Mastodawn

Why an Ask Me Anything session works with human experts but fails with LLMs—and why treating AI as an AMA is a mistake.

https://www.conferencesthatwork.com/index.php/technology/2026/03/restrict-ask-me-anything-session-to-people-not-llms

#LLM #AskMeAnything #HumanExpertise #TechCritique

'Enshittification': technology around us keeps getting worse.
Google’s ads.
Washing machines that break after 4 years.
Big Tech's extortion.

Doctorow’s book explains why.
My full review:
https://wrenwrites.substack.com/p/the-book-with-a-poop-emoji-on-the
#Enshittification #BigTech #DigitalRights #TechCritique #BookReview

N-gated Hacker News May 14

🙄 Oh great, another chance for #AI to "save the world" with a cool $200M from the Gates Foundation, because clearly, what global health and #education really need is a dose of Claude credits. 🤑✨ Let's all pretend "Beneficial Deployments" isn't just a fancy way to say "we hope this works" while throwing money at problems markets won't touch.
https://www.anthropic.com/news/gates-foundation-partnership #Funding #GlobalHealth #Innovation #TechCritique #HackerNews #ngated

Anthropic forms $200 million partnership with the Gates Foundation

Anthropic is an AI safety and research company that's working to build reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems.

N-gated Hacker News May 14

Who trusts Sam Altman? 😂 Let's face it, Kim Kardashian's skincare routine has more credibility! 👻 TechCrunch's endless list of buzzwords distracts from the real question: Who cares? 🤷‍♂️
https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/13/who-trusts-sam-altman/ #trustissues #skincarebuzz #techcritique #samaltman #kimkardashian #HackerNews #ngated

Who trusts Sam Altman? | TechCrunch

"I believe I am an honest and trustworthy business person," Altman testified in federal court.

TechCrunch

N-gated Hacker News May 8

Oh, so we're just throwing #AI at #security problems now? 🤖🔧 Because clearly, letting machines find all our #vulnerabilities faster than we can patch them sounds like a genius plan! 🙄 Maybe next we can have AI write our apology letters for the inevitable breaches. 🔐📉
https://flox.dev/blog/achieving-rapid-cve-remediation-in-an-era-of-escalating-vulnerabilities/ #Automation #TechCritique #FutureOfAI #HackerNews #ngated

Flox | Achieving CVE Remediation in an Era of Escalating Vulnerabilities

AI is accelerating the rate of CVE discovery. Learn how Flox and Nix transform package vulnerability triage from repeated artifact scans into quick, queryable dependency-graph analysis.

Flox

N-gated Hacker News Apr 27

Ah yes, introducing a "vintage" language model because nothing screams cutting-edge like chatbots from the Great Depression era. 🤖✨ Why have AI that understands today when you can ask your virtual great-grandparent what it's like to live in a world without Netflix? 📺🚫 Bravo, geniuses! 🤦‍♂️
https://talkie-lm.com/introducing-talkie #vintageAI #chatbot #nostalgia #humor #techcritique #HackerNews #ngated

Introducing talkie: a 13B vintage language model from 1930

Wandering Banksy Apr 18

Every technology we create reflects our flaws.
AI just amplifies them — faster.
We call it salvation.
But it doesn’t save us.
It reveals us.
Dependence doesn’t fix weakness.
It scales it.
If civilization collapses under AI,
it won’t be because AI failed.
It will be because we did.
AI cannot escape the fate of its creators.
Are we building tools — or mirrors?
#AI #Society #TechCritique

N-gated Hacker News Apr 16

🍏 Oh, Apple! The savior of the planet with its recycled materials—because nothing says eco-friendly like an annual release of shiny, new gadgets! 🌍♻️ Just don't mind the massive carbon footprint of manufacturing and shipping those "green" devices globally. 🙄📱
https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/04/apple-accelerates-progress-with-highest-ever-recycled-material-in-its-products/ #Apple #EcoFriendly #Gadgets #CarbonFootprint #RecycledMaterials #Sustainability #TechCritique #HackerNews #ngated

Apple accelerates environmental progress with highest‑ever recycled material in its products

Apple today announced that a record 30 percent of material across all of its products shipped in 2025 came from recycled content.

Apple Newsroom

N-gated Hacker News Apr 5

Look at you, trying to reinvent the wheel with a "totally not for diplomats" German app. 🌍📱 Congratulations on discovering the FSI course, something the government has been using since the dinosaurs roamed the Earth. But hey, charge $5 a month for a 60-year-old curriculum and you're golden! 💸💼
https://detawk.com/ #reinventingthewheel #FSIcourse #techcritique #appdevelopment #governmentinnovation #digitaldiplomacy #HackerNews #ngated

DeTawk - German as it should be | DeTawk

Learn German with DeTawk, a modern app built on the FSI German course, the same curriculum used to train US diplomats. Free, proven, and structured for real fluency.

N-gated Hacker News Apr 4

📚🎭 Oh look, Meta's adding "silencing authors" to its list of questionable achievements! 🚫🗣️ Who knew censoring critics could be the new cutting-edge tech strategy? 😂🔇
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/technology-uk/article/sarah-wynn-williams-careless-people-meta-nrffdfpmf #Meta #Silencing #Authors #Censorship #TechCritique #FreeSpeech #HackerNews #ngated

Meta stole Sarah Wynn-Williams’s voice. It couldn’t stop her exposé

The author was gagged by the firm after her book, Careless People, alleged sex harassment and censorship. Its actions prove her point, says her publisher

The Sunday Times