Tom Cross 🇨🇦🇺🇸

Caitlin KALINOWSKI over X I resigned from OpenAl. I care deeply about the Robotics team and the work we built together. This wasn't an easy call. Al has an important role in national security. But surveillance of Americans without judicial oversight and lethal autonomy without human authorization are lines that deserved more deliberation than they got. This was about principle, not people. I have deep respect for Sam and the team, and I'm proud of what we built together.

OpenAI head of robotics just resigned over company deal with the Pentagon saying…

“Surveillance of Americans without judicial oversight and lethal autonomy without human authorization are lines that deserved more deliberation than they got”

WARNING! USING AI TO DO RESEARCH ON YOUR LEGAL CASE CAN LEAD TO THE OTHER SIDE BEING ABLE TO GET YOUR ENTIRE AI HISTORY INCLUDING OTHERWISE PRIVILEGED COMMUNICATIONS AND WORK PRODUCT

Here is a little legal amuse-bouche with which to start off the weekend:

Satellite images show Iran school strike hit more buildings than earlier reported The images suggest that precision munitions struck other buildings, including a clinic that was also inside the complex.

An analysis by NPR strongly suggests that the Pentagon used seriously outdated maps to plan the bombing, hitting both the school and a nearby medical center in a raid that appears to have been intended to hit a nearby IRGC base.
www.npr.org/2026/03/04/n...

Kash Patel gutted FBI counterintelligence team tasked with tracking Iranian threats days before US strikes, sources say | CNN Politics Just days before the United States launched a major military operation in Iran, FBI Director Kash Patel fired a dozen agents and staff members from a counterintelligence unit tasked with monitoring th...

Look, I'm not saying our nation is being run by foreign operatives actively seeking to destroy American national security, but this is exactly the kind of thing foreign operatives actively seeking to destroy American national security would do. www.cnn.com/2026/03/03/p...

Good thread and a reminder that every generation has its own moral panic

When this sort of prosecution happens in the United States it is seen as outrageous.

Nine Inch Nails Releases Tron: Ares Remix Album Last week, Nine Inch Nails released an album of remixes and unreleased session music from their Tron: Ares score called Tron Ares: Divergence. I’m listening to it now; pretty good so far.

Nine Inch Nails released an album of remixes and unreleased session music called Tron Ares: Divergence. I'm listening to it now; pretty good so far. [kottke.org]

Thats why, to quote Hegseth, “traditional allies… wring their hands and clutch their pearls.”

We’ve had decades of relative peace and security in the west.

/fin

This makes the world more dangerous for Americans. It also opens up the possibility of spiraling escalation, as each act demands a response, which in tern demands its own response.

4/

These short term engagements cannot achieve regime change in targeted states. Perhaps they might make a state more cautious in dealing with Trump. The counter argument is that they might create domestic political supprt within the targeted state for retaliation against the United States.

3/

Trump has a legal framework within which short term military engagements can be done at his discretion. He has political support from voters who like to see America “kicking ass.”

2/

The purpose of International Humanitarial Law is to create a framework for military conflict that helps avoid tit-for-tat escalations of violence.

1/

JPMORGAN: BUY THE DIP ON IRAN ESCALATION JPMorgan says rising Iran tensions are a buying opportunity, not a reason to exit stocks. Mislav Matejka advises using short-term weakness to add positions, as the conflict is likely temporary and any oil spike should fade. Fundamentals

California introduces age verification law for all operating systems, including Linux and SteamOS — user age verified during OS account setup AB 1043 also requires OS providers to pipe a real-time age checker to every app developer who requests it.

One of the dumbest tech policies I’ve ever heard of: www.tomshardware.com/software/ope...

Interesting context:

Canada put out a statement supporting the strikes.

As always, please be careful of sources. Anyone can post a video of anything and claim it is whatever they want it to be. Verify through reputable news sources.

Lets say you wanted to weaken US military capacity in a long term, systemic way. Alienate democratic allies so its politically difficult for them to provide support. Get rid of the PHDs. Ban any company using the best software development tools from the entire supply chain.

It’d probably work.

Presumably the interests that financially support them are getting something they want in return.

Congress passes election reform designed to ward off another Jan. 6 The bipartisan legislation would update the certification process for presidential elections, which former President Donald Trump and his allies tried to exploit after the 2020 election.

I don’t think it detracts too much from your point, but one important reform did pass: www.npr.org/2022/12/22/1...

Trump has a way of showing you who people really are. The clarity he creates will last longer than his rule. #nhl

The UAE secretly paid Trump $187 million. Money in his pocket personally. And then Trump overrode decades of national security objections to selling Nvidia chips to UAE because we feared UAE would send the chips to China.

Corruption has consequences.

Trump is suggesting that less than ten Senators sit between him and some policy or parliamentary action that would end competitive democratic elections.

Also, whatever your problem with algorithms is, its hard to see how making services liable for third party content will fix it. We need better algorithms, and a legal framework that disincentivizes their creation is counterproductive to that end.

Thank you.

A common refrain I've heard from (often well-meaning) people is that they agree that Section 230 is important, but they'd like to reform it so it doesn't apply to algorithmically recommended content. I think that's a bad idea and finally wrote a long thing explaining why.

I guess I’m too conservative to care what “progressive media and activist circles” think.

I don’t like what Elon Musk has done with Twitter or our country and I don’t want to help him make money.

There are smart people here who post insightful content and the tech is well designed. So here I am.

I guess I’m too conservative to care what “progressive media and activist circles” think.

I don’t like what Elon Musk has done with Twitter or our country and I don’t want to help him make money.

There are smart people here who post insightful content and the tech is well designed. So here I am.

‘Don’t go to the US – not with Trump in charge’: the UK tourist with a valid visa detained by ICE for six weeks Karen Newton was in America on the trip of a lifetime when she was shackled, transported and held for weeks on end. With tourism to the US under increasing strain, she says, ‘If it can happen to me, i...

A retired British primary school administrator with a British passport and a valid visa was shackled, chained and detained for six weeks by ICE

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Sunflowers, by Joan Mitchell, 1990-91, 📸 by @tiltoncreative