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Neil Turkewitz

@neilturkewitz.bsky.social

1.6K followers 1K following 3.3K posts

I write mostly about the intersection of tech & art/culture which these days means I spend nearly all my time trying to address the exploitation underlying current AI models. A secular humanist interrogating modern religions.

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Neil Turkewitz @neilturkewitz.bsky.social · Mar 4

“The ‘information age’ has facilitated the weaponization of information & the erosion of an understanding of our fundamental interdependence.
This stems, at least in part, from a willingness to treat art and culture as fungible parts of an information ecosystem.”

medium.com/@nturkewitz_...

Rebuilding the World: Innovating for a Better Future By Neil Turkewitz

This year’s World IP Day is focused on “IP and Youth: Innovating for a Better Future.” I couldn’t imagine a more appropriate, or timely…

medium.com

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Neil Turkewitz @neilturkewitz.bsky.social · 4h

"Instead of cursing the darkness, light a candle for where we're going. There's something ahead worth fighting for." - Neil Young

Neil Turkewitz @neilturkewitz.bsky.social · 11h

“[Baldwin’s ability to make] negation productive of beauty seemed to me, still seems to me, an act of extraordinary defiance. The name I want to give that defiance is art. When I say that Giovanni’s Room saved my life, what I mean is that it gave me art.”

A truly extraordinary essay. 🙏🏼 Garth

Neil Turkewitz @neilturkewitz.bsky.social · 11h

“If we treat art as reducible to its paraphrasable content, we estrange it from what makes it properly art, and so cut it off from its most powerful sources for the more robust sense of affirmation I want to suggest is at the heart of how art helps us live.”

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Neil Turkewitz @neilturkewitz.bsky.social · 11h

“art cannot collaborate in the larger culture’s denial of the irreparable; instead, it must help us not just to face what Baldwin calls reality, but to assent to it. It must help us to say Yes to life even in the shadow—or is it the light?—of doom.”

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Neil Turkewitz @neilturkewitz.bsky.social · 11h

An astonishing essay by @garthgreenwell.bsky.social

“Any art that excludes the irreparable excludes the possibility of genuine affirmation, as I’m trying to articulate it here; such art can only ever be propaganda for life, which can’t offer us any help at all.”

Jay Owens @jayowens.bsky.social · 11h

‘When I was a 14-year-old gay kid in the American South and pulled Baldwin’s novel off a bookstore shelf, it radically reoriented my relationship to dignity. The more I’ve read and taught the novel, the harder I’ve found this to explain.’

— @garthgreenwell.bsky.social

harpers.org/archive/2025...

Enamored of the Abyss, by Garth Greenwell

On the place of affirmation in art

harpers.org

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Neil Turkewitz @neilturkewitz.bsky.social · 12h

good morning 🌞

Neil Turkewitz @neilturkewitz.bsky.social · 1d

This 👇🏽

You are not alone.

Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 1d

No Kings protests, and anti-regime protests in general, serve two main positive functions:

1) Reminding participants and observers that they’re very far from alone, countering regime efforts to divide and isolate

2) Showing the absurdity of regime lies about the peaceful, pro-democracy opposition

Reconstructionist @unavaleable.bsky.social · 1d

Funny they can't say the name of protests because saying "No Kings" makes it soooo clear it's the opposite of a "hate America rally"

Neil Turkewitz @neilturkewitz.bsky.social · 1d

Well, many of the lawyers who worked on this “Restatement” apparently had no idea either. They thought it was a blank slate—a tabula rasa.

Neil Turkewitz @neilturkewitz.bsky.social · 1d

🙏🏼

People might also be interested in this piece I wrote a few years ago which itself contains a number of links to other articles.

When is a Restatement Not a Restatement? ALI’s Highly Original Copyright Journey

By Neil Turkewitz

medium.com

Reposted by Neil Turkewitz

Peggy Stuart @peggystuart.bsky.social · 1d

Hedge fund Alden Global Capital gobbles up newspapers & guts them. Journalist Julie Reynolds investigates. Her findings trigger journalist rebellions at Alden-owned newspapers nationwide. Watch the battle to save and rebuild local journalism in America, free until 10/31:

www.pbs.org/show/strippe...

Stripped for Parts: American Journalism on the Brink

A handful of journalists rebel against a hedge fund that is gutting newspapers nationwide.

www.pbs.org

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Reposted by Neil Turkewitz

WatchYourRepsSC @watchyourrepssc.bsky.social · 1d

The stakes are high and the time is now.

Trump's militarized crackdown on dissent is a threat to our very democracy.

October 18 we stand against authoritarian overreach and we send a LOUD message: #NoKings social.demcast.com/s/zy3rW4X0

Find An Event Near You

social.demcast.com

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Neil Turkewitz @neilturkewitz.bsky.social · 1d

Altman says “There may be some edge cases of generations that get through that shouldn’t, & getting our stack to work well will take some iteration.”

