Top all-time · #3710
GioCities
Personal blog · blog.giovanh.comaiculturepolitics
GioCities is a personal blog at blog.giovanh.com about ai, culture and politics. Since 2021, 21 different Hacker News readers have linked it 37 times, most often “Apple's Trademark Exploit”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-06-19, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (10) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link this blog for its AI energy-use series, a Bluesky verification retrospective, and posts on Apple's repair and trademark practices and the Hiveswap Kickstarter.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 10 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- Apple's Trademark Exploit3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2023-11-07
- Is AI eating all the energy?3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2024-08-22
- Why training AI can't be IP theft2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-04-05
- A Hack Is Not Enough2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-10-15
- Controlled Digital Lending: Publishers Against Library Books2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-03-04
- A wholesome plane has hit the second cozy tower2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-10-23
What Hacker News says?
https://blog.giovanh.com/blog/2024/08/18/is-ai-eating-all-th...
Comment linking /blog/2024/08/18/is-ai-eating-all-the-energy-part-1-of-2/
on “I Am Tired of AI”Submitted Why training AI can't be IP theft as a story · 45 points
HN discussionThere's a pretty good retrospective written up on this blog[0]. In short: originally the purpose was nothing more "this account belongs to the person they claim to be and we've directly verified this with them". Unfortunately, people habitually misinterpreted the checkmark as not just being verification but also a tacit endorsement of the account by Twitter the company. Which isn't great when you get a high profile…
Comment linking /blog/2022/11/01/the-failure-of-account-verification/
on “A new form of verification on Bluesky”Submitted The Hiveswap Fiasco (2020) as a story · 38 points
HN discussionBecause training costs are sky-high, and handling an individual request still uses a decent amount of energy even if it isn't as horrifying as training. Plus the amount of requests, and content in them, is going up with stuff like vibe coding. If you want to know more about energy consumption, see this 2 part series that goes into tons of nitty-gritty details: https://blog.giovanh.com/blog/2024/08/18/is-ai-eating-al…
Comment linking /blog/2024/08/18/is-ai-eating-all-the-energy-part-1-of-2/
on “AI's energy footprint”Submitted Superhot VR's Story Was Removed. What? as a story · 31 points
HN discussionBe careful what you wish for. While I'm sure it feels good and validating to have this called copyright infringement, and be compensated, it's a mixed blessing at best. Remember, this also means that your works will owe compensation to anyone you "trained" off of. Once we accept that simply "learning from previous copyrighted works to make new ones" is "infringement", then the onus is on you to establish a clean cre…
Comment linking /blog/2025/04/03/why-training-ai-cant-be-ip-theft/
on “Anthropic judge rejects $1.5B AI copyright settlement”Submitted Is AI eating all the energy? as a story · 29 points
HN discussion> [citation needed] Sure, here ya go: https://andymasley.substack.com/p/individual-ai-use-is-not-b... https://blog.giovanh.com/blog/2024/08/18/is-ai-eating-all-th... https://blog.giovanh.com/blog/2024/09/09/is-ai-eating-all-th... The first comprehensive environmental audit and analysis performed in conjunction with French environmental agencies and audit environmental audit consultants, which includes every stage of…
Comment linking /blog/2024/09/09/is-ai-eating-all-the-energy-part-2-of-2/
on “Gentoo AI Policy”Submitted How we made Befriendus accessible as a story · 16 points
HN discussionSometimes, doing something is worse than doing nothing at all. > For that matter, using licensing to restrict government abuse obviously isn’t going to work, because licensing relies on state enforcement of rights anyway. If the state itself is compromised, having a clever little license isn’t the failsafe the OES thinks it is. It’s really just asking the police to arrest ICE with extra steps. This isn’t hypothetica…
Comment linking /blog/2021/10/29/ethical-source-is-a-crock-of-hot-garbage/
on “Luxe Game Engine”Submitted The ambiguous "use" as a story · 5 points
HN discussionWould you accept weaponized trademark infringement as a sibling to patent law? The behavior described here seems odd -- I wouldn't call it "good" or "bad" in a moral sense just technically impressive: https://blog.giovanh.com/blog/2023/10/26/apples-trademark-ex... and https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/14/21436760/us-customs-state... .
Comment linking /blog/2023/10/26/apples-trademark-exploit/
on “Apple is officially no longer selling the newest Apple Watch in America”Submitted A wholesome plane has hit the second cozy tower as a story · 4 points
HN discussionHomestuck is a phenomenon that I see at the periphery of my experience on the internet… it’s always a source of interesting reading material about internet culture even for those of us who never participate. This followup article has some interesting speculation about a key reason for the Kickstarter’s failure: https://blog.giovanh.com/blog/2021/01/14/more-on-the-hiveswa... > … Andrew and The Odd Gentlemen committed…
Comment linking /blog/2021/01/14/more-on-the-hiveswap-odd-gentlemen-debacle/index.html
on “The Hiveswap Fiasco (2020)”Submitted Anthropic and the Authoritarian Ethic as a story · 3 points
HN discussionImagine if Apple sold OEM parts at a reasonable price. Imagine if they weren't pairing OEM parts to prevent repair shops from parting out broken devices. Imagine if they weren't making deals with manufacturers to prevent the sale of standard parts to third parties - even parts with no Apple IP like the ISL9240 [0]. Imagine if they weren't abusing Customs and Border Patrol powers to prevent distribution of legitimate…
Comment linking /blog/2023/10/26/apples-trademark-exploit/
on “You Paid $1k for an iPhone, but Apple Still Controls It”Submitted You've Never Seen Copyright as a story · 3 points
HN discussionAwful headline you added. https://blog.giovanh.com/blog/2023/03/17/replika-your-money-... explains: But this is a product that’s targeted at and specifically addresses the needs of people who are lonely and thus specifically emotionally vulnerable, which should make it worse to inflict suffering on them and endanger their mental health, not somehow funny. ... As cringe worthy as “AI girlfriend” is, there’s no questi…
Comment linking /blog/2023/03/17/replika-your-money-or-your-wife/
on “Weird people trying to fall in fake love with AI”Submitted Account verification is done right in Bluesky as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Controlled Digital Lending: Publishers Against Library Books as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Netflix's Big Double-Dip as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted A Hack Is Not Enough as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why training AI can't be IP theft as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The imperfections of murder drones as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted FSE Sprite Compression as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Is (Git) master a dirty word? as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted How Nintendo Misuses Copyright as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Apple's Trademark Exploit as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Replika AI: Your Money or Your Wife as a story · 2 points
HN discussion
