What to read, watch and listen to this weekend
Discover more from Anchor Change with Katie Harbath
What to read, watch and listen to this weekend
Wishing you all a relaxing few days
This was one hell of a week - but for a different reason than the busyness of the last three months. While I desperately needed the break - I also don’t do well going from 1000 miles per hour to 50 without proper planning. And I did not do proper planning. Plus, it was the pink full moon - a time for much introspection, creation, and change. So I’m feeling all the feels.
That said, I feel fantastic this morning. A thunderstorm came through DC last night, and I really feel like it’s spring now. Leaves are on the trees, DC can’t decide where to set mother nature’s thermostat, and I’m sitting in my home office with the windows open, drinking coffee and writing this newsletter. Life is pretty good.
Many people took this week off for Passover, Easter, spring break, or just because. In reading the proverbial room, it doesn’t feel like a time to share any sort of deep analysis - though if you want some and haven’t read the Q1 report I put out Wednesday, go check it out. Instead, I’ve got a list of links to stories I’m reading and some things I will be watching and listening to while I repot my houseplants this weekend and chill. I’ll also be doing some cooking - I’m very excited to try these Hasselbeck potatoes with garlic confit.
Thank you for being a subscriber. I can’t believe that I’m **this close** to having 4,000 free subscribers. If you have a few seconds consider sharing this with someone you think might find it interesting. I’d really appreciate it.
Created using Bing’s AI image generator. If you’ve not gone and tried this, this is the perfect weekend to go down that rabbit hole. It’s amazing. Here are some other tips on trying the various AI tools: Practical Uses of Bing with ChatGPT You Can Try Now
📺 What I’m Watching
First, for my Swiftie readers (this is likely going to become a regular installment), if you aren’t watching what’s happening over at niceboy ed’s website, I’d take a gander. Ten polaroids are developing at different rates, and theories are endless about what is happening. There is lots of speculation now that she will drop the rest of her re-records all at once. Stay tuned.
Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine empire is on 🔥🔥🔥. Daisy Jones and the Six came out a few weeks ago and is fantastic. This weekend Tiny Little Things debuts on Hulu. I started reading the book last night (I’m one of those trying to read the book before the show/movie) and will check this out.
I’m also checking out Lost Kitchen on HBO and considering re-watching the new episodes of Ted Lasso. They are putting so much nuance into this last season that I fear I’m not catching it all.
Finally, of course, Succession and season four of Tournament of Champions are coming to a close. TOC has brought some real twists to this annual cooking tournament, and I’m here for everything the randomizer throws out.
🎤 What I’m Listening To
The Information’s Jessica Lessin dropped her interview with Kara Swisher at SXSW. It’s for subscribers only, but nice to see Kara on the other side of the interview chair. Kara’s interviews for On have been on point as well.
📰 What I’m Reading
CNN: ‘It’s an especially bad time’: Tech layoffs are hitting ethics and safety teams
I spoke to CNN about this story, and my quotes are near the end:
“All they keep getting is criticized,” said Katie Harbath, former director of public policy at Facebook who now runs tech consulting firm Anchor Change. “I’m not saying they should get a pat on the back … but there comes a point in time where I think Mark [Zuckerberg] and other CEOs are like, is this worth the investment?”
While tech companies must balance their growth with the current economic conditions, Harbath said, “sometimes technologists think that they know the right things to do, they want to disrupt things, and aren’t always as open to hearing from outside voices who aren’t technologists.”
“You need that right balance to make sure you’re not stifling innovation, but making sure that you’re aware of the implications of what it is that you’re building,” she said. “We won’t know until we see how things continue to operate moving forward, but my hope is that they at least continue to think about that.”
Financial Times: Brands increase TikTok spending despite threat of US ban
Advertisers will go where the people are. The more this keeps happening the harder any ban will be.
Nikkei Asia: Meta to debut ad-creating generative AI this year, CTO says
Reuters: Meta releases AI model that can identify items within images
Both of these stories remind us that Meta absolutely has the potential to be a big player in the AI race. They’ve been working on this since 2013. The ability to use AI to create ads will exponentially increase the number of ads any organization can run - including political campaigns - which will make it even harder to track what they are doing. The ability to identify items in images will have a ton of applications, but what I first thought of is how helpful it will be for content moderation because identifying what is happening in images, audio, and video is far harder than text.
USA Today: Facebook is giving users more control over their News Feed. Here's how it works
I think this is an interesting move by Facebook. By giving people more control, they have something to point to for regulators/others who question Facebook making those decisions, yet the company also knows that very few people ever take the time to change these settings. The important thing is what the default is, which is basically the status quo.
New York Times: Ukraine War Plans Leak Prompts Pentagon Investigation
These docs leaked on Twitter and Telegram and are still up. Hack and leak operations are still very real and something all platforms need to have plans for.
