Make It Shitty

Dear Citizens,

We’ve been so busy protesting the invasive use of bad technology we’re a few days late on this edition! Courtesy of Real Media Great Britain, here’s what we’ve been up to:

Here’s what else to read, know and watch this week.

👏 ONE READ: Slow Clap for Claude 👏

Anthropic and CEO Dario Amodei were briefly cast as heroes for resisting pressure from the US military. But, as Robert Wright argues, Amodel is far from the hero we need:

Still, if you, like me, worry about the American military’s use of AI, I encourage you not to take Amodei as some kind of paragon of virtue. I also encourage you not to take Anthropic’s policy on the military use of its technology as the kind of thing that can save us from the horrors that an AI-empowered American military could inflict on the world.

👉 Read the whole piece here.

And the months-long feud is only getting uglier. Anthropic is now suing the Pentagon after the US Defense Department labelled the company a “supply chain risk”.

If you want the bigger picture, our latest explainer looks at how AI is already being folded into modern military campaigns after the Washington Post revealed Anthropic’s technology, in spite of it all, helped bomb Iran.

As we put it:

What we are witnessing may be the first full-scale artificial-intelligence war in history — the clearest expression yet of how the most powerful technologies of the twenty-first century are being folded into the machinery of violence.

👉 Bonus read: AI, like war, is another hyper-masculine fantasy of God-like power, says our founder Carole Cadwalladr. Seen through that lens: welcome to the manosphere’s first major conflict.

👉 Another read: Is it bad that the esteemed polymarket had to pull down a bet on whether we’d see a nuclear detonation in 2026? Though in marginally better betting news, meet the aide to Nigel Farage who lost $550,000 gambling on the Iran war.

💩 ONE WATCH: Make It Shitty 💩

Those wild Norwegians! Our friends from the North, specifically the Norwegian Consumer Council, have a report out called Breaking Free that shows how “Enshittification” affects both consumers and society at large, but also how to turn the tide. To promote the report, meet… the Enshittificator:

👉 Subscribe now.

❌ ONE ACTION: QuitGPT ❌

Though as mentioned, Claude may not be much better, you can still #CancelChatGPT after OpenAI’s partnership with the department of war. Here’s every reason why, from historian Ruter Bregman; and here’s every step how, from the aptly named campaign QuitGPT.

👉 Bonus action: Right now, a tiny handful of American tech companies are shaping the future of AI. I don’t know about you, but I don’t trust ‘em.

Pull the Plug agrees. They bring together juries of ordinary people (yes, you) every Wednesday at 7pm on Zoom to discuss the future of AI and how citizens can take back control. Sign up here.

That’s all for this week,
Team Citizens

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