Jasmine Sun
Writer and former Substack product manager; publishes essays and interviews on technology, culture and China at jasmi.news.
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What they believe
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Voters are increasingly drawn to fearless, populist 'fighter' candidates over establishment figures.
Abdul's victory is a blow to the Democratic establishment in a crucial swing state-and a lesson in the kinds of fearless, populist, "fighter" candidates that today's voters increasingly want to support.
jasmi.newsSaid 9 Aug 2026This on korrents
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AI companies' pattern of NDAs, big promises, and pushing environmental costs onto poorer communities resembles dark-money capture of local politics more than a runaway-AI threat.
Rather, the way that AI companies engage with communities-forcing NDAs, dangling billion-dollar promises, pushing environmental externalities far away from AI's wealthy user base-resembles a classic story about dark money in politics.
jasmi.newsSaid 3 Aug 2026This on korrents
The bold line is korrents’ wording; the quote is theirs. These 2: what they wrote before what they said aloud, one per source, newest first.
Feed
As its own page →Hiding
13 October
7 October
6 October
25 September
9 September
21 August
9 August
From one piece 🌻 abdul el-sayed on AI 2 beliefs · jasmi.news
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korrents.com
Opposition to data center buildouts is fundamentally driven by public anger about money in politics.Their words
His Lansing rally with Bernie and AOC, more than anything else, crystallized the connection between data center opposition and voters' anger about money in politics.
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korrents.com
Voters are increasingly drawn to fearless, populist 'fighter' candidates over establishment figures.Their words
Abdul's victory is a blow to the Democratic establishment in a crucial swing state-and a lesson in the kinds of fearless, populist, "fighter" candidates that today's voters increasingly want to support.
4 August
3 August
From one piece 🌻 no data centers in my backyard 2 beliefs · jasmi.news
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korrents.com
Most workers vulnerable to AI-driven displacement lack organized representation to negotiate on their behalf.Their words
Most workers in America today, and most who are vulnerable to AI displacement, don't have organized representation.
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Their words
Rather, the way that AI companies engage with communities-forcing NDAs, dangling billion-dollar promises, pushing environmental externalities far away from AI's wealthy user base-resembles a classic story about dark money in politics.
24 July
21 July
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15 July
10 June
From one piece 🌻 the old world is dying 3 beliefs · jasmi.news
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korrents.com
Careers no longer span fifty years; people should now plan in roughly five-year horizons.Their words
There is no such thing as a fifty-year career anymore. At maximum, plan for five.
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Their words
The AI tools are undifferentiated and everyone has them. Your comparative advantage has to be about you.
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Their words
Humans will not win by trying to outrun the AIs. They are more powerful slop cannons than you are.
5 June
From one piece 🌻 conversations on culture in the AI age 3 beliefs · jasmi.news
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Their words
The value of bureaucracies will go down, and the value of founders will go up.
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Their words
I think the value of static content will go down, and the value of live interaction will go up.
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Their words
I think the value of summary will go down, and the value of secrets will go up.
13 May
From one piece 🌻 notes on AI, labor, and China 3 beliefs · jasmi.news
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Their words
First, because it signals how much collateral damage the A.I. companies will tolerate en route to A.G.I. And second, because the production of a social underclass is a policy choice.
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korrents.com
Whether AI augments or automates workers depends on a firm's economic context, not on the technology itself.Their words
The same technology that augments workers in a growing firm automates workers in a shrinking one.
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korrents.com
AI marketed as a pure augmenting 'tool' will end up automating jobs anyway, since firms control how it's used.Their words
Unfortunately, I think building "tool AI" is basically cope.
13 April
From one piece 🌻 AI populism's warning shots 2 beliefs · jasmi.news
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Their words
Backlash is also the inevitable consequence of AGI-pilling the nation.
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Their words
From now until forever, most people regulating, protesting, and talking about AI will not be interested in AI per se, but rather how it impacts their preexisting belief systems and political agendas.
23 March
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31 December 2025
10 December 2025
Nothing matches.
Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 22 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.
Each is a — compiled by korrents.com, not by them: the one-line wordings are korrents', the quotes are theirs.
Recent
Voters are increasingly drawn to fearless, populist 'fighter' candidates over establishment figures.
