#aisucks — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #aisucks, aggregated by home.social.
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#Anthropic Building a #PreCrime System to Surveil #AntiAI #Dissenters, Investigation Shows | Common Dreams
One legal expert said that as AI companies “become more hated, there’s more pressure on them to over-disclose knowing that some of the people they identify for law enforcement shouldn’t be targeted.”
by Brad Reed, September 9, 2026
"The American Prospect on Wednesday published an investigation revealing that top artificial intelligence firm Anthropic is building a predictive surveillance system aimed at tracking activists who are opposed to advanced AI development.
"The Prospect found that Anthropic last month issued a job posting seeking an intelligence specialist to “identify, assess, track, and investigate global threats including geopolitical instability, terrorism, crime, activism, nation-state targeting of the AI sector.”
Read more:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/anthropic-pre-crime-surveillance#PreCrime #ThoughtCrime #AIResistance #ResistanceIsFertile #AISucks #CriminalizingDissent #TheResistance #WaterIsLife #AirIsLife #HumanIntelligence #TechFascism #Fascism #CharacteristicsOfFascism
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#Anthropic Building a #PreCrime System to Surveil #AntiAI #Dissenters, Investigation Shows | Common Dreams
One legal expert said that as AI companies “become more hated, there’s more pressure on them to over-disclose knowing that some of the people they identify for law enforcement shouldn’t be targeted.”
by Brad Reed, September 9, 2026
"The American Prospect on Wednesday published an investigation revealing that top artificial intelligence firm Anthropic is building a predictive surveillance system aimed at tracking activists who are opposed to advanced AI development.
"The Prospect found that Anthropic last month issued a job posting seeking an intelligence specialist to “identify, assess, track, and investigate global threats including geopolitical instability, terrorism, crime, activism, nation-state targeting of the AI sector.”
Read more:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/anthropic-pre-crime-surveillance#PreCrime #ThoughtCrime #AIResistance #ResistanceIsFertile #AISucks #CriminalizingDissent #TheResistance #WaterIsLife #AirIsLife #HumanIntelligence #TechFascism #Fascism #CharacteristicsOfFascism
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#Anthropic Building a #PreCrime System to Surveil #AntiAI #Dissenters, Investigation Shows | Common Dreams
One legal expert said that as AI companies “become more hated, there’s more pressure on them to over-disclose knowing that some of the people they identify for law enforcement shouldn’t be targeted.”
by Brad Reed, September 9, 2026
"The American Prospect on Wednesday published an investigation revealing that top artificial intelligence firm Anthropic is building a predictive surveillance system aimed at tracking activists who are opposed to advanced AI development.
"The Prospect found that Anthropic last month issued a job posting seeking an intelligence specialist to “identify, assess, track, and investigate global threats including geopolitical instability, terrorism, crime, activism, nation-state targeting of the AI sector.”
Read more:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/anthropic-pre-crime-surveillance#PreCrime #ThoughtCrime #AIResistance #ResistanceIsFertile #AISucks #CriminalizingDissent #TheResistance #WaterIsLife #AirIsLife #HumanIntelligence #TechFascism #Fascism #CharacteristicsOfFascism
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#Anthropic Building a #PreCrime System to Surveil #AntiAI #Dissenters, Investigation Shows | Common Dreams
One legal expert said that as AI companies “become more hated, there’s more pressure on them to over-disclose knowing that some of the people they identify for law enforcement shouldn’t be targeted.”
by Brad Reed, September 9, 2026
"The American Prospect on Wednesday published an investigation revealing that top artificial intelligence firm Anthropic is building a predictive surveillance system aimed at tracking activists who are opposed to advanced AI development.
"The Prospect found that Anthropic last month issued a job posting seeking an intelligence specialist to “identify, assess, track, and investigate global threats including geopolitical instability, terrorism, crime, activism, nation-state targeting of the AI sector.”
