The Digital Public Square

“As the Court has recognized, social-media platforms have become the “modern public square.” Packingham v. North Carolina, 582 U. S. 98, 107 (2017).

[The Digital Public Square @YurrrHonor]

I haven’t decided how to use so social media because Supreme Court of the United States is confusing me.

I promise I’m not a troll, but I promise I will troll you. Respectfully.

[Palmer Luckey @PalmerLuckey]

The ModRetro Chromatic is the best way to play Game Boy® and Game Boy Color® games, my ultimate tribute to the most important handheld console of all time. @ModRetroHub @GameStop @Tetris_Official @KossHeadphones

[Ars Technica @arstechnica]

Texas AG sues Meta over claims that WhatsApp doesn't provide end-to-end encryption https://t.co/wEAneDReXb

[Internet Ethics @IEthics]

Typos to show you care?... #ethics #AI #writing

[Elizabeth Barnes @BethMayBarnes]

Limitations of report: This report isn’t robust oversight of frontier AI developers by itself. METR has some levers to incentivise companies’ participation, including some relevant legislation, but ultimately participants could have pulled out at any time if the result would be contrary to their interests.

You can view it partly as a pilot exercise of what regulation (or formalized industry standards) could/should require, or what partners/suppliers/customers/employees should demand from frontier developers.

Quoting from the report: “METR’s work relies on developing and maintaining strong working relationships with companies, and this impacted both how we designed the process for this pilot (e.g. offering the silent exit option) and lower-level judgment calls as the process unfolded (e.g. having a relatively high bar for what redactions we pushed back on). In some cases we refrained from making an unflattering claim because the claim was neither solidly defensible nor particularly relevant to our core assessment. We also made efforts not to invite salient comparisons between companies on capabilities or safety.”

It doesn’t feel to me like this distorted our overall conclusions too much in this case. But that was partly because the conclusions weren’t that spicy. If our conclusions reflected very negatively on AI developers or would directly lead to e.g. govt intervention or public outcry, we’d be in a difficult position. We’d be trying to balance keeping the companies happy enough that they didn’t pull out of the program (using the “no-fault exit” mechanism) vs being transparent about our conclusions.

We clearly need more robust mechanisms than this for providing accountability for AI developers.

[The Digital Public Square @YurrrHonor]

Abstraction in rust, monad, lightning and ethereum.

[Cameron.near @Cameron_Dennis_]

I’m teaching a workshop in SF this Thursday all about Chain Abstraction!

In case you don’t know, Chain Abstraction will allow anyone to interact with apps on various chains without needing to leave a single interface (via Decentralized Frontends), create a single wallet that allows users to manage assets across any chain (via Account Aggregation), enable cross-chain data availability to ensure sync even if the operator is offline (via NEAR DA), tap into deep cross-chain liquidity networks (via Orderly), and embark on a new paradigm of zero knowledge provers that will enable provable compute and cross-chain settlement without bridging or complex validator networks (via zkWAM).

We also kicked off "Abstraction Hacks" today to unpack these concepts in greater detail and we will be running frequent workshops, office hours, team building, etc over the next 20 days. You can learn more about it here: https://t.co/sybkd6Q5DD

[Cameron.near @Cameron_Dennis_]

I love seeing the @potlock_ team introducing new strategies to fund public goods on @NEARProtocol! I’m super bullish on NEAR becoming the chain that financially supports builders across all chains via #chainabstraction. Soon™️

[Lava Network 🌋 @lavanetxyz]

Lava is bringing modular RPCs & APIs to @NEARProtocol

- Node operators can now onboard to get paid for serving RPC

- Developers will soon get a fast and free endpoint

- Node operators will be able to serve modules for other NEAR infrastructure in the future

Add your node 👇

[NEAR Protocol @NEARProtocol]

Last 30 days of confidential on https://t.co/YBUSFVdjxE: ZEC, USDT, USDC, BTC, ETH, SOL, NEAR, TON, plus 30+ more.

The category is confidential cross-chain.

NEAR Intents gives tokens privacy-preserving execution. Crypto-payment confidentiality is now a cross-asset story.

[Melvin Melrose @MelvinMelrose]

Disgruntled secret service agent convincing a schizo homeless guy to raid the White House correspondents dinner so he can start getting paid again

[Indiana Fever @IndianaFever]

Raven Johnson is ready for her @WNBA preseason debut 🤩

[katie honan @katie_honan]

Mamdani Launches Deed Theft Prevention Office With Appointment of Activist Attorney https://t.co/NxgmPvK7z8 via @THECITYNY

[Katt @kattnotwilliams]

New York's highest court says officers need to know more than just that probable cause exists before arresting someone:

https://t.co/a3YomZlvuZ

[The Digital Public Square @YurrrHonor]

I need a Raven Johnson block compilation

[placard corruption @placardabuse]

Just wait until he finds out that the @NYPDnews just promoted the dirty cop that was doing this:

[CNN International @cnni]

The US has agreed to allow the Venezuelan government to fund the defense of ousted President Nicolás Maduro, ending a legal standoff that has clouded the case for weeks. https://t.co/RzBZ7GkJlf

[Republican Party of Minnesota @mngop]

The following statement has been issued by Chair Alex Plechash regarding US Senate Candidate Royce White.
“The recent reports involving U.S. Senate candidate Royce White and a no-contact order issued by Hennepin County Courts are deeply troubling.

While the Republican Party of Minnesota cannot force any candidate out of a race, we are not going to pretend this is acceptable. Candidates seeking public office must demonstrate sound judgment, behavioral discipline, and respect for the law. These reports raise serious questions about all three.

Mr. White should immediately suspend his campaign, address the personal and legal matters before him, and stop putting Republican voters and activists in the position of defending the indefensible.

The path forward is clear: he should step aside.”

[New York Daily News @NYDailyNews]

NYPD cop arrested for punching man in Bronx subway https://t.co/BdkLCfTJoG

[Kelly Loeffler @SBA_Kelly]

Today, the SBA referred 562,000 borrowers to @USTreasury for collection on $22.2 BILLION in potentially fraudulent pandemic-era loans, marking the LARGEST debt referral in SBA history.

The action ends a yearslong de facto amnesty scheme by the Biden SBA, which refused to refer the portfolio to either Treasury or DOJ, even though the loans were both delinquent and internally flagged for suspected fraud.

Under the protection of the Biden Administration, none of the borrowers were compelled to repay their debts and fewer than 1,000 faced any inquiry from law enforcement until today.

This historic referral would not have been possible without the strong support of the White House Anti-Fraud Task Force. SBA is deeply grateful for the leadership of @VP, @AFergusonFTC, and the partnership of both Treasury and DOJ - which now has the files for review.

At the SBA, we will continue working to claw back every dollar of PPP and COVID EIDL funding owed to American taxpayers. And we will work in lockstep with the Task Force to bring accountability to every criminal who defrauded America’s small businesses.

https://t.co/wh9mwA2dF6