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Michael Richardson

Michael Richardson

@richardsonma.bsky.social

1.1K followers 340 following 220 posts

Associate Professor. Drones, AI, war, culture, affect, witnessing. UNSW. Media Futures Hub. ADMS Centre. He/him. Nonhuman Witnessing with @dukepress.bsky.social https://t.ly/cQW5N

Education 29%

Political science 16%

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Posts Replies Media Videos

Michael Richardson @richardsonma.bsky.social · Aug 28

Longtime listener, first time caller.

Mél is a wonderful interlocutor, which made this an absolute privilege.

Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · Aug 25

New:

The Data Fix with Dr. Mél Hogan - Ep. 68 Witnessing, with Michael Richardson ‪🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
shows.acast.com/the-data-fix...

@richardsonma.bsky.social

Witnessing, with Michael Richardson | The Data Fix with Dr. Mél Hogan

shows.acast.com

Reposted by Michael Richardson, David Murakami Wood

Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · Aug 25

New:

The Data Fix with Dr. Mél Hogan - Ep. 68 Witnessing, with Michael Richardson ‪🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
shows.acast.com/the-data-fix...

@richardsonma.bsky.social

Witnessing, with Michael Richardson | The Data Fix with Dr. Mél Hogan

shows.acast.com

Michael Richardson @richardsonma.bsky.social · Aug 18

I loved doing this with the brilliant Mél... hop in and have a listen once it's out next week!

Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · Aug 18

Please subscribe to The Data Fix podcast so you don't miss an episode!

thedatafix.net

Next up, ‪the amazing @richardsonma.bsky.social (Aug 25) -- on witnessing AI and algorithms.

After this episode, I will take a break to get relocated, but plan to be back at it in October! Stay tuned!

The Data Fix with Dr. Mél Hogan

a lefty pod about perpetual tech promises

Reposted by Michael Richardson

Mél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · Aug 18

Please subscribe to The Data Fix podcast so you don't miss an episode!

thedatafix.net

Next up, ‪the amazing @richardsonma.bsky.social (Aug 25) -- on witnessing AI and algorithms.

After this episode, I will take a break to get relocated, but plan to be back at it in October! Stay tuned!

The Data Fix with Dr. Mél Hogan

a lefty pod about perpetual tech promises

Reposted by Michael Richardson

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · May 2

I’m glad edtech is here to solve the difficult questions like “What if we could have teachers who didn’t know their subject?” www.businessinsider.com/andrew-ng-st...

As AI becomes more integrated into classrooms, Ng sees this as part of broader transformation of teachers' roles.

"AI is helping redefine what it means to be a great teacher," he told Business Insider by email. "Traditionally, we've expected teachers to be subject matter experts. But with the workforce changing so rapidly and schools introducing new subjects to prepare students for a rapidly evolving world, what happens when a teacher is asked to teach something entirely new, say, computer science, without years of experience in that field?"

Reposted by Michael Richardson

Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · May 7

the technodystopia is here

nymag.com/intelligence...

Sarah, a freshman at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario, said she first used ChatGPT to cheat during the spring semester of her final year of high school. (Sarah’s name, like those of other current students in this article, has been changed for privacy.) After getting acquainted with the chatbot, Sarah used it for all her classes: Indigenous studies, law, English, and a “hippie farming class” called Green Industries. “My grades were amazing,” she said. “It changed my life.” Sarah continued to use AI when she started college this past fall. Why wouldn’t she? Rarely did she sit in class and not see other students’ laptops open to ChatGPT. Toward the end of the semester, she began to think she might be dependent on the website. She already considered herself addicted to TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and Reddit, where she writes under the username maybeimnotsmart. “I spend so much time on TikTok,” she said. “Hours and hours, until my eyes start hurting, which makes it hard to plan and do my schoolwork. With ChatGPT, I can write an essay in two hours that normally takes 12.”

Reposted by Michael Richardson

Jenny Rhee @jsrhee.bsky.social · May 8

Informatics of Domination is out with @dukepress.bsky.social! I co-edited this experimental collection with Zach Blas + @melodyjue.bsky.social across years + countless zoom chats. I remain stunned by the brilliance of our 50 contributors: read.dukeupress.edu/books/book/3...

