A profile of Joseph Weizenbaum, who created the first chatbot in 1966 but turned against AI, believing the computer revolution constricted our humanity
Computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum was there at the dawn of artificial intelligence - but he was also adamant that we must never confuse computers with humans Mastodon: @Weizenbaum_Institut … , @ska...
How eBay, launched in 1995 as AuctionWeb, anticipated many of the key features that would define a “platform” and unlocked the profit potential of the internet
Ben Tarnoff / The Guardian : Tweets: @moiragweigel and @bentarnoff Tweets: Moira Weigel / @moiragweigel : Today, much critical discourse on the internet focuses on search and social media platforms. ...
Meta's promised metaverse is going to be boring and is meant to distract us from the world that Facebook helped break
You're not losing your mind: it really does just sound like a worse version of the internet. Chris Vallance / BBC : Facebook's metamorphosis - will it work? Andrew Hutchinson / Social Media Today : Fa...
Kickstarter employees vote 46-37 to unionize with the Office and Professional Employees International Union
no matter where they work. That includes tech. #SupportUnions https://twitter.com/... @doctorow : Kickstarter workers vote to form first union in tech industry https://www.nbcnews.com/... Congrats to ...
How incidents like banning an “Always Punch Nazis” comic at Kickstarter led to a unionization push by employees who believe in the altruistic image of the brand
Kickstarter never wanted to be a normal tech company. A crowdfunding platform for artists, gadget-makers … Tweets: @bentarnoff , @waxpancake , and @kevinriggle Tweets: Ben Tarnoff / @bentarnoff : Imp...
American companies keep building surveillance tools that are used to violate human rights; workers who organize protests or refuse to comply deserve protections
American companies continue to build surveillance tools that are used to violate human rights. Workers who refuse to comply deserve protections. Tweets: @gortnacul_house , @supernodal , @supernodal ,...
Two Google employees who helped organize walkouts say they've faced demotions or dramatically changed roles, plan a town hall to share stories of retaliation
both at research institutions like @AINowInstitute, and at places like Google, which need calls for change and self-reflection from strong voices within. http://www.nytimes.com/... Kate Conger / @kate...
A collection of stories from US tech workers about how they organize among themselves with tools like Slack, Signal, and Google Docs, for political activism
@mer__edith, who helped organize the @GoogleWalkout http://clsndy.co/... Lauren Naturale / @lnaturale : “I said, 'OK, instead of you trying to sell me, I'm going to tell you why I wouldn't work for Am...
Policy paper from Sen. Warner lays out 20 ways to address issues posed by big tech platforms, from putting a price on users' data to mimicking GDPR rules
NYT Jeff Pundyk / Techonomy : Senator Warner: 20 Ways to Tame Social Media Thomas Claburn / The Register : Make Facebook, Twitter, Google et al liable for daft garbage netizens post online - US Senato...
Amazon's warehouse expansion around San Bernardino, CA brought jobs but data shows Amazon's warehouse staff earn less than similar US workers employed elsewhere
Destroying good jobs and treating people like the machines it will eventually replace them with. Ben Tarnoff / @bentarnoff : Pair this with the recent @EconomicPolicy report showing that Amazon wareho...