Casey Newton

@caseynewton
49.7K Followers
222 Following
1.7K Posts
Email salesman at Platformer and podcast co-host at Hard Fork. [email protected]
I wrote about tech companies' move to promote universal basic income to calm the AI backlash and why it's probably not going to work https://www.platformer.news/ubi-ai-public-wealth-fund-musk-openai-bores/
Some fascinating new research on the scientific case for being nice to your chatbot https://www.platformer.news/chatbot-emotion-research-anthropic-alignment-interpretability/
Anthropic's Mythos model represents a dangerous new moment for cybersecurity. Experts tell me that hackers and nation states may catch up within months — and that the cat-and-mouse game between attacker and defender is about to become much more high-stakes https://www.platformer.news/anthropic-mythos-cybersecurity-risk-experts/

Here's a great and more detailed rundown of the two groups I mentioned @caseynewton:

https://www.platformer.news/social-media-trials-230-content-design/

His conclusion: "Section 230 continues to do a lot of good, and should be handled with care. But to argue that it must be frozen in amber and preserved at all costs is to risk protecting an abstraction at the expense of actual people. Juries have begun to realize that, and one way or another, platforms are going to have to deal with the consequences."

Can you have child safety and Section 230, too?

The verdicts in last week’s social media trials have alarmed open-internet advocates. But it’s possible to regulate platform design while also protecting speech

Platformer
From Grok to Grammarly, more and more people are finding that AI systems have appropriated their identities for financial gain. I wrote about another of those companies — Spotify — taking a belated step to do something about it https://www.platformer.news/spotify-artist-profile-protection/?ref=platformer-newsletter
There's sooo much competition for the title of "Most Brazenly and Publicly Unethical AI-related Thing in Tech" - Grammarly is giving a good run at it though! @caseynewton has an epic takedown of its "Expert Review" feature. https://www.platformer.news/grammarly-expert-review-reviewed/
Grammarly turned me into an AI editor against my will and I hate it

The company tells Platformer it will let experts opt out of the controversial feature — but how different is it than what every other AI company is doing?

Platformer
I wrote about Bluesky's CEO switch. Jay Graber deserves lasting credit for building a big and bustling community. But the challenges ahead of the company are significant: https://www.platformer.news/bluesky-ceo-change-graber/
NEWS: Grammarly tells me it will let "experts" like me opt out of having their names used against their will and for no compensation as part of its "expert review" feature https://www.platformer.news/grammarly-expert-review-reviewed/
In which Ella Markianos attends a protest at OpenAI and finds an anti-movement gradually gathering steam. A fun story, given the stakes https://www.platformer.news/openai-protest-military-ai-movement/
Sam Altman's deal with the Pentagon seems too good to be true. So what happens when the truth inevitably comes out? https://www.platformer.news/openai-pentagon-surveillance-drones-backlash/