Ryan Mac 🙃

7 Nov 2024

Hello to the new followers and folks here. I'm a tech reporter for the NYT. It's going to be an interesting time to report on tech, and more specifically Elon Musk as he extends his power into the White House. If you work or have worked for him and want to reach me, hit me up on Signal at rmac.18.

"She thought it was perfect." www.nytimes.com/2026/10/25/s...

nytimes.comHow the A.I. Boom Is Driving Up Sales of Gray PaintTech companies are painting data centers with gray coatings on top of gray concrete and steel to resist fire, rust and static electricity. That has made data centers a fast-growing market for paint ma...

gray lady covers gray paint www.nytimes.com/2026/10/22/t...

the reporting and photography, including of this Madagascar child drinking from a gold mine's waste water pipe, is incredible. the story is infuriating. a look at how dirty gold is laundered into the world economy, with help from the one org meant to regulate it. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/19/w...

X has made a comeback with some communities, namely AI and tech, but it is not Twitter of old. On X, users have been spreading the name of a woman they think is Cornell's Jane Doe. One particular post doxed a woman's address and phone numbers and was viewed 1.4 million times.

nytimes.comWhen a Social Media Mob Came for Cornell’s Jane DoeAfter a former student named seven men in a lawsuit saying they had sexually assaulted her, a movement gained steam online to reveal her identity.

On X, users have circulated nonconsenual AI videos created by Grok of a woman they think is Jane Doe. They continue to spread her name. People have praised X for staying relevant for AI and tech conversation. But it also is the main vector for a doxing. That is X. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/16/n...

kinda wild there are four (!) tech movies all getting theatrical releases soon and vying for attention: facebook, openai, holmes-fielder and the musk doc

what are the best places to watch arsenal women's games in north london?

welp i regret askin

Next week, Google is set to launch an experimental satellite to test the feasibility of data centers in space and it's doing it on a SpaceX rocket. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/24/t...

17 Sept

Happy two years to Character Limit!

12 Sept

Child sex abuse material, some created by Grok, continues to spread on X. An incredibly disturbing read. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/11/t...

12 Sept

tough reporting from the best in the biz @kateconger.com and @mhkeller.bsky.social

28 Aug

First they came for…

Yashar Ali 🐘@yasharali.bsky.social

BREAKING via TMZ Milo Yiannopolous has been apprehended by ICE and is currently in a detention center.

six days later

in which the world's richest man appears to endorse a post calling for "shooting migrants" and "sinking boats with refugees"

nytimes.comAfter Hugging Face Was Attacked By A.I. Agents, It Embarked on a CrusadeHugging Face, a start-up that was breached by rogue bots from OpenAI, is using the hack to push for openness in A.I. development.

24 Aug

🤗 @kateconger.com www.nytimes.com/2026/08/24/t...

nytimes.comResearch Firm’s Founder Explains $6 Million Payment to Fired Forbes EditorRJ Shook of Shook Research said he paid Randall Lane, the former top editor at Forbes, for “services and guidance” in partnering with Forbes and later selling his research firm.

24 Aug

my "i received $6 million in recognition of services and guidance” t-shirt has many people asking questions already answered by my shirt. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/24/b...

nytimes.comHow the Billionaire Joe Lonsdale Shaped Trump’s Homelessness PolicyAs Republicans have embraced tough measures to clear the streets, no group has led the way more than the Cicero Institute, founded by the venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale.

22 Aug

an important story on how a former Silicon Valley billionaire is directly shaping federal policy on homelessness www.nytimes.com/2026/08/22/u...

lollllll

does this mean he's Frank Alive www.nytimes.com/2026/08/18/a...

14 Aug

the girls are fighting

nytimes.comForbes Fired Top Editor After Discovering He Received Secret $6 Million PaymentRandall Lane, the magazine’s chief content officer, received the money from the founder of Shook Research, which has partnered with Forbes on content about wealth advisers.

holy fuk www.nytimes.com/2026/08/12/b...

