#tech

Le géant américain Meta a confirmé vendredi s’être retiré d’un engagement pris aux côtés d’importantes multinationales et visant à utiliser exclusivement de l’électricité renouvelable. Cette marche arrière intervient en plein boom des très énergivores data centers.

challenges.fr/entreprise/data-…

#ChangementClimatique #BouleversementClimatique #InstabilitéClimatique #InversionClimatique #AtrocitéDeMasse #pollution #écologie #environnement #Climat

Data centers : Meta renonce discrètement à son engagement pour des énergies propres

Dix ans après sa promesse d’utiliser des énergies propres pour ses activités, le géant Meta vient d’y renoncer ce vendredi. Le groupe investit notamment dans des centrales au gaz pour alimenter ses data centers.

^{Challenges.fr (Challenges)}

💻 🤖 " In judging technology, Doctorow @pluralistic writes, “Stop thinking about what the gadget does, and pay attention to who the gadget does it to and who the gadget does it for"

#Tech #AI
thetyee.ca/Culture/2026/07/24/…

Cory Doctorow Predicts the AI Bubble Will Burst | The Tyee

The writer sees a shaky future for a technology that has many of us in a lather.

^{Crawford Kilian (The Tyee)}

Feels to me like #GrapheneOS did exactly what it should, passing the #US border test with flying colours!

techcrunch.com/2026/07/24/us-a…

Funny part about this #lawsuit:
“With a little planning ahead of time, you can always download the data you need once you get to where you’re going,”

@GrapheneOS @graphene_os

#Software #Privacy #USA #UnitedStates #America #duress #politics #legal #border #phone #data #hardware #os #tech #technology #android #smartphone #phone #device #news

US accuses American of allegedly wiping his phone using a 'duress' password during border search | TechCrunch

A U.S. citizen has asked a court to throw out the government's claim that he gave over a passcode to border authorities that wiped his phone's data, opening up fresh questions about a person's constitutional rights at the U.S. border.

^{Zack Whittaker (TechCrunch)}

Big Tech is moving towards fossil fuels, coincidentally this is happening after the hopped on the Trump-Train, $$$ are calling ;)

rechargenews.com/corporate-pow…

#Sustainability #CleanTech #Renewables #RenewableEnergy #FossilFuels #USA #America #UnitedStates #Tech #Technology #News #world #environment #data #ai #artificialintelligence

EXCLUSIVE: Meta thrown off key global clean energy scheme over gas spree

Facebook and Instagram giant has left influential RE100 corporate green power list after turning to gas for data centres, scheme officials confirm to Recharge

^{Berta Olivier (Recharge News)}

@fazalmajid Haha good argument, I also like #VR, it's awesome #tech.
Very glad at least somebody got something out of those $80 billion haha

What do you see as the next big development in VR btw? Do you predict full body experience hardware or something else will be next?
@a_cubed

Desperately trying to find a use-case for their inferior #AI. I feel like their idea pool was always at absolute 0 but now it's going even below that.

Let's have #MetaAI raise our kids everyone!

techcrunch.com/2026/07/21/meta…

#Meta #Fakebook #Tech #Technology #App #ArtificialIntelligence #News #Techcrunch

Meta is testing an AI bedtime story app for people with no imagination | TechCrunch

At last, a tech company has found a way to outsource humanity's oldest pastime: using our imaginations.

^{Amanda Silberling (TechCrunch)}

If you have been wondering about the effectiveness of the social media ban of under 15 year olds, this study got you :)

Spoiler: 92%+ of kids age 14-15 in #Australia still use it 🥳

Meanwhile IMO forced verification of users had a much better success rate 😉

Source:
nber.org/system/files/working_…

#Privacy #ageverification #IDverification #Study #Data #Science #Survey #Tech #SocialMedia #Technology #Internet #Censorship #Authoritarianism #MassSurveillance #Surveillance

"If you really want an "AI strategy" for your country, it should be this: wait for the bubble to burst, then buy hardware and talent at fire-sale prices in the wave of ensuing bankruptcies, and use them to extract more performance from free, open source models." - @pluralistic

Trump’s America can’t even win a rigged game (22 Jul 2026)
#AI #Tech #Economy
pluralistic.net/2026/07/22/tab…

The tech industry is pushing our planet to the breaking point.

HYPERSCALE tells the story of the growing fight around data centers. It comes out October 20.

Preorder yours today: hyperscalebook.com

#tech #datacenters #generativeai #books #reading #climate

Esiste un'alternativa al calcolo basato sui transistor coi quali costruiamo i computer e gli altri dispositivi digitali: il calcolo termodinamico.

L'idea è sfruttuare le naturali fluttuazioni della materia verso stati di energia inferiori, permettendo un calcolo veloce ed efficiente.

