Automated Contempt

The political-technological crisis is only deepening in the United States, and I hardly know where to begin today's email to you, other than to say that I hope you're okay. And if you're not, do feel free to hit "reply" – I can&

Broken Webs of Knowledge

Among the myriad negative reactions to the recent release of the Chinese AI model DeepSeek, one of the most common involved what was an obvious “gotcha” query: questioning the chatbot about the 1989 student protests Tiananmen Square, and noting that – tut tut – the results were so clearly censored.  Rarely was

Discrimination Engines

Digital technology and algorithmic recommendations have, as the story goes, segmented society into a million little data-driven designations, where we all watch and listen to different content – a radical individualization that has shattered any shared consensus about culture or politics, about reality. Even the classroom, particularly thanks to "personalized

Neo Never Learned Kung Fu

Some time in the coming months, tickets will go on sale for the fall production of Waiting for Godot on Broadway — a new production starring Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves — and I swear to you right now, I am already ready to hit the “buy” button. I first read Samuel

The Coup

That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary. There wasn't even any rioting in the streets. People stayed home at night, watching television, looking for some direction. There wasn't even an enemy you could put your finger on. – Margaret Atwood, The

Cold War Creativity and Sputnik Moments

“DeepSeek R1,” venture capitalist Marc Andreessen declared last week, “is AI’s Sputnik moment.” And as Sputnik – in its original 1957 instantiation and in its subsequent and repeated invocations – has always shaped education policy, particularly in regard to ed-tech, I thought I’d better say something. But one of the

AI Foreclosure

"AI Will Empower Humanity," says Reid Hoffman, venture capitalist, OpenAI funder, co-founder of Linkedin, and member (along with Peter Thiel, David O. Sacks, and Elon Musk) of the "PayPal Mafia." (Related, from The Guardian's Chris McGreal: "How the roots of the ‘PayPal mafia’

"Your Job Here is to Realign the Stargate"

Ideally, on Monday mornings, I've got an essay for you. (Schedule of events here at Second Breakfast: Monday’s newsletter: essay, most of it for paid subscribers; Friday’s: the week’s news, yay! the news!, for everyone.) Although the word “essay” comes from the French essayer (to

AI Unleashed

One of the things I told myself when I decided to return to writing about education technology was that, thanks to therapy (and, no doubt, to leaving social media), I’d learned how to better manage my emotions around the onslaught of very-bad-news. This week has been a real test.

"AI Literacy" and the Pedagogy of the Oppressor

“AI Literacy.” We’re going to be hearing a lot about this in the coming months, I reckon, as various ed-tech consultants and entrepreneurs hustle to capitalize on the generative AI hype – before the next “AI winter” sets in, at least.  Tacking the word “literacy” to the tail-end of the

Venture-Backed Conspiracies

I regret to inform you that Paul Graham, investor and founder of the startup training program Y Combinator, has published a new essay: "The Origins of Wokeness." You can tell the political bent of his screed by the invocation of "woke," no doubt. But at this

Bad Traffic

Congestion pricing finally went into effect in New York City last week, over 15 years since the idea was first proposed. The new program charges a toll on vehicles (capped at $9/day for passenger vehicles) that drive in the central business district of Manhattan – that is, everything south of