Dhanaraj Thakur

Proton Mail Helped FBI Unmask Anonymous ‘Stop Cop City’ Protester A court record reviewed by 404 Media shows privacy-focused email provider Proton Mail handed over payment data related to a Stop Cop City email account to the Swiss government, which handed it to the ...

If you pay Proton Mail for a service, they may hand over the payment data in response to a court order: www.404media.co/proton-mail-...

Chart showing in many countries, people see their fellow citizens as morally good.

We asked people around the world to rate the morality and ethics of others in their country.

The U.S. is the only place we surveyed where more adults describe the morality and ethics of others living in the country as bad than good. See our full morality report here: www.pewresearch.org/...

Proton Mail Helped FBI Unmask Anonymous ‘Stop Cop City’ Protester A court record reviewed by 404 Media shows privacy-focused email provider Proton Mail handed over payment data related to a Stop Cop City email account to the Swiss government, which handed it to the ...

SCOOP: Proton Mail provided Swiss authorities with payment data that the FBI then used to determine who was allegedly behind an anonymous account affiliated with the Stop Cop City movement in Atlanta, according to a court record reviewed by 404 Media.

Grammarly Is Offering ‘Expert’ AI Reviews From Your Favorite Authors—Dead or Alive The tool, offered by the recently-rebranded company Superhuman, gives feedback based on the work of famous dead and living writers—without their permission.

Grammarly's new "Expert Review" tool uses AI to simulate feedback from famous authors and academics, including those who died decades ago. “These are not expert reviews, because there are no ‘experts’ involved in producing them,” says historian @ceaubin.com. www.wired.com/story/gramma...

The mirage of AI deregulation One of the most interventionist approaches to technology governance in the United States in a generation has cloaked itself in the language of deregulation. In early December 2025, President Donald Tr...

🧵 Trump administration AI policy is widely described as deregulatory. This description is misleading. What's happening is not the absence of governance but its rearrangement--intensive state intervention operating through mechanisms we don't typically call regulation. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

I continue to be fascinated by the phenomenon whereby an expert engages with any of the LLMs on their field of expertise and is instantly horrified by the wrong answers, and then goes on to use it for things they are not experts in as though it won’t be just as bad for those.

Microsoft Gave FBI BitLocker Encryption Keys, Exposing Privacy Flaw The tech giant said providing encryption keys was a standard response to a court order. But companies like Apple and Meta set up their systems so such a privacy violation isn’t possible.

Microsoft is handing over Bitlocker keys to law enforcement. www.forbes.com/sites/thomas...

NYC Wegmans is storing biometric data on shoppers' eyes, voices and faces The supermarket chain says it’s a move to ensure shopper safety. Surveillance experts warn of privacy risks.

“Don’t walk in” instead of “just walk out.”

Announcement of Actions to Combat the Global Censorship-Industrial Complex - United States Department of State The State Department is taking decisive action against five individuals who have led organized efforts to coerce American platforms to censor, demonetize, and suppress American viewpoints they oppose....

Hey guys, is punishing human rights activists the government disagrees with good for free speech? Asking for a friend. www.state.gov/releases/off...

The CEO of Microsoft AI says AI chatbots are a powerful way for humans to offload emotions and 'detoxify ourselves' Mustafa Suleyman, Microsoft AI's CEO, has described using AI for guidance on life decisions as "something that the world needs."

These rebranding attempts are getting more ridiculous.

"This promise of an AI future, is really just a collective anxiety that wealthy people have about how well they're gonna be able to control us in the future."

- @tressiemcphd.bsky.social with an absolute mic drop moment about AI bullshit.

Incredible words.
Listen to all of it!

Beware of OpenAI's 'Grantwashing' on AI Harms | TechPolicy.Press J. Nathan Matias and Avriel Epps say OpenAI's announced research funding is the perfect corporate action to make sure we don't find answers for years.

This month, OpenAI announced "up to $2 million" in funding for research on AI safety and well-being. This may seem generous, write J. Nathan Matias and Avriel Epps, but following in the footsteps of other tech giants facing scrutiny over mental health impacts, it's nothing more than grantwashing.

Tech moguls close to Trump see the midterms as a path to long-term power As politicians in both parties raise concerns about the impacts of AI, political groups backed by tech investors and Meta plan to intervene in midterms races.

"...super PACs backed by Trump-supporting tech moguls and the social network giant Meta" will "try to use the 2026 midterms to reengineer Congress and state legislatures in favor of their ambitions for artificial intelligence."

US schools face big price swings for basics under Amazon’s ‘dynamic pricing’, report claims Amazon calls the report ‘flawed and misleading’ and says it offers lower prices than competitors

Amazon “has persuaded cities and school districts to abandon competitive bidding and surrender to its dynamic, algorithm-driven pricing…This opaque system subjects buyers to erratic price swings and allows Amazon to covertly inflate prices and overcharge schools and cities.”

