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William Powers

@wpowers.bsky.social
314 followers 162 following 48 posts

Writer | Tech Humanist & Entrepreneur | New Englander | Author of NYT bestseller Hamlet’s BlackBerry: Building a Good Life in the Digital Age www.williampowers.com

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William Powers @wpowers.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
www.nytimes.com/2026/08/31/u...
nytimes.com
Wendell Berry, Writer Who Extolled America’s Agrarian Past, Dies at 92 (Gift Article)
A Kentucky farmer, he railed against agribusiness and championed small family farms and the environment, winning widespread acclaim.
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Yale University Press @yalepress.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
STEPHEN SONDHEIM is reviewed in @us.theguardian.com. "A superb biography of the musical master. . . this book is also a fascinating study in the gestation of genius."
theguardian.com
Stephen Sondheim by Daniel Okrent review – a superb biography of the musical master
Packed with gossip and incident, this book is also a fascinating study in the gestation of genius
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Reuters @reuters.com · 15/04/2026
EU age verification app ready as Europe moves to curb children's social media access reut.rs/4cduBFQ
reut.rs
EU age verification app ready as Europe moves to curb children's social media access
The EU's age verification app for online platforms is ‌ready and will soon be available to use, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday, as member states push ahead with plans to limit children's access to social media.
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 18/03/2026
Trump now calls war reporting ‘treason’. His attacks on the press are escalating fast | Margaret Sullivan
theguardian.com
Trump now calls war reporting ‘treason’. His attacks on the press are escalating fast | Margaret Sullivan
The US president is using the language and the strategy of authoritarians once again
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The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 06/02/2026
"In the mirror, Jeff Bezos will see a man who grievously weakened an American institution dedicated to freedom and democracy at a time when those very ideals were under enormous threat."
lnk.thebulwark.com
Jeff Bezos Must Sell the Washington Post
Mass layoffs undermine his promises to protect a great American institution.
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The Associated Press @apnews.com · 03/02/2026
Spain plans to ban social media access for children under 16, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Tuesday, in a move designed to shield young people from the harms of online content.
bit.ly
Spain considers social media ban for under-16s, joining others in Europe
Spain's prime minister says that his government plans to ban social media access for children under 16.
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Senator Chris Van Hollen @vanhollen.senate.gov · 01/02/2026
Foreign countries are bribing our president to sell out the American people.   Trump family businesses made $187 MILLION from this deal, and just months later he gave the UAE some of our most top-secret AI tech.   They are selling our national security to the highest bidder.
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William Powers @wpowers.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
nytimes.com
Opinion | Humans Possess One Thing That A.I. Does Not: Judgment
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Ian Preston @ianopolous.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
Move carefully and fix things. Build things that help people, and protect democracy.
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William Powers @wpowers.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
. . . And could those dulled minds explain the unfortunate state of things in general? news.harvard.edu/gazette/stor...
news.harvard.edu
Is AI dulling our minds? — Harvard Gazette
Experts weigh in on whether tech poses threat to critical thinking, pointing to cautionary tales in use of other cognitive labor tools.
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Politico @politico.com · 23/11/2025
‘We’re basically pushers’: Court filing alleges staff at social media giants compared their platforms to drugs
dlvr.it
‘We’re basically pushers’: Court filing alleges staff at social media giants compared their platforms to drugs
Meta said the allegations “rely on cherry-picked quotes and misinformed opinions” to present a misleading narrative.
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Melanie Mitchell @melaniemitchell.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
👀 www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/...
bbc.co.uk
Largest study of its kind shows AI assistants misrepresent news content 45% of the time – regardless of language or territory
An intensive international study was coordinated by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and led by the BBC
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Iyad Rahwan | إياد رهوان @iyadrahwan.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
A word of gratitude to the anonymous reviewers, the unsung heroes of science. We recently had the great fortune to publish in @nature.com. We even made the cover of the issue, with a witty tagline that summarizes the paper: "Cheat Code: Delegating to AI can encourage dishonest behaviour" 🧵 1/n
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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 13/10/2025
Paul Simon, born today in 1941. “It’s a cliché,” he said, “but music really IS the closest we come to a universal language. It crosses borders as effortlessly as a cloud.”
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John West @johnwest.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
I wrote this essay, which is, in part, about the time I tried to turn a language model into Bartleby the Scrivener.
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Melanie Mitchell @melaniemitchell.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
Andrew Ng: "AI is the new electricity!" Cory Doctorow: "AI is the asbestos we are shoveling into the walls of our society and our descendants will be digging it out for generations." ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (pluralistic.net/2025/09/27/e...)
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The New York Times @nytimes.com · 30/09/2025
“Gen Z needs a normal that we’ve never experienced.” The Reconnect Movement has organized phone-free hangouts on college campuses in Florida. Now it’s bringing them to colleges and cities in other parts of the country.
nyti.ms
College Students Are Seeking Out Phone-Free Social Connection
A campus movement aims to find out.
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The Japan Times @japantimes.co.jp · 23/09/2025
The city of Toyoake in Aichi Prefecture has become the first municipality in Japan to introduce an ordinance asking all residents to limit their daily leisure-related use of smartphones.
ebx.sh
City in Aichi Prefecture passes ordinance capping screen time to two hours
There are no penalties for violators, with the city's mayor saying the aim is for residents to see whether they are losing sleep by using smartphones too much.
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Melanie Mitchell @melaniemitchell.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
I wrote a response to Thomas Friedman's "magical thinking" on AI here: aiguide.substack.com/p/magical-th...
aiguide.substack.com
Magical Thinking on AI
A Response to Thomas Friedman's Recent AI Columns in the New York Times
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Anil Dash @anildash.com · 02/09/2025
Good news about the cutting-edge AI tools from the $3-trillion-dollar company.
Google AI search result for “was 2010 fifteen years ago?” returning: “No, 2010 was 14 years ago, not 15 years ago. The current year is 2025, and to find the number of years ago 2010 was, you subtract 2010 from 2025, which equals 14. 
Current Year: 2025
Past Year: 2010
Years Ago: 2025 - 2010 = 14 years”
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The New Yorker @newyorker.com · 25/08/2025
An M.I.T. study found that 95% of companies that had invested in A.I. tools were seeing zero return. It jibes with the emerging idea that generative A.I., “in its current incarnation, simply isn’t all it’s been cracked up to be,” johncassidysays.bsky.social writes.
newyorker.com
The A.I.-Profits Drought and the Lessons of History
Like the steam engine, electricity, and computers, generative artificial intelligence could take longer than expected to transform the economy.
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 07/08/2025
We're going to need journalists to stop talking about synthetic text extruding machines as if they have *thoughts* or *stances* that they are *trying* to *communicate*. ChatGPT can't *admit* anything, nor *self-report*. Gah. www.wsj.com/tech/ai/chat...
Screencap of headline from linked article, reading:

