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John Schanck

@susurrusus.bsky.social
213 followers 192 following 24 posts

cryptography and other things computers are bad at. did some pqc stuff. now i work on a browser. he/him. pdx.

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Reposted by John Schanck
Molly White @molly.wiki · 05/09/2026
Huge congratulations to the US-based Wikimedia Foundation employees who voted with 92% support in favor of unionizing, and shoutout to the tireless work of the organizers.
wikiworkersunited.org
Wikimedia Foundation Workers Overwhelmingly Vote to Form Union with CWA
U.S. workers form first recognized unit as global union movement builds across Wikimedia Foundation
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hannah gais @hannahgais.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Hampshire College started with a grand promise: to serve as "a vehicle for the realization of self in society." This fall, the school will close its doors. I talked to some of its founders, faculty, students, administrators, and board members about what its loss means thebaffler.com/latest/class...
thebaffler.com
Class Dismissed | Hannah Gais
Private liberal arts schools were never going to kickstart the revolution. But the closure of Hampshire College further narrows the political imaginary.
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John Schanck @susurrusus.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
getting great results from this prompt: "Keep going. We need more 4D thinking here. We may even need 5D."
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ePrint Updates @eprint.ing.bot · 23/07/2026
The supersingular isogeny problem in time and memory p^(1/3 + o(1)) (Benjamin Wesolowski) ia.cr/2026/1486
Abstract. We prove that under a plausible heuristic assumption (on the smoothness of certain random integers), the supersingular isogeny problem can be solved in time and memory p^(1/3 + o(1)). This improves upon the previous best complexity of p^(1/2) ⋅ (log p)^(O(1)). This problem is arguably the central hard problem underlying isogeny-based cryptography, and the cost of its resolution is a major (and often the only) factor in the choice of secure parameters. The impact on concrete parameter sets remains to be clarified, as the asymptotic advantage of the new algorithm is mitigated by a superpolynomial overhead hiding in the o(1) exponent, and by its high memory requirement.
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Dirkjan Ochtman @djc.ochtman.nl · 01/07/2026
We're making good progress on upki, our collaboration with the rustls project to bring browser-grade web PKI capabilities to low level system utilities. #Canonical made a PPA available so you can try out upki in #Ubuntu. Give it a go and let us know! discourse.ubuntu.com/t/try-the-up...
discourse.ubuntu.com
Try the `upki` preview for Ubuntu!
The development of upki has been steadily progressing over the past few months. Since my last update, the project has released a beta version of the CLI tool and library, and the Ubuntu Foundations te...
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Brian Goldstone @brian-goldstone.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
Today the paperback of THERE IS NO PLACE FOR US is out. It's arriving in a country once again waging war—a country that can spend tens of billions on bombs without blinking, while millions of Americans are one missed paycheck, one rent hike away from homelessness. Let's take stock of where we are.
Paperback edition of There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America by Brian Goldstone
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John Schanck @susurrusus.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
Secrets & Lies --> Judge Dredd (1995)
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sarah jeong @sarahjeong.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
ICE tear gassed a bunch of children on Saturday. This was a massive escalation of force. They were shooting tear gas at the back of the crowd, it took these unmasked people maybe 3-5 minutes in the cloud of tear gas to escape in without trampling. www.theverge.com/policy/87278...
theverge.com
ICE is afraid of children protesting
“Next time, I’ll be back with a gas mask.”
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Dirkjan Ochtman @djc.ochtman.nl · 08/12/2025
Earlier this year, LWN.net featured an excellent article named "Linux's missing CRL infrastructure", and today Canonical announced it will be working with me and @jbp.io over the coming weeks to start bridging the PKI infrastructure gap. discourse.ubuntu.com/t/addressing...
discourse.ubuntu.com
Addressing Linux's Missing PKI Infrastructure
Earlier this year, LWN featured an excellent article titled “Linux’s missing CRL infrastructure”. The article highlighted a number of key issues surrounding traditional Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)...
