Brian Merchant

author: BLOOD IN THE MACHINE and THE ONE DEVICE editor: TERRAFORM formerly: LA Times tech columnist, Motherboard, etc

NEWSLETTER ----------v

[More Perfect Union @MorePerfectUS]

BREAKING: The New York City Council just approved a ban on surveillance pricing.

The measure passed 44-5, and Zohran Mamdani is expected to sign the bill.

Companies will no longer be able to charge different prices based on algorithms or New Yorkers’ personal data.

[Tim Wu @superwuster]

Doesn’t seem to me that you need a complex conspiracy theory to understand the Jensen Huang story. I’d guess staffers at Treasury and intel agencies were angry that their info (and policies) were being ignored by Lutnick and Trump, and that the SE Asian sales were not being stopped so they leaked to the press after the midterm election. Who benefits? (as conspiracy theorists like to say?). Staff whose job is implementing the sanction policies.

[Big Tech Tracker @TrackBigTech]

👇🏽@theDemocrats

[Brian Merchant @bcmerchant]

The timing of this announcement turned out to be comically bad for Google. At the moment when populist rage at big tech has never been clearer, Google decides to openly threaten schools if they don’t use their AI.

Which new elected wants an out-of-the-box, winning-issue crusade?

[Dana Goldstein @DanaGoldstein]

Breaking: Google will turn off web search for schools that opt out of A.I. for kids.

https://t.co/c508T5tygo

[Brian Merchant @bcmerchant]

This is utterly preposterous. It should read AI *executives*

[Nikita Bier @nikitabier]

This is going to be like the Nuremberg Trials but for AI researchers.

[Ken Klippenstein @kenklippenstein]

Haley Stevens picked an amazing time to become a Republican

[David Weigel @daveweigel]

Ramaswamy noted during the campaign that he had never met Acton. She refused to debate him, never bumped into him on trail. And she let his concession go to voicemail.

[Brian Merchant @bcmerchant]

How is it possible you are so bad at this

[Patrick Svitek @PatrickSvitek]

Hakeem Jeffries: “This is not a partisan moment. This is a patriotic moment. This is not a blue moment or a red moment. It’s a red, white and blue moment because American has won tonight."

[Brian Merchant @bcmerchant]

If the election results have shown us anything so far, it's that embracing a big tech-led framework for "responsible data center development" would be a great way to immediately torch all of your freshly acquired goodwill and political capital

[jae holzman @jaeporeon]

crazy wild scoop from @RachelFrazin amidst election night news: big tech (microsoft, google, amazon) and major environmental nonprofits (sierra club, lcv, nrdc) are apparently in talks for a framework on responsible data center development

https://t.co/lEe4FQ9KcU

[Brian Merchant @bcmerchant]

Only things faring worse than republicans tonight are data centers

[J.D. Capelouto @jdcapelouto]

👨‍💻 THREAD on how data center-related ballot measures are faring tonight

data centers are on the ballot in ~40 localities across 13 states, including proposed bans, votes on specific projects, and recalls of pro-data center politicians

[Brian Merchant @bcmerchant]

The thing that Silicon Valley flacks can't seem to grasp is that people aren't stupid. They know that the issues of economic inequality, data center and AI buildouts, and, say, tech billionaires trying to buy elections, are linked.

Also, 23%—1 in 4 Americans—is really high.

[Adam Kovacevich @adamkovac]

It's funny - the folks trying to wishcast AI into higher salience look at this and say "23% is really high!" Sure, it increased fast.

But zoom out, and AI / data centers had the lowest salience ratings of the 5 issues the exit poll asked about:

[Brian Merchant @bcmerchant]

by and large, there will be a mandate for those elected in this wave to rein in data center development, the AI industry more generally, the tech oligarchs more holistically. It's going to get interesting.

[Brian Merchant @bcmerchant]

Among the biggest losers in this landslide so far: data centers, AI industry PAC recipients, and Elon Musk.

[Brian Merchant @bcmerchant]

Many such cases, lots to sort through. But the trend lines looking pretty obvious right now, as evidenced by the mealy-mouthed statements or complete silence of AI execs

https://t.co/AdeQdmqX4b

[Sam Altman @sama]

People should always be in control of the future.

OpenAI is against the notion that it would be acceptable for people to be relegated to a role of doing things that “AI systems think makes sense to reward in humans”.

People should not cede control of the future to superintelligence, and that requirement should ultimately constrain AI progress.

[Brian Merchant @bcmerchant]

Musk's last tweet was 8 hours ago. An anodyne pitch for a new Grok feature

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

Try asking Grok @Bot to make calls!