Three Scary Rogue Agents in a Trenchcoat
LightNews LightNews
banner
alexhanna.bsky.social
Three Scary Rogue Agents in a Trenchcoat
@alexhanna.bsky.social
25K followers 1.4K following 6.8K posts
Director of Research, @dairinstitute.bsky.social
Book: thecon.ai
Pod+newsletter: https://dair-institute.org/maiht3k
https://alex-hanna.com
🇪🇬Ⲛⲓⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ
🏳️‍⚧️ she/هي
📸 @willtoft.bsky.social
Rep📘 @ianbonaparte.bsky.social
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
alexhanna.bsky.social
Three Scary Rogue Agents in a Trenchcoat @alexhanna.bsky.social · Sep 21
Excited to announce that I've signed a contract with @mitpress.bsky.social for a new book! It's about ImageNet, a dataset of 14 million photos. Without it, we likely wouldn't have "AI" as we currently know it.

I've been thinking about this book for over 5 years, and am excited to finally write it.
Screenshot of a deal report from Publishers Marketplace that reads: “Coauthor of AI CON and cohost of the Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 podcast Alex Hanna’s NET WORKS: IMAGENET AND THE CREATION OF THE MODERN AI DATASET, on the labor behind ImageNet’s cache of 14 million photos from the early aughts that became the backbone of AI datasets, to Rachel Moore at MIT Press (world).
alexhanna.bsky.social
Roose figured us out. We all worship Big Parrot.
davekarpf.bsky.social Dave Karpf @davekarpf.bsky.social · 3h
And then, on the next page, Roose describes AI Ethics as a “cult.”

…Kevin, man, you are making a whole lot of choices right now. Your editor should’ve maybe talked you out of some of them.
on wie apocalypse. It also showed that, in a sense, the e/accs and the BAS weren't that far apart. Both groups believed that AGI was inevitable and imminent, and that powerful AI systems would transform the world. They just disagreed about whether the new world would be better or worse than the old one. But there were other cults on the rise that year-groups that had less of a presence inside the San Francisco AI bubble, perhaps, but were no less influential in shaping the public's view of AI progress in the year after ChatGPT's arrival. One was a group that often referred to its central concern as "Al eth-icạẠạiỊThis group focused on preventing present-day harms from Al, such as worker exploitation, bias and discrimination in critical systems, and the environmental impacts of training LLMs. This group, which included organizations like the AI Now Institute and scholars like Timnit Gebru, the former Google ethics watchdog who coauthored the "Stochastic Parrots"
October 30, 2026 at 11:20 PM
Reposted by Three Scary Rogue Agents in a Trenchcoat
matthewus.bsky.social
Lots of people are asking me today if I think the ongoing rout in tech stocks means that the AI bubble is bursting.

I'm not calling the bubble burst yet (unfortunately*). This feels more like Wall St hedging some of its extreme bet on AI than abandoning the AI trade altogether.
October 30, 2026 at 7:37 PM
Reposted by Three Scary Rogue Agents in a Trenchcoat
loisbeckett.bsky.social
"If there’s an impediment, just buy it.”

Opponents of California's billionaire tax tried to kill the ballot measure by PURCHASING THE FIRM THE UNION USED TO COLLECT SIGNATURES, so they would *own the signatures* @darakerr.bsky.social reports.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
October 30, 2026 at 5:45 PM
Reposted by Three Scary Rogue Agents in a Trenchcoat
hypervisible.blacksky.app
How will we rent to you if you are allowed to own anything.
Sam Altman Absolutely Hates the Idea of People Running Their Own AI Models at Home, Argues They Shouldn't Own Computers
To OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, having people run their own models at home on their own computers doesn't make any sense.
futurism.com
October 30, 2026 at 5:22 PM
alexhanna.bsky.social
Intel and AMD stocks are tanking. Is this bad, chat
October 30, 2026 at 5:39 PM
Reposted by Three Scary Rogue Agents in a Trenchcoat
robertkelchen.com
The Spencer Foundation is pausing most of its grantmaking for the first half of 2027. As one of the few broad funders of education research, they're simply overwhelmed.

www.spencer.org/news/refresh...
We are writing to share an important update about our grantmaking. Significant changes in the research funding landscape, coupled with new technologies and growing demand for support, have prompted us to reconsider whether our current grantmaking structures are serving the field as effectively as they could. In the first half of 2027, we will pause new competitions for our Research Grants on Education: Small; Research Grants on Education: Large; and Racial Equity Research Grants programs. During this period, Spencer will undertake a strategic refresh of these core grant programs and of our decision-making processes, informed by conversations with the field about where support is needed most. We know that researchers, universities, and our field face significant challenges. Federal research funding has been drastically reduced; universities are under growing financial and political pressure; and scholars whose work focuses on equity face increasingly precarious professional and personal circumstances. At Spencer, we see the effects of these pressures in the extraordinary growth in scholars seeking support. The number of proposals Spencer receives has more than quadrupled across our programs over the past four years. Spencer has responded to these challenges by increasing our grantmaking by 20 percent, providing emergency support to scholars whose federal grants were canceled, and supporting collective efforts to preserve vulnerable data and protect valuable scholarship. We have also adjusted our application and review processes to manage the growing volume of proposals. But these efforts, while important, cannot make up for the loss of federal research funding or address the limitations of our current grantmaking model. We recognize that our broad programs ask too much of applicants and reviewers and take too long to get funding into the field. With applications increasing dramatically, funding rates have fallen from 9 percent a decade ago to just 2 percent...
October 30, 2026 at 5:22 PM
alexhanna.bsky.social
Lil Nas UX
October 30, 2026 at 4:02 PM
alexhanna.bsky.social
Ugh, yeah.

