Microsoft and Uber are telling employees to stop using Claude and
similar tools because the token bills are too high.

The infrastructure sovereignty argument just got a budget line.
Privacy people have been saying "own your compute" for years.
Now the CFO is saying it too, for different reasons.

The conclusion is the same: don't build on what you can't control.
Longer piece coming this week. Ollama lab notes in the queue.

https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/tech-giants-rethink-ai-adoption-rising-costs-1798618

#infosec #selfhosted #infrastructure #foss #AI

Keep #AI surveillance cameras out of our neighbourhood.

Our knowledge is limited by life
yet we shrink it further by denying people space to breath and to think.

Instead of addressing the root cause, we keep polishing broken processes, reinventing the same problems, and proudly attaching square wheels to a cart that was meant to move forward. Progress does not come from pushing harder, it begins when we stop pretending the wheel was designed correctly.

#SoftwareEngineering #EngineeringLeadership #TechLeadership #Innovation #DeveloperExperience #PsychologicalSafety #FailureCulture #CriticalThinking #AI #Architecture #Leadership #TeamCulture #PragmaticEngineering

Alt...

Robot with square wheels

@someodd @jackdaniel
Oh right, #lispGameJam everyone ! Try the #gamedev -s. https://itch.io/jam/spring-lisp-game-jam-2026
The hextille jd shared: https://functional.cafe/@jackdaniel/116639581786335580 ( #mcclim #commonLisp )
I feel I am forgetting many things.
@bagder 's recent blog https://mastodon.social/@bagder/116639356762841470 #curl #ai

https://gizmodo.com/tech-employees-are-reportedly-being-evaluated-by-how-fast-they-burn-through-llm-tokens-2000736627

#ai #llm #tokenmaxxing

"Nearly a decade later, militaries haven’t yet developed fully autonomous lethal weapons. But these systems sit squarely in the center of a recent high-stakes battle between the US government and AI startup Anthropic. Anthropic is seeking to preserve two “red lines”: bans on domestic mass surveillance and on weapons that can identify, track, and kill targets with zero human involvement. Since the start of the year, it’s emerged as the only military AI contractor to place meaningful limits on what experts call one of the final frontiers of AI warfare.

But amid shifting alliances, lawsuits, and melodrama, it’s easy to lose sight of the larger context — that AI is, and long has been, deeply embedded in the military. Seventy years ago, a summer meeting between scientists in New Hampshire made the Department of Defense sit up and take notice of AI’s potential for war. Since then, its influence has grown exponentially every decade. In recent years in particular, AI has enabled more and faster killings than ever before.

Even Anthropic seems to think its red lines won’t hold for long. After all, history has proven otherwise.

The US military has backed AI development for decades, and in turn, AI has transformed warfare. In the 2000s, the technology became capable of parsing unprecedented amounts of data collected worldwide, creating a surveillance revolution. And the late 2010s saw the development of advanced facial recognition and other sophisticated machine vision systems."

https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/937028/military-ai-warfare-red-lines

#AI #AIWarfare #Military #Pentagon #DoD #AIEthics

⚖️ More License Plate Reader Mission Creep: School Residency Verification, Background Checks, and Noise Complaints

An EFF analysis of millions of searches of Flock Safety automated license plate reader (ALPR) data by police has uncovered a troubling pattern: in the absence of a warrant requirement to search ALP...

📰 Source: Deeplinks
🔗 Link: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/05/more-license-plate-reader-mission-creep-school-residency-verification-background

#DataScience #AI #ArtificialIntelligence

Alt...

Image for: More License Plate Reader Mission Creep: School Residency Verification, Background Checks, and Noise Complaints

Elon Musk is likely to become the world's first trillionaire soon, as SpaceX heads towards its first initial public offering. Paul Waldman writes for Public Notice about Musk's hype-driven wealth, why neither this nor his behavior have stopped some people wanting to invest in him, how this and the AI boom could affect your retirement, and what individuals can do to resist.

https://flip.it/4-kKxp

#ElonMusk #SpaceX #AI

Grand Theft Autocorrect

I think I heard someone coin that term for LLMs already, but if not, I am now, dammit. its a great description

#AI

Imagine if someone photocopied every book in the public library, burned the library down, and then opened a subscription service for the copies.

That's the AI business model.

And here's how they're pitching their slop to us.

Sam Altman: “We see a future where intelligence is a utility, like electricity or water, and people buy it from us on a metre."

#AI #SamAltman #AIslop #TechBrosAreInsane

I wrote a follow-up text to my previous thinking about AI, digital civilization, and what may come after the current hype cycle.

