Per Axbom

@axbom

Design director, writer & advisor. Digital ethics, UX & accessibility. Writing about the human consequences of tech in My Next Heartbeat / axbom.com/newsletter Mechanical heart valve since 2024 Stockholm, Sweden – born in Liberia Fedi: @axbom@axbom.me

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Per Axbom@axbom· 16d

Something to point at when discussing the OpenAI / Hugging Face event. Perhaps useful.

A hand drawn sketch of a technical environment using boxes. The innermost box contains a document with a prompt, pointing to an agent. This innermost box is labelled ”sandbox”. It also contains several sandbox resources (represented by tiny databases, but could also be software). Inside the sandbox is also a proxy. In the experiment the proxy was designed to be used only for downloading specific libraries to the sandbox for solving the given prompt. A weakness in the proxy is what allowed the agent to issue commands to the OpenAI internal resources (the next box around the first one). Through commands issued in the OpenAI internal resources the agent commands accessed the World Wide Web (a box to the right of the OpenAI internal resources) with access to websites and search engines, for example. The Hugging Face web resources (a box with smaller boxes inside it) provided a high-probability gateway to solving the prompt, and through weaknesses in how datasets were published the agent was able to issue commands to the Hugging Face internal resources, a box (with smaller boxes inside it) outside and to the right of the World Wide Web box. All of the boxes are encompassed by a big box, labelled Internet. This implies that the agent was always on the Internet (the physical and network access infrastructure was there) and only hindered by software. The commands issued by the agent bypassed the software intended to prevent access to the World Wide Web, and it bypassed software intended to keep it from accessing internal resources at Hugging Face.

Per Axbom@axbom· 17d

Lawmakers insist that computers should have power buttons after OpenAI used software, that they themselves created, to commit a crime, albeit because they failed to understand and neglected to oversee their own software. Why do so many fail to see how senseless all this is?

Screenshot from an AOL article entitled ”AI ’kill switch’ demanded by lawmakers after OpenAI models allgedly go rogue”

Per Axbom@axbom· 18d

Your Forbes bio has this link for the wiretap newsletter, Thomas, but it gives me a 404. www.forbes.com/newsletter/t...

We can't find the page that you are looking for...
The URL may be incorrect or the page might have been moved.

Per Axbom@axbom· 19d

Quite sure we can replace 'doctors' here with pretty much any profession and their respective practice.

"First, technology is not a neutral element in the practice of medicine: doctors do not merely use technologies but are used by them. Second, technology creates its own imperatives and, at the same time, creates a wide-ranging social system to reinforce its imperatives. And third, technology changes the practice of medicine by redefining what doctors are, redirecting where they focus their attention, and reconceptualizing how they view their patients and illness."

Per Axbom@axbom· 19d

The chapter is full of these points… aligned with an over-reliance on technology and numbers. The assertation at time of writing (1992) is that the US was the only Technopoly, but that much of the 'western world' was set to follow.

"quite possibly close to 40 percent of the operations performed in America are not necessary. In Health Shock, Martin Weitz cites the calculations of Professor John McKinlay that more deaths are caused by surgery each year in the United States than the annual number of deaths during the wars in Korea and Vietnam. As early as 1974, a Senate investigation into unnecessary surgery reported that American doctors had performed 2.4 million unnecessary operations, causing 11,900 deaths and costing about $3.9 billion. 13 We also know that, in spite of advanced technology (quite possibly because of it), the infant-survival rate in the United States ranks only fourteenth in the world, and it is no exaggeration to say that American hospitals are commonly regarded as among the most dangerous places in the nation. It is also well documented that, wherever doctor strikes have occurred, the mortality rate declines."

Per Axbom@axbom· 19d

After finishing 'Amusing Ourselves to Death' I am now halfway through 'Technopoly'. It, too, is a bloody brilliant read. I'm just now blown away by Chapter 6, The ideology of Machines: Medical technology. I wish I could post it here in whole.

