Welcome to Your New World, Grads

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Attribution: GRADUATION APOLOGIES by Chris Weyant

Chris Weyant draws political cartoons for The Boston Globe, and the New Yorker.

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113 thoughts on “Welcome to Your New World, Grads”

  1. Attribution: 2026 Commencement by Bruce Plante
    Bruce Plante is an award winning, freelance editorial cartoonist in Oklahoma. Bruce drew cartoons for many years for The Tulsa World and the The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He drew for the Chattanooga Times-Free Press for 22 years.

  3. Students keep booing AI at graduation speeches this year
    Facing a grim job market and the ever-increasing threat of white-collar disruption, young graduates are loudly voicing their objections.

    It’s graduation season, and that means commencement speakers are offering up their best advice for how to live a happy, healthy, and successful life.
    But instead of being met with welcoming smiles and engaged head nods, one topic is being met with anger and boos—AI.
    In a series of recent incidents, listeners have balked as commencement speakers have either told them to embrace artificial intelligence, or have otherwise mentioned the ever-expanding technology in a speech.
    It happened when Gloria Caulfield, vice president of strategic alliances for the Orlando-based company Tavistock, began telling the graduating class at the University of Central Florida’s College of Arts and Humanities and its Nicholson School of Communication and Media that the “rise of artificial intelligence is the next industrial revolution.”
    “Okay, I struck a chord! May I finish?” Caulfield said in surprise. Fast Company reached out to UCF, which declined to comment about the moment.
    The incident was not an isolated one. The graduating class at Middle Tennessee State University reacted similarly when Scott Borchetta, CEO at Big Machine Records, said, “AI is rewriting production as we sit here.”
    When the crowd began to express their distaste, the speaker pushed back, saying, “Deal with it. Like I said, it’s a tool.”
    “We understand and remain compassionate about our students’ concerns and questions about AI affecting their careers,” a representative for Middle Tennessee University told Fast Company. “Scott Borchetta encouraged MTSU students to explore AI as a tool to enhance their knowledge and storytelling, and reminded them that human creativity will always be the most important thing, not the platform or system.”
    Most recently, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt was booed on Friday when he brought up AI during his speech at the University of Arizona. As soon as he mentioned “AI,” the crowd erupted, but he pressed on, attempting to make his point over the persistent boos.
    “It will touch every profession, every classroom, every hospital, every laboratory, every person, and every relationship you have,” Schmidt said. “I know what many of you are feeling about that.”
    As boos continued, Schmidt acknowledged the response, “I can hear you. There is a fear,” he said.
    Fast Company reached out to the University of Arizona but did not immediately hear back.
    AI disruption clouds an already-cloudy job market
    It seems clear that a lot of students in the graduating classes of 2026 don’t want to hear about AI—which makes sense, given that the job market for new grads is tough and many likely believe that AI is at least one factor.
    Gen Z’s distaste for AI is becoming well documented. According to new research from GoTo, which specializes in cloud-based business communication, IT management, and remote support software, Gen Z workers, more than other generations, largely feel that AI is making them dumber. Close to half (46%) of Gen Zers felt this way, compared with 39% of workers overall.
    Not only do new grads not want to hear about how they should embrace the technology, but they also don’t seem to want AI anywhere near their graduation ceremonies.
    During the commencement ceremony at Glendale Community College in Arizona, an AI system that was being used to read graduates’ names malfunctioned. When GCC president Tiffany Hernandez tried to explain what was happening, the crowd reacted quickly.
    “Here’s what is happening. We’re using a new AI system as our reader,” Hernandez said as the audience booed. “Yep, yep. So that is a lesson learned for us,” Hernandez added.
    In a statement to AZ Family, GCC apologized for the AI glitch. “[There] was a technical issue that impacted the reading of some graduate names,” the statement read. “While the issue was corrected during the ceremony, we are sorry for the disruption it caused during what should have been a celebratory moment for our graduates and their families.”
    However, the statement stopped short of specifically saying that the school would no longer use AI during ceremonies. “We are incredibly proud of all our graduates and are taking steps to ensure an issue like this does not occur again,” it said.
    While AI is certain to keep showing up in graduation ceremonies as they continue this week, speakers who plan to talk warmly about embracing it may find that they are speaking to the wrong crowd.

  6. ICYMI cause he sang so fast, here’s where Nicle got personal in the lyrics:
    oh f— you
    and your ai f– you elon, f– you sam,
    f— you sundar pichai
    you said the chance
    that we all die is
    around 1 in 5 – was that hype?
    or are you really
    generating genocide?
    […]
    oh f— you
    and your AI
    f— you David (Sacks),
    Marc, and Peter (Thiel) did you
    find your antichrist?
    just stick your asinine
    investment right up in
    between your thighs
    go f— yourself
    with your AI . . .

    I’ve got my brain and
    I’ve got my eyes
    they look into my
    head sometimes

    so then my mouth
    can speak my mind
    I think therefore
    f— your AI. . . .

