Dave Johnson
@newtodave.bsky.social
Craft brewer of cask-strength single origin cold-brew liquid knowledge.
Climate Justice, Open Education, Data Science & Public Sector Innovation. Looking for my mind at work
LEVERS at TCD School of Education | Co-Founder ONS Data Science Campus | Xoogler
Climate Justice, Open Education, Data Science & Public Sector Innovation. Looking for my mind at work
LEVERS at TCD School of Education | Co-Founder ONS Data Science Campus | Xoogler
Pinned
Dave Johnson
@newtodave.bsky.social
· Nov 11
So, been away from social media for the last 12 months or so, what did I miss?
I have never wanted to align my professional growth-hacking roadmap with an institutional 360 mission statement for accelerated personal abundance as much as I do now.
Q. Who aligns the aligners?
A. alignmentalignment.ai
Today I’m humbled to announce an epoch-defining event: the launch of the 𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝗜 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀.
A. alignmentalignment.ai
Today I’m humbled to announce an epoch-defining event: the launch of the 𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝗜 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀.
Center for the Alignment of AI Alignment Centers
We align the aligners
alignmentalignment.ai
September 11, 2025 at 4:00 PM
I have never wanted to align my professional growth-hacking roadmap with an institutional 360 mission statement for accelerated personal abundance as much as I do now.
Civil Servants On Trains, Running LLMs
“GovGPT, please book me a return train from Leeds to London, with tube travel to Canary Wharf for next Wednesday. Make sure the booking adheres to civil service travel cost policy.”
<New Mexico data centre bursts into flames>
<New Mexico data centre bursts into flames>
July 22, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Civil Servants On Trains, Running LLMs
Reposted by Dave Johnson
“GovGPT, please book me a return train from Leeds to London, with tube travel to Canary Wharf for next Wednesday. Make sure the booking adheres to civil service travel cost policy.”
<New Mexico data centre bursts into flames>
<New Mexico data centre bursts into flames>
July 22, 2025 at 4:48 PM
“GovGPT, please book me a return train from Leeds to London, with tube travel to Canary Wharf for next Wednesday. Make sure the booking adheres to civil service travel cost policy.”
<New Mexico data centre bursts into flames>
<New Mexico data centre bursts into flames>
Of course, it's only "Liquid Knowledge" if it's from the Connaissance-Liquide region of France. Otherwise it's just sparkling public sector transformation.
[now taking orders for stickers, t-shirts and mugs with new slogan:
"I make liquid knowledge"
Early bird discount]
"I make liquid knowledge"
Early bird discount]
On the liquid knowledge of public sector labs: "while PSI-labs aim to embed innovative knowledge into governance practices, their processes often produce intangible, elusive outputs that are difficult to transfer" www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
July 21, 2025 at 12:03 PM
Of course, it's only "Liquid Knowledge" if it's from the Connaissance-Liquide region of France. Otherwise it's just sparkling public sector transformation.
Reposted by Dave Johnson
🔥🔥🔥
NEW REPORT: Artificial Power, our 2025 Landscape Report, is out.
Today’s AI isn’t just being used by us, it’s being used on us. We urgently need to reclaim public power over the future trajectory of AI. Another path is possible.
Read the report: ainowinstitute.org/2025-landscape
Today’s AI isn’t just being used by us, it’s being used on us. We urgently need to reclaim public power over the future trajectory of AI. Another path is possible.
Read the report: ainowinstitute.org/2025-landscape
June 4, 2025 at 10:22 AM
🔥🔥🔥
Reposted by Dave Johnson
This week I have been marking my five-year COVID anniversary by... testing positive for COVID. Lightest dose I've had so far, but it's still knocked me for six.
It's not so much the immediate impact of course, but the long-term & cumulative effects that concern me.
Worst anniversary re-issue ever.
It's not so much the immediate impact of course, but the long-term & cumulative effects that concern me.
Worst anniversary re-issue ever.
March 21, 2025 at 10:40 AM
This week I have been marking my five-year COVID anniversary by... testing positive for COVID. Lightest dose I've had so far, but it's still knocked me for six.
