What I'm Reading - 2/2/25

The beginning of my French writing adventure

When you read this, I hope to be in Paris, where I will begin my French writing adventure. I’ll spend two days in the city and then two weeks at Relais de Camont, where I aim to finish the first draft of my book. Along the way, I will video blog on my Instagram, TikTok, here, and other places if you want to follow along. Here’s the first one I recorded for day 0.

If anyone has done a writing retreat like this (it’s not structured, so Relais de Camont is providing the housing and will take me to the market for food, but otherwise, I’m on my own) and has tips on how to structure your time, etc., please let me know. I’ve got some ideas, but all suggestions are welcome.

One of the things I want to start doing each week with these what I’m reading posts is highlighting one or two stories with the most interesting information to know and why. This week comes to you from the leaked audio of Meta’s first employee all hands of the year. Alex Heath at the Verge got the audio. In it, Mark Zuckerberg said something about how AI will change how we interact with content in the feed that is worth noting:

“I think in the next few years we're going to have all kinds of feed units that are way more interactiveI think this year we're going to have stuff where you have an AI agent in a video in your feed but then you can just start talking back to it and steer it and ask it all these interesting questions.”

I’ve been saying for quite some time how AI will fundamentally change any platform with a feed. It’ll start with AI summaries - some of which you see already in summarizing comments on posts or in search results - but then, as Mark says, you might have AI agents you can talk to or ask to arrange content in a certain way. There’s a ton of possibilities. It is hard to know precisely what it might look like, but it will change how we consume content, changing the incentives for those who post it.

Anyway, keep an eye on this space. Have a great Sunday!

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What I’m Reading

AI Developments

1. Thomas Reuters Foundation: Journalism in the AI Era: A TRF Insights survey

2. Time Magazine: DeepSeek’s Hidden Warning For AI Safety

3. The Washington Post: AI’s use in art, movies gets boost from Copyright Office

4. Promptfoo: 1,156 Questions Censored by DeepSeek

5. Axios: Axios AM - 5. D.C.'s AI show-and-tell

Stories About Specific Countries

1. Reuters: How young Kenyans turned to news influencers when protesters stormed the country's parliament

2. The Atlantic: Europe’s Elon Musk Problem

3. POLITICO: Trump’s Secretary of State Rubio ghosts Europe

4. Folha de S.Paulo: Lula government discusses new project for networks with content removal rules

5. Toronto Star: Doug Ford triggers snap Ontario election

6. The Guardian: WhatsApp says journalists and civil society members were targets of Israeli spyware

Political & Social Commentary

1. The New York Times: C.I.A.’s Chatbot Stands In for World Leaders

2. The Wall Street Journal: Meta’s Free-Speech Shift Made It Clear to Advertisers: ‘Brand Safety’ Is Out of Vogue

3. The New York Times: Opinion | Trump Has Something He Would Like to Bring to Your Attention

4. The Atlantic: America Is Divided. It Makes for Tremendous Content.

5. NBC News: The inside story of Harris' lost gamble on Joe Rogan, Beyoncé and a late Texas rally

6. The Washington Post: Karoline Leavitt announces ‘new media’ seating at White House briefings

7. The Media & Us: Disillusioned With American News/Social Media? Look No Further!

8. theRighting: Audiences Flee News Websites Between Dec. 2020 and Dec. 2024

9. Meta: Reflecting on Meta’s $8 Billion Investment in Privacy

10. Chaotic Era: X sold over $25 million in political ads in 2024

11. The Wall Street Journal: Trump and the Collapse of the Old Order

12. Stancil Culture: Volume, variety, vehemence

13. The Verge: Meta warns that it will fire leakers in leaked memo

14. TechPolicy.Press: Tracing the Speech Regulation Patterns of 2025

Legal & Regulatory

1. Reuters: Google pushes global agenda to educate workers, lawmakers on AI

2. On with Kara Swisher: Social Media’s Original Gatekeepers On Moderation’s Rise And Fall

3. POLITICO: Trump Is Ignoring the Law — and Congress Doesn’t Care

4. United States District Court For The District Of Columbia: Complaint Filed by Nonprofits and Public Health Organizations Against OMB and Acting Director Matthew Vaeth

5. Axios: Bills of the week: Kids safety, supply chains and more

6. The Wall Street Journal: Meta to Pay $25 Million to Settle 2021 Trump Lawsuit

7. The New York Times: F.C.C. Chair Orders Investigation Into NPR and PBS Sponsorships

Miscellaneous Insights & Reports

1. Axios: CEO confidence in communications dwindles, new Weber Shandwick report

2. Issuu: C-Suite Outlook 2025: Delivering value in a volatile world by Weber Shandwick

3. Garbage Day: Yeah, it's probably time to panic

4. Bloomberg: The Internet Almost Killed Barnes & Noble, Then Saved It

5. Ctrl-Alt-Speech: This Episode has Masculine Energy

Career Advice

1. Trust in Tech: an Integrity Institute Member Podcast: Burnout in Trust & Safety: The Evolution of Wellness and Resilience in Integrity work

Company Announcements

1. OpenAI: Introducing ChatGPT Gov

2. Google Blog: AI and the future of national security

3. Substack Reads: The fight for free speech in 2025 and beyond