Sam

Believes in better data with informed privacy for all. Day job @medconfidential amongst other things. he/him 🧘‍♂️ #FILDI

[Benjamin Todd @ben_j_todd]

Thomas Clarkson winning a Cambridge essay prize for arguing against slavery
...then realising if his essay is right he needs to dedicate his life to fighting it
...then actually doing it
...is the most EA thing ever

[Sam @smithsam]

@lawrencenewport "how impressive our long term institutions could be" - any long term institution has to survive every single year, despite all the short term lobbying to burn tomorrow in favour of today

[Tatarigami_UA @Tatarigami_UA]

This explains why Texas separatists, with their totally coincidentally identical “Veteran, Christian, Father, MAGA” bios, have suddenly gone awfully quiet today, right alongside their Quebec counterparts, conspiracy whackos, and Polish anti-EU eurosceptics

[Sam @smithsam]

@leashless Just wait until the EAs do a full length HPMOR

[binji @binji_x]

The internet used to be a place you would leave. I remember being a kid sitting in front of a desktop at 8pm after eating dinner, logging on to Facebook, and waiting for my friends. I would spend that time wondering what everyone was doing before they logged on. They were probably eating dinner or being forced to go somewhere with their parents. Eventually, I would see their name pop up with a green circle and think oh nice, they’re here.

Facebook was a place we went together, Google was a place we went for answers, and YouTube was where we found something stupid to show eachother. Now I am the adult at the dinner table, with my phone buzzing every few minutes.

Oh how things have changed.

[Sam @smithsam]

@leashless Sneakers might be about to become a documentary?

[Matthew Green @matthew_d_green]

@kmad @matthew_pines I think we might lose public key cryptography.

[Arthur B. @ArthurB]

A tell from the Manhattan Project was that scientists who had been publishing about nuclear fission suddenly stopped publishing. As Justin points out here, the lack of cryptographic results in OpenAI's mathematical breakthrough could itself be a tell. Evidence against it would be if they published a few improvements that aren't massive breakthroughs.

[zoetidman @zoetidman]

'Retrospective audits' into patient record access underway at Clatterbridge Cancer Centre

Oct board papers

[Lucy Fisher @LOS_Fisher]

EXC: British govt is searching for a UK alternative to Palantir, as the PM’s “buy British” push triggers hunt for homegrown replacement for the controversial US software group in NHS and MoD

Ministers have identified a handful of UK technology companies they hope might be candidates to take over the health service’s Federated Data Platform, as they consider applying a break clause in Palantir’s contract in March next year, people familiar with the matter told the FT

A defence minister has also told parliament that the govt is sounding out alternative suppliers for its MoD contract

w/ @Smyth_Chris & @Laura_K_Hughes

https://t.co/sPjOHXjwgY

[Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla]

😂

[Adam McNicholas @adammcnicholas]

What did we learn this week?

1. Starmer project was consequential. Forced the Q ‘what’s Labour for?’. strategic intent behind AB’s project is unashamedly Labour, left-wing & intellectually self confident. Public control. On the side of wc people. An alternative to British Right.

[Rory Sutherland @rorysutherland]

This is the tragedy of the commons, online security edition. It makes sense for each of these companies individually to make their sites hyper-secure, but becomes intolerable to the consumer.

I think it is known as Anderson's rule, named after the late Ross Anderson, which is that any system must either be vulnerable to hacking or intolerable to use.

[Sam @smithsam]

@LucyGoBag it continues to be a mess because NHSE refuses to require patients be told, refuses to tell them itself, so the secrecy infests everything. The letter blocks nothing and no one, and if there's an iota of a possible reason for access it always considered legitimate.

[Lucy Easthope @LucyGoBag]

There is a real danger that NHSE fumbling this messaging with no detailed guidance including worked through training material will cause further pain

[Seb Johnson @SebJohnsonUK]

what3words has seen its revenue halve in the last year.

It has gone from £2.1m in 2024 to £1.1m in 2025.

At its height the company was valued in the hundreds of millions.

I have always believed this company to be a stain on the UK tech ecosystem, and essentially a ponzi scheme defrauding investors.

The senior leaders were paying themselves £300k and paying for extravagant work trips around the world.

All the while the company never managed to bring in any meaningful revenue.

Earlier this year it ran a secondary sale at a £50m valuation.

In the crowdfund deck it did not disclose financials results ANY WHERE.

It has literally burnt through hundreds of millions of dollars across over 10 years.

Running a secondary sale while revenue was dropping without telling ANY investors is SHOCKING.

[Sam @smithsam]

@PhilRodgers also weird that @public_i sell opacity as a service to their public sector clients... wonder if they charge more for deletion or for uploading to youtube...

[Sam @smithsam]

@PhilRodgers Has someone already grabbed the ones that are up? Happy to do it in an ongoing basis… can give the YouTube channel a funny name…

[John Elworthy @johnelworthy]

£24,000 to replace free YouTube meeting videos
The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority moved its meetings to a paid Public-i service under a direct award signed off by one officer.
There was no Equality Impact Assessment, captions are switched off, recordings are kept for 12 months and transcripts are only available on request.
CambsNews has the details.
https://t.co/WNUPwTuO1K