Brian Merchant

When too many people showed up, East Whiteland’s planning commission postponed a data center meeting The project was previously approved, but the developers are seeking expansion.

Love for the people, no love for the data centers. We love to see it. @bcmerchant.bsky.social @parismarx.com

share.inquirer.com/Sg6ABj

respectfully tapping the "support billionaire-free, worker-owned, independent media" sign again

Netflix Backs Out of Bid for Warner Bros., Paving Way for an Ellison Takeover

Bring back cross ownership bans

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/b...

Shout to everyone who's writing such thoughtful (and challenging, even) comments to this piece. Truly lucky to have a reader community like this at BITM.

US military used Anthropic’s AI model Claude in Venezuela raid, report says Wall Street Journal says Claude used in operation via Anthropic’s partnership with Palantir Technologies

they very much would like to give that impression!! it's crucial to their brand as the enlightened AI company alternative to OpenAI et al

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Never mind that it was the first AI co with military contracts that required classified clearance in the first place, or that it's partnered with Palantir. Turning down this DoD contract with all eyes on them and the Trump admin reaching heights of unpopularity gets them a win on the biggest stage.

Statement from Dario Amodei on our discussions with the Department of War A statement from our CEO on national security uses of AI

This is a major PR coup for Anthropic. In rejecting the DoD's demands that it allow the surveilling of Americans and autonomous killing, it gets immediate claim to the moral high ground, which other AI co's won't take. Anthropic is the AI company that *won't* kill and surveil you.

I find myself truly bewildered by the petulant attitudes of tech CEOs and AI pushers. For years now, they've gleefully told people to "learn to do something else then," when confronted with the labor costs of gAI, and laughed/mocked critics.
Why do they expect to be treated nicely in return?

surely because you realized with sudden force how much you were missing out

I've reported 2-3 stories in my career that have sucked the spirit out of my body and this was one of them. But! Seeing the response of the fgc to help their brother genuinely put it right back. Im humbled to have been trusted with this. Help your neighbors friends those in need are all around you.

"The most common left-liberal position is not that generative AI is just a stochastic parrot, but a product built by powerful profit-seeking firms that’s capable of serious harms... a threat to jobs, education, mental wellbeing, the arts, child safety, the information ecosystem..."

well thank you Karl the feeling is mutual

The Problem With AI Is Shitty Human Beings The problem with AI isn't going to be Skynet. It's going to be amoral extraction class assholes applying half-cooked automation at scale onto deeply broken sectors in exploitative ways in a country t...

I had some similar thoughts on the "you can't talk to the left about AI" discourse

To read, library folks 📚

How Brothel Workers in Nevada Just Made Labor History The courtesans at Sheri’s Ranch were staring down a horrifying new contract. So they did what workers everywhere do: They got organized.

When faced with a shockingly exploitative new employment contract that would’ve forced them to sign away their IP, their likeness rights, and their power of attorney, Jupiter Jetson and her coworkers at Sheri’s fought back—fast.

They organized a union in SIX DAYS. www.thenation.com/article/econ...

A must-read synthesis around this technological moment.
#AI #ML

sorry it's just funny literally the one time I finish a post in a rush and I see what it autopopulated and i don't have time to find an image and I'm just like whatever that will work it is inoffensive and here we are

oh lol the CMS auto-populated the image header with an embedded tweet

classic bluesky reply right there lol

what?

“Rejecting or resisting a commercial technology designed to attempt a mass wealth transfer and to erode public institutions is a valid political position.”

cheers!

Actually, the left is winning the AI debate But it does need to get organized.

The left is winning the AI debate. Really outstanding piece by Brian Merchant. www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/actually-t...

Actually, the left is winning the AI debate But it does need to get organized.

The left is not "missing out" on AI. It's winning the argument. Americans worry about AI and dislike tech CEOs. They're mobilizing against data centers. They support regulation, even refusal.

Calls for the left to embrace AI are an effort to change the terms of the debate in Silicon Valley's favor.

unbelievably monstrous and tragic

To do this, anti-trans lawmakers in Kansas moved fast to change the law, overrode the governor’s veto, and pushed for the legal changes to go into effect nearly immediately. That kind of power—to void gender on official documents, to compel gender conformity—is terrifying and it will not stop here.

I would be my life he has entered "is time a flat circle" into chatgpt more than once

pizzolatto was literally my first thought though too

chuck lorre

ahaha excellent, thank you