iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Teresa Heffernan

Mrs. Betty Bowers @mrsbettybowers.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

AI isn't reliable enough to get even a hamburger order right, but reckless Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is pushing to expand artificial intelligence across the U.S. military, including AI-enabled targeting. "Would you like fries with that obliterated girls' school?"

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Teresa Heffernan @tjheffernan.bsky.social · 8h

The billionaire-Trump-loving AI industry's open war on democracy: "On September 16, a similar test run by the Eko Movement showed 87% of the disinformation ads it contracted with Meta were approved, including AI ads depicting execution-style threats against lawmakers"

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Teresa Heffernan @tjheffernan.bsky.social · 8h

When Musk says “play life like a game”---is there any game left to play? Any semblance of competition has all but disappeared: the billionaires basically won at capitalism and reinstalled an oligarchy that feels no need to answer to markets, regulators, the law, and voters. Time for a new system.

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Teresa Heffernan @tjheffernan.bsky.social · 8h

The Cambridge-Facebook Analytica scandal manipulated populations to influence votes to serve the interests of billionaires; the goal of the AI industry: "93% of time spent on Instagram is on content chosen editorially by Meta." Don't consult corporate-owned platforms & chatbots for voting.

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Reposted by Teresa Heffernan

Jenny Cohn @jennycohn.bsky.social · 21h

Lula (president of Brazil) “asked the court to investigate possible support from the Rockbridge Network, a [Peter Thiel-backed] conservative U.S. donor network co-founded by…JD Vance. It said a political organizer tied to the group works at Flávio Bolsonaro’s campaign headquarters...” 10/4/26 …1/

courthousenews.com

Lula seeks probe into possible US election interference

Lula’s coalition asked Brazil’s top electoral court to investigate actions benefiting Flávio Bolsonaro, while the Workers’ Party sought a Federal Police inquiry from the Supreme Court.

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Juliette Wade @juliettewade.com · 22h

Ooo!

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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 02/10/2026

> an increase in thin papers of narrow scope, as well as ‘salami’ papers, where a single work is broken up and submitted as a set of smaller papers. There is also a marked increase in dense, AI-written papers. AI tools are making it easy for authors to flood arXiv [and others with] low-value papers.

A histogram showing the incredible increase in submissions.

> In September of 2016, arXiv received 9,869 submissions. In September of 2024, arXiv received 20,569 submissions. This September, arXiv received 40,363 submissions, which in turn generated almost 9,000 support tickets for arXiv staff and moderators. In only the past two years, submissions have doubled.

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Reposted by Teresa Heffernan

Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

If you’re in Regina at this time, consider coming to my talk “Data Refineries” about AI data centres in Canada. Open to all and free.

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Teresa Heffernan @tjheffernan.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

"Given the phenomenal growth rates projected over the next few years, data centers are poised to become one of the dominant water-guzzling industries on the entire planet, potentially even rivaling the entire global agricultural...unless the AI bubble pops" eraldkolasi.substack.com/p/the-global...

eraldkolasi.substack.com

The Global Energy and Emissions Footprint of AI Diffusion

The Impact of AI on Global Energy, Emissions, Water Use, and More

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Teresa Heffernan @tjheffernan.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

The love affair between dictators and AI bros continues...those arguing "AI" is just a tool ignore the ideology driving an industry that runs on theft, surveillance, & manipulation.

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Teresa Heffernan @tjheffernan.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Years ago, I asked Hinton what his model of intelligence was. I assume if you are building 'intelligence' you must have a definition: he said once enough of his neural networks were connected, his computer would spring into consciousness. www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...

tandfonline.com

The religious roots of AI and the rise of neo-feudalism

Discussions of immortality, the raising of the dead, magic, demons, and the divine permeate the global AI industry. Although positioning itself as a technoscience, it has long animated its technolo...

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Reposted by Teresa Heffernan

Patrick Canning 🇨🇦 @patrickcanning.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

For Carney's "we can't afford to tackle climate change" bs: Economist Joseph Stieglitz; "When the US was attacked during the second world war no one asked, “Can we afford to fight the war?” It was an existential matter. We could not afford not to fight it. The same goes for the climate crisis."

theguardian.com

The climate crisis is our third world war. It needs a bold response | Joseph Stiglitz

Critics of the Green New Deal ask if we can afford it. But we can’t afford not to: our civilisation is at stake

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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 02/10/2026

"renew an alliance with artists and cultural institutions to safeguard our humanity"

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Steven Curtis @stevencurtis.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

And all because you won’t write your own sentences and paragraphs, as you had to do only five fucking years ago. We could end all this tomorrow if everyone just searched, read, thought and wrote by themselves

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Teresa Heffernan @tjheffernan.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

'The projections up to 2030 are obviously far worse and imply a catastrophic impact to global ecological stability.... At what point do societies or governments evaluate the long-term cost-benefit of this sector’s runaway growth?' @evansolomon.bsky.social @mark-carney.bsky.social

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Teresa Heffernan @tjheffernan.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

The point of the unprofitable AI industry--the billionaires telling you their magic machines will solve the climate crisis--is to drive up energy demands to keep the oil industry alive. 'AI' is not the future but the last gasp of a model that has no future.