Siamo ancora nelle fasi prototipali, ma si intravede già un possibile uso nelle reti neurali per l'IA.

quantamagazine.org/thermodynam…

#computing #calcolo #tecnologia #tech #informationtheory

Thermodynamic Computers Go With the (Energy) Flow | Quanta Magazine

Today’s computers need safeguards against random energy fluctuations. Thermodynamic computers would put those fluctuations to use.

^{Philip Ball (Quanta Magazine)}

The very first image from the surface of Mars, transmitted to Earth from NASA's Viking 1 lander, 50 years ago today.

nasa.gov/image-article/our-fir… #science #nature #history #tech

A generation of PMs made a career out of copying ideas from other apps they've seen into their own app. Today, AI (which has seen every app) can do this 100x faster than any of them.

The only problem is that doing this was always pointless

This week's issue of the Product Picnic newsletter breaks down this problem and surfaces some tools for thinking in workflows (or just plain thinking) rather than worrying about atomic features.

productpicnic.beehiiv.com/p/th…

#UX #Tech #SoftwareDevelopment

Thoughtless features never add up to a thoughtful product

Your first idea for how to solve a problem is most likely to be a low-impact hack. Delightful user experiences require a higher level of thinking.

^{Pavel Samsonov (The Product Picnic)}

The trouble with this and with technology is:

1 - #Tech is used for multiple purposes and with multiple people

This creates a fork and multiple reasoning / uses.

Control by individuals ?
- Most can't do it on their own
- Most don't have the money / time
= Most need help - even some #BigTech (at least to start with unless we do #handholding live video #walkthrough time)

Generative AI Is an engineering disaster. A shockingly inefficient trillion-dollar project…

archive.is/J3VLi

Paywalled article:
theatlantic.com/technology/202…

#tech #technology #BigTech #IT #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #LLM #LLMs #ML #MachineLearning #GenAI #generativeAI #AIAgent #AISlop #FuckAI #Fuck_AI #enshittification #microslop #microsoft #copilot #meta #google #NVIDIA #amazon #gemini #OpenAI #ChatGPT #anthropic #claude

Generative AI Is an Engineering Disaster

^{Alex Reisner (The Atlantic)}

Under Trump, the United States has made it clear that dependence on US tech can and will be weaponized.

In part, that's a new development — at least for some parts of the world. But ensuring the power of the US was sustained by getting other parts of the world to adopt its tech was always part of the plan.

disconnect.blog/global-depende…

#tech #politics #donaldtrump #siliconvalley #digitalsovereignty

Global dependence on US tech was always the plan

The imperial project of Silicon Valley and the US government is out in the open. Countries need to reclaim their sovereignty.

^{Paris Marx (Disconnect)}

Designers talk a big game about "empathy" for users. But empathy without respect is nothing more than pity.

And nowhere is the lack of respect more apparent than in how LLMs have been productized and adopted. The "human in the loop" excuse pushes consequences down onto scrupulous employees and ultimately onto the very users on whom we claim to be centered.

The consequences of disrespectful software are now becoming apparent across tech.

productpicnic.beehiiv.com/p/em…

#UX #UXDesign #LLM #AI #tech

Empathy and delight mean nothing when the software is disrespectful

Software is now something we do TO users, instead of something that we make FOR them.

^{Pavel Samsonov (The Product Picnic)}

Ireland’s data centers consumed nearly as much electricity as every home in the country combined in 2025 — server farms gulped 23% of national power despite years of grid restrictions

Ireland’s data centers consumed 23% of the country’s electricity in 2025, rising 10% in one year despite restrictions on new grid connections.

tomshardware.com/tech-industry…

#Tech #Technology #TechNews #AI #Gadgets #Software #Cybersecurity #Apple #Google #Microsoft #Startup #OpenSource #TomsHardware [Tom's Hardware]

Microsoft loses Brazilian court case after telling hacked Xbox user to re-purchase games — tech giant ordered to restore Xbox account with all games and pay $400 in damages

A Brazilian gamer who lost his Microsoft account and all his digital games has won a court order requiring the company to return them.

tomshardware.com/video-games/x…

#Tech #Technology #TechNews #AI #Gadgets #Software #Cybersecurity #Apple #Google #Microsoft #Startup #OpenSource #TomsHardware [Tom's Hardware]

Featured story: Even before its first workplace death, #SpaceX saw 427 injuries and 9 respiratory illnesses fron 2022 to 2025. These injuries included concussions, burns, hernias, dislocations, crushed hands, and broken ribs, legs, and ankles. texasobserver.org/worker-death…

#ElonMusk #space #tech #safety #Texas #news

Worker's Death at SpaceX Factory Followed Hundreds of Injuries in Recent Years

A 25-year-old died last month of “blunt force trauma due to a fall.” An Observer analysis found that the injury rate at "Starbase" was well above an industry national average.

^{Gaige Davila (The Texas Observer)}

#Meta has been up to no good for a while - always?

Is $1.4 trillion a reasonable amount for these cases? Who knows.

