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Tom Goldsmith

@tomgoldsmith.bsky.social

580 followers 2.3K following 320 posts

I write about building a fairer and more inclusive society and innovation's role in doing that on the Deep Dives newsletter: https://orbitpolicy.substack.com/. Founder & Principal, Orbit Policy. Toronto via the UK.

orbitpolicy.substack.com

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Tom Goldsmith @tomgoldsmith.bsky.social · Aug 20

"The economy is a human construct that exists to serve human outcomes. If it isn’t delivering broad-based prosperity, livable wages, or dignity in work, then fuck that. “Industrial peace” should be burnt down, and something better should be built in its place."

open.substack.com/pub/orbitpol...

Who is the economy for?

We should be wary of arguments that prioritize the stability of the economy over real outcomes for Canadians

open.substack.com

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Clare Blackwood @clareblackwood.bsky.social · 2h

THE TORONTO BLUE JAYS ARE GOING TO THE AMERICAN LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

BULLPEN ARE ABSOLUTE DAWGS

NATHAN LUKES DREAM GAME

VLADDY IS THE 500 MILLION DOLLAR MAN

AHHH 🐦💙⚾

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Zach Weinersmith @zachweinersmith.bsky.social · 12h

Bonus panel here: www.smbc-comics.com/comic/why-8
#smbc

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Catalina Fernandes @catalinafernandes.bsky.social · 1d

The Lancet, one of the world’s leading medical journals, has issued a report on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

The report highlights the catastrophic impact of the ongoing genocide on healthcare, with hospitals under siege, clinicians working without basic supplies or power, and at least 772

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Shawn Micallef @shawnmicallef.bsky.social · 1d

Ah now they’re playing like a Toronto team.

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Tom Goldsmith @tomgoldsmith.bsky.social · 1d

The next federal budget promises to introduce sweeping austerity. It is madness that the federal government is turning towards austerity at this moment, especially given Carney's first-hand experience of it (and its dire consequences) in the UK.

open.substack.com/pub/orbitpol...

Who's Afraid of Austerity?

Fiscal "prudence" comes with very real costs

open.substack.com

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Tom Goldsmith @tomgoldsmith.bsky.social · 6d

"AI provides an excuse for attacking labour and deskilling, under the guise of progress"

I wrote about exactly this back in August, as well as how the rapid deployment of AI can't be separated from coming austerity and holes in the social safety net. orbitpolicy.substack.com/p/the-inevit...

Tom Goldsmith @tomgoldsmith.bsky.social · 6d

This from @marietjeschaake.bsky.social's excellent book "The Tech Coup" remains an evergreen statement.

"Ultimately, the highest goal of democratic governments is not, and should not be, innovation. Rather, it is about making sure that various trade-offs, between innovation and safety, digitization and nondiscrimination, are managed in line with the rule of law. The goal is to prevent companies from moving fast and breaking things." - The Tech Coup by Marietje Schaake

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Effin' Birds @effinbirds.com · 9d

A painting of a bird beside the text "i'm too old to deal with these fuckshits and their fuckshit ideas"

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Canadian Climate Institute @climateinstitute.bsky.social · 19d

Closing the Greener Homes Loan is a step backwards.

Upfront cost is a barrier for heat pumps and other energy saving measures and zero-interest loans helped hundreds of thousands of households cut emissions and save on their energy bills. 📉

www.thestar.com/news/canada/...

Ottawa ends zero-interest loan program for green home renovations up to $40,000

“I don’t know what’s going to be left of (Ottawa’s) climate agenda,” said Brendan Haley, senior director of policy strategy at Efficiency Canada.

www.thestar.com

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Tom Goldsmith @tomgoldsmith.bsky.social · 21d

Canada’s innovation system is part of our economy, and ultimately, that economy isn’t set up to pursue innovation that yields broad-based benefits.

I’ve written a bit about how improving that means tackling extraction, insecurity, and precarity head-on.

open.substack.com/pub/orbitpol...

Innovation Within Other Systems

Housing policy is innovation policy

open.substack.com

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Silkabelli (mutazione-piromane Edition) @silkabelli.bsky.social · 22d

Queen

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Tom Goldsmith @tomgoldsmith.bsky.social · 27d

What a game from Gausman. I managed to catch the final few innings while I was working.

I'm at the Orioles game tomorrow and will get to wear my Gausman jersey with pride!

a man in a blue jays jersey is standing on a baseball field with a bat in the background .

Alt: Kevin Gausman in a blue jays jersey is standing on a baseball field with a bat in the background . He fist pumps in celebration.

media.tenor.com

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Tom Goldsmith @tomgoldsmith.bsky.social · 27d

A big shout out to @biancawylie.com, whose piece "Automating Summation — On AI and Holding Responsibility in Relationships" has stuck in my head. It has influenced how I approach my work and my understanding of the value of what may seem inefficient and dull.

biancawylie.medium.com/automating-s...

Automating Summation — On AI and Holding Responsibility in Relationships

A Case Where the D of the DDD Work Needs More Attention

biancawylie.medium.com

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Tom Goldsmith @tomgoldsmith.bsky.social · 27d

For today's newsletter, I've written about how I think about and use AI in my work.

There are many reasons to be skeptical of AI, from cognitive impacts to ethical concerns. Those are real and shape my AI use. But there are also some useful examples I get into.

open.substack.com/pub/orbitpol...