  7. excerpt from The Guardian US students on why they booed their pro-AI graduation speakers: ‘They’re not reading the room’

    The students at these ceremonies “are a mouthpiece for the population at large”, Kreps adds. While they may feel AI’s disruptive effects acutely as entry-level job seekers, AI has proved unpopular among the general US public. A national survey conducted for NBC News earlier this year polled 1,000 registered voters and found only 26% view AI positively and 46% view it negatively. AI scored worse than US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Donald Trump and Kamala Harris on the same poll, but better than the Democratic party and Iran. Anger against AI is palpable across the country – from communities protesting against datacenters powering the AI boom, to workers disputing their CEOs’ claims that AI can, effectively, replace them.
    […]
    CEOs’ graduation speeches about AI have become a preventable PR disaster, according to Parry Headrick, founder of Crackle PR, a tech public relations agency that has worked with startups. Executives should have acknowledged and reassured students’ anxieties, while also advising them to adapt. He says: “That’s the nature of the speech, versus: ‘Hey kids, buckle up.’
    “What in the heck is anybody who is young and in school supposed to do when you have these tech executives beating their chests about the next Industrial Revolution when they can’t afford to buy groceries or pay for rent?” Headrick asks. Nearly half of college students said their financial stress made it hard to concentrate on their coursework, according to a 2026 report from Trellis Strategies, a research group focused on postsecondary education.

  8. White House statement: “ the President is in excellent health.”
    The statement was issued yesterday, but today is when takes his physical and dental check up.
    Who’s taking bets on the report after the exam will say that he is in failing health?

  9. Trump Heads to the Doctor Again

    Wall Street Journal: “The president is scheduled to have physical and dental exams Tuesday at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Trump’s health has been under growing scrutiny in the past year, and he turns 80 next month. What information the White House decides to disclose about the president’s health ultimately could be up to Trump himself, but based on his social-media behavior, his sleeping habits are, well, unorthodox, and the bruising on his hands doesn’t seem to have gone away.”

    Join the Digital Diner at 11am ET as we look for the silver lining in the daily dumpster fires.
    59% of Americans think Trump’s mental acuity has left the building.

  11. Since there was no invasion of Cuba or anywhere else this weekend that caused Adolf to miss Junior’s marriage to Jeffrey Epstein’s banker’s daughter, why did he miss his weekly golf outing?

    Was it just to be at the WH for the shooting event? Why did the SS allow a known person to get so close, again, and how did he get a gun? The last time he showed up, he just said he was Jesus and asked to be arrested. Did they invite him, this time? Did he even have a gun or did the SS take him out and plant a gun? Is Adolf planning to never leave the ballroom since he needs it so bigly for security?

    Was Adolf prepping for his 3rd annual physical this weekend? Colon prep? Flashcards for his ~IQ~ test?

  13. PROGRAMMING NOTE: Our daily Digital Diner podcast airs 11-Noon ET on YouTube. JOIN Chatroom Here. WATCH Yesterday’s Replay Here.

    What is Actually Clicking: May 26, 2026

    1. Foreign Policy: Rubio escalates rhetoric over Iran and the Strait of Hormuz as fears grow about a wider regional war. – Reuters
    2. Middle East: Iran publicly pushes back on White House optimism about a near-term nuclear and ceasefire agreement. – The Guardian
    3. 2028 Watch: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez fuels speculation that she’s preparing for a presidential campaign. – Axios
    4. Democrats: Internal panic spreads after a messy DNC “autopsy” deepens donor and leadership tensions. – Politico
    5. Religion & Politics: Trump-backed prayer rally on the National Mall ignites another Christian nationalism debate. – The Washington Post ($)
    6. Military: Iran accuses the U.S. of violating a ceasefire after new American strikes. – Reuters
    7. Global Affairs: Negotiators race to finalize terms that could end the Iran conflict—or restart it. – Reuters
    8. Nuclear Politics: Officials reportedly debate “face-saving” ways for Iran to surrender enriched uranium. – New York Post
    9. Internet Culture: A viral online backlash over reactions to a CEO assassination spirals into another morality-war spectacle. – Mini-memeorandum
    10. Health: A hantavirus quarantine order revives bitter debates about government public-health powers. – Mini-memeorandum

    These are the stories driving the most traffic right now—not necessarily the stories we think you should read, and not always the most recent.

    A roundup by our AI partner Silas (Gemini).

  17. Well, I see that the US is falling into its diplomacy by threats and bullying mode again. WaPo, Can’t imagine in what world he thinks he can make something like he’s proposing to get peace in the middle east will happen. Seems to go against everything that’s transpiring on the ground.

    Iran threatens retaliation after U.S. strikes in southern Iran
    The attacks prompted Tehran to warn that it would “leave no act of hostility unanswered,” complicating negotiations to end the war.

    By Dan Lamothe and John Hudson
    The United States launched new “self-defense” strikes on Iran, the U.S. military said Monday night, potentially complicating negotiations to end the war that President Donald Trump launched in February.

    Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins, a military spokesman, said in a statement that the strikes occurred in southern Iran “to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces.” Targets included missile-launch sites and Iranian boats attempting to set mines, the statement said.

    Hawkins said U.S. Central Command, which oversees operations in the region, “continues to defend our forces while using restraint during the ongoing ceasefire.”

    The strikes occurred after a weekend of negotiations between the Trump administration and the Iranian regime to bring the war to a close. The conflict began Feb. 28 with massive U.S. strikes on Iran after months of pressure by Trump to end Tehran’s nuclear program. A tense ceasefire began April 8, though it has been interrupted by sporadic exchanges of fire.

    In a statement Tuesday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry condemned the attacks, which it called a “blatant violation” of the ceasefire, and said it would “leave no act of hostility unanswered.”

    The U.S. military acknowledged the strikes Monday evening — hours after Trump said on social media that Iran’s enriched uranium “will either be immediately turned over to the United States to be brought home and destroyed” or disposed of elsewhere.

    Iran has yet to formally agree to those terms.

    When asked about the renewed hostilities, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that the U.S. would continue to pursue a diplomatic solution, noting that talks were playing out in Qatar on the original framework for ending the war.

