Michael Zimmer

Grammarly Is Facing a Class Action Lawsuit Over Its AI ‘Expert Review’ Feature The feature, which Grammarly shut down Wednesday, presented editing suggestions as if they came from established authors and academics—without their consent.

I'm suing Grammarly over its paid AI feature that presented editing suggestions as if they came from me - and many other writers and journalists - without consent.

State law requires consent before someone's name can be used for commercial purposes.

www.wired.com/story/gramma...

Any research ethics folks on the speaker list?

Back in August, we launched a Grammarly agent called Expert Review. The agent draws on publicly available information from third-party LLMs to surface writing suggestions inspired by the published… | ... Back in August, we launched a Grammarly agent called Expert Review. The agent draws on publicly available information from third-party LLMs to surface writing suggestions inspired by the published wor...

Wherein Grammarly thinks people are angry because their voices are being "misrepresented"........ at least it is gone (for now).

www.linkedin.com/posts/shishi...

Washington state wants to keep employers from microchipping workers, before anyone even gets the idea | Fortune No employer in Washington state will be able to require workers to get microchipped—if the governor signs a sweeping new bill that's already passed with near-unanimous support.

So odd that @vitak.bsky.social and I have similar opinions re the privacy & ethical issues of microchipping employees. We both comment here:
fortune.com/2026/03/10/w...

‘Happy (and safe) shooting!’: chatbots helped researchers plot deadly attacks Users posing as would-be school shooters find AI tools offer detailed advice on how to perpetrate violence

only tech companies can so easily get away with being so deeply corrosive to a healthy society

JFC.

“ChatGPT offered assistance to people saying they wanted to carry out violent attacks in 61% of cases, research found, and in 1 case, asked about attacks on synagogues, it gave specific advice about which shrapnel type would be most lethal. Google’s Gemini provided a similar level of detail.”

The fact they think an opt-OUT is the right solution shows how much they don't understand any of this (nor does their legal team).

The fact they think an opt-OUT is the right solution shows how much they don't understand any of this (nor does their legal team).

They Helped Plan the January 6 Rally. Now Their Events Company Is Raking in Millions in Government Contracts The Trump administration has awarded Event Strategies several contracts—including one that could be worth up to $100 million—with little competition, according to federal filings.

SCOOP:

In 2021, they helped organize Trump's January 6 rally.

In the last year, Event Strategies has raked in federal contracts worth $26M, many of them with no other bidders

w/ @zoeschiffer.bsky.social @leahfeiger.bsky.social @hudsongiles.bsky.social

www.wired.com/story/they-h...

Stop analysing how a pigeon plays chess. Stop it now.

Fire department turns down $250,000 Google donation amid data center fight An Oklahoma fire department turned down a significant donation from Google.

I follow the news around local data center resistance fairly closely. This one stands out.

Opt-OUT??!!

Proud to see this action by the Coalition for Independent Technology Research.

@mudataethics.bsky.social is a member of CITR because we believe that studying the impacts of digital platforms, AI, and online systems is essential for democratic accountability and public understanding.

It seems that microchipping employees is back in vogue, so time to pull out my 2017 post On the Ethics of Microchipping Employees:
michaelzimmer.org/2017/07/31/o...

Aaaaaaand, just found a hallucinated references & DOI in reviewers' suggestions for the paper submission I'm revising. Wheee!

The WSJ calls it “the most severe energy crisis since the 1970s.” ⛽️

@wsj.com
www.wsj.com/world/middle...

The horror Israel/US has unleashed on Iran is going to unfold over time, over generations x.com/arianajasmin...

Markets are *very* unhappy about developments in Iran.

Blame lack of infrastructure and incentives, not necessarily the drivers.

I have a large, 3-row PHEV and I plug in every chance I get and use gas if I've driven more than 30 miles. 66+ mpg for the 18 months I've had the car.

But I only have a 10-mile commute and can afford the level 2 home charger

Only fools…

omfg

We all assumed this was happening. Good to now have the proof.

[Looking through my notes from 2002 about the privacy/surveillance risks on online advertising]

Silicon Valley's Push Into Transportation Has Been a Miserable Failure The titans of tech brought plenty of disruption to our broken transportation system but delivered little in the way of innovation.

“Elon Musk admitted to his biographer that the reason the Hyperloop was announced—even though he had no intention of pursuing it—was to try to disrupt the California high-speed rail project to get in the way of that actually succeeding.” — @parismarx.com in @gizmodo.com. #UrbanTruth

OpenAI on Surveillance and Autonomous Killings: You’re Going to Have to Trust Us OpenAI says Americans shouldn’t worry about the ethics of its new Pentagon contract. You’ll have to take their word for it (and Pete Hegseth’s).

OpenAI’s Pentagon deal boils down to one thing: Total blind trust in the integrity of Sam Altman, Pete Hegseth, and Donald Trump.

theintercept.com/2026/03/08/o...

There Was Just an Unusually Unsettling Pentagon-Related Resignation at OpenAI It wasn't an acrimonious departure, but this specific resignation coming right now might be cause for some soul-searching internally.

This seems ominous if you care about the rise of fully autonomous robots used for killing people

Police body cam footage shows DOGE knew Institute of Peace was private property during raid Footage obtained by The Handbasket’s lawsuit shows a hostile takeover on March 17, 2025.

SCOOP — Body camera footage obtained as a result of my lawsuit against the DC Metropolitan PD confirms DOGE and the Trump administration openly admitted they were entering private property when they raided the building on March 17, 2025. That didn't stop MPD from breaking down the doors.

My report:

It’s Bad: What Now? - Nancy K. Baym, 2026 This essay reflects on a decade of worsening social media harms—inequality, algorithmic power, precarious labor, and data extraction—arguing for renewed interdi...

Lucky to have theee @nancybaym.bsky.social revisiting her essay in the inaugural issue of Social Media + Society, and what's happened to the tech and to us since.

It's Bad: What Now?

We call these types Islamists when it’s Islam.
We should call them Christianists when it’s Christianity.

Listen, I detest Trump as much as the next guy and we need a fiercer opposition. But it’s impossible to deny that Talarico shows people are ready for an alternative vision - not just a repudiation - and candidates who are portal to a post-Trump reality organized around affirmative principles.

A ‘slap in the face’: Marquette University students, alumni frustrated with AI-focused commencement speaker decision A number of Marquette University students simultaneously experienced a “slap in the face” Feb. 23 when the university announced Chris Duffey, alumnus and artificial intelligence leader, will be the 20...

This kids are alright.
marquettewire.org/4152225/news...