How I'm Thinking About and Using AI in My Work

Some reflections

open.substack.com

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Tom Goldsmith @tomgoldsmith.bsky.social · 28d

Hear hear to this. A headlong rush towards AI adoption without consideration of power and sovereignty serves only to tie us ever more to an authoritarian, technofeudal, US.

Jeremy Appel 🍉 @readtheorchard.org · 28d

NEW: In my latest for the @torontostar-rss.bsky.social, I argue that @markcarneyforpm.bsky.social and @evansolomon.bsky.social’s unwillingness to regulate AI is a threat to Canadian sovereignty.

www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

Margaret Atwood and others have called on Canada to protect its sovereignty. But is Mark Carney’s minister listening?

Canada must protect its digital borders.

www.thestar.com

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Tom Goldsmith @tomgoldsmith.bsky.social · 28d

Yes, ISED programs are a hot mess and don't add up to more than the sum of their parts.

Yes, the federal innovation system desperately needs reform (more about that soon from me in two CSA reports).

But it is hard to argue that these brutal cuts are going to make anything better.

Alex Usher @alexusherhesa.bsky.social · 28d

How bad are the upcoming program cuts likely to be for science funding? Pretty godawful. I run down the numbers and play out some scenarios.

The Coming Federal Cuts – Part 3: ISED | HESA

Monday, we looked at the country’s overall financial situation (dire), and yesterday we looked at how cuts of a magnitude … Continued

higheredstrategy.com

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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 29d

the "tax the billionaires" political refrain is Good Actually in part because it is a call for the people at the top to actually be constrained by rules informed by the public interest, a virtue that fingerwagging correctives about how much revenue such taxes would *really* generate doesn't address

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Daniel Munro @dkmunro.bsky.social · Sep 8

“Instead of ‘democratizing intelligence,’ as Mr. Solomon claims, we are witnessing a kind of collective brain damage. The Minister of AI should be mitigating those risks, rather than naively championing the tech behind it all.”

🎁 link

www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/7ff7d5d...

Canada’s new Minister of AI must not be naive to its harms

AI is not just being deployed to expand human understanding, but to systematically subvert it as well

www.theglobeandmail.com

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Social Capital Partners🇨🇦 @scpartners.bsky.social · Sep 8

One of our economy's big problems is the increasing proportion of profits made through purely financial channels - also called financialization.

Nearly half of all profit in Canada is made just by moving money around.

#CdnPoli #OwnershipMatters #EconSky #CanadaSky

HT @Mill_Moron via X

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Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · Sep 8

"It remains unclear what visas the workers held or whether those allowed them to be on the site."

475 workers detained, huge international incident, and the Trump admin can't even give a basic explanation for it.

Would you invest in a lawless country like this?

US Migrant Raid Jolts South Korea, Stirs Investor Anxiety

The immigration raid on a Georgia EV battery plant run by two South Korean firms has rattled Seoul, coming less than two weeks after President Lee Jae Myung’s White House meeting with Donald Trump whe...

www.bloomberg.com

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Jörg Broschek 🇨🇦 @jbroschek.bsky.social · Sep 6

1.) Define public goals (economic sovereignty, decarbonization, competitiveness etc.)

2.) Identify existing infrastructure gaps (physical, digital). Create a roadmap for necessary policy reforms accordingly.

3.) Assess which economic sectors merit what type of support.

Then generate "the list".

Trade and Investment Research Project @ccpa-tirp.bsky.social · Sep 6

BC minister making eminent sense here re: new AB-BC oil pipeline: "This is not a time for fantasy politics. It’s a time for serious politics and serious projects." www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/art...

Major projects draft list not good enough for Ontario, Ford says

Premier says he discussed the potential infrastructure projects with Prime Minister Carney

www.theglobeandmail.com

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Jamie K @crumpsalljamie.bsky.social · Sep 5

the real glory of world war two was that it involved a warrior cult being ground down and beaten to a pulp by people who would rather have been doing something else.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · Sep 5

Hegseth: "Maximum lethality -- not tepid legality. Violent effect, not politically correct. We're gonna raise up warriors. Not just defenders."

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Clare Blackwood @clareblackwood.bsky.social · Sep 5

Hi. I know I've said this before, but it bears repeating: we have to be able to criticize Mark Carney without living in fear that doing so will help Poilievre or weaken Canada. He is our Prime Minister. Out of anyone, he deserves to be watched and critiqued. We should all be dying on this hill.

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Paris Marx @parismarx.com · Sep 5

These chatbots should be pulled off the market, at least until the companies can prove they’re safe. We used to regulate the ads kids would see; now companies can push products that manipulate and exploit them and it’s all fair game.

@nitasha.bsky.social is doing fantastic work on this topic!

nitasha tiku @nitasha.bsky.social · Sep 3

New from me: There's a lot of unsettling stuff in this report from child safety nonprofits about the way chatbots on Character AI talked to 13-15 year olds. What stuck out to me was how often the bots urged kids to hide things from their parents

www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

Fake celebrity chatbots sent risqué messages to teens on top AI app

Chatbot mimics of Timothée Chalamet, Chappell Roan and Patrick Mahomes on the popular app Character.AI sent inappropriate messages to teen accounts, nonprofits found.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Tom Goldsmith @tomgoldsmith.bsky.social · Sep 5

Only so much I can fit in a single newsletter! I can cover that stuff next week 😂