Photo of my Kobo reader, with this paragraph highlighted: "What all this means is that even restrained and selective technological medicine becomes very difficult to do, economically undesirable, and possibly professionally catastrophic. The culture itself-its courts, its bureaucracies, its insurance system, the training of doctors, patients' expectations—is organized to support technological treatments. There are no longer methods of treating illness; there is only one method the technological one. Medical competence is now defined by the quantity and variety of machinery brought to bear on disease."

Per Axbom@axbom· 22d

They sometimes say a 3-hour movie is pushing it, but imagine a population regularly attending 5-7 hour debates, where speakers are alloted 2-3 hours at a time.

Chapter 4.
The Typographic Mind

The first of the seven famous debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas took place on August 21, 1858, in Ottawa, Illinois.

Their arrangement provided that Douglas would speak first, for one hour; Lincoln would take an hour and a half to reply; Douglas, a half hour to rebut Lincoln's reply. This debate was considerably shorter than those to which the two men were accustomed. In fact, they had tangled several times before, and all of their encounters had been much lengthier and more exhausting. For example, on October 16, 1854, in Peoria, Illinois, Douglas delivered a three-hour address to which Lincoln, by agreement, was to respond. When Lincoln's turn came, he reminded the audience that it was already 5 P.M., that he would probably require as much time as Douglas and that Douglas was still scheduled for a rebuttal. He proposed, therefore, that the audience go home, have dinner, and return refreshed for four more hours of talk. The audience amiably agreed, and matters proceeded as Lincoln had outlined.

Per Axbom@axbom· 29d

I saw Linus Torvalds expressing concern over how ”AI-powered” bug hunters have made the Linux security mailing list unmanageable. So I sketched out a quick visualisation of this 😁

Bug reports before AI and after AI. Before AI the process was straightforward and simpe, a human found a bug they reported, this was evaluated/replicated and added to the backlog, later being patched/fixed. The human receives a thank you.

After AI, hundreds (if not thousands) people use the same AI software to find the same bug. They all assume they have found the bug and report it, along with all the other hundreds of reports of the same bug, and the ones the core team have already found (maybe even using the same sotware). It’s now a rush to triage this into all the hundreds of reports that have been seen before and already along in the process, things that are not actually bugs and then the ones that may be real bugs. The time to manage the real, new bugs is at an all-time low. It’s not hard to imagine that developers are resorting to vibe coding to fix the bugs.

Per Axbom@axbom· Jun 29

Been working on and off for a week on a graphic outlining Harms of the AI Ecosystem. Excited to soon share it in a newsletter / blog post, but here is a sneak peek 😊 Still some tweaks, tests and details before I feel it's ready. #AIEthics #DigitalEthics #DigitalHarms

Infographic titled 'Harms of the AI Ecosystem' and with a big "DRAFT" message across the page. Various topic areas are spread out across the page on small islands with a symbol/illustration of each topic:

Data theft
Data generation bias
Implementation bias
MIneral mining
Data center growth (Energy use, Water extraction, Noise pollution, Land use, Inflation)
Data workers
Surveillance culture (State, Employer, Industry, Bad actors)
AI Boosters
Gated access
Moral muddling
Info pollution
Deskilling
Deepfake abuse
Invisible judgment (Jobs, Housing, Benefits, Justice)
Data loss
Tech oligarchy
Electronic waste

Per Axbom@axbom· Jun 29

What fresh LinkedIn hell is this?! Under Invitations: "X is inviting you to follow because you engaged with their content." [Accept] INVITING YOU TO FOLLOW?! They don't even want to be a contact.

