Hagen Blix
@hagenblix.bsky.social
Linguist, Cognitive Scientist, Occasional AI Researcher, Immigrant in NYC, Co-Author w/ Ingeborg Glimmer of 'Why We Fear AI' - out now: https://bookshop.org/a/114797/9781945335174
Pinned
Hagen Blix
@hagenblix.bsky.social
· Jul 8
Why We Fear AI: On the Interpretation of Nightmares
On the Interpretation of Nightmares
bookshop.org
We wrote a book about AI, Class, and Capitalism!
*Why We Fear AI* argues that, fundamentally, AI is a tool of class war from above, a tool for surveillance, labor control, and wage depression. Get it from your local bookstore if you can!
A quick 🧵1/4
*Why We Fear AI* argues that, fundamentally, AI is a tool of class war from above, a tool for surveillance, labor control, and wage depression. Get it from your local bookstore if you can!
A quick 🧵1/4
Automating away accountability is, in fact, one of the many purposes of AI (and of faux personhood more generally, from that of AI to that of corporations)
"We can't manually update AI-generated fields" even when that's clearly stupid and unethical is part of that agenda
"We can't manually update AI-generated fields" even when that's clearly stupid and unethical is part of that agenda
November 10, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Automating away accountability is, in fact, one of the many purposes of AI (and of faux personhood more generally, from that of AI to that of corporations)
"We can't manually update AI-generated fields" even when that's clearly stupid and unethical is part of that agenda
"We can't manually update AI-generated fields" even when that's clearly stupid and unethical is part of that agenda
Reposted by Hagen Blix
I received this email about Democrats caving to end the shutdown from one of the SNAP recipients I spoke to:
November 10, 2025 at 2:17 PM
I received this email about Democrats caving to end the shutdown from one of the SNAP recipients I spoke to:
Reposted by Hagen Blix
🥲
A Small Town Is Fighting a $1.2 Billion AI Datacenter for America's Nuclear Weapon Scientists
Ypsilanti, Michigan has officially decided to fight against the construction of a 'high-performance computing facility' that would service a nuclear weapons laboratory 1,500 miles away.
www.404media.co
November 10, 2025 at 2:56 PM
🥲
"This weight presses on me every day. I am flooded with stories. There are so many I cannot remember them all; cannot keep straight who was gassed, beaten, abducted, or shot. I write to leave a record, to stare at the track of the tornado. I write to leave a warning. I write to call for help."
I Want You to Understand Chicago
aphyr.com
November 10, 2025 at 2:53 PM
"This weight presses on me every day. I am flooded with stories. There are so many I cannot remember them all; cannot keep straight who was gassed, beaten, abducted, or shot. I write to leave a record, to stare at the track of the tornado. I write to leave a warning. I write to call for help."
Reposted by Hagen Blix
This is excellent, well worth reading.
Many of the points that we discuss in "Why We Fear AI" make an appearance here, from the drive to make people into machine-legible (the techno-bureaucratization of all life) to the ways in which efficiency gains are used against workers (and patients)
Many of the points that we discuss in "Why We Fear AI" make an appearance here, from the drive to make people into machine-legible (the techno-bureaucratization of all life) to the ways in which efficiency gains are used against workers (and patients)
I have a feature essay for The Guardian today on the mirage of AI medicine, why care cannot be automated, and how overwhelming uptake of AI by American health capitalism threatens to undermine the very possibility of democracy.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
What we lose when we surrender care to algorithms | Eric Reinhart
A dangerous faith in AI is sweeping American healthcare – with consequences for the basis of society itself
www.theguardian.com
November 9, 2025 at 4:42 PM
This is excellent, well worth reading.
Many of the points that we discuss in "Why We Fear AI" make an appearance here, from the drive to make people into machine-legible (the techno-bureaucratization of all life) to the ways in which efficiency gains are used against workers (and patients)
Many of the points that we discuss in "Why We Fear AI" make an appearance here, from the drive to make people into machine-legible (the techno-bureaucratization of all life) to the ways in which efficiency gains are used against workers (and patients)
This is excellent, well worth reading.
