Contempt imposes; grace discovers
Washington DC
Joined May 2009
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Rachel Anderson retweeted
When I was at the FTC, one of my jobs was to build our first interdisciplinary team to look at the impact of tech on kids' mental health. I remember to this day a study that asked 6 to 10 year olds if they could be "friends" with Alexa.
Two out of three said "Yes."
This was Alexa in 2021, pre-AI. Children are trusting, and they trust us to take care of them. They have a very hard time distinguishing between what is real and what is not, especially with things that they cannot see or touch.
Children won't just over-rely on Gemini. They will think it is their friend, and they will grow emotionally dependent on it. Look at the research on Replika and Character AI: Fully grown adults are falling in love with chatbots, they are "marrying" and "having kids" with these chatbots. And again, those are adults.
Google is often portrayed as being more "mature" or "grown up" than other tech companies because they have more lawyers and policy staff. This decision is as dark and irresponsible as anything we've seen from any tech company, including Meta, Open AI or Anthropic.
Rachel Anderson retweeted
A general principle: when you interact with AIs, you should know that you are interacting with AIs.
Tech like this that helps disguise AI makes us all worse off.
Working on camouflaging AI use should be viewed as unethical. This doesn't help anyone.
The whole point of building Tavus has been simple: talking to a machine should feel as natural as talking to a friend or coworker.
It’s hard to describe all the tiny nuances that make a conversation feel human. The little expressions. Moving around in your chair. Knowing when to speak and when to listen. The dance of it all.
Griffin is by far the closest anyone has come to a model that can capture those nuances. The first time I saw it being used, I had no idea I was watching our model rather than just a normal video call.
I’m so incredibly proud of this team and what they’ve built.
Rachel Anderson retweeted
Very pleased to have a new article out in @thedispatch today on the impact of sports betting on families.
We think of sports betting as mainly impacting the bettor, but it has an enormous impact on spouses and children as well.
In particular, in households that are already financially precarious, sports betting can push a family over the edge.
Online sports betting is particularly pernicious, because it is so frictionless - you can do it easily on your phone, influenced by a barrage of ads.
Rachel Anderson retweeted
The piece is based on original research and polling we conducted on families with children under 18. I was extremely struck personally by this result from our commissioned survey, which shows a significant percentage of these families are cutting back on essentials to cover bets.
Rachel Anderson retweeted
My government experience/research take: the key AI regulatory levers to focus on are 1) scope of agency power; 2) procedural constraints and mechanisms; 3) coordination with tort system/private enforcement.
Many are focused on independence. This is a chimera and a mistake, IMO.
Rachel Anderson retweeted
Please remember there are two separate questions here:
1) Should low- and moderate-income families with young children be able to get public $ for child care if they have a stay-at-home parent?
2) If so, should that $ come out of an already-inadequate fund that currently can only cover a fraction of eligible low- and moderate-income families with young children who have all available parents working outside the home?
It’s entirely reasonable to say yes to (1) and no to (2); if the Administration was proposing additional child care funding, it would be a substantively different conversation!
(There’s also a 1b about whether those families should have to be married in order to get support, but IMO that’s secondary to the core philosophical question.)
Rachel Anderson retweeted
Friend of mine signed up online to bring donuts to his son's classroom and was offered a $25 credit to gamble on Kalshi because of course.
Rachel Anderson retweeted
You have a role to play in elections.
Serve as a poll worker. Watch them test the election equipment. In many states, you can even monitor the voting and counting.
Transparency, checks, balances are built in. Get involved - as millions of your neighbors already are.
Rachel Anderson retweeted
.@colonialwmsburg is hiring a historian of religious liberty for a three-year, grant-funded position.
Rachel Anderson retweeted
Detail from inside the gutting of the Washington Post:
300 journalists or so will be fired this AM at 8:30 AM (right now…).
They’ll be cut off from newsroom computer access at 9 AM.
Word got out about this yesterday afternoon.
Dozens of reporters & journalists worked late last night & early this AM to finish stories they had in process before being shut out.
That’s who works at the Post. No surprise.
<I interviewed these people — this is a good, valuable story. Let me just get it done…before I lose my job & worry about how to pay my rent.>
One last story.
— 30 —
Rachel Anderson retweeted
Patrick Schiltz, chief judge of the District of Minnesota. is a conservative stalwart. He's fed up with ICE's failure to comply with "dozens of court orders" in recent weeks.
"The Court's patience is at an end.... The Court acknowledges that ordering the head of a federal agency to personally appear is an extraordinary step, but the extent of ICE's violation of court orders is likewise extraordinary, and lesser measures have been tried and failed."
This Post is from a suspended account. Learn more
Congress declined to pass a moratorum on state regulation of AI this summer and yet ...
The draft order, obtained by WIRED, instructs the US Justice Department to sue states that pass laws regulating AI. wired.com/story/trump-prepar…
Rachel Anderson retweeted
BREAKING: In response to ICE's refusal to allow detained migrants to receive the Eucharist, Pope Leo XIV calls on President Trump and Vice President Vance to respect the dignity and religious liberty of migrants in the United States.
“The authorities must allow pastoral workers to assist with the needs of these people. Many times they have been separated from their families and no one knows what happens.”
Rachel Anderson retweeted
I reached out to a White House spokesperson for comment. They said “the pope doesn't know what he’s talking about.”
BREAKING: In response to ICE's refusal to allow detained migrants to receive the Eucharist, Pope Leo XIV calls on President Trump and Vice President Vance to respect the dignity and religious liberty of migrants in the United States.
“The authorities must allow pastoral workers to assist with the needs of these people. Many times they have been separated from their families and no one knows what happens.”
So many of the talking points remind me of predatory (read: addiction and/or debt-cycle) financial products circa 1990s and 2000s
Rachel Anderson retweeted
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox is making an impassioned plea for Americans and young people to use the horror of Charlie Kirk's public assassination as an inflection point to turn the country away from political violence and division. apnews.com/article/utah-gove…
My friend Dan Norrell, from an Iowa farm family, asking @SenJoniErnst @ChuckGrassley to reject a recissions package that cuts international assistance.
"Iowans respond with compassion and generosity to those in need...International aid brings the best of America to the world."
