The AI industry, corporate censorship & the destruction of knowledge: "But with all the world’s literature as its training data, why do LLMs seem to default so often to the lighthouse? It comes down to how model makers try to safety-align and sanitize their outputs." www.404me…
Who's Who of AI
Teresa Heffernan
Literature prof; author; current project: how literal readings of fiction by the tech industry are destroying the world. Let's read/interpret fiction as fiction. Boycott generative AI (chatbots etc); Website: https://www.socialrobotfutures.com/
What they're sharing
Chatbots Keep Telling Stories About Lighthouse Keeper 'Elias Thorne'. We Might Know Why 404media.co
The Tokenpocalypse Is Here: Companies Are Scrambling To Stop Spending So Much on AI 404media.co
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I’m a Professional Fact-Checker. AI Is Wrong More Often Than You Think | WIRED wired.com
Majority of US’s new AI datacenters to be built on drought-hit land theguardian.com
reuters.com
Is AI Profitable Yet? isaiprofitable.com
Tokenminimizing: Meta Moves to Curb Employee AI Usage as AI Costs Reach Billions theinformation.com
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bloodinthemachine.com
Anthropic CEO Doesn’t Know If Claude Used in Iran School Strike bloomberg.com
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Let AI Burn wheresyoured.at
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cbc.ca
AI Just Isn’t Right wired.com
Articles & links
Teresa Heffernan reposted
Leaked audio from Accenture says a big source of AI token ‘chewing’ is people just converting PDFs to presentation slides. They're not the only company now telling staff to slow down on AI use @evystadium.bsky.social has more. Read @josephcox.bsky.social story here: www.404med…
Disinformation machines: "A March 2025 study from the Tow Center for Digital Journalism found that more than 60 percent of responses from AI-powered search engines were inaccurate. A BBC study puts the wrongness of chatbots closer to 45 percent" www.wired.com/story/fact-c...?
"AI" is not the future: "Worldwide, three-quarters of people could face drought impacts by 2050 all while datacenters use 9.3tn liters of water in the coming decade, enough to meet the drinking water needs of the planet’s human population for over year" www.theguardian.com/us-…
Teresa Heffernan reposted
"Norway is imposing a near ban on the use of generative AI tools by elementary school pupils while also restricting their use in the education of older children to prevent a negative impact on learning" Sometimes, good policymaking is incredibly simple. www.reuters.com/techn…
AI Weekly's analysis
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- Norway bans generative AI for students ages 6-13 starting August 2026, with supervised use permitted for ages 14-16.
- Prime Minister Støre cited excessive AI reliance as a risk to essential skills; the government is also increasing book funding over tablets.
- Norway's 2024 smartphone ban saw reduced bullying and rising grades per the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.
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Teresa Heffernan reposted
Now we can keep track of the money being sunk into AI rather than climate change, healthcare, or education. isaiprofitable.com
AI Weekly's analysis
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- The AI industry has spent roughly $1.4 trillion against $613 billion in revenue, leaving almost every major player still in the red.
- Amazon leads all spenders at $313 billion invested; NVIDIA is the sole major AI player currently in the black, profiting from hardware.
- The site's anonymous creator predicts clarity on AI viability by 2030 and notes Anthropic recently approached its first profitable quarter.
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Teresa Heffernan reposted
The Information reports that Meta is planning to curb its employees' AI spending mere weeks after encouraging them to token-maxx. Meta is on track to spend billions on internal use alone. Anthropic and OpenAI cannot afford for their customers to slow down. www.theinformation.c…
www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/how-anthro...
Teresa Heffernan reposted
Let’s check in on the “ethical” ai company….
Teresa Heffernan reposted
Any AI bailout would be distasteful and insulting to the general public. The AI industry has demanded so much from us — our work, so much memory that phones and laptops are unaffordable, our attention — and it still wants more. There can be no bailout. www.wheresyoured.at/let-…
great time for Canada to jump on board the sinking ship... (www.cbc.ca/news/politic...)
Disinformation machines: "A March 2025 study from the Tow Center for Digital Journalism found that more than 60 percent of responses from AI-powered search engines were inaccurate. A BBC study puts the wrongness of chatbots closer to 45 percent" www.wired.com/story/fact-c...?
Their own posts
Recent commentary
The AI industry, subject to little regulation, has made billions by promising a forever-coming mythical “superintelligence”; its products crucially involve overhauling & locking us into a global infrastructure, perfecting the model of marketing the idea of individual freedom while shutting it down.
Finishing a paper on Neom & waiting for governments to catch up, so they stop investing tax payers' $ in the fictions marketed by the AI industry: "Rather than unveiling a new world, it is the last gasp of a model that has no future, best exemplified by the failure of the Saudi Vision 2030 project."
"The enormous amount of time and effort expended on technical and policy fixes to address the problem of fakes, scams, biases, misinformation, and disinformation are bound to fail if they never address the heart of the problem, the Orwellian language that pervades the AI industry."
Just to be clear: "Automation, surveillance, the degradation of labour, the destruction of the environment, and the upward transfer of wealth--not intelligence--are the backbone of the resource-intensive AI industry."
Their network
In Teresa Heffernan's orbit
Center = Teresa Heffernan. Left = members they follow (green edges). Right = members who follow them (blue edges). Top = mutual follows (orange edges, slightly larger). Drag any node to reposition; click to open that profile.