Blayne Haggart
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bhaggart.bsky.social
Blayne Haggart
@bhaggart.bsky.social
1.8K followers 560 following 3.9K posts
Professor, Political Science, Brock University
Knowledge governance, IPE, Sydney Swans tragic

Co-author, with Natasha Tusikov, The New Knowledge: Information, Data and the Remaking of Global Power (Bloomsbury, 2023). Open Access.
Posts Replies Media Videos
bhaggart.bsky.social
"Does this Super Bowl’s record-breaking A.I. ad splurge also portend a coming pop?"

One can only hope.
(Good article.)
nitishpahwa.com Nitish Pahwa @nitishpahwa.com · 9h
happy Super Bowl Sunday! for all you commercials sickos, I make the case that this game's ad blitz will be to A.I. what 2022's was to crypto and 2000's was to the dot-com boom—with all attendant implications for our broader economy and the celebrity-promotion complex: slate.com/technology/2...
The Biggest Star of the Super Bowl Isn’t an Athlete—or Bad Bunny
We’ve seen this game before, and it doesn’t end well for anyone.
slate.com
February 8, 2026 at 6:04 PM
Reposted by Blayne Haggart
plagasse.bsky.social
Alright. Fine.

Fighter aircraft AMA, as someone who independently reviewed Canada's choices in 2012-2014 and 2019.

Go!
February 8, 2026 at 3:20 PM
Reposted by Blayne Haggart
charlieangus104.bsky.social
CBC continues to scold Canadians on the need to keep our "politics" out of the discussion on whether we get strong-armed into buying the F-35.
Lol... the F-35 is all about politics.
It is the politics of threat and intimidation against our independence.

www.cbc.ca/news/politic...
No place for politics in F-35 cockpits as Canadian fighter jet pilots get ready to train at U.S. base | CBC News
While procurement for Canada’s complete fighter jet fleet remains up in the air, advocates say politics need to be set aside as members of the Royal Canadian Air Force head to Luke Air Force Base in A...
www.cbc.ca
February 8, 2026 at 2:32 PM
Reposted by Blayne Haggart
anthonymoser.com
There is no way to fix the core problem, which is that the statistical production of symbols by definition is not based on their meaning
shannonvallor.bsky.social Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · 1d
Would be interesting to compare the results on more recent models - but this problem won’t go away. LLMs are always going to be extrapolating from what has already, and often, been thought, which is why they aren’t windows to the future but anchors to the past.
nataliegreenpeer.bsky.social Natalie Bennett @nataliegreenpeer.bsky.social · 1d
Neat demonstration of how artificial so-called intelligence is taking us backwards.

"ChatGPT produced content most consistent with the 1960s and DALL-E 3 in the late 1980s and early '90s."

#AI - see @shannonvallor.bsky.social's work for important thinking on this
phys.org/news/2026-02...
February 7, 2026 at 2:38 PM
Reposted by Blayne Haggart
anthonymoser.com
Human beings can understand many ways symbols may be related.

LLMs only model one: these things often appear together. This sequence is in some sense likely.

Likelihood is not sufficient
February 7, 2026 at 3:02 PM
bhaggart.bsky.social
A thoughtful essay worth your time. But I wonder if focusing on capitalism v socialism misses the more fundamental fault line: AI's supplanting of "scientific" knowledge with a new form of oracular knowledge.
Gonna have to think about this one...
February 7, 2026 at 3:44 PM
bhaggart.bsky.social
One interesting point about Carney’s EV plan from last night’s At Issue panel. It’s targeted at a sector (EVs) that Trump doesn’t care about/is actively hostile towards. Which reduces the chance of retaliation.
Good strategy.
February 6, 2026 at 10:18 PM
Reposted by Blayne Haggart
tyleraking.com
They are. Plainly, they open numerous vulnerabilities. www.mckinsey.com/capabilities...
become compromised. Already, 80 percent of organizations say they have encountered risky behaviors from Al agents, including improper data exposure and access to systems without authorization.
February 6, 2026 at 2:15 PM
Reposted by Blayne Haggart
sarahmay1.bsky.social
Not satire cybernews.com/news/waymo-o...
February 6, 2026 at 1:17 PM
bhaggart.bsky.social
One of several AI questions that so many people would rather pretend doesn’t exist.
(The other big one involves the impossibility of gaining meaningful consent for the use of data underling AI models.)
tompepinsky.com Tom Pepinsky @tompepinsky.com · 2d
I am not a computer security expert. Can someone explain to my why every AI agent (Claude Code, whatever) with read/write/execute privileges is not a gigantic security vulnerability for every computer on which it is installed?
calvobianco.com Lars Rosenquist @calvobianco.com · 5d
1Password not mincing words here:

"If you are experimenting with OpenClaw, do not do it on a company device. Full stop."

"If you have already run OpenClaw on a work device, treat it as a potential incident and engage your security team immediately."

1password.com/blog/from-ma...
February 6, 2026 at 2:27 PM
bhaggart.bsky.social
Ongoing deep integration by any other name.
These are not the actions of a government with any intention of substantively distancing Canada from US influence.