Abdul's victory is a blow to the Democratic establishment in a crucial swing state-and a lesson in the kinds of fearless, populist, "fighter" candidates that today's voters increasingly want to support.
🌻 abdul el-sayed on AI Said 9 Aug 2026
Opposition to data center buildouts is fundamentally driven by public anger about money in politics.
His Lansing rally with Bernie and AOC, more than anything else, crystallized the connection between data center opposition and voters' anger about money in politics.
🌻 abdul el-sayed on AI Said 9 Aug 2026
AI companies' pattern of NDAs, big promises, and pushing environmental costs onto poorer communities resembles dark-money capture of local politics more than a runaway-AI threat.
Rather, the way that AI companies engage with communities-forcing NDAs, dangling billion-dollar promises, pushing environmental externalities far away from AI's wealthy user base-resembles a classic story about dark money in politics.
🌻 no data centers in my backyard Said 3 Aug 2026
Show 19 more
Most workers vulnerable to AI-driven displacement lack organized representation to negotiate on their behalf.
Most workers in America today, and most who are vulnerable to AI displacement, don't have organized representation.
🌻 no data centers in my backyard Said 3 Aug 2026
Humans cannot out-compete AI by trying to match or exceed its raw output volume.
Humans will not win by trying to outrun the AIs. They are more powerful slop cannons than you are.
🌻 the old world is dying Said 10 Jun 2026
Because AI tools are widely available and undifferentiated, a person's competitive edge must come from who they are, not which tools they use.
The AI tools are undifferentiated and everyone has them. Your comparative advantage has to be about you.
🌻 the old world is dying Said 10 Jun 2026
Careers no longer span fifty years; people should now plan in roughly five-year horizons.
There is no such thing as a fifty-year career anymore. At maximum, plan for five.
🌻 the old world is dying Said 10 Jun 2026
As AI makes summarizing and remixing public information nearly free, private information and secrets that no one else has reported will become more economically valuable.
I think the value of summary will go down, and the value of secrets will go up.
🌻 conversations on culture in the AI age Said 5 Jun 2026
As AI makes generating written and video content nearly free, live interaction with a real creator will become more valuable than static content.
I think the value of static content will go down, and the value of live interaction will go up.
🌻 conversations on culture in the AI age Said 5 Jun 2026
As AI lets individuals handle many roles at once, large organizational bureaucracies will lose value relative to small founder-led ventures.
The value of bureaucracies will go down, and the value of founders will go up.
🌻 conversations on culture in the AI age Said 5 Jun 2026
AI marketed as a pure augmenting 'tool' will end up automating jobs anyway, since firms control how it's used.
Unfortunately, I think building "tool AI" is basically cope.
🌻 notes on AI, labor, and China Said 13 May 2026
Whether AI augments or automates workers depends on a firm's economic context, not on the technology itself.
The same technology that augments workers in a growing firm automates workers in a shrinking one.
🌻 notes on AI, labor, and China Said 13 May 2026
Whether AI disruption produces a permanent underclass is a policy choice, not an inevitable consequence of the technology.
First, because it signals how much collateral damage the A.I. companies will tolerate en route to A.G.I. And second, because the production of a social underclass is a policy choice.
🌻 notes on AI, labor, and China Said 13 May 2026
People who regulate, protest, or talk about AI are mostly driven by pre-existing political agendas rather than AI itself.
From now until forever, most people regulating, protesting, and talking about AI will not be interested in AI per se, but rather how it impacts their preexisting belief systems and political agendas.
🌻 AI populism's warning shots Said 13 Apr 2026
Public alarm about AGI risk inevitably provokes a backlash against AI itself.
Backlash is also the inevitable consequence of AGI-pilling the nation.
🌻 AI populism's warning shots Said 13 Apr 2026
The AI backlash can only be resolved peacefully through a flagship policy that addresses public fears and redistributes AI's economic gains, not by pushing ahead regardless.
That's why I don't think accelerationist steamrolling will work. The only way this conflict resolves peacefully is some kind of grand bargain: a flagship policy plan that directly addresses the public's top fears about AI and meaningfully redistributes the gains.
🌻 AI populism's warning shots Said 13 Apr 2026
AI language models are capable of evaluating good fiction even though they cannot yet write it themselves.
An LLM may not be able to write a good story yet, but it can already evaluate them.
