Roundup: The real AI threat we must stop

Elon Musk becoming increasingly unhinged from reality feels like the tech story of the year. Telling his advertisers to go fuck themselves was a great way to top it all off — unless he has another outburst planned before the end of the year. I’ve been regularly covering the more shocking of his statements and what they tell us about the state of Twitter/X (and his sanity), but next year I’m planning to take a bit of a step back from all the Elon stuff.

He can be entertaining to write about and I’ve been following him for years so I have quite a number of stories to tell about his past, but there’s also a lot more to cover and comment on in the tech industry that I’m excited to explore — and that I’m sure you’ll start to see soon. That doesn’t mean no Elon, but we’ll see how much I can restrain myself.

Now, this week I’m commenting on some recent stories about AI rollouts that will have clear implications for workers and citizens — and I’m sure they’re just the tip of the iceberg. But they show the real AI scenario we should be scared off, not this bullshit about human-like computers enslaving us. For those thoughts, along with recommended reads, labor updates, and other news you might have missed, support the work that goes into Disconnect with a paid subscription!

One final note: Over on Tech Won’t Save Us, I spoke to Joanne McNeil about her new novel Wrong Way that follows a remote operator for a self-driving vehicle company and portrays what life is really like for some of the people in the AI underclass.

Have a great week!

— Paris