iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Michael Reilly

Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

It's important to remember that the AI doom scenario assumes not only that intelligence is a single well-defined thing, but also that intelligence solves literally every single problem, and that in every conflict overwhelming intelligence always wins. This is just not how anything works.

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A secret third thing @secretthirdthing.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

"chatGPT thinks I am a genuis" is just the modern version of "I think this stripper is in love with me"

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Anil Dash @anildash.com · 05/10/2026

I can’t emphasize this enough — “AI” wasn’t born corrupt and toxic. For ~75 years, it was mathematicians and scientists doing interesting, thoughtful work and trying to solve problems, making only the usual human mistakes. What “AI” did to machine learning is as tragic as what it did to artists.

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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 would genuinely love to be shown some writing that someone found to be a source of real joy and reading pleasure that was made exclusively using an LLM

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

which screams “everyone hates reading so let’s just get this whole ‘information transfer’ thing over with”

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

also AI loves bullet points and regimented lists

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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 · 22/07/2026

the species that brought you “trapping excessive solar energy in the atmosphere” is back with the sequel: beaming solar energy onto the planet’s dark side!

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

use a special color for the degens who haven’t put their napkins on their laps.

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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 · 28/08/2025

that’s a hell of an Argument

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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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