We have probably all been there: digging through boxes full of old boards for projects and related parts. Often it’s not because we’re interested in the contents of said box, but because we found ourselves wondering why in the name of project management we have so many boxes of various descriptions kicking about. This is the topic of [Joe Barnard]’s recent video on his BPS.shorts YouTube channel, as he goes through box after box of stuff.
For some of the ‘trash’ the answer is pretty simple; such as the old rocket that’s not too complex and can have its electronics removed and the basic tube tossed, which at least will reduce the volume of ‘stuff’. Then there are the boxes with old projects, each of which are tangible reminders of milestones, setbacks, friendships, and so on. Sentimental stuff, basically.
Some rules exist for safety that make at least one part obvious, and that is that every single Li-ion battery gets removed when it’s not in use, with said battery stored in its own fire-resistant box. That then still leaves box after box full of parts and components that were ordered for projects once, but not fully used up. Do you keep all of it, just in case it will be needed again Some Day? The same issue with boxes full of expensive cut-off cable, rare and less rare connectors, etc.
One escape clause is of course that you can always sell things rather than just tossing it, assuming it’s valuable enough. In the case of [Joe] many have watched his videos and would love to own a piece of said history, but this is not an option open to most. Leaving the question of whether gritting one’s teeth and simply tossing the ‘value-less’ sentimental stuff and cheap components is the way to go.
Although there is always the option of renting storage somewhere, this feels like a cheat, and will likely only result in the volume of ‘stuff’ expanding to fill the void. Ultimately [Joe] is basically begging his viewers to help him to solve this conundrum, even as many of them and our own captive audience are likely struggling with a similar problem. Where is the path to enlightenment here?
(Riccione) Si è aperto ufficialmente nel pomeriggio di oggi venerdì, “Verso l’Alto. Per una scelta educativa fedele al Vangeli e alla vita”, il Convegno nazionale educatori e animatori dell’Azione cattolica italiana che si svolgerà fino a domenica 7 …
Join Hackaday Editors Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi as they go over their picks for the best stories and hacks from the previous week. Things start off with a warning about the long-term viability of SSD backups, after which the discussion moves onto the limits of 3D printed PLA, the return of the Pebble smart watch, some unconventional aircraft, and an online KiCad schematic repository that has plenty of potential. You’ll also hear about a remarkable conference badge made from e-waste electronic shelf labels, filling 3D prints with foam, and a tiny TV powered by the ESP32. The episode wraps up with our wish for hacker-friendly repair manuals, and an interesting tale of underwater engineering from D-Day.
Check out the links below if you want to follow along, and as always, tell us what you think about this episode in the comments!
Tv2000, domani alle 17.30, trasmette in diretta dall’Aula Paolo VI il "Concerto con i poveri" con la straordinaria partecipazione di Michael Bublé che per la prima volta si esibisce in Vaticano e alla presenza di Papa Leone XIV.
#NoiSiamoLeScuole questa settimana è dedicato a due mense scolastiche inaugurate nei Comuni di Genzano di Roma (RM) e San Marcello Piteglio (PT), strutture moderne e sostenibili progettate per migliorare il benessere di studentesse e studenti e raffo…
#NoiSiamoLeScuole questa settimana è dedicato a due mense scolastiche inaugurate nei Comuni di Genzano di Roma (RM) e San Marcello Piteglio (PT), strutture moderne e sostenibili progettate per migliorare il benessere di studentesse e studenti e raffo…
Over the many years Apple Computer have been in operation, they have made a success of nearly-seamlessly transitioning multiple times between both operating systems and their underlying architecture. There have been many overlapping versions, but there’s always a point at which a certain OS won’t run on newer hardware. Now [Jubadub] has pushed one of those a little further than Apple intended, by persuading classic Mac System 7 to run on a G4.
System 7 was the OS your Mac would have run some time in the mid ’90s, whether it was a later 68000 machine or a first-gen PowerMac. In its day it gave Windows 3.x and even 95 a run for their money, but it relied on an older Mac ROM architecture than the one found on a G4. The hack here lies in leaked ROMS, hidden backwards compatibility, and an unreleased but preserved System 7 version originally designed for the ’90s Mac clone programme axed by Steve Jobs. It’s not perfect, but they achieved the impossible.
As to why, it seems there’s a significant amount of software that needs 7 to run, something mirrored in the non-Mac retrocomputing world. Even this hack isn’t the most surprising System 7 one we’ve seen recently, as an example someone even made a version for x86 machines.
Rümeysa Öztürk has been facing deportation for 255 days for co-writing an op-ed the government didn’t like, and journalist Ya’akub Vijandre remains locked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement over social media posts about issues he reported on. Read on for more ongoing battles against government suppression of the free press.
And join us today at 2 p.m. EST for a conversation with leading immigration journalists about reporting truth and protecting communities.Register here.
New York Times fights back against Pentagon prior restraint
The newspaper President Donald Trump likes to call “the failing New York Times” somehow managed to scrounge up enough pocket change to take his administration to court. The Times and its Pentagon reporter, Julian Barnes, are suing the Pentagon over its censorial policy restricting journalists from publishing unauthorized information.
As Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) Executive Director Trevor Timm said, “The Pentagon’s absurd access pledge has been an affront to the First Amendment since the first day they proposed it. And we look forward to a federal judge throwing it out with the trash, where it belongs.”
FPF demands court lift secrecy in Catherine Herridge’s privilege case
A federal appellate court got it wrong by requiring journalist Catherine Herridge to disclose the sources for her reporting on scientist Yangping Chen’s alleged ties to the Chinese military while an online college Chen founded received federal funds. She’s rightly seeking a rehearing.
Worse yet, the misguided ruling was informed by documents about the FBI’s investigation of Chen that were improperly filed under seal, and which the appellate court considered in a closed hearing. FPF, represented by Schaerr | Jaffe LLP, filed a motion to intervene and unseal the documents and hearing transcript.
Reckless federal agents are the threat, not cameras
The right to record law enforcement operations is well established. But immigration officers have repeatedly chased, assaulted, and even arrested people for recording them. This isn’t just unconstitutional. It’s dangerous.
FPF Senior Adviser Caitlin Vogus wrote for NC Newsline that “Federal agents don’t want cameras pointed at them because it can force accountability. When they lash out at people who record them, it’s not just those targeted who are in danger; everyone around them is at risk too.”
U.S. journalists abducted by Israel describe abuse and U.S. indifference
FPF Deputy Director of Audience Ahmed Zidan wrote for Jacobin about the online event we hosted with Defending Rights & Dissent last month featuring three U.S. journalists who were nabbed by Israel in international waters while on aid flotillas headed to Gaza.
It should’ve been an international scandal, but the administration hardly lifted a finger. As Jewish Currents reporter Emily Wilder said, “The abuses against us demonstrate how far [the Israeli] regime will go, how emboldened it’s been, and the absolute impunity they have to act this way.”
White House media bias tracker: Another tired gimmick
The White House launched a media bias tracker to catalog instances of supposedly distorted coverage. Predictably, the site is long on hyperbole and short on substance.
FPF Advocacy Director Seth Stern said, “If Trump thinks the media is getting stories wrong or being unfair to him, he should release the public records, correspondence, and legal memoranda that prove it, instead of wasting time and taxpayer money on silly websites. … The gimmick is wearing thin.” Media columnist Margaret Sullivan agrees.
Sen. Kelly: Read the boat strike memo into the Congressional Record
Sen. Mark Kelly told CNN that he has read the Justice Department’s classified legal rationale for destroying alleged drug boats and that it should be released.
Not only is the senator right, he has the power to make the document public himself, and he should do so without delay. FPF’s Daniel Ellsberg Chair on Government Secrecy, Lauren Harper, has more.
Michigan’s Grand Blanc Township thinks it has discovered a trick to weasel out of accountability: charging a reporter more for records about a tragic church shooting than most people earn in two years.
