Oligarchs achieving escape velocity
I marked my 8-year anniversary this week of Techtonic, my radio show and podcast at WFMU. The episode, called “Milestones for Big Tech... and Techtonic” (see...
Why everything suddenly got worse: a conversation with Cory Doctorow
The Google antitrust trial was finally decided this week, and the results aren’t good. Google escaped any significant remedy, leaving it unscathed and...
AI is starting to secretly edit your files
One of the scarier headlines I’ve recently comes from the BBC: YouTube secretly used AI to edit people’s videos (August 24, 2025). This is just as I...
We're never going to Mars
I aired a fireball of an interview this week on Techtonic. Adam Becker joined me to talk about his new book More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space...
Privacy scholar Daniel Solove: "We're entering a dark age"
I was happy to speak with Daniel Solove on Techtonic this week about his new book On Privacy and Technology. It’s a short, readable book covering all the...
Customer service is broken – and other news
It turns out there’s a word for the hassle forced on consumers by customer service departments. It’s called sludge. I learned this from an article by Chris...
The real threat posed by AI chatbots
Something strange is happening to ChatGPT users. Several recent articles have reported on people developing unhealthy relationships with ChatGPT. First,...
Let’s call AI something else
“AI” doesn’t mean anything. As Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna write in their new book The AI Con: To put it bluntly, “AI” is a marketing term. It doesn’t...
A zombie wave of surveillance devices
Every day, a little more, it feels like we’re living in a zombie movie. For one thing, there’s the dazed-out state of people I see on the New York City...
Zuck lied under oath, says "Careless People"
Careless People, the bestselling memoir of ex-Facebook exec Sarah Wynn-Williams, includes an interesting anecdote. Mark Zuckerberg is testifying, under oath,...
In praise of infrastructure
Amidst the evils emanating daily from Silicon Valley, it’s nice to be reminded that some technology is actually good for us. Like infrastructure. This week...
Why you should reject Zuck's chatbots
As the tech industry continues to invent new ways of monetizing human relationships, it may be helpful to compare the various types of connection. Ranked...
On resisting AI intrusions
For several years I’ve been following Paul Salopek, a National Geographic explorer, on his Out of Eden Walk around the world. Paul has been on Techtonic a...
The online world is full of scams, but there's still hope
Last week I warned about pig-butchering scams (a column you should read, and share, if you missed it). But they’re hardly the only scams to be aware of....
The online world is full of scams, but there's still hope
Last week I warned about pig-butchering scams (a column you should read, and share, if you missed it). But they’re hardly the only scams to be aware of....
You and your family are at risk of pig-butchering scams
First, the bad news. You’re at risk of a new kind of online scam, one that has fooled countless victims – including highly educated people – into voluntarily...
AI is creating a frictionless surveillance state
Perhaps you saw the video: a young woman walks out of her Boston-area townhouse and is immediately surrounded by unidentified men who place her in handcuffs...
Spotify is streaming-enabled grift
“Music just inoffensive enough not to get shut off.” “They’re not a music company. They’re a time filler for boredom.” “Trash audio content made from generic...
The spy plane and the "problem of experimentation"
A few years ago, people in Baltimore - if they happened to look up - might have noticed a small plane circling overhead. What they wouldn’t have known is...
The Cybertruck vs. Socrates
A few days ago in Manhattan I came across a Cybertruck parked in front of a fire hydrant. I took a photo: Is it possible that the driver was in a rush and...