What I'm Reading - 8/3/25

I can’t believe it’s already August! Summer is going by so quickly. I’m determined to soak up as much of it as I can this month. I plan to spend a lot of time in the pool, reading and working on my book. I’ve made some solid progress on the draft and am starting to feel good about it. I’m sure that feeling will go away shortly. 😆

Have a great Sunday!

What I’m Reading

AI Developments

1. The Information: OpenAI Hits $12 Billion in Annualized Revenue, Breaks 700 Million ChatGPT Weekly Active Users

2. Defense One: US government will ingest all federal data into AI models, WH tech director says

3. North Carolina Treasurer’s Office: Lessons from NC Treasurer’s Office Generative AI Pilot with ChatGPT

Stories About Specific Countries

1. CNN Politics: Trump puts 50% tariffs on Brazil and copper while eliminating another tax loophole

Political & Social Commentary

1. Techdirt: Everyone Hates Trust & Safety. Everyone Needs Trust & Safety. This Is A Problem.

2. Brookings: What to make of the Trump administration’s AI Action Plan

3. The Hill: TikTok turns to users in fight against misinformation

4. Spin Class: Spin Class Case Study: Bipartisanists, Brand Death, and What Comes Next

5. Trust & Safety Professionals Association: Community, Unpredictability, and the Power of Showing Up

6. Pack Light Live Full with Carmen Van Kerckhove: Your white-collar job is about to get gig-ified

7. Buffer: Data Shows Best Content Format on Social Platforms in 2025: Millions of Posts Analyzed

8. Daniel Lewis on LinkedIn: ”CNN's flagship TikTok account now has more than 10 million followers. Here are six lessons I've learned growing the channel from about 1 million subs”

9. Financial Times: YouTube pulls ahead of ITV as second-most watched UK channel

10. Deadline: Fox News Tops July Ratings, But All Major News Networks See Decline Vs. 2024’s Election Year Frenzy

11. Axios: Marc Benioff: AI and humans both have a role

12. Michał Klincewicz, Tilburg University Mark Alfano, Macquarie U: Slopaganda: The interaction between propaganda and generative AI

13. Center for Strategic & International Studies: Unpacking the White House AI Action Plan with OSTP Director Michael Kratsios

14. TechCrunch: TikTok merges its Core Product and Trust & Safety teams

15. Dave Willner : "Launching Zentropi" (If you work in Trust and Safety check this out!)

16. Insights by Murmuration by Sarah Stamper: Burn it Down or Build it Up

17. After Babel by Deepti Doshi: The Algorithm Next Door

18. Partnership on AI: Decoding AI Governance: A Toolkit for Navigating Evolving Norms, Standards, and Rules

19. Semafor: How Fox got ahead on the big media future

Legal & Regulatory

1. Yahoo! Finance: Google to Sign EU AI Code of Practice, Warns of Regulations Slowing AI Growth

2. Irish Examiner: Meta's ban on political ads will mean less transparency and more slop for users

3. Center for Democracy & Technology: Content Moderation in the Global South: A Comparative Study of Four Low-Resource Languages

Company Announcements

1. McKinsey: McKinsey technology trends outlook 2025

2. Meta: Personal Superintelligence

3. OpenAI: Introducing study mode