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Christopher Mims

@mimsical@mastodon.social
mastodon 4.7.0-beta.1
  • Open on mastodon.social

tech columnist @ wsj, here to make friends & chew bubblegum (& I'm all out of gum)

0 Followers
0 Following
20 Posts
Joined October 28, 2022
Weekly tech column, WSJ:
https://www.wsj.com/news/author/christopher-mims
moar links:
https://linktr.ee/mimsical

Posts

Open post
mimsical
Christopher Mims @mimsical@mastodon.social · Jul 03, 2025
Christopher Mims
@mimsical@mastodon.social

tech columnist @ wsj, here to make friends & chew bubblegum (& I'm all out of gum)

mastodon.social

Help a journalist out? I'm looking to talk to researchers, engineers, students or entrepreneurs who are considering leaving the U.S. because they lost funding or are worried about visas or anything like that. I'm at mimsical.94 on Signal

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Christopher Mims @mimsical@mastodon.social · May 04, 2025
Christopher Mims
@mimsical@mastodon.social

tech columnist @ wsj, here to make friends & chew bubblegum (& I'm all out of gum)

mastodon.social

What if there were a way to eliminate China's rare earths leverage over the rest of the world -- which allows it to handicap everything from EV to defense production -- by making a new kind of cheap motor that simply doesn't need those elements?

It's happening.

https://www.wsj.com/tech/these-electric-motors-could-help-break-the-worlds-dependence-on-china-3fa07b0b

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Christopher Mims @mimsical@mastodon.social · Apr 26, 2025
Christopher Mims
@mimsical@mastodon.social

tech columnist @ wsj, here to make friends & chew bubblegum (& I'm all out of gum)

mastodon.social

We Now Know How AI ‘Thinks’—and It’s Barely Thinking at All

Maybe you've heard that AIs are "black boxes"

But a growing body of research keeps arriving at the same conclusion: Today's AIs all work in surprisingly similar -- and simplistic -- ways

(gift link)

https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/how-ai-thinks-356969f8?st=yow5Ga&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

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Christopher Mims @mimsical@mastodon.social · Mar 29, 2025
Christopher Mims
@mimsical@mastodon.social

tech columnist @ wsj, here to make friends & chew bubblegum (& I'm all out of gum)

mastodon.social

12 years after after Amazon promised it was just around the corner, widespread commercial drone delivery is finally coming to the U.S.

The technological enablers here are fascinating -- it turns out it was a design problem as much as anything.

(gift link)

https://www.wsj.com/tech/the-drone-delivery-service-beating-amazon-to-your-front-door-1ad898b4?st=4mWfzC&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

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Christopher Mims @mimsical@mastodon.social · Mar 22, 2025
Christopher Mims
@mimsical@mastodon.social

tech columnist @ wsj, here to make friends & chew bubblegum (& I'm all out of gum)

mastodon.social

Challenge: name a song that more perfectly embodies the way a track can feel like total cringe a decade after it comes out but subsequently proves to be a near-perfect piece of pop perfection (impossible)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah5gAkna3jI

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Christopher Mims @mimsical@mastodon.social · Mar 22, 2025
Christopher Mims
@mimsical@mastodon.social

tech columnist @ wsj, here to make friends & chew bubblegum (& I'm all out of gum)

mastodon.social

Thanks to Steve Jobs and Gorilla Glass, factories in America are now ramping up to make affordable windows, made from panes thinner than a credit card, that can:

* save Americans $25 billion / year

* withstand a 2x4 shot out of a cannon

(gift link)

https://www.wsj.com/business/corning-window-gorilla-glass-4f443b07?st=UPDbcE&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

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Christopher Mims @mimsical@mastodon.social · Mar 22, 2025
Christopher Mims
@mimsical@mastodon.social

tech columnist @ wsj, here to make friends & chew bubblegum (& I'm all out of gum)

mastodon.social

hey y'all I'm back

after realizing that algorithmic feeds are just totally incompatible with my particular brain, gonna make a go again of being more deliberate about using Mastodon

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Christopher Mims @mimsical@mastodon.social · Jan 19, 2025
Christopher Mims
@mimsical@mastodon.social

tech columnist @ wsj, here to make friends & chew bubblegum (& I'm all out of gum)

mastodon.social

turns out OpenAI funded the math benchmark that its "reasoning" model subsequently did really well on

https://the-decoder.com/openai-quietly-funded-independent-math-benchmark-before-setting-record-with-o3/

via @acookiecrumbles@indieweb.social

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Christopher Mims @mimsical@mastodon.social · Nov 30, 2024
Christopher Mims
@mimsical@mastodon.social

tech columnist @ wsj, here to make friends & chew bubblegum (& I'm all out of gum)

mastodon.social

"Up to 70% of residents between North Carolina and Florida, and a trillion dollars in property, could be impacted by the end of the century with just over three feet of sea rise," thanks to the "hidden threat" of climate change -- rising *groundwater*

via @dogzilla@masto.deluma.biz

https://www.wlrn.org/environment/2024-11-27/climate-change-rising-groundwater-study

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Christopher Mims @mimsical@mastodon.social · Nov 30, 2024
Christopher Mims
@mimsical@mastodon.social

tech columnist @ wsj, here to make friends & chew bubblegum (& I'm all out of gum)

mastodon.social

In the long run, the energy transition to fully electrified everything is happening, no matter who is in charge.

But we can't endlessly rip metals out of the earth forever. This ex-Tesla battery guy is betting we will eventually recycle 100% of them.