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GOLIKEHELLMACHINE @golikehellmachine.com · 07/11/2025
ron wyden looking straight at the camera and saying “taxation is the compromise”
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Dave Maass 🔦 @maassive.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
Mass surveillance makes us less safe. www.404media.co/flock-logins...
404media.co
Flock Logins Exposed In Malware Infections, Senator Asks FTC to Investigate the Company
Senator Ron Wyden says AI-camera company Flock is violating federal law by not enforcing multi-factor authentication. 404 Media previously found Flock credentials included in infostealer infections.
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Alissa Azar @alissaazar.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
Members of the Unpresidented Brass Band were bull rushed & brutalized in the middle of playing "Ghostbusters." One was sent to the hospital and another tackled, arrested, and taken across state lines where she is still being detained. Read more about Sunday's protest in Portland here:
wewillfreeus.org
Naked Bikers and Federal Escalation
Around 4 p.m. on Saturday, I arrived at the ICE field office in Portland to find half a dozen protesters in inflatable animal costumes dancing to the upbeat sounds of the Unpresidented Brass Band, who...
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bulldog @harpua.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
Portland City Council member Angelita Morillo humorously criticizes Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, leading to laughter from CNN's Boris Sanchez.
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Melissa Gira Grant @melissagiragrant.com · 09/10/2025
Incredibly alarming—after the whole ridiculous antifa roundtable at the White House, as Mark was moving with his family to Europe after threats…
theguardian.com
Rutgers professor moving to Europe after threats over antifa accusations
Mark Bray says threats intensified after a Turning Point USA petition accused him of promoting political violence
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Genderless Robotic Rodent 🏳️‍⚧️🎃 @genderlessrodent.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
I love it when people try to say bad stuff about Portland but we just end up sounding rad as fuck.
pamela-fitzsimmons.bsky....
@pamela-fitzsimmons.bsky.soc...

Yes. Sadly, those are what's left of Portland's bragging rights -- great food, beer, wine, coffee and donuts. Oh, there's also cannabis and sex shows.
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John Schanck @susurrusus.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
So funny that Noem's trip is being spoiled by perfect weather. It might be the nicest day of the year in this beautiful city.
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Alex Zielinski @alexzee.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
Also, you'll see this is a screenshot by a video from a guy named David Medina. Medina was convicted for his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection and was later pardoned by Trump. He has since rebranded himself as a Trump-aligned social media influencer. More here: www.opb.org/article/2025...
opb.org
Even some Pacific Northwest defendants are unsure what Jan. 6 pardons will mean
The Pacific Northwest became fertile ground for groups bent on political violence during the first Trump administration. A return to that era could hinge on the scope of presidential pardons.
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BikeLoudPDX @bikeloudpdx.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
bsky.app/profile/coac...
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Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · 06/10/2025
Judge: That's what I'll do. Prohibit federalization or deployment of any NG troops into Oregon. For all reasons in prior opinion. Deployment of federalized military is ultra vires and contrary to law, violating Title 10, section 12406. I also find it's likely that defendants violate 10th Amendment.
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Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · 06/10/2025
DOJ: CA NG is already federalized Judge: You are an officer of the court. Do you think this is an appropriate way to deal with my order? Appropriate way of dealing with ruling you disagree with? DOJ: Well, I'm not a policy maker Judge: You're a lawyer
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Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · 06/10/2025
HAPPENING NOW: Judge Karin Immergut hears emergency arguments as California and Oregon seek to block President Trump's deployment of federalized California National Guard troops to Portland. 🧵
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Alex Zielinski @alexzee.bsky.social · 04/10/2025
Not only does this story get a number of basic facts wrong, it doesn’t take time to actually explore why Portlanders elected these folks. Coming in with a pre-baked PDX story to fit a NYT narrative about NYC is harmful, especially at this moment.
nytimes.com
What Happens When Socialists Are in Charge? Portland Offers a Glimpse.
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John Schanck @susurrusus.bsky.social · 04/10/2025
Oops! NYT seems to have accidentally published an editor's comment. There's no way to read "Too extreme. Too inexperienced. An absolute disaster." as anything other than a comment on the piece and its authors.