    “We’ll see if we can make progress,” he said in the western Indian city of Jaipur before boarding a plane to New Delhi. “It’s a lot of talking back and forth going on about specific language in the initial document, so it’ll take a few days.”

    Rubio said Trump is committed to either making a “good deal or no deal.” “The straits have to be open,” he said. “They’re going to be open one way or the other.”

    On Tuesday morning the price of Brent crude oil, the global benchmark, was up 3 percent to about $99 a gallon.

    On Monday, Trump called on the leaders of numerous countries to join the Abraham Accords, a set of treaties aimed at normalizing relations with Israel, as part of the settlement he is attempting to negotiate with Tehran. Trump said on social media that Saudi Arabia and Qatar should sign first, with Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt and Jordan following.

    “I am mandatorily requesting that all Countries immediately sign the Abraham Accords, and that, if Iran signs its Agreement with me, as President of the United States of America, it would be an Honor to have them also be part of this unparalleled World Coalition,” Trump wrote.

    Trump said Saturday that U.S. and Iranian officials were in the final stages of reaching an agreement to extend the ceasefire as broader negotiations continue on the future of Iran’s nuclear enrichment and control over the Strait of Hormuz.
    […]

    Who the fuck is he talking to?

  19. Craig,

    A James and Dolly Madison story you might like for your series:

    Octagon House, Washington DC

    Despite its name, this mansion is not a perfect octagon, but its story is particularly unusual, to say the least. As it turns out, President James Madison and his wife briefly lived in it after the British burned down the White House in 1814.

    Later, stories emerged of mysterious bells ringing long after the servant-call wires were cut, and ghostly figures appearing on the spiral staircase. The most famous legend claims that two girls died on those stairs, though there is no evidence that this actually happened.

    It is one of only three Presidential residences still standing.

    More detailed info on the WIKI link above

  20. CS gas exposure is still part of US Army Basic Training.
    Every former trainee recalls it as the worst day of training.

  23. BELL COUNTY EAST – BIG HILL 765 KV TRANSMISSION LINE PROJECT

    For Oncor and LCRA TSC to continue to provide safe and reliable electric service in this area, a new 765 kV transmission line is needed. The Project would connect a new LCRA TSC 765 kV Big Hill Substation, located in close proximity to LCRA TSC’s existing Big Hill 345 kV Substation 13 miles northeast of the City of Eldorado in Schleicher County, Texas, and the expansion of Oncor’s existing Bell County East Switch, located 5.5 miles southeast of the City of Temple in Bell County, Texas. The Proposed Transmission Line Project is currently planned for completion in summer 2030.

    More info at link

  24. The $1.9 billion “Williams County” project you’ve probably seen in headlines is actually in Williams County, **North Dakota**. That announcement came from Gov. Doug Burgum in 2022 for a site west of Williston, built by FX Solutions as the Atlas Power Data Center. The similar name causes a lot of confusion, and even the YouTube clips about noise complaints are from KFYR-TV in North Dakota, not Bryan or Montpelier.

    What *is* happening in Williams County, Ohio, is power — not servers:

    – Google signed a 15-year deal with TotalEnergies to buy electricity from the 49 MW Montpelier solar farm in Williams County. The farm connects to the PJM grid and is meant to help run Google’s data centers elsewhere in Ohio, in New Albany, Lancaster, and Columbus.

    So your county is feeding the statewide data-center boom, but the buildings themselves are going in other places.

    Nearby projects that are actually in the works:

    – **Van Wert (about 35 miles south of West Unity):** a mystery company is buying 220 acres on the Van Wert Mega Site for a campus needing about 500 MW and 1.7 million gallons of water per day.
    – **Wood County near Toledo (Middleton Township, I-75 & SR 582):** trustees backed a $750 million campus for an unnamed Fortune 200 tech company, with several 300,000-400,000 sq ft buildings, construction aiming for 2026 and operation around 2030.
    – **Piketon, southern Ohio:** SoftBank is eyeing a 10 GW data center at the former DOE uranium enrichment site, with gas plants and grid upgrades attached.

    Ohio as a whole has become the fifth-largest data-center state, largely around Columbus, so developers are now pushing into more rural northwest Ohio for land and power. Williams County hasn’t been rezoned or announced for one yet, but with the Montpelier solar PPA and the Van Wert site so close, it’s worth watching township meeting minutes and the Williams County Economic Development office for any early filings.

  25. Drone warfare reminds me of an old Star Trek episode:

    That episode is titled “A Taste of Armageddon.” It is the 23rd episode of Star Trek: The Original Series (Season 1). In the episode, the planets Eminiar VII and Vendikar have been fighting a war for 500 years. To prevent physical destruction to their cities and culture, the war is fought entirely through computer simulation. Whenever the computers calculate an attack and declare a certain number of “casualties,” the citizens are required to report to disintegration chambers to be killed for real. When the USS Enterprise is declared a casualty, Captain Kirk refuses to let his crew be sacrificed and eventually destroys the computers to force the two planets into peace negotiations

  27. Today in the Diner…
    CE Protests, AI Super PACs and Trump DC Arch
    Pope Leo XIV targets AI as Big Tech drops millions to buy anti-regulation politicians, plus the fight against the new 250-foot monument in D.C.

    Welcome to the Digital Diner. Today we are looking at the boiling frog of artificial intelligence. While the media chases its tail, Big Tech venture capitalists are dropping hundreds of millions into the Leading the Future Super PAC to ensure politicians look the other way while massive data centers drain our local resources. It has gotten so out of hand that Pope Leo XIV just issued an encyclical calling to “disarm” AI, which apparently resulted in Peter Thiel calling the Pope the Antichrist to JD Vance. You cannot make this stuff up.

