Notices by Ethan Marcotte (beep@follow.ethanmarcotte.com)

delighted to read about this massive dataset of stolen books that LLMs hoovered up for training data, and subsequently learn that literally every book i’ve ever written or contributed to is in it

just delighted

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/03/libgen-meta-openai/682093/?gift=iWa_iB9lkw4UuiWbIbrWGYDRoX8kfg3ZQZL6J-W0kQE

🦊

I am downright delighted to announce that my latest book, YOU DESERVE A TECH UNION, has a brand new look. I really love it, and I hope you do too.

Here’s a look at what’s changed and—maybe more importantly—what’s stayed the same:

https://ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/refresh-a-new-look-for-you-deserve-a-tech-union/

#YDATUbook #books #bookstodon #blogging #labor #TechLabor #unions #TechUnions #1u

openai: we believe we will eventually create a system capable of solving human-level problems

also openai: let us turbo-photocopy All Copyrighted Materials or something something china something nationalism https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/03/openai-urges-trump-either-settle-ai-copyright-debate-or-lose-ai-race-to-china/

“You’re always allowed to say no. You don’t actually have to throw anybody under the bus. You can in fact say that the laid-off auto worker deserves sympathy, but so does the single mom on welfare and the trans teenager who loves volleyball and the Venezuelan family at the border.”

I am, as I often am, grateful for a Garrett Bucks newsletter entry. https://thewhitepages.net/p/there-are-two-political-movements

hospitals: please arrive fifteen minutes before your appointment to fill out these very important questionnaires

also hospitals: your doctor will show up six hours late and you’ll thank us for it

“[The] so-called Department of Government Efficiency has deployed a proprietary chatbot called GSAi to 1,500 federal workers at the General Services Administration, WIRED has confirmed.” — https://www.wired.com/story/gsai-chatbot-1500-federal-workers/

This will end horribly, and not just because it’s a horrible product. Like all “AI” platforms, this is a vector for surveillance and deskilling in the workplace, and will be used to justify continuing to hollow out the federal workforce.

I tried to respond to everyone who replied to or shared this post, but I’ve definitely lost that contest. I’m literally overwhelmed by everyone’s kindness and support. Thank you all.

💜

I’ll just add that if this story moved you, I hope it moved you to action. Some of my former coworkers are looking for jobs, if you’re hiring or know someone who is. Otherwise, at the bottom of my post there are some resources I’ll try to keep updated.

Thank you again, truly. 💜

“These cuts are just the most recent in a series of a sledgehammer approach to the critical US teams supporting IT infrastructure. […] We’re wrestling with what it will mean for ourselves and our families, as well as the impact on our partners and the American people.

“But we came to the government to fix things. And we’re not done with this work yet.”

https://18f.org/

”I lost all but a few loyal friends, my devoted family, and all but lost my newspaper but thank god I retained the pearl of great price—my self respect.”

Here’s @dansinker with a reminder that fascism always, always falls: https://dansinker.com/posts/2025-02-23-dale/

Needed to read this tonight; maybe you did too.

🦊

Friday was my last day working at 18F. It was a wonderful place to work, filled with extraordinary people, but a few things happened that made me realize I had to leave.

Everything happens so much these days, so I thought I’d write down for myself what happened, and how I made my decision:

https://ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/leaving-18f/

(FYI, this post gets into recent #uspol events. If that’s a stressor, or not interesting to you, I’d suggest skipping.)

You absolutely owe it to yourself to read @mia’s post on “artificial intelligence”, eugenics, and the tech industry’s push to ally itself to an explicitly fascist project: https://www.miriamsuzanne.com/2025/02/12/tech-ai-wtf/

the deep and abiding shame when i send a message long enough to trip signal’s “read more” link

you, sensibly: ethan, why are you like this

me: [unfurls the longest friggin scroll anyone has ever seen]

Hey, Apple users: if you install the latest iOS, iPadOS, or macOS updates, you’ll be automatically opted into “Apple Intelligence”. If you don’t want that running on your computer, you’ll need to go into Settings to disable it.

(this is far from the most pressing thing happening today, but just a heads-up)

🦊

Heck yeah, I love a good blogging challenge! Thanks so much to @jonhicks and @nazhamid for sending it my way! https://ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/blog-questions-challenge/

#blogging

me in my twenties: oh neat, a free program

me in my forties: oh neat, a free program, what horrors are concealed within

if you haven’t read @kissane’s latest, this is an especially good time to do so https://www.wrecka.ge/bad-shape/

“So sure: Protocols over platforms. Then we have to actually do the inelegant, un-heroic, expensive work of rebuilding the essential structures of human civilization on top of the protocols, because it turns out we just have the one world, online or off, no way out.” — @kissane, https://www.wrecka.ge/bad-shape/

@exchgr logo design firm: tell us about your brand

altman: our products enable the world to generate photos of people who inexplicably have extra fingers

logo design firm: say no more