Read more:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/anthropic-pre-crime-surveillance#PreCrime #ThoughtCrime #AIResistance #ResistanceIsFertile #AISucks #CriminalizingDissent #TheResistance #WaterIsLife #AirIsLife #HumanIntelligence #TechFascism #Fascism #CharacteristicsOfFascism
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#Anthropic Building a #PreCrime System to Surveil #AntiAI #Dissenters, Investigation Shows | Common Dreams
One legal expert said that as AI companies “become more hated, there’s more pressure on them to over-disclose knowing that some of the people they identify for law enforcement shouldn’t be targeted.”
by Brad Reed, September 9, 2026
"The American Prospect on Wednesday published an investigation revealing that top artificial intelligence firm Anthropic is building a predictive surveillance system aimed at tracking activists who are opposed to advanced AI development.
"The Prospect found that Anthropic last month issued a job posting seeking an intelligence specialist to “identify, assess, track, and investigate global threats including geopolitical instability, terrorism, crime, activism, nation-state targeting of the AI sector.”
Read more:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/anthropic-pre-crime-surveillance#PreCrime #ThoughtCrime #AIResistance #ResistanceIsFertile #AISucks #CriminalizingDissent #TheResistance #WaterIsLife #AirIsLife #HumanIntelligence #TechFascism #Fascism #CharacteristicsOfFascism
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🎵 "Oh, uh-oh! AI killed the video star..."🎶
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8r-tXRLazs
#TheBuggles #AI #AISucks #AISlop #MTV #80sMusic #TheFirstMusicVideoAiredOnMTV
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🎵 "Oh, uh-oh! AI killed the video star..."🎶
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8r-tXRLazs
#TheBuggles #AI #AISucks #AISlop #MTV #80sMusic #TheFirstMusicVideoAiredOnMTV
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🎵 "Oh, uh-oh! AI killed the video star..."🎶
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8r-tXRLazs
#TheBuggles #AI #AISucks #AISlop #MTV #80sMusic #TheFirstMusicVideoAiredOnMTV
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🎵 "Oh, uh-oh! AI killed the video star..."🎶
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8r-tXRLazs
#TheBuggles #AI #AISucks #AISlop #MTV #80sMusic #TheFirstMusicVideoAiredOnMTV
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🎵 "Oh, uh-oh! AI killed the video star..."🎶
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8r-tXRLazs
#TheBuggles #AI #AISucks #AISlop #MTV #80sMusic #TheFirstMusicVideoAiredOnMTV
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HT @waltbaldwin
NextEra secures US loan of up to $1.9 billion for restart of #Iowa #nuclearPlant
By Reuters
September 8, 2026Excerpt: "Iowa's lone nuclear plant, the #DuaneArnoldEnergyCenter, closed in 2020 after operating for 45 years. Operations are scheduled to resume in early 2029."
#AISucks #AIDatacenters #NoNukesForAI #NoNukes #NextEra #Holtec #RethinkNotRestart #AIBoom 💥
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HT @waltbaldwin
NextEra secures US loan of up to $1.9 billion for restart of #Iowa #nuclearPlant
By Reuters
September 8, 2026Excerpt: "Iowa's lone nuclear plant, the #DuaneArnoldEnergyCenter, closed in 2020 after operating for 45 years. Operations are scheduled to resume in early 2029."
#AISucks #AIDatacenters #NoNukesForAI #NoNukes #NextEra #Holtec #RethinkNotRestart #AIBoom 💥
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HT @waltbaldwin
NextEra secures US loan of up to $1.9 billion for restart of #Iowa #nuclearPlant
By Reuters
September 8, 2026Excerpt: "Iowa's lone nuclear plant, the #DuaneArnoldEnergyCenter, closed in 2020 after operating for 45 years. Operations are scheduled to resume in early 2029."
#AISucks #AIDatacenters #NoNukesForAI #NoNukes #NextEra #Holtec #RethinkNotRestart #AIBoom 💥
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HT @waltbaldwin
NextEra secures US loan of up to $1.9 billion for restart of #Iowa #nuclearPlant
By Reuters
September 8, 2026Excerpt: "Iowa's lone nuclear plant, the #DuaneArnoldEnergyCenter, closed in 2020 after operating for 45 years. Operations are scheduled to resume in early 2029."
