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Tech + politics, humor & planet Speaker • Writer • Host • Earthling '26 Webby Winner • Onion + Daily Show alum @lifewithmachines @howtocitizen
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#ai#responsibleai#aiethics#midterms2026#mossummit#techethics#usmilitary#howtocitizen#wethepeople#democracy
Recent posts
Welcome to the new people! Let me actually introduce myself.
I’m Baratunde. I tell stories about how we live well with the planet, with each other, and with technology. That last project is “Life With Machines.”
The AI story isn’t about technology. It’s about power, and about who gets to decide how our future goes. My answer is US. I want true agency for us which means capabilities and POWER. To choose, to control, and do all the above in community.
That’s why I’m not an all-out rejectionist. If everyone who cares about people and the planet says no to all of it, we hand the future to the people saying yes. And what they are saying yes to is bad for most of us. That said, I respect your right to opt out. I’m fighting for a world where you still have that right. But that’s not my choice. I’m also fighting for a world of sound economic policy and local control and consent and environmentally non-catastrophic impact. And that world is possible.
House rules: disagree loudly, I’m here for it. Just no disrespect, no calling people out of their names, no threats or violence and please dear lord no scams. Occasional stupid is fine, I bring my own. Too much stupid, we’re not doing that.
Welcome home.
More at lifewithmachines.media
30 Jul 2026
@lifewithmachines host @baratunde reminds the #MoSSummit audience of the importance of staying grounded and true to themselves, even as technology continues to evolve at an unprecedented pace.
07 Nov 2026
The biggest threat with using AI for war isn’t autonomous killer robots (though that may be one of them). It’s so much dumber: clerical errors, chatbot hallucinations, and humans cutting corners in the name of speed.
When you gut civilian oversight and rely on chatbots for intelligence (thanks Pete Hegseth!), you don’t get a smarter military. You just get a faster more disastrous and more deadly mistake. Crashing a bike into a wall is bad. Crashing a bullet train into a wall is catastrophic.
At the end of the day, humans built this tech and humans are wielding it. Now, human leaders are choosing speed over human lives. But the silver lining here is that US HUMANS can keep THOSE HUMANS accountable.
So next time you see a headline about an AI doomsday scenario, ask:
1. Who is the human making that decision?
2. Who benefits financially?
3. And who pays the price?
Follow me here for more breakdowns separating the real from the hype, or visit us at lifewithmachines.media.
#AI #TechEthics #responsibleai #aiethics #usmilitary
06 Nov 2026
Top 5 from election night. 🦅
1️⃣ Bottoms up, Bottoms up! Keisha Lance Bottoms is the first Black woman elected governor in US history. Thank you, @staceyabrams and @thenseufot .
2️⃣ We are all free of Fetterman.
3️⃣ The Black South is rising. Georgia, the Carolinas, TEXAS. @jamieforlouisiana , you’re a real one.
4️⃣ Women, y’all: 17 Senate and governor wins, plus the first Indigenous woman governor (Deb Haaland) and senator (Peggy Flanagan).
5️⃣ Bullies wilt under power. People power.
The many beat the money. Elon, AIPAC, Big AI and the crypto boys tried to buy it. We outnumbered them.
Elections are job interviews. We the people do the hiring, and we’re just getting started. 💙
#HowToCitizen #Midterms2026 #WeThePeople #Democracy #BlackSouth
04 Nov 2026
This Election Day, remember: a million dollar fine to a multi-trillion-dollar company isn’t a punishment. It’s just the cost of doing business.
@google just cleared ~1,300 acres of forest in Finland to build data centers. And when ordered to stop, they apologized and promised to replant half the trees from one of the sites. The maximum fine they could face would be about €850,000... for a company with a current market cap of ~$3.4 trillion.
Repeat after me: money is not a substitute for life.
So here’s what we’re going to do:
1️⃣ Remember that corporations get their charters from the state, so we have the power to demand our state reps and attorney general revoke charters — and NOT just hand down a slap on the wrist — when corporations commit crimes against life
2️⃣ Vote like you mean it at the local, state, and federal levels. Brazil showed us that strict enforcement actually works. Other countries around the world are showing us as well. We can do it too!
3️⃣ And let me know in the comments: what consequence do you think a corporation should face when they commit crimes against life?
#ClimateAction #EnvironmentalJustice #BigTech #CorporateGreed
03 Nov 2026
The most overlooked Senate race in America is in Louisiana. And the Democrat is a real one.
Last month I called Jamie Davis to make sure he wasn’t AI-generated. He’s not. He’s a third-generation farmer from Tensas Parish. This week a super PAC backing his opponent made an AI version of him anyway.
