Bill Friend
The Blacksmith Who Never Joined Big Tech’s Army
Clay Montgomery owns a blacksmith shop in Texas. He works with his hands, shaping metal into useful objects the old-fashioned way. Technology, as he puts it, “is not exactly my forte.” So Montgomery was understandably confused when he discovered his business was listed as a member of the “Connected Commerce Council” – a lobbying group … Read more
Thinking Out Loud: The Curve We Can No Longer Measure
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about something I don’t believe gets enough attention in public discussions of frontier AI. We still tend to talk about AI progress as though it unfolds on a curve we can roughly track. Models improve. Benchmarks rise. Products get better. The line moves upward. Even when the pace feels … Read more
Israel’s AI Revolution – Part 4 – The Architecture of Impunity
Israel’s AI Revolution — Part 4 NSO’s Reinvention In January 2026, NSO Group released a new transparency report. The company said it was entering “a new phase of accountability.” The document gave away almost nothing: fewer disclosures than in prior years, no customer numbers, no country names, no meaningful account of investigations into misuse. It … Read more
Data Centers, Heat, and the Case for Finding Out Before We Build More
Supporting AI’s development does not mean suspending judgment about its costs. In an age of climate anxiety, societies are being asked to accept a great many things on faith. Build more transmission. Build more batteries. Build more solar. Build more nuclear. Build more cooling. Build more computation. Much of that may in fact be necessary. … Read more