Kashmir Hill
Journalist, currently at The New York Times. I cover privacy, technology, A.I., and the strange times we live in. Named after the Led Zeppelin song. Author of YOUR FACE BELONGS TO US. (Yes, in my head it will always be All Your Face Are Belong To Us)
- Reposted by Kashmir HillA retiree wrote this email to a DHS attorney. Within five hours, DHS demanded Google turn over records for his account. A Kafkaesque form of domestic surveillance, intimidating Americans for lawful speech. New from us at the Post: www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio... @johnwoodrowcox.bsky.social
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- Speaking of the Washington Post, this is a must-read story it recently put out about how the government chased down a guy who sent critical emails to federal employees about current deportation policies.
- New territory. Must read story from a colleague. www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...
- Very sad to see yet another news outlet eradicate jobs for journalists. Reliable information about the world and what’s happening in it, from local to global scale, is harder to get with fewer and fewer skilled people whose mission is to provide it. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/b...
- Reposted by Kashmir HillNew territory. Must read story from a colleague. www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...
- Reposted by Kashmir HillA Minnesota woman observing ICE agents in her car was cornered on one-way streets. An agent approached, called her by name—citing facial recognition. Days later, her Global Entry and TSA privileges were revoked, with no explanation.
- Reposted by Kashmir HillThe government’s arrests of journalists @donlemonofficial.bsky.social and @bygeorgiafort.bsky.social are attacks on freedom of the press. Two federal courts flatly rejected prosecuting Lemon, but instead of accepting that humiliating defeat, the government has now doubled down. Read our statement:
- Reposted by Kashmir Hill"News outlets across the political spectrum need to loudly defend [independent journalists Don] Lemon’s and [Georgia] Fort’s rights. Journalists are not making themselves the story, Trump is.” Full Freedom of the Press Foundation statement below.
- One of the greatest fears for facial recognition tech is its use to suppress dissent. Congress has been talking about creating laws for facial recognition since the "Snooper Bowl" in 2001, when it was unknowingly used on football fans (wrote about it in my book). But lawmakers never got it done.
- ICE has weapons of war... www.nytimes.com/video/us/100... ...and surveillance: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/t... ... including face recognition app Clearview AI. In 2024, DHS was only using Clearview for child exploitation investigations. Now use includes investigating "attacks on law enforcement."
- ICE has weapons of war... www.nytimes.com/video/us/100... ...and surveillance: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/t... ... including face recognition app Clearview AI. In 2024, DHS was only using Clearview for child exploitation investigations. Now use includes investigating "attacks on law enforcement."
- Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/t...
- OpenAI will retire GPT 4o on Feb 13: openai.com/index/retiri... In November, we wrote about how OpenAI engineered this model to be more engaging, resulting in harmful effects on some users: www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/t...
- Whoa, the longterm effects of the reporting I did on GM's sale of people's driving information to risk profilers: phoebewallhoward.substack.com/p/gm-warns-o...
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- Incredible story by @agreenberg.bsky.social, both on the scam compound operation and how he navigated a uniquely difficult and dangerous situation for his source. This one should be required reading for journalism ethics classes: www.wired.com/story/he-lea...
- Small part of the story, but a note on how LLMs are being used by scammers.
- Reposted by Kashmir HillAnother article by @kashhill.bsky.social about the harms to which LLMs are being tied
- I’ll confess, my initial reaction when stories like this started dribbling out was that the folks described must have had some preexisting issue waiting to be set off by something or other. But the more accumulate, the more it seems like… no, it’s the LLMs. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/26/u...
- Reposted by Kashmir HillI’ll confess, my initial reaction when stories like this started dribbling out was that the folks described must have had some preexisting issue waiting to be set off by something or other. But the more accumulate, the more it seems like… no, it’s the LLMs. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/26/u...
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- Reposted by Kashmir HillFascinating article, conversations w/ medical professionals about AI use in their patients. Takeaways: 1) AI psychosis moving firmly from anecdote to data 2) "They were going to have a breakdown anyway" misunderstands causes of psychotic breaks 3) Chatbot addiction may be a presenting condition
- Reposted by Kashmir HillOnce again, the government is trying to get you to believe your own eyes are lying to you. This was another murder by ICE, an agency that proves day after day it has no business policing on America’s streets.