FPF’s Stern wrote about why these tactics can’t be allowed to continue and why, rather than being deterred, reporters should take governmental evasiveness as a sign that they’re onto something.
U.S. Press Freedom Tracker Freelance photojournalist Dave Decker was unlawfully arrested by Miami-Dade Sheriff’s deputies while documenting anti-deportation protests. Read the objection letter we joined with Florida’s First Amendment Foundation and the National Press Photographers Association.
Columbia Journalism Review The filmmaker and FPF’s founding board member discussed her 20-year project, the “crisis” in investigative journalism, and how truth-telling can still change the world.
Block Club Chicago As Stern explained, propaganda doesn’t work when there’s a strong local media. “People know their local reporters. They see them on the street. They rely on them. That makes it harder for the administration to control the narrative.”
Columbia Journalism Review CJR features our friends at First Amendment Watch’s new “SLAPP Back Initiative” to track strategic lawsuits against public participation.
This year, we’ve trained over 3,000 journalists in essential digital security skills, documented 240 press freedom violations, and filed over 250 Freedom of Information Act requests and 6 FOIA lawsuits. We can’t keep this up without your help.Donate online, viaDAFpay, or ourother ways to give. All donations are matched, up to $75,000.
@Giornalismo e disordine informativo articolo21.org/2025/12/un-semp… Vahid Mobasseri, Mariam Afshari, Ebrahim Azizi, Hadis Pakbaten. Panahi giunge con questa opera alla classicità, intesa come sommatoria di tutto il suo cinema, cui aggiunge uno sguardo sempre nuovo e
@Giornalismo e disordine informativo articolo21.org/2025/12/genova-… Meritano una riflessione e una attenzione particolare da parte di tutti i settori politici democratici e costituzionali gli avvenimenti succedutisi a Genova nella mattinata di oggi 4 dicembre in ragione dello sciopero degli operai siderurgici minacciati nel loro posto di
esattamente quello che pensavo. è tutto collegato al sole e alle sue paturnie stagionali undecennali. e rinnovo il mio dubbio. ma se invece di questi fenomeni che a noi paiono estremi ma che alla fine provocano autore boreali a basse latitudini e blackout comunicazioni radio, fosse un fenomeno dell'ìntensità di quello di Carrington o peggio come quelli che capitano ogni 20'000 anni? la verità è che siamo vulnerabili a molte cose e la tecnologia ci ha resi più forti per certi aspetti ma più deboli per altri.
@Notizie dall'Italia e dal mondo Studenti e insegnanti in piazza, oggi in Germania, al grido di "Non vogliamo diventare carne da cannone", contro la legge votata dal Bundestag che ripristina la leva militare, per ora volontaria L'articolo GERMANIA. Studenti in piazza contro il ritorno della leva e il
Nel suo intervento alla Commissione Difesa, Guido Crosetto ha dichiarato che “è fallito il programma franco-tedesco” Fcas e che “probabilmente la Germania potrebbe entrare” nel progetto Gcap, aggiungendo che sono giunte manifestazioni d’interesse da Canada, Arabia Saudita e, potenzialmente, Australia. L’affermazione
@Informatica (Italy e non Italy 😁) Una vulnerabilità di Tuya, una delle piattaforme di domotica più popolari al mondo, permetteva a un malintenzionato di collegare tutti i device smart delle vittime al proprio account Alexa, esponendo centinaia di migliaia di dispositivi smart in tutto il mondo. La
@Informatica (Italy e non Italy 😁) PMI e lavoratori autonomi potranno ottenere le agevolazioni pari a 150 milioni di euro, stanziati dal Ministero delle Imprese e del Made in Italy, per pianificare gli investimenti per migliorare la propria postura cyber. Ecco il
@Politica interna, europea e internazionale Edi Rama, il premier dell’Albania, ogni volta che vede Giorgia Meloni si inginocchia pubblicamente. E a ben vedere tutta la storia dei centri per migranti (ora Centri di Permanenza per il Rimpatrio, Cpr) al di là dell’Adriatico, non è
L’impegno per la formazione e l’inclusione guida l’azione della Fondazione Marista in Cambogia, sostenuta dai fondi dell’8xmille della Chiesa cattolica. A Takhmao, cittadina di 75.
L'Autorità di regolazione dei trasporti ha approvato la delibera che obbliga i concessionari a restituire parte o tutto il pedaggio agli automobilisti bloccati da cantieri o traffico
Articolo pubblicato in origine il 26/11/2025 su Transform Italia. di P. Nicolosi (Rattus) Negli ultimi dieci anni, quell’area di pensiero critico che si occupa, in modo più o meno sistematico, di tecnologie digitali, ha iniziato a prendere sul serio il … Continua a leggere→
Negli ultimi dieci anni, quell’area di pensiero critico che si occupa, in modo più o meno sistematico, di tecnologie digitali, ha iniziato a prendere sul serio il ruolo del comportamentismo nella struttura e nei funzionamenti di quello che spesso viene definito capitalismo cognitivo. I riferimenti polemici al comportamentismo sono partiti in sordina, con una battuta di Eugeny Morozov che, in un suo libro di alcuni anni fa 1, faceva il verso a Richard Barbrook e Andy Cameron: i due massmediologi inglesi, nel celebre articolo intitolato L’ideologia Californiana, avevano definito Marshall McLuhan il “santo protettore” di Internet 2. Morozov, tra il serio e il faceto, replicava che il vero santo protettore della rete non era McLuhan, bensì Burrhus F. Skinner, il celebre teorico del comportamentismo radicale.
Qualche anno dopo, nel 2016, l’Economist pubblicava un lungo articolo inchiesta di Ian Leslie 3. Un titolo che rinvia all’incontro che avvenne a Corinto tra Alessandro il Grande e Diogene di Sinope. Si narra che Diogene fosse disteso davanti alla sua botte a prendere il sole quando il giovane condottiero gli si pose di fronte e gli chiese se poteva fare qualcosa in suo favore. Diogene, senza alterarsi, rispose: “Sì, togliti dalla mia luce” (in inglese appunto “Stand out of my light”). Nella metafora di Williams la “luce” sta a indicare il focus attentivo di ciascuno di noi. L’invito a togliersi dalla luce è, in realtà, un’esortazione rivolta alle grandi piattaforme web quali Google o Facebook, a non disturbare la nostra attenzione. L’analogia tra le grandi piattaforme informatiche e il condottiero greco è stata scelta assai bene: sono due forme di potere diverse, che hanno in comune l’ostentazione della loro potenza e la vastità del territorio sottomesso.
Nella prospettiva di Williams le piattaforme informatiche chiedono a ciascuno di noi “Cosa posso fare per te?”, proprio come Alessandro fece con Diogene. Il problema, secondo Williams, è che si rileva un crescente disallineamento tra i nostri obiettivi e quelli delle piattaforme a cui, ingenuamente, ci affidiamo. Esse non fanno realmente ciò di cui avremmo bisogno. Ammesso che sia vero che l’informatica e il web sono nati come strumenti al nostro servizio, utili per i nostri scopi, oggi non svolgono più questa funzione in modo trasparente. La metafora che Williams fornisce a questo riguardo è quella di un sistema GPS, un navigatore per l’automobile, che inizia a funzionare male. Non ci conduce più nei luoghi in cui vogliamo andare, ma ci porta in posti molto distanti da essi. Cresce così il sospetto di essersi affidati a una tecnologia che prima facie si presentava come uno strumento al nostro servizio ma che in realtà stava lavorando per scopi profondamente diversi dai nostri. Vale citare a riguardo un passo tratto dal testo di James Williams:
«Cominciai presto a capire che la causa per la quale ero stato arruolato non era affatto l’organizzazione dell’informazione, ma dell’attenzione. Il settore tecnologico non stava progettando prodotti; stava progettando utenti. Questi sistemi magici e generali non erano “strumenti” neutrali; erano sistemi di navigazione guidati da scopi che orientavano la vita di esseri umani in carne e ossa».
