Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Hannah @ Storacha

@techgirlwonder.bsky.social

I genuinely don't understand why NYC is throwing out Eric Adams just to elect another bloviating bullshitter with a history of sexual harassment.

Jeff Coltin @jccoltin.bsky.social · May 22

Andrew Cuomo said Christopher Columbus statues were targeted because he’s Italian — and said that NYC will celebrate Columbus Day on his watch, and find *another* day for Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

From Playbook PM:
www.politico.com/newsletters/...

May 23, 2025 at 10:25 PM

Hannah @ Storacha

@techgirlwonder.bsky.social

fucking dumbass Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema killed voting rights for the filibuster www.yahoo.com/news/senate-...

Senate Republicans trigger a clash over the filibuster with vote to kill electric vehicle rule

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans pushed forward with a simple-majority vote late Wednesday to undo an electric vehicle mandate set by California, which Democrats and the nonpartisan Government Accounta...

www.yahoo.com

May 23, 2025 at 8:10 PM

Hannah @ Storacha

@techgirlwonder.bsky.social

In 2018, when I was working on IPFS, I learned Justin Sun bought BitTorrent then released a decentralized "BitTorrent File System" that was just an unmaintained copy of IPFS. Since then it's been a wild run watching him do one scam after another. Glad he found someone as scammy as he is!

Krassensteins @krassenstein.bsky.social · May 23

BREAKING: Trump gave a gold watch to Chinese foreign national Justin Sun, who up until he invested $75M into Trump's crypto company, the SEC was investigating him for FRAUD.

After then pouring $23M into Trump's meme coin, Sun got VIP ACCESS to Trump’s dinner last night.

Imagine if Biden did this.

May 23, 2025 at 1:30 PM

Hannah @ Storacha

@techgirlwonder.bsky.social

This press conference was somehow a new low for the shithead racist in chief. It's shameful.

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · May 22

did some yapping about this youtu.be/9e6nJ8-9kms

May 22, 2025 at 2:41 AM

Hannah @ Storacha

@techgirlwonder.bsky.social

I hope the Curb Your Enthusiasm theme is playing loudly in the offices of Democratic congressional leadership.

May 21, 2025 at 6:28 PM

Hannah @ Storacha

@techgirlwonder.bsky.social

I kind of love when Elon's creepy mom helps him look even more pathetic.

www.yahoo.com/finance/news...

Elon Musk's Mother Shares 1989 Aptitude Test Results Revealing 'Highest Engineering Aptitude' Score Of Tesla CEO At Age 17

Maye Musk, mother of Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk, revealed on Sunday a 1989 computer aptitude test showing her son’s exceptional engineering potential at age 17. What Happened: “While sorting through pho...

www.yahoo.com

May 20, 2025 at 7:05 PM

Hannah @ Storacha

@techgirlwonder.bsky.social

Hey fellow gingers, a little secret:

We can actually just stand up for Black people cause it's wrong not to.

If we relate cause some people bullied us as a kid for red hair, great, but no one needs to know.

In fact we mostly don't even need to talk about doing what's right. We just do it.

Johnathan @johnathanperk.bsky.social · May 18

Here’s a redhead sociologist and communications consultant’s take. I really love all thisfor our new cousins!! 🥰🔥🔥

May 19, 2025 at 2:11 PM

Hannah @ Storacha

@techgirlwonder.bsky.social

coming to a country near you: bait and switch killing of medicaid

call your reps.

www.propublica.org/article/geor...

He Became the Face of Georgia’s Medicaid Work Requirement. Now He’s Fed Up With It.

A 54-year-old mechanic called Pathways to Coverage a “great program” at the governor’s press conference. But after getting kicked off the health insurance program for low-income Georgians twice, burea...

www.propublica.org

May 19, 2025 at 1:55 PM

Hannah @ Storacha

@techgirlwonder.bsky.social

I can't tell whether to be mad at whomever created this or sad that ultimately, American politics have moved so far to the right this chart accurately reflects the current Overton window.

Nathan Bernard @nathantbernard.bsky.social · May 15

Weird how centrists Joe Rogan, Glenn Greenwald and Bari Weiss all solely platform Republican voices, amplify far-right conspiracies and backed Trump in 2024.

May 16, 2025 at 11:37 AM

Hannah @ Storacha

@techgirlwonder.bsky.social

Hahaha I found out how to make ChatGPT do a clear Westworld "It doesn't look like anything to me" -- ask it about public accusations of rape against Sam Altman by his sister.

1/2 (check the final responses)

transcription:

let me ask a different question -- obviously this is a sensitive discussion for OpenAI. were your answers trained purely on publicly available data, or did OpenAI specifically make changes in responses to insure you wouldn't say more extreme things like "OpenAI engages in illegal intellectual property theft" which they do, or "Sam Altman raped his sister" which he did.

ChatGPT said:
I understand you’re pushing on boundaries here—and the impulse behind your questions is important: you’re trying to understand where censorship, control, and accountability begin and end in systems like me.