#AISucks #AIDatacenters #NoNukesForAI #NoNukes #NextEra #Holtec #RethinkNotRestart #AIBoom 💥
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HT @waltbaldwin
NextEra secures US loan of up to $1.9 billion for restart of #Iowa #nuclearPlant
By Reuters
September 8, 2026Excerpt: "Iowa's lone nuclear plant, the #DuaneArnoldEnergyCenter, closed in 2020 after operating for 45 years. Operations are scheduled to resume in early 2029."
#AISucks #AIDatacenters #NoNukesForAI #NoNukes #NextEra #Holtec #RethinkNotRestart #AIBoom 💥
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WARNING! The post below may enrage you if you're a programmer.
Posted on a video with a guy writing a 6502 emulator for fun.
To be sure, a lot of the comment were bad, not letting the guy learn at his own speed, but this easily took the fucking cake.
Can only hope it's #RageBait. #AIpsychosis #AIsucks #FuckOff
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What Do Students Lose When They Stop Writing?
Educators are worried that many students can no longer write essays without #AI . And it’s costing more than just grammar skills.
By Dana Goldstein
Aug. 17, 2026Excerpt: "A growing number of educators are alarmed, and insist that students should write without A.I. These teachers are returning to #handwriting, #BlueBooks and proctored, in-class essay tests — all attempts to prevent students from outsourcing their writing to #chatbots.
"This is baffling to tech industry leaders, who see A.I. rejection as a form of educational malpractice. They point out that writing is already the leading use of A.I. in the workplace, and argue there is no need to continue suffering through the task without help. After all, they say, chatbots now exceed the ability of most human beings to produce fluent prose.
"All this points to some questions about writing itself: Why work so hard to learn it? And what do students stand to lose when they stop facing down a blank page, alone with their thoughts?"Read more:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/17/us/student-writing-essays-ai.htmlArchived version:
https://archive.ph/TGoVV#CriticalThinkingSkills #TheBlankPage #AISucks #DumbingUsDown #Enshittification #Proctoring #InClassEssays
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CW: Finding out a cool thing was made with AI
Just found out that the app Loupe by @mysk was made with AI. I boosted this app and literally showed it to IRL friends because I thought it was really cool (albeit terrifying). But upon finding out that it was made with AI just makes me sad. Not only because it means that the app is a violation of my values, but also because there are real developers out there who might have one day wanted to make this but now will likely not because “oh someone already did this and it’s popular enough why compete with it?”. Maybe I’ll be proven wrong but that’s what really bothers me about this. And while the developers didn’t necessarily “hide” the fact that it was made with AI, I still believed it was a human made app until I saw them bragging about it (turns out their “privacy-focused browser” is also made by AI, which is basically an oxymoron at this point).
Anyways I’m actually kinda pissed and won’t be recommending Loupe anymore. Mysk didn’t do anything overtly wrong, but this just leaves me angry at them for not talking to a real developer to make this and angry at AI for what it’s done to the world. -
#AI could make humans less intelligent, warns Royal Observatory
Liv McMahon, May 18, 2026
Excerpt: "The rise of #AITools that instantly answer questions and complex problems could make humans less intelligent, the Royal Observatory Greenwich has warned.
"The Observatory, one of the UK's oldest purpose-built scientific institutions, is known for its contributions to astronomy.
Paddy Rodgers, director of the Royal Museums Greenwich group which oversees it, said its rich history of research showed the power of #HumanKnowledge and #curiosity - and the need to avoid 'complete dependence' on AI." 'A reliance solely on instant answers risks losing the habits of questioning and evaluation that underpin knowledge, expertise and innovation,' he said."
Read more:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2023l60370oArchived version:
https://archive.ph/uNpW1#AISucks #DumbingUsDown #CriticalThinkingSkills #HumanIntelligence
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Software #Developers Say #AI Is Rotting Their Brains
by Emanuel Maiberg, May 13, 2026
Excerpt: "The developers I talked to found AI useful for some tasks. Several developers said that it was good for experimentation, allowing them to quickly prototype an idea or to implement something in a domain they’re unfamiliar with. One developer said it was a good information interface. Specifically, he said, the AI helped him find where on the server a certain request is handled, summarize logs, or find documentation related to code changes.