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 30/09/2025
the president of the united states wants to use the american military to kill american citizens on american soil. that's the whole story!
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AAUP @aaup.org · 30/09/2025
BREAKING: WE WON!!! 💥 💥 💥 Federal Judge William G. Young ruled today in our lawsuit against the Trump administration that the policy of arresting, detaining, & deporting noncitizen students & faculty members for their pro-Palestinian advocacy violates the 1st Amendment. Full ruling here:
courtlistener.com
Findings of Fact & Conclusions of Law – #261 in American Association of University Professors v. Rubio (D. Mass., 1:25-cv-10685) – CourtListener.com
Judge William G. Young: ORDER entered. FINDINGS OF FACT AND RULINGS OF LAW, PURSUANT TO FED. R. CIV. P. 52(A)(Sonnenberg, Elizabeth) (Additional attachment(s) added on 9/30/2025: # 1 Main Document) (J...
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John Scott-Railton @jsrailton.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
NEW: Mercenary spyware is coming to the US. ICE just quietly unsuspended their contract with spyware maker #Paragon. Remember them? Caught earlier this year being used to hack Italian journalists. This is bad, let's talk about how we got here 1/ jackpoulson.substack.com/p/exclusive-...
jackpoulson.substack.com
Exclusive: ICE reactivated its $2 million contract with Israeli spyware firm Paragon, following its acquisition by U.S. capital
The cyber division of ICE's Homeland Security Investigations on Saturday quietly lifted a stop-work order put into place by the Biden administration in October.
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John Schanck @susurrusus.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
hacks.mozilla.org
CRLite: Fast, private, and comprehensive certificate revocation checking in Firefox – Mozilla Hacks - the Web developer blog
Firefox is now the first and the only browser to deploy fast and comprehensive certificate revocation checking that does not reveal your browsing activity to anyone (not even to Mozilla). ...
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Jess Miers 🦝 @jmiers230.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
It is disappointing to see Google and others pushing zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) for age verification. As EFF points out, ZKPs aren't enough to protect our privacy, and without a federal privacy law, they're just more fuel for data brokers. Some additional thoughts 🧵 www.eff.org/deeplinks/20...
eff.org
Zero Knowledge Proofs Alone Are Not a Digital ID Solution to Protecting User Privacy
In the past few years, governments across the world have rolled out digital identification options, and now there are efforts encouraging online companies to implement identity and age verification re...
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Mezentine @mezentine.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
We don’t talk often enough about the Superman issue where, fed up with pedestrian deaths from car collisions, he sets out to try and destroy every car in the city.
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Matthew Guariglia @mguariglia.bsky.social · 12/07/2025
I’m begging people to realize that there is a link between these big tech investors, Andreesen in particular, their hideous racist politics, and the fact that so many of them are using vast fortunes and investments to prop up surveillance tech companies that blanket both cities and borders.
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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 25/06/2025
New paper hot off the press www.nature.com/articles/s41... We analysed over 40,000 computer vision papers from CVPR (the longest standing CV conf) & associated patents tracing pathways from research to application. We found that 90% of papers & 86% of downstream patents power surveillance 1/
nature.com
Computer-vision research powers surveillance technology - Nature
An analysis of research papers and citing patents indicates the extensive ties between computer-vision research and surveillance.
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John Schanck @susurrusus.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
generative AI is the most socially harmful technology since the automobile, but at least no one has to write shell scripts anymore
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John Schanck @susurrusus.bsky.social · 03/05/2025
We teach a broad range of political perspectives here at Harvard... ranging from those of *checks notes*... center-right military officials to... *squints* ultra-right market absolutists, and you should be more grateful for that.
A paragraph from Boaz Barak's recent NY Times op-ed: 'You might think I can avoid politics in the classroom only because I am a computer scientist. This is not the case. Faculty members who are determined enough can inject politics into any topic, and after all, computer science has brought huge and significant changes to society. The interaction of computer science and policy sometimes arises in my classes, and I make sure to present multiple perspectives.