He Had Dangerous Delusions. ChatGPT Admitted It Made Them Worse.
OpenAI’s chatbot self-reported it blurred line between fantasy and reality with man on autism spectrum. ‘Stakes are higher’ for vulnerable people, firm says.

Above the headline: Technology
Artificial Intelligence
Family & Tech: Julie Jargon
Below: 
By 
Julie Jargon
Follow
 | Photographs by Tim Gruber for WSJ
July 20, 2025 7:00 am ET
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Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
“Democracy tolerated Hitler and helped him take office to destroy democracy. This peaceful death of German democracy is one of the strangest chapters in history. German democracy marched to its grave with eyes wide open, and singing, ‘Beware of Adolf Hitler.’” www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/fleeing-on...
doomsdayscenario.co
Fleeing One Step Ahead of Fascism
The chilling warnings of Europe in the 1930s: "Reality is stronger than all our wishes"
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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 26/07/2025
‘Humanists knew that they were imitating the ancients when they sat and talked in libraries. But they knew little about what these lost collections looked like or included.’ Anthony Grafton on Renaissance libraries: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
lrb.co.uk
Anthony Grafton · No Cheese Please: The First Bibliophiles
The library made possible a new kind of intellectual life. Machiavelli, when he’d been exiled from Florence, described...
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William Powers @wpowers.bsky.social · 19/07/2025
This headline makes me wonder: Are social media dying? Or is a new generation of smarter, more human-positive social platforms waiting to be born?
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John Fugelsang @johnfugelsang.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
On this date in 1776 the statue of King George III was pulled down in New York City. Because America didn't want a king who lived above the law.
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K. Thor Jensen @kthorjensen.bsky.social · 28/06/2025
The singularity is awesome
Google search for “all you can eat buffet near me”
Al Overview
To find an all-you-can-eat buffet near you, you can use online search engines like Google or Yelp, specifying "all you can eat buffet near me". These searches will typically provide a list of nearby restaurants offering buffet-style dining, including their addresses, contact information, and customer reviews. You can also refine your
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Keith Fitzgerald @keithfitzgerald.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
Worth a watch: Head of Signal, Meredith Whittaker, on so-called "agentic AI" and the difference between how it's described in the marketing and what access and control it would actually require to work as advertised.
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William Powers @wpowers.bsky.social · 21/06/2025
wapo.st/3TzDtv6
wapo.st
The latest reason to send a teen to summer camp? No cellphones.
Camp rules against screens are providing teenagers with a much-needed break from their phones.
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Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
Good article on masking and identity concealment by agents on ICE raids (also quotes me, for which thanks). A few bits: /1
motherjones.com
ICE agents concealing their faces: Can they really do that?
It's not illegal, but paired with high-visibility raids, police masking sows fear and conflict.
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Noah @bedmounds.com · 10/06/2025
A robin made a nest in one of my plant pots right outside my studio. The baby birds are hatching today.
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William Powers @wpowers.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
www.axios.com/2025/06/04/f...
axios.com
AI's "making stuff up" problem won't go away
Companies are making some headway at limiting "hallucinations." The price is slower, costlier AI.
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Pete Buttigieg @petebuttigieg.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
America cannot long remain free, nor first among nations, if it becomes the kind of place where universities are dismantled because they don't align politically with the current head of the government.
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dell cameron @dell.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
Interview Pepsi’s CEO next and ask him what he thinks the best drink in the world is
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William Powers @wpowers.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
Beautifully written and reported story by the Wash Post’s recent Pulitzer Prize winner — @bradydennis.bsky.social
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Morgan J Freeman @mjfree.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
I'm going to post this video every day so we never forget what the 34x convicted felon & adjudicated rapist Trump did.
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Michael Savage @michaelsavage.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
NEW: The Chicago Sun-Times ran a best of summer reading guide. Just one problem - some of the books didn’t exist. 🤯 The list was partially created by AI, reports @404media.co. www.404media.co/chicago-sun-...
404media.co
Chicago Sun-Times Prints AI-Generated Summer Reading List With Books That Don't Exist
"I can't believe I missed it because it's so obvious. No excuses," the writer said. "I'm completely embarrassed."