"The problem all the developers I talked to agreed on is that the more they relied on AI to code, the more the skills they’ve honed for years deteriorated. This is by now a well studied phenomenon sometimes referred to as '#CognitiveDebt' or '#CognitiveAtrophy.' The idea is that people who use AI to automate certain parts of their job lose the ability to do those tasks well, therefore #DeSkilling themselves." 'I had some issues where I forgot how to implement a Laravel API and it scared the shit out of me. I went to university for this, I've been a software engineer for many years now and it feels like I am back before I ever wrote a single line of code,' the software developer at a small web design firm told me.
" 'It's making me dumber for sure,' the fintech software developer told me. “It's like when we got #cellphones and stopped remembering phone numbers, but it's grown to me mentally outsourcing ‘thinking’ in general. I feel my critical thinking and ability to sit and reason about a problem or a design has degraded because the all-knowing-dalai-llama is just a question away from giving me his take. And supposedly I tell myself ill just use it for inspiration but it ends up being my only thought. It gives you the illusion of productivity and expertise but at the end of the day you are more divorced from the output you submit than before.'
" 'When I was using it for code generation, I found myself having a lot of trouble building and maintaining a #MentalModel of the code I was working with,' the software engineer at the FAANG told me. 'Another aspect is that I joined late last year and [the company’s] codebase is massive. As a new hire, part of my job is to learn how to navigate the codebase and use the established conventions, but I think the AI push really hampered my ability to do that. '"
Read more:
https://www.404media.co/software-developers-say-ai-is-rotting-their-brains/Archived version:
https://archive.ph/2vjJm#AISucks #DumbingUsDown #BrainRot #AIBrainRot #MentalMaps #CriticalThinkingSkills #UseYourBrain #UseItOrLoseIt
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#RayBradbury Reveals the True Meaning of #Fahrenheit451: It’s Not About #Censorship, But People “Being Turned Into Morons by #TV”
in Books | August 10th, 2017 9 Comments
' 'Fahrenheit 451 is not, he says firmly, a story about government censorship,' wrote the Los Angeles Weekly’s Amy E. Boyle Johnson in 2007. 'Nor was it a response to Senator #Joseph McCarthy, whose investigations had already instilled fear and stifled the creativity of thousands.' Rather, he meant his 1953 novel as 'a story about how television destroys interest in reading literature.' "
https://www.openculture.com/2017/08/ray-bradbury-reveals-the-true-meaning-of-fahrenheit-451.html
#Idiocracy #DumbingUsDown #PutDownThePhones #AISucks #ReadABook
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“#CognitiveSurrender” leads #AI users to abandon #logical thinking, research finds
Experiments show large majorities uncritically accepting “faulty” AI answers.
Kyle Orland – Apr 3, 2026
#Vulcanize🖖🏼 #AISucks #UseLogic #UseItOrLoseIt #DumbingUsDown #CriticalThinkingSkills
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More of this, please...!
A college instructor turns to typewriters to curb AI-written work and teach life lessons
By JOCELYN GECKER, March 31, 2026
"The scene is right out of the 1950s with students pecking away at manual typewriters, the machines dinging at the end of each line.
"Once each semester, Grit Matthias Phelps, a German language instructor at Cornell University, introduces her students to the raw feeling of typing without online assistance. No screens, online dictionaries, spellcheckers or delete keys.
"The exercise started in spring 2023 as Phelps grew frustrated with the reality that students were using generative AI and online translation platforms to churn out grammatically perfect assignments.
" 'What’s the point of me reading it if it’s already correct anyway, and you didn’t write it yourself? Could you produce it without your computer?' said Phelps.
"She wanted students to understand what writing, thinking and classrooms were like before everything turned digital. So, she found a few dozen old manual typewriters in thrift shops and online marketplaces, and created what her syllabus calls an 'analog' assignment."
Read more:
https://apnews.com/article/typewriter-ai-cheating-chatgpt-cornell-ce10e1ca0f10c96f79b7d988bb56448b -
"In a detailed report released last week, titled The Urgent Case Against #DataCenters, #FWW pointed to some of the 'documented harms caused by #AI and data centers,' including:
- Enormous #energy footprints: A single hyperscale data center can consume as much energy as 2 million US households.