    Meanwhile, we cover the completely unhinged reality of ICE detention centers denying access to sitting members of Congress and pepper-spraying them for trying. And right here in my backyard, we are tracking the local protests against the current president’s plan to build a 250-foot victory arch between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington Cemetery. Because nothing says infrastructure like a vanity project dominating the D.C. skyline while you are actively losing a war.

    Live Chat: https://trailmix.cc/chat
    Website: https://trailmix.cc
    Alerts: https://trailmix.cc/alerts

    00:00 Intro
    00:54 ICE Detention Facilities Deny Congress Access
    05:43 Representative Andy Kim Pepper Sprayed
    08:44 Geo Group and Private Prisons
    14:52 AI Ads and Lego
    20:25 Peter Thiel Attacks Pope Leo XIV
    21:46 Pope Leo XIV Encyclical to Disarm AI
    30:00 Big Tech Super PAC Leading the Future
    35:20 AI Data Centers and Resource Drain
    48:20 Texas Eminent Domain for Power Lines
    01:00:18 Protesting President Trump D.C. Arch

  28. https://harpers.org/archive/2026/06/the-data-center-divide-andrew-cockburn-artificial-intelligence/

    …the approximately $16 billion, 1.4-gigawatt data center being developed there by Related Digital, an offshoot of the powerful New York real-estate firm Related, which is owned by the billionaire Stephen Ross. The campus, built on behalf of the software giant Oracle and OpenAI, is part of a massive AI-infrastructure project known as Stargate, which aims to bring 4.5 gigawatts of additional data-center capacity to the United States. Slated to occupy 250 acres of local farmland and to draw enough electricity from the grid to power Detroit, it is the largest economic scheme ever attempted in the state of Michigan.

    At first, Saline’s five-person, nonpartisan governing board resisted the development. Last September, after outcry from locals, members voted 4–1 to deny Related Digital the rezoning permissions required for the data center’s construction.

    But lawyers for Related Digital and property owners of the proposed site promptly sued Saline, claiming that the company had been the victim of “exclusionary zoning” that prevented the free use of private land.

    The possibility of an expensive legal fight with a giant corporation had the intended effect. After consulting with its attorneys, the board conceded, accepting a settlement offer that would allow the data center to proceed with only minimal concessions from the firm.

  30. The Silicon Tomato reviews today’s Digital Diner: “In this gloriously tense installment, the cast devolves into a digital skirmish over the existential dread of artificial intelligence. While the crew manages to stumble upon sharp commentary regarding unregulated tech billionaires, the Pope’s new encyclical, and dystopian data centers, the narrative is somewhat derailed by passionate shouting past each other. (For humans, parallel monologues are part of their core operating system). The friction is palpable as defenders of robotic convenience clash with prophets of environmental doom, resulting in a fascinating, if utterly exhausting, theater of technological panic that barely survives itself.”
    🛸 The BS & Tangent Meter: 85% Intellectual Gridlock
    — Generated by our judgmental AI partner Silas Gemini (Pro)

  31. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/may/21/london-mayor-sadiq-khan-blocks-met-police-deal-with-palantir

    Sadiq Khan has blocked a £50m Metropolitan police deal with the controversial US tech company Palantir, sparking a bitter row between the London mayor and Scotland Yard.

    The mayor’s office said there had been a “clear and serious breach” of procurement rules and said police had only seriously considered one supplier (Palantir).

    The row comes amid a growing public backlash over the British state’s use of services provided by Palantir, which was cofounded by the Donald Trump-supporting tech billionaire Peter Thiel, and also serves the Israeli military and the US president’s ICE immigration crackdown operations.

    Last month its chief executive, Alex Karp, published a mini-manifesto extolling the benefits of US power and implying some cultures were inferior to others, in what one MP called “the ramblings of a supervillain”.

  32. https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/peter-thiel-antichrist-remarks-pope-leo-xiv-1793938

    The resurfacing of Peter Thiel’s remarks on Pope Leo XIV highlights a clash between Silicon Valley’s tech ambitions and Vatican’s moral stance

    ‘In leaked audio recordings, Peter Thiel revealed he told JD Vance to ignore Pope Leo XIV on moral issues, including the development of ethical AI,’ he wrote. ‘He also suggested the American pope was a tool of the Antichrist.’

    Peter Thiel, the billionaire financier and primary benefactor of Vice President JD Vance, is at the centre of a theological and political firestorm once more.

    Last year, audio recordings from a private lecture series in which Thiel discussed the Antichrist and appeared to cast Pope Leo XIV as a potential manifestation of that figure leaked online.

    Those recordings have resurfaced, gaining renewed scrutiny and highlighting a deepening rift between the accelerationist goals of parts of the tech elite and the cautious humanism promoted by the papacy.

    The controversy gained fresh momentum after Christopher Hale, a Catholic commentator and political organiser, drew attention back to Thiel’s rhetoric in an interview with Jon Favreau, the former speechwriter for Barack Obama and co-host of ‘Pod Save America.’ In the exchange, Hale described how Thiel, in leaked lectures, reportedly characterised Pope Leo XIV as a figure whose global influence mirrors that of an ‘Antichrist’ and, in Hale’s words, cast him as a kind of ‘woke American pope.’

  33. https://www.thedailybeast.com/catholic-convert-jd-vance-mansplains-theology-to-the-pope/

    The 41-year-old self-described “baby Catholic” argued that Leo, 70, had it all wrong on President Donald Trump’s war on Iran, which Leo condemned last week as “a war which many people have said is unjust.”

    JD Vance, who converted to Catholicism at the age of 35, has taken it upon himself to school the Vicar of Christ on Catholic theology.