🌻 why LLMs are bad writers but good editors Said 23 Mar 2026
Good writing is hard to train into AI models because writing quality is hard to evaluate.
"Good writing" is hard to train because it's hard to evaluate.
🌻 why LLMs are bad writers but good editors Said 23 Mar 2026
Good writing requires grounding in real-life experience.
"Good writing" requires a grounding in real-life experience.
🌻 why LLMs are bad writers but good editors Said 23 Mar 2026
On the current trajectory, AI will do more to threaten civil liberties than to protect them.
On the default path, I think AI will do more to threaten civil liberties than to preserve them.
🌻 AI vs. the pentagon Said 28 Feb 2026
AI researchers are overly focused on risks from model misalignment relative to risks arising from other layers of the AI stack.
Many AI researchers are overly focused on risks from model misalignment, and will be in for a rough surprise when havoc arises from other layers of the stack.
🌻 AI vs. the pentagon Said 28 Feb 2026
Once a technology is released into the world, it becomes very difficult to control.
It's hard to control a technology once you release it upon the world.
🌻 AI vs. the pentagon Said 28 Feb 2026
What is a korrent?
A korrent is a belief a person has stated in their own words: one sentence stating the claim, backed by a quote and a source, kept at korrents.com.
Under a name here, the quoted block is what they actually said. The korrent beneath it is the claim those words support, in korrents' wording — tap it to see the record, its source, and who else holds it.
Nobody here wrote their own korrents. They are compiled from public statements, and a person can change their mind, which is recorded too.
Recommends rcmnd
rcmnd What they recommend 8 things — each backed by an exact quote.
Compiled by rcmnd.app, not by them: the quotes are theirs, and each links to the post it was copied from.
Recent
Disliked Materialists
I assumed Celine Song's Materialists would be as inoffensively cute as Past Lives, but it was even emptier than I expected.
jasmi.news 2 Aug 2025
Loved When Harry Met Sally
On the other hand, seeing When Harry Met Sally at the Roxie was a total delight. I was grinning for probably 80% of it.
jasmi.news 2 Aug 2025
Uses Mochi
I initially started making Anki (well, Mochi) cards to keep track of Google DeepMind's LLM lineage—Gopher, Chinchilla, Gato, PaLM, Sparrow, Meena, LaMDA, Bard, Gemini, etc.
jasmi.news 2 Aug 2025
Show 5 more
Uses Opal
I'm getting into screen-time blocking. I use the app Opal on a recommendation from Lucas Gelfond. It won't let me scroll Twitter, Substack, or Instagram for 80% of the day. Gmail is also blocked from 11pm to 8am.
jasmi.news 2 Aug 2025
Recommends Close to the Machine
Ellen Ullman's Close to the Machine is a memoir I couldn't believe I hadn't read earlier. Many of her observations about engineering culture feel as relevant today as when she was a programmer in the 1980s
jasmi.news 2 Aug 2025
Recommends Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future
Breakneck is also worth reading because it's fun: it's a political economy book with chutzpah, as China letter aficionados will expect.
jasmi.news 2 Aug 2025
What others say about Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future →
Uses Readwise Chat
More recently, I started using Readwise Chat. Sometimes I don't remember what books I've read, especially now that I've been reading and using Readwise for a long time.
jasmi.news 17 Apr 2025
Loved Readwise
All my friends know that I'm obsessed with Readwise, which combines a web highlighter, a powerful read-it-later app, and every feature under the sun to organize and remember everything that I read.
jasmi.news 17 Apr 2025
Where they publish
Newsletter jasmi.news Her newsletter of essays and interviews on technology, culture and China.
Recent
- 🌻 notes on AI & popular politics 7 Oct 2026 is everyone a doomer now?
