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Monday, July 20, 2026

AI was supposed to make our lives better. Instead, it's made many of us scared and angry.

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New York has become the first US state to enforce a data center moratorium, as governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order today to pause construction for one year.

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-- WIRED (@wired.com) 12:40 PM · Jul 14, 2026

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AI only steals from human beings that create.

I know what to do with a human thief.

I'm not sure this whole AI thing was thought through. There's been enough time.

#1 | Posted by Zed at 2026-07-20 12:21 PM | Reply | Funny: 1

Remember how there were once many, many web browsers, to 'open a portal on the world' and blah blah blah? And now there are only a few browsers still functional and used. AI assistants will face the same fate in the coming year or so. Why? Folks are spending fat stacks on AI, and no one has figured out much about monetizing it to make back the funds spent--except, perhaps, for porn. Watch and see, clip and save...

#2 | Posted by catdog at 2026-07-20 12:35 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 3

This is funded by China.
www.msn.com

Its completely anti-science to not build the AI of the future, and to enable US citizens to use it in their daily lives.
China is playing the long game with the release of the open weight model Kimi, the point is to undermine US AI industry the way it did the solar industry.
If China becomes the "center" of AI development, you can kiss the future of America goodbye for sure. Democrats and Republicans will be fighting off rear guard action as the country can't pay its debts.

This is similar to the environmental groups in the West that have been partially funded by Russia.

#3 | Posted by oneironaut at 2026-07-20 01:02 PM | Reply | Funny: 2

Folks are spending fat stacks on AI, and no one has figured out much about monetizing it

Only 2% of Americans use AI at this time; when the "internet" had 2% usage, no one was monetizing it either.

#4 | Posted by oneironaut at 2026-07-20 01:03 PM | Reply | Funny: 3

At present, America is busy undermining itself. It doesn't need China's cooperation or assistance in that regard.

#5 | Posted by ExpectingReign at 2026-07-20 01:12 PM | Reply

We're finding rare deadly bacteria are colonizing where AI uses fresh water.

I'm curious if this is a reason China places it's AI in the ocean?

#6 | Posted by redlightrobot at 2026-07-20 01:40 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 2

AI only steals from human beings that create.
I know what to do with a human thief.

#1 | Posted by Zed at 2026-07-20 12:21 PM | Reply | Flag:

If learning from existing work is theft, every human expert is a thief too.

#7 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2026-07-20 02:19 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 2

#4 | Posted by oneironaut

2%? That is the definition of a clueless statement.

Do you have a semi-current cell phone? You are using AI
Do you use an Internet Search Engine? You are using AI.
Do you have email? You are using AI.
Do you use any other office apps? You are using AI.

I can go on and on. Whether you are actively using an LLM chat is different than using AI. And even in my backward manufacturing company full of older folks the use of LLM AIs is over 50%. I have been monitoring the traffic for over year now and we started blocking it unless you were given permission.

#8 | Posted by GalaxiePete at 2026-07-20 02:34 PM | Reply

#3 | Posted by oneironaut

I think you might want a redo on that first full sentence.

I agree we need to build AIs for the future. The fact is things like Kimi will appear. I don't know much about Kimi but I am usually skeptical of anything Chinese. (Remember for example that OpenAI says DeepSeek 'inappropriately' copied ChatGPT...)

Also on Kimi K3 from what I have been seeing, they are just comparing it to Fable and on coding. It sounds as if it is comparable to Sonnet 5 price wise but Sonnet is faster... Anthropic keeps tuning their older engines like Sonnet and Haiku.

As for this is funded by China. It is possible but folks like you don't want to hold foreign countries tampering in the US accountable. When you say "environmental groups" - that is not in Russia's interest to fund. Perhaps China's. Russia prefers to fund right leaning propaganda and the NRA. These Mega data centers are a HUGE problem. AI isn't in the hands of everyone in China - keep that in mind.

Another example of emerging things was done by a Netflix engineer - Tejas Chopra. He created an open-source tool called Headroom that compresses AI agent inputs (such as logs, tool outputs, code, and conversation history) before they reach the language model. This context compression layer can reduce token usage by 60% to 95% while maintaining output quality.

#9 | Posted by GalaxiePete at 2026-07-20 02:58 PM | Reply

#6 | Posted by redlightrobot

That is misleading. It happened in one location I am aware of and it was coming from a data center under construction.

#10 | Posted by GalaxiePete at 2026-07-20 03:02 PM | Reply

#7 | Posted by sitzkrieg

I realize this is a slippery slope but we are talking about a commercial entity not acting in good faith in the use of the data for it's own commercial purposes versus a human actually learning and applying.

