Wendy M. Grossman

Bedroom eyes We've long known that much of today's "AI" is humans all the way down. This week underlines this: in an investigation, Svenska Dagbladet and Göteborgs-Posten l

This week's net.wars, "Bedroom eyes", finds Meta's smart glasses scooping up intimate scenes, finds a new paper says LLMs end online anonymity, and notes wartime Internet risks: netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2026/03/06/b...

I know. :)

Is it the oldest pub in Britain?

Examples?

Saving no one In the early 2010s, after "nano" and before "AI", 3D printing was the technology that was going to change everything. Then it seemed to go quiet except for guns

This week's net.wars, "Saving no one", finds that 3D printing is enabling puzzle-making and ponders the mess of the Information Commissioner Office's fine against Reddit: netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2026/02/27/s...

Information wants to be surveiled It has long been the case that the person sitting next to you on an airplane may have paid a very different price for their seat than you did. For two reasons.

This week's net.wars, "Information wants to be surveiled," discovers surveillance pricing, in which the pythons of industry use everything they know about us to wring out every last drop of profit: netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2026/02/20/i...

Whooped In 2022, we noted a discussion by Julia Powles and Toby Walsh, summarized here, that warned about the increasing collection of data about elite athletes. The da

This week's net.wars, "Whooped", watches the recent Australian Open, where the powers that be disagreed about whether tennis players could wear Whoop fitness tracker bands in competition: netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2026/02/13/w...

Techgrumps 3.37 - AI Discussions sandboxed for your security | Podcast Episode on RSS.com Techgrumps 3.37 - AI Discussions sandboxed for your securityThe AI Skills Hub is a bit lightweight.https://aiskillshub.org.uk/Anthropic has invested 1.5M in the Python Software Foundationhttps://simon...

#techgrumps 3.37 is now available for your listening pleasure.

#AI discussions sandboxed for your security!

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* techgrumps.wordpress.com/2026/02/10/t...

With the grumpy voices of @wendyg.bsky.social @rnalexander.bsky.social @eastmad.bsky.social

Dave Farber, R.I.P.

en.wikipedia.org/wik...

In search of the future Internet "What kind of Internet do you want [him] to inherit?" "Him" was then measuring his age in weeks. "Not *this* Internet." Now, when said son has grown to measur

This week's net.wars, "In search of the future Internet", goes to meetings building opposition to AI-withouth-public-consent: netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2026/02/06/i...

I think any professional live performer gets that.

Universal service Last week a couple of friends and I got around to trying out Techdirt's 2025 game, One Billion Users. This card-based game has each player trying to build a soc

This week's net.wars, "Universal service", plays Techdirt's One Billion Users Game and contemplates the potential loss of Freeview, the UK's public service broadcast TV system: netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2026/01/30/u...

So Pitt's just your bit on the side?

In search of causality The debates over children's use of social media, screens, and phones continue, exacerbated in the UK by ongoing Parliamentary scrutiny of the Children's Wellbei

This week's net.wars, "In search of causality", finds new research looking for a connection between teens' social media use and harm: netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2026/01/23/i...

Split In an abrupt reversal, UK prime minister Keir Starmer announced this week that the digital IDs he said in September would be mandatory for proving the right to

This week's net.wars, "Split", notes Keir Starmer's reversal on digital ID and ponders the row over Grok's clothing-removal capabilities and its collateral damage to the Royal Society: netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2026/01/16/s...

There was when I posted that. :)

Look for refurbished on eBay.

Techgrumps 3.36 - Men are weird: The Return of the Glasshole | Podcast Episode on RSS.com Techgrumps 3.36Mozilla, Firefox and AIhttps://techcrunch.com/2025/12/17/mozillas-new-ceo-says-ai-is-coming-to-firefox-but-will-remain-a-choice/The return of smart glasses and wearableshttps://www.thev...

#Techgrumps 3.36 - Men are weird: The Return of the Glasshole...

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With @rnalexander.bsky.social @wendyg.bsky.social @eastmad.bsky.social and myself @cubicgarden.mas.to.ap.brid.gy

With a seriously worrying scenario for UK citizens using X/Twitter

Disconnexion One thing we left out in last week's complaint is generative AI's undoubted ability to magnify the worst of human online behavior. A few days ago, the world dis

In this week's net.wars, "Disconnexion", Grok's users bring it into disrepute, and the digital euro looms: netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2026/01/09/d...

Since there seems to be, for some reason, a new influx of Bluesky users (welcome!)...

If you're interested in data and AI, you might like to follow members of the Data and AI Civil Society Network set up by @connectedbydata.org

Starter Pack: bsky.app/starter-pack...
List: bsky.app/profile/gavi...

The AI who was God Three subjects dominated 2025: increasing AI infestation, expanding surveillance use of biometrics, and, age verification and online safety. The last spent the

This week's net.wars, "The owl who was God", contemplates the year and concludes AI may be too stupid to live much longer: netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2026/01/02/t...

In the latest episode of the @plutopia.io #podcast we talk to Cory Doctorow about his new book, Enshittification: plutopia.io/cory-doctoro...

John Lanchester · King of Cannibal Island: Will the AI bubble burst? Nvidia shares are the purest bet you can make on the impact of AI. The leading firms are lending money to one another in...

This is a really nice analysis of the AI bubble, how we got here, and where we might be going. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

I don't know; nothing I read was clear about the difference.

The censorship-industrial complex In a sign of the times, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced that in 2029 the annual Oscars ceremony will move from ABC to YouTube, whe

This week's net.wars, "The censorship-industrial complex", ponders the Oscars' move to YouTube; watches Waymos freeze in San Francisco's power outage; and wonders why bar *those* five individuals and NGOs from the US: netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/12/26/t....

Same here, but I can understand why someone older with a longer career might have habit they don't see the point in changing.

Before recorders, writers learned stenography so they could take accurate noes at speed. One of those?

In a power outage it might be useful to able to write a note...

Slop Sometimes it doesn't pay to be first. iRobot, the maker of the Roomba, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and been acquired by Picea, one of its Chi

This week's net.wars, "Slop", marks iRobot's bankruptcy and sale; wonders why, if generative AI is so great it has to be forced on us; and deplores the CBP plan to demand an unrealistic amount of "high-value data" as part of the price of visiting the US: netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/12/19/s...

A bald and unconvincing narrative.