Some iteration to avoid infringement? I’d love to hear a judge’s reaction to that! Once it’s in the data set, downstream controls won’t hold. #Truth

Motion Picture Association Blasts OpenAI Over Sora 2 Video Copyright Opt-Outs

The Motion Picture Association argued that OpenAI - and not copyright holders - is responsible for keeping infringing material off its platform.

variety.com

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Neil Turkewitz @neilturkewitz.bsky.social · 1d

I can’t conceive of anything bad coming of this. You?

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Neil Turkewitz @neilturkewitz.bsky.social · 1d

“Grok is running a lot of inference compute & reasoning to look at all of the source data…& then thinking about each piece of information & adding what’s missing & correcting mistakes & removing falsehoods from that training data.”
—Musk

Grok is “thinking?” I call shenanigans. Pure BS. This stinks.

Musk targets Wikipedia as he enlists Grok to 'rewrite the corpus of human knowledge'

#75 | PLUS: Film producer introduces 'AI director' | MPA slams copyright-violating Sora videos | Major study confirms wariness over AI in news |✨AND: How to prevent AI snafus in high-stakes settings

substack.com

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Neil Turkewitz @neilturkewitz.bsky.social · 1d

“AI threatens not only to undermine the livelihoods of authors, artists, and other creatives, but also to destabilize the very knowledge ecosystem it relies on.”

Consent and Compensation: Resolving Generative AI’s Copyright Crisis — a Review

Consent and Compensation: Resolving Generative AI’s Copyright Crisis — a Review By Neil Turkewitz Frank Pasquale and Haochen Sun recently released a very interesting paper entitled Consent …

medium.com

Neil Turkewitz @neilturkewitz.bsky.social · 1d

“Humans have always understood — and those living under repressive regimes feel acutely — that art sustains us and points the way forward, through this difficult day and toward a better future.”
—@jessicafjeld.bsky.social

Freedom & The Arts: Drowning Truth & Poetry in a Sea of Irrelevance

by Neil Turkewitz

medium.com

Neil Turkewitz @neilturkewitz.bsky.social · 1d

Breaking News:

AND THE NOBEL PRIZE FOR UNDERSTATEMENT GOES TO…

“Trump’s retreat from international institutions & his wish to take over Greenland don’t align with Alfred Nobel’s intent to award the prize to those who promote fellowship among nations.”

Neil Turkewitz @neilturkewitz.bsky.social · 1d

#JaneGoodall

substack.com/@jenrubincon...

@jenrubin.bsky.social

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Neil Turkewitz @neilturkewitz.bsky.social · 1d

Vive la resistance!

Neil Turkewitz @neilturkewitz.bsky.social · 1d

“I want to see us go 5X faster by eliminating the frictions that slow us down…Imagine a world where anyone can rapidly prototype an idea & feedback loops are measured in hours—not weeks. That's the future we're building.”
—Meta

How does obtaining consent work in this “future?” It’s uber frictional.

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Neil Turkewitz @neilturkewitz.bsky.social · 1d

“The quest for salvation through art is always quixotic in Krasznahorkai’s fiction, but it still feels essential, offering an answer to despair, if not a solution to its causes.”

Jacob Brogan for the @washingtonpost.com

Analysis | Where to start with Nobel Prize winner László Krasznahorkai

The Hungarian novelist is famously difficult, but we have some recommendations about where to begin reading his work -- and how to understand him.

www.washingtonpost.com

Neil Turkewitz @neilturkewitz.bsky.social · 1d

Peter Thiel suggests that “the future of all creation depends on giving innovators free rein,” & that
those who critique or want to regulate AI are working in service of, or may be, the Anti-Christ.

But this isn’t a cult.

Inside billionaire Peter Thiel’s private lectures: Warnings of ‘the Antichrist’ and U.S. destruction

In leaked recordings of private lectures by tech billionaire Peter Thiel he argued that “the Antichrist” is likely to take the form of a critic of technology.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Neil Turkewitz @neilturkewitz.bsky.social · 1d

good morning 🌞

Neil Turkewitz @neilturkewitz.bsky.social · 1d

Puts the fun back in “breaking.”

🙏🏼⚖️🕊️

Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 1d

Breaking news: María Corina Machado has been awarded the prize for ‘keeping the flame of democracy burning amidst a growing darkness’ . The win dashes the hopes of US President Donald Trump. on.ft.com/4ocHAKY

Neil Turkewitz @neilturkewitz.bsky.social · 1d

Indeed, anything that restricts their perceived “liberty.” Truth is leftist. Accountability is leftist. Jesus is leftist.