Tim O'Brien

@timobrien
620 Followers
86 Following
89 Posts
Technology, law, and policy | Affiliate Associate Professor, UW Evans School | Lecturer, INSEAD | Purdue, Kellogg, UW School of Law | Former Microsoft
Websitehttps://timobrien.substack.com/
Twitterhttps://twitter.com/_TimOBrien
LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-o-brien-40452161/
Tim O'BrienDec 30, 2023

Very good Brendan Bordelon piece in Politico today on the escalating influence of effective altruism in D.C., and its aversion to scientific, data-driven decision making in favor of weird, cultish fear mongering.

https://politico.com/news/2023/12/30/ai-debate-culture-clash-dc-silicon-valley-00133323

Whether lawmakers have learned the lessons of Sam Bankman-Fried's influential but ill-fated DC charm offensive remain to be seen ... those who took his guidance and his money and would probably like to have a mulligan.

When Silicon Valley’s AI warriors came to Washington

Effective altruism is increasingly described as a cult. But as the movement’s billionaire adherents pour money into D.C., its obsession with the AI apocalypse is remaking the capital’s tech policy landscape.

POLITICO
Show threadTim O'BrienDec 17, 2023

@phaedral That's been known for a while ... as I told @meharris a couple years ago, that was a *highly* unusual situation in that everyone inside the security barrier was either a suspect or a witness, so they were all fair game to eventually get a knock on the door. Here's the piece he wrote for Wired: https://www.wired.com/story/capitol-riot-google-geofence-warrant/

I'm not sure they needed a geofence warrant anyways, as the US Capitol is packed to the gills with Stingrays, cameras, other surveillance tech.

How a Secret Google Geofence Warrant Helped Catch the Capitol Riot Mob

A WIRED investigation has found 45 federal criminal cases that cite Google geolocation data to place suspects inside the US Capitol during the January 6 riot.

WIRED
Tim O'BrienDec 16, 2023
I wrote a short piece to lend some context to Google's announcement this past week about its shortened retention of location data, much to the chagrin of geofence-warrant-happy law enforcement agencies. https://timobrien.substack.com/p/google-the-police-and-geofence-warrants
Google, the police, and geofence warrants

A win for privacy, but not the riddance we need. Only Congress can provide that.

Tech & Policy
Tim O'BrienDec 1, 2023
David GerardDec 1, 2023

twitter's business model was simple:

1. celebrities show their entire arses
2. normal people hurl rotten tomatoes at them
3. show ads to group 2.

it is not clear that a single person at twitter understood this

Tim O'BrienDec 1, 2023
After years of talking about self-regulation in various venues and contexts, I've come to the conclusion that it's pretty much bullshit. It's a made-up term that amounts to an anti-regulation headfake. https://timobrien.substack.com/p/the-charade-of-self-regulation
The charade of “self-regulation”

“Self-regulation” is the EBITDA of corporate policy. It’s meaningless.

Tech & Policy
Show threadTim O'BrienOct 31, 2023
@FrankPasquale The mention of the 737-MAX was an interesting inclusion in this piece. I recently visited Purdue to give an engineering ethics seminar on the MAX and on the way to Indy I talked to the pilots about the automated system that led to the crashes. One of them said, “So many of these flight control systems are automated now that as a pilot, each one takes you a bit further away from actually flying the plane.” This is consistent story w/automated decision systems.
Tim O'BrienOct 26, 2023

The latest edition of product liability theory vs. Sec. 230. A CA judge has ruled that Meta, Google, Snap, and TikTok cannot use Section 230 immunity to dismiss allegations that their products have design flaws that result in addiction, depression, anxiety in young people. h/t @zamaan

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/tech-and-telecom-law/social-media-addiction-suits-advance-in-california-state-court

Social Media Addiction Suits Advance in California State Court

The companies behind Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube failed to completely escape hundreds of lawsuits on Friday claiming the social media platforms cause addiction and harm to children after a Los Angeles county judge shot down the companies’ legal defenses.

Tim O'BrienOct 24, 2023

Solid take on AI safety ... if the x-risk crowd wants to analogize AI to nuclear, then ok, fine ... let's talk about safety engineering and how nuclear is regulated to the hilt. h/t Meredith Whittaker.

https://time.com/6327635/ai-needs-to-be-regulated-like-nuclear-weapons/

How AI Can Be Regulated Like Nuclear Energy

AI labs compare AI risk on par with the existential and safety risks of nuclear, yet they dismiss regulations.

Time
Tim O'BrienOct 18, 2023
@Jonathanglick I don't know much, but I can at least subtract 4 from 217 without Excel.
Tim O'BrienOct 18, 2023
Do we really need Steve Kornacki at the 'big board' to do kindergarten-level arithmetic?