Here's episode 3 of my new podcast with co-host Tim Higgins:

https://www.wsj.com/podcasts/tech-news-briefing/bold-names-why-elon-musks-battery-guy-is-betting-big-on-recycling/33515911-a57f-42fa-baed-61eeb321fdca

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Christopher Mims @mimsical@mastodon.social · Nov 24, 2024
Christopher Mims
@mimsical@mastodon.social

tech columnist @ wsj, here to make friends & chew bubblegum (& I'm all out of gum)

mastodon.social

This week on my new podcast Bold Names, we interviewed Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, who came out swinging on the subject of Microsoft's AI strategy:

📎 Copilot is "the new Clippy"

😈 "Microsoft has deceived our customers"

https://www.wsj.com/podcasts/tech-news-briefing/bold-names-salesforce-ceo-marc-benioff-and-the-ai-fantasy-land/08122a1b-805a-40c8-96b5-f5a6e2d9a3de

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Christopher Mims @mimsical@mastodon.social · Nov 21, 2024
Christopher Mims
@mimsical@mastodon.social

tech columnist @ wsj, here to make friends & chew bubblegum (& I'm all out of gum)

mastodon.social

@chrisggarrod you should!

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mimsical
Christopher Mims @mimsical@mastodon.social · Nov 21, 2024
Christopher Mims
@mimsical@mastodon.social

tech columnist @ wsj, here to make friends & chew bubblegum (& I'm all out of gum)

mastodon.social

Tesla has the highest rate of fatal accidents among all car brands, report shows

* Fatal accidents per billion miles driven by all vehicles was 2.8 -- Teslas had a rate of 5.6

* Unclear why the disconnect with high vehicle safety ratings, but issue could be autopilot

https://sherwood.news/business/tesla-has-the-highest-rate-of-fatal-accidents-among-all-car-brands-report/

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Christopher Mims @mimsical@mastodon.social · Nov 16, 2024
Christopher Mims
@mimsical@mastodon.social

tech columnist @ wsj, here to make friends & chew bubblegum (& I'm all out of gum)

mastodon.social

Today something launched I've worked long and hard on -- a new podcast series for the WSJ.

It's free!

We're asking hard questions of the people who aren't just making the news - they *are* the news.

First up, the Tesla refugee trying to beat Musk at his own game.

https://www.wsj.com/podcasts/tech-news-briefing/bold-names-why-this-tesla-pioneer-says-the-cheap-ev-market-ucks/f5db039b-b775-4aee-8114-89ce5be34c4f

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Christopher Mims @mimsical@mastodon.social · Nov 16, 2024
Christopher Mims
@mimsical@mastodon.social

tech columnist @ wsj, here to make friends & chew bubblegum (& I'm all out of gum)

mastodon.social

@mergy@self.social good lord... what model is this??

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mimsical
Christopher Mims @mimsical@mastodon.social · Jul 25, 2023
Christopher Mims
@mimsical@mastodon.social

tech columnist @ wsj, here to make friends & chew bubblegum (& I'm all out of gum)

mastodon.social

Barbie demonstrates, once again, that "go woke, go broke" is the opposite of a real thing

good stuff from @parkermolloy@masto.ai

https://www.readtpa.com/p/barbenheimer-takes-on-the-online?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjozNjY4NzMsInBvc3RfaWQiOjEzNTQwMjA1MCwiaWF0IjoxNjkwMjk4Nzg3LCJleHAiOjE2OTI4OTA3ODcsImlzcyI6InB1Yi0yMjgyIiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.W3FL1g5aeXLUPq3KKk-sYPnGKDp_KPuXE9zpbTOChZ4&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

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Christopher Mims @mimsical@mastodon.social · Feb 22, 2023
Christopher Mims
@mimsical@mastodon.social

tech columnist @ wsj, here to make friends & chew bubblegum (& I'm all out of gum)

mastodon.social
Replying to @kashhill@mastodon.social
@kashhill@mastodon.social @sayashk@mastodon.social Thanks for flagging! Google searches for Arvind's mastodon handle didn't turn this up. Didnt realize a book was coming; looking forward to that.
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Christopher Mims @mimsical@mastodon.social · Feb 22, 2023
Christopher Mims
@mimsical@mastodon.social

tech columnist @ wsj, here to make friends & chew bubblegum (& I'm all out of gum)

mastodon.social

This is a huge problem in the media:

Uncritical coverage of AI contributes to public misunderstanding and distracts from its *actual* harms.

Well-documented and well-argued, by @sayashk@mastodon.social and Arvind Narayanan:

https://aisnakeoil.substack.com/p/people-keep-anthropomorphizing-ai

mastodon.social

Sayash Kapoor (@sayashk@mastodon.social) - Mastodon

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Christopher Mims @mimsical@mastodon.social · Feb 17, 2023
Christopher Mims
@mimsical@mastodon.social

tech columnist @ wsj, here to make friends & chew bubblegum (& I'm all out of gum)

mastodon.social
Replying to @L_howes@mastodon.social
@L_howes@mastodon.social A CEO of a competing AI company recently told me that when people ask ChatGPT about good AI companies, his company's name is one it spits out, which has been driving inbound interest from potential job candidates. Just an odd detail.
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Christopher Mims @mimsical@mastodon.social · Jan 05, 2023
Christopher Mims
@mimsical@mastodon.social

tech columnist @ wsj, here to make friends & chew bubblegum (& I'm all out of gum)

mastodon.social
Replying to @geoffreyfowler@federated.press
@geoffreyfowler @washingtonpost truly amazing
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