Kashmir Hill
@kashhill.bsky.social
Journalist, currently at The New York Times. I cover privacy, technology, A.I., and the strange times we live in. Named after the Led Zeppelin song. Author of YOUR FACE BELONGS TO US. (Yes, in my head it will always be All Your Face Are Belong To Us)
For some positive news: the effects of congestion pricing in New York City. It has significantly decreased how much time my own commute takes so I'm a big fan. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Congestion pricing after one year: How life has changed.
How life has changed in the New York area, according to data on traffic, transit and the responses of 600 readers.
www.nytimes.com
January 5, 2026 at 4:40 PM
For some positive news: the effects of congestion pricing in New York City. It has significantly decreased how much time my own commute takes so I'm a big fan. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Reposted by Kashmir Hill
The last year was very hard as my father was dying. It became that much harder when I discovered that AI played a role in amplifying his physical pain, and perhaps hastening the end of his life. It wasn’t easy to write about what happened, but I’ve tried.
open.substack.com/pub/buildcog...
open.substack.com/pub/buildcog...
The role of AI in the death of my father
A sad strange story
open.substack.com
January 5, 2026 at 12:54 PM
The last year was very hard as my father was dying. It became that much harder when I discovered that AI played a role in amplifying his physical pain, and perhaps hastening the end of his life. It wasn’t easy to write about what happened, but I’ve tried.
open.substack.com/pub/buildcog...
open.substack.com/pub/buildcog...
And black tablecloths(?) hanging from the beams
They’ve got Twitter up on the big screens in Trump’s Mar-a-Lago makeshift “situation room.”
Photos from Trump’s Truth Social account.
Photos from Trump’s Truth Social account.
January 3, 2026 at 7:25 PM
And black tablecloths(?) hanging from the beams
If you haven’t already read it, I highly recommend Legacy of Ashes for a history of the U.S. overthrowing other governments. Back when it was covert, rather than a very public Saturday morning surprise www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/188076...
Legacy of Ashes by Tim Weiner: 9780307389008 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • With shocking revelations that made headlines all across the country, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Tim Weiner gets at the truth...
www.penguinrandomhouse.com
January 3, 2026 at 6:41 PM
If you haven’t already read it, I highly recommend Legacy of Ashes for a history of the U.S. overthrowing other governments. Back when it was covert, rather than a very public Saturday morning surprise www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/188076...
I thought, based on the social media-fication of the @rachelaviv.bsky.social Oliver Sacks piece, that Sacks had invented patients wholesale. But instead it’s what was once seemingly secretly acceptable among highbrow writers: making up quotes and details about people to make them more interesting.
December 24, 2025 at 4:08 PM
I thought, based on the social media-fication of the @rachelaviv.bsky.social Oliver Sacks piece, that Sacks had invented patients wholesale. But instead it’s what was once seemingly secretly acceptable among highbrow writers: making up quotes and details about people to make them more interesting.
Reposted by Kashmir Hill
The update we all needed on a story which was stuck in my head all year
My last story of the year: an update on the woman who fell in love with ChatGPT.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/t...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/t...
December 24, 2025 at 3:26 PM
The update we all needed on a story which was stuck in my head all year
Reposted by Kashmir Hill
Read the original story and was really struck by it at the time (and not, BTW, with disgust.) A interesting and maybe cheerful update:
My last story of the year: an update on the woman who fell in love with ChatGPT.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/t...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/t...
December 22, 2025 at 6:48 PM
Read the original story and was really struck by it at the time (and not, BTW, with disgust.) A interesting and maybe cheerful update:
My last story of the year: an update on the woman who fell in love with ChatGPT.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/t...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/t...
December 22, 2025 at 3:12 PM
My last story of the year: an update on the woman who fell in love with ChatGPT.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/t...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/t...
Reposted by Kashmir Hill
I do think we might all be better off if chatbots were trained to be anodyne, not friendly. I love Google’s AI Studio in part because it just does what I tell it to do, and is devoid of manufactured charm. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/t...
Why Do A.I. Chatbots Use ‘I’? - The New York Times
A.I. chatbots have been designed to behave in a humanlike way. Some experts think that’s a terrible idea.
www.nytimes.com
December 19, 2025 at 7:24 PM
I do think we might all be better off if chatbots were trained to be anodyne, not friendly. I love Google’s AI Studio in part because it just does what I tell it to do, and is devoid of manufactured charm. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/t...
Reposted by Kashmir Hill
One of my deep psycholinguistic concerns about AI chatbots is the use of self-referential language--chatbots using pronouns like "I"/"me"--which subliminally assert a sentient mind ("It says 'I think', therefore, it is"). @kashhill.bsky.social brilliantly unpacks: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/t...