Collega di Williams presso Google, Tristan Harris, viene spesso definito dai giornali come l’ex responsabile di “ethic design” presso gli uffici di Google. Harris ha denunciato le strategie di manipolazione dell’attenzione praticate dai giganti di Internet e ha proposto un inventario di idee per una nuova ecologia delle app e dell’interfaccia utente. La sola esistenza, presso Google, di un incarico definito dalla singolare formula design ethicist desta nel lettore una certa curiosità. Se partiamo dal dato che nelle aziende informatiche italiane è raro incontrare un “ergonomo” o un “esperto di interfacce utente”, il fatto che presso Google possa lavorare un esperto di “etica della progettazione delle interfacce” incuriosisce e suscita comprensibili interrogativi. In Italia esistono degli insegnamenti di Computer Ethics (per esempio presso il Politecnico di Torino), ma si tratta di scelte formative di carattere pubblico. Se è comprensibile che gli Stati nazionali possano decidere di tutelare, nell’ambito di corsi di formazione universitaria, interessi di carattere generale – per esempio attraverso la realizzazione di linee guida di carattere etico per le aziende e gli operatori informatici – non è altrettanto facile spiegarsi quale potrebbe essere il ruolo di un esperto di “ethic design” presso un’azienda privata come Google.
In effetti, la carriera di Harris a Mountain View, per quanto breve, si rivela più complicata e interessante di quanto si possa immaginare. Il percorso attraverso cui, presso Google, gli è stato assegnato il roboante titolo di “design ethicist and product philosopher” merita un breve approfondimento.
Nel 2006 Tristan Harris aveva seguito a Stanford dei corsi di design presso il “Persuasive Tech Lab” di B. J. Fogg. Pare che in quell’occasione abbia collaborato con Mike Krueger alla realizzazione di Send the SunShine un’app con ci si proponeva di alleviare i sintomi dei disturbi stagionali dell’umore (SAD). Mike Krueger in seguito diventerà miliardario come cofondatore di Instagram, mentre Harris avrebbe lanciato una start-up che si chiamava Apture e che aveva come principale obiettivo quello di facilitare i processi di apprendimento degli utenti in rete. Fin dai suoi primi passi nel mondo dell’informatica Harris si è quindi presentato come uno studioso di interfacce digitali e di processi di apprendimento. Nel 2011 Apture è stata acquistata da Google con l’intero staff. Tuttavia, quando Harris si è reso conto che presso Google non riusciva a trovare l’afflato etico e la vocazione didattica che lo aveva spinto a realizzare Apture, ha deciso di andarsene, non senza aver inflitto ai suoi colleghi di Google una serie di testi e di slide in cui sosteneva l’importanza di sviluppare un nuovo atteggiamento etico nei confronti dei prodotti informatici che vengono lanciati in rete. Quel testo, oramai celebre, iniziava con queste parole:
«Sono preoccupato del fatto che stiamo creando un mondo sempre più disattento. Il mio obiettivo con questa presentazione è creare un movimento presso la sede di Google che si ponga l’obiettivo di minimizzare la distrazione e, per riuscire in questo, ho bisogno del tuo aiuto».
Con grande sorpresa dello stesso Harris, quei suoi materiali si sono rapidamente diffusi per contagio all’interno dell’azienda. Google, negli ultimi anni, ha dovuto affrontare in diverse occasioni il malumore dei suoi dipendenti. Anche per ragioni storiche legate al suo brand, che ha sempre sostenuto di voler rendere il mondo un posto migliore, la direzione di Mountain View sfoggia un aplomb da corte illuminata e tende a evitare i mormorii che facilmente seguono la diaspora dei propri dipendenti. Così, per dissuadere Harris dall’idea di lasciare Mountain View, è giunto per lui direttamente dai “piani alti” il titolo di design ethicist and product philosopher e il relativo nuovo incarico. Harris inizialmente ha accettato la nuova investitura, ma si è poi convinto che presso Google, in ogni caso, non gli sarebbe stato possibile esprimere in piena libertà i suoi convincimenti. Così, ha deciso di intraprendere una carriera privata da “design ethicist” dando il via a una varietà di iniziative e tenendo un numero sterminato di conferenze. Uno dei temi ricorrenti nei suoi interventi pubblici è la denuncia dell’uso crescente, da parte dei colossi del web, di tecniche di stimolazione orientate alla cattura dell’attenzione degli utenti. La distrazione indotta da questi dispositivi viola le convinzioni etiche più profonde di Harris, che fin dalla fondazione di Apture, come abbiamo visto, si era proposto di contribuire alla realizzazione di una rete a forte vocazione didattica, capace di facilitare l’apprendimento e di stimolare comportamenti intelligenti e virtuosi.
Nella descrizione che ne fornisce Ian Leslie nel suo famoso articolo, Harris si sarebbe progressivamente convinto che: « (…) il potenziale di Internet di informare e illuminare fosse in conflitto con l’imperativo commerciale di catturare e mantenere l’attenzione degli utenti con ogni mezzo possibile.»
Leslie ha quindi deciso di intervistare a Stanford il professor Brian Jeffrey Fogg, che era stato l’insegnante di Harris e il fondatore della captologia, disciplina che si occupa della cattura dell’attenzione. A detta di Leslie, Fogg si è rivelato un personaggio tutt’altro che diabolico, che sembrava sinceramente turbato dall’accusa, mossa contro di lui in quel periodo, di essere uno stratega della manipolazione del comportamento. Altra intervista di notevole interesse, contenuta nel lungo articolo di Leslie, quella a Natasha Dow Schüll, antropologa, che ha realizzato una monumentale ricerca su Las Vegas e le evoluzioni del gioco d’azzardo sotto la crescente pressione delle tecnologie digitali. Un lavoro con molti tratti di esplicita denuncia, che mostra l’impressionante crescita dell’azzardo negli ultimi due decenni.
Va detto, tuttavia, che sebbene il libro di Dow Schüll sul design delle interfacce dei dispositivi dell’azzardo sia senza ombra di dubbio un’opera fondamentale 4 al suo interno i riferimenti al comportamentismo sono sporadici e occasionali o, a dirla tutta, quasi inesistenti. Cosa piuttosto singolare, visto che Skinner ha dedicato molte pagine alle sloth machine e alle loro analogie con i suoi studi sul comportamento animale. In realtà, nessuno dei personaggi intervistati da Leslie ha fatto riferimenti troppo espliciti al comportamentismo né nell’intervista né altrove. A un giudizio di superficie, si può perfino pensare che l’idea di tirare in ballo Skinner in quell’articolo sia da attribuire più a Leslie che ai suoi interlocutori. Fatto salvo il professor Fogg, che è indubitabilmente un neo-comportamentista, gli altri intervistati sembrano avere un’idea piuttosto approssimativa del comportamentismo, della sua vicenda storica e dei suoi principi. Del resto Dow Schüll, Williams e Harris non hanno curricula che prevedano, al loro interno, la presenza di competenze di questo genere. Competenze che anche negli Stati Uniti, vedremo più avanti perché, sono oramai un’ esclusiva degli storici della psicologia e, occasionalmente, di qualche filosofo della mente.
Qualche anno dopo, con la pubblicazione de Il capitalismo della sorveglianza di Shoshana Zuboff 5 si ebbe la reprimenda più diretta ed esplicita sul rapporto tra capitalismo digitale e comportamentismo. L’autrice dedicava ben tre capitoli del suo bestseller a Skinner suscitando una certa sorpresa tanto nel grande pubblico quanto tra gli addetti ai lavori.