Many of the points that we discuss in "Why We Fear AI" make an appearance here, from the drive to make people into machine-legible (the techno-bureaucratization of all life) to the ways in which efficiency gains are used against workers (and patients)
Many of the points that we discuss in "Why We Fear AI" make an appearance here, from the drive to make people into machine-legible (the techno-bureaucratization of all life) to the ways in which efficiency gains are used against workers (and patients)
I have a feature essay for The Guardian today on the mirage of AI medicine, why care cannot be automated, and how overwhelming uptake of AI by American health capitalism threatens to undermine the very possibility of democracy.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
What we lose when we surrender care to algorithms | Eric Reinhart
A dangerous faith in AI is sweeping American healthcare – with consequences for the basis of society itself
www.theguardian.com
November 9, 2025 at 4:42 PM
This is excellent, well worth reading.
Many of the points that we discuss in "Why We Fear AI" make an appearance here, from the drive to make people into machine-legible (the techno-bureaucratization of all life) to the ways in which efficiency gains are used against workers (and patients)
Many of the points that we discuss in "Why We Fear AI" make an appearance here, from the drive to make people into machine-legible (the techno-bureaucratization of all life) to the ways in which efficiency gains are used against workers (and patients)
Reposted by Hagen Blix
What happened, @nytimes.com? Why not stand by your original headline? Because it’s absolutely an accurate representation of this trash conversation.
To publish this at all should be a fireable offense - but to publish it as women’s rights are being decimated is deeply immoral, bordering on evil
To publish this at all should be a fireable offense - but to publish it as women’s rights are being decimated is deeply immoral, bordering on evil
November 7, 2025 at 8:10 PM
What happened, @nytimes.com? Why not stand by your original headline? Because it’s absolutely an accurate representation of this trash conversation.
To publish this at all should be a fireable offense - but to publish it as women’s rights are being decimated is deeply immoral, bordering on evil
To publish this at all should be a fireable offense - but to publish it as women’s rights are being decimated is deeply immoral, bordering on evil
Reposted by Hagen Blix
Capek, having witnessed the senseless Great War, wrote R.U.R., about a global corporation run by a small group of men--all driven by a mechanistic ideology & convinced machines would solve world problems. The play ends in catastrophe. NB: It wasn’t meant to be a how-to-manual for the 21st century.
November 7, 2025 at 9:52 PM
Capek, having witnessed the senseless Great War, wrote R.U.R., about a global corporation run by a small group of men--all driven by a mechanistic ideology & convinced machines would solve world problems. The play ends in catastrophe. NB: It wasn’t meant to be a how-to-manual for the 21st century.
Reposted by Hagen Blix
November 7, 2025 at 9:39 PM
Reposted by Hagen Blix
I still remember my anthropology professor’s favorite joke from college:
“What did Watson and Crick discover?”
“Rosalind Franklin’s notes.”
“What did Watson and Crick discover?”
“Rosalind Franklin’s notes.”
Hey folks, as news of Watson's demise spreads, please don't set aside his weighty legacy of misogyny and racism. He was truly among the worst of us. www.vox.com/2019/1/15/18...
DNA scientist James Watson has a remarkably long history of sexist, racist public comments
“People say it would be terrible if we made all girls pretty,” he said in 2003. “I think it would be great.”
www.vox.com
November 7, 2025 at 8:28 PM
I still remember my anthropology professor’s favorite joke from college:
“What did Watson and Crick discover?”
“Rosalind Franklin’s notes.”
“What did Watson and Crick discover?”
“Rosalind Franklin’s notes.”
Reposted by Hagen Blix
Pulling together a list of AI-critical folks for my school, and am particularly those who can talk critically about AI in K-12 and to a lesser extent higher ed. I have a bunch of names already, but would love to get the crowdsourcing on this for anyone I might have missed.
November 7, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Pulling together a list of AI-critical folks for my school, and am particularly those who can talk critically about AI in K-12 and to a lesser extent higher ed. I have a bunch of names already, but would love to get the crowdsourcing on this for anyone I might have missed.
Reposted by Hagen Blix
Nuremburg trials is the moderate position
He said that the agents would throw food at them to eat. The agents threatened to withhold food for a week and to beat him up if he didn't sign deportation papers. He said he saw others refuse and get beaten/receive no food. He signed because he was afraid.
November 7, 2025 at 12:34 PM
Nuremburg trials is the moderate position
To sum up:
Gender affirming care: bad
Character.AI driving kids into suicide for profit: good
Got it.
Gender affirming care: bad
Character.AI driving kids into suicide for profit: good
Got it.
Holy shit. Noam Shazeer, one of the original authors on the "Attention is All You Need" paper and Character.AI founder, came out as major transphobe. Like Trumpian levels of "this is child mutilation" of transphobia.