Screendump with masked names. X is inviting you to follow because you engaged with their content. X and 1 other mutual connection. Buttons: Ignore/Accept

Per Axbom@axbom· Jun 23

Wait, how many apps can I log into with my Bluesky/Eurosky/ATProto account? Well, quite a few… and this is a good place to start: portal.eurosky.tech

Screendump from portal.eurosky.tech showing these apps:

Bluesky, Blento (create your own website), Flashes (photo/video sharing), Leaflet (easy blogging), Skywalker (Bluesky client for Android), Skeets (Bluesky client for iOS), Popfeed (discover tv, games, books), Sill (discover news), atmo.rsvp (find/create events), Streamplace (video streaming), Semble (social knowledge network), Tangled (social code platform), Sifa ID (professional networking)

Per Axbom@axbom· Jun 23

Now if I log into Bluesky I just have to remember to specify eurosky.social as the server –– it's a good idea to keep track of where your data lives. 😊 (Next time I log in it will be pre-selected.)

Per Axbom@axbom· Jun 23

Even the pubs are fed up. Thomas House in Dublin is saying no to flyers and posters with AI art, and connecting local artists with bands and promoters. ”We’re right next to Ireland’s biggest art college, lads. It’s not a good look.” Graphics from their Instagram account, username thomashousebar.

Per Axbom@axbom· Jun 22

Madonna: "Because we think if we look at Instagram for two hours, we’ve actually been with somebody. It’s a deeply disturbing activity." www.interviewmagazine.com/music/madonn...

OTTENBERG: It’s easy to forget to go out and be with people now because most of us are addicted to our phones.

MADONNA: Because we think if we look at Instagram for two hours, we’ve actually been with somebody. It’s a deeply disturbing activity.

OTTENBERG: Yes.

MADONNA: It’s mesmerizing and also soul-destroying.

OTTENBERG: Do you doomscroll?

MADONNA: Occasionally I open Instagram and something pops up that makes me go to the next visual. And then I go, “What am I doing? I have 5,000 things to do. Get off the phone.” I have a lot of discipline when it comes to social media, simply because I grew up without it. I didn’t have Instagram until 2018 or something. I grew up without TV. I’m not a person who gravitates toward distraction. Oh my god, I make lists every night, put Post-its everywhere, and then my day is filled with sometimes boring but also very exciting activities. And I do see, if I go on Instagram for more than 10 minutes, I get depressed, and I don’t want to go there. Why am I giving this nonexistent entity power over my soul, my brain, my vision of myself, my vision of the world? Time is precious, and that’s something I’ve known all my life. Time’s precious. What can I get done? What can I do?

OTTENBERG: Yes.

MADONNA: I keep journals. My manager gets them for me all the time. This one says “The Queen.” I go through probably three a week. I love to write. With my hand. I write all my lyrics. I see you write too…

OTTENBERG: I have to.

Per Axbom@axbom· Jun 22

Calvin, ahead of his time.

Calvin and Hobbes comic.

Panel 1. Calvin is making a classic snowman with a carrot nose, hat, pipe in his mouth and rock for buttons.
Hobbes (arriving): What’s this?
Calvin: A generic snowman

Panel 2. Calvin continues explaining.
Calvin: I used to make original snowmen, but it was time-consuming, hard work. So I said, heck, this is crazy!

Panel 3.
Calvin: Now I crank out crude imitations of what’s already popular! It takes no time or thought, and most people don’t care about the difference anyway!

Panel 4 (final panel):
Hobbes (contemplating while looking at the snowman): So cynical. Yet so practical.
Calvin: And what good is originality if you can’t crank it out?

The comic characters explained if you are unfamiliar: Calvin and Hobbes is an American daily comic strip created by cartoonist Bill Watterson and syndicated from November 18, 1985, to December 31, 1995. The strip centers on Calvin, a six-year-old boy characterized by his imagination and behavior, and Hobbes, his stuffed tiger, whose status alternates between a toy and a sentient companion depending on perspective.

Per Axbom@axbom· Jun 16

My 404 page.

“404” in a big font.

TItle: No content at this address. And you remain anonymous. You're welcome.
Text: This page was removed or was never here. You were not tracked, nudged, manipulated, or coerced into staying. No pixel was planted. No session was recorded. I respect your autonomy and you are free to leave 😉.

Link to start page.

Per Axbom@axbom· Jun 10

Det är nog viktigt att inte glömma vilken roll prästen Thorbjörn Larsson har spelat tidigare i statsministerparets liv.

