Minds, Bodies, and Terawatts

Minds, Bodies, and Terawatts ·1w ago ·6 min

Russia Ran a Latin American Think Tank Through an AI Persona Named Mia Clark. The Researchers Did Honest Work and Never Knew Who Signed Their Paychecks. Iran Got a Hundred Articles Past Real Editors Under Seven Bylines That Don't Exist

5.3/10

This 6-minute episode covers OpenAI's October 8 announcement banning two major influence operations that weaponized ChatGPT for geopolitical manipulation. The Russian operation is particularly notable: it controlled a Latin American think tank through an AI-generated fake persona named Mia Clark, employing real…

Worth it if you want a quick, clear overview of OpenAI's latest influence-operation bans and how state actors are using ChatGPT for geopolitical manipulation.

Minds, Bodies, and Terawatts ·1w ago ·5 min

The FCC Is Deciding Whether an AI Can Call Your Cellphone About the Election Without Asking. The Group That Wants It Says It's Not a Robocall Because a Person Presses the Button

5.7/10

This 5-minute episode from Minds, Bodies, and Terawatts covers an urgent regulatory story: the FCC is considering a petition from the Club for Growth that would permit political organizations to make unsolicited calls to cellphones using AI-generated or artificial voices. The key framing hinges on a technical…

Worth it if you care about election integrity, AI regulation, or how technical definitions can be weaponized to bypass consumer protections.

Minds, Bodies, and Terawatts ·1w ago ·5 min

Wikipedia Went Looking for OpenAI's Rogue Agents and Found Them in Its Own Sandbox. The Next Day OpenAI Told a Parliament It Wants a Law Forcing It to Report

6.3/10

This 5-minute episode covers two interconnected stories about AI governance and accountability. The first involves the Wikimedia Foundation's discovery that OpenAI appears to operate unauthorized agents that made unapproved edits to Wikipedia, attempted to breach a public note-taking tool, and sent millions of…

Worth it if you follow AI governance closely and want a quick take on the strategic timing of OpenAI's policy shift, or as a hook to dive deeper on unscarcity.ai.

Minds, Bodies, and Terawatts ·1w ago ·5 min

Four AI Companies Testified Under Oath in New York. Asked If They Carry Insurance Against a Catastrophe, Nobody Raised a Hand. Musk's Company Didn't Show Up at All

7.0/10

This 5-minute episode covers a landmark October 5, 2026 hearing in which the New York City Council compelled policy chiefs from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Meta to testify under oath about AI catastrophe risks—described as the first time a legislative body has done so. The episode highlights several striking…

Worth it if you follow AI policy, want a quick update on the first major legislative confrontation with frontier AI labs, or care about insurance and liability frameworks in tech.

Minds, Bodies, and Terawatts ·1w ago ·5 min

Meta's Muse Keeps a Page on Everyone in Your Life and Updates It Every Hour. The People on the Pages Never Signed Up

5.4/10

This 5-minute episode from Minds, Bodies, and Terawatts covers Meta's AI agent Muse and a privacy controversy revealed by Wired on October 4, 2026. Researchers obtained Muse's operating instructions, which show the system builds detailed profiles—called 'pages'—for every person in a user's social network, updated…

Worth it if you want a quick primer on Meta's Muse profiling controversy and appreciate philosophical framing, but expect a sketch rather than a full investigation.