(via The Information)
(via The Information)
November 7, 2025 at 4:33 PM
To sum up:
Gender affirming care: bad
Character.AI driving kids into suicide for profit: good
Got it.
Gender affirming care: bad
Character.AI driving kids into suicide for profit: good
Got it.
<Insert apocryphal quote about capitalists selling ropes here>
November 7, 2025 at 1:36 AM
<Insert apocryphal quote about capitalists selling ropes here>
Reposted by Hagen Blix
No, it can't. We cleared this up a few years ago: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
November 7, 2025 at 1:26 AM
No, it can't. We cleared this up a few years ago: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Reposted by Hagen Blix
I mean, they all know it's a meme stock
BREAKING: Tesla shareholders overwhelmingly approve $1 trillion pay package to Elon Musk, keeping him at the company for a decade. Story to come
November 6, 2025 at 10:02 PM
I mean, they all know it's a meme stock
Reposted by Hagen Blix
caliper-wielding eugenicist freaks are gonna keep saying this, keep circling the toilet bowl talking about predicting someone's sexuality or personality or ethnicity or whatever else w/AI
and it being bullshit won't matter; it being a pretext for state/admin/other violence will be all that matters
and it being bullshit won't matter; it being a pretext for state/admin/other violence will be all that matters
A new paper suggests a photo can tell a recruiter much about an applicant’s personality
Should facial analysis help determine whom companies hire?
A new paper suggests a photo can tell a recruiter much about an applicant’s personality
econ.st
November 6, 2025 at 8:03 PM
caliper-wielding eugenicist freaks are gonna keep saying this, keep circling the toilet bowl talking about predicting someone's sexuality or personality or ethnicity or whatever else w/AI
and it being bullshit won't matter; it being a pretext for state/admin/other violence will be all that matters
and it being bullshit won't matter; it being a pretext for state/admin/other violence will be all that matters
Reposted by Hagen Blix
And now read this!
Because AI can run the economy right?
Because AI can run the economy right?
Might I also recommend our article on AI & political/economic projects?
Deflating “Hype” Won’t Save Us
The problem with AI isn’t hype. The problem is who and what it’s useful for.
www.liberalcurrents.com
November 6, 2025 at 9:14 PM
And now read this!
Because AI can run the economy right?
Because AI can run the economy right?
Anything "could be a blessing" if you squint so hard that your brain shuts down for a bit
bro are you fucking kidding me
November 6, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Anything "could be a blessing" if you squint so hard that your brain shuts down for a bit
Starting to suspect that there's ascendancy of the phrase "labor power", but with a meaning along the lines of "the bargaining and/or political power of labor", and boy is that gonna be confusing
November 6, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Starting to suspect that there's ascendancy of the phrase "labor power", but with a meaning along the lines of "the bargaining and/or political power of labor", and boy is that gonna be confusing
Reposted by Hagen Blix
oh my fucking god
November 6, 2025 at 2:59 PM
oh my fucking god
Reposted by Hagen Blix
This is a really weird way to describe a phone number cops can call to find kids to kidnap
ICE to open call center to help track migrant children for removal
ICE plans to establish a "National Call Center" to help law enforcement track unaccompanied migrant children for potential removal.
abcnews.go.com
November 6, 2025 at 2:44 PM
This is a really weird way to describe a phone number cops can call to find kids to kidnap
jfc, somehow it keeps getting worse over there at the nyt
November 6, 2025 at 2:18 PM
jfc, somehow it keeps getting worse over there at the nyt
From tobacco (who knew about cancer) to fossil fuel (who have known about climate change forever) to meta, it's always astonishing how well they know and track the social harm that they're producing
10% of Meta's 2024 ad revenue came from outright frauds and scams; the platform shows consumers 15 billion ads for fraud and scams every single day. This doesn't even include agitprop and AI slop.
the existential collapse of this monumental pile of shit company simply can't come quickly enough
the existential collapse of this monumental pile of shit company simply can't come quickly enough
Meta is earning a fortune on a deluge of fraudulent ads, documents show
Meta projected 10% of its 2024 revenue would come from ads for scams and banned goods, and it internally estimates that its platforms show users 15 billion scam ads a day, company documents show.
www.reuters.com
November 6, 2025 at 2:11 PM
From tobacco (who knew about cancer) to fossil fuel (who have known about climate change forever) to meta, it's always astonishing how well they know and track the social harm that they're producing