onfocus

Wake up babe, new giraffes just dropped.

This is the latest example of a strange marketing strategy by AI companies. Instead of selling products based on helpful features and letting users decide, executives often deploy scare tactics that essentially warn people they will become obsolete if they don't get on the AI bandwagon.

No hint of desperation here. I'm sure the quarterly numbers for adoption and engagement are off the charts and the only reason to strong arm people is because he's excited about the potential of the technology.

A new study from MIT found that 95 percent of enterprise organizations report zero measurable gains from the adoption of AI tools.

Those billions spent on no gains are going to be a problem.

In the aftermath of GPT-5’s launch, it has become more difficult to take bombastic predictions about A.I. at face value, and the views of critics like Marcus seem increasingly moderate. Such voices argue that this technology is important, but not poised to drastically transform our lives. They challenge us to consider a different vision for the near-future—one in which A.I. might not get much better than this.

What if we're closer to the end state of AI rather than the beginning?

Dallas-area Rep. Linda Garcia said she drove three hours home from Austin with an officer following her. When she went grocery shopping, he went down every aisle with her, pretending to shop, she said. As she spoke to The Associated Press by phone, two unmarked cars with officers inside were parked outside her home.

Texas Republicans are completely unhinged.

According to ethics disclosure reports released by the White House, Miller owns between $100,000 and $250,000 worth of stock in Palantir, Peter Thiel’s data and intelligence software company that has a several lucrative contracts with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to track data and conduct surveillance on undocumented immigrants. It’s a pretty clear conflict of interest from the man behind much of Donald Trump’s immigration policy, in an administration that is already rife with corruption.

Hateful sure, and also corrupt!

“We are witnessing something without precedent,” Bonica wrote. “[A] Supreme Court that appears to be at war with the federal judiciary’s core constitutional function.”

The coup is coming from inside the house.

Thomas’s world is one where reality barely exists. Mountains of research can be dismissed in favor of a handful of op-eds. Dozens of prominent organizations can be disregarded as in thrall to liberal ideologies, while fringe right-wing groups are treated as unbiased purveyors of truth.

Excellent description of how conspiracy world-view operates.

The pretense of making America safer has been discarded. America won’t get any safer, just as surely as it won’t get any greater under this president. For years, it’s been known that migrants commit fewer crimes than natural-born citizens. But with arrest numbers flagging after an initial, more-targeted surge, the administration made it clear it was time to hit the streets and round up any foreigners ICE might come across.

Mass deporting people was never about stopping crime.

“If you have somebody who’s expressing a high degree of hostility to the court, on whatever basis … the danger, of course, is somebody might pick up on that. And we have had, of course, serious threats of violence and murder of judges just simply for doing their work,” Roberts said during an appearance at a judicial conference.

Ah yes, the simple work of dismantling our constitutional democracy, enabling authoritarianism, and taking away the rights of Americans while taking lavish gifts from billionaires. Let's all calm down about all of this before someone gets hurt.

One week after 5 million Americans flooded the streets for a massive “No Kings” protest, with his approval rating heading underwater faster than the next climate-fueled flash flood, with his masked-secret-police deportation drive starting to alienate his own voters, with gas prices and 20-something unemployment starting to soar, and almost zero legislation despite GOP control of Congress, Trump showed that even a POTUS who hates canines can still wag the dog.

Only Will Bunch is allowed to tell the truth? And the Philadelphia Inquirer is the only independent newspaper left?

But for now, the data clearly show that Americans — across party lines — are very wary of another war in the Middle East and disapprove of the U.S. bombing Iran. These recent polls reveal a broad reluctance for military action, even among Trump voters.

It’s worth looking at a snapshot of public opinion before the consent manufacturing machine starts rolling. (Link to archive version because Substack continues to be the worst.)