Words v actions.

www.thestar.com/opinion/star...
Last month, I asked Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree whether he was concerned about Canada sharing an anti-terror database with a hostile state that increasingly considers peaceful protesters domestic terrorists. His office ignored that question; a department spokesperson followed up to say that “TUSCAN is an invaluable tool for both Canada and the U.S.” and that while Ottawa has “no intention” of expanding the program, it won’t be restricting it either.
February 6, 2026 at 1:15 PM
Reposted by Blayne Haggart
jbroschek.bsky.social
Good op-ed-style analysis by Andrew Coyne. Only the federalism part is a bit shallow, to say the least.

Unlike in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, we generally don't recognize the importance of federal governance anymore. Not sure why.

www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...
Opinion: Canada is uniquely unprepared for the dire national-security crisis we are now in
Our complacency has led to an overburdened police force, a lack of foreign-intelligence capacity, a high dependence on the U.S. for trade and a paucity of internal political cohesion
www.theglobeandmail.com
February 6, 2026 at 12:50 PM
bhaggart.bsky.social
So the government’s proposed EV rebate is $5,000 for cars under $50k. Which will cover exactly how many cars? The 2026 Nissan Leaf is pretty much the smallest, cheapest EV in the Canadian market (ask me how I know). Its cheapest model lists at $48k before taxes, accessories, etc etc.
February 6, 2026 at 12:59 PM
bhaggart.bsky.social
Carney’s auto strategy looks promising. But if, as suggested here, it depends on eliminating US tariffs & a new USMCA, that’s a huge red flag.
Any policy that depends on the return of an unattainable certainty in Can-US relations is based on hope, not reality.
www.theglobeandmail.com/business/com...
For this strategy to succeed, several stars have to be aligned. Removing U.S. tariffs on finished vehicles, steel, and aluminum should remain a top priority – not only to support existing exports of ICE and hybrid vehicles, but also new EVs. Even if U.S. EV adoption grows slowly in the near term, the market remains large and indispensable. Canada should also make a concerted effort to encourage U.S. manufacturers to revisit and expand their Canadian investment plans, particularly for EV production. These firms remain major buyers of Canadian auto parts and allying with them will be critical in our negotiations for the United States-Canada-Mexico Agreement.
February 6, 2026 at 12:31 PM
bhaggart.bsky.social
Good points here pointing to a failure to focus on reforming fundamental governance processes. Left unsaid is that the federal government under Trudeau and now Carney has *chosen not to* addresses these issues for an entire year. This isn’t a failure of Canadians. It’s an ongoing policy choice.
Opinion: Canada is uniquely unprepared for the dire national-security crisis we are now in
Our complacency has led to an overburdened police force, a lack of foreign-intelligence capacity, a high dependence on the U.S. for trade and a paucity of internal political cohesion
www.theglobeandmail.com
February 6, 2026 at 12:23 PM
bhaggart.bsky.social
That’s nice.

Now ask about what Elon Musk’s Teslas are capable of doing right now: www.jalopnik.com/your-car-is-...

www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/art...
Ottawa says it won’t allow Chinese EVs to be used for spying on Canadians
Public Safety Minister says safeguards will be in place to ensure the vehicles can’t transmit information back home
www.theglobeandmail.com
February 6, 2026 at 11:30 AM
bhaggart.bsky.social
In contrast, Canada's Minister for AI Promotion took to X after midnight on a Sunday to let people know that Canada wouldn't be banning X.

The standard you walk past, is the standard you accept.

bsky.app/profile/rach...
February 6, 2026 at 2:56 AM
Reposted by Blayne Haggart
markkersten.bsky.social
In Davos, the message was that the US under Trump - and Rubio - had demolished the rules based order, & nothing is normal anymore.