During questioning, FCC Chair Brendan Carr was asked whether the FCC is an independent agency. Sen. Luján specifically cited the FCC website calling it “independent.”

I took a screenshot of the site at 11:54 am

I took another at 12:22 pm and the word “independent” was gone.

#FCCOversight

Older people are spending more time on their phones than the kids are Some think this is a good thing as we enter into an "app-based retirement." I am not so sure.

We’re so focused on the negative impacts of capitalist tech platforms on young people, but not nearly concerned enough about the screen dependence of older people.

Screenshot of a paper entry: Fictional Failures and Real-World Lessons: Ethical Speculation Through Design Fiction on Emotional Support Conversational AI Authors: Faye Kollig, Jessica Pater, Fayika Farhat Nova, Casey Fiesler (There are tabs with "abstract" and "summary" and "summary" is selected.)

The ACM Digital Library, where a LOT of computing-related research is published (I'd say at least 75% of my own publications), is now not only providing (without consent of the authors and without opt-in by readers) AI-generated summaries of papers, but they appear as the *default* over abstracts.

I think it’s also true that loneliness among women has historically been treated as an individual problem, while loneliness among men is treated as a societal problem. That, in turn, comes from an assumption that women are supposed to earn the company of others while men are entitled to it.

So excited to come home and find this book in the mail! Officially on sale today in the UK and in the US in February 📚

Basically my life's work, so I hope you enjoy it!

paritypolitics.org

Polisky Gendersky

it is increasingly difficult to have nuanced takes on "AI" but part of this is that the companies *themselves* set hyperbolic terms of debate that then reward equal and opposite reaction.

Meta shuts down global accounts linked to abortion advice and queer content More than 50 organisations report sites being restricted or removed, with abortion hotlines blocked and posts showing non-explicit nudity triggering warnings

"The takedowns and restrictions began in October and targeted the Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp accounts of more than 50 organisations worldwide ... in what appears to be a growing push by Meta to limit reproductive health and queer content across its platforms."

The Walt Disney Company and OpenAI reach landmark agreement to bring beloved characters from across Disney’s brands to Sora Agreement marks a significant step in setting meaningful standards for responsible AI in entertainment.

Absolutely no way that Disney doesn't come to regret AI user-generated content of their characters openai.com/index/disney...

Instacart’s AI-Enabled Pricing Experiments May Be Inflating Your Grocery Bill, CR and Groundwork Collaborative Investigation Finds - Consumer Reports Exclusive: Instacart’s AI pricing may be inflating your grocery bill.

Is Instacart using AI to inflate the prices of your groceries? Alarming new investigation is a blaring alarm on the dangers of digital price manipulation

www.consumerreports.org/money/questi...

The hidden Kenyan workers training China’s AI models An unemployment crisis has created fertile ground for companies to step in with opaque systems built on WhatsApp groups, middlemen, and bargain-basement wages.

“It’s capitalism and the height of digital colonialism”

Low-wage Kenyan workers are training China’s AI models
https://restofworld.org/2025/kenya-china-ai-workers?utm_campaign=row-social&utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=social&utm_content=1765194720

STS/Communications scholar Morgan Ames (whom these authors don't cite) has repeatedly demonstrated that OLPC was ineffective at best, and harmful at worst, including in an award-winning book published in 2019.

The real question is why economists don't acknowledge work in other fields.

Cheap and powerful AI campaigns target voters in India The Bihar state election was awash with voice clones and synthetic videos that reached voters easily and spread misinformation.

Elections in India's Bihar showed how easily AI-generated voice clones and deepfake videos could spread misinformation and target voters. The technology appeared to favor bigger political parties, report Saurabh Sharma and Raihana Maqbool for @restofworld.org
restofworld.org/2025/ai-indi...

Don't let anyone tell you that the Commission's DSA enforcement against X is about speech or censorship.

That would, indeed, be interesting. But this is just the EU enforcing some normal, boring laws that would get bipartisan support in the U.S. (I bet similar bills *have* had that support.) 1/

Investors expect AI use to soar. That’s not happening Recent surveys point to flatlining business adoption

“we estimate employment-weighted share of Americans using AI at work has fallen by a percentage point & now sits at 11%. Adoption has fallen sharply at the largest businesses, those employing +250 people. 3 yrs into the genAI wave, demand looks surprisingly flimsy” www.economist.com/finance-and-...

AI is Destroying the University and Learning Itself Students use AI to write papers, professors use AI to grade them, degrees become meaningless, and tech companies make fortunes. Welcome to the death of higher education.

"We are exporting the very labor of teaching and learning—the slow work of wrestling with ideas, the enduring of discomfort, doubt and confusion, the struggle of finding one’s own voice." This was my rationale for saying no GenAI in our MA; others disagreed. www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...

CDT Europe is releasing its first report on how the EU’s current approach to spyware is failing to protect democracy. Spyware is being used across the Union to target journalists, activists, political opponents and public officials. The risks keep escalating. 🧵