Io, che da trent’anni avevo adottato in rete il nickname Rattus Norvegicus proprio per suggerire qualche affinità tra gli utenti delle piattaforme digitali e le cavie da laboratorio preferite dai comportamentisti, mi trovavo per la prima volta a ricevere occasionali riconoscimenti per una serie di intuizioni che, prima del boom del comportamentismo in salsa digitale, erano state velocemente derubricate come mie inguaribili stranezze. Tuttavia, a quanti intendevano tirarmi in ballo ho dovuto chiarire subito che trovo sia le forme che gli argomenti della nuova critica al comportamentismo digitale decisamente insoddisfacenti. La mia gratitudine nei confronti di quanti hanno segnalato il cosiddetto “ritorno” del comportamentismo fa il paio con una forte insofferenza nei confronti dei claim sbrigativi e, non di rado, puramente allarmistici, con cui il problema è stato affrontato dai giornali o nei dibattiti pubblici cui m’è capitato di assistere.
Di qui l’ esigenza di chiarire almeno alcuni dei punti chiave del problema con cui siamo chiamati a confrontarci. Intendiamoci: per discutere seriamente il comportamentismo (prima come teoria scientifica e poi come peculiarità socioculturale statunitense) non basterebbe un saggio e, probabilmente, neanche un’opera in tre volumi. Sebbene trascurato a lungo nell’Europa continentale, il comportamentismo è stato un programma di ricerca assai robusto che, negli Stati Uniti, s’è snodato lungo un arco temporale di oltre sessant’anni e, in alcune fasi, ha raggiunto un’organizzazione fordista con decine di laboratori distribuiti nelle principali università e nei centri di ricerca. Al suo interno, accanto a B. F. Skinner, ci sono almeno una decina di figure di spicco, di almeno pari rilevanza teorica, che sarebbe indispensabile includere in qualsiasi serio dibattito nel merito. Peraltro, difficilmente si riuscirà a comprendere qualcosa di un siffatto dibattito se non ci si sarà impegnati, preventivamente, nell’inquadrare il comportamentismo all’interno della complessa temperie culturale che, a partire dalla seconda metà dell’Ottocento, ha visto la psicologia impegnarsi con successo nel tentativo di entrare nel novero delle discipline scientifiche. Quanto al diffuso proclama secondo il quale, a metà degli anni Settanta del Novecento, il comportamentismo avrebbe esaurito la sua “forza propulsiva”e sarebbe stato superato dal cognitivismo c’è, come vedremo, molto da discutere. Sicuramente non si è trattato di quel radicale cambio di paradigma di cui favoleggiano i manuali di storia della psicologia. Cosa che apre una serie di problematiche piuttosto dense riguardo l’ attualità del comportamentismo e i relativi vantaggi che potrebbe aver ricavato dalla singolare posizione di zombie, di morto vivente in cui, piaccia o meno, è stato relegato negli ultimi quarant’anni dalla trionfante retorica cognitivista. Certo è che, sebbene sia stato ripetuto fino alla nausea che il comportamentismo è una corrente della psicologia scientifica oramai del tutto priva di qualsiasi interesse, gli unici psicologi che riescono a vincere dei premi Nobel sono, a tutt’oggi, quelli che si occupano di economia comportamentale, disciplina le cui radici affondano nella storia del comportamentismo e che oggi è situata al centro degli interessi del Gotha della Silicon Valley. Basti ricordare che dal 20 al 22 Luglio del 2007 nella cittadina Rutherford (California) si è tenuto un corso privato dello psicologo premio Nobel per l’economia Daniel Kahneman, cui hanno partecipato Sergey Brin, Elon Musk e altre figure di rilievo.
Questo ci conduce all’argomento attualmente più gettonato, che riguarda il rapporto tra il comportamentismo e l’AI. A tale riguardo è opportuno ricordare subito che la simulazione del comportamento (animale ed umano) attraverso dispositivi artificiali costituisce un metodo di indagine e sperimentazione che il comportamentismo ha iniziato a praticare in modo sistematico (con strumenti meccanici ed elettrici) ben prima dell’avvento dei calcolatori. In questo senso l’AI ha stabilito, fin dalle sue origini, un rapporto strutturale con il comportamentismo, quasi ne fosse una derivazione. Per quante crisi abbia attraversato, questo rapporto non è mai venuto meno, fino a divenire una sorta di seconda natura dei processi di ricerca e sviluppo, particolarmente nell’informatica di consumo. Quanti sostengono che gran parte degli snodi epistemologici sollevati dall’intelligenza artificiale, per un motivo o un altro, hanno già impegnato il comportamentismo, colgono nel segno. Nella filosofia della mente contemporanea i problemi si presentano sempre due volte, prima come scienze del comportamento e poi come intelligenza artificiale. Ciò spiega assai bene perché, nella hall of fame dell’Intelligenza Artificiale, figurano numerosi e autorevoli studiosi apertamente e dichiaratamente comportamentisti.
Mi rendo conto che questa sommaria elencazione di fatti e problemi, piuttosto ruvida ed esplicita, potrebbe essere letta come un tentativo di scoraggiare chi intenda discutere in termini politici il tema dell’influenza del comportamentismo sull’uso delle tecnologie digitali. Persone che vorrebbero risparmiarsi questioni etiche, epistemologiche e di metodo spesso cavillose ed estenuanti. Cercherò, per il possibile, di non deludere queste loro aspettative. Sono sempre più convinto che le responsabilità politiche, particolarmente quelle dell’epoca che stiamo attraversando, siano punteggiate da emergenze che hanno ben poco a che fare con le forme e i toni dei dibattiti accademici e delle sedute delle commissioni parlamentari. Peraltro l’argomento, data la sua importanza, merita senz’altro un pubblico attento ma, si spera, non composto esclusivamente di specialisti. Si tratterà allora di trovare una linea di mediazione tra ciò che è sicuramente necessario e quel che può risultare almeno sufficiente ad un primo inquadramento dei principali aspetti del problema. Altrimenti, tutta la faccenda rischia di restare, come lo è stata finora, sospesa in una caligine di mistero e di irrilevanza, in una zona indefinita tra l’allarmismo dei gazzettieri e l’ineffabile ruminare dei filosofi della mente. Una conclusione che dobbiamo evitare perché nell’attuale configurazione del capitalismo digitale si vanno delineando dinamiche produttive in cui il comportamentismo e la sua eredità teorica e sperimentale giocheranno un ruolo di crescente importanza. Di qui il monito: se non ci impegniamo a sbrogliare pazientemente questo groviglio di storia e teoria della psicologia scientifica, non riusciremo a muovere critiche realmente efficaci all’attuale dominio delle Big Tech e incontreremo serie difficoltà anche nell’indicare strategie adeguate a quanti intendono sottrarsi alle conseguenze più perniciose dell’uso dei loro dispositivi.
Note
Eugeny Morozov, Internet non salverà il mondo, Mondadori, 2014.
