Woodrow Hartzog

Generative AI doesn't know about decisions outside the immediate context box. You cannot interview it. It cannot answer for its behavior. Posting an image of a chatbox response explains nothing. It's as fraudulent a piece of information as an AI slop video that fakes a recording of a bombing. /🧵

Mar 4 2026 BlueSky post claiming that it explained why we bombed a school in Iran "INFORMATION THAT IS A DECADE OLD" and had A Claude chat answer as its source

Hey guys this is not a viable source. Besides the fact that any AI system being used by the government presumably has access to more updated date (I sure hope). Claude is not a person, it can't answer questions about why it did something, it confidently lies, it doesn't have access to other's state.

TikTok says it won't encrypt DMs claiming it puts users at risk TikTok tells the BBC it won't join rival platforms such as WhatsApp and Messenger in using end-to-end encryption.

TikTok announces that they’re not going to deploy “controversial privacy tech” that’s actually the same end-to-end encryption most other providers use to protect users’ DMs. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Big tech is hungry for consumer data. Mass. needs privacy legislation now The heart of the privacy bill that the Massachusetts legislature is now considering is a simple but firm rule that companies should collect and use only the personal information that they need to prov...

Woodrow Hartzog & Neil Richards: "The Legislature should ignore the high-priced lobbyists and pass a law that actually protects us from data-hungry business practices that benefit no one but big tech." @hartzog.bsky.social www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/...

Big tech is hungry for consumer data. Mass. needs privacy legislation now The heart of the privacy bill that the Massachusetts legislature is now considering is a simple but firm rule that companies should collect and use only the personal information that they need to prov...

EPIC Advisory Board members @hartzog.bsky.social and Neil Richards make a strong case for the Massachusetts Legislature to pass the Massachusetts Consumer Data Privacy Act in WBUR's Cognoscenti today. www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/...

Big tech is hungry for consumer data. Mass. needs privacy legislation now The heart of the privacy bill that the Massachusetts legislature is now considering is a simple but firm rule that companies should collect and use only the personal information that they need to prov...

Today @cogwbur.bsky.social published my op-ed with Neil Richards. We argue in favor of the proposed MA privacy legislation with strong data minimization rules. Surveillance advertising leaves both consumers and small businesses worse off. It only helps Silicon Valley. www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/...

An Ohio newspaper has a new star writer. It isn’t human. - The Boston Globe “Artificial intelligence is not bad for newsrooms. It’s the future of them,” Plain Dealer editor Chris Quinn said.

"Quinn wrote...that 'by removing writing from reporters’ workloads, we’ve effectively freed up an extra workday for them each week.'"

This is how AI destroys institutions. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/03/03/b...

I've repeatedly said this in the past: the end goal of all AI is surveillance, specifically to influence and control

American schools weren’t broken until Silicon Valley used a lie to convince them they were—now reading and math scores are plummeting | Fortune Neuroscientist Jared Cooney Horvath warns the U.S.’s $30 billion bet on laptops in schools has made Gen Z less cognitively capable than their parents.

Not mad about the spate of headlines like this one.

In Age of Disruption, a Defense of Incrementalism Evan Selinger and Albert Fox Cahn are the authors of Move Slow and Upgrade: The Power of Incremental Innovation.

In their book, Move Slow and Upgrade: The Power of Incremental Innovation, Evan Selinger and Albert Fox Cahn argue society is over-fixated on disruptive innovation and needs to adopt an “upgrader’s mindset,” which should be applied whenever “disruptive changes would pose the greatest social risk.”

“Hostility is the basic mode in which we engage with each other and our government, and filming has become a hostile act. Meta’s glasses are a sleek version of the weapon everyone already has in their pocket; the addition of facial recognition will accelerate the ongoing breakdown in public trust.”

Meta won’t let morality get in the way of a product launch What a great time to add facial recognition to everything!

“Just because you are outside of your home doesn’t mean you have consented to having a random bozo collect your face and your name, the latter of which can enable them to search for your digital presence or even home address. The act of existing in public should not carry those risks.”

what a crazy night for sam altman to be like "yeah we got that dept of war deal, and there's no moral concerns here"

Following Markup investigation, Congress finds data brokers cost consumers tens of billions of dollars – The Markup A congressional investigation estimates broker breaches have cost consumers $20 billion in identity theft. Major brokers now promise to make it easier to opt out of their databases.

Data brokers cost US consumers $20 billion in ID theft themarkup.org/privacy/2026...

It was such an honor to be recently installed at the Andrew R. Randall Professor of Law at @bulaw.bsky.social. It's a privilege and charge to serve that I take seriously and I will do my best to make it count.

AI is a micromanaging misery machine.

Anthropic Rolls Back Safety Protocols as It Waits to Find Out If It's Being Drafted by the Army Launching missiles for defense is fine, apparently.

Anthropic Rolls Back Safety Protocols as It Waits to Find Out If It's Being Drafted by the Army

Wow - I missed this. "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."

This AI-generated podcast network publishes 11,000 episodes a day. It also ripped off media outlets Daily News Now tops search results for local news podcasts with AI content

Bad content drives out good.

indicator.media/p/this-ai-ge...

Dinner Is Being Recorded, Whether You Know It or Not

As Meta smart glasses capture scenes in restaurants for social media, service workers and customers are becoming captive participants. nyti.ms/4aA9NaH

This App Warns You if Someone Is Wearing Smart Glasses Nearby The creator of Nearby Glasses made the app after reading 404 Media's coverage of how people are using Meta's Ray-Bans smartglasses to film people without their knowledge or consent. “I consider it to ...

NEW: A hobbyist has created Nearby Glasses, an app that warns you if someone close by is wearing smart glasses. 404 Media spoke to the creator who said he was inspired by our coverage that uncovers how men are wearing Meta's Ray-Bans to covertly film massage parlor workers.

The mirage of AI deregulation One of the most interventionist approaches to technology governance in the United States in a generation has cloaked itself in the language of deregulation. In early December 2025, President Donald Tr...

🧵 Trump administration AI policy is widely described as deregulatory. This description is misleading. What's happening is not the absence of governance but its rearrangement--intensive state intervention operating through mechanisms we don't typically call regulation. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

AI continues to go just great.

Pope Leo tells priests not to use AI to write homilies or seek likes on TikTok "To give a true homily is to share faith," and artificial intelligence "will never be able to share faith," the pope said.

“Pope Leo XIV has urged priests to not to use artificial intelligence to write their homilies or to seek ‘likes’ on social media platforms like TikTok.”

“‘To give a true homily is to share faith,’ and artificial intelligence ‘will never be able to share faith,’ the pope added.”

プライバシーの設計図 - 株式会社　勁草書房 プライバシーにとってテクノロジーのデザインこそがすべてである！　デザインとの柔軟な共創を図ることで、法の欠陥を是正する。 ウッドロウ・ハーツォグ 著

I'm thrilled that my book "Privacy's Blueprint: The Battle to Control the Design of New Technologies" is now published in Japanese by @keisoshobo.bsky.social. Huge thanks to Mayu Terada, Satoshi Narihara, Takayuki Matsuo, & Tatsuhiko Matsuo for their translation. www.keisoshobo.co.jp/book/b101585...

What are we even doing here, folks. The thread has been lost ages ago.

The logic here only makes sense if you assume AI and human beings are in a competition for resources (which in some meaningful sense might be true), and that the most efficient consumer of resources for performing AI-related functions should be allowed to win (which is pathological).