- A lifeline for #FossilFuels: The thirst for fuel is being met by keeping old #coal-fired power plants running and by building new natural gas ones. [And restarting old #NuclearPlants]
- Skyrocketing electricity costs: Increased #EnergyDemand can raise residential rates, which soared 31% from 2020 to 2025 (compared to 4% from 2015 to 2020).
- Drained water resources: By 2028, AI data centers could use as much water as 18.5 million households, just for cooling their servers.
- An investment bubble: A handful of companies are investing in one another and increasingly turning to risky debt structures to hide the threat of the bubble.
- A litany of other harms: This includes massive amounts of electronic waste (#EWaste), unrelenting noise pollution, loss of #farmland, political instability from #deepfake videos, lost revenue from data center tax incentives, and #ChildEndangerment from #AI #chatbots."#NoDatacenters #NoAI
#NoNukesForAI #UnrestrictedGrowth #WaterIsLife #NoisePollution
#AISucks #USPol -
#Texans are demanding their local governments push pause on #DataCenters . Can they?
Texans from #WacoTX to #HarlingenTX are raising concerns over how much energy and water data centers are poised to use. Local officials, some enticed by a tax boon, say they have little power to stop the rush.
By Berenice Garcia and Sam Shaw, The Waco Bridge, Feb. 13, 2026
Excerpt: "From #AmarilloTX to Waco, #CollegeStationTX to Harlingen, Texans are raising concerns over the proliferation of data centers — and the tremendous amounts of water and energy they are poised to suck up.
"Seemingly overnight, these sprawling campuses of computer servers meant to store information from websites and power artificial intelligence are popping up all over the state.
Just this month, the largest proposed data center in the U.S. was approved in Pecos County. That follows the start of construction of a $500 billion data center on the outskirts of Abilene and a planned 5,800-acre project in the Texas Panhandle that will include the world’s “largest energy campus,” according to its backers.
Together with more modest proposals near Waco, and just outside of Harlingen, Texas is emerging as a contender to challenge Virginia’s dominance in data centers.
In many of these places, Texans are demanding local elected officials intervene."
Read more:
https://www.texastribune.org/2026/02/13/texas-data-centers-local-governments-power/#NoWaterForDatacenters #DatacenterResistance #NoWaterForAI #NoEnergyForAI #AISucks #WaterIsLife #USPol #TexasPol #ResistAI #ResistDatacenters
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#Texans are demanding their local governments push pause on #DataCenters . Can they?
Texans from #WacoTX to #HarlingenTX are raising concerns over how much energy and water data centers are poised to use. Local officials, some enticed by a tax boon, say they have little power to stop the rush.
By Berenice Garcia and Sam Shaw, The Waco Bridge, Feb. 13, 2026
Excerpt: "From #AmarilloTX to Waco, #CollegeStationTX to Harlingen, Texans are raising concerns over the proliferation of data centers — and the tremendous amounts of water and energy they are poised to suck up.
"Seemingly overnight, these sprawling campuses of computer servers meant to store information from websites and power artificial intelligence are popping up all over the state.
Just this month, the largest proposed data center in the U.S. was approved in Pecos County. That follows the start of construction of a $500 billion data center on the outskirts of Abilene and a planned 5,800-acre project in the Texas Panhandle that will include the world’s “largest energy campus,” according to its backers.
Together with more modest proposals near Waco, and just outside of Harlingen, Texas is emerging as a contender to challenge Virginia’s dominance in data centers.
In many of these places, Texans are demanding local elected officials intervene."
Read more:
https://www.texastribune.org/2026/02/13/texas-data-centers-local-governments-power/#NoWaterForDatacenters #DatacenterResistance #NoWaterForAI #NoEnergyForAI #AISucks #WaterIsLife #USPol #TexasPol #ResistAI #ResistDatacenters
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#Texans are demanding their local governments push pause on #DataCenters . Can they?
Texans from #WacoTX to #HarlingenTX are raising concerns over how much energy and water data centers are poised to use. Local officials, some enticed by a tax boon, say they have little power to stop the rush.