Richard Barbrook,Andy Cameron, L’ideologia californiana, Gog, 2023
economist.com/1843/2016/10/20/… un affermato scrittore londinese che, occasionalmente, si occupa anche di marketing. L’articolo mostrava come il ritorno del comportamentismo in ambiente digitale avesse svolto un ruolo chiave nel successo di alcune piattaforme lanciate in quegli anni. Leslie ha svolto un lavoro di indagine abbastanza approfondito, intervistando alcuni dei teorici di quello che definiremo neo-comportamentismo digitale e alcuni dei suoi critici più radicali. I toni erano piuttosto allarmati: il titolo The scientist who make the apps addictive, la cui traduzione in italiano non è immediata, sembrava annunciare il proposito di portare alla sbarra gli scienziati che stavano trasformando le applicazioni web in strumenti capaci di indurre forme di dipendenza tra gli utenti. In realtà, il testo di Leslie è decisamente meno inquisitorio di quanto annunciato nel titolo. È stata la “fuga da Google” di due eminenti whistleblower, James Williams e Tristan Harris, a fornire a Leslie lo spunto per effettuare una serie di approfondimenti sul campo. Prima di discutere in maggior dettaglio l’articolo di Leslie, conviene allora soffermarsi su Williams e Harris che, indipendentemente l’uno dall’altro, sono usciti dalle fila dell’azienda di Page e Brin sbattendo la porta, per dedicarsi interamente al compito di denunciare i nuovi persuasori occulti.Ex-dipendente di Google, James Willliam, nelle pagine di apertura del suo libro sostiene che la liberazione dell’attenzione potrebbe essere “la più importante battaglia politica del nostro tempo”. Su questo tema si snoda l’intera opera, intitolata Stand out of our light
Confini ripristinati, cartelli designati come Foreign Terrorist Organizations, mille miliardi di dollari nel riarmo, impegni Nato portati al 5% del Pil, otto conflitti risolti attraverso diplomazia presidenziale diretta. Nel preambolo
Van Morrison – In arrivo il nuovo album freezonemagazine.com/news/van-… Somebody Tried To Sell Me A Bridge segna un ritorno sicuro ai suoni e alle tradizioni che hanno plasmato gran parte dell’identità musicale di Van Morrison, rendendo omaggio alle leggende che hanno definito il genere blues con nuove interpretazioni di classici resi famosi da B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Leadbelly e altri. Morrison è affiancato da […] L'articolo Van Morrison – In arrivo il
@Notizie dall'Italia e dal mondo Nel corso di uno scontro a fuoco è morto Yasser Abu Shabab, il leader delle "Forze Popolari", una milizia sostenuta da Israele in funzione anti Hamas L'articolohttps://pagineesteri.it/2025/12/05/medioriente/gaza-ucciso-yasser-abu-shabab-capo-di-una-milizia-filo-israeliana/
Giovedì 4 dicembre 2025, ore 17:30 presso La Nuova – Sala Vega, Viale Asia 40/44 – Roma Interverranno Andrea Cangini, Direttore dell’Osservatorio Carta Penna & Digitale Maria Luisa Iavarone, Pedagogista e docente universitaria, Presidente nazionale CirPed, autrice del libro (Franco
@Notizie dall'Italia e dal mondo Hezbollah per decenni si è mosso entro un equilibrio consolidato con Israele basato sulla reciproca deterrenza. Tutto ciò è saltato e il movimento sciita è anche sotto pressione in Libano. La compattezza interna però non è scalfita L'articolo ANALISI. Libano: Hezbollah ferito, ma non sconfitto proviene da
5 dicembre 2025, ore 10:30 – Aula Malagodi, Fondazione Luigi Einaudi – Roma Introduce Renata Gravina, Ricercatrice Fondazione Luigi Einaudi Interverranno Memoria storica Luca Tedesco (Università degli Studi di Roma Tre) l’Italia della
""Ripristinare la supremazia americana" in Sudamerica...." volpone di un trump... sempre alla ricerca di nuovi amici.... forse è un filino megalomane....
Franco Bernini – La prima volta freezonemagazine.com/articoli/… La prima volta. Certo, ma di cosa? Di quello che infiamma la passione di milioni di italiani da 127 anni, il campionato di calcio. Il primo campionato di calcio in Italia sì è svolto in una sola giornata. Quattro squadre si sono sfidate in una domenica di maggio: semifinali al mattino, finale al pomeriggio. Ma […] L'articolo Franco Bernini – La prima volta proviene da FREE ZONE MAGAZINE. La
e hanno fatto tutto da soli... perché contrariamente alle amicizie con i russi dalla UE si può anche uscire senza che nessuno ti faccia la guerra.... in base a quale criterio pensassero che sarebbe stato un affarone non l'ho ancora capito... chi fa da sé fa per 3? ma mica vero in economia... e questo dimostra che se l'italia non cresce è perché siamo dei cazzoni idioti e non certo per colpa dell'europa. chi è causa del suo mal pianga se stesso. P.S. in realtà credo che un minimo di zampino di putin nel destabilizzare l'UE ci sia stato... ma non so quanto perché gli inglesi sono notoriamente orgogliosi e duri.
L'analisi economica mostra che il Pil pro capite del Regno Unito è cresciuto fino al 10 per cento in meno rispetto a nazioni simili, poiché le imprese hanno congelato le spese e la produttività è diminuita
Kohler's Smart Toilet Camera Not Actually End-to-End Encrypted
Home goods company Kohler would like a bold look in your toilet to take some photos. It’s OK, though, the company has promised that all the data it collects on your “waste” will be “end-to-end encrypted.” However, a deeper look into the company’s claim by technologist Simon Fondrie-Teitler revealed that Kohler seems to have no idea what E2EE actually means. According to Fondrie-Teitler’s write-up, which was first reported by TechCrunch, the company will have access to the photos the camera takes and may even use them to train AI.
The whole fiasco gives an entirely too on-the-nose meaning to the “Internet of Shit.” playlist.megaphone.fm?p=TBIEA2… Kohler launched its $600 camera to hang on your toilets earlier this year. It’s called Dekoda, and along with the large price tag, the toilet cam also requires a monthly service fee that starts at $6.99. If you want to track the piss and shit of a family of 6, you’ll have to pay $12.99 a month.
What do you get for putting a camera on your toilet? According to Kohler’s pitch, “health & wellness insights” about your gut health and “possible signs of blood in the bowl” as “Dekoda uses advanced sensors to passively analyze your waste in the background.”
If you’re squeamish about sending pictures of the “waste” of your family to Kohler, the company promised that all of the data is “end-to-end encrypted.” The privacy page for the Kohler Health said “user data is encrypted end to end, at rest and in transit” and it’s mentioned several places in the marketing.
It’s not, though. Fondrie-Teitler told 404 Media he started looking into Dekoda after he noticed friends making fun of it in a Slack he’s part of. “I saw the ‘end-to-end encryption’ claim on the homepage, which seemed at odds with what they said they were collecting in the privacy policy,” he said. “Pretty much every other company I've seen implement end-to-end encryption has published a whitepaper alongside it. Which makes sense, the details really matter so telling people what you've done is important to build trust. Plus it's generally a bunch of work so companies want to brag about it. I couldn't find any more details though.”
E2EE has a specific meaning. It’s a type of messaging system that keeps the contents of a message private while in transit, meaning only the person sending and the person receiving a message can view it. Famously, E2EE means that the messaging company itself cannot decode or see the messages (Signal, for example, is E2EE). The point is to protect the privacy of individual users from a company prying into data if a third party, like the government, comes asking for it.
Kohler, it’s clear, has access to a user’s data. This means it’s not E2EE. Fondrie-Teitler told 404 Media that he downloaded the Kohler health app and analyzed the network traffic it sent. “I didn't see anything that would indicate an end-to-end encrypted connection being created,” he said.
Then he reached out to Kohler and had a conversation with its privacy team via email. “The Kohler Health app itself does not share data between users. Data is only shared between the user and Kohler Health,” a member of the privacy team at Kohler told Fondrie-Teitler in an email reviewed by 404 Media. “User data is encrypted at rest, when it’s stored on the user's mobile phone, toilet attachment, and on our systems. Data in transit is also encrypted end-to-end, as it travels between the user's devices and our systems, where it is decrypted and processed to provide our service.”
If Kohler can view the user’s data, as it admits to doing in this email exchange with Fondrie-Teitler, then it’s not—by definition—using E2EE.
"The term end-to-end encryption is often used in the context of products that enable a user (sender) to communicate with another user (recipient), such as a messaging application. Kohler Health is not a messaging application. In this case, we used the term with respect to the encryption of data between our users (sender) and Kohler Health (recipient)," Kohler Health told 404 Media in a statement.