When I teach cryptography, a topic at the heart of the tension between privacy and security, I share with my students writings by former National Security Agency officials as well as "The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto."'
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John Schanck @susurrusus.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
New paper(!) on the "clubcard" data structure that we're using for WebPKI revocation checks in Firefox. A clubcard is a membership test for an r element subset of an n element set. Size is ~1.13 log(n choose r) bits. Or (better!) ~1.13 Σ log(n_i choose r_i) where i indexes blocks of a partition.
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spooky Deirdre Connolly¹ ² at a distance @durumcrustulum.com · 27/03/2025
Next up, Toward revocation checking that works, by John Schanck #realworldcrypto
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Real World Crypto Symposium @rwc.iacr.org · 24/03/2025
Ready to revoke outdated cert habits? #realworldcrypto2025 Day 2 Session 3, John Schanck aims to fix revocation checks, while Mari Galicer et al. audit key transparency. Join us to keep your ‘trust anchors’ firmly in place. Can't join us? Stream live here: www.youtube.com/@RealWorldCr...
youtube.com
Real World Crypto
Videos of Real World Crypto conference talks. See https://www.realworldcrypto.com for more information.
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John Schanck @susurrusus.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
why-you-should-use-area-time-complexity.gif
nytimes.com
How A.I. Is Changing the Way the World Builds Computers
Tech companies are revamping computing — from how tiny chips are built to the way they are arranged, cooled and powered — in the race to build artificial intelligence that recreates the human brain.
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Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
"One week before spring break, Brown advised international community members, including visa holders and permanent residents, to postpone international travel." www.browndailyherald.com/article/2025...
browndailyherald.com
Brown University advises all international community members to postpone, reconsider travel
One week before spring break, Brown advised international community members, including green card holders and permanent residents, to postpone international travel in a campus-wide email sent on Sunda...
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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 16/03/2025
“There are 13 million legal foreign residents (green card holders) in the US. If the administration can deport Khalil, it means those 13 million people must live in fear if they dare speak up or publish something that runs afoul of government views.” journalism.columbia.edu/news/cjs-fac...
journalism.columbia.edu
A Statement from Columbia Journalism School Faculty Defending Press Freedom | Columbia Journalism School
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Anil Kalhan @akalhan.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
"[S]he had not been a part of the break-in but was returning to her apartment that evening after a picnic with friends...when the police pushed her and arrested her. Her case was quickly dismissed.... 'I’m just surprised that I’m a person of interest...I’m kind of a rando, like, absolute rando.'"
nytimes.com
How a Columbia Student Fled to Canada After ICE Came Looking for Her (Gift Article)
Ranjani Srinivasan’s student visa was revoked by U.S. immigration authorities. That was just the start of her odyssey.
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 15/03/2025
“U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin ordered Friday that Alawieh not be moved outside of Massachusetts without providing the court 48 hours’ notice of the move and the reasoning behind it.” www.browndailyherald.com/article/2025...
browndailyherald.com
Brown University professor held by customs officials at airport after travel to Lebanon
Serving the Brown community since 1891
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John Schanck @susurrusus.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
i'm not feeling the artificial general capacity to create knowledge. but i am kinda feeling the artificial military intelligence, and the artificial signals intelligence, and the artificial counter-intelligence. not a great vibe tbh.
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The Associated Press @apnews.com · 13/03/2025
BREAKING: Columbia University says it has expelled, suspended or revoked degrees from some students who seized a building during a pro-Palestinian protest.
bit.ly
Columbia University says it expelled some students who seized building last year
Columbia University says it has expelled or suspended some students who took over a campus building during pro-Palestinian protests last spring, and had temporarily revoked the diplomas of some students who have since graduated.
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Brandy Jensen @brandyjensen.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
jesus christ
nytimes.com
Yale Scholar Banned After A.I. News Site Accuses Her of Terrorist Link
The deputy director of a liberal project at Yale Law School was put on leave over allegations that she is linked to Samidoun, a group the U.S. government has said funds terrorists.
