Mathew Ingram

I write about technology and culture from my kayak somewhere in Canada

Home: https://mathewingram.com
Work: https://mathewingram.com/work
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npub16f3fzdesesuymr89ct9mk2432yzj8cdt6f97f4xjespcv56fvz2q366xc0

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Last Notes

2026-09-10 13:38:58 UTC

I don’t like it but the Trump DoJ is right on AI and fair use
I don’t like to agree with a Trump-related entity but the DoJ’s brief in the NYT-OpenAI case is correct on the facts IMO — indexing of content for AI training should be considered fair use, since it is clearly transformative
https://mathewingram.com/work/2026/09/10/i-dont-like-it-but-the-trump-doj-is-right-on-ai-and-fair-use/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

2026-07-10 16:26:32 UTC

New in this week's Torment Nexus newsletter: Anthropic says Claude has a secret place where it does its "thinking" https://torment-nexus.mathewingram.com/anthropic-discovers-that-claude-has-a-secret-spot-for-thinking/
https://assets.journa.host/media_attachments/files/116/896/614/634/074/402/original/51c874a79bc2bc95.png

2026-07-01 14:27:13 UTC

Is there a new quantum processor or is Microsoft lying?
Microsoft keeps claiming that it has built a processor around a theoretical quantum particle, and physicists keep saying it is full of you-know-what
https://mathewingram.com/work/2026/07/01/is-there-a-new-quantum-processor-or-is-microsoft-lying/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

2026-06-25 14:22:33 UTC

Banning teens from social media is bad and also doesn’t work
The UK has passed a law banning kids under 16 from social media, as Australia has, but there is virtually no evidence that these laws are necessary and no evidence that they work
https://mathewingram.com/work/2026/06/25/banning-teens-from-social-media-is-bad-and-also-doesnt-work/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

2026-06-04 13:41:19 UTC

Have investors in AI companies lost their minds?
Anthropic’s theoretical market value of almost $1 trillion is greater than all of the IPOs during the dot-com bubble put together. But it may also be growing faster than any company ever
https://mathewingram.com/work/2026/06/04/have-investors-in-ai-companies-lost-their-minds/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

2026-05-28 02:27:04 UTC

https://assets.journa.host/media_attachments/files/116/649/834/496/054/910/original/1911c4a7db63276b.png

2026-04-02 13:29:28 UTC

Social media may be bad for you but the remedy could be worse
Some might be celebrating two recent legal rulings ordering Meta to pay for its flawed products, but the result of those cases could turn out to be far worse for both the internet and for free speech
https://mathewingram.com/work/2026/04/02/social-media-may-be-bad-for-you-but-the-remedy-could-be-worse/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

2026-03-12 13:47:14 UTC

If Havana Syndrome is real it implies a massive coverup
Many -- including me -- dismissed Havana Syndrome as a psychological illness but weapons that cause such symptoms appear to be very real and U.S. intelligence has known this for some time
https://mathewingram.com/work/2026/03/12/if-havana-syndrome-is-real-it-implies-a-massive-coverup/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

2026-03-05 19:40:24 UTC

There's a definite possibility that AI incorrectly targeted a school for a missile strike and killed 160 children
https://assets.journa.host/media_attachments/files/116/178/263/660/367/584/original/e45a6ad833c9b0fd.jpg

2026-02-12 15:10:08 UTC

Building the Panopticon: The doorbell camera version
In this week’s Torment Nexus, I wrote about how Amazon and Google’s control over doorbell cameras raises disturbing questions about the kind of ubiquitous surveillance environment we are all living in
https://mathewingram.com/work/2026/02/12/building-the-panopticon-the-doorbell-camera-version/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

2026-01-30 17:02:42 UTC

In case you're keeping track, in the past 24 hours Trump has:
-- arrested a journalist even though two judges refused to OK it
-- offered Maduro a pardon to say he rigged the election
-- sued the IRS for $10 billion
-- said he's going to arrest Barack Obama

2026-01-22 15:12:21 UTC

Why blogging is better than social media
Social media removed the friction of publishing, and in doing so it made it even more difficult to separate the signal from the noise
https://mathewingram.com/work/2026/01/22/why-blogging-is-better-than-social-media/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

2025-12-04 16:28:53 UTC

- reply

Looking forward to it! Also, is this you? https://www.cargroup.org/person/dr-david-j-atkinson/

