Bobbie

My new story at @wired.com on North Korea's extensive effort to secretly placing young IT workers inside Western companies. They use AI, deepfakes and boots on the ground to steal identities, get remote jobs, and funnel money and data back to fund the Kim regime. www.wired.com/story/north-...

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This fascinating, grim and utterly necessary story from my old chums at Tech Review: zillions spent on high-tech US border surveillance and yet thousands of people still dying within a stone’s throw of towers. A horrible reminder of how the promises of a technology often fail.

If you want to see how unusual it is, hit up Madelyn Leembruggen's TikTok. The joy at being asked questions along the way is real!

This was a fun conversation!

Surprised how upset people are about AI companies destroying books. They'd be shocked if they knew how little publishers actually care for books as a physical object. (not surprised people care about secret slurping up of text by hungry language models, however) bobbie.net/2026/08/05/g...)

Seven years ago my friend Lyra McKee was murdered while reporting on rioting in Derry. Three men were just found not guilty over their involvement in killing her, despite a bench trial that took more than two years. She deserves better than this. www.theguardian.com/news/2026/ju...

Late to it, but Anna pointed out this quote from Steve Rosenbaum, the author of a book on AI destroying truth that contained half a dozen made up quotes. “It’s like saying, do you beat your wife? It’s one of those accusations that there’s no response to.” Sorry, WHAT?? www.wired.com/story/future...

Excited to say that our pick of the month for June is @adambecker.bsky.social's storming MORE, EVERYTHING, FOREVER. From AI apocalypse to immortality, if you've ever wondered what strange beliefs the Silicon Valley really hold... this is the book for you. newsletter.readcurious.xyz/p/cu026-anno...

Our book of the month for May is “Feed the People!” by Gabriel N Rosenberg and @jandutkiewicz.bsky.social — a provocative argument in favor of mass food production and the pleasures of “democratic hedonism” Read more: newsletter.readcurious.xyz/p/cur025-ann...

Just 3 hours left to support this indiegogo campaign! I've been working with @locusmag.bsky.social to ensure that coverage of science fiction, fantasy and horror publishing stays independent. Great rewards here for voracious readers + aspiring authors. www.indiegogo.com/en/projects/...

One of the most impressive things about @alexclapp.bsky.social's "Waste Wars" is his journey to document the afterlife of our garbage. Here are some of the locations he visits in our April book of the month. Get ready, it's genuinely shocking. newsletter.readcurious.xyz/p/photo-essa...

Feel like winning yourself some personalized limited-edition Wm. Gibson while helping Locus continue to do its wholly admirable and increasingly essential thing for sf and fantasy? Step right up!

Six months ago Sora made me feel so sick to the pit of my stomach that I wrote about it in the NYT. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/19/o... What was it for? Just to generate slop and confuse people about what’s real and what’s fake? Now it’s been shut down. Good riddance! www.wsj.com/tech/ai/open...

Amazing to chat with @craigmod.com about his book Things Become Other Things, his friends, his mentors, the Japanese language, being an old man whisperer, AI, purpose... oh, all the stuff! newsletter.readcurious.xyz/p/craig-mod-...

Most concerning part of the case of Seamus Culleton, an Irish man on a green card path and legally able to work, but imprisoned by ICE for 5 months? He says agents presented docs agreeing to deportation that were "signed" by him that he'd never actually signed. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

The funny thing about a certain type of angry conspiracy guy is that they’re literally being confronted with an elite paedophile ring and a tyrannical government at the same time right now, and because it isn't being done by the people they wanted it to be done by they’re all being pussies about it

The violent occupation of Minneapolis started with a vlog. I've wanted to find a framework to describe Nick Shirley & others like him: "Influencer" is too quaint. "Journalist" is obviously wrong. I landed on "slopagandist." Gift link (open in a web browser) www.theverge.com/news/869824/...

“ICE isn’t the Gestapo. The Gestapo was…” (proceeds to describe qualities that apply to what ICE is currently doing)

Fraud is a serious crime that merits laying siege to an entire city and collectively punishing every immigrant from Somalia. It's also a crime for which you can be pardoned and relieved of compensating your victims, so long as some of the money you stole finds its way to the president.