#11 | Posted by GalaxiePete at 2026-07-20 03:04 PM | Reply

what does AI think about the US abolishing the Senate and placing the SCOTUS and POTUS unser the House authority

Abolishing the Senate and placing both the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) and the President (POTUS) under the direct authority of the House of Representatives would fundamentally transform the United States from a constitutional republic with a separation of powers into a unicameral parliamentary system with absolute legislative supremacy.

Here is an analysis of what this system would look like, along with its potential advantages and structural risks.

The Structural Shift
Unicameral Legislature: The House of Representatives would become the sole lawmaking body, removing the "saucer" meant to cool hot legislative passions.
Parliamentary Executive: The President would likely function like a Prime Minister, chosen by and subservient to the majority party in the House.

Subservient Judiciary: The Supreme Court would lose its status as a co-equal branch, meaning the House could overturn judicial rulings or remove justices at will.

Potential Advantages
End of Legislative Gridlock: Bill passage would become rapid because the friction between the House, Senate, and presidential vetoes would disappear.

Direct Democratic Responsiveness: The House is proportional to population, meaning the national majority's will would immediately translate into law without the rural bias of the Senate.

Clear Accountability: The governing majority party would hold total responsibility for national outcomes, making it easier for voters to reward or punish them in elections.

Potential Risks and Downsides
Tyranny of the Majority: Without the Senate or an independent SCOTUS, a slim House majority could pass laws that suppress minority parties, specific states, or marginalized groups.

Loss of Equal State Representation: Small states would lose their equal footing (currently protected by the Senate), leading to political dominance by highly populated states like California, Texas, and New York.

Extreme Policy Volatility: National laws, economic regulations, and judicial interpretations could radically flip-flop every two years based on whichever party wins the House.

Eradication of Civil Liberties Protections: If SCOTUS is under House authority, the Bill of Rights would effectively become optional, as the House could override constitutional protections with a simple majority vote.

The single lever voter would destroy a nation out of spite.

#12 | Posted by Petrous at 2026-07-20 03:14 PM | Reply

I realize this is a slippery slope but we are talking about a commercial entity not acting in good faith in the use of the data for it's own commercial purposes versus a human actually learning and applying.

#11 | Posted by GalaxiePete at 2026-07-20 03:04 PM | Reply | Flag:

Indeed, and a debate about licensing IP is a far cry from Zed's "AI only steals from human beings that create."

#13 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2026-07-20 03:33 PM | Reply

"Every artist is a cannibal, every poet is a thief
All kill their inspiration and sing about the grief"

-U2

#14 | Posted by schifferbrains at 2026-07-20 05:05 PM | Reply

I had a client this week say that he would not do business with me if I did AI.

He wanted his concerns to remain firmly in the sphere of reality.

#15 | Posted by Zed at 2026-07-20 05:09 PM | Reply

#1

If there's one thing AI isn't doing it's stealing.

And that's not just because copying is not theft. Training an AI is ethically no different than a human reading some books and then writing their own.

Even better, AI output is inherently public domain, it's actually helping destroy the theft of the public domain that is copyright law.

Everything else about AI sucks. But it's the opposite of theft.

#16 | Posted by DarkVader at 2026-07-20 06:02 PM | Reply

"Training an AI is ethically no different than a human reading some books and then writing their own."

Uhhh yeah it is.

You are presumably arguing an educational use carve out exist for training. But if true, textbooks would never be written and sold, because that material could simply be reproduced by anyone for educational use.

Danforth's silence on companies whose business model begins with "Download the Internet" is... puzzling.

#17 | Posted by snoofy at 2026-07-20 06:07 PM | Reply

copying is not theft.

6 | POSTED BY DARKVADER

It's stealing the jobs of cover artists for books.

Theft.

#18 | Posted by Zed at 2026-07-20 06:22 PM | Reply

AI is parasitical. It survives off the blood of others much more valuable than it.

A perfect metaphor for our current political situation.

#19 | Posted by Zed at 2026-07-20 06:25 PM | Reply

If learning from existing work is theft, every human expert is a thief too.

POSTED BY SITZKRIEG

How does something that doesn't think, learn?

AI does something with information, sure.

Cuisinarts can do something with fruit.

#20 | Posted by Zed at 2026-07-20 06:38 PM | Reply

copying is not theft.
6 | POSTED BY DARKVADER

Copying money isn't theft, but that doesn't make it legal.

#21 | Posted by snoofy at 2026-07-20 06:51 PM | Reply

Indeed, and a debate about licensing IP is a far cry from Zed's "AI only steals from human beings that create."
#13 | Posted by sitzkrieg

They may not be in the same ballpark, but they're in the same Special Olympics.

It's the monetization where AI is stealing, even if it's not really stealing.

