Yesterday, Disney-owned ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live “indefinitely” for a comment Kimmel made about the response to Charlie Kirk’s death. The response from Republican commentators has been predictably gleeful. They’ve positioned the suspension as a reversal of “cancel culture,” a “deplatforming” that’s simply fair retaliation for antagonizing them. “Jimmy Kimmel does have Free Speech, he […]
Wildfire smoke is the air quality nightmare of our generation, eating away at previous gains made by cracking down on industrial emissions and tailpipe pollution. Constant exposure to smoke is becoming a chronic threat even in places that historically haven’t had many wildfires. Climate change is priming forests to burn more intensely, which means more […]
In American Sweatshop, German director Uta Briesewitz’s new psychological drama, every character working at a content moderation firm understands that ingesting horrific images is part of the job. They have all seen the disturbing footage uploaded to social media, and they know how important it is that someone is always there to determine whether those […]
Holding a principled commitment to the First Amendment is a challenge. Even so, it’s been bemusing to watch the Republican Party – which has spent years demanding legal cover for sending spam emails, sabotaging public health, and avoiding social media moderation – launch a full-scale broadside against it over the past week. Authorities are just […]
On Guido Reichstadter’s 17th day without eating, he said he was feeling alright – moving a little slower, but alright. Each day since September 2nd, Reichstadtler has appeared outside the San Francisco headquarters of AI startup Anthropic, standing from around 11AM to 5PM. His chalkboard sign states “Hunger Strike: Day 15,” though he actually stopped […]
The first people in line on Tuesday, I was told, started camping out on the sidewalk two days ago. Luigi Mangione, the man accused of gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December 2024, was due in court at 9AM ET for a hearing in one of three concurrent criminal cases against him. And this […]
The post was up on Natalie’s private Facebook page for 20 minutes – a crude joke about Charlie Kirk’s death. When her husband suggested the comment was a bit much, she deleted it. The next day, Natalie received the first email telling her to kill herself. It didn’t even take 24 hours to go viral. […]
In late August, two pro-AI super PACs were announced on the same day, intent on shaping the upcoming midterm elections. One was a fairly traditional super PAC, announced via a splashy press release, with multiple major industry players planning to donate over $100 million to boost AI-friendly candidates across the country. The other was far […]
Microsoft is adding automatic AI model selection to its Visual Studio Code editor that will automatically pick the best model for “optimal performance.” This new auto model feature will select between Claude Sonnet 4, GPT-5, GPT-5 mini and other models for GitHub Copilot free users, but paid users will “primarily rely on Claude Sonnet 4.” […]
Apple’s new version of macOS, Tahoe 26, launches today for all compatible Macs. I’ve already shared many feelings about Liquid Glass in my look at the developer and public betas, and my opinion on the new, polarizing UI remains lukewarm. But after using Tahoe through the beta periods to full release, I can confidently say […]