2025-12-04 14:48:20 UTC

Self-driving cars are an unambiguous social good
Self-driving cars are so much better than cars driven by human beings that it doesn't seem fair to even compare them. It's like arguing that toasters are better than jamming a piece of bread on a stick and holding it over a fire
https://mathewingram.com/work/2025/12/04/self-driving-cars-are-an-unambiguous-social-good/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

2025-11-13 14:39:20 UTC

In a recent edition of The Torment Nexus, I wrote about Wikipedia, which I argued was one of the best things the internet ever created (or that we all created with the help of the internet). In my opinion, there is another thing that ranks right up there with Wikipedia on the list of great things, and that is the Internet Archive.
https://mathewingram.com/work/2025/11/13/the-internet-archive-should-be-protected-not-attacked/
https://assets.journa.host/media_attachments/files/115/542/901/364/407/890/original/5de3a007052eee5d.png

2025-10-17 15:43:30 UTC

There’s a Kodak camera in the novel Dracula: https://mathewingram.com/work/2025/10/17/theres-a-kodak-camera-in-the-novel-dracula/

2025-08-21 13:08:09 UTC

Have smart glasses finally hit an inflection point?
I know what many of you may be thinking now, as you read the headline of this post. You might be remembering the photo reproduced below, in which Silicon Valley venture capitalist Marc Andreessen (who, it must be said, has a large and rather egg-shaped head, no offense intended) is standing with Bill Maris, the head of Google Ventures, and veteran Silicon Valley investor John Doerr from Kleiner Perkins Caulfield Byers…
http://mathewingram.com/2025/08/19/have-smart-glasses-finally-hit-an-inflection-point/

2025-07-10 22:37:52 UTC

The Scopes "Monkey Trial" started on this day 100 years ago. Clarence Darrow won, right? No he did not. He lost and then lost on appeal — all four challenges rejected. The case was dismissed on a technicality, and the law it was fighting existed for another 40 years https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scopes_trial

2025-07-03 14:11:49 UTC

Why Substack shouldn’t be the future of online publishing: https://mathewingram.com/work/2025/07/03/why-substack-shouldnt-be-the-future-of-online-publishing/

2025-05-25 18:34:50 UTC

Mozilla shutting down Pocket pisses me off. I know that things can't last forever but they said they bought it to keep it operating, and I have about 100,000 bookmarks saved in it

2025-05-22 15:11:55 UTC

The ankle monitor was inspired by a Spiderman comic strip: https://mathewingram.com/work/2025/05/22/the-ankle-monitor-was-inspired-by-a-spiderman-comic-strip/

2025-05-14 19:10:35 UTC

https://assets.journa.host/media_attachments/files/114/507/762/547/335/205/original/0da5bd96149ad1fc.jpeg

2025-04-25 13:53:15 UTC

We Visited Rumeysa Ozturk in Detention. What We Saw Was a Warning to Us All https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/25/opinion/trump-rumeysa-ozturk-ice.html?unlocked_article_code=1.CU8.ZRZz.atE482UMbtvb&smid=url-share

2025-04-11 16:11:00 UTC

This week in The Torment Nexus, why you should be careful what you post on social media part two: https://torment-nexus.mathewingram.com/be-careful-what-you-say-on-social-media-part-2/
https://assets.journa.host/media_attachments/files/114/320/202/042/492/193/original/413296e740fcbaec.png

2025-03-17 19:07:46 UTC

Ghost — the open-source platform I use to publish my daily "When The Going Gets Weird" and weekly "The Torment Nexus" newsletters — has integrated with the fediverse through ActivityPub. So you can follow the daily one through @npub15xg…7u62 and the weekly one by following @npub1ukk…s8xw

2025-02-14 15:51:13 UTC

https://assets.journa.host/media_attachments/files/114/003/035/421/690/964/original/c3f4382d95fa0b9e.png

2025-01-18 15:45:52 UTC

So the incoming president of the United States is promoting a crypto coin named after himself. I guess I shouldn’t be shocked, but I confess I didn’t expect things to get this stupid this quickly. My bad! https://decrypt.co/301691/donald-trump-drops-solana-meme-coin

2025-01-17 15:02:12 UTC

Are people arguing that an app where people watch video clips of cats riding Roombas is a threat to national security? Yes. And is this just as ridiculous as it was the last time I wrote about it? Yes https://torment-nexus.mathewingram.com/the-tiktok-saga-has-gotten-even-stupider-if-thats-possible/

2024-12-09 20:09:29 UTC

“We make plenty of money already”: https://mathewingram.com/work/2024/12/09/we-make-plenty-of-money-already/

2024-11-28 18:29:07 UTC

Random question for anyone who knows things about federating: tried to connect my blog to Bridgy Fed so I don't need to crosspost things manually, but my blog is located at a subdomain (mathewingram.com/work) and Bridgy says no when I try to connect it. Is there any way to make this work?