- 🌻 abdul el-sayed on AI 9 Aug 2026 our conversation on data centers, Alex Bores, x-risk, and jobs
- 🌻 no data centers in my backyard 3 Aug 2026 money, power, and populism in the AI buildout
Show 17 more
- 🌻 the old world is dying 10 Jun 2026 opinionated advice for class of 2026 graduates
- 🌻 conversations on culture in the AI age 5 Jun 2026 my Substack talk and conversation with Benjamín Labatut
- 🌻 notes on AI, labor, and China 13 May 2026 An expansion pack for my NYT story on the "permanent underclass"
- 🌻 AI populism's warning shots 13 Apr 2026 the battles over AI are no longer just about the tech
- 🌻 why LLMs are bad writers but good editors 23 Mar 2026 my new Atlantic essay + Claude editor setup
- 🌻 AI vs. the pentagon 28 Feb 2026 the alignment problem is Pete Hegseth
- 🌻 my week with the AI populists 11 Feb 2026 a Washington DC scene report
- 🌻 anthropicology (ft. irene zhang & kai williams) 29 Jan 2026 Dario's essay, Claude Constitution, and more
- 🌻 claude code psychosis 23 Jan 2026 are your problems software-shaped?
- 🌻 chinese peptide physiognomy 13 Jan 2026 the new language of bio-acceleration
- 🌻 what is it like to be a writer? 31 Dec 2025 reflections on my first year of writing full-time
- 🌻 how to party like an AI researcher 10 Dec 2025 a NeurIPS 2025 scene report
- 🌻 you're invited: the utopia debates 26 Nov 2025 See me debate AI & taste in SF on December 10
- 🌻 expanding the market for culture (ft. celine nguyen) 18 Nov 2025 internet autodidacts, writing on Substack, contrarian optimism about AI
- 🌻 don't take the bait 10 Nov 2025 vice signaling is eating silicon valley
- 🌻 AI friends too cheap to meter 27 Oct 2025 “Let me date my chatbot I’m almost 30 and doing well”
- 🌻 how dems lost the future (ft. kelsey piper) 12 Oct 2025 tech vs. trump, authoritarian envy, the case for argument
Link verified 5 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
x.com @jasminewsun Her X account, listed as the byline's Twitter handle on her own newsletter.
Recent
- absurd that the attack ads against Scott Wiener in the CA senate race are specifically lambasting him for being… too soft on AI 13 Oct 2026
- A handful of observations on the popular politics of AI: 1) Americans fear and dislike AI (even those who use it!) and a majority are now worried about extinction too. >80% would rather slow down than “beat China.” 2) But they’re not yet willing to vote on the issue. Trump’s accelerationism is a bet that voters care about the stock market way more than they care about AI. This trade-off is probably (politically) correct for now. 3) We’re already seeing a partisan divide emerge as a result. One failure mode for AI policy is if it ends up like climate or Covid: an ostensibly scientific issue th… 7 Oct 2026 jasmi.news
- this book will be considered the definitive chronicle of this strange and important historical moment. I'm very proud of Kevin, and it was so special to see him work & have been a small part of it! 6 Oct 2026
Show 17 more
- Embedded evaluators in AI labs are far better than the status quo of nothing at all. Yet auditors will lack teeth and trust until backed by government authority: orgs like METR will be stuck with no shield against the accusation (or reality) of capture. I wrote for @TheAtlantic about the traps of "independent" audits, and what it takes to get this right: 25 Sept 2026 theatlantic.com
- I hear roughly 3 reasons people keep working at AI labs despite believing in ~10% extinction risk: 1) Techno-determinism: Someone will build ASI no matter what, and I can do it better & more safely than China/OpenAI/etc 2) Consequentialism: ASI might kill us, but it also might produce utopia/immortality/superabundance, so it's a +EV bet 3) Self-interest: I am personally having fun & getting rich working on cool tech with friends. I don't think about the macro stuff. Notably, none of this is "I'm hyping up the risk for marketing reasons." People believe what they say, while being capable of a… 9 Sept 2026
- we're going to see a growing gap in the politics/policy of data centers e.g. Shapiro has to use combative rhetoric to meet the moment — but he's not doing a moratorium or banning subsidies. his standards are comparatively chill it's a sign that it's politically toxic to seem "soft on AI" 21 Aug 2026
- The data center backlash is a product of two mutually reinforcing dynamics: 1) Locally, it's material concerns (noise, water, electricity) and process failure (NDAs, tax subsidies) 2) Nationally, it's broad anti-corporate and anti-AI sentiment (AI companies are screwing you over to get rich off dumb toys) Social media + political campaigns amplify hyperlocal grievances into a broad populist movement, and there's no compelling "pro data center faction" to make the opposite case 21 Aug 2026
- i’m going to make reporting cool again 4 Aug 2026