By Berenice Garcia and Sam Shaw, The Waco Bridge, Feb. 13, 2026
Excerpt: "From #AmarilloTX to Waco, #CollegeStationTX to Harlingen, Texans are raising concerns over the proliferation of data centers — and the tremendous amounts of water and energy they are poised to suck up.
"Seemingly overnight, these sprawling campuses of computer servers meant to store information from websites and power artificial intelligence are popping up all over the state.
Just this month, the largest proposed data center in the U.S. was approved in Pecos County. That follows the start of construction of a $500 billion data center on the outskirts of Abilene and a planned 5,800-acre project in the Texas Panhandle that will include the world’s “largest energy campus,” according to its backers.
Together with more modest proposals near Waco, and just outside of Harlingen, Texas is emerging as a contender to challenge Virginia’s dominance in data centers.
In many of these places, Texans are demanding local elected officials intervene."
Read more:
https://www.texastribune.org/2026/02/13/texas-data-centers-local-governments-power/#NoWaterForDatacenters #DatacenterResistance #NoWaterForAI #NoEnergyForAI #AISucks #WaterIsLife #USPol #TexasPol #ResistAI #ResistDatacenters
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#Texans are demanding their local governments push pause on #DataCenters . Can they?
Texans from #WacoTX to #HarlingenTX are raising concerns over how much energy and water data centers are poised to use. Local officials, some enticed by a tax boon, say they have little power to stop the rush.
By Berenice Garcia and Sam Shaw, The Waco Bridge, Feb. 13, 2026
Excerpt: "From #AmarilloTX to Waco, #CollegeStationTX to Harlingen, Texans are raising concerns over the proliferation of data centers — and the tremendous amounts of water and energy they are poised to suck up.
"Seemingly overnight, these sprawling campuses of computer servers meant to store information from websites and power artificial intelligence are popping up all over the state.
Just this month, the largest proposed data center in the U.S. was approved in Pecos County. That follows the start of construction of a $500 billion data center on the outskirts of Abilene and a planned 5,800-acre project in the Texas Panhandle that will include the world’s “largest energy campus,” according to its backers.
Together with more modest proposals near Waco, and just outside of Harlingen, Texas is emerging as a contender to challenge Virginia’s dominance in data centers.
In many of these places, Texans are demanding local elected officials intervene."
Read more:
https://www.texastribune.org/2026/02/13/texas-data-centers-local-governments-power/#NoWaterForDatacenters #DatacenterResistance #NoWaterForAI #NoEnergyForAI #AISucks #WaterIsLife #USPol #TexasPol #ResistAI #ResistDatacenters
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#Texans are demanding their local governments push pause on #DataCenters . Can they?
Texans from #WacoTX to #HarlingenTX are raising concerns over how much energy and water data centers are poised to use. Local officials, some enticed by a tax boon, say they have little power to stop the rush.
By Berenice Garcia and Sam Shaw, The Waco Bridge, Feb. 13, 2026
Excerpt: "From #AmarilloTX to Waco, #CollegeStationTX to Harlingen, Texans are raising concerns over the proliferation of data centers — and the tremendous amounts of water and energy they are poised to suck up.
"Seemingly overnight, these sprawling campuses of computer servers meant to store information from websites and power artificial intelligence are popping up all over the state.
Just this month, the largest proposed data center in the U.S. was approved in Pecos County. That follows the start of construction of a $500 billion data center on the outskirts of Abilene and a planned 5,800-acre project in the Texas Panhandle that will include the world’s “largest energy campus,” according to its backers.
Together with more modest proposals near Waco, and just outside of Harlingen, Texas is emerging as a contender to challenge Virginia’s dominance in data centers.
In many of these places, Texans are demanding local elected officials intervene."
Read more:
https://www.texastribune.org/2026/02/13/texas-data-centers-local-governments-power/#NoWaterForDatacenters #DatacenterResistance #NoWaterForAI #NoEnergyForAI #AISucks #WaterIsLife #USPol #TexasPol #ResistAI #ResistDatacenters
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@memeorandum There's an easy way to get around use of Einstein and other #AIAgents... IN-CLASS WRITING and NO PHONES!
