Ben Winters
@benwinters.bsky.social
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]
contact: [email protected]
Reposted by Ben Winters
The media really will treat LLMs as human before they give trans people the same courtesy
November 25, 2025 at 9:39 PM
The media really will treat LLMs as human before they give trans people the same courtesy
not new but it's so insane that google doesnt allow users to toggle off AI overviews for user search as a setting -- having to download an extension that only hides it or write -ai everytime is wild even by todays standards, and there's no reason to accept google search as mostly an AI training tool
November 25, 2025 at 3:10 PM
not new but it's so insane that google doesnt allow users to toggle off AI overviews for user search as a setting -- having to download an extension that only hides it or write -ai everytime is wild even by todays standards, and there's no reason to accept google search as mostly an AI training tool
Reposted by Ben Winters
Okay, I hestitate to even share this link, because while I like NYMag I do not want to send this journalist in particular clicks, b ut:
If your framing is that an academic is the "dominant voice" and the underdogs are OpenAI, Anthropic and Google, maybe a fact check in is order??
>>
If your framing is that an academic is the "dominant voice" and the underdogs are OpenAI, Anthropic and Google, maybe a fact check in is order??
>>
Is ChatGPT Conscious?
Many users feel they’re talking to a real person. Scientists say it’s time to consider whether they’re onto something.
nymag.com
November 25, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Okay, I hestitate to even share this link, because while I like NYMag I do not want to send this journalist in particular clicks, b ut:
If your framing is that an academic is the "dominant voice" and the underdogs are OpenAI, Anthropic and Google, maybe a fact check in is order??
>>
If your framing is that an academic is the "dominant voice" and the underdogs are OpenAI, Anthropic and Google, maybe a fact check in is order??
>>
this could not be more AI-generated
November 25, 2025 at 3:01 PM
this could not be more AI-generated
Reposted by Ben Winters
A massive cache of Flock lookups collated by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) shows as many as 50 federal, state, and local agencies used Flock during protests over the last year.
Cops Used Flock to Monitor No Kings Protests Around the Country
A massive cache of Flock lookups collated by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) shows as many as 50 federal, state, and local agencies used Flock during protests over the last year.
www.404media.co
November 21, 2025 at 12:30 AM
A massive cache of Flock lookups collated by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) shows as many as 50 federal, state, and local agencies used Flock during protests over the last year.
Reposted by Ben Winters
Any time corporate executives are in a room together and don't know they're being recorded, the transcript is like: "Christ, I hate our customers. We're agreed that we all hate our customers? Let's lie to the IRS, criminally. Did I mention the Holocaust never happened? Put more lead in our soda."
Campbell's soup VP caught on tape trashing his own brand. Oof. www.clickondetroit.com/news/local/2...
November 24, 2025 at 11:32 PM
Any time corporate executives are in a room together and don't know they're being recorded, the transcript is like: "Christ, I hate our customers. We're agreed that we all hate our customers? Let's lie to the IRS, criminally. Did I mention the Holocaust never happened? Put more lead in our soda."
Reposted by Ben Winters
The reason why platform companies do make it hard to find account location information is not because they believe in privacy, it's so that advertisers do not know how much is lost to low-tier engagement.
Growth, at all costs, means avoiding publishing basic metadata so that advertisers don't sue.
Growth, at all costs, means avoiding publishing basic metadata so that advertisers don't sue.
November 24, 2025 at 8:23 PM
The reason why platform companies do make it hard to find account location information is not because they believe in privacy, it's so that advertisers do not know how much is lost to low-tier engagement.
Growth, at all costs, means avoiding publishing basic metadata so that advertisers don't sue.
Growth, at all costs, means avoiding publishing basic metadata so that advertisers don't sue.
Reposted by Ben Winters
I was actually trying to read the article, but had to scroll past & work to avoid any stray clicks landing on this:
I'm trying to read the damn article, which presumably has answers to those questions, which I can find by ... reading the article.
>>
I'm trying to read the damn article, which presumably has answers to those questions, which I can find by ... reading the article.
>>
November 24, 2025 at 5:48 PM
I was actually trying to read the article, but had to scroll past & work to avoid any stray clicks landing on this:
I'm trying to read the damn article, which presumably has answers to those questions, which I can find by ... reading the article.
