iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Chris Stokel-Walker @stokel.bsky.social · 8h

Are we ok with companies' policies not seeming to match their required responsibilities to customers unless you press? After the last customer rep hung up on our online chat, I got a request for feedback because Amazon wants to build "Earth's most customer-centric company" 🤣

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Chris Stokel-Walker @stokel.bsky.social · 8h

- Spend another £100+ on buying another, which is no longer on sale and therefore about 20% more expensive, then arrange collection and a refund - Just get the refund and not what I purchased - Keep a garden bench inside a relatively small flat that I don't want all while being nearly £100 worse off

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Chris Stokel-Walker @stokel.bsky.social · 8h

Amazon's press office has been contacted for comment, and have speedily responded, saying that they're getting an executive customer service team to sort (which I hope they will), but if I didn't have that lever to pull then the options presented to me as a customer were...

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Chris Stokel-Walker @stokel.bsky.social · 8h

Each one has unilaterally ended a conversation with me via online chat or on the phone without the issue being resolved, or questions (like why they're unwilling to adhere to consumer law, or why they need my ID to do process anything) unanswered

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Chris Stokel-Walker @stokel.bsky.social · 8h

I ordered a running pad off Amazon as part of their Prime Day sales earlier this week and it arrived today (I thought). Except... it's a bench. Since then, Amazon customer service reps have told me three times they're unable to meet consumer rights legislation in the UK...

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Chris Stokel-Walker @stokel.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

A lot of debate around data centres' power use focuses on trying to produce better, more efficient hardware. But what about the software side of things? My latest for @tomshardware.com www.tomshardware.com/tech-industr...

tomshardware.com

Software could be the easiest fix for hyperscalers' AI power squeeze, researchers say — data center demand is expected to rival Japan's electricity usage by 2030

Squeezing every ounce of performance per-watt

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Chris Stokel-Walker @stokel.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

One potential way to keep planes in the air that's being tested is by firing lasers at them - my latest for Professional Engineering www.imeche.org/news/news-ar...

imeche.org

Shooting planes with lasers could help them stay in the air

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Chris Stokel-Walker @stokel.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

London's Deep Tech Summit lands this week - but what is it and how could it change our lives? My latest for The London Standard www.standard.co.uk/news/tech/de...

standard.co.uk

The London summit taking tech far deeper than simply AI

Science is booming beyond ChatGPT and the UK is a leader. Chris Stokel-Walker prepares for Deep Tech London

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Chris Stokel-Walker @stokel.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

We've seen a lot of stories about AI agents breaking out of their surroundings - but of even more concern is the ability for AI models to delete their own traces, making investigating them harder. My latest for @fastcompany.com www.fastcompany.com/91617608/ai-...

fastcompany.com

AI agents can now erase the evidence of what they’ve done

New research finds that popular AI agents can alter or delete their own activity logs, making it much harder to figure out what happened when something goes wrong.

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Reposted by Chris Stokel-Walker

Fast Company @fastcompany.com · 01/10/2026

Elite knowledge workers are part of a new and fast-growing white-collar gig workforce—where they use industry expertise to probe the most advanced AI models, find where they fail, and teach them to perform better. In doing so, some fear these workers may end up making themselves obsolete ⬇️

bit.ly

The smartest people in the world are automating themselves into obsolescence—and loving it

Elite knowledge workers explain how training AI models for the likes of Turing and Mercor is the most exciting intellectual challenge of their careers, even if they succeed in teaching their AI studen...

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Chris Stokel-Walker @stokel.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Google is flinging a satellite into orbit today as part of first tests of a grand plan to have data centres in space. It's something people poked fun at Elon Musk for proposing just a few months ago. My latest for @fastcompany.com www.fastcompany.com/91616771/goo...

fastcompany.com

Google is taking Elon Musk’s space data center idea seriously

Project Suncatcher is sending AI hardware into orbit. The technical hurdles are enormous, but researchers say the economics may eventually make sense.