It is a attempt to frame AI not as a new industrial revolution, but as the final acceleration of the digital one and maybe the beginning of something more homeostatic.

https://medium.com/@igisho/the-last-industrial-revolution-28189b0df5d7

#AI #Technology #Philosophy #DigitalCivilization #IndustrialRevolution #Homeostasis

US scrambles to stop Internet users re-creating dead pilots’ voices

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/05/ai-users-re-create-dead-pilots-voices-from-crash-investigation-docs/

#AI #NTSB #privacy #deepfake

London-based voice biometrics startup Voxmind has raised GBP 546,491 in pre-seed funding as Microsoft and AWS exit the voice authentication market. The company offers on-device voice biometric authentication with 99.8% deepfake detection accuracy, targeting financial services and telecoms facing rising AI voice fraud. https://tech.eu/2026/05/26/voxmind-raises-546k-pre-seed-funding-as-cloud-giants-exit-voice-biometrics-market/ #Tech #Startup #News #AI

Uber's COO says it's getting harder to justify the money spent on AI tokenmaxxing

- IMO, First, never use the term tokenmaxxing. Second it appears the bill is coming due for companies that heavily invested in AI development and the output is not worth the cost.

https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-coo-andrew-macdonald-ai-token-spending-harder-justify-2026-5

#AI #tokenmaxxing #uber

A GitHub project with 30k stars reveals how Claude Code's interface can be decoupled from Anthropic's models via its documented gateway routes. This shifts privacy and reliability risks to new provider boundaries. Worth understanding the tradeoffs if you're considering alternatives.

#AI #DevTools #OpenSource

https://www.implicator.ai/free-claude-codes-nearly-30-000-stars-show-claude-codes-interface-is-the-prize/

ClickUp just replaced hundreds of human employees with thousands of AI agents. Direct headcount substitution, not task automation.

Whether it's smart remains to be seen. What's certain: more companies will stop alluding to "AI efficiencies" and start advertising "AI = fewer FTEs" as *the* strength signal.

#ai #llm #clickup #layoffs #singularity

Pope Leo has warned that AI could warp humanity and the technology itself could become a new Tower of Babel — a biblical story about the arrogance and concentrated power of man. Axios has put together the five main points in case you didn't want to read the Pope's 43,000 word encyclical.

https://flip.it/AAEi2I

If you do want to read it, here it is:
https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html

#Pope #AI #MagnificaHumanitas

RE: https://social.openrightsgroup.org/@openrightsgroup/116639938022638995

If you're a tech person in the UK have your say on age verification checks. You don't have to do all sections but section 3 has the more interesting questions from a technology perspective including #AI and VPN use. #privacy #ageVerification

If we have this sort of thing more pervasive I'd like the UK government to have an age verification service with open-source tools to integrate with it.

Despite many people's distrust of government it's better that giving ID to multiple random 3rd parties

RE: https://social.openrightsgroup.org/@openrightsgroup/116639938022638995

If you're a tech person in the UK have your say on age verification checks. You don't have to do all sections but section 3 has the more interesting questions from a technology perspective including #AI and VPN use. #privacy #ageVerification

As I've said before if we have this sort of thing more pervasive I'd like the UK government to have an age verification service with open-source tools to integrate with it. Despite many people's distrust of government it's not as bad as random 3rd parties

Daily Digest | 26 May 2026

Your daily dose of Privacy, Data Protection, AI & Cybersecurity news.

5 stories you should not miss.

Read more: https://www.nicfab.eu/daily-digest/

#Privacy #AI #GDPR #Cybersecurity #TechLaw

More bloggers are switching to Local AI in 2026

Why creators are running AI on their own PCs instead of relying fully on cloud tools:

• No monthly AI limits
• Better privacy
• Faster workflows
• Lower long-term costs
• Full control over content creation

Tools like Ollama, LM Studio, and LLaMA 3 are making local AI accessible even for beginners.

Great for:
#Blogging #SEO #AI #ContentCreators #AffiliateMarketing #LocalAI

Read more:
https://www.panstag.com/2026/05/local-ai-for-bloggers-content-creators.html

Alt...

More bloggers are switching to Local AI in 2026

first the pope comes out as an ai-critical luddite, now he’s literally quoting gandalf in the anti-ai encyclical? these popes are almost making catholicism look cool

#tech #ai #pope #catholic

Alt...