Spending my weekend getting my NAS up.
October 30, 2026 at 3:50 PM
Reposted by Three Scary Rogue Agents in a Trenchcoat
revivallab.bsky.social
Our newest issue is out! Journalist Diara J. Townes @curiousscout.bsky.social covers how data centers are shaping next week's elections in Lee County, NC, with much to reflect on community resource control & the role of local government. Check it out!

www.therevivallab.org/data-centers...
“I’ve Had Enough”: How Data Centers Are Mobilizing NC Voters
By Diara J. Townes “I think about selling every damn thing I got because of y’all.” The crowd of over 200 fell silent as the man pounded his fist on the podium. “I’ve worked all my life, all my life...
www.therevivallab.org
October 30, 2026 at 3:21 PM
Reposted by Three Scary Rogue Agents in a Trenchcoat
emilymbender.bsky.social
I've been shouting for a long time about how LLMs-as-search despoils our information ecosystem, which among other things puts our democracy at risk. Here is a very direct example of that:

www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

>>
We asked AI chatbots to make voter guides. They invented races and misidentified candidates.
Analyzing AI-generated voter guides for addresses in every county in the U.S. showed that the chatbots often made errors.
www.washingtonpost.com
October 29, 2026 at 1:50 PM
alexhanna.bsky.social
Tagging Big H8er @anthonymoser.com
October 30, 2026 at 4:32 AM
Reposted by Three Scary Rogue Agents in a Trenchcoat
coachfinstock.bsky.social
Jensen Huang getting honey potted, the Chinese and Korean AI bubble popping, and the Cryptochuds getting their shit took this is like a really good day for The Haters we are celebrating Hating today, Crack a beer to celebrate being smarter than all these people by not getting involved with all that
October 30, 2026 at 3:55 AM
Reposted by Three Scary Rogue Agents in a Trenchcoat
colincarlson.bsky.social
Because hell is empty and all the devils are here, Polymarket is apparently now running real-life ads encouraging you to gamble on vaccine mandate reversals (h/t @emilylip.bsky.social)
VACCINES Will any state end vaccine mandates?
October 29, 2026 at 7:14 PM
alexhanna.bsky.social
Oh Sir Pat knew ball. RIP to a real one
chrismarcil.bsky.social Chris Marcil @chrismarcil.bsky.social · 1d
RIP Patrick Stewart, a true connoisseur
Excerpt from a Guardian article where Patrick Stewart says, "In time Beavis and Butt-head will become defined as a very, very significant part of American culture. It's brilliant."
October 29, 2026 at 11:48 PM
Reposted by Three Scary Rogue Agents in a Trenchcoat
camcron.bsky.social
a through line with the amazing artists we’ve lost this year is that they took the work seriously but never themselves. whimsy man. it seems to be good for the soul.
October 29, 2026 at 10:43 PM
alexhanna.bsky.social
In what world is stopping HRT going to stop the Iran war
October 29, 2026 at 10:40 PM
alexhanna.bsky.social
Lmao
October 29, 2026 at 10:39 PM
Reposted by Three Scary Rogue Agents in a Trenchcoat
mingemi.bsky.social
If you want a Valkyries Beat subscription before Saturday, the playoff discount goes until then.

www.valkyriesbeat.com/upgrade
Upgrade | Valkyries Beat
Inside the Golden State Valkyries from the perspective of a women's sports journalist.
www.valkyriesbeat.com
October 29, 2026 at 10:05 PM
alexhanna.bsky.social
Oh. What did he say?
October 29, 2026 at 10:07 PM
Reposted by Three Scary Rogue Agents in a Trenchcoat
yallchemist.bsky.social
they should invent a death that happens to the right people
October 29, 2026 at 9:28 PM
alexhanna.bsky.social
Ken, don't make me cry
October 29, 2026 at 9:16 PM
alexhanna.bsky.social
NOOOOOOOOO

CAPTAIN MY CAPTAIN
October 29, 2026 at 7:46 PM
alexhanna.bsky.social
Welp see you all at Boohalla #wnba
October 29, 2026 at 6:54 PM
alexhanna.bsky.social
Amihere putting her life on the line for these FTs #wnba
October 29, 2026 at 6:44 PM
alexhanna.bsky.social
These refs are next level bad
October 29, 2026 at 6:38 PM