Lagoon

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Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

In the New York Times' lawsuit against OpenAI, NYT lawyers spent 150 hours combing through OAI's training data. OpenAI engineers *erased it* and admitted to erasing it. Had to be pretty incriminating. The NYT is now unable to get that data back. This should be a serious scandal.

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