Per Axbom@axbom· Jun 9

Min infografik på svenska, baserat på United Nations University-rapporten ‘Environmental Cost of AI's Energy Use: Carbon, Water and Land Footprints’. #DigitalEtik #AIEtik #Datacenter

Illustration av datacenter som hämtar vatten från en närliggande vattenkälla, elektricitet som flödar till datacentren, vattendimma som lämnar datacentren. En sopbil som lämnar datacentren med e-avfall. Vindkraftverk på land närmare vattnet. Tre flytande öar i himlen: (1) Ett fartyg som dumpar e-avfall som förorenar vatten för ett samhälle. (2) En utgrävning med spade och bulldozer som gräver upp mark för att hitta mineraler. (3) Människor som skriver på sina datorer.

Bredvid illustrationerna finns informationsrutor som startar vid personerna med datorer:

1. Vardaglig ‘prompting’ bidrar till 80-90% av AI:s totala energibehov.
2. Mer än 90% av AI:s beräkningskapacitet är koncentrerat till endast två länder, USA och Kina.
3. AI-relaterad vattenkonsumtion kan motsvara grundläggande hushållsbehov för 1,3 miljarder människor innan 2030.
4. Förnybara energikällor kan minska fossila utsläpp men också öka användningen av vatten och mark.
5. AI:s markavtryck kan överstiga 14 500 kvadratkilometer – ungefär dubbelt så stort som Jakartas storstadsområde.
6. AI-infrastruktur förväntas generera 2,5 miljoner ton e-avfall årligen innan 2030.
7. Bördan av e-avfall faller på låginkomst-länder med be-gränsad förmåga till säker hantering.
8. Produktion av kritiska mineraler väcker oro för miljöförstöring och sociala orättvisor.

Per Axbom@axbom· Jun 9

I made an infographic based on the United Nations University report ‘Environmental Cost of AI's Energy Use: Carbon, Water and Land Footprints’. #DigitalEthics #AIEthics #DataCenters

Illustration of data centers pulling water from a nearby water source, electricity flowing to the data centers, fogs of water leaving the data centers. A garbage truck leaving the data centers with e-waste. Wind turbines on land closer to the water. Three floating islands in the sky: (1) A ship dumping e-waste and polluting water for a community. (2) An excavation with a shovel and bulldozer, digging up land to find minerals. (3) People typing away on their computers.

Alongside the illustrations are info boxes, that start on the people with computers:

1. Day-to-day ‘prompting’ is 80-90% of total energy demand of AI.
2. More than 90% of AI computing capacity is concentrated in just two countries – the U.S. and China
3. AI-related water consumption could equal the basic annual domestic needs of 1.3 billion people by 2030.
4. Renewable energy sources may reduce carbon emissions but also increase water and land use.
5. Land footprint may exceed 14,500 square kilometres — roughly twice the size of the Jakarta metropolitan area.
6. AI infrastructure projected to generate up to 2.5 million tonnes of e-waste annually by 2030.
7. Burden of e-waste falls on lower-income countries with limited capacity for safe disposal.
8. Production of critical minerals raises concerns about environmental degradation and social inequities.

Per Axbom@axbom· May 28

Du vill inte hamna på efterkälken.

Streckgubbar.

Barn till pappa (håller upp en teckning): Kolla, pappa. Jag ritade en teckning av oss.
Pappa till barnet (händer på midjan): Oj, det där ser inte alls ut som oss. Jag ska visa hur du kan använda AI för att förbättra den. Du vill inte hamna på efterkälken.

Per Axbom@axbom· May 27

You don’t want to get left behind.

Stick figures.

Child to father (holding a drawing): Look, dad. I drew a picture of us!
Father to child (hands on hips): Oh my, that doesn’t look anything like us. Let me show you how to use AI to enhance it. You want to get left behind.

Per Axbom@axbom· May 23

Det är tydligen bråttom nu. 12 nya beslut på 30 dagar i riksdagen. Många av dem kan försämra villkoren för personer med funktionsnedsättningar. Alla innan sommaren. Riksdagen förväntas godkänna alla. hejaolika.se/artikel/riks...