#22 | Posted by snoofy at 2026-07-20 06:52 PM | Reply

they're in the same Special Olympics.

#22 | POSTED BY SNOOFY

AI is copying us both as we speak.

#23 | Posted by Zed at 2026-07-20 06:59 PM | Reply

Related ...

'Not compatible': Palm Beach County rejects controversial Project Tango AI data center
www.wlrn.org

... Following months of mounting tension, Palm Beach County commissioners voted to deny a controversial expansion for Project Tango, officially blocking plans for a massive hyperscale data center near Loxahatchee's Arden neighborhood.

The final decision came after a high-stakes, marathon 12-hour hearing that drew massive crowds -- requiring overflow rooms to accommodate the public -- and drew intense responses that forced officers to escort a few residents out of the Robert Weisman Governmental Center.

The decisive 5-1 vote, with Commissioner Maria Marino as the lone yes vote, effectively halts the proposed 3.6-million-square-foot hyperscale artificial intelligence data center campus slated for the western part of the county. ...


#24 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-07-20 07:39 PM | Reply

Related ...

Palm Beach County rejects huge AI data center near Trump's Mar-a-Lago after resident backlash
www.yahoo.com

... "Not only is this AI Data Center a threat to the health, well-being, and safety of the hardworking, tax-paying residents of Palm Beach County and their families and children, it becomes a more extreme problem due to the fact that it will be constructed within 1,200 feet of Saddle View Elementary School and the preexisting Arden community and neighborhood," opposition organizers wrote on the NoToProjectTango.com website. ...

Meanwhile, towns and cities across the country are pausing or outright banning data center developments. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an executive order earlier this week imposing the nation's first statewide moratorium on large-scale data centers.

Trump, in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday, slammed the move, saying, "New York State has made a terrible decision."

"Data Centers are tremendous WINS for the States and Communities that are lucky enough to get them. New York should change its Policy, IMMEDIATELY," wrote the president, who called data centers "Money Machines." ...

[emphasis mine]

#25 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-07-20 07:44 PM | Reply

AI has been created in man's image.

It will be the best and worse of us.

#26 | Posted by BillJohnson at 2026-07-20 07:44 PM | Reply

@#25 ... wrote the president, who called data centers "Money Machines. ...

So, Pres Trump seems to have little care about Americans, but just the ability for the wealthy to make money?

There seems to be a pattern there ...


#27 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-07-20 07:46 PM | Reply

AI has been created in man's image.
It will be the best and worse of us.

Posted by BillJohnson at 2026-07-20 07:44 PM | Reply

AI is a double edged sword. Some of it is good and most of it is bad. It's scary how realistic it is.

#28 | Posted by LauraMohr at 2026-07-20 08:10 PM | Reply

@#28 ... It's scary how realistic it is. ...

Is AI subject to the laws that govern the humans it is modelling?

#29 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-07-20 08:13 PM | Reply

Clownshack took it in the rectum from JPW

#30 | Posted by lfthndthrds at 2026-07-20 11:39 PM | Reply

---- off ------. Go drink a jug of drain cleaner

#31 | Posted by LegallyYourDead at 2026-07-21 02:23 AM | Reply

We're finding rare deadly bacteria are colonizing where AI uses fresh water.

Sacrifices for billionaires have to be made to keep them awash in cash.

via GIPHY

#32 | Posted by Nixon at 2026-07-21 07:28 AM | Reply

AI has a non-existent sales model. They can't get ROI. It will eat itself.

#33 | Posted by lee_the_agent at 2026-07-21 08:56 AM | Reply

People don't want the water polluted, constant noise pollution or the electricity rates doubled so that millennials can create janky pictures of their cats driving a tractor?

Selfish bastards.

#34 | Posted by Nixon at 2026-07-21 09:11 AM | Reply

But if true, textbooks would never be written and sold, because that material could simply be reproduced by anyone for educational use.

#17 | Posted by snoofy at 2026-07-20 06:07 PM | Reply | Flag:

That already happens. Anything I can teach you from Data Science 1 & 2, you can learn from Starmer's YT channel StatQuest for free. This goes to every single class in a normal Comp Sci track. It's all on YT for free. More students use the YT channels to learn than their textbooks, which they don't directly purchase and haven't for awhile. Most schools use a Textbook Access Program which rolls costs of book access into your tuition, with an opt out. There's no more wandering the school book store trying to find a copy. Don't even have to go to Amazon anymore. Most students never open their CTAP supplied digital textbook.

#35 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2026-07-21 09:31 AM | Reply

"Anything I can teach you from Data Science 1 & 2, you can learn from Starmer's YT channel StatQuest for free."

So I can just copy and aggregate existing copyrighted material, distill and monetize it.