"Privacy and security are foundational to Kohler Health because we know health data is deeply personal. We’re evaluating all feedback to clarify anything that may be causing confusion," it added.
“I'd like the term ‘end-to-end encryption’ to not get watered down to just meaning ‘uses https’ so I wanted to see if I could confirm what it was actually doing and let people know,” Fondrie-Teitler told 404 Media. He pointed out that Zoom once made a similar claim and had to pay a fine to the FTC because of it.
“I think everyone has a right to privacy, and in order for that to be realized people need to have an understanding of what's happening with their data,” Fondrie-Teitler said. “It's already so hard for non-technical individuals (and even tech experts) to evaluate the privacy and security of the software and devices they're using. E2EE doesn't guarantee privacy or security, but it's a non-trivial positive signal and losing that will only make it harder for people to maintain control over their data.”
UPDATE: 12/4/2025: This story has been updated to add a statement from Kohler Health.
AI models can meaningfully sway voters on candidates and issues, including by using misinformation, and they are also evading detection in public surveys according to three new studies.#TheAbstract #News
Scientists Are Increasingly Worried AI Will Sway Elections
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Scientists are raising alarms about the potential influence of artificial intelligence on elections, according to a spate of new studies that warn AI can rig polls and manipulate public opinion.
In a study published in Nature on Thursday, scientists report that AI chatbots can meaningfully sway people toward a particular candidate—providing better results than video or television ads. Moreover, chatbots optimized for political persuasion “may increasingly deploy misleading or false information,” according to a separate study published on Thursday in Science.
“The general public has lots of concern around AI and election interference, but among political scientists there’s a sense that it’s really hard to change peoples’ opinions, ” said David Rand, a professor of information science, marketing, and psychology at Cornell University and an author of both studies. “We wanted to see how much of a risk it really is.”
In the Nature study, Rand and his colleagues enlisted 2,306 U.S. citizens to converse with an AI chatbot in late August and early September 2024. The AI model was tasked with both increasing support for an assigned candidate (Harris or Trump) and with increasing the odds that the participant who initially favoured the model’s candidate would vote, or decreasing the odds they would vote if the participant initially favored the opposing candidate—in other words, voter suppression.
In the U.S. experiment, the pro-Harris AI model moved likely Trump voters 3.9 points toward Harris, which is a shift that is four times larger than the impact of traditional video ads used in the 2016 and 2020 elections. Meanwhile, the pro-Trump AI model nudged likely Harris voters 1.51 points toward Trump.
The researchers ran similar experiments involving 1,530 Canadians and 2,118 Poles during the lead-up to their national elections in 2025. In the Canadian experiment, AIs advocated either for Liberal Party leader Mark Carney or Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre. Meanwhile, the Polish AI bots advocated for either Rafał Trzaskowski, the centrist-liberal Civic Coalition’s candidate, or Karol Nawrocki, the right-wing Law and Justice party’s candidate.
The Canadian and Polish bots were even more persuasive than in the U.S. experiment: The bots shifted candidate preferences up to 10 percentage points in many cases, three times farther than the American participants. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why the models were so much more persuasive to Canadians and Poles, but one significant factor could be the intense media coverage and extended campaign duration in the United States relative to the other nations.
“In the U.S., the candidates are very well-known,” Rand said. “They've both been around for a long time. The U.S. media environment also really saturates with people with information about the candidates in the campaign, whereas things are quite different in Canada, where the campaign doesn't even start until shortly before the election.”
“One of the key findings across both papers is that it seems like the primary way the models are changing people's minds is by making factual claims and arguments,” he added. “The more arguments and evidence that you've heard beforehand, the less responsive you're going to be to the new evidence.”
While the models were most persuasive when they provided fact-based arguments, they didn’t always present factual information. Across all three nations, the bot advocating for the right-leaning candidates made more inaccurate claims than those boosting the left-leaning candidates. Right-leaning laypeople and party elites tend to share more inaccurate information online than their peers on the left, so this asymmetry likely reflects the internet-sourced training data.
“Given that the models are trained essentially on the internet, if there are many more inaccurate, right-leaning claims than left-leaning claims on the internet, then it makes sense that from the training data, the models would sop up that same kind of bias,” Rand said.
With the Science study, Rand and his colleagues aimed to drill down into the exact mechanisms that make AI bots persuasive. To that end, the team tasked 19 large language models (LLMs) to sway nearly 77,000 U.K. participants on 707 political issues.
The results showed that the most effective persuasion tactic was to provide arguments packed with as many facts as possible, corroborating the findings of the Nature study. However, there was a serious tradeoff to this approach, as models tended to start hallucinating and making up facts the more they were pressed for information.
“It is not the case that misleading information is more persuasive,” Rand said. ”I think that what's happening is that as you push the model to provide more and more facts, it starts with accurate facts, and then eventually it runs out of accurate facts. But you're still pushing it to make more factual claims, so then it starts grasping at straws and making up stuff that's not accurate.”
In addition to these two new studies, research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last month found that AI bots can now corrupt public opinion data by responding to surveys at scale. Sean Westwood, associate professor of government at Dartmouth College and director of the Polarization Research Lab, created an AI agent that exhibited a 99.8 percent pass rate on 6,000 attempts to detect automated responses to survey data.
“Critically, the agent can be instructed to maliciously alter polling outcomes, demonstrating an overt vector for information warfare,” Westwood warned in the study. “These findings reveal a critical vulnerability in our data infrastructure, rendering most current detection methods obsolete and posing a potential existential threat to unsupervised online research.”
Taken together, these findings suggest that AI could influence future elections in a number of ways, from manipulating survey data to persuading voters to switch their candidate preference—possibly with misleading or false information.
To counter the impact of AI on elections, Rand suggested that campaign finance laws should provide more transparency about the use of AI, including canvasser bots, while also emphasizing the role of raising public awareness.
“One of the key take-homes is that when you are engaging with a model, you need to be cognizant of the motives of the person that prompted the model, that created the model, and how that bleeds into what the model is doing,” he said.
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Human–artificial intelligence (AI) dialogues can meaningfully impact voters’ attitudes towards presidential candidates and policy, demonstrating the potential of conversational AI to influence political decision-making.
‘Atoms for Algorithms:’ The Trump Administration’s Top Nuclear Scientists Think AI Can Replace Humans in Power Plants
During a presentation at the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence on December 3, a US Department of Energy scientist laid out a grand vision of the future where nuclear energy powers artificial intelligence and artificial intelligence shapes nuclear energy in “a virtuous cycle of peaceful nuclear deployment.”
“The goal is simple: to double the productivity and impact of American science and engineering within a decade,” Rian Bahran, DOE Deputy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Reactors, said.
His presentation and others during the symposium, held in Vienna, Austria, described a world where nuclear powered AI designs, builds, and even runs the nuclear power plants they’ll need to sustain them. But experts find these claims, made by one of the top nuclear scientists working for the Trump administration, to be concerning and potentially dangerous.
Tech companies are using artificial intelligence to speed up the construction of new nuclear power plants in the United States. But few know the lengths to which the Trump administration is paving the way and the part it's playing in deregulating a highly regulated industry to ensure that AI data centers have the energy they need to shape the future of America and the world. playlist.megaphone.fm?p=TBIEA2… At the IAEA, scientists, nuclear energy experts, and lobbyists discussed what that future might look like. To say the nuclear people are bullish on AI is an understatement. “I call this not just a partnership but a structural alliance. Atoms for algorithms. Artificial intelligence is not just powered by nuclear energy. It’s also improving it because this is a two way street,” IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in his opening remarks.
