Lorax B. Horne 𓂆

My heroes are the people who get up every day and build their tent, collect water to give to their neighbours, try to teach something to children who have been out of school for two years hiding from bombs and bullets. These people, are remarkable: chuffed.org/project/116311…

@jasminewsun @TheAtlantic My condolences. The Atlantic is where journalism goes to die.

Personal news: I’m joining @TheAtlantic as a contributing writer! It drives me nuts how wide of an understanding gap there is between SF AI world and everywhere else — especially given the immense public stakes. There's so much AI hype, anxiety, and misinformation; so doing translation and synthesis feels more important than ever. (This role is in addition to Subst*ck, where I’ll keep writing at the same cadence.) I'm using this excuse to share some rambly media thoughts: namely that tech journalism can & must be great again. The problem with “old media” is that it often refuses to take tech bros at their word, and the problem with “new media” is that it’s often just advertising, which is boring even for the subjects. There’s a doom loop where some reporters write poorly-informed stories, so insiders won’t talk to them, so sourcing is worse; not to mention that most journalists are not based in the communities they cover. This makes people bad-faith, but it also means a lot of AI reporting is 6-12 months behind. Yes, fantastic blogs/podcasts abound — these are the bulk of my info diet — but they are largely insiders talking to insiders, too niche to recommend to policymakers or smart non-AI friends. These fractures are a disaster for shared public knowledge, and make us less prepared to navigate AI well. Magazine writing offers the ability to rise above of the hourly play-by-play (squinting at every new model release, every new jobs report) and to the bigger questions. I actually think the most impactful AI writing has *months*, not days of longevity! Rather than over-anchoring to any particular forecast, it offers generalized frames for operating under uncertainty. A few types of pieces I’m especially keen to write: 1) AI culture: A few people’s idiosyncratic personal beliefs regularly change the world. It thus matters tremendously how AI builders view their work, politics, philosophy, and the future. I think most individuals in the AI industry are good and want their tech to do good. Journalists can portray AI workers’ earnest beliefs while being appropriately skeptical of how that can clash with or be shaped by industry incentives, and how it might diverge from the public. "Smart people confront hard moral/intellectual problem" is one of my favorite genres. 2) AI diffusion: AI discourse disproportionately focuses on its impact on software and writing because those are the jobs the messengers do (obviously I’m guilty of this). That makes me want to do more field reporting on AI in education, manufacturing, healthcare, etc: e.g. can I ride along with a team trying to integrate AI tutors into a school? Diffusion is rarely as smooth as economic models predict, and “how AI will go” depends largely on the speed, and where it hits first. Relatedly: AI in the non-western world. 3) AI superusers: Polls show people are highly anxious about AI’s speculative effects but sanguine about their personal use. I think more people should experiment with AI to feel both the pace of progress *and* its jagged edges. While AI can produce slop/surveillance/etc, it can also extend human ability & creativity. I want to paint portraits of people already “living in the future" so we can ask: is that a life we want? The tech is here, but we can choose how to relate to it. If you have ideas/feedback/etc my DMs are open, and my Signal is jws.27. For me 1-1 conversations are *not* on the record unless we say so. (I always thought this was a weird norm, and in general am happy to answer people's questions about “how journalism works” from my POV because it can be quite opaque.) (also I'm replacing my blurry macbook selfie with a b&w portrait profile picture to signify reluctant induction into the label of "capital-j Journalist.” I spent most of last year pretending to be funemployed, but I suppose this is graduation. end of an era!)

Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon kills 3 journalists covering the war ctvnews.ca/world/mideast-…

Real feminism includes trans women.

Canada used spies, infiltration and physical and electronic surveillance against George Manuel—one of the most widely respected First Nations leaders in modern history, documents show. The secret agent was code numbered A-828. cbc.ca/news/indigenou…

The FT is hiring a correspondent for our Investigations team. Contact me if you want to discuss the role. Deadline is April 12 job-boards.eu.greenhouse.io/financialtimes…

🚨⚡️Newsflash: Protesting with ketchup is still not criminal in Canada and London police are bullies. Crown office takes 16 months, spanking by judge before they figure it out. Genocide and supporting it still is a crime, though, in case any of them are looking for honest work...

The @AP is now calling Israel’s military actions in southern Lebanon an invasion. Here's why we made that decision: apnews.com/article/iran-l…

I am not an extremist, but if you use "moreover" three times on a page I am editing, I *will* physically throw a copy of Strunk and White at you from across the room.

We cloned Google Calendar, but it's Jeffrey Epstein's schedule from the past 20 years. We're calling it JCal.

@wickdchiq The UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery has pointed out that Canada's Temporary Foreign Worker programs is a modern form of slavery. Canada isn't just in favour of the historic transatlantic slave trade, we are actively profiting from modern slavery.

What Canada abstaining from this vote tells me is that they don’t think the transatlantic slave trade is that much of a crime

He knows what he's doing (and that we won't be able to help ourselves)

Respectability aside, how has Jesse "hitting a new low" impacted his overall reach? Increase or decrease? How much time have we wasted engaging him on substance with diminishing returns while Zionists flood the zone? Get it?

We're losing our charter rights while you're busy dunking on Jesse to feel better. Sorry but he has a goal

Jesse Brown has breached Canadian containment and is getting dunked on internationally

@JesseBrown @TheAtlantic Your inability to see Palestinian people as human, has tanked your journalism, and your brain it seems. The people who are actually being pogromed, are Palestinians, in Palestine. Privileged upper class doctors and business owners in Toronto are going to survive just fine.

I wrote a piece for @TheAtlantic about how Jews are being purged from public life. I call it the Polite Pogrom. theatlantic.com/international/…

This piece is paywalled, and I would never ever give the Atlantic a dime, but the essay begins its claim that Canadian Jews are being "purged from public life" with the story of a Jewish professor of medicine who quit teaching because he was offended by students' and colleagues statements about Israel. That's not being "purged from public life." That's deciding you can't tolerate criticism of a foreign country to which you have an irrational attachment. By the way, as a half Palestinian, I can assure you I've had to hear MUCH worse about Palestinians and Muslims at workplaces and at school, and it never occurred to me to quit and cry victim.

Lush taking the lead

New cover. Devastation story from @MushtahaW, produced in partnership with Palestine Reporting Lab

You all need to stop focusing on Poilievere. Carney is already implementing conservative austerity

I’m begging reporters covering the Georgia abortion arrest: STOP TRUSTING COPS