In a scathing open letter, luminaries from the AI industry and beyond are calling on OpenAI to prove that it hasn’t betrayed humanity in favor of profits.
LINK: https://futurism.com/openai-open-letter-experts-humankind
Mexico has officially introduced a digital identification system by signing a law that turned the previously optional biometric-based citizen code into a mandatory document for all citizens.
Last month, legislators approved amendments to a law related to the 18-character personal identifier, known as Unique Population Registry Code (Clave Única de Registro de Población – CURP), with the change formalized on Wednesday through a decree.
The mandatory CURP will contain personal and biometric information, including a photograph and a QR code containing biometric fingerprint and iris data. The identifier is expected to be introduced gradually to all Mexicans by February 2026.
The government has also allowed the consolidation of the citizen codes into a single identity platform that will be connected to other state databases and administrative records. According to the decree, the Ministry of the Interior and the Digital Transformation Agency must create a Unified Identity Platform within 90 days, while public and private institutions will be required to update their system to recognize the identifier.
The country also plans to kick-start a national program to collect biometric data from children and adolescents within 120 days, according to news outlet Mexico Business.
READ MORE: https://www.biometricupdate.com/202507/mexico-makes-biometric-identifier-mandatory-for-all-citizens
LINK: https://futurism.com/billionaires-corporate-dictatorship
In this episode, Tristan Harris explores the 2 most probable paths that AI will follow, one leading to chaos and the other to dystopia. He explains how we can pursue a narrow path between these 2 undesirable outcomes. Tristan Harris is a prominent technology ethicist known for his influential critique of the attention economy and persuasive design in tech. Tristan is Co-Founder of the Center for Humane Technology (CHT), a nonprofit organization whose mission is to align technology with humanity’s best interests. He regularly briefs heads of state, technology CEOs, and US Congress members, in addition to mobilizing millions of people around the world through mainstream media. Tristan has explored the influences that hijack human attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs, from his childhood as a magician to his coursework in Stanford’s Persuasive Technology Lab to his leadership as a Design Ethicist at Google. Today, he studies how major technology platforms wield dangerous power over our ability to make sense of the world and leads the call for systemic change. In 2020, Tristan was featured in the two-time Emmy-winning Netflix documentary, The Social Dilemma. The film unveiled how social media is dangerously reprogramming our brains and human civilization. It reached over 100 million people in 190 countries across 30 languages. As a co-host of the top-rated technology podcast, Your Undivided Attention, he explores the drivers behind social media’s race for attention, its destabilization of society, and potential solutions. Learn more about Tristan’s research at https://www.humanetech.com/
The dark comedy is set to hit theaters on October 31st.
CEOs would be nothing without the labor of their (typically) underpaid employees, and the unfairness of that reality seems to be what’s causing all the chaos in director Yorgos Lanthimos’ upcoming film, Bugonia.
A remake of South Korean director Jang Joon-hwan’s 2003 feature Save the Green Planet, Bugonia zooms in on the life of Teddy (Jesse Plemons), a conspiracy-minded beekeeper who works for a massive pharmaceutical company run by Michelle (Emma Stone). As one of the company’s many workers who spend their days laboring to make a fraction of Michelle’s salary, Teddy sees a lot of parallels between himself and the bees who live only to serve their queen.
Teddy knows that he, like a beehive’s drones, is expendable in the grand scheme of Michelle’s plans as a CEO. Teddy’s frustrations and delusions about an alien invasion convince him that Michelle probably isn’t a human. And that’s enough for him to hatch a plot to kidnap his boss under the auspices of saving the planet.
Though the trailer skews a little whimsical, it’s fairly clear that Lanthimos and writer Will Tracy are telling a dark story about people pushed to the edge by economic inequality. The movie also seems like it’s going to touch on how people not having proper access to quality mental health care is a very real societal problem, which is probably going to make Bugonia feel timely as hell when the film hits limited theaters on October 24th before its wide release on October 31st.
We get into a secret partnership between the New Orleans Police Department and Project NOLA, a private nonprofit organisation that owns and operates an extensive network of cameras blanketing New Orleans. For years, Project NOLA has been running live facial recognition through their cameras and sending automated notifications to the police when a match is made using Project NOLA’s privately maintained list of “wanted people.” By going through an unofficial private partner, police have been able to sidestep and undermine legal prohibition on their use of AI technologies like facial recognition. We get into the history of using New Orleans as a testbed for policing technology, the dangerous precedent being set by this public-private relationship, and how this surveillance nightmare is on track to become even more expansive and unleashed thanks to potential policy changes.
••• Police secretly monitored New Orleans with facial recognition cameras www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025…-new-orleans/
••• A bad facial recognition match costs Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joe Lopinto’s office. See how much www.nola.com/news/jefferson_par…-728b3783cb93.html
••• New Orleans City Council proposed ordinance cityofno.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php…meta_id=741682
Standing Plugs:
••• Order Jathan’s new book: www.ucpress.edu/book/978052039807…c-and-the-luddite
••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: substack.com/@thetechbubble
••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: www.patreon.com/thismachinekills
Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)
Elon Musk’s massive xAI data center is poisoning Memphis.
It’s burning enough gas to power a small city, with no permits and no pollution controls.
Residents tell us they can’t breathe and they’re getting sicker.
sources:
Into the Wild, by John Krakauer
The Journal of Chris McCandless
The Wild Truth, by Carine McCandless
Surviving Progress explores the dangerous paradox at the heart of modern civilization: what we call “progress” might actually be leading us toward collapse.
Based on Ronald Wright’s concept of the “progress trap,” this documentary journeys through history, economics, biology, and politics to reveal how technological advancement, debt, overconsumption, and ecological destruction are threatening the future of humanity.
Ronald Wright’s bestseller A Short History of Progress inspired this cinematic requiem to progress-as-usual. Throughout human history, what seemed like progress often backfired.
Some of the world’s foremost thinkers, activists, bankers, and scientists challenge us to overcome progress traps, which destroyed past civilizations and lie treacherously embedded in our own.
With powerful visuals, expert commentary, and haunting parallels to the fall of past empires, the film challenges viewers to rethink growth, power, and sustainability. Are we too smart for our own survival, or is there still time to change course?