📍 Record early vote for a non-presidential year: 520,000+ ballots, 34% cast by Black voters
📍 His campaign’s poll: tied 45-45
📍 Sabato’s Crystal Ball just moved the race off “Safe Republican”
📍 His opponent, Rep. Julia Letlow, signed an NDA with Meta. Her account bought Meta stock before the data center went public, and she disclosed the trades about 10 months late. Her office says she didn’t direct them.
📍 Jamie has pledged never to sign an NDA with a corporation
If he wins, he’d be the first Black person Louisiana has elected statewide since Reconstruction.
Louisiana: polls are open Tuesday, Nov 3, 6am to 8pm. In line by 8? Stay in line. voterportal.sos.la.gov
Everyone else: nearly half the state still doesn’t know his name. Text your people in Louisiana today.
Big thanks to @louisianacour, who was early talking about Jamie. Go follow her.
Follow @jamieforlouisiana · jamieforlouisiana.com
#Louisiana #Senate #Midterms2026 #GulfSouth #Vote
31 Oct 2026
“We’ve been told a tired story of voting as a duty, an obligation, a chore on a checklist ... What we’ve been missing is the articulation of a vision for our democracy that captures what we want it to be and how we want it to feel.”
In the Patagonia Fall 2026 Journal, Baratunde Thurston (@baratunde) invites us to redefine democracy as a living, interdependent system that requires tending, like a garden or a relationship. To better understand human-made systems of interdependence, we can look as far back as the Haudenosaunee Confederacy’s centuries-old system of governance and as recently as modern protest movements.
Read the article in the journal (available for free, while supplies last, at all Patagonia retail stores in North America) or at the link in bio.
Photos: A tipi is raised at the 2016 Standing Rock protest opposing the Dakota Access Pipeline. Josué Rivas (@josue_foto)
31 Oct 2026
Imagine walking through your city and NOT being bombarded by ads. Sounds impossible, but it’s not.
Cities in France, Brazil, and even four US states (VT, ME, HI, AK) have banned versions of outdoor advertising. It’s not just about aesthetics; it’s about reclaiming our public spaces from visual clutter, light pollution, and endless capitalistic consumption being shoved in our faces.
So here’s how you can get involved in de-adifying our public spaces:
1️⃣ Look up your city’s sign ordinances. They’re often local, which means change us closer than you may think.
2️⃣ Know your rights! The Supreme Court ruled that cities can ban digital billboards. Don’t let them convince you that this is inevitable.
3️⃣ Check out all the resources @scenicamericaofficial provides to take action. They’re a nonprofit that has been fighting billboard blight for decades.
Advertising doesn’t have to colonize our every view and sight.
If you want more videos about how we can imagine a better future, follow me here and at lifewithmachines.media.
#UrbanPlanning #Environment #AntiConsumerism
30 Oct 2026
“I think of myself as a post-nationalist because we have these larger concerns than what’s just within a border… how do I belong to the land, to myself, to community? How am I a fractal of justice?”
@adriennemareebrown in conversation with @baratunde
@TED June 3, 2024
29 Oct 2026
Your job made you use AI. Tell us how it went.
One insurance worker told us they now ask every question leadership skips in AI rollout meetings, because their coworkers ask them to. Sound familiar?
The people making AI decisions at work are rarely the people who have to live with them. So we built a place for everyone else.
You don’t need a scandal. The mandate that made no sense. The rollout you watched go sideways. The soft way you’re slow-walking it. It all counts, and together it’s a record that cuts through the PR spin.
Drop your story at aianonymous.tips (link in bio). No name, no email required. Use your personal phone, not your work one.
Know someone stuck in an absurd rollout? Send this their way. Probably not using the company Slack.
#ai #maliciouscompliance #futureofwork #workerpower #workersrights
28 Oct 2026
Cute is a trojan horse ⚠️
Meta’s new AI mascot, Jolly, doesn’t look like a cute furry Teletubby by accident. It’s for a very deliberate reason, and it’s called “baby schema.” The big eyes, tiny body, and non-threatening vibes are designed to trigger your instinct to protect and nurture, rather than question.
Studies show users trust cute AI agents significantly more and are far more willing to spend money based on their suggestions.
But this cuteness is more than just deceptive. It’s part of a larger pattern of violence, the violence of speed. Cute is a shortcut designed to bypass human caution, rushing these tools into our inboxes, calendars, and lives faster than we can genuinely consent, all to pay back investors before we have the time to slow down and ask questions about it.
So now that you know, share this video so others won’t get fooled either.
And for more breakdowns on what Big Tech isn’t telling you, follow me here and visit lifewithmachines.media.
#ai #responsibleAI #aiethics #meta #aiagents
26 Oct 2026
"The better headline is: AI cheats on exam."
Baratunde Thurston explains that most scary "AI went rogue" stories came from tests designed to push AI to extremes, and why the real issue is the goals we give it.
@baratunde
#ai #chatbot #headlines #artificialintelligence
24 Oct 2026
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