BeNICE with Ed Coper
Here are the show notes from the latest episode of Burning Platforms where it was great to dive into Ed’s new book ‘Angertainment’ .
Listen to the episode here:
While the diagnosis about rage-driven social media is sharp, his remedy is even more interesting. It’s a pithy acronym but also consistent with Ed’s analysis, that rather than fighting anger and divisive politics with power-points and tut-tuts, progressive should recognising the importance of use empathy, including for our opponents, as our shield and connection as our sword.
Here’s a link to Ed’s Angertainment website where he breaks down the BeNICE framework.
This video of Ed indulging in a bit of performative anger for the Beetootah Advocate has totally gone off and is well worth a watch-
And for those wondering what BeNICE progressive comms could look like, treat yourself to this from the Mamdani team -
In this week’s show we also dive into the following Burning Questions:
Is Anthropic really hitting pause – Lizzie cast her ire over the reporting of Anthropic’s kinda sorta call for a kinda sorta pause on frontier AI. Coming after their audience with the Pope, the withholding of one of its models nd pushback on the Trump Administration’s use of their tech we wonder whether this is proof of their good intentions or just a shill
You can read the original long post from Anthropic here .
Gary Marcus pushes back on the media reporting of the so-called pause here:
Meanwhile this piece from Fortune suggests both Altman and Amodei are walking back their AI Apocalypse predictions in the lead-up to their respective IPOs.
Will Microsoft’s agents land safely? Dan is equal parts excited and alarmed by the release of a new platform that serves AI agents, Project Solara, being launched by Microsoft and Open AI.
For people like me who are still getting their head around how Agents will work, this promo video is worth watching: ‘it doesn’t decide for you, it just clears the path’
ArtsTechnica steps out the logic of how a platform of agents would overturn the world of apps.
This terrific piece by Charlie Warzel in the Atlantic (paywall) looks at what the AI agents will do to human agency
Should the government automate discretion? I look at concerns about the proposed scope of AI within the National Disability Insurance Scheme, particular its use in the exercise of discretion.
Professor Ed Santow for the Human Technology Institute has sounded the alarm of what this means in the Saturday Paper
In the discussion I refer to the work I did with Ed around the negative impact of robo-debt on public servants and their attitude towards automation
This report in Guardian Australia from Chris Knaus after the release of the Royal Commission report is a good summary of the lessons not learned.