Kashmir Hill

It really is. Incredible work by @datab.ae, @mikebaker.bsky.social and crew

Welcome to Wyoming, the Frontier of America’s New Gilded Age

How the rich have gotten richer since the 2017 tax cuts, and how it's affecting everyone else. A case study in Wyoming: www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/u...

The Pentagon’s Favorite Tech Guy Is This Hawaiian Shirt-Wearing Founder

For many in the tech sector, fictional dystopias are aspirational.

"Science fiction did not just predict the future, Mr. Luckey said, but 'literally caused the future.'"

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/t...

In the context I was reporting it: Dozens to hundreds of turns

Screenshot of New York Times article: “OpenAI Reaches A.I. Agreement With Defense Dept. After Anthropic Clash”

Screenshot of text from article: “Under the deal, OpenAI agreed to let the Pentagon use its A.I. systems for any lawful purpose, a term required by the Pentagon. But OpenAI also said it had found a way to ensure that its technologies would adhere to its safety principles by installing specific technical guardrails on its systems.”

My major takeaway from the last year of reporting on generative AI chatbots is that safety guardrails can fail when conversations run long and that everyone who works in this space knows that

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/27/t...

When Chatbots Are Used to Plan Violence, Is There a Duty to Warn?

People are revealing sensitive personal information to A.I. chatbots — including plans to commit violent acts. What should the companies do when it happens? www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/t...

Police are finding suspects based on their online searches as courts weigh privacy concerns Criminal investigators hoping to develop a suspect are turning to a powerful cyber tool by asking Google to disclose who had been searching for relevant information.

There are privacy implications raised by this, but ingenious investigating to find a serial rapist by asking Google for IP addresses of those who looked up the address of a victim's house apnews.com/article/goog...

One of favorite reads back in 2017 by @kashhill.bsky.social when she worked at Gizmodo was

‘How Facebook Figures Out Everyone You’ve Ever Met’

She chronicled the People You May Know (PYMK) feature extensively gizmodo.com/how-facebook...

Huge story by Georgia. Flagged by an automated review system, debated by "about a dozen staffers," and OpenAI did nothing.

Some Reese’s Treats Drop the Milk Chocolate. Mr. Reese Disapproves.

Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/02/19/c...

Some Reese’s Treats Drop the Milk Chocolate. Mr. Reese Disapproves.

When I raid my kids' holiday candy stashes, I usually think to myself, 'This doesn't taste as good as it tasted to me when I was a kid.'

I thought it was because my taste buds had changed, but it's actually that the candy is not as good: www.nytimes.com/2026/02/19/c...

Dinner Is Being Recorded, Whether You Know It or Not

When you don't realize the person in glasses is recording you, restaurant edition: www.nytimes.com/2026/02/16/d...

AI Delusions Are Leading to Domestic Abuse, Harassment, and Stalking ChatGPT and other AI chatbots are reinforcing users' delusions about other people — fueling fixations linked to stalking and other abuses.

NEW: ChatGPT and other chatbots are feeding users' fixations on real people, reinforcing users' delusional ideas and obsessions about others as they descend into unwanted harassment, stalking, and/or domestic abuse — traumatizing victims and profoundly altering lives.

futurism.com/artificial-i...

This sounds so uncomfortable. Hope you are doing okay.

Our reporting uncovered that hundreds of administrative subpoenas have been sent by the Homeland Security Department to Meta, Google, Reddit, and other social media companies. Some of the accounts they have sought to unmask have flight back in court.

Homeland Security Wants Social Media Sites to Expose Anti-ICE Accounts

New story up on the Homeland Security Department’s new tactic: flood social media companies with subpoenas to unmask anonymous accounts that criticize ICE or monitor the movements of ICE agents.

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/t...

They Are in Love but Don’t Speak the Same Language

Will immediately read anything @kashhill.bsky.social writes www.nytimes.com/2026/02/14/t...

🙏

Something similar happened to me on Twitter about 9 years ago. I was out on maternity leave, not tweeting, but picked up like 50k followers.

I found out it was because Twitter put me on a list of recommended accounts for new users interested in tech. I would guess same here.

Thank you so much! I really tried to capture the nuances here. It seems to me as another example of AI democratizing a skill and allowing everyone to do it mediocrely.

We did a video for this one so people can see what it’s like to have your every marital conversation mediated by a translation app: www.nytimes.com/video/busine...

They’re trying, as I discuss in the story.

A critical period for second language acquisition: Evidence from 2/3 million English speakers Children learn language more easily than adults, though when and why this ability declines have been obscure for both empirical reasons (underpowered studies) and conceptual reasons (measuring the ultimate attainment of learners who started at ...

Age is a factor: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

“Two sets of analyses of our data suggest that learners who begin as late as 10–12 years old reach similar levels of ultimate attainment as native bilinguals. After that age, we find a continuous decline.”

They Are in Love but Don’t Speak the Same Language

For Valentine’s Day, a story from me about A.I. and love, but with no chatbots involved.

He speaks English. She speaks Mandarin. The key to their happy marriage: Microsoft Translator.

💝 Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/02/14/t...

I Used Apple AirTags, Tiles and a GPS Tracker to Watch My Husband’s Every Move (Published 2022)

For a past Valentine's Day, I did a story about tracking my husband's every move with AirTags, Tiles and a GPS tracker: www.nytimes.com/2022/02/11/t...

I love a holiday hook...

Automakers Are Sharing Consumers’ Driving Behavior With Insurance Companies (Published 2024)

I adored and laughed heartily at yours!

Gift link for GM story if you're interested: www.nytimes.com/2024/03/11/t...

Privacy isn't valued until it's violated. The vague idea that automakers gather data from your connected car is probably acceptable to most people.

But when I reported in 2024 that GM was secretly selling data about individual drivers to risk profilers, people were *pissed.*

Meta Plans to Add Facial Recognition Technology to Its Smart Glasses

In an internal memo in May, Meta laid out its plans to release facial recognition in its smart glasses, to the blind first, & then to the general public.

“Civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns.”

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/t...

I am increasingly scared of flying and this does not help.

The reason the El Paso Airport was closed, my colleagues report, is that federal agents shot a laser into the sky that could take down an airplane.

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/u...

oh so just dumb luck these idiots didn’t shoot down a passenger aircraft