TechCrunch: India to require Facebook and Twitter rely on gov’t fact checking
It continues to baffle me how the Western world does not talk enough about what is happening in India. Can you imagine the outcry if the U.S. government attempted to do something like this? Oh wait, I can…
Democratizing Automation: Behind the curtain: what it feels like to work in AI right now
Many of the feelings described in this post reminded me of what it was/is like building integrity systems inside of a company. This is a fantastic insider’s account of how companies deal with constant change, shifting priorities, and how that can burn out employees.
Substack: Introducing Notes
This is Substack basically introducing its version of Twitter. I am VERY curious to try this out when it comes out. Done right, maybe this could finally shift journalists and others away from Twitter.
pointed out that they’ve been unable to give up. Speaking of, hat tip to at for pointing out this Semafor chart about where journalists plan on spending their time.
OpenAI Blog: Our Approach to AI Safety
I think Open AI is trying to be responsible as it rolls out its tools, but it will have to ramp up a lot more as governments increasingly focus on the new technology.
All things Twitter
Quite the week for Twitter (though that’s basically every week). This morning I saw that they updated their abuse and harassment policy. The timing of this seems … weird, and I’m not seeing how it’s different than what was in the policies before. This means this was likely done at some whim of Elon. Part of me is curious if it has anything to do with this extremely hard-to-watch interview Matt Taibbi did with Mehdi Hasan of MSNBC. I don’t think it has anything to do with this very weird issue with NPR being labeled as state media and now Elon saying that might not have been right. All happening while Semafor reports that Twitter is falling short of policing Russian and Chinese state-backed media. Regardless, keeping 👀 on all this.
Finally, an interesting map to end on. Ever since COVID, I’ve wondered what the population shift looked like as people left cities for more space. Axios has a story on that this morning. It’s not as much as I expected though I would not have had Idaho on my list of states to grow the most.
🌸🌸🌸 Have a great weekend! I bought myself some flowers as a treat - you do something for you! 🌸🌸🌸
Calendar
🚨🚨 NEW 🚨🚨
May 2 - 4, 2023: Microsoft 365 Conference
Topics to keep an eye on:
Facebook 2020 election research
TV shows about Facebook - Doomsday Machine and second season of Super Pumped
April 19 - 23, 2023: International Journalism Festival
April 28 - 29, 2023: Knight First Amendment Institute - Optimizing for What? Algorithmic Amplification and Society
April 30, 2023 - Benin Election
April 30, 2023 - Paraguay Election
April 2023 - Andorra Election
April 2023 - Finland Election
April 2023 - Montenegro Election
May 2 - 4, 2023: Microsoft 365 Conference
May 7, 2023 - Thailand Election
May 10 - 12, 2023 - All Things in Moderation Conference
By May 12 - Meta response on spirit of the policy decisions
May 14, 2023: Thailand election
May 15-16: Copenhagen Democracy Summit
May 24-26, 2023 - Nobel Prize Summit: Truth, Trust and Hope
June 5-9: RightsCon
June 5, 2023 - The European Commission, European parliament and EU member states are due to agree a final definition for political advertising
June 24 - June 30: Aspen Ideas Festival
June 24, 2023 - Sierra Leone Election
June 25, 2023 - Guatemala Election
June 25, 2023 -Turkey Election
TBD June: DFR Lab 360/OS
July 11-13, 2023 - TrustCon
July 2023 - Cambodia Election
July 2023 - Timor-Leste Election
July 2023 - Zimbabwe Election
August 6, 2023 - Greece Election
August 2023 - Eswatini Election
August 2023 - First GOP Presidential Primary Debate
Mid-September: All Tech Is Human - Responsible Tech Summit NYC
September 27-29, 2023: Athens Democracy Forum
TBD September: Atlantic Festival
TBD September: Unfinished Live
September 2023 - Mauritania Election
September 28-29, 2023 - Trust & Safety Research Conference
October 8 - 12: Internet Governance Forum - Japan
October 10, 2023 - Liberia Election
October 12, 2023 - Pakistan Election
October 14, 2023 - New Zealand Election
October 22, 2023 - Switzerland Election
October 2023 - Argentina Election
October 2023 - Luxembourg Election
October 2023 - Oman Election
November 12, 2023 - Poland Election
November 20, 2023 - Marshall Islands Election
November 29, 2023 - Ukraine Election
November 2023 - Bhutan Election
November 2023 - Gabon Election
November 2023 - Rwanda Election
December 10, 2023 - Spain Election
December 2023 - Bangladesh Election
December 2023 - Democratic Republic of the Congo Election
December 2023 - Togo Election
TBD - Belarus Election
TBD - Cuba Election
TBD - Equatorial Guinea Election
TBD - Guinea Election
TBD - Madagascar Election
TBD - Maldives Election
TBD - Myanmar Election
TBD - Singapore Election
TBD - South Sudan Election - (Unlikely to happen)
TBD - Turkmenistan Election
TBD - Tuvalu
TBD - Haiti
July 15-18, 2024 - Republican National Convention