In a lengthy eulogy, the Washington Post explains DEI departments and nonprofits throughout Silicon Valley are collapsing as industry sentiment shifts — against diversity, they argue, though I believe it’s more a shift against race- and sex-based discrimination following the Supreme Court’s ruling that, yes, this is still illegal. But tomato, tomahto. Much more fascinating was the Post’s lamentation that diversity in tech hasn’t changed much over the last decade… despite the existence of, and millions in funding for, all of these DEI programs. Oops, question answered. We often lose ourselves in arguments over whether or not it’s racist to not be racist (the DEI people say yes). But in tech, an industry that values merit, there’s another piece of information worth considering: what did these programs actually accomplish? Other than annoy me, it turns out not much. Farewell, terrible people. Better luck in grad school.

Jo Boaler, the Stanford professor behind California’s infamous new K-12 math curriculum, recently published a new book, Math-ish. In typical Boaler form, it’s chock-full of vague, misleading or outright erroneous assertions about numbers — including, somehow, a table of incorrectly multiplied fractions (my personal favorite). Twitter has been quick to angrily pile on Boaler for her flagrant innumeracy. But is it really a surprise? We’re talking about a woman who hoodwinked a crop of San Franciscans — probably by dint of her British accent — into implementing “equity-based math” in their public schools for nearly a decade. We’re talking about a woman who co-hosts webinars with a serial scammer-slash-disgraced reality TV star. We’re talking, in other words, about an entirely unserious person. Spare yourselves the rage and approach her work as comedy; ultimately, that’s where its enduring value lies.

Victor Miller, a mayoral candidate in Cheyenne, Wyoming, is vowing to run the city exclusively with an AI chatbot called “VIC” — Virtual Integrated Citizen — if he wins his election this November. Miller, who says he is simply a “meat avatar” for the real AI candidate, has faced pushback from both OpenAI, which prohibits use of their technology for campaigning, as well as state officials, who argue candidates need to be real (lame). It’s worth noting constituents who submitted policy questions to VIC have been impressed by the thorough responses they’ve received, which is better than we can say for most politicians, and why I say let VIC run the city, dammit. In the end, it will probably make government more efficient. And remember, Joe Biden already broke the opaque ceiling on the whole “our politicians need to be sentient” quandary. We did it, Joe. You walked (well, stumbled) so VIC could run.

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pirate wires #125 // america goes cuckoo for coconut, VCs for kamala, war on the “substance demanders,” EU moves for global censorship, and how the world has changed since we’ve been vibing

this week, the crew talks elon interviewing trump on spaces and the media’s reaction. plus: the eu and the uk crack down on speech, colbert’s cnn comments draw laughs, and “math is racist” professor jo boaler’s new book faces scrutiny

a new labour government is flexing its muscles after a decade and a half out of power, during which time the internet grew exponentially, but british control over the internet didn’t

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