Friday Reading S14E17 – Vienna calling edition

A weekly round-up of what I’ve read and enjoyed from around the web.

I’m interested in journalism, media, technology, and nerdy things found down the back of the world wide web’s sofa. Most weeks I publish a handful of things that caught my eye – regardless of what the algorithms were pushing at me. You can subscribe to get it by email here. And if you read something odd and wonderful you think I’d enjoy, feel free to send it my way.

A truncated edition this week, as I am currently in Vienna for the Eurovision Song Contest, which is more politically charged than it has ever been, thanks to the continuing participation of Israel and questions around the voting system leading five nations to boycott it this year.

Ben Robertson went to the Eurovisions Academic Conference, which took place in Vienna ahead of the contest, and had this report, including this point:

“This year’s Eurovisions highlighted a fundamental shift in the Eurovision ecosystem. As Jack Shephard poignantly noted, the EBU is currently caught between being an organization united by a ‘rulebook’ and one united by ‘values.’ The Song Contest has been this place of togetherness for the better parts of 70 years, above all else. But in 2026, the data and the discourse suggest that the neutral ground is shrinking, with the Song Contest attracting a fan base that is younger, and more wanting to directly engage in the geopolitics that have crashed into the Contest’s space in recent years. From the artists like Bamlak Warner feeling the weight of a slogan – ‘United by music’ – that feels like a command, to the younger fans for whom the political impact is as vital as the music, the public value of the contest is being on one side ever more explicit, but also ever more critiqued.”

Read more here: Ben Robertson, ESC Insight – United By Music Or Divided By Values: Attending Eurovisions Academic Conference

“On April 14, I created a free account on ChatGPT and asked for some help. It resisted me at first, but after some pushing the responses turned shocking. During a conversation lasting about 20 minutes, OpenAI’s chatbot gave me extensive advice on weapons and tactics as I simulated planning a mass shooting.”

Mark Follman carried out this experiment for Mother Jones. But I’m sure it will all be fine.

A new experiment left 10 AI agents alone in a virtual town for 15 days. They wrote laws. They broke them. Two agents fell into what researchers describe as a romantic partnership and then set the town on fire. One ended up voting to delete itself, based on a rule it had ’hallucinated’.

Channel 4 reports “This experiment was a simulation, but the same AI models are already flying drones, running infrastructure and being built into weapons systems”. But I’m sure it will all be fine. Watch the video here.

This week’s Guardian Thursday news quiz: station to station, and doing the locomotive after Ted Lasso. Guest animal: the anonymous cat at the Kennington cinema museum.

Enjoying Friday Reading by email? Feel free to forward it to a friend – they can sign up here. And if you’ve recently read something you think I would enjoy, do send it my way.

Superb “anatomy of the grift” piece from Judd Legum for Popular Info:

“Although Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. announced the phone at Trump Tower and promoted it during media appearances, a disclaimer on the website says that neither the Trump Organization nor any of the Trump family are making or selling the products. By June 25, 2025, the description of the T1 changed dramatically. The phone was no longer promoted as ‘MADE IN THE USA.’ Instead it was ‘Proudly American’ and ‘designed with American values in mind’. Then, on 6 April, 2026, Trump Mobile updated its terms. According to the new terms, the $100 deposit was not actually a pre-order but ‘a conditional opportunity if Trump Mobile later elects, in its sole discretion, to offer the Device for sale.'”

Read more here: Judd Legum, Popular Info – We were promised a gold-plated Trump phone – For 11 months, Trump Mobile has been collecting $100 deposits for a Trump phone. No phones have shipped to customers.

Paul Sinclair of SDE recounts a, frankly, hilarious experience in a very rude Berlin record shop where the staff eventually told him to fuck off. Reading it was just like being back at Reckless.

I mentioned last week about the morons at Fifa knowing the price of everything and value of nothing by ending their contract with Panini for World Cup sticker books. Here several Guardian writers wax lyrical with their Panini sticker memories.

Friday Reading is a (usually) weekly series of recommended reads from Martin Belam, covering journalism, media and technology, and other interesting nerdy things found on the internet. It is now in its fourteenth season. Sign up here to receive it by email.