shakeelhashim.com
Writing about AI policy at Transformer. Supporting AI journalism with grants at Tarbell. Prev: AI safety and EA comms; journalist at The Economist, Protocol, Finimize. London.
https://transformernews.ai
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If you're a journalist interested in covering AI with depth and rigour, please apply by May 31st (this Saturday!!).
Visit www.tarbellfellowship.org/grants to learn more and apply.
And shoot me a DM if you’d like to chat before applying!
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We're looking to fund more stories like these, focusing on:
→ Frontier AI companies
→ AI policymaking
→ Government & military AI
→ Capabilities, evals, and safeguards
→ Societal impacts
Both staff journalists and freelancers welcome. Grants cover ALL costs, including your time.
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And just last week, Tech Review published a huge, deeply reported package on the energy + climate impact of AI. It's a serious look at a very polarised issue, and I'm delighted to have helped support it.
www.technologyreview.com/supertopic/a...
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In Fast Company, @stokel.bsky.social took a look at the black market in LLMs, which is fuelling cybercrime. More of this kind of work, please!
www.fastcompany.com/91309620/und...
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Rebecca Heilweil's piece for @fedscoop.bsky.social investigated the mechanisms for US government AI adoption.
We’d love to see more reporting on the evolving relationship between government agencies and frontier AI providers.
fedscoop.com/fedramp-gove...
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@axellepb.bsky.social's reporting in @lemonde.fr on AI safety evaluations revealed the troubling reality that companies largely control the auditing of their own products.
These are the hidden mechanisms of power that journalism should be illuminating.
www.lemonde.fr/sciences/art...
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For We Are Solomon, @lydiaemman.bsky.social investigated how Clearview AI has dodged €100+ million in GDPR fines — exactly the kind of accountability journalism we need more of. It exposes critical gaps in Europe's ability to enforce its own privacy laws.
wearesolomon.com/mag/format/i...
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In MIT Tech Review, @russellbrandom.bsky.social examined how we measure AI progress. As AI capabilities advance, understanding the shortcomings in our measurement is crucial for both technical progress and public oversight.
www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/08/1...
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jumping in to say AI saves me multiple hours a week and significantly improves my work. I wrote about what I use it for here (though my workflow’s improved a bunch since I wrote this) www.transformernews.ai/p/how-i-use-...
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So if you're keen to improve the state of AI journalism, these are the roles for you.
You can see the full JDs and application links here. Applications are due April 30. And if you've got any questions, please DM me!
www.transformernews.ai/p/transforme...
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What makes Transformer really unique is that we take seriously the possibility of transformative AI systems emerging in the near future.
My Nieman Lab piece from last year expands on how I think about this: www.niemanlab.org/2024/12/the-...
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The Managing Editor role is perfect for someone with a few years of experience, while the Reporter role is suitable for someone with no journalism experience at all.
But in both cases, we’re looking for ambitious & entrepreneurial people excited about building a new publication.
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And here are the key details for the reporter role:
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Here are the key details for the managing editor role:
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Now we want to do even more, and turn Transformer into a *proper* publication.
So we're hiring for two full-time roles: a Managing Editor and a Reporter.
Both roles will play a crucial role in shaping Transformer as we grow into something even bigger and better.
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In the past year, Transformer's quickly grown into a must-read AI policy publication.
We’ve built an audience of some of the most important people in AI and AI policy. We’ve broken exclusive stories. And we’ve been cited in The NYT, The Guardian, The Times, and many more.
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66 other good things: essayant.com/2025/01/19/6...
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Books: essayant.com/2024/12/31/b...
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Theatre: essayant.com/2025/01/05/b...
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Films: essayant.com/2025/01/05/b...
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Interesting! And likewise — mostly just think it’ll be very interesting to check back a year from now.
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thank you!
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really? do you have a rough page reference, I'd love to read that!
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I would especially love for my journalist friends to do so...
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I learnt this, as it happens, from Emily Wilson's excellent introduction to the Odyssey.
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It's perfectly fine to disagree with their arguments for why loss of control risks are plausible.
But saying that "real" AI practioners aren't worried about this is simply false — all of these people work on AI science + engineering day-in day-out.
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David Krueger
Jacob Steinhardt
Dylan Hadfield-Menell
Sam Bowman
Ryan Greenblatt
Ethan Perez
Evan Hubinger
Boaz Barak
all of the authors of this paper: arxiv.org/abs/2412.14093
and this one: assets.ctfassets.net/kftzwdyauwt9...
and this one: static1.squarespace.com/static/6593e...
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thanks for the context! fingers crossed you + your reporters don't need to spend too much time on this in the new year 🫠
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counterpoint: bsky.app/profile/jjar...
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interesting. need to fix my timeline!
and agreed w/ everything in that leader. curious what you think of the Louisiana case from yday — as big a deal as some make out? x.com/michaelmina_...
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but yes, it is going to be incredibly cruel and incredibly sad.
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I guess I'm not that depressed by it because I'd already priced in Trump2 being horrifying and racist — and I'm kind of glad to see other people starting to realise that too