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Teresa Heffernan @tjheffernan.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

You can't keep using tech platforms run & eidted by authoritarians and expect to combat fascism: "From leaders and policymakers, it means starting to plan your exit from current social media by building up a following elsewhere."

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Reposted by Teresa Heffernan

blair @blairaf.com · 01/10/2026

The operational backbone of Canadian government & academia exists on Microsoft Google AWS infrastructure but instead of a serious conversation about building foundations for public interest digital infra we are much more fixated on the hot shiny AI toys

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Teresa Heffernan @tjheffernan.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Experts explaining how these systems work versus billionaires passing off fiction as science: 'It is high time for us to regulate usage of systems sold as “AI”, not because they are magical machines, but because they are error-prone products that shouldn’t be used in high stakes scenarios.'

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Reposted by Teresa Heffernan

Jed Brown @jedbrown.org · 01/10/2026

As @timnitgebru.blacksky.app correctly points out, mines are the lethal autonomous weapon precedent we should consider. The "AI Arms Race" is deployment of land mines "on a Napoleonic scale"; @redunley.bsky.social on the failure of arms control leading into WWI historyandpolicy.org/opinion-arti...

When war broke out in August 1914 even these limited agreements soon fell by the wayside. The Germans, unsurprisingly, considering their position at The Hague, used mines from outset of the war with little regard for their impact on neutrals and non-combatants. The British situation is in many ways more remarkable. There is no doubt that opposition to mines was strong within the British government, the Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith, described them as ‘a hellish device’. Yet within weeks of the outbreak of war the Cabinet was discussing the use of the weapons specifically to target neutral vessels, and by October 1914 Asquith ordered their deployment ‘on a Napoleonic scale’.

Edwardian society was almost unanimous in condemning mines as illegal and unethical due to their autonomous nature, and the danger they posed to non-belligerents. Despite this, arms control failed. In large part it did so because mines were cheap and effective, in exactly the same way that their far more developed LAWS cousins promise to be. Beyond this arms control depends on trust and accountability, and autonomous weapons from mines forward invariably offer a degree of plausible deniability. The failure of arms control at the Hague Conference was in a certain respect irrelevant. The fact that militaries across the major powers expected their opponents to deploy mines in a future conflict ensured that they developed and planned to use the weapons themselves.

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Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.blacksky.app · 30/09/2026

The Yudkowsky who got his money from Thiel, Musk and the likes? The one who arranged for the PR blitz for so-called Anthropic "whistleblower"?? WHAT THE FUCK DOES IT TAKE TO EXPOSE THESE PEOPLE

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Reposted by Teresa Heffernan

Katharina Buholzer @katharinabuholzer.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

"WHAT THE FUCK DOES IT TAKE TO EXPOSE THESE PEOPLE" is really THE question. Why do media even report on every utterance by these bro's? It is noit exactly 'breaking news' that the technology is a scam and 'rogue AI' is a method to spin the hype and cover the fact they are over invested junk bonds.

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Teresa Heffernan @tjheffernan.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

But let's trust them to "regulate"...the AI industry runs on lies that facilatate the upward flow of wealth

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Iris van Rooij 💭 @irisvanrooij.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Me too!! 🫡💗

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I Scare You Like Sound Dog @chadstanton.blacksky.app · 01/10/2026

His entire business model hinges on hoovering up public money and then turning around to use some of that money to promote white supremacy which somehow brings in more public money.

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Reposted by Teresa Heffernan

Ricky Wilhelmson - Writing the next chapter ... @rickywilhelmson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

That plane drunk-guy-in-the-plane metaphor is exactly to the point!👍

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Reposted by Teresa Heffernan

Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 30/09/2026

this is well worth your 12 mins

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Teresa Heffernan @tjheffernan.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

"The data center boom is well underway....Do the communities where these are being built realize that each of these centers will become point sources of hazardous waste, requiring disposal of massive amounts of this toxic waste every 2–3 years??" wiki.ban.org/images/1/16/...

wiki.ban.org

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Teresa Heffernan @tjheffernan.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Canada also needs to work on a sovereign plan that puts privacy & security first and that gives people control of their data. See Athumi: athumi.eu/en/about-us @mark-carney.bsky.social @evansolomon.bsky.social @robin.berjon.com

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Teresa Heffernan @tjheffernan.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

What could possibly go wrong with a corporate-controlled-error-prone bot doling out advice? While we are at it...let's give the controls to the drunk guy at the back of the plane screaming let me fly it.