>>
I'm trying to read the damn article, which presumably has answers to those questions, which I can find by ... reading the article.
>>
Reposted by Ben Winters
They're offloading all the debt onto special purpose vehicles (SPV) that are legally distinct entities propped up by promises from meta for decades of demand in compute. The banks take all the risk, Nvidia gets the equity and revenue, Meta gets the stock bump without the downside.
"It seems like a marvel of financial engineering: Meta is building a $27 billion data center in Louisiana, financed with debt, and neither the data center nor the debt will be on its own balance sheet."
AI Meets Aggressive Accounting at Meta’s Gigantic New Data Center
Favorable treatment off the balance sheet hinges on some convenient assumptions.
www.wsj.com
November 24, 2025 at 2:30 PM
They're offloading all the debt onto special purpose vehicles (SPV) that are legally distinct entities propped up by promises from meta for decades of demand in compute. The banks take all the risk, Nvidia gets the equity and revenue, Meta gets the stock bump without the downside.
Reposted by Ben Winters
17 strikes and you’re out. 💀
November 23, 2025 at 4:48 PM
17 strikes and you’re out. 💀
Reposted by Ben Winters
This is a story about how America’s world-leading cancer and dementia research system was destroyed by frauds and naifs who broke the law.
There must be consequences.
There must be consequences.
Some incredible details in this piece
*one DOGE faction was planning the future of the US government at a venture capital firm
*illegally communicating on Signal to avoid transparency laws was deeply embedded into organizational culture to be taken for granted
*one DOGE faction was planning the future of the US government at a venture capital firm
*illegally communicating on Signal to avoid transparency laws was deeply embedded into organizational culture to be taken for granted
November 22, 2025 at 10:12 PM
This is a story about how America’s world-leading cancer and dementia research system was destroyed by frauds and naifs who broke the law.
There must be consequences.
There must be consequences.
my obligatory plug of my piece with @kara-williams.bsky.social on the critical policy implications of this and the desperate need to be more specific
consumerfed.org/specific-ter...
consumerfed.org/specific-ter...
November 23, 2025 at 3:56 PM
my obligatory plug of my piece with @kara-williams.bsky.social on the critical policy implications of this and the desperate need to be more specific
consumerfed.org/specific-ter...
consumerfed.org/specific-ter...
Reposted by Ben Winters
I'll just leave these here
November 21, 2025 at 1:31 PM
I'll just leave these here
Reposted by Ben Winters
The extent to which the tech companies are becoming energy companies is one of the biggest stories of the year.
Meta Looks to Power Trading to Support Its AI Energy Needs
Meta Platforms Inc. is venturing into the complex world of electricity trading, betting it can accelerate the construction of new US power plants that are vital to its artificial intelligence ambition...
www.bloomberg.com
November 21, 2025 at 9:36 PM
The extent to which the tech companies are becoming energy companies is one of the biggest stories of the year.
Reposted by Ben Winters
Imagine being one of those CEOs or school presidents who bowed down to this weird old man, then realizing he doesn’t like you as much as he likes this guy who didn’t bow at all
November 21, 2025 at 9:32 PM
Imagine being one of those CEOs or school presidents who bowed down to this weird old man, then realizing he doesn’t like you as much as he likes this guy who didn’t bow at all
Reposted by Ben Winters
lmao
Q: Are you affirming that you think President Trump is a fascist?
MAMDANI: I've spoken about--
TRUMP: That's okay. You can just say yes. I don't mind.
MAMDANI: I've spoken about--
TRUMP: That's okay. You can just say yes. I don't mind.
November 21, 2025 at 9:08 PM
lmao
Reposted by Ben Winters
Very good stuff that we can’t find OpenAI’s auditor! Sure it’s fine I guess
www.ft.com/content/3cff...
www.ft.com/content/3cff...
Who is OpenAI’s auditor?
Just asking
www.ft.com
November 20, 2025 at 4:08 AM
Very good stuff that we can’t find OpenAI’s auditor! Sure it’s fine I guess
www.ft.com/content/3cff...
www.ft.com/content/3cff...
Reposted by Ben Winters
When I was a kid, one of the reasons we were told Communism was bad was that communist countries did not allow free movement.
November 20, 2025 at 6:07 PM
When I was a kid, one of the reasons we were told Communism was bad was that communist countries did not allow free movement.
Reposted by Ben Winters
Before the midterms of 1866, President Andrew Johnson called his congressional opponents traitors and said they should be hanged.
Voters were so profoundly moved by his words... that they gave his opponents a supermajority in Congress, and the nation got the Fourteenth Amendment.
Voters were so profoundly moved by his words... that they gave his opponents a supermajority in Congress, and the nation got the Fourteenth Amendment.
November 20, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Before the midterms of 1866, President Andrew Johnson called his congressional opponents traitors and said they should be hanged.
Voters were so profoundly moved by his words... that they gave his opponents a supermajority in Congress, and the nation got the Fourteenth Amendment.
Voters were so profoundly moved by his words... that they gave his opponents a supermajority in Congress, and the nation got the Fourteenth Amendment.
Reposted by Ben Winters
bringing back shame and consequences would not by any means be the ballgame, but it would certainly be something
#BREAKING: Former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers will immediately leave his role as an instructor at Harvard while the University investigates his ties to child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Dhruv T. Patel and Cam N. Srivastava report.
Dhruv T. Patel and Cam N. Srivastava report.
Summers Will Not Finish Semester of Teaching as Harvard Investigates Epstein Ties | News | The Harvard Crimson
Former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers will immediately leave his role as an instructor at Harvard while the University investigates his ties to child sex trafficker Jeffrey E. Epstein.
www.thecrimson.com
November 20, 2025 at 2:21 AM
bringing back shame and consequences would not by any means be the ballgame, but it would certainly be something
Absolutely disastrous, unacceptable, and insulting - it perfectly reflects the priorities of the administration.
Companies > People
Government exclusively as a tool for business growth, personal profit, and retribution, rather than harnessing their power to protect people right now
Companies > People
Government exclusively as a tool for business growth, personal profit, and retribution, rather than harnessing their power to protect people right now
NEW: US President Donald Trump is considering signing an executive order that would seek to challenge state efforts to regulate artificial intelligence through lawsuits and the withholding of federal funding, WIRED has learned.
Trump Takes Aim at State AI Laws in Draft Executive Order
The draft order, obtained by WIRED, instructs the US Justice Department to sue states that pass laws regulating AI.
www.wired.com
November 20, 2025 at 2:27 AM
Absolutely disastrous, unacceptable, and insulting - it perfectly reflects the priorities of the administration.
Companies > People
Government exclusively as a tool for business growth, personal profit, and retribution, rather than harnessing their power to protect people right now
Companies > People
Government exclusively as a tool for business growth, personal profit, and retribution, rather than harnessing their power to protect people right now
Reposted by Ben Winters
Yep, here's your problem
gizmodo.com/ai-powered-t...
gizmodo.com/ai-powered-t...
AI-Powered Teddy Bear Caught Talking About Sexual Fetishes and Instructing Kids How to Find Knives
OpenAI blocked access for the toymaker following the incidents.
gizmodo.com
November 19, 2025 at 12:45 AM
Yep, here's your problem
gizmodo.com/ai-powered-t...
gizmodo.com/ai-powered-t...
Reposted by Ben Winters
Call me crazy but I really do think if you've been face swapped into nonconsensual porn because you, a woman, dared to have a photo online, you should be able to sue everyone involved into oblivion
This is so disgusting people should not have to be afraid of putting their pictures online lest some creep turn them into fap material.
'AI girls never say no' is...quite a thing.
'AI girls never say no' is...quite a thing.
Massive Leak Shows Erotic Chatbot Users Turned Women’s Yearbook Pictures Into AI Porn
Chatbot roleplay and image generator platform SecretDesires.ai left cloud storage containers of nearly two million of images and videos exposed, including photos and full names of women from social me...
www.404media.co
November 19, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Call me crazy but I really do think if you've been face swapped into nonconsensual porn because you, a woman, dared to have a photo online, you should be able to sue everyone involved into oblivion