Ted Fickes
@tedfickes.bsky.social
620 followers 420 following 990 posts
I run Bright+3 which provides content, community and fundraising strategy to nonprofit leaders. I also run the Future Community newsletter and jobs list. All that and more at https://brightplus3.com
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
tedfickes.bsky.social
Of course what one puts in a chat is or will be completely unprotected and accessible to law enforcement, gov agencies, insurance companies, creditors, etc.

What won’t exist is any kind of context. Opportunity for misuse abounds.
hypervisible.blacksky.app
“Whereas criminal suspects in this past may have been incriminated by a Google query on, say, how to clean up bloodstains, a more comprehensive, detailed back-and-forth with a tool like ChatGPT gives investigators far more opportunities to prove intent and mindset…”
What You Tell an AI Chatbot Could One Day Be Evidence in a Criminal Trial
User exchanges with ChatGPT and other AI tools are a valuable new form of evidence for law enforcement in criminal investigations and prosecutions.
www.rollingstone.com
tedfickes.bsky.social
An actual sentence written in the year 2025.
Tech billionaire Peter Thiel has privately hosted a series of sold-out lectures in San Francisco warning that “the antichrist” may already be present, tying the idea to global governance, environmentalism, and technology regulation, and suggesting figures like Greta Thunberg and Bill Gates embody “anti-science” or authoritarian traits hastening Armageddon, according to recordings obtained by The Guardian.
tedfickes.bsky.social
And, to be less opaque...Sucking almost empty west texas aquifers dry to make disinfo videos more broadly accessible doesn't seem "good."
tedfickes.bsky.social
I'm not disagreeing with the points of the essay about the environmental impacts of AI, Sora, etc. Worth reading.

Just taking issue with the unquestioning use and abuse of the "Gen AI is obviously good" narrative in places where good/bad is not the point.

theconversation.com/openais-newl...
OpenAI’s newly launched Sora 2 makes AI’s environmental impact impossible to ignore
As AI shifts from text to video, its appetite for power and water soars, presenting a climate-policy issue.
theconversation.com
tedfickes.bsky.social
Grr... lines like this towards the end of the piece...

"Generative AI can help unlock extraordinary creativity and provide real utility."

...are plopped all over the world as obvious shared facts. To question GenAI utility is to be an unworthy heretic.

Plus, it's not even relevant to the essay.
Reposted by Ted Fickes
maris.bsky.social
this feels… like it’s not gonna age well
Front page of the New York Times 
How Jared Kushner, a Self-Described 'Deal Guy, Helped Broker a Gaza Breakthrough
Trained in New York City real estate, the president's son-in-law had a singular goal: Get to a yes first, and hash out the details later.
7 MIN READ
tedfickes.bsky.social
There's a venn diagram showing the the size and location of the space where autocracy, kleptocracy, and idiocracy intersect. Just so happens to be a room in the White House.
tedfickes.bsky.social
Nothing more than what I read here.
tedfickes.bsky.social
If you've ever been to Nederland, CO, you've probably been in this building and its shops. No doubt you would have had to drive right by it. Not a big town. This is terrible news for all involved. More links below.

coloradosun.com/2025/10/09/n...
Reposted by Ted Fickes
autonomynews.co
Help us raise $50,000 by the end of the year to make Autonomy News sustainable!

To give from a donor-advised fund (DAF) or employer match program, contact us at [email protected].

To make a tax-deductible gift by credit or debit card, visit bit.ly/autonomynews #DAFday
blue slide 1/4 with green and white text that reads:
It’s DAF Day.
Make a gift from your donor-advised fund to support Autonomy News. blue slide 2/4 with green and white text that reads:
DAF Day is a national day of giving from donor-advised funds.
DAFs are charitable investment accounts that allow users to contribute money and get tax benefits upfront, then direct contributions to their favorite causes. blue slide 3/4 with green and white text that reads:
More and more people are using DAFs.
In 2023, nine of the 20 largest U.S. charities were DAF-sponsoring organizations.
Over 3 million Americans are now using DAFs for their charitable giving. blue slide 4/4 with green and white text that reads:
However, DAFs aren’t always a force for good. 
In fact, they have become a favorite vehicle for far-right billionaires, who have shifted their giving from foundations to DAFs, because DAFs are less transparent.
tedfickes.bsky.social
ha ha...Pete Sessions...they're trotting out the true "idea folks" for this one.

Maybe he has an outside shot at bronze in the "i once thought about something" olympics.
tedfickes.bsky.social
Talked to my stepfather last night. 88 years old. Mormon. Grew up in Whitefish, MT. Worked in oil biz his whole life. Not liberal.

Anywhoo...our 60 seconds of politics talk was basically him asking me "Why are we letting a clearly mentally incompetent person destroy the country?"

Valid question.
atrupar.com
Trump: "I don't know what could be worse than Portland. You don't even have stores anymore. They don't even put glass up. They put plywood on their windows."
Reposted by Ted Fickes
carlquintanilla.bsky.social
“.. Never before has so much money been spent so rapidly on a technology that, for all its potential, remains largely unproven ..”

@bloomberg.com $NVDA
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
Reposted by Ted Fickes
lauraolin.bsky.social
NPR could easily fill a desperately needed public service for trustworthy legacy media, and likely easily meet its own small dollar fundraising goals after having its federal funding pulled, by simply describing things as they are. But instead they choose to do whatever this is.
npr.org
NPR @npr.org · 4d
President Trump is bucking tradition and legal precedent in pushing to deploy the National Guard to Democratic-led cities like Portland, Oregon, and Chicago due to what he says is rampant crime and to support his crackdown on illegal immigration.
Trump's power to deploy National Guard, explained
President Trump is bucking tradition and legal precedent in pushing to deploy the National Guard to Democratic-led cities like Portland, Oregon, and Chicago due to what he says is rampant crime and to support his crackdown on illegal immigration.
n.pr
tedfickes.bsky.social
Learn how to journalism you bozos.
Reposted by Ted Fickes
greene.haus
“And for the love of EVERYTHING, stop calling it 'the future'. AI is just badly recycling and regurgitating the past to be reconsumed. You are taking in the Human Centipede of content, and from the very very end of the line.”

She couldn’t be righter.
chibdm.bsky.social
Robin Williams' daughter has some quality thoughts on AI slop
tedfickes.bsky.social
Accidentally clicked a link to one of LinkedIn's games and now I'm never going to stop getting pitched for their games because this is how the world works now.

Click the wrong thing and you'll suffer through every level of algorithmic hell forever.
tedfickes.bsky.social
Granada in October sounds amazing.

We went to flamenco in a cave: cuevaslostarantos.com sure, sounds touristy but fun.

Granada does good (and free) tapas. All the time.

Wander the streets of Albayzin.

We did a food tour w/ these folks: www.spainfoodsherpas.com/granada/

Alhambra at night!
The Alhambra lit up at night.
Reposted by Ted Fickes
blockclubchi.bsky.social
Amid ICE activity, CTU and elected officials are calling for communities to protect students and families.

Chalkbeat reports: blockclubchi.co/4o5UN8i