December 19, 2025 at 8:42 PM
One of my deep psycholinguistic concerns about AI chatbots is the use of self-referential language--chatbots using pronouns like "I"/"me"--which subliminally assert a sentient mind ("It says 'I think', therefore, it is"). @kashhill.bsky.social brilliantly unpacks: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/t...
About to go on my first true work-free vacation of 2025 (I hope)! This is one of my final stories for the year, about the extremely humanlike chatbots we've been given and whether they should be that way.
Happy holidays, here's a gift article: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/t...
Happy holidays, here's a gift article: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/t...
Why Do A.I. Chatbots Use ‘I’?
www.nytimes.com
December 19, 2025 at 7:17 PM
About to go on my first true work-free vacation of 2025 (I hope)! This is one of my final stories for the year, about the extremely humanlike chatbots we've been given and whether they should be that way.
Happy holidays, here's a gift article: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/t...
Happy holidays, here's a gift article: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/t...
Wall Street Journal got an A.I.-run vending machine for their office.
Takeaway: Highly entertaining, but financially disastrous to let a generative A.I. chatbot run your business. www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anth...
Takeaway: Highly entertaining, but financially disastrous to let a generative A.I. chatbot run your business. www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anth...
We Let AI Run Our Office Vending Machine. It Lost Hundreds of Dollars.
An AI agent ran a snack operation in the WSJ newsroom. It gave away a free PlayStation, ordered a live fish—and taught us lessons about the future of AI.
www.wsj.com
December 18, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Wall Street Journal got an A.I.-run vending machine for their office.
Takeaway: Highly entertaining, but financially disastrous to let a generative A.I. chatbot run your business. www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anth...
Takeaway: Highly entertaining, but financially disastrous to let a generative A.I. chatbot run your business. www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anth...
Reposted by Kashmir Hill
WOW. @haleaziz.bsky.social with a new scoop: ICE now gets a running list of every person who is going to be taking a domestic flight inside the United States from the TSA and runs it through their database looking for targets. This explains the Babson College student's arrest.
Immigration Agents Are Using Air Passenger Data for Deportation Effort
www.nytimes.com
December 12, 2025 at 9:26 PM
WOW. @haleaziz.bsky.social with a new scoop: ICE now gets a running list of every person who is going to be taking a domestic flight inside the United States from the TSA and runs it through their database looking for targets. This explains the Babson College student's arrest.
"The order on Thursday, which has sparked broad, bipartisan opposition, is likely to be challenged in court by states and consumer groups on the grounds that only Congress has the authority to override state laws, legal experts said."
Trump Signs Executive Order to Neuter State A.I. Laws
www.nytimes.com
December 12, 2025 at 3:54 PM
"The order on Thursday, which has sparked broad, bipartisan opposition, is likely to be challenged in court by states and consumer groups on the grounds that only Congress has the authority to override state laws, legal experts said."
why do this in the first place www.semafor.com/article/12/1...
Exclusive: Washington Post’s AI-generated podcasts rife with errors, fictional quotes
Errors in the Post’s new AI-generated podcasts have frustrated the paper’s journalists.
www.semafor.com
December 12, 2025 at 1:50 PM
why do this in the first place www.semafor.com/article/12/1...
Fake it ‘til you make it mentality is not great for climate change www.wired.com/story/how-th...
How the Next Big Thing in Carbon Removal Sank Without a Trace
With support from Microsoft, Stripe, and Shopify, Running Tide billed itself as on the cutting edge of carbon removal. In the end, it resorted to dumping thousands of tons of wood chips in the sea.
www.wired.com
December 12, 2025 at 1:07 PM
Fake it ‘til you make it mentality is not great for climate change www.wired.com/story/how-th...
Translation of this paragraph from the system card:
OpenAI employees were able to sext with this version of ChatGPT. openai.com/index/introd...
OpenAI employees were able to sext with this version of ChatGPT. openai.com/index/introd...
December 11, 2025 at 6:52 PM
Translation of this paragraph from the system card:
OpenAI employees were able to sext with this version of ChatGPT. openai.com/index/introd...
OpenAI employees were able to sext with this version of ChatGPT. openai.com/index/introd...
"Soelberg told his son that the chatbot, which he named Bobby and talked to on his smartphone, said he was enlightened and had a divine purpose.... OpenAI has refused to release the full chat logs to Soelberg’s heirs or the lawyers representing his estate."
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/chat...
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/chat...
December 11, 2025 at 2:23 PM
"Soelberg told his son that the chatbot, which he named Bobby and talked to on his smartphone, said he was enlightened and had a divine purpose.... OpenAI has refused to release the full chat logs to Soelberg’s heirs or the lawyers representing his estate."
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/chat...
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/chat...
Another wrongful death lawsuit filed against OpenAI: www.cbsnews.com/news/open-ai...
This time for a woman murdered by her son in Connecticut, whose conversations with ChatGPT were earlier reported by WSJ: www.wsj.com/tech/ai/chat...