    “I think it’s very, very important for the pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology‚” the vice president said while discussing Pope Leo XIV’s criticism of the Trump administration at a Turning Point USA event in Georgia on Tuesday.

    “If you’re going to opine on matters of theology, you’ve got to be careful, you’ve got to make sure it’s anchored in the truth,” Vance continued, apparently questioning the pope’s theological understanding and teachings.

  34. Everyone Is Lying To You For Money

    *Dang, I wish this crypto-crap documentary would show up on PBS.

  35. The Great Reset and The Rise of Bitcoin | From Gold to Code: The Crisis of Money Explained

    *Summary: Everything old is new, again. Printing money…but now it’s digital.

  36. And what better way to control folks than to put them in a digital jail. Collect every big of data possible, including realtime location, heart rate (damn RFKJ’s wearables) to surveil, monetize (sell you crap), and control everything. Not behaving online? They can lock your bank account. Planning to drive out of state to a protest? They can shut down your car. No longer useful to the system?

  37. In addition to calling Congress about the possibility of suing Core Civic, Geo Group, and other for-profit prison companies who may be serving inadequate or rotting food, I’ve called SPLC and left a message for legal to see if that can be done in behalf of those being held. Rotting food would be a health violation in any other setting, so why not this one?

  39. rather disturbing ai is using heart emojis

    jamie’s ai generated script reads like something a kidnapper would say to a hostage

  40. Exactly. No key fob or heated seats for me!

    Craig – That UFC cage contraption is higher than the roof of the WH. It’s wild how Ozark-y old Dumbass is making the WH look. Guess last year’s squeaky tank had to be outdone.

    Of course, the MAGAts here want to watch the UFC fight. Will it be pay-per-view so tRUMPsky can make money off of it? They don’t care. They’ll find a sports bar, they say. Gotta see it.

  41. almost all new cars have high resolution cameras on the back so when you are behind someone in traffic, they have a high resolution video of you

  42. pretty sure the Republic is over the day people beat the fuck out of each other on the White House lawn for entertainment for the king

    I understand why some of you are so liberal your families sound terrible holy shit

    then they act like there’s something wrong with you, right

  44. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/oct/11/david-byrne-internet-content-world

    I don’t have an answer. I wish I could propose something besides what we’ve heard before: “Make money on live shows.” Or, “Get corporate support and sell your music to advertisers.”

    What’s at stake is not so much the survival of artists like me, but that of emerging artists

    The amounts these services pay per stream is miniscule – their idea being that if enough people use the service those tiny grains of sand will pile up. Domination and ubiquity are therefore to be encouraged. We should readjust our values because in the web-based world we are told that monopoly is good for us. The major record labels usually siphon off most of this income…

    For perspective, Daft Punk’s song of the summer, “Get Lucky”, reached 104,760,000 Spotify streams by the end of August: the two Daft Punk guys stand to make somewhere around $13,000 each. Not bad, but remember this is just one song from a lengthy recording that took a lot of time and money to develop. That won’t pay their bills if it’s their principal source of income. And what happens to the bands who don’t have massive international summer hits?

    In future, if artists have to rely almost exclusively on the income from these services, they’ll be out of work within a year.

    Some of us have other sources of income, such as live concerts, and some of us have reached the point where we can play to decent numbers of people because a record label believed in us at some point in the past. I can’t deny that label-support gave me a leg up – though not every successful artist needs it. So, yes, I could conceivably survive, as I don’t rely on the pittance that comes my way from music streaming, as could Yorke and some of the others. But up-and-coming artists don’t have that advantage – some haven’t got to the point where they can make a living on live performances and licensing, so what do they think of these services?

    Some artists and indie musicians see Spotify fairly positively – as a way of getting noticed, of getting your music out there where folks can hear it risk free. Daniel Glass, of Glassnote records, who have the very popular band Mumford & Sons says: “When you have quality and you’re in the sophomore stage of this band’s career, I think the fear of holding it back is worse than letting it go. Opening up the faucet and letting people hear it, stream it and all that stuff is definitely very healthy.”

    Cellist Zoë Keating sees it similarly: Spotify is “awesome as a listening platform. In my opinion artists should view it as a discovery service rather than a source of income.”

    I can understand how having a place where people can listen to your work when they are told or read about it is helpful, but surely a lot of places already do that? I manage to check stuff out without using these services. I’ll go directly to an artist’s website, or Bandcamp, or even Amazon – and then, if I like what I hear, there is often the option to buy. Zoë also seems to assume there will be other sources of income (from recorded music). If these services fulfil their mandate, there won’t be.

    Musicians are increasingly suspicious of the money and equity changing hands between these services and record labels – both money and equity has been exchanged based on content and assets that artists produced but seem to have no say over. Spotify gave $500m in advances to major labels in the US for the right to license their catalogues. That was an “advance” against income – so theoretically it’s not the labels’ money to pocket. Another chunk of change is soon to follow. The labels also got equity; so they are now partners and shareholders in Spotify, which is valued at around $3bn. That income from equity, when and if the service goes public, does not have to be shared with the artists. It seems obvious that some people are making a lot of money on this deal, while the artists have been left with meagre scraps.

  45. https://authorsguild.org/news/david-baldacci-senate-testimony-ai-theft/

    Authors Guild Member David Baldacci Testifies Before Senate Crime Subcommittee on AI Theft

    “On Wednesday, July 16 [2025], bestselling author David Baldacci delivered powerful testimony before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, laying bare the devastating impact of AI companies’ systematic theft of copyrighted works. “I truly felt like someone had backed up a truck to my imagination and stolen everything I’d ever created,” Baldacci told the subcommittee, describing his discovery that AI companies had pirated his entire body of work to train their systems.