2024-11-16 23:03:36 UTC

https://assets.journa.host/media_attachments/files/113/495/127/774/042/169/original/6a77a2714eed9708.jpeg

2024-11-09 14:18:54 UTC

It's tempting to think that disinformation on social media made people vote for Trump, but the reality is that what happens on social networks is more of a symptom than a cause https://torment-nexus.mathewingram.com/social-media-is-a-symptom-not-a-cause/

2024-11-06 14:36:29 UTC

https://assets.journa.host/media_attachments/files/113/436/510/676/873/862/original/c242d7bcb77b9036.jpg

2024-11-01 16:03:35 UTC

Today in “When The Going Gets Weird,” the Stanford Prison Experiment was faked, and no one knows why it’s called a monkey wrench https://newsletter.mathewingram.com/the-famous-stanford-prison-experiment-was-a-fake/

2024-10-31 14:14:55 UTC

New from me at The Torment Nexus: Forcing Google to give the media $100 million is not a win https://torment-nexus.mathewingram.com/google-giving-100-million-to-the-media-isnt-a-win/
https://assets.journa.host/media_attachments/files/113/402/451/638/527/289/original/221b3e6f725154e2.png

2024-10-30 17:50:07 UTC

“It finally shows the world what WordPress really is, an abusive, predatory organization/community lying about its virtues to abuse other companies and organizations in an effort to get free work” https://chriswiegman.com/2024/10/so-long-wordpress/

2024-10-24 19:50:32 UTC

Media elites are the last people to ask about the future of journalism: “The whole exercise is a bit like canvassing the designer of the Hindenburg on the future of air travel” https://www.thenation.com/article/society/new-york-media-elites/

2024-10-23 15:59:10 UTC

I’ve seen the best minds of my generation spend their days trying to invent new games so people will subscribe to the New York Times

2024-10-18 00:50:30 UTC

Start a new life in the Offworld colonies!
https://assets.journa.host/media_attachments/files/113/325/674/668/984/987/original/e55c71f723177e38.png

2024-10-17 15:31:29 UTC

Note to writers everywhere: Not everything is a “liminal moment” or a “liminal space.” Give it a rest for pete’s sake

2024-10-14 01:14:00 UTC

Got a good look at Comet A3 just after sunset tonight
https://assets.journa.host/media_attachments/files/113/303/122/117/352/775/original/495d5a54c6263306.jpg

2024-10-11 23:31:02 UTC

An update to my post on WordPress: Matt sent me a Google Doc with responses to some of the points I raised. I’ve updated the post with a link to that doc and my response: https://torment-nexus.mathewingram.com/is-matt-mullenweg-defending-wordpress-or-sabotaging-it/

2024-09-19 15:05:21 UTC

Using the social web as a distribution platform for news has become increasingly problematic. Is joining the fediverse a potential solution? https://digitalcontentnext.org/blog/2024/09/19/is-the-fediverse-the-future-of-social-media-distribution/

2024-09-19 12:57:27 UTC

So Israel didn’t just hijack some pagers already in the supply chain — they set up a front company and actually made pagers: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/18/world/middleeast/israel-exploding-pagers-hezbollah.html?smid=nytcore-android-share https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/18/world/middleeast/israel-exploding-pagers-hezbollah.html?smid=nytcore-android-share

2024-09-05 22:37:54 UTC

Hi everyone — I'm launching a newsletter called The Torment Nexus, where I hope to bring some analysis and perspective to coverage of technology and culture. You can find it at https://torment-nexus.mathewingram.com or on Substack at https://tormentnexus.substack.com
https://assets.journa.host/media_attachments/files/113/087/340/314/284/584/original/e1ab6d139dc61596.webp

2024-09-04 19:47:26 UTC

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I think the court made a mistake in this case -- the IA arguably has *more* of a case than Sony did in the VHS case, since it is a nonprofit. And its books are only lent to one person at a time. It is a library in everything but name.

2024-08-22 14:38:19 UTC

Man who is missing 90% of his brain leads a normal life https://mathewingram.com/work/index.php/2024/08/22/man-who-is-missing-90-of-his-brain-leads-a-normal-life/
https://assets.journa.host/media_attachments/files/113/006/182/352/583/264/original/cc0a0bca42a3c68c.png