Livio Liechti
@livliilvil.bsky.social
grant writer and researcher | publisher and editor papertrail.world | riso printing apprentice | flâneur | street library enthusiast
Reposted by Livio Liechti
2025 was just two dumb LLMs telling each other “exaaaaactlyyyy”
December 22, 2025 at 9:14 AM
2025 was just two dumb LLMs telling each other “exaaaaactlyyyy”
Reposted by Livio Liechti
Finally in English:
"The Swiss government was also on the tech company’s wish list, but no deal ever came to be. The country’s federal agencies and army have so far shied away from cooperation."
www.swissinfo.ch/eng/war-peac...
"The Swiss government was also on the tech company’s wish list, but no deal ever came to be. The country’s federal agencies and army have so far shied away from cooperation."
www.swissinfo.ch/eng/war-peac...
Why Palantir is becoming a risky bet for Switzerland
Zurich serves as a hub for US tech company Palantir’s business relations. The Swiss foreign ministry now has the company in its sights, because of its controversial role in Gaza.
www.swissinfo.ch
December 22, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Finally in English:
"The Swiss government was also on the tech company’s wish list, but no deal ever came to be. The country’s federal agencies and army have so far shied away from cooperation."
www.swissinfo.ch/eng/war-peac...
"The Swiss government was also on the tech company’s wish list, but no deal ever came to be. The country’s federal agencies and army have so far shied away from cooperation."
www.swissinfo.ch/eng/war-peac...
Reposted by Livio Liechti
If you can’t be bothered to do your own research, develop your own ideas, and bring it all together in your own words that you have written then why on earth are you in academia?
December 15, 2025 at 9:12 PM
If you can’t be bothered to do your own research, develop your own ideas, and bring it all together in your own words that you have written then why on earth are you in academia?
New data by CBS, the Dutch statistics agency, suggest that data centres consumed 4,6 % of the Netherlands’ electricity in 2024. In 2017, data centre consumption amounted to just 1,5 % of all electricity supplied.
www.cbs.nl/en-gb/news/2...
www.cbs.nl/en-gb/news/2...
December 15, 2025 at 9:07 AM
New data by CBS, the Dutch statistics agency, suggest that data centres consumed 4,6 % of the Netherlands’ electricity in 2024. In 2017, data centre consumption amounted to just 1,5 % of all electricity supplied.
www.cbs.nl/en-gb/news/2...
www.cbs.nl/en-gb/news/2...
Reposted by Livio Liechti
the re-emergence of zines as samizdat in the US right now www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
Gen Zine: DIY publications find new life as a form of resistance against Trump
Zines have made a resurgence as communities seek to share information on everything from ICE raids to local elections
www.theguardian.com
December 11, 2025 at 5:19 AM
the re-emergence of zines as samizdat in the US right now www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
Reposted by Livio Liechti
Oh, and they collect and keep it even if they deny your application. Plus the $160 fee.
December 13, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Oh, and they collect and keep it even if they deny your application. Plus the $160 fee.
Reposted by Livio Liechti
Hey… pssst. The reason why the 5 year social media histories are only being asked of ESTA applicants is because the US government has been collecting social media information of visa applicants for almost a decade now. Once again, migration rights were the canary in the coal mine.
December 13, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Hey… pssst. The reason why the 5 year social media histories are only being asked of ESTA applicants is because the US government has been collecting social media information of visa applicants for almost a decade now. Once again, migration rights were the canary in the coal mine.
Reposted by Livio Liechti
how much water does it take to disrupt the careers of millions of people? how much water does it take to make deepfakes of underage kids? how much water does it take to exacerbate people's mental health crises? is there a good number? is there an acceptable number?
December 12, 2025 at 11:17 PM
how much water does it take to disrupt the careers of millions of people? how much water does it take to make deepfakes of underage kids? how much water does it take to exacerbate people's mental health crises? is there a good number? is there an acceptable number?
Reposted by Livio Liechti
While other AI companies are still struggling to monetize #genAI, Google has found an obvious solution: Sell it to the military. Now, U.S. soldiers can unleash the power of AI for tasks such as «summarizing policy handbooks,» a task that will certainly prove vital on the battlefields of the future
Google is powering a new US military AI platform
“The future of American warfare is here, and it’s spelled A-I.”
www.theverge.com
December 10, 2025 at 8:17 AM
While other AI companies are still struggling to monetize #genAI, Google has found an obvious solution: Sell it to the military. Now, U.S. soldiers can unleash the power of AI for tasks such as «summarizing policy handbooks,» a task that will certainly prove vital on the battlefields of the future
Reposted by Livio Liechti
It is so striking to see the disclaimer "AI can make mistakes. Check outputs before using" on every single piece of software. Imagine the equivalent warning label on the Ford Pinto. "The fuel tank ruptures and bursts into deadly flames when crashed. Do not crash the Ford Pinto while driving"
I will be teaching about Ford Pinto case in my sociology of law lecture tomorrow on the risk society & collective harms. It is clear that the development of (gen) #AI fits in same capitalist & risk logic but big difference is that this type of corporate behaviour has become normalised and accepted
December 9, 2025 at 11:25 AM
It is so striking to see the disclaimer "AI can make mistakes. Check outputs before using" on every single piece of software. Imagine the equivalent warning label on the Ford Pinto. "The fuel tank ruptures and bursts into deadly flames when crashed. Do not crash the Ford Pinto while driving"
Reposted by Livio Liechti
«Sie sind alle hier, weil ihre Unternehmen hier keine Steuern zahlen. … Weil wir kaum Techregulierung haben. Weil wir einen der schnellsten Supercomputer der Welt haben: ‹Alps›, von der ETH mit Steuergeldern entwickelt, um KI-Modelle wissenschaftlich zu prüfen.» www.tagesanzeiger.ch/palantir-in-...
Steuerdumping: Werden wir zu Gehilfen der neuen Plutokratie?
Grosse Techunternehmen wie Google, Meta oder Palantir siedeln sich in der Schweiz an. Sie zahlen keine Steuern, profitieren aber von ETH-Absolventen und staatlich finanzierten Supercomputern.
www.tagesanzeiger.ch
December 7, 2025 at 2:01 PM
«Sie sind alle hier, weil ihre Unternehmen hier keine Steuern zahlen. … Weil wir kaum Techregulierung haben. Weil wir einen der schnellsten Supercomputer der Welt haben: ‹Alps›, von der ETH mit Steuergeldern entwickelt, um KI-Modelle wissenschaftlich zu prüfen.» www.tagesanzeiger.ch/palantir-in-...
Reposted by Livio Liechti
Mind you, the other big Meta bet is making is "Artificial Superintelligence" -- being led by a 28 year old who previously led a company that made money by having poorly paid workers fix AI slop.
Mark Zuckerberg’s gamble on the ‘Metaverse’ has cost Meta more than $77B
The company now plans to cut spending on it and shift focus to AI wearables instead
(via WSJ)
The company now plans to cut spending on it and shift focus to AI wearables instead
(via WSJ)
December 7, 2025 at 3:59 AM
Mind you, the other big Meta bet is making is "Artificial Superintelligence" -- being led by a 28 year old who previously led a company that made money by having poorly paid workers fix AI slop.
Reposted by Livio Liechti
chaser: after local outcry against a massive proposed AWS data center near Tucson (yes, in the desert!), developers agreed to use a less water-intensive cooling system.
AWS has now backed out because "its operations aren't compatible" with the less water-intensive option.
tucson.com/news/local/s...
AWS has now backed out because "its operations aren't compatible" with the less water-intensive option.
tucson.com/news/local/s...
December 3, 2025 at 4:26 PM
chaser: after local outcry against a massive proposed AWS data center near Tucson (yes, in the desert!), developers agreed to use a less water-intensive cooling system.
AWS has now backed out because "its operations aren't compatible" with the less water-intensive option.
tucson.com/news/local/s...
AWS has now backed out because "its operations aren't compatible" with the less water-intensive option.
tucson.com/news/local/s...
Reposted by Livio Liechti
I’m interested in the idea of anonymous community formation and maintenance in the (urban) public sphere (and how it is mediated by infrastructural and architectural structures). I know that this idea comes up in Richard Sennett’s writing repeatedly. Are there others who wrote about this as well?
December 2, 2025 at 7:20 AM
I’m interested in the idea of anonymous community formation and maintenance in the (urban) public sphere (and how it is mediated by infrastructural and architectural structures). I know that this idea comes up in Richard Sennett’s writing repeatedly. Are there others who wrote about this as well?
Reposted by Livio Liechti
Artists: “ai can never replace what we do, we get the value we infuse into the world”
Scientists: “what if the computer went brrr and spit out science”
Scientists: “what if the computer went brrr and spit out science”
November 30, 2025 at 1:16 AM
Artists: “ai can never replace what we do, we get the value we infuse into the world”
Scientists: “what if the computer went brrr and spit out science”
Scientists: “what if the computer went brrr and spit out science”
I’m interested in the idea of anonymous community formation and maintenance in the (urban) public sphere (and how it is mediated by infrastructural and architectural structures). I know that this idea comes up in Richard Sennett’s writing repeatedly. Are there others who wrote about this as well?
December 2, 2025 at 7:20 AM
I’m interested in the idea of anonymous community formation and maintenance in the (urban) public sphere (and how it is mediated by infrastructural and architectural structures). I know that this idea comes up in Richard Sennett’s writing repeatedly. Are there others who wrote about this as well?
Super interesting podcast episode about how activist groups (pragmatically) use digital technologies for organising and the different imaginaries that underpin how specific groups relate to tech critique
I had a lot of fun talking about my @ucpress.bsky.social book on this @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social podcast! Thanks to Megan Finn for letting me chat about Silicon Valley, activism, and the book on mutual aid I'm writing now.
🎧 in your fave podcast app or here: newbooksnetwork.com/appropriate-...
🎧 in your fave podcast app or here: newbooksnetwork.com/appropriate-...
Elisabetta Ferrari, "Appropriate, Negotiate, Challenge: Activist Imaginaries and the Politics of Digital Technologies" (U California Press, 2024) - New Books Network
newbooksnetwork.com
December 1, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Super interesting podcast episode about how activist groups (pragmatically) use digital technologies for organising and the different imaginaries that underpin how specific groups relate to tech critique
Reposted by Livio Liechti
more than anything, this should remind you how bad generative has ruined the information ecosystem
Slop Evader is a tool from artist and researcher Tega Brain that lets you search the web for results exclusively before November 30, 2022—the day that ChatGPT was released to the public.
'Slop Evader' Lets You Surf the Web Like It’s 2022
Artist Tega Brain is fighting the internet’s enshittification by turning back the clock to before ChatGPT existed.
www.404media.co
November 26, 2025 at 10:16 PM
more than anything, this should remind you how bad generative has ruined the information ecosystem
Really great piece bringing together historical analysis and insights into the real-world social and environmental harms of the growing AI industry with an emphasis on its ideological underpinnings that shape and define AI as a political project.
www.e-flux.com/architecture...
www.e-flux.com/architecture...
Technoecologies - Daniel Cardoso Llach - The Mississippi Colossus
Boxtown is a neighborhood in South Memphis established in 1863 by emancipated former slaves. Since 2024, it is also the home to one of the world’s largest supercomputers, property of Elon Musk’s artif...
www.e-flux.com
November 26, 2025 at 9:51 AM
Really great piece bringing together historical analysis and insights into the real-world social and environmental harms of the growing AI industry with an emphasis on its ideological underpinnings that shape and define AI as a political project.
www.e-flux.com/architecture...
www.e-flux.com/architecture...
Reposted by Livio Liechti
What was ChatGPT? Now nearly three years old, we can look at OpenAI's LLM as a product of its time, optimized ever since to its earliest uses. While this period of deep disorientation and social isolation has been obscured from public memory, it remains embedded within the interface.
What Was ChatGPT?
A Chatbot Optimized for Social Distance
Three years after the launch of ChatGPT, we can finally speak in hindsight about what it was and how it came to be. Its meteoric rise shocked the world, gather...
mail.cyberneticforests.com
November 23, 2025 at 12:37 PM
What was ChatGPT? Now nearly three years old, we can look at OpenAI's LLM as a product of its time, optimized ever since to its earliest uses. While this period of deep disorientation and social isolation has been obscured from public memory, it remains embedded within the interface.
Reposted by Livio Liechti
“LLMs aren’t going away” statements are wishes, not predictions, that they’re trying to make happen. Treat them as advocacy for a specific future, not observations of inevitability
November 20, 2025 at 4:21 PM
“LLMs aren’t going away” statements are wishes, not predictions, that they’re trying to make happen. Treat them as advocacy for a specific future, not observations of inevitability
Reposted by Livio Liechti
Out today op-ed by Cacique Roberto "For Indigenous people, resistance is not a choice. It's survival" Brazilian Anacé chief Roberto Ytaysaba Anacé warns that a proposed data centre and state neglect threaten his people’s land, spirituality and survival www.bigissue.com/opinion/cop3...
I'm an Anacé chief in Brazil. For Indigenous people, resistance is not a choice
Anacé chief Roberto Ytaysaba Anacé warns that a proposed data centre and state neglect threaten his people’s land, spirituality and survival.
www.bigissue.com
November 20, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Out today op-ed by Cacique Roberto "For Indigenous people, resistance is not a choice. It's survival" Brazilian Anacé chief Roberto Ytaysaba Anacé warns that a proposed data centre and state neglect threaten his people’s land, spirituality and survival www.bigissue.com/opinion/cop3...
Reposted by Livio Liechti
We’re watching a shift where AI simulates the cohesion and reinforcement that used to require an entire online community. A single person can now build a complete parallel reality with nothing more than a prompt window. Which seems bad.
November 19, 2025 at 2:25 PM
We’re watching a shift where AI simulates the cohesion and reinforcement that used to require an entire online community. A single person can now build a complete parallel reality with nothing more than a prompt window. Which seems bad.
Reposted by Livio Liechti
LLMs give people with delusional belief systems a way to organise those beliefs. The model fills in gaps, supplies connective tissue, and wraps the madness in formal language.
It doesn't make the claims more credible to us, it just tidies them up.
It doesn't make the claims more credible to us, it just tidies them up.
November 19, 2025 at 2:22 PM
LLMs give people with delusional belief systems a way to organise those beliefs. The model fills in gaps, supplies connective tissue, and wraps the madness in formal language.
It doesn't make the claims more credible to us, it just tidies them up.
It doesn't make the claims more credible to us, it just tidies them up.
Reposted by Livio Liechti
Keine gute Nachricht für den Spreewald und die Menschen, die da wohnen.
#Rechenzentren bringen nicht viele Jobs, verbrauchen Wasser und Strom - und sind im Zweifel zuerst dran, wenn Energie knapp wird.
#Brandenburg
#Rechenzentren bringen nicht viele Jobs, verbrauchen Wasser und Strom - und sind im Zweifel zuerst dran, wenn Energie knapp wird.
#Brandenburg
Schwarz-Gruppe baut für elf Milliarden Rechenzentrum in Brandenburg
Mit 100.000 KI-Chips will die Schwarz-Gruppe nicht nur eigene Daten verarbeiten, sondern vor allem Cloud-Dienste für externe Kunden anbieten. Dafür investiert der Discounter-Konzern elf Milliarden Eur...
www.tagesschau.de
November 18, 2025 at 10:43 AM
Keine gute Nachricht für den Spreewald und die Menschen, die da wohnen.
#Rechenzentren bringen nicht viele Jobs, verbrauchen Wasser und Strom - und sind im Zweifel zuerst dran, wenn Energie knapp wird.
#Brandenburg
#Rechenzentren bringen nicht viele Jobs, verbrauchen Wasser und Strom - und sind im Zweifel zuerst dran, wenn Energie knapp wird.
#Brandenburg