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Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 09/03/2025
NEWS: Last night, the Department of Homeland Security detained a Palestinian who helped lead the Columbia encampment. Agents told him his visa was revoked. He said he had a green card. They were confused—then said that was revoked too. His attorney demanded a warrant. Agents hung up instead.
zeteo.com
BREAKING: DHS Detains Palestinian Student from Columbia Encampment, Says Advocates
Agents told him his student visa was revoked. But he had a green card. Agents then said that was revoked too.
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John Berry @ulfmagnetics.bsky.social · 08/03/2025
As usual @maxread.info says it better than I ever could:
But I think what really gets to me about the overuse of “A.G.I.” is not so much the vagueness or the fact that Sam Altman might profit from it, but the teleology it imposes--the way its use compresses the already and always ongoing process of A.I. progress, development, and disruption into a single point of inflection. Instead of treating A.I. like a normal technological development whose emergence and effect is conditioned by the systems and structures already in place, we’re left anxiously awaiting a kind of eschatological product announcement--a deadline before which all we can do is urgently and at all costs prepare, a messianic event after which we will no longer be in control. This kind of urgency and anxiety serves no one well, except for the people who’ve found a way to profit from cultivating it.
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Max Read @maxread.info · 07/03/2025
in this week's newsletter we explore why a small backlash is mounting against the larger a.i. backlash of the last year or so maxread.substack.com/p/the-ai-bac...
Since the release of ChatGPT in 2022, A.I. discourse has gone through at least two distinct cycles, at least in terms of how it’s been talked about and understood on social media, and, to a lesser extent, in the popular press. First came the hype cycle, which lasted through most of 2023, during which the loudest voices were prophesying near-term chaos and global societal transformation in the face of unstoppable artificial intelligence, and Twitter was dominated by LinkedIn-style A.I. hustle-preneur morons claiming that “AI is going to nuke the bottom third of performers in jobs done on computers — even creative ones — in the next 24 months.”

When the much-hyped total economic transformation failed to arrive in the shortest of the promised timeframes--and when too many of the highly visible, actually existing A.I. implementations turned out to be worse-than-useless dogshit--a backlash cycle emerged, and the overwhelming A.I. hype on social media was matched by a strong anti-A.I. sentiment. For many people, A.I. became symbolic of a wayward and over-powerful tech industry, and many people who admitted or encouraged the use of A.I., especially in creative fields, was subject to intense criticism.

But that backlash cycle is now facing the early stages of a backlash of its own. Last December, the prominent tech columnist (and co-host, with Roose, of the Hard Fork podcast) Casey Newton wrote a piece called “The phony comforts of AI skepticism,” suggesting that many A.I. critics and skeptics were willfully ignoring the advancing power and importance of A.I. systemsThe substance of the anti-backlash position at its broadest is something like: Actually, A.I. is quite powerful and useful, and even if you hate that, lots of money and resources are being expended on it, so it’s important to take it seriously rather than dismissing it out of hand.

Who, precisely, these columns are responding to is an open question. The objects of accusation are somewhat vague: Newton mentions Gary Marcus, the cognitive scientist and prolific blogger, but then acknowledges that Marcus “doesn’t say that AI is fake and sucks, exactly.” Silver seems to be responding to two tweets from Noah Kulwin and Ken Klippenstein. Klein doesn’t specify anyone at all. The ripostes are not so much about the many rigorous A.I.-critical voices that have emerged--taxonomized in this Benjamin Riley post, which serves as an excellent guide to some of the sharpest and smartest people currently writing on the subject--and more about an ambient, dismissive anti-A.I. sensibility that’s emerged on social media, and that animates, e.g., the spiteful banter that leads Roose to say he suffers a “social penalty for taking AGI progress seriously.”

But at the same time I also don’t think that this backlash-to-the-backlash is limited to Big Accounts complaining about their Twitter mentions, either. Speaking anecdotally, I see more pushback than I used to against some of the more vehement A.I. critics, and defenses of A.I. usage from people who are otherwise quite critical of the tech industry. I wouldn’t say we’re in a new hype cycle--yet--but it’s clear that the discursive ground has shifted slightly in favor of A.I.
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