It's not so much the immediate impact of course, but the long-term & cumulative effects that concern me.
Worst anniversary re-issue ever.
It's not so much the immediate impact of course, but the long-term & cumulative effects that concern me.
Worst anniversary re-issue ever.
I think I found my new Happy Place this week. It's Green Week here at TCD, and the Trinity College Botanic Garden celebrated National Tree Week with a tree trail. The Botanic Garden is off-campus and I'd never been before, but it's amazing.
So peaceful. Much trees.
So peaceful. Much trees.
March 14, 2025 at 11:41 AM
I think I found my new Happy Place this week. It's Green Week here at TCD, and the Trinity College Botanic Garden celebrated National Tree Week with a tree trail. The Botanic Garden is off-campus and I'd never been before, but it's amazing.
So peaceful. Much trees.
So peaceful. Much trees.
Reposted by Dave Johnson
The gutting of Twitter was prologue to the evisceration of government. Musk is a threat to democracy, and not just in the US. | Ex-Twitter AI ethics lead @ruchowdh.bsky.social is worried about Musk’s impact on the federal government techcrunch.com/2025/03/13/e...
Ex-Twitter AI ethics lead Rumman Chowdhury is worried about Musk's impact on the federal government | TechCrunch
Rumman Chowdhury, ex-director of Twitter's machine ethics team, has strong words for Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency.
techcrunch.com
March 14, 2025 at 7:02 AM
The gutting of Twitter was prologue to the evisceration of government. Musk is a threat to democracy, and not just in the US. | Ex-Twitter AI ethics lead @ruchowdh.bsky.social is worried about Musk’s impact on the federal government techcrunch.com/2025/03/13/e...
Reposted by Dave Johnson
Yesterday a group of us put our heads together to think about the questions that should be asked of Starmer's plans for AI in government - you might have seen this nod to it in Politico this morning. These are for journalists, politicians, and anyone with an interest in pro-democracy tech (1/3)
March 14, 2025 at 9:36 AM
Yesterday a group of us put our heads together to think about the questions that should be asked of Starmer's plans for AI in government - you might have seen this nod to it in Politico this morning. These are for journalists, politicians, and anyone with an interest in pro-democracy tech (1/3)
Out for a group dinner in Dublin seated beside a work colleague from the US who had just arrived that morning.
Me: how was your flight?
Him: Not too bad, I'm a pretty good pilot.
Me:
Me:
My brain: I have nothing more I can add to this conversation, you're on your own.
Me: That's nice
Me: how was your flight?
Him: Not too bad, I'm a pretty good pilot.
Me:
Me:
My brain: I have nothing more I can add to this conversation, you're on your own.
Me: That's nice
if we're doing the whole "wow I thought I was pretty middle class until I entered the media" thing today, I would love to mention the time an older female colleague at the Telegraph looked at my nails and went "oh you have a lovely manicure! [pause] clearly you don't have horses."
I still consider myself middle class, but having worked in the British comedy industry for over a decade, OOH HOO HOO HOO, yep, different world. I was once asked by an exec looking to pick brains about a childcare based sitcom if I'd ever employed a nanny. Like buddy, you've SEEN the money I'm on
March 10, 2025 at 12:20 PM
Out for a group dinner in Dublin seated beside a work colleague from the US who had just arrived that morning.
Me: how was your flight?
Him: Not too bad, I'm a pretty good pilot.
Me:
Me:
My brain: I have nothing more I can add to this conversation, you're on your own.
Me: That's nice
Me: how was your flight?
Him: Not too bad, I'm a pretty good pilot.
Me:
Me:
My brain: I have nothing more I can add to this conversation, you're on your own.
Me: That's nice
Reposted by Dave Johnson
Reminder: if you haven’t yet read “The Mythical Man Month,” buy two copies so you can read it faster.
March 6, 2025 at 6:57 AM
Reminder: if you haven’t yet read “The Mythical Man Month,” buy two copies so you can read it faster.