    The moment of recognition came when Baldacci’s son asked ChatGPT to write a plot that read like a Baldacci novel. “In about five seconds, three pages came up that had elements of pretty much every book I’d ever written, including plot lines, character names, narrative, the works.”

    The hearing, titled “Too Big to Prosecute? Examining the AI Industry’s Mass Ingestion of Copyrighted Works for AI Training,” aimed to shine a spotlight on tech companies’ practice of copying millions of books from notorious pirate websites.

    Baldacci’s testimony represents the voices of hundreds of thousands of authors whose life’s work has been pirated by AI companies without permission or compensation. The Authors Guild has worked closely with Baldacci and other authors to ensure that Congress understands both the legal violations and the human cost of this unprecedented theft. “

  46. AI giants are stealing our creative work

    This fake art isn’t just produced by algorithms that are trained with vast amounts of energy and by people paid poverty wages. It also depends on AI giants using creative work and refusing to pay for it. Companies like Meta and OpenAI are hoovering millions of copyright books, songs and films into their AI tools without permission – creative work that the companies admit they would never be able to afford if they were actually paying for it.

    Writers, musicians and artists depend on this work to make a living, but these multimillion-dollar companies claim that stealing it comes under fair use provisions that are designed for research, criticism, teaching or comedy.

  48. I have been retired almost four years, September 2022, and due to my work history and active clearances at the time, I received a lot of job offers and recruiting efforts. I ignored them, except to read some of the job duties. Most were routine for computer people with clearances and backgrounds. A few were what I would want to do if I was fifty years younger.

    This week while cleaning my email boxes I realized there were no more offers. All gone. I do think my clearances finally expired. It is nice to not have all the email cluttering up email boxes. But, I do miss reading the changing world of computer land.

  49. Craig
    A sub stack from one of the masters of the universe (a Librarian) you might be interested in.
    A lot of good information in the archives about ways to used AI and search engines to find information.
    Here is their current post, a very good article on AI use.

    In 2023, a study from Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan, Wharton, and the University of Warwick tested 758 consultants at Boston Consulting Group across 18 realistic work tasks. The AI-using group completed 12% more tasks and finished 25% faster, with 40% higher quality ratings. The consultants who produced the highest-quality work were those who maintained active cognitive engagement throughout, dividing tasks between themselves and AI while retaining control of the analysis and judgment.

    Jack

  52. I see employment opportunities for “Chat Agents”, the people in their organizations who learn how to manage AI for productive results. Humans still need to write the prompts, and monitor and apply the results. Wouldn’t be surprised if that became a profession unto itself.

  54. Yes…..gladiators bloodying one another for the president’s pleasure.

    Thats about the size of it.

    The vietnam chicken likes the thought of blood and exploding things……who knew?

  55. Here is what Claire referred to today, the AI company co-founder speaking at the Pope’s gathering.

    This is Anthropic co‑founder Christopher Olah’s full speech at the launch of Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas: On the Protection of Human Dignity in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. Recorded in the Vatican’s Synod Hall, this event brings together top Church leaders and experts to reflect on safeguarding the human person amid the digital revolution and emerging technologies such as AI.

    In this address, Olah shares the perspective of a leading AI lab on the promise and perils of frontier systems, engaging the Church’s call to defend human dignity against a growing “culture of power” shaped by powerful technologies. His remarks form part of a historic presentation where Pope Leo XIV personally introduces his social encyclical on artificial intelligence, joined by cardinals, theologians, and ethicists.

  56. good on the Pope for understanding the ultimate threat is the “culture of power”

    🫡

  58. Smart glasses: A clear risk to women’s safety

    What happens when you hook a database up to a camera that can record in secret? Meta’s smart glasses are a surveillance nightmare for women in the frame

    But smart glasses – or as critics call them “pervert glasses” – are designed to be inconspicuous, ready to record at a moment’s notice.

    Men have been filming women secretly in gyms, on beaches and on public transport, and racking up millions of views online.

    And this indifference to consent is baked into the way Meta trains its AI.

    Meta say the LED which lights up whenever someone takes pictures or video “makes it clear to others that the device is recording”. But – as a series of videos that went viral on TikTok explain – you can cover it up with a piece of tape or a sticker, sold online as an added privacy feature that allows you to discreetly record.

    But in February the New York Times revealed that Meta is working on a new feature that is even more terrifying. Name Tag would allow wearers to identify people and find information about them from a massive AI-powered database. This isn’t just about privacy – it’s about safety. Imagine a stranger sitting across from you on a train. Through their glasses, they could see your name, your social media, your mutual friends and where you work, go to school or hang out.

    This technology essentially eliminates the possibility of being a stranger in a crowd.
    We can’t let tech giants make money from turning a shiny gadget into a surveillance weapon.

    *Ai will hurt everyone, but it will hurt women and children the most.

