"Google’s head of HR, Fiona Cicconi, said there will no longer be DEI hiring targets due to the company’s status as a federal contractor and recent “court decisions and US Executive Orders on this topic.”" #Technology
Ben Werdmuller
Google ends DEI hiring goals
[Alex Heath at The Verge] And so begin the knock-on effects on companies across America: "In a Wednesday memo to employees that I obtained (and y...
"Google removed a pledge to not build AI for weapons or surveillance from its website this week." #AI
Ben Werdmuller
Google removes pledge to not use AI for weapons from website
[Maxwell Zeff at TechCrunch] I know "don't be evil" is from another era of Google, but still, this rankles: "Google removed a pledge to not build...
A massive, last-minute data preservation effort was undertaken this week as important federal datasets were taken offline. #Democracy
Ben Werdmuller
Researchers rush to preserve federal health databases before they disappear from government websites
[Naseem S. Miller at the Journalist's Resource] A massive, last-minute data preservation effort was undertaken this week as important federal data...
"On Friday morning, the staffers at a half dozen U.S.-funded medical facilities in Sudan who care for severely malnourished children had a choice to make: Defy President Donald Trump’s order to immediately stop their operations or let up to 100 babies and toddlers die." They chose the children.
ProPublica
“People Will Die”: The Trump Administration Said It Lifted Its Ban on Lifesaving Humanitarian Aid. That’s Not True.
Organizations that provide vital care for desperate and vulnerable people around the world have been forced to halt operations, turn away patients ...
If politics was startups, someone would create a new political party and aim to get it acquired by the Democrats. Is there an analogy that works here? Can someone create a new political party that has on-point social media, strong social policies, etc, and then back it into the Democratic Party? Obviously a ground rule would have to be: don't actually attack the Democrats. That will backfire quickly. Keep your eyes on the rise of oligarchic fascism - but do it well.
Just a quick reminder that if you're looking for some deeply-reported factual journalism that cuts under the surface, the website I work for is pretty good.
ProPublica
ProPublica — Investigative Journalism and News in the Public Interest
ProPublica is an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest.
Imagine being so genuinely empty as a human being that you support a regime that conducts mass deportations and runs concentration camps because they support Bitcoin.
80 years since liberation. A true horror. And yet, memory fades, and as it does, the temptation to repeat. Every week, people show up in my mentions who think the Holocaust was a good thing (or claim that it never happened). I believe that they're serious; they cannot, must not ever win.
Fascinating to me that what I experienced as "America finally having a much-needed moral awakening" presented to people like Andreessen as "radical Marxism". If nothing else, that shows he's never actually met a radical Marxist. #Technology
Ben Werdmuller
How Democrats Drove Silicon Valley Into Trump’s Arms
[Ross Douthat and Marc Andreessen in The New York Times] This podcast conversation with Marc Andreessen is very revealing. It's particularly fasci...
When I see a new, promising-looking project, the first thing I do is look for the team page. Tell me who you are and why you're building what you're building. That's an important way to earn trust and help me understand whether it's something I should use. If that information is missing or hard to find, I tend to find the project less trustworthy overall.