213. The twentieth-century Catholic author J.R.R. Tolkien, in the words of a protagonist in one of his novels, described our responsibility in this way: “It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till.” [187] The civilization of love will not arise from a single or spectacular gesture, but from the sum total of small and steadfast acts of fidelity that serve as a bulwark against dehumanization. For this reason, it is worthwhile pausing to reflect on some aspects of how we, each in our own way, can cooperate in building the civilization of love. Without presuming to exhaust this theme, I would like to propose five paths toward daily and public responsibility: the need to disarm words, building peace through justice, adopting the perspective of victims, cultivating a healthy realism and reviving dialogue and multilateralism.

Alt...

Yet it is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.

"For anti-data center activists there will be victories and losses but a coalition is taking shape, one that cuts across party lines and has people engaging with politics on a local level in a way that hasn’t been seen in decades."

https://www.404media.co/an-incomplete-list-of-successful-anti-data-center-legislation/

#news #DataCenters #AI

Cunning!

#PopeLeo #AI #AIHustle #ButlerianJihad #Catholicism

Alt...

Brendan @inflatabledream.bsky.social - Th About to become a practicing Catholic again so | can tell my bosses using unregulated Al is against my religion and | will sue them like that cake lady who hated gay people if they make me use it. a The Associated Press © @apnews.com - 7h Pope Leo XIV called for robust regulation of artificial intelligence and for its developers to work for the common good rather than profit, issuing a sweeping manifesto on safeguarding humankind as the technology impacts everything from work to war.

https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-coo-andrew-macdonald-ai-token-spending-harder-justify-2026-5

#ai #llm #tech #uber #duolingo

To the sceptics among us the rash of prospective Initial Public Offerings from AI-related enterprises reflect not so much confidence in the future of AI & related technologies bit rather the actions of a group of promoters looking to cash out while the market is booming, searching for the fools to buy them....

(its said every speculative market needs fools; if you don't know who they are then its likely you; but watch out, booms only run until the last fool has invested!)

#AI #investment

@nixCraft

When mine workers at Ludlow went on strike the bosses brought in a train load of Ukrainians to break the strike, hoping to use racism. Ukrainians joined the strike.

Tech bros couldn't afford Ukrainians, so they brought in AI and it costs more than workers.

At least the bosses didn't spend a trillion dollars inventing AI - only to find it's more expensive that being decent human beings.

Oh... They DID spend a trillion dollars inventing a stupid expensive replacement for us.

#AI

Da Pope has dropped an #encyclical. An encyclical is a pastoral letter issued by the #Pope.

Historically encyclicals serve as a key instrument of the Pope’s ordinary magisterium to guide the faithful on matters of faith, morals, devotion, or social discipline, they are generally not infallible pronouncements ex cathedra.

I’m still reading and digesting, but a quick skim suggests that this is the biggest thing to drop from the #Vatican in my lifetime.

There’s, #AI, there’s transhumanism, there’s social contract, he apologizes for the Church’s blind eye to #slavery, he declared that “just war” is no longer a thing…in a change of policy held since the Crusades. He calls for #OpenSource, he quotes #Tolkien. (I like Da Pope.)

There’s a lot. You can read it here. It’s gonna take me a while to map it all out.

https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html

Formula One racing has always had a techy side to it, making the sport an obvious business partner for companies like AWS, Oracle and Anthropic. Now, IBM has paired up with Ferrari in part to get fans comfortable with using AI. Read more from @Techcrunch:

https://flip.it/gFESEw

#Tech #F1 #AI

Amazon has added a number of new features to Bee, the AI wrist gadget/personal assistant the tech giant acquired last year. Among the device uses is the ability to record, transcribe, and summarize your conversations throughout the day, which can prove helpful to the busy — and forgetful — among us. It’s not without its flaws, however, including producing transcripts that can be “a bit of a mess.” So, is it right for you? Read more from @Techcrunch:

https://flip.it/sBBrDg

#Tech #AI #Wearables

Pope Leo’s In Magnifica Humanitas names the precise dangers of #AI: job displacement, surveillance infrastructure, and decision systems that assign consequences without #accountability.

His case for hope runs a paragraph.

The tech is “a gift that can reduce suffering and open new doors,”provided it serves human values rather than corporate #power.

He doesn’t name a single door.

Not one form the reduction in #suffering might take.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/05/pope-leo-ai-encyclical-magnifica-humanitas/687294/?gift=-Fv9R4P6cEEN68vsamhTNJ-eY3dnmgj8bODkdb8qyRE

Mozilla’s Project Nova redesign for Firefox adds rounded tabs, customizable layouts and a reorganized Settings page with easier access to privacy and AI controls. 🦊
Firefox 151 also adds Web Serial API support, PDF merging and clearer management for optional local AI models that are not installed by default. 🔒

🔗 https://www.theverge.com/tech/935631/firefox-project-nova-redesign

#TechNews #Firefox #Mozilla #Nova #Privacy #AI #OpenSource #WebSerial #Browser #Browsers #Linux #FOSS #Security #Customization #Web #Tech #PDF

#Chrome #AI

Did Chrome Just Install a Massive AI Model on Your Device Without Telling You? Yes, Probably

A 4GB file called weights.bin may be sitting on your hard drive right now, put there by Chrome without your knowledge.