Got it.

#36 | Posted by snoofy at 2026-07-21 09:34 AM | Reply

POSTED BY SITZKRIEG
How does something that doesn't think, learn?
AI does something with information, sure.
Cuisinarts can do something with fruit.
#20 | Posted by Zed at 2026-07-20 06:38 PM | Reply | Flag:

You're confusing consciousness with learning. A Cuisinart doesn't update itself after processing a million apples. A trained model adjusts billions of internal parameters as it processes millions or billions of examples, gradually becoming better at recognizing patterns and making predictions it couldn't make before, that process of improving from experience is exactly what "learning" means in machine learning.

www.youtube.com

#37 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2026-07-21 09:34 AM | Reply

So I can just copy and aggregate existing copyrighted material, distill and monetize it.
Got it.

#36 | Posted by snoofy at 2026-07-21 09:34 AM | Reply | Flag:

No. Training a model isn't the same thing as republishing copyrighted works. You're confusing statistical learning with copyright infringement.

#38 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2026-07-21 09:37 AM | Reply

Start small Snoof, go do a Kaggle dataset project in python.

#39 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2026-07-21 09:37 AM | Reply

"Training a model isn't the same thing as republishing copyrighted works."

Once you monetize your model, both are an unauthorized use of copyrighted works.

Why are you being wrong about this concept on purpose?

#40 | Posted by snoofy at 2026-07-21 09:57 AM | Reply

You're confusing consciousness with learning.

#37 | Posted by sitzkrieg

I'm saying that AI is neither sentient nor sapient. It's alien.

That's one of the reasons people are rejecting AI. Human beings have no shared history with AI. Like the Aztecs had no shared history with Cortez.

#41 | Posted by Zed at 2026-07-21 10:16 AM | Reply

You're confusing consciousness with learning.

#37 | Posted by sitzkrieg

I'm asking the question: Is there value to consciousnes?

Is machine learning as valuable as human learning?

It has its uses, but it is not as valuable.

#42 | Posted by Zed at 2026-07-21 10:18 AM | Reply

#37 | Posted by sitzkrieg

You've brought engineering to a philosophy fight.

#43 | Posted by Zed at 2026-07-21 10:19 AM | Reply

Consciousness is difficult to define. Learning, I'm not sure how that's defined, but at least it can be tested.

There isn't a test for consciousness that livestock doesn't pass, so there's obvious reluctance to go down that path.

It would be bad for business and extremely challenging for the fragile colonialist telos if we formally acknowledged livestock, like the lesser races of negroes and savage Indians, have feelings.

Livestock Emotional Intelligence: Scientists Uncover Complex Feelings in Farm Animals
neurolaunch.com

#44 | Posted by snoofy at 2026-07-21 10:40 AM | Reply

>it's made many of us scared and angry.

it's made many of us leftist morons scared and angry.

Don't like it? Go block a road.

#45 | Posted by john_savage2 at 2026-07-21 10:49 AM | Reply

AIDS
AI DERANGEMENT SYNDROME

-Mostly affects gays

#46 | Posted by john_savage2 at 2026-07-21 10:51 AM | Reply

AI is actually SI; Simulated Intelligence... "it mimics human reasoning through statistical pattern recognition. Instead of possessing actual awareness or understanding, it relies on complex algorithms to predict the next logical output based on massive datasets.".

howiwrite.substack.com

#47 | Posted by Corky at 2026-07-21 11:00 AM | Reply

"(AI) Instead of possessing actual awareness or understanding"

So they're like refrigerators.

#48 | Posted by Zed at 2026-07-21 11:40 AM | Reply

Disapprove of AI all you like. You cannot stop it.

The Singularity will occur in this generation whether you personally like it or not.

It's my belief that we have already passed the "event horizon ".

And now there is no turning back.

#49 | Posted by donnerboy at 2026-07-21 11:44 AM | Reply

The Singularity will occur in this generation whether you personally like it or not.

49 | Posted by donnerboy at

I suppose I will have to experience it before I can decide if I like it.

My experience of AI is that it is a food processor with an attitude.

#50 | Posted by Zed at 2026-07-21 12:05 PM | Reply

"The Singularity will occur in this generation whether you personally like it or not"

Not to nag, but the Singularity was promised in 2000 to occur in 2020.

#51 | Posted by Zed at 2026-07-21 12:06 PM | Reply

>The Singularity
*cringe*

Oh no my encyclopedia are revolting

#52 | Posted by john_savage2 at 2026-07-21 12:11 PM | Reply

>was promised in 2000 to occur in 2020.

Aaand that new ice age was supposed to happen in 1975

#53 | Posted by john_savage2 at 2026-07-21 12:13 PM | Reply

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