Conor Sewell
@ccsewell.bsky.social
Associate Director at Flint Global. Macro, financial services, digital assets. Views my own. Ex-BoE, Treasury. Labour member, big on sports, rugby referee. Bi and autistic.
Reposted by Conor Sewell
The government does not appear to be even considering any of these options
- direct communication to X by the Prime Minister or an SoS
- a temporary cessation of government communications until this stops
- an inquiry to the police as well as to Ofcom about the production of unlawful content
- direct communication to X by the Prime Minister or an SoS
- a temporary cessation of government communications until this stops
- an inquiry to the police as well as to Ofcom about the production of unlawful content
Keir Starmer's spokesman tells me that X and Grok's creation of sexual deepfakes of children is "completely unacceptable" but again won't commit to taking direct action against them, or to stop posting there.
Says "all options are on the table" but suggests it's a matter for Ofcom, not Government
Says "all options are on the table" but suggests it's a matter for Ofcom, not Government
January 7, 2026 at 1:22 PM
The government does not appear to be even considering any of these options
- direct communication to X by the Prime Minister or an SoS
- a temporary cessation of government communications until this stops
- an inquiry to the police as well as to Ofcom about the production of unlawful content
- direct communication to X by the Prime Minister or an SoS
- a temporary cessation of government communications until this stops
- an inquiry to the police as well as to Ofcom about the production of unlawful content
This implies that the Government’s view is that deliberately using an AI to generate CSAM is not a criminal offence….
Keir Starmer's spokesman tells me that X and Grok's creation of sexual deepfakes of children is "completely unacceptable" but again won't commit to taking direct action against them, or to stop posting there.
Says "all options are on the table" but suggests it's a matter for Ofcom, not Government
Says "all options are on the table" but suggests it's a matter for Ofcom, not Government
January 7, 2026 at 1:36 PM
This implies that the Government’s view is that deliberately using an AI to generate CSAM is not a criminal offence….
General rule of thumb: the more that the events of the present day sound like the intro to a terribly written sci-fi novel, the worse things are
January 6, 2026 at 1:26 PM
General rule of thumb: the more that the events of the present day sound like the intro to a terribly written sci-fi novel, the worse things are
I go to the spa for two hours - come out and it’s snowing.
Incredible Narnia moment.
Incredible Narnia moment.
January 6, 2026 at 12:20 PM
I go to the spa for two hours - come out and it’s snowing.
Incredible Narnia moment.
Incredible Narnia moment.
This is infantile logic.
You could apply the same argument to 4chan or kiwifarms, because it basically boils down to “the Government should post on it because it is a website where people post about politics”.
You could apply the same argument to 4chan or kiwifarms, because it basically boils down to “the Government should post on it because it is a website where people post about politics”.
Cabinet Office Minister Baroness Anderson tells the Lords the Government will keep on using X.
"I still believe that X is an appropriate platform to use because I believe in freedom of speech..."
"It is incredibly important that there is a counter narrative on those platforms," she says.
"I still believe that X is an appropriate platform to use because I believe in freedom of speech..."
"It is incredibly important that there is a counter narrative on those platforms," she says.
January 5, 2026 at 4:22 PM
This is infantile logic.
You could apply the same argument to 4chan or kiwifarms, because it basically boils down to “the Government should post on it because it is a website where people post about politics”.
You could apply the same argument to 4chan or kiwifarms, because it basically boils down to “the Government should post on it because it is a website where people post about politics”.
Fun NFL fact:
As far as I can tell, after the Raiders win last night, Sauce Gardner stands alone in having the worst record in the league at 2-15.
As far as I can tell, after the Raiders win last night, Sauce Gardner stands alone in having the worst record in the league at 2-15.
January 5, 2026 at 2:59 PM
Fun NFL fact:
As far as I can tell, after the Raiders win last night, Sauce Gardner stands alone in having the worst record in the league at 2-15.
As far as I can tell, after the Raiders win last night, Sauce Gardner stands alone in having the worst record in the league at 2-15.