I wrote a bit for @ffdweb.org looking at some of the work being done by Rick Prelinger (@footage.bsky.social) and @archive.org. The ambition? To save the past and give it away. "That’s the highest destiny that an archive can aspire to… when you give up control." ffdweb.org/digest/issue...

We’ve now reached the “then they came for the middle aged suburban dudes who have to go to work in the morning” part of the poem

📣 Our book of the month for August is... STRATA: STORIES FROM DEEP TIME by @laurapoppick.bsky.social We loved this detailed, deliberate overview of geoscience—and its mixture of lyrical prose and detailed profiles of researchers and the things they study. newsletter.readcurious.xyz/p/announcing...

📢 Our pick of the month for July is "The Salmon Cannon and the Levitating Frog": @biologycarly.bsky.social's fun new book showing how silly science can lead to serious discoveries. Publishers Weekly called it "pop science at its finest" and they're right! newsletter.readcurious.xyz/p/cur015-sal...

Had a great conversation with @karenhao.bsky.social about her book EMPIRE OF AI, OpenAI, its true costs, and end-of-the-world thinking for this month's @readcurious.xyz live Q&A. I'll be sharing our chat soon in our free email newsletter. Sign up if you're interested! newsletter.readcurious.xyz

Sen. Alex Padilla, who was just forcibly removed from a DHS press conference, is the ranking member of Judiciary’s subcommittee on immigration, citizenship, and border safety, which has “oversight of federal agencies with citizenship, asylum, refugee, and immigration enforcement responsibilities.”

📣ATTENTION YOUNG WRITERS!📣 Henry Lien will be holding a free youth writing workshop hosted at @Chapter510 in partnership with the Locus Awards and @sistahscifi on Sunday, June 22nd in Oakland. RSVP now here or through the link in our bio! tinyurl.com/3fcz9yt7 See you there! #kidlit

Four things we loved about @karenhao.bsky.social's EMPIRE OF AI, our book of the month for June. newsletter.readcurious.xyz/p/close-read...

Mainstream media keeps laundering these “philosophers of the alt right” or “big thinkers of Silicon Valley”… And then you watch them on video and immediately see they are total chuds you wouldn’t want to spend 2 minutes alone with. Why can’t people see how utterly weird these dudes are?

Request for advice: a family member of mine in the UK, a lefty in his younger days, has been Farage-pilled. Constant stream of anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant posts and right wing talking points, angry responses to my comments and questions. Any tips, suggestions or guides to constructively engage?

Our book of the month for June is @karenhao.bsky.social's astonishing look at the hottest company in tech: "Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI" It's a detailed, critical dive into what AI is, where it comes from, and what it costs. newsletter.readcurious.xyz/p/cur014-kar...

THE COUNTDOWN HAS BEGUN! We have 9 days to reach our fundraising goal & we have a LONG way to go!! Be the reason that the Locus lights stay on! Help us out at igg.me/at/locusmag2025. We are so grateful for your support! Fundraiser link in bio #sff #scifi #fantasy #booksky

Thanks to Vox for having me on Today, Explained to talk about fake North Korean workers. I'm told this goes out on many public radio stations, so hello to you all out there! (I cannot bring myself to listen to my own voice today, so please tell me if I goofed) megaphone.link/VMP4489740505

It should not be controversial or complicated to say that what is happening in Gaza is wrong. But here we are. We are bearing witness to thousands of people, many of them children, being trapped and bombed and starved to death. Doctors have been killed. Aid workers. Journalists. This is wrong.

The same reporters who won’t call the plane a bribe because it did not come with a note that says “now you will do what we want” somehow also often think that trans people are too biased to report on trans issues.

Lovely recommendation from @longreads.com today for my recent @wired.com story on why your weird remote work buddy may actually be a North Korean IT worker. "puts you on the edge of your seat for the audacity of the cybercrime alone" longreads.com/2025/05/09/t...

I am very much looking forward to talking to Bonnie about this wonderful book!