Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Madeline Ashby

Sunny Moraine @dynamicsymmetry.bsky.social · 9h

I know so much of the apocalyptic AI doomer stuff has been about playing AI up to be much more than it’s turned out to be but it does seem like it possesses the capacity to be an existential threat because of the sheer fucking stupidity of the people who are super into it

Michael Clemens @mclem.org · 15h

“In September, scientists at Stanford reported they had used A.I. to design a virus for the first time.”

Opinion | The A.I. Prompt That Could End the World

www.nytimes.com

3 25 90

Reposted by Madeline Ashby

McGill PoliSci @mcgillpolisci.bsky.social · 9h

And (separately) registration is still open for the alumni Homecoming week roundtable "Democracy under Pressure: What’s at Stake for Canada and the World"

www.eventbrite.ca/e/democracy-...

2

Reposted by Madeline Ashby

McGill PoliSci @mcgillpolisci.bsky.social · 9h

Registration is open for the inaugural conference for the Diamond-Brown Chair in Democratic Studies!

"From Democratic Resilience to Recession: Global and Canadian Perspectives on Authoritarian Backsliding."

alumni.mcgill.ca/aoc/events-t...

1 3 3

Reposted by Madeline Ashby

Miles W. Griffis @mileswgriffis.bsky.social · 9h

NEW: 53 participants involved in the Vyvgart trial for Long COVID are calling on the government to fund research for the drug after they saw significant improvements that the study didn’t capture.

thesicktimes.org/2025/10/10/v...

Vyvgart brought us back to life, but the Long COVID trial was canceled. We are calling on the NIH and HHS to study the drug. - The Sick Times

We are a group of 53 individuals with Long COVID from across the U.S. In 2023, we joined a Long COVID clinical trial for Vyvgart (efgartigimod), a drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FD...

thesicktimes.org

1 84 160

Madeline Ashby @madelineashby.bsky.social · 9h

“Who is Number One More Thing?”

1 13

Reposted by Madeline Ashby

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 10h

“Another former OpenAI employee who also was not authorized to speak publicly argued that releasing a deepfake AI social media platform was the right business decision, even if it contributes to the collapse of everyone's shared sense of reality.” 💀

Sora gives deepfakes 'a publicist and a distribution deal.' It could change the internet

OpenAI's new hit app has unleashed a new wave of AI slop across the internet. But what happens when there are no rules over hyper-realistic synthetic videos?

www.npr.org

6 63 190

Reposted by Madeline Ashby

Nico Mara-McKay 🦇 (they/iel) @nicomaramckay.com · 2d

Canadians: The federal government is seeking public input on how AI should be developed and used in business, research, and the military.

If this scares the shit out of you, please let them know:

Help define the next chapter of Canada's AI leadership

Current status: Open from October 1 to October 31, 2025 Canada helped invent modern AI. To stay a leader—and protect our digital sovereignty—we're running a 30-day national sprint to shape a renewed...

ised-isde.canada.ca

630 630

Reposted by Madeline Ashby

Zoë “Baddie Proctor” Quinn @unburntwitch.com · 14h

Never forget the core thing funding the sheer scale of the spending spree of AI investments is primarily due to the turborich wanting to solve the “problem” of having to pay wages.

Alan Baxter @alanbaxter.bsky.social · 15h

"Put simply, only the extremely wealthy appear to be benefiting from all of this."

Bank of England Warns of Impending AI Disaster

The Bank of England has sounded the alarm, warning of an intensifying risk of a "sudden correction" due to an AI spending frenzy.

futurism.com

10 330 740

Reposted by Madeline Ashby

Angela Watercutter @waterslicer.bsky.social · 12h

Now seems like a good time to reup this package @wired.com did over the summer, which contains the piece below and a lot lot more

www.wired.com/how-to-win-a...

1 13 13

Reposted by Madeline Ashby

Coach D @coachdharris.blacksky.app · 13h

And yet somehow we gotta scroll past a story every week featuring men who are continuously shocked that women want nothing to do with them cause what the hell is this

WIRED @wired.com · 16h

Some sports gamblers are trying to predict WNBA players’ performance—and the outcomes of games—based on the athletes’ periods. One betting content creator has dubbed it “blood money." www.wired.com/story/men-ar...