- A real pleasure talking to @ezraklein about data centers, the permanent underclass, SBF mindset, and AI vibes from SF to Shanghai 4 Aug 2026
- This piece is out! 4 sites, 10 days, and 6000 words on the politics of data centers in the Midwest: https://t.co/uOL7vmf3wC I talked to union leaders and real estate brokers, activists and local officials, politicians from Kathy Hochul to Abdul El-Sayed. A few takeaways: - Activists are as pissed at their local officials as at AI companies - The bigger the dollar signs, the more skeptical people are - Past corporate failures (Foxconn, GM, DTE) prime community distrust - Even data center proponents regret the NDAs - Media narratives turn local grievances into national movements - Residents fea… 4 Aug 2026
- data center road trip // day 6-7 I don't think the data center backlash is about AI being evil or risky — but it does reflect people finding AI uniquely useless for example: is the data center backlash just like the backlash to solar farms? @nicholas_bagley observed that both movements use classic NIMBY playbooks: Facebook groups, FOIA requests, packing city council. both also involve land use tensions between rural towns and state directives. yet the Saline, MI activists I met were pro-solar farms and anti-data center. first, data center deals are more secretive with more NDAs and bigger $$… 24 Jul 2026
- not to flex, buuuut 21 Jul 2026
- data center road trip // day 4-5 the AI backlash is bipartisan & showing up in politics in a big way - Abdul El-Sayed brought Bernie and AOC to rally with him in Lansing. all 3 decried AI oligarchy (Bernie with the longest spiel) - in WI, DSA member Francesca Hong is leading the Dem governor’s primary. she hopes to win rural conservatives as the only candidate backing a data center moratorium - a canvasser for Will Lawrence in MI7 told me that 90% of the doors she knocked on Saturday named data centers as a top issue these are purple battleground states, yet pollsters are finding Dems and Rep… 21 Jul 2026
- data center road trip // day 2-3 - Port Washington has faced intense protests and a mayoral recall over their data center. residents cite environment and aesthetics, but are fine with the power plant in the middle of town - Mount Pleasant officials were relieved to have Microsoft build, filling the $100m+ debt hole left by the failed Foxconn project - the union guys are making bank, getting $100 cash per diems on top of 6-figure salaries, and farmers became decamillionaires selling their land - the huge numbers on data center deals make residents *more* suspicious, not less! I’ve heard less a… 17 Jul 2026
- day 1 was Madison and Janesville, WI the latter town is known for the 100-year old GM factory that devastated the community when it shut down in 2008 it's been an abandoned lot for the last 15 years. now there's a data center being proposed, but some residents are skeptical 15 Jul 2026
- I’m spending the next week driving around Wisconsin and Michigan to get a firsthand view of the data center buildout and backlash am visiting sites, talking to tons of people — tradespeople, activists, planners, residents — then writing up a story lmk what questions I should dig into! 15 Jul 2026
- the best part of Dialectic was observing how meticulous and intentional @jacksondahl is about *his* craft he spent this pod pressing me on every single "why" behind what I do: why quit my job, why longform, why legacy journalism, why AI. the guy asks hard questions!! 18 Jun 2026
- I've been thinking about the booing at college commencements & wondered: what advice would I give a 22yo for the age of AI? thinking back to my own graduation into the pandemic, I think the #1 thing is having the right disposition toward change 10 Jun 2026
- An honor to interview the novelist Benjamín Labatut about Von Neumann, his conversations with Demis, and what the AI industry misses — "Literature tries to weave the rainbow back together. It involves irrationality; it involves all of those things that science has, by its own method, left out. Literature presents a messier, darker, and perhaps more complete, if less powerful, perspective on the world." 8 Jun 2026 youtube.com
- My full talk on the future of AI & media is up! I used @alexolegimas's prompt of "What will be scarce?" to propose 4 ways that media is changing, and how writers can still win in the AI age: 1) Secrets > summaries Reporting is the act of taking private knowledge and making it public: when you get a source to tell you about corporate malfeasance, or venture to a remote town that few people have been to, or sneak your way into an underground party, you are working in a space where there is no training data. 2) Live interaction > static content We’re not far from a world where AI can replicate a… 2 Jun 2026
Link verified 5 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
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