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Dan McQuillan

@danmcquillan.bsky.social

7.1K followers 360 following 800 posts

https://danmcquillan.org/

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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · Nov 6

I wrote 'Resisting AI' (subtitled 'An Anti-fascist approach to Artificial Intelligence') to help preempt the kind of convergence of far right politics and the tech sector that we are waking up to today. The struggle against fascistic solutionism continues. bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/resisting-ai

Resisting AI

Resisting AI - An Anti-fascist Approach to Artificial Intelligence; Artificial Intelligence (AI) is everywhere, yet it causes damage to society in ways that can’t be fixed. Calling for the restructuri...

bristoluniversitypress.co.uk

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Reposted by Dan McQuillan

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 7h

#WarRavagedPortland

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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 7h

appreciated!

Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 9h

Is Critical AI a bubble?

Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 22h

As one of the Brits sold down the river by a Labour government after being brutally beaten, tortured and disappeared by Italian police in Genoa in 2001, I am entirely unsurprised by this vindictive servility. Solidarity to the Flotilla detainees ✊

Headline from The National accompanied by a photo of Keir Starmer. The deadline reads "LATEST: Keir Starmer's spokesman has said that the detention of activists from the Global Sumud Flotilla in international waters is 'a matter for the Israeli government', "

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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 2d

My piece on 'Labour's AI Action Plan - a gift to the far right' has been reposted as one of the diverse set of papers for debate at 'The World Transformed 2025' assemblies theworldtransformed.org/twt25/assemb...

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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 4d

Most of the time the mute compulsion of capitalism passes unremarked, as we trudge through the daily struggle to make ends meet. But now, people increasingly turn to each other to say "This AI is a bit crap isn't it. Why is it being shoved down our throats?" #technopoliticisation

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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 4d

'AI Growth Zone' = an assembly point for the stranded assets of the near-future

photo of an empty lot seen through a wire fence

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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 4d

"Google Calls ICE Agents a Vulnerable Group, Removes ICE-Spotting App ‘Red Dot’" www.404media.co/google-calls... - turning perennial fascist victimhood into technofascist victimhood

Google Calls ICE Agents a Vulnerable Group, Removes ICE-Spotting App ‘Red Dot’

The move comes as Apple removed ICEBlock after direct pressure from U.S. Department of Justice officials and signals a broader crackdown on ICE-spotting apps.

www.404media.co

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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 5d

Yes it's just a pose. They would back ID cards in the blink of an eye if it suited them.

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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 5d

Wtaf? "Software giant Palantir snubs ‘undemocratic’ digital ID scheme". This would actually be funny if we weren't living in an emergent technofascism powered by the likes of Palantir...
archive.ph/MncRd

screenshot of Times headlines reading "Software giant Palantir snubs ‘undemocratic’ digital ID scheme. The US-based company, which had been touted as a potential bidder, said that it would not seek any contracts around it"

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Reposted by Dan McQuillan

Alex Hern @hern.bsky.social · 5d

Six years ago, almost to the day, Apple removing a similar app from the Hong Kong App Store was seen as such a breach that Tim Cook wrote an all staff email to defend it www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 6d

Headline: % of US GDP propped up by data centre build-outs (> consumer spending) & circular financing
Punchline: merger of the state with big tech + redistribution of power in our non-democracies
'Are AI Companies Cooking the Books? w/ Sarah Myers West' www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvN1...

Are AI Companies Cooking the Books? w/ Sarah Myers West

YouTube video by The Maybe

www.youtube.com

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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 7d

Thanks for the source. Got to hand it to the technofascists, they say the quiet part out loud (AND IN ALL CAPS).

Reposted by Dan McQuillan

michael veale @michae.lv · 7d

Either real-time bidding data or app SDK data is being bought and used by ICE to seize people from the streets. If you didn’t believe that the adtech stack is a human rights concern, I’m not sure what more evidence you need. www.404media.co/ice-to-buy-t...

ICE to Buy Tool that Tracks Locations of Hundreds of Millions of Phones Every Day

Documents show that ICE has gone back on its decision to not use location data remotely harvested from peoples' phones. The database is updated every day with billions of pieces of location data.

www.404media.co

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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 10d

Also, I agree that AI is a much-abused empty signifier, but I also think that actual forms of computation are relevant (which in this case I define as neural networks and other connectionist models), because of the resonances between their concrete operations and their (necro)political effects.

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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 10d

I really like 'the abolition of intelligence'!

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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 10d

The political-economy of generative AI seems to mark a wider systemic shift from the greenwashing of 'green growth' to the open nihilism of 'growth! screw the green!'.

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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 10d

Having said that, I'm intrigued by the idea that you can conceive of the idea of a 'Just AI'. I'm planning to read the book in due course, but is it possible to share why you take that position rather than, say, an abolitionist one?

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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 10d

This looks like a fascinating and important book. I tried to emphasise the eugenicist roots of AI in 'Resisting AI' (bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/resisting-ai) but I think the need for that critique has only intensified with advent of gen-AI.

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Reposted by Dan McQuillan

$fractalecho.bsky.social$

Rua M. Williams @fractalecho.bsky.social · 22d

Why are the negative consequences of so-called AI so consistently directed at disabled and racialized people? Disabling Intelligences details the ongoing effects of the eugenicist mindset on our corporate ventures and our interpersonal relationships. link.springer.com/book/9783032...

Disabling Intelligences

This book discusses the influences of eugenics on the AI industry and the impacts of AI opportunism on disabled people.

link.springer.com

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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 14d

"I am an Antichrist / I am an anarchist / Don't know what I want, but I know how to get it / I wanna destroy Palantir"
[h/t The Sex Pistols 'Anarchy in the UK']
www.wsj.com/tech/peter-t...

Peter Thiel Wants Everyone to Think More About the Antichrist

In a series of appearances, the billionaire investor has offered his analysis intertwining technology, government and a biblical perspective on the end of the world.

www.wsj.com

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Reposted by Dan McQuillan

elia ayoub 🌱 @ayoub.bsky.social · 15d

Now’s a great time to pick up Alaa’s book, folks. It is perfectly titled: you have not yet been defeated

Alaa was not defeated!

YOU HAVE
NOT YET BEEN
DEFEATED
ALAA ABD EL-FATTAH

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Reposted by Dan McQuillan

Mai El-Sadany @maitelsadany.bsky.social · 15d

علاء علي الاسفلت!!!!

Alaa is HOME and FREE!!!

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Dan McQuillan @danmcquillan.bsky.social · 16d

Rather than a just transition, where decarbonised economies are accompanied by more democratic workplaces and a fairer distribution of wealth, we're getting an AI-driven 'unjust transition' that reinforces the global fossil-fuel autocracy. Case in point: restofworld.org/2025/khazna-...

The invisible backbone of the UAE’s AI superpower dreams

UAE's largest data center operator Khazna is challenging Western assumptions while building regional dominance.

restofworld.org

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Reposted by Dan McQuillan

Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 18d

Massively shameful, decidedly uncool, pathetically pandering to OpenAI. Reconsider, @ox.ac.uk

University of Oxford @ox.ac.uk · 19d

Oxford staff and students will access OpenAI’s flagship GPT-5 model through ChatGPT Edu, a university-focused version with enterprise-level security and controls.

Find out more ⬇️

Oxford becomes first UK university to offer ChatGPT Edu to all staff

OpenAI’s flagship GPT-5 model will be provided across the University and Oxford Colleges through ChatGPT Edu, a version of ChatGPT built for universities that includes enterprise-level security and

www.ox.ac.uk

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