Informatics of Domination

Informatics of Domination is an experimental collection addressing formations of power that manifest through technical systems and white capitalist patriar

read.dukeupress.edu

Reposted by Michael Richardson

Paris Marx @parismarx.com · May 16

reopen alcatraz, then fill it with tech billionaires

Reposted by Michael Richardson

Dr Sasha Luccioni @sashamtl.bsky.social · May 16

I respect people who try to estimate the environmental impacts of proprietary AI models... but I'm convinced that instead of trying to reverse-engineer those numbers and debate them, we should just all collectively put pressure on them to publish the info themselves -- I know they have it!

Reposted by Michael Richardson

HappyToast @happytoast.co.uk · May 24

The latest in a long line of terrible humans seeing if they can destroy people lives before asking if they should. If only sociopaths were seen as bad instead of rewarded.

Nick Clegg being a shit over artists rights

Reposted by Michael Richardson

Timothy Neale @tdneale.bsky.social · May 28

And now the full listing... we are recruiting for a PhD scholarship to conduct ethnographic research on net zero in nth Australia, based at Deakin + working with me, @karidahlgren.bsky.social + @chrismayes.bsky.social. Apps close 20 Sept. Spread the word + details: www.deakin.edu.au/study/fees-a...

HDR Scholarship - Zero Carbon Emissions

PhD Scholarship to research Embedding Net Zero Carbon Emissions

www.deakin.edu.au

Reposted by Michael Richardson

Rob Horning @robhorning.bsky.social · May 30

AI is sold as a cool trick that can help you fool others into thinking you actually worked on something, but in effect distrust becomes more ubiquitous and "proof of work" becomes part of all work, making it all that more laborious and inefficient
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/17/s...

A New Headache for Honest Students: Proving They Didn’t Use A.I.
Students are resorting to extreme measures to fend off accusations of cheating, including hourslong screen recordings of their homework sessions.

Reposted by Michael Richardson

Axios @axios.com · May 28

EXCLUSIVE: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has a blunt, scary warning: AI could wipe out half of entry-level white-collar jobs and spike unemployment to 10-20% in the next 1-5 years.

Few are paying attention: Politicians don't get it. CEOs are afraid to talk about it.

Behind the Curtain: Top AI CEO foresees white-collar bloodbath

Hardly anyone is paying attention.

Reposted by Michael Richardson

Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · May 31

The thing that really scares me is that DHS thugs are terrorizing people in broad daylight in crowded locations where they know everyone will be filming them and they’re doing it anyway. They don’t fucking care. Kind of debunks the idea that past atrocities could’ve been avoided with more media.

Reposted by Michael Richardson, Stuart Elden, Silke Roth , and 1 more Michael Richardson, Stuart Elden, Silke Roth, Melissa Gregg

Ken Wissoker @kwissoker.bsky.social · Jun 2

Here's a long thread on an issue dear to my heart. This Tuesday evening I’m doing an Intellectual Publics with Macarena Gomez-Barris on publishing. Like last year’s conversation with Denise Cruz, or the prior year’s with Racquel Gates, we will talk about how to find a publisher, turn a thesis... 1/

Intellectual Publics @intellpublics.bsky.social · May 12

Remember to register!
Ken Wissoker in conversation with Macarena Gómez-Barris
Tues June 3rd at 6:30pm ET via Zoom
bit.ly/impossibleti...

Reposted by Gordon Pennycook, Michael Richardson, Peter Bergman

WIRED @wired.com · Jun 13

NEW: The CBP confirmed to @404media.co that it has been flying Predator drones over LA amid the protests. These Predator B drones are military-caliber UAVs used for aerial reconnaissance that can be armed.

It further breaks the seal on federal involvement in civilian matters. More here:

The High-Flying Escalation of CBP's Predator Drone Flights Over LA

Custom and Border Protection flying powerful Predator B drones over Los Angeles further breaks the seal on federal involvement in civilian matters typically handled by state or local authorities.

Reposted by Michael Richardson

Devindra Hardawar @devindra.bsky.social · Jun 13

Now the tech bros are cosplaying as military bros www.thefp.com/p/im-the-cto...

I’m the CTO of Palantir. Today I Join the Army.

My father grew up in a mud hut in India. America gave him—and me—a life. Now technologists like me need to give back.

Reposted by Michael Richardson

Richard A Carter @richardacarter.bsky.social · Jun 18

Forthcoming, Spring 2026 with Punctum - "War Machine" is my book of speculative, machinic criticism and poetry, performing the intersections of political-economic-military extractavism, automated warfare, algorithmic noise, and ecological collapse. punctumbooks.com/titles/war-m...

