Who's Who of AI

Brian Merchant

353 trust @bcmerchant.bsky.social · 97,175 followers
author of Blood in the Machine, tech writer, luddite newsletter: https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/ books: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/contributor/brian-merchant/ kofi link: https://ko-fi.com/brianmerchant
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↻ Brian Merchant reposted
@lopatto.bsky.social

“liz you can just use AI as a research tool, don’t be such a Luddite” www.nytimes.com/2026/05/19/b...

nytimes.com
AI Weekly's analysis →
  • The Future of Truth, a book about AI disinformation, contained AI-fabricated quotes attributed to real people that passed editorial review.
  • EY Canada separately retracted a client report days earlier after 60% of its citations were found to be AI hallucinations.
  • Both failures share the same mechanism: AI tools inserted at the research stage produced fabrications that downstream human review did not catch.
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Wrote about the college kids booing AI, and how, in a moment rife with economic precarity, affordability crises, and collapsing job prospects, AI has become a new avatar of American capitalism

bloodinthemachine.com
View on Bluesky · ♥ 238 ↻ 61 ↩ 7 · 4 from the directory shared this · 11d ago

Last week, IT employees at the University of California system across the state formed the largest tech worker union in the United States. This is how they now plan to confront tech industry layoffs, rein in AI, and push for tech for the common good:

bloodinthemachine.com
View on Bluesky · ♥ 180 ↻ 50 ↩ 4 · 5 from the directory shared this · 2d ago
↻ Brian Merchant reposted
Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app

It’s a whole trend.

Students Cheer Jeremy Scott for Ripping up His AI Commencement Speech - Business Insider businessinsider.com
AI Weekly's analysis →
  • Jeremy Scott read an AI-generated speech aloud before destroying it on stage at the Kansas City Art Institute's 2026 commencement.
  • His stunt is the third notable anti-AI commencement incident in 2026, following Eric Schmidt being booed and two AI name-reader failures.
  • Scott explicitly argued AI cannot create original work, only replicate it, framing the issue as a threat to creative identity.
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 View on Bluesky →

Today I learned that the great Wendy Liu aka @dellsystem.bsky.social has a regular column about AI industry billboards in SF in the @bayareacurrent.bsky.social. It's such a great way to examine these companies and AI culture in the valley and the Bay. I'll be reading them all …

bayareacurrent.com
View on Bluesky · ♥ 38 ↻ 9 ↩ 0 · 11d ago
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My kingdom for a good, entirely AI-free web browser

View on Bluesky · ♥ 279 ↻ 39 ↩ 23 · 7d ago