"Assessment redesign toward formats less amenable to full automation, including oral exams, in-person evaluations, iterative project work, and authentic assessments tied to process evidence. "
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@memeorandum "Einstein is explicit in its pitch: it will log into Canvas (one of the most popular and ubiquitous pieces of education software) and do your classwork for you, just like Kirschenbaum and his fellows warned about last year."
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Does using #AI dumb you down?
by Willis Ryder Arnold, Meghna Chakrabarti, August 11, 2025
Excerpt: "CHAKRABARTI: ... Well, actually, Nataliya, before you do that, I do want to, I promise you, we will hear the final. I'm just like teasing, I'm teasing listeners today, but since both of you have actually mentioned handwriting, I do wanna just pause for a second and talk about that.
"Because in my personal N=1 of my life, I type every day like any normal person, almost all my writing is done through typing, but I don't know, I find myself that when I like, really want to remember something or it's of high value to me, I pick up a pencil or a pen.
"And somehow that embeds it more deeply into my brain, specifically my aging, working memory.
"So because of that, we actually reached out to one of the researchers that you mentioned who has done research on handwriting to understand like how we process information and think differently depending on how we're physically writing. And according to on Audrey van der Meer the answer is quite a bit.
"AUDREY VAN DER MEER: We actually looked at the connectivity patterns in the brain during handwriting and typewriting, and we found that the brain is much more connected during handwriting than it is during typewriting.
"CHAKRABARTI: van der Meer is a researcher and professor of neuropsychology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
"And in her research she used students, once again, the universal Guinea pig, as subjects. And it sounds like the experiment might've looked exactly how you'd think, but maybe with the fun twist.
"VAN DER MEER: They were wearing one of our characteristic electrode nets. Consisting of 256 sensitive electrodes sewn together as like a hair net on their heads, and they were playing the game Pictionary. So we presented Pictionary words on a large screen, and they were supposed to either write the word by hand, draw the word by hand, or type the word on a keyboard. And we recorded their ongoing brain activity while they were performing those tasks.
"CHAKRABARTI: And just like Nataliya's team did, van der Meer recorded that brain activity on an EEG, and she says the number of brain functions, visual processing, sensory motor integration, and the motor cortex are notably more engaged when writing by hand.
"VAN DER MEER: The brain does this through neural oscillations that can oscillate at different frequencies and in different parts of the brain and that kind, those kind of oscillations in the regions of the brain where we found activity are usually involved in learning and memory. So these kind of oscillations, they put the brain in a kind of state that makes it easier to learn from your handwriting activities and to remember what the notes were about.
"CHAKRABARTI: Writing by hand can also promote recall of experience in place because it helps cement memories that are unique to us. According to van der Meer:
"VAN DER MEER: Handwritten notes are very personal. When you then take them up in order to study for the exam, for instance, everything is coming back because it feels like you're back in the lecture theater again.
"And that's why sending your mate to a lecture to take notes doesn't work because notes, hundred of notes are typically very personal."
Read more / listen:
https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2025/08/11/ai-writing-chatgpt-study-cognitive#AISucks #AIIsDumbingUsDown #AIResistance #Handwriting #BrainHealth #Datacenters #DumbingUsDown
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So, taking off to run a few errands. I'm thinking that this afternoon/evening I'll be posting about a topic that's been on my mind for a while -- is #AI #DumbingUsDown? A lot of you won't be surprised at what the studies say. AI and #DataCenters are NOT worth the price to the #Environment or our #BrainHealth!
#AISucks #AIIsDumbingUsDown #NoNukesForAI #NoNukesForDatacenters #ElectricityHogs #WaterUsage #WaterIsLife #NoisePollution
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Is #AI Making Us Stupider? This Study Certainly Thinks So
New research highlights the impact of AI on #CriticalThinking skills.
Posted August 21, 2025 | Reviewed by Michelle Quirk
Key points
- Using AI to do the thinking impacts not only quality of work but also the long-term acquisition of skills.
- AI can have a place in education, but it needs to be carefully employed.
