What I’m Reading - 7/28/24
Every day felt like a week
I’m writing this while on my porch at the shore where the sun is shining, and the weather is warm, but not the oven it has been recently in the DC area.
I am still processing everything over the last two weeks, not just politically but also all of the amazing conversations I had at TrustCon. You also have some interesting AI announcements by OpenAI and Meta, and all of these worlds are converging in new ways that we don’t quite know the shape of yet.
This probably explains why Friday night I could not fall asleep until 4 am. We could blame it on me still being on West Coast time, but the real reason is I could not shut my brain off, so I just leaned into it and spent hours capturing my stream of consciousness. Now, I have to turn that into something focused for Wednesday.
Have a great Sunday. If you haven’t watched Beyoncé and Dolly Parton’s videos for Team USA in the Olympics, I highly encourage you to check them out. I hope we’re going to get a Taylor Swift one soon, too.
What I’m Reading
AI Developments
The Circuit with Emily Chang: The AI Era of Mark Zuckerberg
Nature: AI models collapse when trained on recursively generated data
NIST: Draft Guidance for Managing Misuse Risk for Dual-Use 3 Foundation Models
Axios: OpenAI starts testing prototype of new AI search tool
Knight Foundation How will AI shape the future of content moderation?
The Washington Post: Opinion | Sam Altman: AI’s future must be democratic
Stories About Specific Countries
South China Morning Post: ‘Malicious’: Philippine officials slam deepfake video of Marcos Jnr allegedly doing drugs
Latin America Daily Briefing: Venezuela hurtles towards unfree elections
Foreign Policy: Europe Is in Danger of Regulating Its Tech Market Out of Existence
Political & Social Commentary
Politico: Can Harris Pull Off a Victory in Three Months? Three Top Strategists Lay Out How
New York Times: Elon Musk Wants People on X to Police Election Posts. It’s Not Working Well.
New York Times: How Do You Solve a Problem Like Elon?
AI Political Pulse: Zuck, Vance and Xi - How will powerful open weight AI models shape US-China AI policy?
Morning Consult: Global Policy Outlook Series: Threat Perceptions, H2 2024
The Washington Post: Opinion | In global ‘year of elections,’ democracy looks more resilient
Bloomberg: TikTok Goes All-Out in Washington With Its US Survival at Stake
The Information: ‘A Unicorn Moment’: Inside Kamala Harris’ Reenergized Web of Silicon Valley Investors, Billionaires and Power Brokers
Wired: Joe Biden Lost the Internet. Kamala Harris Is Trying to Win It Back
Axios: Zoom is the new rally
New York Times: The Voices Young Conservatives Are Listening to Online
Washington Post: Inside the online army supercharging Kamala Harris' campaign
Brookings: What does the 2024 election mean for the future of AI governance?
POLITICO: Washington’s most powerful interests don’t know whether to cheer Harris — or dread her
Media Post: RNC TikTok Boom: The 'Daily Mail' Pulls Record Numbers During Convention
MSNBC: We studied attacks on women candidates. Nobody got it worse than Kamala Harris.
The Washington Post: Trump allies crush misinformation research ahead of election, despite Supreme Court ruling
Fast Company: How San Francisco politics became a proxy for the 2024 election
The Business Politics Show: The Referee Of Political Campaigns – Sean Cooksey (FEC)
The Atlantic: Twitter Won’t Die
Bloomberg: Musk Flips Script on Who Suspects Political Bias on X
Business Insider: Disney has a kid crisis - Children used to grow up watching Mickey Mouse. Now they're all on YouTube
Who Targets Me: How Labour should improve digital campaign rules
Oversight Board: New Decision Addresses Meta’s Rules on Non-Consensual Deepfake Intimate Images
NPR: These dictators are different. 'Autocracy, Inc.' explains how
Legal & Regulatory Issues
Roll Call: Senate tees up kids online safety bill for vote next week
Associated Press: FCC pursues new rules for AI in political ads, but changes may not take effect before the election
Techdirt: DSA Ruling: ExTwitter Must Pay Up For Shadowbanning; Trolls Rejoice
Axios: Lawmakers ask Meta to delay shutting down CrowdTangle
The Information: Meta Employees Debate Merits of Threads’ No-Politics Policy
Miscellaneous Insights & Reports
Entrepreneurship Handbook: How To Get ahead of Everybody Else by Behaving Like an “Executive.”
Simon Owens's Media Newsletter: Spotify’s big bet on podcasts is paying off
Disjointed: Four ways traditional media can work with Substack
Company Announcements
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