Short posts
The best story I’ve seen yet on the Anthropic-Pentagon showdown
President Donald Trump has repeatedly previewed a plan to mandate voter ID and ban mail ballots
Article I, Section 4 of the Constitution assigns power to regulate elections to state legislatures and Congress, with no role for the president.
Chart goes up https://metr.org/
Lovely Paul Ford essay on AI coding, with lots of memorable lines. Worth a read. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/opinion/ai-software.html
More on responsibly using LLMs for journalism -> https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/insider/jeffrey-epstein-files-documents.html?unlocked_article_code=1.L1A.kB27.eHaxpXZlcAPZ&smid=url-share
Stunning reporting from NYT: Meta plans to add facial recognition to its smart classes
Meta’s internal memo said the political tumult in the United States was good timing for the feature’s release.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/technology/meta-facial-recognition-smart-glasses.html
New: Researchers found a clever way to reveal AI biases, like the states with the laziest people, or the cities with the best pizza. Look up your city
The researchers systematically asked an LLM to compare two places, for every combination, resulting in the scores we visualized. Check out the full dataset and paper, by Francisco W. Kerche Matthew Zook and Mark Graham.
Sadly Geoffrey A. Fowler was among the hundreds of journalists that The Post laid off last week. A massive loss. But he is continuing his coverage in a newly launched newsletter. Give that a follow!
New: How the federal government is using AI
Trump set off a surge of AI in the federal government. See what happened.
Sickening to believe this is how stuff works today
“Unconscionable,” Jon thought as he found an email address online for the lead prosecutor, Joseph Dernbach, who was named in the story. Peering through metal-rimmed glasses, Jon opened Gmail on his computer monitor.
“Mr. Dernbach, don’t play Russian roulette with H’s life,” he wrote. “Err on the side of caution. There’s a reason the US government along with many other governments don’t recognise the Taliban. Apply principles of common sense and decency.”
That was it. In five minutes, Jon said, he finished the note, signed his first and last name, pressed send and hoped his plea would make a difference.
Five hours and one minute later, Jon was watching TV with his wife when an email popped up in his inbox. He noticed it on his phone.
“Google,” the message read, “has received legal process from a Law Enforcement authority compelling the release of information related to your Google Account.”
Listed below was the type of legal process: “subpoena.” And below that, the authority: “Department of Homeland Security.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2026/02/03/homeland-security-administrative-subpoena/