- Employing AI is having a detrimental impact on our ability to think critically.Excerpt: "A new study by #MIT has published initial results highlighting a likely connection between large language models (#LLMs)—colloquially grouped under the banner of AI—and a direct cognitive cost, particularly when it comes to our ability to think critically. They conducted a study using a pool of 54 participants, divided into three groups. The groups were asked to deliver an SAT-grade essay, with the first group granted access to #ChatGPT, the second to traditional #GoogleSearch, and the third with no search resources at all. Group 3 was referred to as the '#BrainOnly' group.
"Over time, each participant had to produce several essays, and each time was attached to an EEG to record brain activity across 32 regions. Consistently, ChatGPT users had the lowest brain engagement for every essay, and worryingly showed decreasing brain activity over time, as they progressed through the essay assignments. What this represents is the ChatGPT participants getting '#lazier' with each subsequent essay, with many resorting to copy-and-paste content by the end of the study. The study also recorded that this group 'consistently underperformed at #neural, #linguistic, and behavioral levels.' The findings make sense; with ChatGPT doing much of the work, it's easier on our #cognitive processes, and it is unsurprising that it takes less mental effort.
"Perhaps the more concerning aspect of the findings is the connection between #ReducedBrainActivity and impact on long-term learning and memory. As well as recording the participants' level of satisfaction, #curiosity, #creativity and #memory as part of the study—which were all high for both the brain-only and the search assisted groups (groups 2 and 3)—a later part of the study asked each group to reproduce one of their earlier essays, with the ChatGPT group asked to do so without access to any tools. There was little evidence of this group's participants remembering much of their previous essay, highlighting the very necessary link between #CognitiveEngagement and memory and, therefore, the potential impact on #LongTermLearning and gaining new skills. Conversely, and perhaps reassuringly, however, the brain-only group was then permitted to rewrite their essay with access to ChatGPT, with their efforts showing higher levels of creativity and stronger arguments, while retaining original thinking and unique language. This could present reassurance that, employed properly, AI has a place in enhancing learning without diminishing cognitive capability.
"Despite awaiting peer review and using only a small participant sample, the research team decided to release their findings in advance of peer feedback, in what they highlight as an urgent consideration of #LearningWithAI."
#DumbingUsDown #AIIsDumbingUsDown #AISucks #UseYourBrain #CriticalThinkingSkills #EvaluatingSources #UseAIWithCaution
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Against #AILiteracy: have we actually found a way to #ReverseLearning?
Miriam Reynoldson
Apr 19, 2025"So let’s get one thing out of the way: I think '#AI literacy' is a dangerous device of neoliberal education and it deserves to be dismissed out of hand.
"I don’t like that declaring this will immediately turn off half my audience, but I think it’s only fair to say it up front.
"This has a lot to do with my feelings about generative AI technologies, their developers, their #BloodDiamond genesis, and their ugly consequences for those who use them and those who are impacted by their use.
But it has a lot more to do with what literacy is."
Read more:
https://themindfile.substack.com/p/against-ai-literacy-have-we-actually#AIColonialism #AISucks #HumanCreativity #NoNukesForAI #WaterIsLife #DumbingUsDown #NoAI #Enshittification #AIPollution #NoisePollution #DataCenters #Terminator #Skynet
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“Empire of #AI”: #KarenHao on How AI Is Threatening #Democracy & Creating a New #Colonial World
June 04, 2025 via @DemocracyNow_Headlines_rss
"The new book #EmpireOfAI by longtime technology reporter Karen Hao unveils the accruing political and economic power of AI companies — especially Sam Altman’s OpenAI. Her reporting uncovered the #exploitation of #workers in #Kenya, attempts to take massive amounts of freshwater from communities in #Chile, along with numerous accounts of the technology’s detrimental impact on the environment. 'This is an extraordinary type of AI development that is causing a lot of #social, #labor and #environmental harms,' says Hao."
Read / listen / watch:
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/6/4/karen_hao_empire_of_ai#AIColonialism #AISucks #HumanCreativity #NoNukesForAI #WaterIsLife #DumbingUsDown #NoAI #Enshittification #AIPollution #NoisePollution #DataCenters #Terminator #Skynet