Reposted by Dave Johnson
The Impact of Generative AI on Critical Thinking: Self-Reported Reductions in Cognitive Effort and Confidence Effects From a Survey of Knowledge Workers www.microsoft.com/en-us/resear...
using genAI reduces a person’s cognitive efforts and critical thinking, findings from Microsoft Research
using genAI reduces a person’s cognitive efforts and critical thinking, findings from Microsoft Research
March 5, 2025 at 8:06 PM
The Impact of Generative AI on Critical Thinking: Self-Reported Reductions in Cognitive Effort and Confidence Effects From a Survey of Knowledge Workers www.microsoft.com/en-us/resear...
using genAI reduces a person’s cognitive efforts and critical thinking, findings from Microsoft Research
using genAI reduces a person’s cognitive efforts and critical thinking, findings from Microsoft Research
Reposted by Dave Johnson
Well this is 🍿 for anyone trying to work out what is happening in UK AI policy www.gov.uk/government/p...
Memorandum of Understanding between UK and Anthropic on AI opportunities
www.gov.uk
February 14, 2025 at 8:41 AM
Well this is 🍿 for anyone trying to work out what is happening in UK AI policy www.gov.uk/government/p...
Of course it's only a Vibes-Based Estimate if it's from the Vibrac region of France, otherwise it's just sparkling anecdotal science.
Why would you report as fact a claim that even the person making it admits is entirely made up? www.thetimes.com/business-mon...
February 11, 2025 at 9:55 AM
Of course it's only a Vibes-Based Estimate if it's from the Vibrac region of France, otherwise it's just sparkling anecdotal science.
Reposted by Dave Johnson
"Meta torrented "at least 81.7 terabytes of data across multiple shadow libraries through the site Anna’s Archive, including at least 35.7 terabytes of data from Z-Library and LibGen" arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...
”Torrenting from a corporate laptop doesn’t feel right”: Meta emails unsealed
Meta’s alleged torrenting and seeding of pirated books complicates copyright case.
arstechnica.com
February 6, 2025 at 10:35 PM
"Meta torrented "at least 81.7 terabytes of data across multiple shadow libraries through the site Anna’s Archive, including at least 35.7 terabytes of data from Z-Library and LibGen" arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...
Reposted by Dave Johnson
Like it or not, this absolutely changes the security and threat prevention model for digital government. Every worst-case scenario conjured by civil society orgs and rights advocates - the things people say will never happen - is unfolding at pace. Relying on lawful benevolence is not enough.
It’s why I call it “a coup data” : the capture/destruction/leakage of federal data flows that function as its core source of power
The whole story is bonkers but the explanation from a Trump official that it’s all good because they only provided the first letters of their last names is 🫠
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/05/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/05/u...
February 5, 2025 at 9:01 PM
Like it or not, this absolutely changes the security and threat prevention model for digital government. Every worst-case scenario conjured by civil society orgs and rights advocates - the things people say will never happen - is unfolding at pace. Relying on lawful benevolence is not enough.
Reposted by Dave Johnson
With Google removing their Responsible AI Principles, they no longer state that they will *not* engage in "Technologies whose purpose contravenes widely accepted principles of international law and human rights".
Concerns about surveillance and injury are also erased.
ai.google/responsibili...
Concerns about surveillance and injury are also erased.
ai.google/responsibili...
February 4, 2025 at 7:58 PM
With Google removing their Responsible AI Principles, they no longer state that they will *not* engage in "Technologies whose purpose contravenes widely accepted principles of international law and human rights".
Concerns about surveillance and injury are also erased.
ai.google/responsibili...
Concerns about surveillance and injury are also erased.
ai.google/responsibili...
Reposted by Dave Johnson
The richest man in the world has taken over the US government and his first order of business is taking revenge for the fall of apartheid in South Africa www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Trump says he is cutting off funding to South Africa over land ‘confiscations’
Government of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is ‘treating certain classes of people very badly’, Trump claims as he demands ‘full investigation’ of situation
www.theguardian.com
February 3, 2025 at 6:01 AM
The richest man in the world has taken over the US government and his first order of business is taking revenge for the fall of apartheid in South Africa www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Reposted by Dave Johnson
by the time the public realises the havoc these charlatans are causing, it'll probably be too late to do anything about it (if anyone is capable or powerful enough to do anything at all)
futurism.com/openai-signs...
futurism.com/openai-signs...