Today, the message is we're embracing & working closely with those same guys who demolished the rules based order, as if it was normal.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
February 6, 2026 at 12:55 AM
Reposted by Blayne Haggart
christyceeck.bsky.social
How many provinces and territories will show us leadership on shunning the CSAM platform before the Carney government gets around to it?
Premier Susan Holt confirmed Thursday afternoon the New Brunswick government will stop using the social media platform X for “routine communications.” The decision comes just hours after the province’s child and youth advocate raised concerns about the platform in an open letter to Premier Holt and her government. Kelly Lamrock wrote that X has refused to “rein in the use of its platform for the sexualization and exploitation of children,” and that X’s artificial intelligence tool, Grok, allows users to alter an image to show a subject in sexualized positions. “There have been repeated instances of images of minors being sexualized and shared by X users, and acknowledgement that X has neither taken steps to prevent the practice nor to respond in a timely way to complaints from victims,” Lamrock wrote.
February 5, 2026 at 9:47 PM
Reposted by Blayne Haggart
cyn-k.bsky.social
I've been sitting on this thread since maybe this time last year. Not in a tea-spilling way, in a procrastinatn/self-doubt way. I thought it'd become redundant. But we've endured like 4 major cycles now of "everyone realizing" what marginalized ppl ALREADY KNEW ALL ALONG. So here we go: 🧵
February 5, 2026 at 7:01 PM
bhaggart.bsky.social
Good.
bloomberg.com Bloomberg News @bloomberg.com · 3d
New Brunswick, an east coast Canadian province of about 900,000 people, will no longer use billionaire Elon Musk’s social media platform X for routine government communications, its leader announced
Canadian Province New Brunswick to Quit Using Elon Musk’s X
New Brunswick, an east coast Canadian province of about 900,000 people, will no longer use billionaire Elon Musk’s social media platform X for routine government communications, its leader announced Thursday.
bloom.bg
February 6, 2026 at 12:39 AM
Reposted by Blayne Haggart
jhereia.bsky.social
Join us for the 8th session in our Gender & Tech Talk Series, "Digital Transformation,” on Feb 24, 10am ET, with the amazing Jamila Venturini/@derechosdigitales.org & Madeleine Fern/CanArctic Inuit Net. Free to all: dtdlab.virginia.edu/event/gender...
@yasmincurzi.com / @uvadatascience.bsky.social
Poster in red, pink and white for the "Gender & Tech Online Talk Series," session on Digital Transformation. February 24, 10am EST. Speakers are Madeleine Redfern (CanArctic Inuit Networks) and Jamila Venturini (Derechos Digitales). Moderated by Yamisn Curzi. Co-organized by Yasmin Curzi and Jess Reia. Sponsored by the UVA Digital Technology for Democracy Lab
February 5, 2026 at 5:32 PM
bhaggart.bsky.social
In contrast to Europe, Canada’s response has been to leave X/Musk’s many, many inexcusable actions to the largely toothless Privacy Commissioner, with AI Promotion Minister Evan Solomon reassuring everyone via a Midnight Tweet (on X — classy) that Canada wouldn’t be banning X.
In the space of a few hours, French authorities raided X's office in Paris, the British privacy regulator opened a formal investigation of X and xAI, and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced legal proposals that would criminalize algorithmic manipulation and the amplification of illegal content, making executive like Musk personally liable. Both the French and British actions were explicitly about X's distribution of child sexual abuse images that had been generated by its in-house AI chatbot, Grok. Sánchez's proposals were less narrowly targeted, but he namechecked Grok as a source of potential legal violations. The Paris prosecutor's office announced its raid in an X post, in which it also took the opportunity to say it was abandoning the platform - it will now stick to LinkedIn and Instagram. In a more detailed statement, it said Europol had been present at the raid, which was related to the investigation into Grok's sexually explicit deepfakes and dissemination of Holocaust-denial content that is illegal in France, as well as its alleged manipulation of its recommendation algorithm to push hate speech. The French authorities also said they had summoned Musk and former X CEO Linda Yaccarino for voluntary interviews on April 20. The date choice may indicate that someone in the Paris prosecutor's office has a keen sense of irony, given the mercurial centibillionaire's well-documented enthusiasm for 420 jokes, a slangy reference to smoking marijuana.
February 5, 2026 at 12:39 PM
bhaggart.bsky.social
The pass Carney’s getting for the gap between what people think he’s doing and his actual policies reminds me of how progressives in the 90s were convinced that Paul Martin was on their side, even as he gutted the social programs they valued.
bhaggart.bsky.social Blayne Haggart @bhaggart.bsky.social · 3d
"The FCM says it has learned from officials that a vague reference in the budget to reallocating funds from the Canada Public Transit Fund will in fact mean a $5-billion cut over 10 years"
This is a very slippery government. Whether it's a budget or a high-profile speech, best to read the fine print
February 5, 2026 at 3:27 AM
Reposted by Blayne Haggart
shawnmicallef.bsky.social
Making life of a university instructor so easy telling students the importance of doing their own essay writing. Well done, gov't.
blairaf.com blair @blairaf.com · 4d
Canada did a consultation on a new national AI strategy, formed an expert task force to write 32 reports, then used AI to analyze the responses & reports. The result is a summary that strings together 100s of vague action items & flattens nuance and policy trade-offs into false consensus
Screenshot from Government of Canada website that reads: "Over 11,300 participants provided their thoughts and ideas during the 30-day online public consultation, which ran from October 1 to 31, 2025. We captured over 64,600 responses to 26 questions on the eight AI pillars identified for the purpose of the consultation. The responses were analyzed using SimpleSurvey, which uses natural language processing algorithms to provide insights from open-ended questions by analyzing sentiments, keywords and topics. ISED also created an internal classification pipeline for analysis, incorporating Cohere Command A, OpenAI GPT-5 nano, Anthropic Claude Haiku and Google Gemini Flash to read through the submissions and identify common themes. Responses were also classified by question, pillar and sentiment. Human reviewers validated and refined the AI-generated analyses, ensuring accuracy and comprehensive representation of all perspectives. The same approach was used to analyze the Task Force reports. This innovative approach enabled thorough, unbiased reporting in record time—months faster than traditional methods—demonstrating a balance between efficient delivery and responsible, Canadian-centred AI adoption."
February 5, 2026 at 3:05 AM