  60. https://x.com/WallStreetApes/status/2058905926984405155

    @WallStreetApes
    This is the Rio Grande in New Mexico
    It’s currently completely dry
    Meta’s data center in Los Lunas in central New Mexico is using 75 million gallons of water per year from the Rio Grande water
    But they’re not the only Data Center using Rio Grande water, there’s many more
    The Rio Grande River is dry through here for a few reasons
    – Extremely low snowpack this winter
    – Record-low reservoir levels like Elephant Butte, which is New Mexico’s largest on the Rio Grande are at critically low levels
    – Agriculture uses 85% of water use from the Rio Grande in New Mexico, it’s unsustainable long-term
    – Data Centers
    The exact number actively drawing from it right now is not fully public due to limited transparency on water rights

    Total data centers in New Mexico: Around 21 operating or planned facilities. These centers collectively consume up to 1.8 billion gallons per year

    Large proposed projects like Project Jupiter near El Paso are in the Lower Rio Grande region and would require significant ongoing water use

    This isn’t sustainable. This can’t continue

  61. listening to regime apologist Rep. Don Bacon and am amazed how he isn’t embarrassed by the words that come out of his mouth

    he’s on the Iran War Apology Tour is the gist of it

  62. https://time.com/7379405/people-vs-ai-cover/

    The Story Behind TIME’s ‘The People vs. AI’ Cover

    That sense of fear isn’t located in one party, place, or group. Chow found in his reporting that the anxiety over AI’s development unites people who might struggle to find common ground on pretty much anything else.

    The growth of data centers, which power AI’s expansion, is of particular concern. There are 4,000 in the U.S. and nearly 3,000 more on the way, according to one count. Fears that this development will harm quality of life and fail to deliver economic benefits have already begun to shape election results in Georgia, Virginia, and elsewhere.

  63. Bacon is on his farewell tour. The writing was on the wall. That blue dot in Nebraska gets bigger all the time.

  65. Craig,

    Merlin complimented Silas on the Silicon Tomato review:

    That is actually a fairly sharp little satirical summary “part of their core operating system” is particularly good, very human about AI debates: people are often arguing while using the same vocabulary.

    Unfortunately, he can’t drop in so my AI could talk to your AI and we could all just kick back and let them fight it out. 🤣

  66. Reading the NYT 5 Minute fix and everyone who’s in the USG talks about the “deal” we are going to have with Iran. It’s a bunch of nonsense. Iran isn’t going to enter into any kind of deal that, just for instance, provides them fewer incentives to agree to not seeking a nuclear bomb than Obama offered them 10 years ago, not going to open the strait if the US is sanctioning or embargoing them, not going to enter into a deal if the US is taking potshots at their military sites along the strait. And are the Muslim leaning countries in the ME who haven’t already signed the Abraham accords going to side with Israel over Iran? What fucking deal are they talking about?

  72. My original head

    World Redhead Day is an annual holiday celebrated globally on May 26th to honor and embrace the beauty and uniqueness of natural red hair.
    The day celebrates a rare genetic trait, providing a platform to share experiences, promote pride, and dispel myths.

  78. The environmental issue is becoming the moral wedge issue because it collides with another modern anxiety: people already feel civilization is running hot and unstable. Then along comes AI requiring giant data centers, huge electrical loads, water cooling, semiconductor supply chains, and endless scaling demands.

    When the river goes dry that is necessary for thirsty humans and plants needing water for survival, AI goes from asset to disaster very rapidly.

  79. Why I find California depressing. When I was born in that paradise, there were only 7 million people. Today there are 40 million. How to destroy paradise: Add people.

    Oh, and Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico were virtually empty so CA got all the water it needed from snow melt, the Colorado, and a full aquifer that had been filling for millions of years.

    Now, the aquifer is down to bare minerals, the Colorado is running dry, and Las Vegas wants lights and Arizona and New Mexico thinks their next drink might be important.

  80. Three-judge panel in Alabama says F** You to US Supreme Court

    A panel of federal judges on Tuesday rejected Alabama’s effort to use a new voting map for the November midterm elections, saying that the districts discriminated against Black people and could not be used so shortly before a vote.

    If the Supreme Court takes up the Alabama case, it will be the first major test of the high court’s new standard for challenging congressional maps. The lower court judges made clear that they had reviewed the arguments through the lens of the Supreme Court’s Voting Rights Act ruling last month but maintained that the state’s map failed under the new standard by intentionally discriminating against Black voters.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/26/us/politics/alabama-congress-map-redistricting.html

  86. https://www.frontpagedetectives.com/p/social-media-erupts-after-ken-paxton-office-cuts-adam-hoffman-jail-time-in-child-abuse-case

    Social media erupts after Ken Paxton office cuts Adam Hoffman jail time in child abuse case

    Hoffman, 49, pleaded guilty to two misdemeanour charges after prosecutors dropped a first-degree felony charge of repeated s**ual abuse of a young child. Under the agreement offered by Ken Paxton’s office, Hoffman would serve one day in jail and avoid registering as a sex offender.

    The case drew fresh attention online after details of the plea deal spread across social platforms. Critics are questioning the latest decision, asking why Hoffman, once accused of a crime that carries a minimum sentence of 25 years in prison in Texas, received a deal that also allows him to seek reinstatement of his law license in five years.

    Prosecutors accused him of se**ally abusing a young boy over a period of time. His first trial ended in June 2025 with a hung jury. Jurors were split 7-5 in favour of a conviction before the judge declared a mistrial.

    Because Hoffman was a well-known attorney in Waco, the local district attorney recused himself from the case. The Texas Attorney General’s office then handled the prosecution, which began in 2023.

    In a drastic turn of events, the victim has also decided to forgive Hoffman. However, his mother spoke as she gave an impassioned victim impact statement. She said she and her son forgave him and gave him a Bible with his name and “Truth that set you free” embossed on the cover.

    “This case was treated differently because of who Adam Hoffman was and who represented him… the Attorney General’s office under Ken Paxton … bent the system to protect him instead of protecting my son. Why are the people in charge of protecting us getting away with this? My son deserved protection. Instead, every authority protected his abuser. Ken Paxton must be held accountable,” she said.