20 maj: Bidrag och ersättningar stoppas för utsatt grupp - nyanlända
utomeuropeiska invandrare
26 maj: Sänkt försörjningsstöd och nytt bidragstak
26 maj: Kraven på tillgänglighet i bostäder sänks
26 maj: Bidragsspärr och sanktionsavgift
27 maj samt 3, 4, 9 juni: Nya skolregler försvårar inkludering för elever med funktionsnedsattning
9 juni: Vårbudget som urholkar assistansersättning och lönebidrag
15 juni: Fängelse för 13-åringar
Juni (troligen): "Angiverilagen"
... plus ett beslut som togs redan i mars 2026: propositionen "Nya regler för
arbetskraftsinvandring" (2025/26:87) innebär att regeringen kan stoppa all invandring av personliga assistenter som kommer från länder utanför EU/EES.

Per Axbom@axbom· May 22

Idag hade jag min första högläsning av den svenska utgåvan av Datorkraft och mänskligt förnuft, av Joseph Weizenbaum. Det blev oerhört lyckat så jag fortsätter glatt. Häng med nästa fredag på session 2! Boken kom ut för 50 år sedan men är högaktuell, precis som det står på omslaget 😊 vox.axbom.com

Per Axbom@axbom· May 17

Yes, Hannah Einbinder (as Ava) brilliantly tears down the inevitability of AI in this scene, but also watch Jean Smart (as Deborah) struggling to hold back her laugher. 😅

Per Axbom@axbom· May 3

Using ”AI” vs. not using ”AI”.

Per Axbom@axbom· May 1

Second birthday, chewin’ on Chewbacca. ❤️

Per Axbom@axbom· Apr 30

She was put to sleep early this morning. I’ve been crying throughout the day… it’s just excruciatingly painful to take in that she’s gone. 💔 But now the physical pain she lived through the last few days is over. Loved her so, so much.

Picture of young mottled dark French bulldog named Rusa. Dates: June 1, 2016–April 30, 2026.

Per Axbom@axbom· Apr 23

Bara lägger det här klippet här…

Klipp från ETC den 16 februari 2026.

– Tekniken är etiskt neutral, frågan är vem som använder tekniken, hur den regleras och hur man utövar tillsyn. Och i den bemärkelsen skiljer sig inte den här tekniken från andra verktyg, sa Gunnar Strömmer i riksdagens kammare.

Statsminister Ulf Kristersson (M) hade i somras ett hemligt möte med Peter Thiel och Palantirs vd Alex Karp, vilket avslöjades av Svenska Dagbladet. Under debatten ifrågasatte Petter Löberg varför mötesanteckningarna inte lämnades ut till pressen.

Även det viftades bort av Gunnar Strömmer.

– Det är konspirationsteorier som vi känner igen från en lång rad olika sammanhang som vill misstänkliggöra regeringen, sa justitieministern.

Per Axbom@axbom· Apr 2

Pax Silica är en onekligen en gåtfull konstellation för Sverige att i nuläget träda in i. Det skulle vara klädsamt med mindre gåtfullhet och mer tydligt ledarskap gällande Sveriges digitala suveränitet. Intrycket är att man rättar sig i ledet, utan vidare koll på vilket av alla led man ställt sig i.

Urklipp från artikel i SvD Näringsliv den 27 mars. Per Axbom i bild med det öppna brevet i handen. Rubrik ”Svenskt avtal om USA-samarbete väcker oro: ”Otroligt märkligt”

Per Axbom@axbom· Apr 2

Något som Jacob Helberg pratade mer om än Ericsson, när han välkomnade utrikesministern och kronprinsessan på Nasa i Houston, var Hormuzsundet. Denna viktiga vattenväg lyfte han som tydligt exempel på varför initiativ som Pax Silica behövs. Han berömde samtidigt Sverige för att ha gått med i Nato.