This time for a woman murdered by her son in Connecticut, whose conversations with ChatGPT were earlier reported by WSJ: www.wsj.com/tech/ai/chat...
Open AI, Microsoft sued over ChatGPT's alleged role in fueling man's "paranoid delusions" before murder-suicide in Connecticut
The suot alleges the artificial intelligence chatbot intensified a man's "paranoid delusions" and helped direct them at his mother before he died by suicide.
www.cbsnews.com
December 11, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Another wrongful death lawsuit filed against OpenAI: www.cbsnews.com/news/open-ai...
This time for a woman murdered by her son in Connecticut, whose conversations with ChatGPT were earlier reported by WSJ: www.wsj.com/tech/ai/chat...
This time for a woman murdered by her son in Connecticut, whose conversations with ChatGPT were earlier reported by WSJ: www.wsj.com/tech/ai/chat...
Reposted by Kashmir Hill
Facial recognition for misdemeanors in Dallas? Clearview is back in favor. @kashhill.bsky.social
www.dallasnews.com/news/public-...
www.dallasnews.com/news/public-...
Dallas police use AI face recognition tool in serious felonies. They may add lesser crimes
Records show Dallas police are using a powerful facial recognition tool in serious felony cases. Now they're considering it for lower-level crimes — a shift...
www.dallasnews.com
December 9, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Facial recognition for misdemeanors in Dallas? Clearview is back in favor. @kashhill.bsky.social
www.dallasnews.com/news/public-...
www.dallasnews.com/news/public-...
"The advent of realistic videos has been a boon for disinformation, fraud and foreign influence operations"
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/08/b...
What is the positive use case for an easy-to-use fake video tool?
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/08/b...
What is the positive use case for an easy-to-use fake video tool?
A.I. Videos Have Flooded Social Media. No One Was Ready.
www.nytimes.com
December 9, 2025 at 2:20 PM
"The advent of realistic videos has been a boon for disinformation, fraud and foreign influence operations"
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/08/b...
What is the positive use case for an easy-to-use fake video tool?
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/08/b...
What is the positive use case for an easy-to-use fake video tool?
I have seen so many of these in my decades as a journalist: the contact-us page that makes clear they don’t actually want anyone contacting them
www.nicchan.me/blog/the-f-o...
www.nicchan.me/blog/the-f-o...
December 9, 2025 at 12:05 PM
I have seen so many of these in my decades as a journalist: the contact-us page that makes clear they don’t actually want anyone contacting them
www.nicchan.me/blog/the-f-o...
www.nicchan.me/blog/the-f-o...
In which my colleague Aaron Krolik finds out just how easy it would be to money launder with stablecoins, which gets an immediate reaction from the company that made it possible:
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/07/t...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/07/t...
How a Cryptocurrency Helps Criminals Launder Money and Evade Sanctions
www.nytimes.com
December 8, 2025 at 4:07 PM
In which my colleague Aaron Krolik finds out just how easy it would be to money launder with stablecoins, which gets an immediate reaction from the company that made it possible:
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/07/t...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/07/t...
Reposted by Kashmir Hill
Here’s the piece by @kashhill.bsky.social www.kashmirhill.com/stories/bitc...
And here’s Aaron Krolik’s great piece that came out today about how the illegality that crypto has always enabled has been absolutely accelerated this last year in this direction
2/2
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/07/t...
And here’s Aaron Krolik’s great piece that came out today about how the illegality that crypto has always enabled has been absolutely accelerated this last year in this direction
2/2
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/07/t...
How a Cryptocurrency Helps Criminals Launder Money and Evade Sanctions
www.nytimes.com
December 7, 2025 at 1:27 PM
Here’s the piece by @kashhill.bsky.social www.kashmirhill.com/stories/bitc...
And here’s Aaron Krolik’s great piece that came out today about how the illegality that crypto has always enabled has been absolutely accelerated this last year in this direction
2/2
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/07/t...
And here’s Aaron Krolik’s great piece that came out today about how the illegality that crypto has always enabled has been absolutely accelerated this last year in this direction
2/2
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/07/t...
Reposted by Kashmir Hill
For the first ~6 years of its existence, the big question around crypto currency was “what’s the use case”— @kashhill.bsky.social had a great 2013 “living on bitcoin” story that was defining.
But for the last year the answer has been clear: crypto’s best use case is fraud & political corruption
1/
But for the last year the answer has been clear: crypto’s best use case is fraud & political corruption
1/
December 7, 2025 at 1:27 PM
For the first ~6 years of its existence, the big question around crypto currency was “what’s the use case”— @kashhill.bsky.social had a great 2013 “living on bitcoin” story that was defining.
But for the last year the answer has been clear: crypto’s best use case is fraud & political corruption
1/
But for the last year the answer has been clear: crypto’s best use case is fraud & political corruption
1/