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Teresa Heffernan @tjheffernan.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

"Let us begin from the contradiction that is AI. What does it mean that a technology which is functionally incapable of delivering on its claims continues to be the site of massive financial and strategic investment?"

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Iris van Rooij 💭 @irisvanrooij.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Also, in light of all of the above considerations and resources, I again present my below advice to the @erc.europa.eu, in line with the principles of scientific integrity mu.social/profile/iris...

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Teresa Heffernan @tjheffernan.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

@timnitgebru.blacksky.app, a PhD in computer vision; Altman, a dropout funded by Musk and Thiel. One explains how llms/chatbots work; the other is part of a cult that blathers on about 'reasoning,' 'rogue AI, 'digital immortality,' and other nonsense. www.wired.com/story/the-bi...

wired.com

Timnit Gebru Believes There Is No ‘Existential Threat’ From AI

One of AI’s fiercest critics believes the doom talk is about founders making money, not saving humanity.

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Seth Klein @sethdklein.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Nothing to celebrate here. It's a sad day. Combined, LNG Canada Phases 1 & 2 will have downstream carbon emissions roughly equivalent to TOTAL annual domestic emissions for all of BC. Phases 2 will only result in about 240 more permanent jobs. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

cbc.ca

LNG Canada to move forward with Phase 2 expansion project in Kitimat, B.C. | CBC News

LNG Canada says its multibillion-dollar Phase 2 expansion in Kitimat, B.C., is going forward, in a move that could double exports of liquefied natural gas from the northern coastal facility to oversea...

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Teresa Heffernan @tjheffernan.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Decades of journalists repeating lies told by AI industry CEOs have done so much damage...it's like going to the tobacco industry & reporting on how great cigs are for you. Remember the AI industry's main business is theft, surveillance, & manipulation.

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Teresa Heffernan @tjheffernan.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

From neoliberalism to nihiliberalism: 'Google...ditched its goal to “pursue net-zero emissions”...and has been forging partnerships with fossil fuel companies to power its data centres, including...a giant new gas plant in Texas...expected to emit more emissions than the city of San Francisco.'

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Reposted by Teresa Heffernan

Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Once again, it has been incredibly sad, in the last few years, to see laid bare, in ways that were surely always there but are masks off now, just how many of our academic colleagues & university leaders simply aren't interested in the actual project of education. Just go do something else. Please.

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Reposted by Teresa Heffernan

Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Few remember the ancient bygone days of spring 2026, when we were reliably told by leading technology brothers that Anthropic was actually profitable (because Anthropic had said so and only stupid fools would doubt them).

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Teresa Heffernan @tjheffernan.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Your AI future: "It’s like a game of Spot the Errors. Everything about the map is wrong. The bridge doesn’t go over water. The name of the bridge is wrong. Barrington Street is in Dartmouth....The green arrows are directing drivers into head-on crashes with each other."

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NDP @ndp.ca · 29/09/2026

Last week, Avi Lewis and our NDP caucus joined Bank of Canada security workers on the picket line. As the Liberals ramp up their attacks on the right to strike, we'll keep standing with workers to fight back, together.

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Teresa Heffernan @tjheffernan.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Can we please stop gamifying politics...the world is facing real problems & we need politicians to stop playing games: vote for the ones who are invested in a livable future.

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Reposted by Teresa Heffernan

Canada's National Observer @nationalobserver.com · 28/09/2026

Our first investigation, published last week, revealed that the Bradford campaign is using the Victory App. The way it works: supporters are given "missions" that can include posting messages (generated by AI) on social media. They earn points for those activities, which may be traded for rewards.

nationalobserver.com

Toronto mayoral candidate Bradford using Israeli app that feeds supporters AI-generated comments

The Victory App, a campaign tool built by the Israeli company LogiVote, prompted users to participate in a mission to post AI-written comments supportive of Toronto mayoral candidate Brad Bradford.

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Teresa Heffernan @tjheffernan.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

The game: break the law & distract from the crime. While "a human hacker could easily have legal repercussions, the Sam Altman-led company is seemingly not afraid to come up with its own rules as it tries to navigate the untested legal waters of autonomous agents hacking third party systems."

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Teresa Heffernan @tjheffernan.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The AI industry is driving up energy demands to keep the fossil fuel industry alive. The malware surveillance tech they produce can be regulated by laws we already have. Don't get distracted by the "existential risk" cult begging for more money to "regulate"...fossil fuels are cooking the planet.

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Teresa Heffernan @tjheffernan.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

"companies viewed academic research as a way to build credibility and influence public debate." AI industry...same thing.

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