Ben Werdmuller - Nostr Hypermedia

Ben Werdmuller

benwerd@nos.social

npub183ng...4n09

I lead technology at ProPublica and write speculative fiction. This is a personal account. Every day, I write about tech, democracy, and society at https://werd.io. More about me: https://about.werd.io

benwerd 9 months ago

Political Pollsters Are Trying to Save Money by Polling AI Instead of Real People, and It’s Going About as Well as You’d Expect

Ben Werdmuller

Political Pollsters Are Trying to Save Money by Polling AI Instead of Real People, and It’s Going About as Well as You’d Expect

"Obviously, any campaign that used only that AI-generated data would miss the mark — instead of looking at the views of real respondents, it woul...

benwerd 9 months ago

Why I'm all-in on Zen Browser

Ben Werdmuller

Why I'm all-in on Zen Browser

After Arc's pivot to AI left power users behind, I found the browser I actually wanted.

benwerd 9 months ago

The 19th's Strategic Plan

Ben Werdmuller

The 19th's Strategic Plan

"The 19th developed seven key initiatives to guide our priorities for the next three years." Doing this work in public is such a smart move.

benwerd 9 months ago

Ask a newsroom technology leader

Ben Werdmuller

Ask a newsroom technology leader

From startup CTO to newsroom leader: Ask me anything.

benwerd 9 months ago

How Do We Tell the Story of Gaza’s Murdered Journalists?

Ben Werdmuller

How Do We Tell the Story of Gaza’s Murdered Journalists?

"Now, nearly two years and more than 250 assassinations later, I can count the names of the living journalists in Gaza I follow on one hand."

benwerd 9 months ago

Funding Open Source like public infrastructure

Ben Werdmuller

Funding Open Source like public infrastructure

"Open Source runs much of the world's critical infrastructure. It powers government services, supports national security, and enables everything fr...

benwerd 9 months ago

Perplexity Makes Longshot $34.5 Billion Offer for Chrome

Ben Werdmuller

Perplexity Makes Longshot $34.5 Billion Offer for Chrome

"Artificial-intelligence startup Perplexity offered to purchase Google’s Chrome browser for $34.5 billion as it works to challenge the tech giant...

benwerd 9 months ago

Lifelogging under fascism

Ben Werdmuller

Lifelogging under fascism

How self-tracking became self-incrimination

benwerd 9 months ago

"But the “fear of being left behind” argument is particularly dangerous: it suggests that you should pick a technology first and then find problems for it to solve. That’s always backwards." In case you missed it, how I think about AI - in terms of vendors, tech, and power: