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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 2h

Recently, lots of unionized Starbucks stores here closed and now this:

“The Soho and Boston locations were also among the 11 REI stores that had successfully unionized in recent years.”

Another potential impact of Trump’s economy: providing cover for retailers to bust unions?

New York Magazine @nymag.com · 3h

REI is leaving the city, apparently. A spokesperson for the outdoor chain confirmed Tuesday that the company’s Soho location, its only one in the five boroughs, would be closing in late 2026.

The Soho REI Is Closing

The outdoor chain’s flagship, its only store in the city, will shut down late next year.

www.curbed.com

Reposted by Tim Newman

PowerSwitch Action ⚡️ @powerswitchaction.org · 3h

New technologies, AI, and mass surveillance are only growing. Right now, we need to join together to protect our digital, worker, and human rights.

Join us on November 18 for a multi-issue panel featuring workers, organizers, policy and tech experts 👇bit.ly/stopAIsurveillance

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: From Our Workplaces to Our Communities: Stop the AI Surveillance Pipeline Now!. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the w...

If data is the new oil, the AI Surveillance Pipeline is what supercharges its extraction for unchecked power and profit. Although we’ve all experienced getting a targeted ad and feeling like our phon...

bit.ly

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Reposted by Tim Newman

PowerSwitch Action ⚡️ @powerswitchaction.org · 3h

This brief outlines the risks and harms facing workers, but it also makes the case for a new generation of labor and tech protections, and offers concrete principles for policymaking that can strengthen and uphold worker rights in the digital age. datasociety.net/library/the-...

The “Privacy” Trap

Corporations are rolling out new technologies that may technically comply with data privacy laws, but actually create more ways to control and exploit workers. This brief offers concrete principles fo...

datasociety.net

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Reposted by Tim Newman

PowerSwitch Action ⚡️ @powerswitchaction.org · 3h

Corporations call it "privacy-preserving," but this new AI tech isn't all that it seems.

Our new brief w/@datasociety.bsky.social + CoWorker exposes how this tech harms + exploits workers and what we can do to strengthen worker protections + power in the digital age: datasociety.net/library/the-...

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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 3h

Excited for this event that’s going to be jam packed with cool people talking about a bunch of important work that has been steadily coming out in recent months.

There’s a lot more work to do! Register and join us!

Data & Society @datasociety.bsky.social · 3h

On November 18, join organizers and experts for a cross-issue panel discussion exploring how workers and communities are pushing back: From Our Workplaces to Our Communities: Stop the AI Surveillance Pipeline Now! bit.ly/stopAIsurveillance

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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 3h

Folks, this is a really critically important report. Highly recommend it — and it’s really required reading for folks thinking about the intersection of workers, labor, technology and privacy policy.

HUGE congrats to the all-star team that put this together!

Data & Society @datasociety.bsky.social · 3h

“Privacy-preserving” isn’t as private as you might think. Our new brief, published in collab w @powerswitchaction.org & Coworker, exposes how so-called “privacy-preserving” technologies can actually enable *more* worker surveillance — and what we can do about it. datasociety.net/library/the-...

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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 3h

Rather than turning to the startups mentioned here as “what to do” (which are unlikely to really make a difference for consumers), consider joining organizing efforts across the country to hold companies accountable and ensure that we have a say over data centers and their energy use.

Business Insider @businessinsider.com · 4h

Data centers are driving up consumers' electricity costs, but experts say energy conservation hacks won't lower bills much. Here's what to do instead.

AI data centers are driving up electricity bills. Energy-saving hacks might not help lower them.

Data centers are driving up consumers' electricity costs, but experts say energy conservation hacks won't lower bills much. Here's what to do instead.

www.businessinsider.com

Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 16h

Anthropic to open India office in 2026.

OpenAI formally registered as a legal entity in India in August and has begun building a local team. It plans to open its first India office in New Delhi later in 2025.

Reuters @reuters.com · 17h

Anthropic to open India office in 2026 reut.rs/3ILsJrV

Anthropic to open India office in 2026

Anthropic, the artificial intelligence firm backed by Google-parent Alphabet and Amazon.com , said on Tuesday that it would open an office in Bengaluru, India, in early 2026.

reut.rs

Reposted by Tim Newman

Reuters @reuters.com · 1d

Mortgage tech firm, big lenders accused of nationwide price-fixing scheme reut.rs/48jjk5h

Mortgage tech firm, big lenders accused of nationwide price-fixing scheme

Mortgage software provider Optimal Blue and nearly 30 major lenders including Rocket Mortgage, CrossCountry Mortgage and United Wholesale Mortgage have been accused in a federal lawsuit of conspiring to inflate residential mortgage fees for millions of U.S. homebuyers.

reut.rs

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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 1d

Keep this in mind as context every single time you hear tech executives with financial interests in propping up this massive gamble telling you AI inevitable or will replace something you value.

Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 1d

"OpenAI and its growing number of partners are betting AI usage will keep growing exponentially. If growth plateaus, or even slows, the investor enthusiasm that has boosted share prices on the back of these deals could quickly falter." www.ft.com/content/5f6f...

OpenAI’s computing deals top $1tn

Partners including Nvidia, AMD and Oracle have signed up to Sam Altman’s huge bet on the future of artificial intelligence

www.ft.com

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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 1d

"OpenAI and its growing number of partners are betting AI usage will keep growing exponentially. If growth plateaus, or even slows, the investor enthusiasm that has boosted share prices on the back of these deals could quickly falter." www.ft.com/content/5f6f...

OpenAI’s computing deals top $1tn

Partners including Nvidia, AMD and Oracle have signed up to Sam Altman’s huge bet on the future of artificial intelligence

www.ft.com

Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 1d

"Circular relationships have added to concerns about a bubble in AI, at a time when investors are worried that spending on AI data centres is propping up US economic growth. To fund its expansion, OpenAI has raised huge amounts of equity and started to tap debt markets." www.ft.com/content/5f6f...

OpenAI’s computing deals top $1tn

Partners including Nvidia, AMD and Oracle have signed up to Sam Altman’s huge bet on the future of artificial intelligence

www.ft.com

1

Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 1d

"'Part of Silicon Valley’s ‘fake it til you make it’ ethos is to get people to have skin in the game. Now a lot of companies have a lot of skin in the game on OpenAI'... OpenAI is burning $ on infrastructure, chips & talent, w nowhere near capital required to fund these." www.ft.com/content/5f6f...

OpenAI’s computing deals top $1tn

Partners including Nvidia, AMD and Oracle have signed up to Sam Altman’s huge bet on the future of artificial intelligence

www.ft.com

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Reposted by Tim Newman

FT Edit @ftedit.ft.com · 1d

OpenAI is spending at a scale that even Silicon Valley can't quite believe, buying up 20 nuclear reactors' worth of computing power this year. But there are big questions around whether it can turn that power into profit.

An #FTEdit 🧵on the ChatGPT maker’s $1tn bet on artificial intelligence 👇

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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 1d

"The coat of A.I. gloss is giving the administration runway to double down on bad ideas... The situation is worse than having all of your economic eggs in one basket. It’s closer to putting all of your eggs in one basket and stomping on all the other baskets." www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/o...

Opinion | There Are Two Economies: A.I. and Everything Else

www.nytimes.com

Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 2d

The full report is now posted here (PDF): www.sanders.senate.gov/wp-content/u...

Here are the methods…. 🤔

HELP Minority Staff reviewed economic data, investor transcripts, corporate financial filings— and asked ChatGPT about job displacement. Specifically, HELP Minority Staff asked ChatGPT to analyze job descriptions catalogued by the federal government for the entire U.S. economy and predict tasks that could be performed by AI and automation. According to the ChatGPT-based model, artificial intelligence and automation could replace nearly 100 million jobs over the next ten years, including 89% of fast food and counter workers, 64% of accountants and 47% of truck drivers.

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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 2d

Oh good lord, the Dems on the Senate HELP Committee released this report that is apparently… “a ChatGPT-based analysis”🧐

Here’s an op-ed about it by Sanders for Fox News: www.foxnews.com/opinion/sen-...

www.axios.com/2025/10/06/a...

Exclusive: AI could erase 100 million U.S. jobs, Senate Dem report finds

A ChatGPT-based analysis from Democrats on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee found that AI could wipe out swaths of both white- and blue-collar jobs

www.axios.com

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Reposted by Tim Newman

The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 3d

Exclusive: The Trump administration is preparing a plan that will make it harder for older Americans to qualify for Social Security disability payments, part of an overhaul that could result in hundreds of thousands of people losing benefits.

Trump plan would limit disability benefits for older Americans

Trump administration officials are considering eliminating age as a factor in deciding whether someone is capable of working.

wapo.st

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Reposted by Tim Newman

Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 3d

The Trump administration wants to make it harder for older Americans to qualify for Social Security www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202... @merylkornfield.bsky.social

Trump plan would limit disability benefits for older Americans

Trump administration officials are considering eliminating age as a factor in deciding whether someone is capable of working.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 4d

“The memo from the Army's chief technology officer about the NGC2 platform that connects soldiers, sensors, vehicles and commanders with real-time data paints a bleak security picture of the initial product”

Reuters @reuters.com · 4d

Anduril and Palantir battlefield communication system 'very high risk,' US Army memo says reut.rs/4gTcAx3

Anduril and Palantir battlefield communication system 'very high risk,' US Army memo says

The much-needed modernization of the U.S. Army's battlefield communications network being undertaken by Anduril, Palantir and others is rife with "fundamental security" problems and vulnerabilities, and should be treated as a "very high risk," according to a recent internal Army memo.

reut.rs

Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 5d

If you are interested in tracking the businesses that make data usable for AI systems, check out this resource and microsite we created at @techequity.bsky.social:

bsky.app/profile/tech...

TechEquity @techequity.bsky.social · 23d

Without knowing who these companies are, these workers are left in the shadows, vulnerable to exploitation and harm.

TechEquity created the Data Work Landscape to shine a light on this shadowy industry—learn more: dataworklandscape.org?utm_medium=s...

Data Work Landscape

Tech companies in the AI industry are powered by workers who develop, train, test, and maintain AI systems. We’re shining a light on this shadowy industry.

dataworklandscape.org

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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 5d

In case you forgot, Uber has a data labeling business in which it provides a platform to other businesses to outsource annotation, translation and editing tasks to independent contractors.

It just bought another data labeling startup.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Uber Buys Data Labeling Startup in Push to Sell AI Services

Uber Technologies Inc. has bought Belgian startup Segments.ai as the ride-hailing company seeks to expand its nascent data-labeling business.

www.bloomberg.com

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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 5d

This is a great resource if folks haven’t seen it already and would like more background and context!

bsky.app/profile/alix...

Alix Dunn @alixdunn.com · 7d

I don’t want AI companies to get a bailout. I said this to @smw.bsky.social of @ainowinstitute.bsky.social last week, and she said they already were being bailed out. We sat down to talk about it in our first full-form video interview here:
youtu.be/WvN1wQ_CBlY?...

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

YouTube video by The Maybe

youtu.be

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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 5d

“Venture capitalists poured $192.7B into AI startups so far this year—setting new global records... Most of the capital went to established startups... 'Everywhere we look, the market is bifurcated. You’re in AI, or you’re not. You’re a big firm, or you’re not.'" www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

AI Is Dominating 2025 VC Investing, Pulling in $192.7 Billion

Venture capitalists poured $192.7 billion into AI startups so far this year — setting new global records and putting 2025 on track to be the first year where more than half of total VC dollars went in...

www.bloomberg.com

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