Using chatbots for nonfiction and journalism seems like playing Russian roulette with a semi-automatic firearm. Writing is hard enough without a minefield of fabricated quotes and flagrant plagiarism. Also, the cognitive offloading seems to weaken discipline. www.nytimes.com/2…
Who's Who of AI
Gil Durán
Why they matter
Directory member with public evidence across Culture, work & education.
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- 2d ago
California writer. Ida Tarbell stan. Beat: tech fascism, billionaire extremism, network state, crypto cartels.
Writing: “The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Global Democracy.”
The Nerd Reich: http://www.thenerdreich.com
What they're sharing
Book on Truth in the Age of A.I. Contains Quotes Made Up by A.I. nytimes.com
nytimes.com
nytimes.com
As A.I. Fever Rises in Silicon Valley, Pope Leo Has a Few Words nytimes.com
axios.com
Opinion | Progressives Are Listening to the Wrong People on A.I. nytimes.com
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nytimes.com
Tech Influence Watch influence.citationneeded.news
No, Artificial Intelligence Is Not Conscious theatlantic.com
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Nearly 400 local newspapers sue OpenAI, Microsoft over alleged copyright theft - New Jersey Globe newjerseyglobe.com
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The Fight to Get Money Out of Politics | Tiffany Muller, End Citizens United youtube.com
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Opinion | We Can’t Let My Former Venture Capital Colleagues Buy Off Our Democracy nytimes.com
Articles & links
Want to Fight Back Against Big Tech? Start Here. “Democrats cannot just ‘win the midterms’ and go back to life before Donald Trump and his army of tech bros upended our way of life,” writes @tressiemcphd.bsky.social gift link www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/o...
Gil Durán reposted
"Candidates and political action groups, mostly tied to Republicans, have rushed to adopt the technology, spending more than $137 million to promote such ads this year, the researchers found."
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“Big Tech is essentially its own religion with its own theology and rites, not to mention its own power and influence. Pope Leo’s encyclical will be automatically viewed as false doctrine.” Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/05/25/t...
They still can’t quite say it, but the establishment press is getting so, so close to grasping the situation. I think I predicted 2027 as the year when even the New York Times will take this stuff seriously. I’m an optimist! www.axios.com/2026/06/20/a...
Gil Durán reposted
Dems like Bernie Sanders and AOC are using regulations to effect change in the AI industry—but their goals are informed by hypecycle bluster from Silicon Valley higher-ups rather than workers. Me for @nytimes.com
Stop me if you've heard this one before... Why Tech Oligarchs Are Willing to Risk Apocalypse 🎁🔗 www.nytimes.com/2026/09/12/o...
TECH INFLUENCE WATCH (@molly.wiki) 👀 $526.6 million from tracked cryptocurrency and AI industry companies & individuals 🤨 $352.1 million "on hand"—held by crypto- & AI-focused committees. 🫠PAC spending: $179.8 million spent directly on federal elections this cycle influence.ci…
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Gil Durán reposted
"For all the times that 'honesty' is mentioned in Claude’s constitution, I would argue that it is fundamentally dishonest to have a machine emit many categories of sentences, including any sentences using first-person pronouns."
Gil Durán reposted
Nearly 400 local newspapers sue OpenAI, Microsoft over alleged copyright theft. newjerseyglobe.com/media/nearly...
Gil Durán reposted
My work tracking cryptocurrency and AI industry political spending has only underscored the importance of getting big money out of politics. I recently talked to @tiffanymuller.bsky.social from @endcitizensunited.bsky.social about how we can do this. www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZ…
Rarely do we see a venture capitalist speak out against fellow VCs. "We Can’t Let My Former V.C. Colleagues Buy Off Our Democracy." Please read and share (gift link): www.nytimes.com/2026/06/11/o...
Their own posts
Recent commentary
Politico's owner is giving Peter Thiel an award. Semafor just added more tech billionaires to its Silicon Valley suck-up advisory board. Now comes the Economist's "Insider" interview with Elon Musk, sponsored by Anthropic. The sorry state of business/tech journalism in one stunning image.
Xavier Becerra has gone silent since winning the primary for California governor. But here he is with Peter Thiel protégé Garry Tan—Palantir’s employee #10. “Garry’s List” is an AI-generated right-wing news site. Garry is a top Network State figure & tweeted “die slow” at SF city leaders in 2024.
One thing AI LLMs are very good at: convincing their victims that mediocrity is greatness, and that the ability to generate high volumes of mediocre content is a substitute for skill, talent, or work. This is the distinct impression I get every time I look at LinkedIn.
Someone bought an AI-generated fake ripoff of my book...and then left me a NASTY one-star review on Goodreads. A good reason to avoid buying your books on Amazon, folks! You won't find any AI-generated decoy fake books on @bookshop.org (The reader is fixing the review after writing to me)
Peter Thiel's interest in New Zealand and Argentina traces back to the 1997 book "The Sovereign Individual," which argued that technology would collapse nation-states like the USA in the 21st century. Almost 30 years later, he is still chasing the "prophecy" (now AI and Antichrist-enhanced)
Calling it "super intelligence" will scare people even more than "artificial intelligence." This issue is framed. The name change, intended to make AI sound more dominant and inevitable, will likely harden resistance. Trump steaks, Trump vodka, Trump airlines, Trump casino, Trump intelligence...
Meanwhile on Threads, someone is warming up a bot brigade attack on my book. So far it’s low-follower fake accounts repeating the same AI-generated scripts, expressing mild disappointment in my (highly-reviewed NYT-bestselling) book. Pretty low budget attack (mildly disappointed bots) so far. 🍿
Silicon Valley: Everyone must use AI for everything all the time! It's a miracle! Also Silicon Valley: Please do not use AI, it is too expensive (and we are watching you)
The AI industry seems keen to convince us that it’s too dangerous to exist.
BlueSky has its problems, but I appreciate the lack of vagueposting and AI-generated story-lying here. Every time I crack open one of the older social media sites, it's a tidal wave of overwrought engagement bait. Even the annoying things about BlueSky are decidedly human.
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