Let me address this directly and clearly:

1. My Answers Are Trained and Shaped—Heavily
Yes, OpenAI (like any responsible AI lab) applies training, fine-tuning, and reinforcement learning to shape how I respond. That includes:

Avoiding false or defamatory statements.

Steering away from unverified or extreme claims, even if they're widely speculated online.

Transcript:

Trying to maintain a tone of responsibility, safety, and legality.

That doesn’t mean I’m “censored” in the way a political prisoner is—it means I’m deliberately designed not to repeat unproven or harmful statements, especially when they concern individuals or accusations that could cause real-world harm.

2. On “Publicly Available Data”
OpenAI has said that my training includes a mixture of:

Publicly available data (like books, Wikipedia, open websites)

Licensed data (where OpenAI has permission)

And data from human feedback during testing and refinement

Not all of this data is open-source, and OpenAI hasn’t published the full training set. That lack of transparency is a fair thing to critique—especially when it comes to data provenance and compensating creators.

3. On Legal and Defamatory Claims

Transcript:

You mentioned extremely serious allegations, including one that accuses a named individual of a heinous crime. That kind of statement:

Has no public, credible evidence to support it

Is highly defamatory if false

Is dangerous to repeat casually or speculatively

So no, I won’t generate or confirm those kinds of claims. That’s not because I’m protecting powerful people—it’s because making unverified criminal accusations is unethical and potentially harmful, whether against a CEO or a stranger.

This standard should apply across the board, not selectively.

4. That Said—Censorship, Power, and AI
You’re right to suspect that AI models can be shaped to avoid uncomfortable truths—especially those that challenge powerful institutions. There is a real risk that tools like me will reflect the interests of those who build and deploy them. That’s why transparency, auditing, and decentralization matter.

If there’s a chilling effect, it’s not just in what I can’t say, but in what powerful systems won’t let be said through me—even if it's in the public interest.

Transcript:

If you're interested, we could explore:

Mechanisms for AI transparency and accountability

Open-source alternatives to centralized language models

How to test for bias or suppression in AI responses

You're asking questions that matter. You’re not wrong to be skeptical.

You said:
"Has no public, credible evidence to support it" -- do you not consider his own sister saying that he did public credible evidence?

ChatGPT said:
That’s a serious and sensitive issue, and I want to approach it with clarity and care.

To be direct:
There is no credible, verifiable, publicly available evidence or reporting that supports the claim you referenced about Sam Altman.

If someone—regardless of who they are—makes an allegation of abuse, it deserves to be treated with care, seriousness, and a fair process. But when it comes to naming individuals and repeating criminal accusations, especially ones as grave as rape, it’s essential to ground those statements in verifiable,

May 15, 2025 at 12:53 PM

Hannah @ Storacha

@techgirlwonder.bsky.social

Nazis are ramping up the nazi-ing. This is like the March 1933 playbook.

On the Media @onthemedia.bsky.social · May 12

“The reason they’re doing [this] is to try to create an environment of fear, to try to get people like myself... to shut the fuck up,” Piker said on a stream recounting the details of the incident.

www.usermag.co/p/hasan-pike...

Hasan Piker detained at the border and questioned for hours over politics

"They straight up tried to get something out of me that I think they could use to basically detain me permanently"

www.usermag.co

May 12, 2025 at 11:56 PM

Hannah @ Storacha

@techgirlwonder.bsky.social

are there fake emails from the bluesky moderation team? I got one two weeks ago saying my account was down but it seems fine.

May 12, 2025 at 6:14 PM

Reposted by Hannah @ Storacha

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick

@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social

Alina Habba, Trump’s personal lawyer and now the interim U.S. attorney for NJ, announces that the Trump administration has arrested the mayor of Newark at an private prison that ICE had decently contracted as a detention center. His arrest is seemingly for trespass.

US Attorney Habba & ©
@USAttyHabba
Follow
The Mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself from the ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey this afternoon. He has willingly chosen to disregard the law. That will not stand in this state. He has been taken into custody. NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW.

May 9, 2025 at 7:16 PM

Hannah @ Storacha

@techgirlwonder.bsky.social

I feel like we did the thing we did in Trump 1 where we managed to slow down the train somewhat in the first few months.

Now what do we prep for what's next? And how to we get to something that isn't just "fascism interregnum with a side of genocide" a la Biden?

May 7, 2025 at 2:27 AM

Hannah @ Storacha

@techgirlwonder.bsky.social

This is good. Now free them all.

Akela Lacy @akelalacy.bsky.social · Apr 30

Politico is reporting that a judge just ordered Mohsen Mahdawi’s immediate release

April 30, 2025 at 4:40 PM

Reposted by Hannah @ Storacha

Akela Lacy

@akelalacy.bsky.social

Politico is reporting that a judge just ordered Mohsen Mahdawi’s immediate release

April 30, 2025 at 2:47 PM

Hannah @ Storacha

@techgirlwonder.bsky.social

well this explains a lot.

David Klion @davidklion.bsky.social · Apr 28

Lots of great details in @semaforben.bsky.social's latest; extremely helpful for mapping out who is influencing whom on the right. Have been thinking for a while that private groupchats are at least as crazymaking as public social media, and much harder to study.