Ben Winters
@benwinters.bsky.social
2.2K followers 1.2K following 240 posts
director of AI and privacy at Consumer Federation of America | teaching tech policy law/reg @udclaw | formerly EPIC (the privacy one not the bad ones), and DOJ Civil Rights division| ⚫️⚪️+🗽 | 🐦 🐿 | he/him contact: [email protected]
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Reposted by Ben Winters
Reposted by Ben Winters
gregpak.net
Racist, fascist billionaires control consumer-facing "A.i." Do not use this propaganda tech.
hypervisible.blacksky.app
The administration “is currently pressuring OpenAI and other AI companies to make their models more conservative-friendly.”
OpenAI is trying to clamp down on ‘bias’ in ChatGPT
GPT-5 is better at resisting liberal ‘pressure,’ the company says.
www.theverge.com
Reposted by Ben Winters
jvagle.me
This is why there we’re seeing the frantic, sweaty push to “insert AI* into everything”—those who have made enormous bets on this industry are increasingly desperate to induce profits in whatever way they can.

futurism.com/future-socie...
AI Data Centers Are an Even Bigger Disaster Than Previously Thought
An investment manager realized he made a crucial mistake — and that his grim prediction about AI investments may not have been cynical enough.
futurism.com
Reposted by Ben Winters
skullmandible.bsky.social
"even if it's AI, it's at least true" hard to overstate the damage this stuff is doing to people's brains. we're gonna be cleaning the slop out of archives for decades
benwinters.bsky.social
and this too in the same week -- surveillance state getting more surveillanced each day

www.wccbcharlotte.com/2025/10/10/t...
benwinters.bsky.social
this is exactly what @kara-williams.bsky.social and i are trying to get at in this blog post from last week -- everything is AI = bad for people and policy, good for industry and advertising

some proposals and pleas:
consumerfed.org/specific-ter...
Reposted by Ben Winters
ali-alkhatib.com
it's less "AI drives people to kill themselves" and more that "tech companies do it, and are indifferent about it". and, bleakly, some journalists seem determined to convince you that the focal point of this story is a high point of engineering rather than a low point of humanity
Reposted by Ben Winters
hailey.at
an interesting note re: scaling image moderation. in the past 24 hours:

at least 500 thousand images in posts (not considering # of images, just if an image was in the post)
86 thousand avatars
500 thousand url thumbnails
58 thousand videos.

that's a lot to moderate!
Reposted by Ben Winters
hypervisible.blacksky.app
Altman claims the company didn’t anticipate people not wanting their deepfakes to say “offensive things or things that they find deeply problematic,” which sounds like a lie but is also indicative of how they recklessly release tech into the world.
OpenAI wasn’t expecting Sora’s copyright drama
It felt “more different to images than people expected.”
www.theverge.com
Reposted by Ben Winters
ryanmarino.bsky.social
OpenAI’s planned data centers will use more power than New York City & San Diego use at their peak consumption, combined. More power than the entire nations of Switzerland & Portugal combined. And San Altman’s buddies in this administration have been cutting all of our energy infrastructure upgrades
Sam Altman’s AI empire will devour as much power as New York City and San Diego combined. Experts say it’s ‘scary’ | Fortune
Andrew Chien told Fortune he’s been a computer scientist for 40 years but we’re close to “some seminal moments for how we think about AI and its impact on society.”
fortune.com
Reposted by Ben Winters
haydenjohnsonn.bsky.social
every AI ad is like

“hey gemini, what would i have for lunch?”

and then the phone is like

“sandwich”

and the guy is like

“wow”
Reposted by Ben Winters
Reposted by Ben Winters
karidru.bsky.social
"You have to know how to use A.I. for getting any kind of job in the future" has me pondering the fact that we are actually terrible at knowing what we're going to need to know to do in the future.
Reposted by Ben Winters
kelciemmorris.bsky.social
“The McCarthy Era ended when Americans from across the political spectrum finally came together and stood up for the principles in the Constitution against the forces of repression. ... Those forces have returned. And it is our turn to stand together in defense of our constitutional rights.”
Jane Fonda Relaunches Committee for the First Amendment With Support of 550 Celebrities Including Pedro Pascal, Viola Davis and More
Jane Fonda has relaunched the Committee for the First Amendment with the support of Pedro Pascal, Viola Davis and more.
variety.com
Reposted by Ben Winters