Reposted by Conor Sewell
the other tech companies working on AI will — not now, but eventually — regret having chosen not to draw a bright line between what musk is doing and what they're doing, and google, of all companies, really should know this firsthand, given how much tesla's self-driving informs opinions about waymo
January 5, 2026 at 1:09 AM
the other tech companies working on AI will — not now, but eventually — regret having chosen not to draw a bright line between what musk is doing and what they're doing, and google, of all companies, really should know this firsthand, given how much tesla's self-driving informs opinions about waymo
What
January 5, 2026 at 9:56 AM
What
The Etsy witches really came through for us eh
Raiders, please draft Mendoza and give me hope for the first time in a decade
Raiders, please draft Mendoza and give me hope for the first time in a decade
January 4, 2026 at 8:54 PM
The Etsy witches really came through for us eh
Raiders, please draft Mendoza and give me hope for the first time in a decade
Raiders, please draft Mendoza and give me hope for the first time in a decade
Reposted by Conor Sewell
'inside the red-faced hawk is a dove, with an almost physical horror of violence'
'Trump is as close as a pacifist as we've seen in the White House'
Pure pundit brain from Ian Leslie in March 2025
'Trump is as close as a pacifist as we've seen in the White House'
Pure pundit brain from Ian Leslie in March 2025
December 17, 2025 at 1:54 AM
'inside the red-faced hawk is a dove, with an almost physical horror of violence'
'Trump is as close as a pacifist as we've seen in the White House'
Pure pundit brain from Ian Leslie in March 2025
'Trump is as close as a pacifist as we've seen in the White House'
Pure pundit brain from Ian Leslie in March 2025
Reposted by Conor Sewell
Add “AI is not a person” to all newspaper style guides asap
Media is starting to report the Grok child porn story but way too many are centering the bot's "apologies" and "admissions" without explaining that these are being generated in response to user requests and are not in anyway authentic or meaningful.
January 2, 2026 at 6:56 PM
Add “AI is not a person” to all newspaper style guides asap
When I, a person with a not particularly huge follower count, regularly get more engagement on here than a government department does on Twitter, the comms value of the latter activity is… hard to see
Lost amid the discussion of why the Government should get off X is its utter uselessness as an engagement tool and the fact departments are wasting vast sums making content for it. Take this:
January 2, 2026 at 11:48 PM
When I, a person with a not particularly huge follower count, regularly get more engagement on here than a government department does on Twitter, the comms value of the latter activity is… hard to see
Reposted by Conor Sewell
Lost amid the discussion of why the Government should get off X is its utter uselessness as an engagement tool and the fact departments are wasting vast sums making content for it. Take this:
January 2, 2026 at 11:15 PM
Lost amid the discussion of why the Government should get off X is its utter uselessness as an engagement tool and the fact departments are wasting vast sums making content for it. Take this:
I wrote a short piece on those at the top of Silicon Valley, AI, and the inevitability of mortality.
Featuring a title reference I've been desperate to squeeze in for ages!
medium.com/@conorsewell...
Featuring a title reference I've been desperate to squeeze in for ages!
medium.com/@conorsewell...
The World Ends With You
This post is inspired by Adam Becker’s excellent book More Everything Forever, as well as my recent graduation from a Masters in…
medium.com
January 2, 2026 at 7:00 PM
I wrote a short piece on those at the top of Silicon Valley, AI, and the inevitability of mortality.
Featuring a title reference I've been desperate to squeeze in for ages!
medium.com/@conorsewell...
Featuring a title reference I've been desperate to squeeze in for ages!
medium.com/@conorsewell...
Yep.
The conflation of LLMs and AI in general is going to lead to an awful lot of waste and disaster as people slowly discover that general purpose LLMs do not and cannot do all the things they want them to.
The conflation of LLMs and AI in general is going to lead to an awful lot of waste and disaster as people slowly discover that general purpose LLMs do not and cannot do all the things they want them to.
Ex-Meta chief AI scientist Yann LeCun has Lunch with the FT and in one of those instances so rare that you know he didn't sign an NDA, says exactly why as.ft.com/r/e503690d-8...