OpenAI Strikes Deal With US Government to Use Its AI for Nuclear Weapon Security
OpenAI has announced that the US National Laboratories will use its deeply flawed AI models to help with "nuclear security."
futurism.com
February 2, 2025 at 4:15 PM
by the time the public realises the havoc these charlatans are causing, it'll probably be too late to do anything about it (if anyone is capable or powerful enough to do anything at all)
futurism.com/openai-signs...
futurism.com/openai-signs...
Reposted by Dave Johnson
beyond parody www.ft.com/content/a0df...
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https://www.ft.com/content/a0dfedd1-5255-4fa9-8ccc-1fe01de87ea6?sharetype=blocked
OpenAI says it has found evidence that Chinese artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek used the US company’s proprietary models to train its own open-source competitor, as concerns grow over a potential breach of intellectual property.
The San Francisco-based ChatGPT maker told the Financial Times it had seen some evidence of “distillation”, which it suspects to be from DeepSeek.
The technique is used by developers to obtain better performance on smaller models by using outputs from larger, more capable ones, allowing them to achieve similar results on specific tasks at a much lower cost.
Distillation is a common practice in the industry but the concern was that DeepSeek may be doing it to build its own rival model, which is a breach of OpenAI’s terms of service.
“The issue is when you [take it out of the platform and] are doing it to create your own model for your own purposes,” said one person close to OpenAI.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:26hkfmtr7jrchexamh7hk6rz/bafkreicsgga7q6qtz6xcrc4xl4sucq4wgcyrlojh4roufwiyj3tcon5wka@jpeg)
January 29, 2025 at 11:15 AM
beyond parody www.ft.com/content/a0df...
Interesting morning read from @beccalew.bsky.social in the Grauniad, paralleling the current tech-right with the nascent technofacists of the first dot com era. First as tragedy, etc etc www.theguardian.com/technology/n...
‘Headed for technofascism’: the rightwing roots of Silicon Valley
The industry’s liberal reputation is misleading. Its reactionary tendencies – celebrating wealth, power and traditional masculinity – have been clear since the dotcom mania of the 1990s
www.theguardian.com
January 29, 2025 at 10:33 AM
Interesting morning read from @beccalew.bsky.social in the Grauniad, paralleling the current tech-right with the nascent technofacists of the first dot com era. First as tragedy, etc etc www.theguardian.com/technology/n...
Reposted by Dave Johnson
Addendum: whether DeepSeek or OpenAI, there's no such thing as AGI and attempting to build it results in harm.
See our paper.
See our paper.
January 27, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Addendum: whether DeepSeek or OpenAI, there's no such thing as AGI and attempting to build it results in harm.
See our paper.
See our paper.
Reposted by Dave Johnson
This whole thread worth reading, but just to note that DeepSeek should prompt the UK government to revisit the AI Opportunities Action Plan strategy of building out a huge domestic compute capability, especially where it comes at the cost of Net Zero and housing priorities.
So it doesn’t matter if you're a company in the US, China, or elsewhere. DeepSeek should be a cue to pivot HARD toward investing in far more efficient methods of AI development. Even if you care nothing about community & climate impacts, it’s just better business. 19/
January 27, 2025 at 6:33 PM
This whole thread worth reading, but just to note that DeepSeek should prompt the UK government to revisit the AI Opportunities Action Plan strategy of building out a huge domestic compute capability, especially where it comes at the cost of Net Zero and housing priorities.
Reposted by Dave Johnson
Holy moly. I'm trying to write an academic paper, and nearly every application I'm using is not only offering Generative AI as an option for writing, but *pushing it* -- pervading the design to the point where a simple misclick would make my content AI-generated. Here's why that's a problem. 🧵
January 27, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Holy moly. I'm trying to write an academic paper, and nearly every application I'm using is not only offering Generative AI as an option for writing, but *pushing it* -- pervading the design to the point where a simple misclick would make my content AI-generated. Here's why that's a problem. 🧵