Was there really an idyllic time when technology wasn't political? Almost certainly not: anything capable of changing the world, as tech does, is always going to be subsumed by ideology.
And that's not a bad thing. Ideology is the way we govern power, and ungoverned power corrupts anyone and anything it touches. No one is immune.
Perhaps that's why the Trump era -- and I am trying not to write much about the man -- is a story of technology as well as corruption and duplicity. We have a generation of technology leaders who have been corrupted by power that was ungoverned for a long time. So here we are.
Anyway, on to the links.
1. Microsoft is “using AI for genocide” says Microsoft employee
Live. In front of plenty of people. Yowzah.
2. Copilot getting the same stuff as every other AI
Despite being able to cherry-pick the technology of OpenAI, Microsoft Copilot has always felt like an also-ran. Around that powerful protest, the company announced many new features, but few of them sounded like anything that isn't available elsewhere.
Microsoft's bet is it can do a better job of user experience than anyone else, as it's able to build AI into Windows, Office, and all the rest of its products. I think it has a chance, mainly because OpenAI and everyone else are just so bad at user interfaces.
3. Trump's tariffs mean millions of gamer boys won't get their Switch 2's
4. Being careful what you wish for is not in the VC vocabulary
Thanks to the Trump-induced stock market crash, both Klarna and StubHub are delaying their IPOs, which means a delayed (and possibly reduced) payday for the VCs who put millions into them. Of course, this means they will be out by a few millions, they won't really miss. Meanwhile, the people whose pensions have just seen all the gains of the last few years wiped out have a lot less to lose in terms of cash, but a lot more to lose in terms of financial security.
5. The decel president
But the VCs have more to lose than just a short-term delay on an IPO. Jason Koebler at 404Media expertly skewers the same Trump-supporting VCs, whose president has implemented measures that will hurt them a lot over the long term. Tariffs mean less money spent by ordinary people, which hits the potential for growth of new companies. The tech industry has thrived on cheap labour and low-cost assembly, which will be impossible if Trump succeeds in moving manufacture back to the US (hint: he won't).
And of course, the agencies, and people who the tech sector relied on to give them help and quiet subsidies are now either being gutted, or looking for a way to leave America. The billionaires may just be about to get a lesson in how dependent they are on all the people who they have thought were expendable.
6. The rest of the world looks for tech sovereignty
Also, bad for the VC and big tech classes: the rest of the world no longer sees them as reliable partners. In Europe, the desire for tech sovereignty -- up to now a fringe movement -- is getting support from mainstream politicians. It would be ironic if the hubris of the likes of Zuckerberg ended with their influence and power waning.
7. And speaking of sovereignty
Expect from pushback from the US over this. But at this point I can't see the EU backing down. In fact, I see this as Europe flexing its muscles and reminding both Musk and the US that they're a set of sovereign nation states, and that in union there is strength.
8. But not everything is rosy in the European tech garden
Once again, the European Commission is desperate to be able to break encryption, despite the French National Assembly rejecting a bid to force backdoors into services.
9. Why?
Reading all this, looking at the impact of so much madness from Trump, much of it either using technology or encouraged by some of the biggest names in tech, there's only one obvious thing to ask: why? It is, as Hamilton Nolan points out, against the interest of all Trump's rich backers and of capitalism itself. It's a great piece, and well worth your time.