January 2, 2026 at 4:02 PM
Yep.
The conflation of LLMs and AI in general is going to lead to an awful lot of waste and disaster as people slowly discover that general purpose LLMs do not and cannot do all the things they want them to.
The conflation of LLMs and AI in general is going to lead to an awful lot of waste and disaster as people slowly discover that general purpose LLMs do not and cannot do all the things they want them to.
I’ve been looking back at my favourite songs/albums of the year, and honestly my biggest realisation is I slept way, way too much on Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties in 2024.
Go listen to Paying Bills at the End of the World, and if you like that all of In Lieu Of Flowers.
You won’t regret it.
Go listen to Paying Bills at the End of the World, and if you like that all of In Lieu Of Flowers.
You won’t regret it.
January 2, 2026 at 12:43 PM
I’ve been looking back at my favourite songs/albums of the year, and honestly my biggest realisation is I slept way, way too much on Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties in 2024.
Go listen to Paying Bills at the End of the World, and if you like that all of In Lieu Of Flowers.
You won’t regret it.
Go listen to Paying Bills at the End of the World, and if you like that all of In Lieu Of Flowers.
You won’t regret it.
Official government accounts should not be posting on Twitter, for the same reasons that they don’t post on 4chan or kiwifarms.
This does seem just a little bit bad! Idk the sort of thing you’d think politicians might distance themselves from or something!
January 2, 2026 at 11:12 AM
Official government accounts should not be posting on Twitter, for the same reasons that they don’t post on 4chan or kiwifarms.
Reposted by Conor Sewell
Grok + X now seems to be awash with images undressing women, without consent. It is an issue with the potential for a very very broad coalition - across political divides - to insist the Musk platform gets back within the law, on all fronts, not just this example.
www.cnbctv18.com/technology/g...
www.cnbctv18.com/technology/g...
Global outrage as X’s Grok morphs photos of women, children into explicit content - CNBC TV18
X is facing backlash after users exploited its Grok AI to morph photos of women and children into explicit images, sparking global concern over AI-driven sexual abuse and platform safety.
www.cnbctv18.com
January 1, 2026 at 1:17 PM
Grok + X now seems to be awash with images undressing women, without consent. It is an issue with the potential for a very very broad coalition - across political divides - to insist the Musk platform gets back within the law, on all fronts, not just this example.
www.cnbctv18.com/technology/g...
www.cnbctv18.com/technology/g...
Reposted by Conor Sewell
"What was your favourite game of 2025?"
Keir Starmer - *sincere answer about spending his limited time with his kids playing Mario Kart, delivered as if he just googled it*
Ed Davey - "I still love a bit of Wii Sports"
Kemi Badenoch - "My best friend was killed by a Sega Mega Drive"
Keir Starmer - *sincere answer about spending his limited time with his kids playing Mario Kart, delivered as if he just googled it*
Ed Davey - "I still love a bit of Wii Sports"
Kemi Badenoch - "My best friend was killed by a Sega Mega Drive"
December 31, 2025 at 8:37 PM
"What was your favourite game of 2025?"
Keir Starmer - *sincere answer about spending his limited time with his kids playing Mario Kart, delivered as if he just googled it*
Ed Davey - "I still love a bit of Wii Sports"
Kemi Badenoch - "My best friend was killed by a Sega Mega Drive"
Keir Starmer - *sincere answer about spending his limited time with his kids playing Mario Kart, delivered as if he just googled it*
Ed Davey - "I still love a bit of Wii Sports"
Kemi Badenoch - "My best friend was killed by a Sega Mega Drive"
Kuba isn’t kidding btw.
Fully a third of the word count of Starmer’s email to members is about getting rid of the two-child cap.
One would hope that this might prompt some reassessment of why they pursued a strategy so centred around *not* removing it for so long…
Fully a third of the word count of Starmer’s email to members is about getting rid of the two-child cap.
One would hope that this might prompt some reassessment of why they pursued a strategy so centred around *not* removing it for so long…
It is… notable, that the greatest achievement the Labour Party leader in Government talks about in the new year message is the one they spent all year briefing they opposed and were dragged to kicking and screaming
January 1, 2026 at 10:57 AM
Kuba isn’t kidding btw.
