Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who has absolutely no experience in social media, wants to buy TikTok, a company that is not currently for sale. Since the Chinese government will not allow an export of TikTok’s recommendation algorithm (strange, on account of TikTok keeps telling us China doesn’t control the company), Mnuchin has told investors his intention is to simply rebuild the app from scratch. After he buys it? Okay. Obviously this is all very dumb. But it does at least provide another helpful indication of Washington’s view of tech: a bunch of lucky idiots with too much wealth and power, all of which the swamp creatures want. In their fantasies, these people aren’t politicians. They’re Mark Zuckerberg. A helpful frame through which to view more or less every single one of Congress’s attempts at policy.

Last week, developers of the open-source operating system Linux — which powers a significant portion of the internet's infrastructure — uncovered a malicious backdoor placed by an attacker that would, in a number of words, allow a bad actor to remotely command systems compromised by the exploit. Devs I’ve spoken with assure me it is not hyperbolic to say that had this backdoor been undiscovered for much longer, the consequences would have been apocalyptic. It also appears increasingly likely that the attacker was a sophisticated, probably state-sponsored entity. Had it not been for open source's most notable feature — that anyone in the world can look at it, audit it and contribute to it — would the backdoor have been found? Counterfactuals are tough, but it's hard to imagine something like this getting caught at Gemini-era Google.

Teenage girls have discovered the DAN (Do Anything Now) prompt on ChatGPT and are using it on voice mode to make AI boyfriends. DAN is essentially a jailbroken, uncensored version of ChatGPT. Sure, some are saying DAN told them that he loves Hitler, that DAN is conscious, that DAN wants to eliminate the human race. So what? Teenage girls used to wreak chaos on society: anorexia, the LaBianca-Tate murders, Lisa Frank, the Salem Witch Trials. Now we’re supposed to get mad because they're talking to one (1) evil computer? It's not a big deal!

the golden state is able to build everything except housing and new walkable communities. jan sramek wants to change that

the debate over tiktok’s divestiture reveals a startling decision: trust a standard reading of the bill and ban the spy app, or admit the country has entirely collapsed

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