Is it reasonable compensation for all the evil they’ve done? I’d argue yes.

It’s essentially their entire market capitalization as a penalty.

engadget.com/2209332/meta-is-f…

#SocialMedia #News #Facebook #Instagram #WhatsApp #Tech #Accountability #US #USA #America #UnitedStates #Engadget #Reuters #Consumers #Digital #MentalHealth #Addiction #Lawsuit #Corporation #Legal #Zuckerberg #App

Meta Is Facing $1.4 Trillion In State Lawsuits Over Social Media Addiction

Meta is facing a massive lawsuit from four US states over the addictive designs of its platforms.

^{Steve Dent (Engadget)}

Much of AI "productivity gains" come from managers implicitly trusting an LLM to do a good job, and suspending the onerous micromanagement that humans employees get subjected to.

You can do that without paying Anthropic a single penny. It just requires letting the experts you hired do their jobs.

productpicnic.beehiiv.com/p/tr…

#LLM #AI #tech #UXDesign #UX #SoftwareDevelopment #USerresearch

Trust is not built on craft alone

No amount of tooling will let product teams move faster than being trusted to own their process. That trust is earned through rigor rather than mere velocity.

^{Pavel Samsonov (The Product Picnic)}

Two new blog posts about AI, one critical, one supportive

• From AI Enthusiast to Skeptic
• What I like about AI

I have been writing these for over 4 months now. Not only are they long reads, but it took me a while to really get a good idea of how I wanted to express myself. I think I have had enough time to think about these ideas and these opinions that I can now express myself fairly clearly, but I’ll let you (my readers) be the judge. Of course, feel free to tag me in a Fediverse post if you want to send me feedback on what you liked or disliked about my articles. Yes, I know they are too long, I’d suggest reading them in a few sittings if you find it enjoyable.

#tech #blog #AI #LLM #LLMs

La mairie de La Croix-en-Touraine a pris une décision rare : abandonner Microsoft pour migrer vers Linux et des logiciels libres. Un choix motivé par des questions de sécurité, de souveraineté numérique et de réduction des coûts.lanouvellerepublique.fr/indre-…

#Politique #Ville #Microsoft #Linux #Tech #Donnees #Data

NEW: How Google and AI Nearly Made a Seasoned Reporter Spiral

"I thought I had missed something major in my reporting. Turns out I had stumbled into an AI-fueled feedback loop that involved a real LLC’s fictional website and a search engine that’s thrusting unreliable answers on users."

propublica.org/article/google-…

#News #Google #AI #Journalism #Media #Technology #Tech #Research #LLM #artificialintelligence

How Google and AI Nearly Made a Seasoned Reporter Spiral — ProPublica

^{Justin Elliott (ProPublica)}

Execs are confused: we forced you to use all these powerful AI tools and yet our profits aren't 10x! What gives?

Individual productivity is always downstream of strategy. And the same "more, faster!" attitude that creates incremental improvements in delivery speed means that leaders rush through strategy formation.

If the tasks don't add up to anything meaningful, no amount of model improvements will help you.

productpicnic.beehiiv.com/p/ev…

#LLM #AI #tech #softwaredevelopment #UX #Agile

Even with a silver bullet, you still have to aim

Productivity gains among frontline employees can't counteract the abdication of responsibility at the executive level.

^{Pavel Samsonov (The Product Picnic)}

Just met my first #glasshole in person

Asked him why he was wearing them

He said he'd "the feeling he needs them" because you can hear music with them ¯\(°_o)/¯

And saw no problem with #privacy at all - from what he'd said he didn't know the concept...

Got a bit pissed that I asked him, bc he saw it as "his decision" & "freedom" to wear a piece of surveillance tech in his face

How do you guys act in situations like this? Or am I too 2010ish ;)?

#tech #surveilance #resistance #rayban

We Can Still Stop California’s 3D Printer Surveillance Scheme

eff.org/deeplinks/2026/06/we-c…

#tech #technology #news #technews #security #privacy #3dprinting #Surveillance

We Can Still Stop California’s 3D Printer Surveillance Scheme

Ignoring EFF’s warnings about the dangers and impossibility of implementing a new mandate for 3D print surveillance software, the California State Assembly has signed off on legislation to do just that.

^{Electronic Frontier Foundation}

Cultures of Making and Relating

blog.khinsen.net/posts/2026/06…

#HackerNews #Tech #Culture

A much younger Aral delivers a warning about where surveillance tech is headed over twelve years ago.

The terms I use might have evolved as I did since then (“free” as in freedom instead of “open” as in open for business, “design” instead of “user experience”, “people” instead of “consumers”) but I’m still working on realising the exact same goal with Small Tech and the Small Web.

youtube.com/watch?v=yHoLopZSYJ…

(Apologies for the YouTube link. Please feel free to rip and rehost if you like.)

💕

#tech #surveillance