Fully a third of the word count of Starmer’s email to members is about getting rid of the two-child cap.
One would hope that this might prompt some reassessment of why they pursued a strategy so centred around *not* removing it for so long…
Fully a third of the word count of Starmer’s email to members is about getting rid of the two-child cap.
One would hope that this might prompt some reassessment of why they pursued a strategy so centred around *not* removing it for so long…
Why is Badenoch like this
Farage, Polanski and Corbyn's choices are all good, Davey's is a typical boring dad choice, and Badenoch's response is characteristically unhinged
December 31, 2025 at 7:36 PM
Why is Badenoch like this
Starmer’s, and thus Labour’s, strategy is not working.
The biggest issue is that he’s so fundamentally holed below the water line at this point that a necessary step one to turning things around is replacing him.
The biggest issue is that he’s so fundamentally holed below the water line at this point that a necessary step one to turning things around is replacing him.
I mean look at these graphs - 82% of 2024 Green voters disapprove of Starmer, 64% of LDs and 53% of the Labour voters *who explicitly voted for him less than two years ago.* That is not normal. I suspect it may be unprecedented.
December 31, 2025 at 10:27 AM
Starmer’s, and thus Labour’s, strategy is not working.
The biggest issue is that he’s so fundamentally holed below the water line at this point that a necessary step one to turning things around is replacing him.
The biggest issue is that he’s so fundamentally holed below the water line at this point that a necessary step one to turning things around is replacing him.
Reading One of the Boys by @dirtbagqueer.rocks and it’s SO GOD DAMN GOOD.
Cannot recommend it enough to anyone and everyone.
Cannot recommend it enough to anyone and everyone.
December 30, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Reading One of the Boys by @dirtbagqueer.rocks and it’s SO GOD DAMN GOOD.
Cannot recommend it enough to anyone and everyone.
Cannot recommend it enough to anyone and everyone.
Reposted by Conor Sewell
It’s worth mentioning, though it’s been said repeatedly: the Lizzie Line carries 1/6th of UK daily rail passengers (not including the Tube) and has already paid off its entire costs.
And if HS2 had been committed to, without plans being tweaked every 5 minutes, Phase 1 would be opening next year.
And if HS2 had been committed to, without plans being tweaked every 5 minutes, Phase 1 would be opening next year.
Worked example of the crippling effects or Treasury brain here
Elizabeth Line would ‘never’ be built, Michael Portillo wrote when urging cancellation
Former Treasury minister warned that Crossrail London link was too costly and unnecessary, newly released papers show
www.ft.com
December 30, 2025 at 12:17 PM
It’s worth mentioning, though it’s been said repeatedly: the Lizzie Line carries 1/6th of UK daily rail passengers (not including the Tube) and has already paid off its entire costs.
And if HS2 had been committed to, without plans being tweaked every 5 minutes, Phase 1 would be opening next year.
And if HS2 had been committed to, without plans being tweaked every 5 minutes, Phase 1 would be opening next year.
Reposted by Conor Sewell
"And I never say no"
We need to have a serious talk about the way "AI companion" apps not only prey on the vulnerable, but are priming their users to ignore consent and to conflate love with control.
We need AI regulations across so many sectors, but this area is particularly horrifying.
We need to have a serious talk about the way "AI companion" apps not only prey on the vulnerable, but are priming their users to ignore consent and to conflate love with control.
We need AI regulations across so many sectors, but this area is particularly horrifying.
December 28, 2025 at 6:20 PM
"And I never say no"
We need to have a serious talk about the way "AI companion" apps not only prey on the vulnerable, but are priming their users to ignore consent and to conflate love with control.
We need AI regulations across so many sectors, but this area is particularly horrifying.
We need to have a serious talk about the way "AI companion" apps not only prey on the vulnerable, but are priming their users to ignore consent and to conflate love with control.
We need AI regulations across so many sectors, but this area is particularly horrifying.