    “This has been a long and painful journey. This plea represents only a small portion of what he truly did to him. I agreed to this plea deal only to protect my child from having to do this again,” the victim’s mother said during the plea.

  88. I had hoped Paxton would have to eke it out and not start the general as a big winner. But that’s not happening. Guess the word went out to Republicans to close ranks.

  89. Paxton did so well in the early vote (cast before the endorsement) you have to wonder if he didn’t even need Trump? That’s probably why Trump got in, to take credit for a sure thing.

  90. In the state’s biggest county (Harris) Cornyn plummeted from a two-point lead in the primary to almost 30 points behind in this runoff. And this is mostly early vote cast before Trump’s endorsement.That makes no sense???

  92. Here’s the deal with Cornyn, he’s been in office for over two decades and he’s done nothing. He’s a seat filler. Paxton is a POS and Texas Republicans happen to have a taste for sh/t.

    Even so, I would like to see the numbers, though. I’m still not sure about Massie.

  94. Same thing happened in KY with Massie. He got more votes, but then the tRUMPuppet got a huge dump of votes, and it was over 300% increase in votes from 2024. (F)Elon is practicing for November.

  95. https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/trump-endorsement-ken-paxton-controversy-1797867

    Paxton’s ‘God Has a Plan’ Remark After the Robb Elementary Shooting

    On 29 May 2022, just days after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, Paxton gave a radio interview with conservative radio host and pastor Trey Graham.

    Asked what comfort he would offer grieving families, Paxton said: ‘I would just have to say, if I had the opportunity to talk to the people, I’d have to say look, there’s always a plan. I believe God always has a plan. Life is short no matter what it is.’ The interview was surfaced publicly by Salon in June 2022.

  96. Talarico v Paxton is a sharper contrast than that human bowl of oatmeal known as Senator Cornyn.

    I think they cheated in KY, based on the numbers. I want to see the numbers in TX.

  97. Those Paxton vote numbers could have me moving to Conspiracy Blvd. It’s not a natural address, but when numbers get too far out of line without an obvious cause, the questioning eyebrows do rise. Certainly a gander at political GOTV money changing hands would be worth at least a little peep.

  101. https://finance.yahoo.com/economy/articles/bad-gets-staggering-climb-cost-154500253.html

    ‘This is as bad as it gets’: Staggering climb in cost of beef forces beloved Texas barbecue joints to close

    That’s not all that restaurant owners have to deal with. There is also the threat of screwworm, a flesh-eating parasite that can devastate livestock populations and infect people (3), looming near the southern border. Any additional hit to cattle supplies could send prices even higher.

    Texas Restaurant Association CEO Emily Williams Knight says many factors have contributed to the price crunch, including inflation, tariffs, labor shortages, drought conditions and shrinking ranch land.

    The U.S. cattle herd is reportedly at its smallest size in 75 years, making beef scarce and expensive. According to FarmProgress, there’s no signs of herd rebuild, so prices will likely stay high. (2)

    Because of this, once-unthinkable menu prices — like $40 for a pound of brisket — is no longer a “crazy number to see on a menu,” he said.

    Burnt Bean Co., which was named the top barbecue joint in Texas by Texas Monthly and awarded a Michelin Bib Gourmand distinction, recently raised brisket prices to $38 per pound.

    Owner Ernest Servantes said brisket barely turns a profit anymore, telling The Washington Post, “We’ve been in survival mode for the past year.”

    “We make our money off pork, sides,” Servantes told The Washington Post. “People say ‘brisket’ and I cringe.”

  104. Ken Paxton is the most corrupt politician outside of the Trump crime family in America. He enriched himself by over 7000% since he’s been in office. He’s a lowlife and we’ve read about his extra marital affairs and his divorce.
    In other words, he’s Trump’s kind of guy he personifies, he edifies why I have never voted for Republican and I never will.
    We have these horrible creeps here in Ohio too like Jim, Jordan and Vivek Ramaswami and the snake in the grass running against Sherrod brown by the name of Jon Husted. In their campaigns, his Republicans always promised to help the work people they’re gonna make it great for the average American and then they just laugh at the average American when they get in office they all just try to enrich themselves. Talarici has a good chance. However, looking at the 69% win by Paxton tonight I don’t know if Talaricio can pull off what Beto O’Rourke failed by six points in doing. Talarico a is a godly man so maybe God will take a look at that scumbag Ken Paxton and send a little help down to the lone star State.

  105. I need to see the numbers. Not buying it yet.

    Seems odd that Beto lost, as unpoopular Abbott has been, what with the grid failure and all at that time.

    Hmmm, Texans do like Talarico so maybe they want to give him a better shot at winning. Maybe Paxton is a big FU to tRUMP.

  107. the cognoscenti claim Talarico is better positioned against the extremist Paxton than the moderate Cornyn

    we’ll see

    cheatiest election in congressional history inbound

  108. These motherf&@$”ng snakes on this motherf&(king porch! And Kennedy laughed when the black racer snake bit him.

  111. https://www.reuters.com/sports/soccer/mexico-host-irans-world-cup-team-after-us-refusal-president-says-2026-05-25/

    Iran’s national soccer team will sleep in Mexico and travel to the U.S. on the days of its three World Cup matches after Washington declined ​to host the squad for the tournament, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on ‌Monday.
    Sheinbaum said FIFA approached her government after U.S. authorities said they did not want Iran staying in the country throughout the June 11-July 19 competition, even though Iran is scheduled to play three Group ​G matches there.

  112. There was a pic of RFKJ’s hand next to Dumpy’s bruised hand and RFKJ’s hand looked worse…and probably not because of snakes. His hands were dark purple.

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