What I'm Reading - 1/14/24

Plus, a summary of 14 reports on what to expect in 2024

This was my first week of work at Duco Experts. It was fantastic, but it sure did take a lot out of me. I decided to stay in DC for the long weekend to take care of some much-needed chores here. I made a VERY long to-do list that combined catching up on some work stuff, more long-term planning, cooking, and various chores. 

What happened? I woke up not feeling like doing any of it. I forced myself to finish some of it but then decided to go to Old Town Alexandria, where I bought myself lunch and did some shopping - including checking out Old Town Books. I purchased four books that I really want to dig into. So, I plan on making some gumbo with shrimp, andouille sausage made with venison, and pheasant (one of the chores was cleaning out the freezer) and doing just that. I’ll get back to the other work today. I’m also making some sous vide chashu for ramen. It’s a bit of a process, but overall pretty easy, and then I have pork for ramen anytime!

This is also the season when everyone is putting out their what to expect in 2024 reports. Thanks to the help of my new colleague Marena, we’ve pulled together a summary of fourteen that we’ve seen come out recently. The reports we looked at are below; you can read the summary here. We try to note where there is disagreement amongst analysts - the most I saw was around the impact of AI. I think a few need some panic responsibly merchandise.

1. Foreign Policy: Elections To Watch In 2024

2. Foreign Policy: 8 Simmering Threats You Shouldn’t Ignore in 2024

3. Foreign Policy: 10 Conflicts To Watch In 2024

4. The Economist: Tom Standage’s Ten Trends To Watch In 2024

5. Observer Research Foundation: What To Expect In 2024

6. Gates Notes: The Road Ahead Reaches A Turning Point In 2024

7. Latin America Risk Report: Ten Predictions For 2024 That Are 80% Likely To Happen

8. Morning Consult: The Year Ahead In Geopolitical Risk

9. Chamber of Progress: 2024 Tech Policy Outlook 

10. Chatham House Digital Society Initiative: Towards A Global Approach To Digital Platform Regulation

11. World Economic Forum: These Are The Biggest Global Risks We Face In 2024 And Beyond

12. Reuters Institute: Journalism, Media, And Technology Trends And Predictions 2024

13. The New York Times: Elections And Disinformation Are Colliding Like Never Before In 2024

14. Atlantic Council: Global Foresight 2024 

Have a great Sunday. Go Packers!

Please support the curation and analysis I’m doing with this newsletter. As a paid subscriber, you make it possible for me to bring you in-depth analyses of the most pressing issues in tech and politics.

What I’m Reading

1. Washington Post: China’s meddling in Taiwan election opens year of misinformation threats 

   1. NPR: Taiwan's China-skeptic ruling-party candidate wins presidential election 

2. Financial Times: The rising threat to democracy of AI-powered disinformation 

3. The Hill: The free world should celebrate 2024 as a landmark year for democracy 

   1. International Republican Institute: Elections Calendar 

4. The Record: FBI Director: More countries interested in 2024 election interference 

5. Semafor: Semafor’s Inaugural Global Election Hot List 

6. Devex: A global development wake-up call in 2024 

7. New York Times: State Legislators Tighten A.I. Rules to Combat Deceptive Election Ads 

8. Axios: AI legislation, lawmakers and companies to watch right now 

9. WAMU 1A: What Dangers Do Social Media Bots Pose to Democracy?

10. USAID: Recommendations to Strengthen USAID's Strategy for Supporting Global Elections in 2024

11. Votebeat: U.S. Election Assistance Commission Fires Executive Director

12. FWIW
    : X (Twitter) political advertising slowly makes a comeback 

13. Alethea Group: Weaponization of Information: Lessons Learned in 2023 and What to Expect in 2024

14. Context: The deepfake elections are here 

15. New York Times: TikTok Quietly Curtails Data Tool Used by Critics 

16. Washington Post: Meet the woman who transformed Sam Altman into the avatar of AI 

17. FedScoop: First crack at comprehensive AI legislation coming early 2024 from Senate Commerce Chair Cantwell

18. Washington Post: Substack’s woes deepen as tech blog leaves over Nazi content

19. Stratechery: Substack and Platformer, Moderation and Infrastructure, Bars and Culture

20. Nature: How online misinformation exploits ‘information voids’ — and what to do about it 

21. Wired: The New Digital Dark Age

22. Jeff Jarvis: In the Echo Chamber. Thoughts after testifying to the… 

23. Wired: A US-Sanctioned Oligarch Ran Pro-Kremlin Ads on Facebook—Again 

24. Financial Times: EU urges Big Tech to promote opposition media in Belarus 

25. European Fact-Checking Standards Network: Fact-checking and related Risk-Mitigation Measures for Disinformation in the Very Large Online Platforms 

26. Euractive: Belgian presidency pitches EU Council overhaul over digital diplomacy

27. Financial Times: Ofcom poaches Big Tech staff in push to enforce new internet curbs 

28. Politico Pro: Search, social media and mobile eyed for UK Big Tech probes

29. Campaign War Stories Podcast: Caleb Smith | The Only Man Alive to Serve Three Speakers 

30. The Great Battlefield Podcast: Serving Pro-democracy Forces Through Research and Data with Mindy Finn of Citizen Data

31. The Business of Politics Show Podcast: A TikTok-fueled Victory In New Zealand – Sean Topham 

32. Bloomberg: Mark Zuckerberg Pivots to AI From Metaverse to Further His Legacy

33. New Yorker: What We Lost When Twitter Became X 

34. The Intercept: Israeli Group Claims It's Working With Big Tech Insiders to Censor “Inflammatory” Wartime Content 

35. Forbes: What The ChatGPT Store Means For AI Accessibility

36. Designing Tomorrow
    : Tracking Chat-Based AI Tool Adoption, Uses, and Experiences 

37. Atlantic Council DFR Lab: Pro-Bolsonaro social media accounts target Brazilian Supreme Court justice 

38. Arxiv: Deplatforming Norm-Violating Influencers on Social Media Reduces Overall Online Attention Toward Them 

39. Arxiv: Politics and Propaganda on Social Media: How Twitter and Meta Moderate State-Linked Information Operations

40. auDA: The Global Digital Compact, Lessons Learned from the Submissions of the Multistakeholder Internet Community report

41. Wired: Rumble Is Part of an 'Active and Ongoing' SEC Investigation 

42. Northeastern University: Social Media's New Referees?: Public Attitudes Toward AI Content Moderation Bots Across Three Countries

43. Democracy Works: Democracy Works Releases New Version of Elections API 

44. Big Technology
    : WhatsApp is Finally Starting to Dominate in the United States. Here’s Why. 

45. Prof Galloway: Peak Hollywood | No Mercy / No Malice 

Please support the curation and analysis I’m doing with this newsletter. As a paid subscriber, you make it possible for me to bring you in-depth analyses of the most pressing issues in tech and politics.