You didn't install it. You weren't asked. You may not have even known it was there. But if you use Google Chrome on a desktop computer, there's a reasonable chance that a 4GB AI model called Gemini Nano is sitting on your hard drive right now, placed there automatically by Chrome sometime between late April and early May 2026. Security researcher Alexander Hanff flagged the silent rollout, which affects eligible devices running recent versions of Chrome and offers no consent screen, no pop-up and no setting to straightforwardly prevent it. Privacy advocates say the practice may violate European data law. Here's how to check your machine -- and remove the file, at least temporarily."

https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/did-chrome-just-install-a-massive-ai-model-on-your-device-without-telling-you-yes-probably/

On Being a Librarian: AI in Public Libraries: Useful, But Only If We Stay in Charge. “AI can be useful in public libraries when we treat it as a tool, not an authority. In Ontario, where public libraries must take privacy seriously under MFIPPA, the ethical question is not ‘Can AI do this?’ but ‘Should we use it, and under what safeguards?'”

RE: https://thepit.social/@peter/116616785388665285

They tried their hardest to force this crap on us, and it didn't work.

Next time they need to appeal to people's inherent racism and misogyny, then they can get away with it.

"AI will make Brown People go away and turn Women into submissive wives"

That'll win over enough of the public for it to work.....

#AI #TechBros #AIHustle #DataCentres

muddle boosted

Peter » 🌐 2026-05-22
@peter@thepit.social

if you're an American who likes AI, you're in the minority. this isn't a Mastodon bubble opinion, Americans generally just really fuckin' hate AI. excellent and comprehensive roundup of the polling here. https://www.thealgorithmicbridge.com/p/how-america-turned-against-ai-according

_The Mythical AI Month_

_________
An imaginary book that might be worth reading.
(When in doubt, think: what would Fred Brooks say?)

#AI
#ArtificialIntelligence
#MythicalManMonth

Dear @fdroidorg,

The “AI” taint on F-Droid is starting to get absurd.

Today I found LeanType, a “Privacy-focused keyboard with AI enchantments”, which was for me an immediate contradiction.

https://f-droid.org/packages/com.leanbitlab.leantype

Reading further:
> LeanType (Standard) offers a hybrid experience: a private, secure offline core for everyday typing, with powerful AI capabilities available whenever you choose to enable them.

So a privacy on/off switch?

»

#fdroid #foss #ai #slop

Daily Digest | 25 May 2026

Your daily dose of Privacy, Data Protection, AI & Cybersecurity news.

5 stories you should not miss.

Read more: https://www.nicfab.eu/daily-digest/

#Privacy #AI #GDPR #Cybersecurity #TechLaw

Y’all, we need to talk about upcoming #IPOs, and the insane rule changes that #nasdaq has just announced.

Nasdaq rewrote its #index inclusion rules to accommodate #SpaceX’s mega-IPO, implementing a "Fast Entry" provision that allows the company to join the Nasdaq-100 index just 15 trading days after its initial public offering, down from the standard three-month seasoning period.

They also eliminated the minimum float requirement of 20% available public shares and instead stocks with less than 20% of shares publicly traded, Nasdaq applies a 3x multiplier to the free-float for index weighting purposes, artificially inflating low-float giants like SpaceX in passive funds.

Ok, but in English? #SpaceX, #OpenAI and #Anthropic have just figured out a scam to force every passive #IRA, #401k, and index fund to buy their stock before pricing evaluation.

They’ve figured out how to steal your #retirement.

#AI #LLM #Scam #guillotines #YouWillOwnNothing

https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-ipo-s1-spcx-stock-nasdaq-qqq-elon-musk-2026-5

My sense is that with their latest integration of #AI into Search, #Google has now crossed the rubicon and off the cliff. They may hover there in the air for a short time like Wile E. Coyote, but gravity is coming for them, very soon.

https://winbuzzer.com/2026/05/24/googles-ai-search-shift-gives-rivals-a-clearer-pitch-xcxwbn/

Google's AI search shift has given competitors like Bing, Kagi, DuckDuckGo and Startpage a clearer pitch for users who want privacy, direct links or less intrusive AI in search.

#AI #GoogleSearch #Google #SearchEngines #AISearch #AIAGents #GoogleGemini #Alphabet