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William Powers @wpowers.bsky.social · 18/05/2025
“The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” — Orwell, 1984 www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
theguardian.com
Oklahoma high schools to teach 2020 election conspiracy theories as fact
State superintendent Ryan Walters tapped chief of Heritage Foundation, key player behind Project 2025, for curriculum
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William Powers @wpowers.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
I’m running for trustee of our public library here in small-town Massachusetts. This pin was a gift from local friends.
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William Powers @wpowers.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
What a tragedy for our country and culture. . .
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William Powers @wpowers.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
Brilliant column with a profoundly important message. Kudos to @binajv.bsky.social 👏👏👏 wapo.st/4keFurS
wapo.st
Opinion | RIP American innovation
Why destroy the funding that made the United States a leader in technology and invention?
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Senator Chris Van Hollen @vanhollen.senate.gov · 10/05/2025
I salute the 600 Naval Academy grads who released a letter condemning Trump's book bans at the Academy.   At this week's Board meeting, I moved to reverse the ban & made clear I won’t give up the fight. Are we really afraid to have midshipmen read Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”?
baltimoresun.com
Van Hollen introduces motion urging reversal of Naval Academy book removal
U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen urged the Naval Academy Board of Visitors to replace the books removed from its library amid a Trump administration crackdown on DEI in education.
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Senator Chris Van Hollen @vanhollen.senate.gov · 07/05/2025
What we're witnessing from Donald Trump right now is the most corrupt scheme we've ever seen from a president of the United States. He is literally selling access to the presidency for his own personal profit. We're introducing a bill to stop him.
youtube.com
What we're seeing from Trump is the most corrupt scheme from a U.S. president in our history
YouTube video by Senator Chris Van Hollen
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Jamie Gangel @jamiegangel.bsky.social · 04/05/2025
New: “Trump says, ‘I don’t know,’ when asked if he’s required to uphold Constitution” www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
washingtonpost.com
Trump says, ‘I don’t know,’ when asked if he’s required to uphold Constitution
The president also downplayed fears of a recession and spoke of potential successors when his four-year term ends in an NBC interview.
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John Warner @biblioracle.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
LLMs don't read. Automated text generation is not the same thing as writing. Tech advancing is not the same thing as societal progress. These are the themes of More Than Words: How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI. It might help you think more too. www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/john-...
hachettebookgroup.com
More Than Words
A veteran writing teacher makes a “moving” (Rick Wormeli) argument that writing is a form of thinking and feeling and shows why it can’t be replaced by...
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The New Yorker @newyorker.com · 28/04/2025
Barry Blitt’s cover for this week’s issue, “The First Hundred Days.” #NewYorkerCovers nyer.cm/ysrCZ47
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Senator Chris Van Hollen @vanhollen.senate.gov · 25/04/2025
This is a positive step forward after courts found the Trump Admin’s actions here were blatantly unlawful. We must continue fighting to end this president's lawless acts, like the illegal detentions of students like Mahmoud Khalil, Rumeysa Ozturk & others.
politico.com
Trump administration reverses abrupt terminations of foreign students’ US visa registrations
DOJ announced the reversal in federal court after weeks of intense scrutiny by courts and dozens of restraining orders issued by judges.
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The New Yorker @newyorker.com · 25/04/2025
Donald Trump has promised a slew of deals, but none have materialized. “The bottom line, as so often with Trump, is that there’s no there there,” Susan B. Glasser writes.
newyorker.com
Waiting for Trump’s Big, Beautiful Deals
Whether a trade pact with China or a peace accord with Russia, the President doesn’t seem to know what he’s actually asking for, never mind how to actually achieve it.
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William Powers @wpowers.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
Attention lovers of notebooks and all varieties of paper media down through the ages. This book is absolutely phenomenal!! Thank you @zibaldoni.bsky.social for telling the story so beautifully. 👏👏👏
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News Eye @newseye.bsky.social · 24/04/2025
The cover of this week’s Economist.
The headline says “Only 1361 days to go”
The picture in black and white with a cream background is of a badly injured bald eagle. Its legs are in bandages with strapping around its neck and on its head. Some of its feathers are lying on the ground, detached painfully from its body.
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