Men Are Betting on WNBA Players' Menstrual Cycles

Some sports gamblers are trying to predict WNBA players’ performance—and the outcomes of games—based on the athletes’ periods. One betting content creator has dubbed it “blood money."

www.wired.com

6 18

Reposted by Madeline Ashby

dog on the spectrum @sponcon.bsky.social · 1d

a great essay on that very genre of writing! www.nplusonemag.com/issue-51/the...

3 6

Reposted by Madeline Ashby

𝕍∃, Cyber closed shell syndrome relief fund coordinator @vortexegg.com · 13h

AI companies are actually AI gap arbitrage companies

John Herrman @jwherrman.bsky.social · 13h

trying to think through what's unusual about so many AI startups, and about the gaps between their pitches, the real world, and what they would actually need to succeed nymag.com/intelligence...

This attitude toward externalities — not my problem, and in any case worth it in exchange for a small advantage — follows the approximate logic of a spammer and often comes wrapped in the language of AI hustle culture. It's also understandable from the perspective of a job seeker who feels constantly thwarted by automated systems employers use that seem to treat seekers with similar indifference or contempt, or by platforms like LinkedIn and Indeed that, while nominally intended to connect two parties with shared interests (one needing specific services, the other offering them), can feel more like social-media-style black holes for engagement. It's an escalation that will likely be met with more escalation: countermeasures by job-listings platforms and hirers to prevent access by AI agents; more aggressive automated filtering; different hiring routines altogether, making it even harder to get through the door to a coveted interview. Mercenary (and slightly deceptive) automation tools like this, which are being pitched all over right now and already wreaking havoc in, for example, online dating, depend on two temporary circumstances to work, if they ever actually do: (1) that most other people don't have access to them, giving the user an edge and (2) that the people and parties on which they're used will tolerate and take no action against them. In other words, if you take their pitches at face value, they're pretty obviously doomed in the medium term, in the sense that they'll either be rejected by the systems they operate in or simply ruin them for everyone.

Taking stock of the first few years of mainstream AI deployment, though, raises an important question. What if that's sort of the point? Or at least a world worth thinking about in a more thorough, long-term way? Generative image and video tools, for example, have significantly degraded social-media platforms, allowing bad actors and regular people to fill them with slop, intensifying existing problems with spam and deceptive content while thwarting old solutions. And, hey, look at that: Suddenly, OpenAI and Meta are launching new social networks based on AI, on which posting generated content is the point, not a problem to be solved. Generative AI may be placing immense stress on educational institutions and worsening the already strained relationships between teachers and students, but wait — every AI company is selling ed tech now.

8 22

Reposted by Madeline Ashby

Jennifer Molidor @jennifermolidor.bsky.social · 1d

Hanging onto every bit of good news

The river has come alive in the Klamath with wild Chinook salmon. The wider ecosystem is healing.

This most powerful story of Indigenous-led #rewilding after the largest dam removal in US history keeps getting better.

lostcoastoutpost.com/2025/oct/9/o...

One Year After Klamath Dam Removal, 'There's Just Fish Jumping All Over the Place': Scientists Describe Improvements to Water Quality and Wildlife

lostcoastoutpost.com

6 250 640

Madeline Ashby @madelineashby.bsky.social · 13h

Someone* really ought to pitch Natalie Portman on a reboot of THE PROFESSIONAL with her in the Jean Reno role.

*And by “someone,” I mean “EVVERYOOONNNE!!!”

Chicago Sun-Times @chicago.suntimes.com · 13h

During a Sept. 30 ICE raid on a Chicago South Shore building, one resident hid a mother and her seven-year-old daughter in his apartment while federal agents arrested 37 people for alleged drug trafficking, weapons crimes and immigration violations.