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- Reposted by Kashmir HillNYT: “.. an American citizen with no criminal record, the city police chief said. A New York Times video analysis shows he was holding a phone, not a gun.” @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/01/24/u...
- Reposted by Kashmir HillA group of fringe researchers thwarted safeguards at the NIH and gained access to genetic data from 20,000+ children – and they've used it to promote claims that white people are genetically superior. (by Mike McIntire) 🎁🔗 www.nytimes.com/2026/01/24/u...
- AI application slop: themarkup.org/hello-world/... Would love to know the breakdown of AI that has saved time versus consumed more of it
- The tally is roughly 14 yeses, 15 nos, and a few depends. Also very interesting links to studies that find that reading and listening activate the same parts of the brain, including this one: www.jneurosci.org/content/39/3... Narrow victory for @trevortimm.bsky.social.
- Settle a spousal argument: If you have listened to an audiobook, can you say, conversationally, that you have read that book? cc: @trevortimm.bsky.social
- Not just Minneapolis, me thinks www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/u...
- Another lawsuit against OpenAI drops. This sentiment is a key problem in other realms beyond mental health: "“ChatGPT has all this power and data behind it, and it’s telling me that I’m right, that this is a real thing I’m working on.'" futurism.com/artificial-i...
- We're at the "please-come-back emails" stage of development
- Reposted by Kashmir HillDonald Trump's AI-generated "Board of Peace" logo is so bad it doesn't even have Greenland on it, the territory he almost took the US to war this week to seize. No, really, look closely:
- Reposted by Kashmir HillMusk’s participation in the bikini trend opened the floodgates. Grok went from making 300k images a week to 4.4 million. Read more from me, @dylanfreedman.nytimes.com and @stuartathompson.bsky.social: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/t...
- Settle a spousal argument: If you have listened to an audiobook, can you say, conversationally, that you have read that book? cc: @trevortimm.bsky.social
- This guy seems smart.
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- There is a tsunami of litigation against the social media companies over their harms to teens. It's a little hard to follow because there are so many suits, but a bellwether case is going to trial this month, and Snap just settled its way out of it: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/20/t...
- Took the FTC's remaining two commissioners a year to vote to finalize the agency's settlement with GM over the automaker's selling data about how and where people were driving their cars. www.ftc.gov/news-events/... (I broke the news back in 2024 that GM was doing this.)
- This is a powerful and frightening story about an agency that has become unaccountable for its abuses: www.propublica.org/article/vide...
- Reposted by Kashmir HillYes, immigration agents not only took Arnoldo's phone, the 10th grader had to use Find My Phone to locate it — in a vending machine for used electronics, close to an ICE detention center. Read the full story here: www.propublica.org/article/vide...
- Speaking of illegally retaining... www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
- Reposted by Kashmir Hillsystematically dangerous & reckless ICE and CBP practices were catalogued by Judge Sara Ellis, foreshadowing yesterday's killing. Important post by @chrisgeidner.bsky.social www.lawdork.com/p/ice-agent-...
- Reposted by Kashmir Hillwhat you clearly see, CLEARLY, is a driver who is spooked by the agents grabbing her door, takes steps to drive away, and is immediately shot as moves her vehicle *away* from the agents.
- “Go inside, they literally just killed someone,” says a woman trying to usher students to safety.
- man the video of border patrol facing off with angry students in Minneapolis on Reddit is depressing www.reddit.com/r/minnesota/...
- Reposted by Kashmir Hill“.. In the last four months alone, immigration officers have fired on at least nine people in five states and Washington, D.C. All of the individuals targeted in those shootings were, like the woman killed on Wednesday, fired on while in their vehicles.” @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/01/07/u...
- A video analysis of the killing of a protestor in Minneapolis. Officers wouldn’t let a bystander physician check her pulse and the masked officer who shot her quickly fled the scene. www.nytimes.com/video/us/100...
- The branding so far... www.nytimes.com/2025/12/27/u...
- Putting the brand on every possible thing
- For some positive news: the effects of congestion pricing in New York City. It has significantly decreased how much time my own commute takes so I'm a big fan. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
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- And black tablecloths(?) hanging from the beams
- If you haven’t already read it, I highly recommend Legacy of Ashes for a history of the U.S. overthrowing other governments. Back when it was covert, rather than a very public Saturday morning surprise www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/188076...