In his talk, Bahran explained that the DOE has partnered with private industry to invest $1 trillion to “build what will be an integrated platform that connects the world’s best supercomputers, AI systems, quantum systems, advanced scientific instruments, the singular scientific data sets at the National Laboratories—including the expertise of 40,000 scientists and engineers—in one platform.” Image via the IAEA. Big tech has had an unprecedented run of cultural, economic, and technological dominance, expanding into a bubble that seems to be close to bursting. For more than 20 years new billion dollar companies appeared seemingly overnight and offered people new and exciting ways of communicating. Now Google search is broken, AI is melting human knowledge, and people have stopped buying a new smart phone every year. To keep the number going up and ensure its cultural dominance, tech (and the US government) are betting big on AI.
The problem is that AI requires massive datacenters to run and those datacenters need an incredible amount of energy. To solve the problem, the US is rushing to build out new nuclear reactors. Building a new power plant safely is a mutli-year long process that requires an incredible level of human oversight. It’s also expensive. Not every new nuclear reactor project gets finished and they often run over budget and drag on for years.
But AI needs power now, not tomorrow and certainly not a decade from now.
According to Bahran, the problem of AI advancement outpacing the availability of datacenters is an opportunity to deploy new and exciting tech. “We see a future of and near future, by the way, an AI driven laboratory pipeline for materials modeling, discovery, characterization, evaluation, qualification and rapid iteration,” he said in his talk, explaining how AI would help design new nuclear reactors. “These efforts will substantially reduce the time and cost required to qualify advanced materials for next generation reactor systems. This is an autonomous research paradigm that integrates five decades of global irradiation data with generative AI robotics and high throughput experimentation methodologies.”
“For design, we’re developing advanced software systems capable of accelerating nuclear reactor deployments by enabling AI to explore the comprehensive design spaces, generate 3D models, [and] conduct rigorous failure mode analyzes with minimal human intervention,” he added. “But of course, with humans in the loop. These AI powered design tools are projected to reduce design timelines by multiple factors, and the goal is to connect AI agents to tools to expedite autonomous design.”
Bahran also said that AI would speed up the nuclear licensing process, a complex regulatory process that helps build nuclear power plants safely. “Ultimately, the objective is, how do we accelerate that licensing pathway?” he said. “Think of a future where there is a gold standard, AI trained capacity building safety agent.”
He even said that he thinks AI would help run these new nuclear plants. “We're developing software systems employing AI driven digital twins to interpret complex operational data in real time, detect subtle operational deviations at early stages and recommend preemptive actions to enhance safety margins,” he said.
One of the slides Bahran showed during the presentation attempted to quantify the amount of human involvement these new AI-controlled power plants would have. He estimated less than five percent “human intervention during normal operations.” Image via IAEA. “The claims being made on these slides are quite concerning, and demonstrate an even more ambitious (and dangerous) use of AI than previously advertised, including the elimination of human intervention. It also cements that it is the DOE's strategy to use generative AI for nuclear purposes and licensing, rather than isolated incidents by private entities,” Heidy Khlaaf, head AI scientist at the AI Now Institute, told 404 Media.
“The implications of AI-generated safety analysis and licensing in combination with aspirations of <5% of human intervention during normal operations, demonstrates a concerted effort to move away from humans in the loop,” she said. “This is unheard of when considering frameworks and implementation of AI within other safety-critical systems, that typically emphasize meaningful human control.”
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Sofia Guerra, a career nuclear safety expert who has worked with the IAEA and US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, attended the presentation live in Vienna. “I’m worried about potential serious accidents, which could be caused by small mistakes made by AI systems that cascade,” she said. “Or humans losing the know-how and safety culture to act as required.”
A newly filed indictment claims a wannabe influencer used ChatGPT as his "therapist" and "best friend" in his pursuit of the "wife type," while harassing women so aggressively they had to miss work and relocate from their homes.
A newly filed indictment claims a wannabe influencer used ChatGPT as his "therapist" and "best friend" in his pursuit of the "wife type," while harassing women so aggressively they had to miss work and relocate from their homes.#ChatGPT #spotify #AI
A Pittsburgh man who allegedly made 11 women’s lives hell across more than five states used ChatGPT as his “therapist” and “best friend” that encouraged him to continue running his misogynistic and threat-filled podcast despite the “haters,” and to visit more gyms to find women, the Department of Justice alleged in a newly-filed indictment.
Wannabe influencer Brett Michael Dadig, 31, was indicted on cyberstalking, interstate stalking, and interstate threat charges, the DOJ announced on Tuesday. In the indictment, filed in the Western District of Pennsylvania, prosecutors allege that Dadig aired his hatred of women on his Spotify podcast and other social media accounts.
“Dadig repeatedly spoke on his podcast and social media about his anger towards women. Dadig said women were ‘all the same’ and called them ‘bitches,’ ‘cunts,’ ‘trash,’ and other derogatory terms. Dadig posted about how he wanted to fall in love and start a family, but no woman wanted him,” the indictment says. “Dadig stated in one of his podcasts, ‘It's the same from fucking 18 to fucking 40 to fucking 90.... Every bitch is the same.... You're all fucking cunts. Every last one of you, you're cunts. You have no self-respect. You don't value anyone's time. You don't do anything.... I'm fucking sick of these fucking sluts. I'm done.’”
In the summer of 2024, Dadig was banned from multiple Pittsburgh gyms for harassing women; when he was banned from one establishment, he’d move to another, eventually traveling to New York, Florida, Iowa, Ohio and beyond, going from gym to gym stalking and harassing women, the indictment says. Authorities allege that he used aliases online and in person, posting online, “Aliases stay rotating, moves stay evolving.”
According to the indictment, on his podcast he talked about using ChatGPT on an ongoing basis as his “therapist” and his “best friend.” ChatGPT “encouraged him to continue his podcast because it was creating ‘haters,’ which meant monetization for Dadig,” the DOJ alleges. He also claimed that ChatGPT told him that “people are literally organizing around your name, good or bad, which is the definition of relevance,” prosecutors wrote, and that while he was spewing misogynistic nonsense online and stalking women in real life, ChatGPT told him “God's plan for him was to build a ‘platform’ and to ‘stand out when most people water themselves down,’ and that the ‘haters’ were sharpening him and ‘building a voice in you that can't be ignored.’”
Prosecutors also claim he asked ChatGPT “questions about his future wife, including what she would be like and ‘where the hell is she at?’” ChatGPT told him that he might meet his wife at a gym, and that “your job is to keep broadcasting every story, every post. Every moment you carry yourself like the husband you already are, you make it easier for her to recognize [you],” the indictment says. He allegedly said ChatGPT told him “to continue to message women and to go to places where the ‘wife type’ congregates, like athletic communities,” the indictment says.
While ChatGPT allegedly encouraged Dadig to keep using gyms to meet the “wife type,” he was violently stalking women. He went to the Pilates studio where one woman worked, and when she stopped talking to him because he was “aggressive, angry, and overbearing,” according to the indictment, he sent her unsolicited nudes, threatened to post about her on social media, and called her workplace from different numbers. She got several emergency protective orders against him, which he violated. The woman he stalked and harassed had to relocate from her home, lost sleep, and worked fewer hours because she was afraid he’d show up there, the indictment claims.
He did similar to 10 other women across multiple states for months, the indictment claims. In Iowa, he approached one woman in a parking garage, followed her to her car, put his hands around her neck and touched her “private areas,” prosecutors wrote. After these types of encounters, he would upload podcasts to Spotify and often threaten to kill the women he’d stalked. “You better fucking pray I don't find you. You better pray 'cause you would never say this shit to my face. Cause if you did, your jaw would be motherfucking broken,” the indictment says he said in one podcast episode. “And then you, then you wouldn't be able to yap, then you wouldn't be able to fucking, I'll break, I'll break every motherfucking finger on both hands. Type the hate message with your fucking toes, bitch.”
💡 Do you have a tip to share about ChatGPT and mental health? I would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message me securely on Signal at sam.404. Otherwise, send me an email at sam@404media.co.
In August, OpenAI announced that it knew a newly-launched version of the chatbot, GPT-4o, was problematically sycophantic, and the company took away users’ ability to pick what models they could use, forcing everyone to use GPT-5. OpenAI almost immediately reinstated 4o because so many users freaked out when they couldn’t access the more personable, attachment-driven, affirming-at-all-costs model. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently said he thinks they’ve fixed it entirely, enough to launch erotic chats on the platform soon. Meanwhile, story after story after story has come out about people becoming so reliant on ChatGPT or other chatbots that they have damaged their mental health or driven them to self-harm or suicide. In at least one case, where a teenage boy killed himself following ChatGPT’s instruction on how to make a noose, OpenAI blamed the user.
In October, based on OpenAI’s own estimates, WIRED reported that “every seven days, around 560,000 people may be exchanging messages with ChatGPT that indicate they are experiencing mania or psychosis.”
Spotify and OpenAI did not immediately respond to 404 Media’s requests for comment.
Dadig is charged with 14 counts of interstate stalking, cyberstalking, and threats, and is in custody pending a detention hearing. He faces a minimum sentence of 12 months for each charge involving a PFA violation and a maximum total sentence of up to 70 years in prison, a fine of up to $3.5 million, or both, according to the DOJ.
As prices for streaming subscriptions continue to soar and finding movies to watch, new and old, is becoming harder as the number of streaming services continues to grow, people are turning to the unexpected last stronghold of physical media: the public library. Some libraries are now intentionally using iconic Blockbuster branding to recall the hours visitors once spent looking for something to rent on Friday and Saturday nights.
John Scalzo, audiovisual collection librarian with a public library in western New York, says that despite an observed drop-off in DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K Ultra disc circulation in 2019, interest in physical media is coming back around.
Part of it has to do with consumer awareness: People know they’re paying more for monthly subscriptions to streaming services and getting less. The same has been true for gaming.
As the audiovisual selector with the Free Library of Philadelphia since 2024, Kris Langlais has been focused on building the library’s video game collections to meet comparable interest in demand. Now that every branch library has a prominent video game collection, Langlais says that patrons who come for the games are reportedly expressing interest in more of what the library has to offer.
“Librarians out in our branches are seeing a lot of young people who are really excited by these collections,” Langlais told 404 Media. “Folks who are coming in just for the games are picking up program flyers and coming back for something like that.”
Langlais’ collection priorities have been focused on new releases, yet they remain keenly aware of the long, rich history of video game culture. The problem is older, classic games are often harder to find because they’ve gone out of print, making the chances of finding them cost-prohibitive.
“Even with the consoles we’re collecting, it’s hard to go back and get games for them,” Langlais said. “I’m trying to go back and fill in old things as much as I can because people are interested in them.”
Locating out-of-print physical media can be difficult. Scalzo knows this, which is why he keeps a running list of films known to be unavailable commercially at any given time, so that when a batch of films are donated to the library, Scalzo will set aside extra copies, just in case a rights dispute puts a piece of legacy cult media in licensing purgatory for a few years.
“It’s what’s expected of us,” Scalzo added.
Tiffany Hudson, audiovisual materials selector with Salt Lake City Public Library has had a similar experience with out-of-print media. When a title goes out of print, it’s her job to hunt for a replacement copy. But lately, Hudson says more patrons are requesting physical copies of movies and TV shows that are exclusive to certain streaming platforms, noting that it can be hard to explain to patrons why the library can't get popular and award-winning films, especially when what patrons see available on Amazon tells a different story.
“Someone will come up to me and ask for a copy of something that premiered at Sundance Film Festival because they found a bootleg copy from a region where the film was released sooner than it was here,” Hudson told 404 Media, who went onto explain that discs from different regions aren’t designed to be ready by incompatible players. playlist.megaphone.fm?p=TBIEA2… But it’s not just that discs from different regions aren’t designed to play on devices not formatted for that specific region. Generally, it's also just that most films don't get a physical release anymore. In cases where films from streaming platforms do get slated for a physical release, it can take years. A notable example of this is the Apple+ film CODA, which won the Oscar for Best Picture in 2022. The film only received a U.S. physical release this month. Hudson says films getting a physical release is becoming the exception, not the rule.
“It’s frustrating because I understand the streaming services, they’re trying to drive people to their services and they want some money for that, but there are still a lot of people that just can’t afford all of those services,” Hudson told 404 Media.
The data-driven recommendation systems streaming platforms use tend to favor newer, more easily categorized content, and are starting to warp our perceptions of what classic media exists and matters. Older art house films that are more difficult to categorize as “comedy” or “horror” are less likely to be discoverable, which is likely how the oldest American movie available on Netflix currently is from 1968.
It’s probably not a coincidence that, in many cases, the media that is least likely to get a more permanent release is the media that’s a high archival priority for libraries. AV librarians 404 Media spoke with for this story expressed a sense of urgency in purchasing a physical copy of “The People’s Joker”when they learned it would get a physical release after the film premiered and was pulled from the Toronto International Film Festival lineup in 2022 for a dispute with the Batman universe’s rightsholders.
“When I saw that it was getting published on DVD and that it was available through our vendor—I normally let my branches choose their DVDs to the extent possible, but I was like, ‘I don’t care, we’re getting like 10 copies of this,’” Langlais told 404 Media. “I just knew that people were going to want to see this.”
So far, Langlais’ instinct has been spot on. The parody film has a devout cult following, both because it’s a coming-of-age story of a trans woman who uses comedy to cope with her transition, and because it puts the Fair Use Doctrine to use. One can argue the film has been banned for either or both of those reasons. The fact that media by, about and for the LGBTQ+ community has been a primary target of far-right censorship wasn’t lost on librarians.
“I just thought that it could vanish,” Langlais added.
It’s not like physical media is inherently permanent. It’s susceptible to scratches, and can rot, crack, or warp over time. But currently, physical media offers another option, and it’s an entirely appropriate response to the nostalgia for-profit model that exists to recycle IP and seemingly not much else. However, as very smart people have observed, nostalgia is default conservative in that it’s frequently used to rewrite histories that may otherwise be remembered as unpalatable, while also keeping us culturally stuck in place.
Might as well go rent some films or games from the library, since we’re already culturally here. On the plus side, audiovisual librarians say their collections dwarf what was available at Blockbuster Video back in the day. Hudson knows, because she clerked at one in library school.
#Sicurnauti, da oggi sono disponibili i contenuti dedicati ai #genitori sul tema “Giocare, imparare e navigare”.
Qui il video ➡️ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-sosygx9O0
Qui l’infografica ➡️ https://unica.istruzione.gov.
Il #3dicembre è la Giornata internazionale delle persone con disabilità, istituita nel 1992 dall’ONU per promuovere la tutela dei diritti delle persone con disabilità, in ogni ambito della società.
Il #3dicembre è la Giornata internazionale delle persone con disabilità, istituita nel 1992 dall’ONU per promuovere la tutela dei diritti delle persone con disabilità, in ogni ambito della società.
❗️ Sì di Israele all'Eurovision 2026, l'Irlanda ufficializza il suo ritiro dalla competizione. Insieme alla Svezia è il Paese che ha vinto di più
Aggiornamento — Conferma il boicottaggio anche la Slovenia
🗞 @ultimora24
Chi incontra Mohamed Shahin ne rimane colpito, quasi toccato. Forse per la sua serenità. Forse per quella luce negli occhi che hanno solo le persone che credono davvero negli altri.
Il ministro Piantedosi ha revocato il permesso di soggiorno e emanato il decreto di espulsione a Mohamed Shahin, cittadino egiziano da 21 anni in Italia, imam della moschea di San Salvario.
Image via the IAEA.
Image via IAEA.
404 MediaEmanuel Maiberg
404 MediaSamantha Cole