I started at Forbes making around $40k a year in San Francisco. I know folks there now who have been stonewalled on raises by management to meet the cost of living in the big cities where the place has offices. Funny how this puts that all into uhhhhh perspective.

any homies out there wanna give me $6 mil

former forbes group chats going insane rn

techdirt.comSpaceX’s Earnings Show Elon Wiped Out Two-Thirds Of Twitter’s Ad BusinessWhen SpaceX filed for its IPO, we went through the S-1 to point out just how far off the mark Elon Musk's predictions about his Twitter takeover turned out to be. Indeed, the failure of Twitter as a business was so catastrophic, Musk had to hide it by merging all his Xs together: he had...

11 Aug

LA RAIN

Ryan Mac 🙃 reposted

Mike Masnick

@masnick.com

11 Aug

When Elon took over Twitter he told investors he'd triple ad revenue within 5 years. It's now been almost four years... and he's wiped out 2/3rds of the ad revenue (basically revealed in footnotes to SpaceX's earnings).

Techdirt@techdirt.com

SpaceX’s Earnings Show Elon Wiped Out Two-Thirds Of Twitter’s Ad Business When SpaceX filed for its IPO, we went through the S-1 to point out just how far off the mark Elon Musk's... https://www.techdirt.com/2026/08/10/spacexs-earnings-show-elon-wiped-out-two-thirds-of-twitters-ad-business/

On SpaceX's earnings call, Musk projected that SpaceX will hit $1 trillion in revenue by 2030, with a "nonzero chance" it happens in 2029.

4 Aug

For scale, SpaceX just recorded $7.8 billion in revenue in its second quarter ending on June 30.

futurism.comA PR Firm Is Using Fake Publicists With AI-Generated Headshots to Spam Journalists With Pitches for Its ClientsA PR firm called Movchan Agency operated a roster of fake PR representatives, some with AI faces, to pitch journalists on stories. Why?

3 Aug

this is fun futurism.com/artificial-i...

actionnews5.comContractor who built Colossus and Colossus II says Elon Musk owes him colossal amount of moneyA mechanical contractor who helped build Elon Musk’s Memphis-area data centers at breakneck speed says SpaceXAI is dragging its feet on paying his company for work performed since 2024.

3 Aug

just like twitter! www.actionnews5.com/2026/08/01/c...

nytimes.comRescue Boat Crews Show Signs of Brain Injuries, but Coast Guard Isn’t LookingUntreated and undiagnosed, the crews that save lives in the roughest seas face the relentless pounding of waves.

30 July

such an incredibly told story from @davephilipps.bsky.social. his main subject is a teen, whose coast guard vet killed himself after years of trauma in the service. hoping to find more about her father lived (and died) she did her own research for a class project. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/30/u...

@davephilipps.bsky.social

30 July

the guts it takes to do something like this. props to the goat @davephilipps.bsky.social, who always tells these stories of vets and their families with such care. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/30/u...

Ryan Mac 🙃 reposted

Dave Philipps

30 July

When a boat hits a wave, the jolt can intensify 10x between the deck and the head of a crew member. That counter-intuitive physics is leaving some of the Coast Guard's most elite rescuers with serious brain injuries that go undiagnosed. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/30/u...

RIP Kavinsky

someone help square this for me

Ryan Mac 🙃 reposted

I wrote about what's happening to the web now that everything is A.I. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/20/t...

nytimes.comHow Google’s A.I. Search Is Imperiling the Open Web (Gift Article)As Google incorporates more artificial intelligence into search, people are spending more time on Google. Some website operators are crying foul.

22 July

in case you plan a jan 6 style event on jack dorsey's new work collaboration platform

nytimes.comU.S. Sought Phone Records of Times Journalists and Their RelativesThe government is aggressively seeking the confidential sources of Times reporters who wrote about the president’s new Air Force One. The Times has asked a judge to quash the subpoenas.

20 July

pathetic www.nytimes.com/2026/07/20/b...