Neighbor shielded 7-year-old during South Shore federal raid: ‘I didn’t want them to take her’

During the Sept. 30 raid one tenant protected a terrified girl and her mom. Remnants at the complex, including a detailed map of all the units, offer clues to what authorities may have known before that night.

trib.al

1 8

Reposted by Madeline Ashby

Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 14h

1. Social media is now 5% following friends and 95% watching videos made by strangers.
2. Every podcast is turning into a YouTube show.
3. AI companies can't stop building TikTok clones.

Everything is becoming television.

I wrote about why that matters.

www.derekthompson.org/p/why-everyt...

Everything Is Television

A theory of culture and attention

www.derekthompson.org

9 35 120

Reposted by Madeline Ashby

Janet D. Stemwedel @docfreeride.bsky.social · 13h

Ari Shapiro, this line of questioning is profoundly disappointing.

Juno Rylee Schultz @junoryleejournalism.com · 1d

David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)

SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems...
SIMON: What?
SHAPIRO: ...Or saying...
SIMON: You imagine that?
SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over.
SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level.
SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this.
SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.

1 6 28

Reposted by Madeline Ashby

John Herrman @jwherrman.bsky.social · 13h

trying to think through what's unusual about so many AI startups, and about the gaps between their pitches, the real world, and what they would actually need to succeed nymag.com/intelligence...

4 14 48

Reposted by Madeline Ashby

Dr. Damien P. Williams Wants A Better Sociotechnical Paradigm @wolvendamien.bsky.social · 23h

(I guess a thing about being a Black ADHD-haver living through an era of fascism which has been enabled by the exact things you've spent years studying and trying to warn about is at least maybe occasionally your brain might turn the persistent horror into decent comedy)

9 27 290

Reposted by Madeline Ashby

emily fraser 🌿🐌✨ @emilyesfraser.bsky.social · 3d

Lolsob at the person who decided my neuroimmune disease is fake because they didn’t want to mask for me anymore

Jenka @jenka.bsky.social · 9d

I learned this term yesterday and my life will never be the same.

"Solution Aversion": Denying a problem when you do not like the solution.

4 12 46

Reposted by Madeline Ashby

Padraig2112 @isomorphism.net · 5d

A woman in a floral print sundress and a grandma shaking her fist beat out guys who think it is time to break the existence of the state, every time

1 4

Reposted by Madeline Ashby

Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · 5d

I’m telling you: ridicule works. These guys are supposed to intimidate the citizenry and it’s very hard to do that when a guy in a frog suit is just staring you down and daring you to do something that makes it look like you’re afraid of a cartoon

dan sinker @dansinker.com · 5d

Portland never stops being Portland.

competentposter @competentposter.bsky.social · 6d

wizard frog is insane

110 1.9K 9.3K

Reposted by Madeline Ashby

TCM Party @tcmparty.bsky.social · 5d

Hitchcock carefully directed Burr to resemble producer David O. Selznick, his old Hollywood rival.
#TCMParty #RearWindow ^JW

Chris Sturhann @chrissturhann.bsky.social · 5d

I'm sure it wasn't on purpose: #RearWindow #TCMParty

8 56

Madeline Ashby @madelineashby.bsky.social · 5d

Dr McConaughey sez “All right squared!”

Madeline Ashby @madelineashby.bsky.social · 5d

I feel this in my joists.

5

Reposted by Madeline Ashby

Jeremy Hsu @jeremyhsu.bsky.social · 5d

Intriguing plan that goes well beyond symbolism. "Trucks from the First Nation could soon be transporting food, furniture and even critical minerals south of the border along ancestral pathways once used to move buffalo hides and pemmican across the plains—without paying taxes or tariffs."

Kevin Carson 🇵🇸 🇺🇦 🇹🇯 @kevincarson1.bsky.social · 5d

Indigenous Nations Plan Tariff-Free Trade Corridor Across US-Canada border ino.to/agDxSX2

Indigenous Nations Plan Tariff-Free Trade Corridor Across US-Canada border

“We’re not begging for crumbs anymore. We’re demanding what’s rightly ours."

ino.to

4 73 210