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Chris Stokel-Walker @stokel.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

AI training companies aren't looking for low-paid workers to do mundane tasks anymore. They're targeting doctors, lawyers and other professionals to tune up AI knowledge - and demand is outstripping supply. My feature from the latest print @fastcompany.com www.fastcompany.com/91587919/tur...

fastcompany.com

The smartest people in the world are automating themselves into obsolescence—and loving it

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Chris Stokel-Walker @stokel.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

The new US AI chatbot is... actually not bad? Though it doesn't address the issue at the heart of the problem, which is government digital services in the US aren't great. My latest for @fastcompany.com www.fastcompany.com/91615011/tru...

fastcompany.com

Trump’s new AI chatbot is surprisingly good. But it doesn’t fix government

America.gov can help users navigate federal websites and find services. The harder problem is making those services themselves easier to use.

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Chris Stokel-Walker @stokel.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Our lives are increasingly lived online and in a digital world - so how do we preserve human decency? I had the pleasure of talking to Francine Berman for @nature.com about her new book www.nature.com/articles/d41...

nature.com

How to put people first in cyberspace

Digital technologies increasingly shape everyday life. Computer scientist Francine Berman tells Nature that stronger safeguards are required to protect the public interest.

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Chris Stokel-Walker @stokel.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

The idea to write a global code on AI is great but Andy Burnham should ask the EU how its attempt to draw up a set of international guidelines went

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Chris Stokel-Walker @stokel.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

A raft of recent lawsuits seems to indicate we're heading towards a new legal approach to AI systems that try to nail them on product defectiveness. My latest for @fastcompany.com on what's going on www.fastcompany.com/91613370/can...

fastcompany.com

AI’s next big legal battle is over product liability

A growing number of lawsuits argue that chatbot makers should be held responsible not just for their outputs, but for how their products are designed.

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Chris Stokel-Walker @stokel.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

How do you keep an aqueduct supplyin water to customers while undertaking a once-in-a-generation engineering job to bring it bang up to date? My latest for IMechE's Professional Engineering www.imeche.org/news/news-ar...

imeche.org

Modern techniques to keep water flowing during ‘once-in-a-generation’ aqueduct renovation

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Chris Stokel-Walker @stokel.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

journalism wouldn't exist if people didn't pay for it

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Chris Stokel-Walker @stokel.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

The UK is seeking proposals for how to develop batteries that run 100 hours - so how can it be done? My latest for Professional Engineering www.imeche.org/news/news-ar...

imeche.org

The UK needs a battery that can run for 100 hours. It won’t be easy

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Chris Stokel-Walker @stokel.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

After all the news of AI breaking its boundaries, do we need better, dedicated accident investigators? My latest for @fastcompany.com includes a major announcement on a new initiative www.fastcompany.com/91609706/ai-...

fastcompany.com

AI needs its own accident investigators

As models act more autonomously, a growing group of researchers wants independent experts to investigate when they go off the rails.

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Chris Stokel-Walker @stokel.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Best bit is I basically exclusively travel through Schiphol (yay for living in a place where you have to go to a hub) and they have different procedures *every time* I travel through

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Chris Stokel-Walker @stokel.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

My social listening AI bot woke up and chose violence this morning

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Chris Stokel-Walker @stokel.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Missed this one from last week but my latest for Business Traveller looks at the chaos the EES has caused www.businesstraveller.com/news/opinion...

businesstraveller.com

Opinion: Six Months in, the EU's Entry/Exit System Isn't Working

How Europe’s Entry/Exit System broke the business trip

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Chris Stokel-Walker @stokel.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

the one time I'm happy to be preemptively blocked by someone on social media

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Chris Stokel-Walker @stokel.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

did it a few days ago (and currently travelling home now)!

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Chris Stokel-Walker @stokel.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Hello from 11am in Japan. I haven't heard of it but it sounds like it could be a thing!

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Chris Stokel-Walker @stokel.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Was super to talk to some of AI's biggest names and to profile a dozen of the 100 who made the list. Read more of my pieces, and all the entries, here! time.com/collection/t...

time.com

The 100 Most Influential People in AI 2026

Meet the innovators, leaders, and thinkers reshaping our world through advances in artificial intelligence

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