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Brian Merchant

@bcmerchant.bsky.social

43K followers 1.4K following 2.6K posts

author of Blood in the Machine, tech writer, luddite newsletter: https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/ books: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/contributor/brian-merchant/ kofi link: https://ko-fi.com/brianmerchant

www.bloodinthemachine.com

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Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · Nov 12

Well hello all, and thanks for giving me a follow over here, and to the starter pack creators who kindly included me.

I'm a tech journalist, critic, and author of Blood in the Machine, a book + newsletter about breaking oppressive machines:

www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/one-year-o...

One year of Blood in the Machine (the book)

On a year of rehabilitating the luddites, resisting AI, and beginning to build a better future

www.bloodinthemachine.com

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Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · 8h

Disappointed in everyone for not immediately sending this to me when it dropped

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5o1c...

grandson - AUTONOMOUS DELIVERY ROBOT [Official Video]

YouTube video by grandson

www.youtube.com

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Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · 23h

🤖🔨❤️

Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · 1d

It was such a pleasure to reread that for the book, really holds up

Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · 1d

Really love to see stuff like this, and it's 100% why I'm very happy to beam into your classroom, workplace, book club etc, to talk Luddites, resisting AI and job degradation, organizing or whatever, whenever I can. Thx Susan, your group was great, and glad you're picking up the proverbial hammer

Susan Kaye Quinn is Writing Solarpunk 🌞🌱 @susankayequinn.bsky.social · 2d

My recent adventures with AI:

—attended bookclub where BLOOD IN THE MACHINE author @bcmerchant.bsky.social zoomed in; I said I've been thinking about "What's my hammer?" (my answer to myself: "stories" and "copyright law")

1/n

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Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · 1d

literally made one about that too but NOW I'm not going to share it ;)

Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · 1d

Turns out when @hypervisible.blacksky.app called OpenAI a "social arsonist" last week, he had no idea just how accurate that was.

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Reposted by Brian Merchant

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 1d

“The more ways that a student reports that their school uses AI, the more likely they are to report things like 'I know someone who considers AI to be a friend,' 'I know someone who considers AI to be a romantic partner.'"

1 in 5 high schoolers has had a romantic AI relationship, or knows someone who has

A national survey of students, teachers and parents shines a light on how the AI revolution is playing out in schools – including when it comes to bullying and a community's trust in schools.

www.npr.org

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Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · 1d

Not going to block, I don't mind. I'm reporting on the app so I need to know how it works, its biases and limitations, how it deals with copyright, and so on. I shared this because I thought it an amusing metacommentary on the unethical practices of the industry but not all will agree, that's fine

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Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · 1d

Nah it’s all good you’re not wrong

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Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · 1d

Good call

Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · 1d

This one is called “AI companies exploiting artists for profit”

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Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · 1d

It’s somehow even worse than I dared imagine

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Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · 1d

Been experimenting with Sora a bit

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Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · 1d

A thing of beauty

Garth Marenghi's Catbus @hayao.lol · 1d

💯

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Reposted by Brian Merchant

kate conger @kateconger.com · 1d

Jonathan Rinderknecht, a white man, was charged with starting the Palisades Fire. But on X, the company's news summary tab shows a photo of a black man.

Screenshot depicting posts on X, one showing the suspect accused of starting the Palisades Fire, a white man. The X news tab reports on the suspect's arrest, but shows a photo of a black man instead.

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Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · 1d

ALT text: "CNN headline that reads: Most companies aren't seeing a return on AI investments. This tech CEO wants to change that"

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Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · 1d

I'll bet he does

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Reposted by Brian Merchant

Susan Kaye Quinn is Writing Solarpunk 🌞🌱 @susankayequinn.bsky.social · 2d

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Reposted by Brian Merchant

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 2d

“The Luddite Club, a nonprofit group that supports taking smartphone breaks, has 26 chapters, nearly all of them at high schools or colleges.”

Young People Are Falling in Love With Old Technology

Driven by a feeling they’ve lost control to screens, twenty-somethings are resurrecting CDs, flip phones and digital cameras

www.wsj.com

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Reposted by Brian Merchant

Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 2d

I agree with every word Zelda Williams says. And this at the end from OpenAI makes me want to go full Ned Ludd. Creators can’t have a blanket opt-out on copyright infringement of their work and have to fill out a form appealing to OpenAI’s mercy every time? Fuck off into the sun

OpenAI told the Guardian that content owners can flag copyright infringement using a “copyright disputes form” but that individual artists or studios cannot have a blanket opt-out. Varun Shetty, OpenAI’s head of media partnerships, said: “We’ll work with rights holders to block characters from Sora at their request and respond to takedown requests.”

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Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · 3d

Yeah exactly — hard bans on related keywords like that are probably the only way to keep from infringing at scale

Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · 3d

I'm also skeptical that this opt-in method will work all that well, aside from in the more obvious cases that pose the greatest risk of litigation like Disney. All of these materials are clearly already in the training data!

Reposted by Brian Merchant

Gary Chun @garychun.bsky.social · 3d

Thread.

Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · 3d

OpenAI's Sora gambit is somehow even more reckless and arrogant than we've grown accustomed to with the company. OpenAI is betting that it can spit in the face of creatives, workers, and the largest media companies on the planet—and bend copyright law to its whims.

The incredible arrogance of OpenAI

With Sora 2, OpenAI is betting it can spit in the face of workers, creators, and the biggest media conglomerates on the planet — and win

www.bloodinthemachine.com

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Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · 3d

ah that's so nice of you, and will keep that in mind but it's all good right now (though could be fun to do something like that at some point regardless.) certainly not dire or anything, just trying to get to a decent spot with it — and paywalls suck, but they *work*

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Reposted by Brian Merchant

Alec Fredericks @alecf.bsky.social · 3d

What's worse is that OpenAI is giving users tools so that they, themselves, can also gleefully spit in the face of creatives, workers & media companies. It's a loogiefest.

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