A book cover. White, with a stark black and white image of a banking military drone in the corner. The cover reads "War Machine". Author, Richard A Carter

Reposted by Michael Richardson

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · Jun 18

Suggest we should call fusion centers something more appropriate like “authoritarian one stop shop” or “techno-fascist lair.”

Take a look inside Warner Robins Police Department’s new surveillance center

“Technology is here, you may as well embrace it,” said Warner Robins Mayor LaRhonda Patrick. “This is our way of embracing it in a way that could benefit every single person in this room and their fam...

Reposted by Michael Richardson

Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · Mar 18

No they do not, New York Times! This is like writing that Santa Claus has IBS.

Reposted by Michael Richardson, Gilles Louppe

Dr Sasha Luccioni @sashamtl.bsky.social · Jun 20

Does a ChatGPT query really use ten times more energy than a Google search? Does training any AI model emit as much CO2 as 5 cars? and can AI help us reduce global GHG emissions by 10%? 🤔

We tracked down the origins of these numbers 🕵‍♀️ and wrote a paper about it!

arxiv.org/abs/2506.15572

Reposted by Michael Richardson

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · Jun 24

Kinda wild how quickly people’s genocide fantasies became mainstreamed.

Can AI Be Humanity’s "Worthy Successor"?

Is humanity ready to pass the torch to superintelligent AI? Dive into the concept of a "worthy successor" and what it means for our future.

spectrum.ieee.org

Reposted by Michael Richardson

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · Jul 10

There’s so much wrong here, but in particular it’s noted in the article that the creator of this project met with a bunch of stakeholders who told him the idea was shit, and he did it anyway.

The UN Made AI-Generated Refugees

The AIs are designed to teach people about atrocities in Sudan.

www.404media.co

Reposted by Michael Richardson

Mike Ginn @shutupmikeginn.bsky.social · Jul 13

feel like Adobe is kind of like the cigarette companies in the 1960s, going after kids. they give cheap licenses to schools to hook young losers such as myself. now i'm an adult stuck paying $90 a month because i never learned any of the other softwares

Reposted by Michael Richardson

Michael Richardson @richardsonma.bsky.social · Jul 16

Nailing it.

“It is the only “business model” that we have and that I am certain works: We trade good, accurate, interesting, human articles for money and attention. The risks of offloading that trust to an AI in a careless way is the biggest possible risk factor that we could have as a business.”

404 Media @404media.co · Jul 14

The Media's Pivot to AI Is Not Real and Not Going to Work

🔗 www.404media.co/the-medias-p...

The Media's Pivot to AI Is Not Real and Not Going to Work

AI is not going to save media companies, and forcing journalists to use AI is not a business model.

www.404media.co

Reposted by Scott L. Greer, Michael Richardson

Brandy Jensen @brandyjensen.bsky.social · Jul 18

for Bills Week I decided to read the new 1000 page Buckley biography

William F. Buckley's Bill Never Came Due | Defector

Perhaps the highest praise I can offer a book that took 27 years to complete and runs over 1,000 pages is that I can see why, and that it doesn’t feel like it. Sam Tanenhaus’s extremely long and anxio...

Michael Richardson @richardsonma.bsky.social · Jul 19

This is a bloody good read

Brandy Jensen @brandyjensen.bsky.social · Jul 18

for Bills Week I decided to read the new 1000 page Buckley biography

William F. Buckley's Bill Never Came Due | Defector

Perhaps the highest praise I can offer a book that took 27 years to complete and runs over 1,000 pages is that I can see why, and that it doesn’t feel like it. Sam Tanenhaus’s extremely long and anxio...

Reposted by Michael Richardson

Joseph Shoer @jpshoer.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · Jul 17

Terrific essay from @mmasnick.bsky.social

I wish more of the business community would recognize this
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/07/17/fascism-for-first-time-founders/

Fascism For First Time Founders

Over the last year or so I’ve seen a disturbing tendency in tech/startup/VC worlds to buy into the neoreactionary view that for startups to be successful they need to get on board the Trump t…

www.techdirt.com

Reposted by Michael Richardson, Samuel L. Perry, David Higgins , and 1 more Michael Richardson, Samuel L. Perry, David Higgins, Jack Stilgoe

Luke Stark @lukestark.bsky.social · Jul 17

My university has announced a fund to essentially poach doctoral students from US institutions. DM me if you do work on the history/social impacts of AI and are interested in being poached 😂

Michael Richardson @richardsonma.bsky.social · Jul 17

Sounds depressing, I’ll add it to the list