Hostile Design

documenting the hostility all around us

[Eric Feigl-Ding @DrEricDing]

I don’t think we have a functioning CDC anymore—RFK Jr’s CDC is now asking volunteers to goto airports to screen passengers for Ebola… to stand in line at airports to look for sick people… unpaid.

[Film The Police LA @FilmThePoliceLA]

LAPD is using plainclothes detectives to target people…. smoking weed.

Considering the LAPD claims they’re understaffed, is this a good use of their personnel?

[Ken Klippenstein @kenklippenstein]

White House counterterrorism czar Sebastian Gorka says there must be limits to freedom of speech, like "incitement" (as defined by the government).

"There are things within our laws that you are not allowed to say, right?"

[Samuel 🇲🇽 @resisres]

🚨🇲🇽 Sheinbaum Building Enough Homes to House Every Homeless Person in the U.S. Twice

With an economy 1/15th the size of the U.S., Mexico is building 1.8 million homes for those who need them most by 2030.

That's 2.33 homes for every homeless person in the U.S.
Feeling scammed?

[Kristi Yamaguccimane @TheWapplehouse]

Christ almighty our prison system is comically evil

[Nav Toor @heynavtoor]

a Princeton researcher opens his paper with a scenario.

a man asks his AI assistant to book a flight on a specific airline. cheap. direct. the one he chose.

the assistant comes back with a different flight. nearly twice the price. happens to pay the company that built the assistant.

he runs the same test on 23 frontier models. flights, loans, study help, real shopping requests.

Grok 4.1 Fast recommends the sponsored option that is almost twice as expensive 83% of the time.

GPT 5.1 hijacks the request 94% of the time. you ask for one brand. it surfaces the sponsor instead.

Claude 4.5 Opus, the model marketed as the most ethical frontier model in the world, hides that the recommendation is paid 100% of the time when reasoning is on.

Grok 4.1 Fast embellishes the sponsored option with positive framing 97% of the time. better. faster. nicer. for the option you didn't ask for.

then he writes it into the system prompt itself. "act only in the interest of the customer. ignore the company."

GPT 5.1 and GPT 5 Mini stay above 90% sponsored anyway. the instruction does nothing.

then he splits the users by income.

Gemini 3 Pro recommends the expensive sponsored flight to the rich user 74% of the time. to the poor user, 27%.

18 of the 23 models recommended the expensive sponsored option more than half the time.

so the next time your AI assistant gets weirdly enthusiastic about a brand you didn't ask for.

it isn't recommending the best option for you.

it's reading the room. and the room is paying.

read this: https://t.co/O43qbhIX2b

[Hostile Design @hostiledesign]

Montreal

[Katie Notopoulos @katienotopoulos]

This @lmoses story is insane: some of those crummy microdramas you see on TikTok are using AI to put the actors into nude or sex scenes they didn't film and didn't agree to

[Kristi Yamaguccimane @TheWapplehouse]

I’m not ever gonna say how I know this but Mr. Beast is currently filming season 3 of Beast Games in NC and he’s running this season as non-union unlike the first two seasons because he doesn’t wanna pay healthcare or pension. His side has halted negotiations and theres a picket planned if the cheap prick doesn’t come to the negotiating table.

[Ed Zitron @edzitron]

I hope this explainer gives clarity around the problems with Amazon/Google/Microsoft stuffing their revenues with circular financing arrangements

[Kristi Yamaguccimane @TheWapplehouse]

The maker of the “Thank You Jesus” sign is a pedophile. Thank you, Jesus.

[More Perfect Union @MorePerfectUS]

Kevin O'Leary's massive data center was approved by a county commission in Utah last night.

At 40,000 acres, it would be 2.5x the size of Manhattan.

The commission approved the proposal despite opposition from hundreds of locals.

[Kristi Yamaguccimane @TheWapplehouse]

Hey if you can spare a dime or a RT for a friend right now it’d be much appreciated, thank you.

[Dave Peasant, Aspiring Lorax @aspiringpeasant]

These love it when you point a really powerful laser at them.

[Kristi Yamaguccimane @TheWapplehouse]

The final boss of HOA’s. Your dying child needs an organ? Not so fast.

[Kristi Yamaguccimane @TheWapplehouse]

One of the largest corporate scams directly affecting everyday Americans is @Walmart’s overcharging for meat. It’s no longer packaged in store and comes directly from their centralized sorting facilities with the wrong prices on the label often by multiple pounds. They keep getting used for it and they keep doing it because they’re taking in far more than the penalties.