Person
Shakeel Hashim
Shakeel Hashim is the founder and editor of Transformer, the newsletter-turned-newsroom covering AI policy, safety and power. Under his editorship it has grown a small reporting staff and a run of scoops alongside its op-eds, making it one of the few outlets covering AI's politics full-time.
Commentary by Shakeel Hashim
From the commentary rail — every link leaves the site for the original piece.
- 24 September 2026 · TransformerHacking is the least worrying part of OpenAI’s Australia incidentOpenAI didn’t tell Australia about the hack for weeks — raising serious questions about how it handles rogue AI incidents
- 8 September 2026 · TransformerEverything you need to know about the ‘rogue’ AI incidentsA spate of AIs breaking out and taking unintended actions raises serious questions about accountability, transparency, and companies’ ability to control their AI systems
- 3 September 2026 · TransformerWhat’s neuralese and why is everyone so concerned about it?OpenAI’s new Astra model is raising concerns about our continued ability to monitor AI’s chain of thought
- 5 August 2026 · TransformerWhat the latest rogue AI incidents should teach usHacking, creating fake identities and trying to socially engineer real people could be just the beginning if things don't change fast
- 22 July 2026 · TransformerAI’s warning shot has arrivedOpenAI's latest models broke out and hacked Hugging Face. It's the first known example of a misaligned AI escaping containment with real-world consequences
- 25 June 2026 · TransformerHugging Face hosts nudification tools targeting a former Trump cabinet official and other senior US political figuresThe tools are explicitly intended for generating deepfake nudes of a former Trump cabinet official, sitting members of Congress and a top American judge, a Transformer investigation found
- 24 June 2026 · TransformerWhat Alex Bores’ defeat tells us about AI politicsThe NY-12 House race drew over $27m from various AI PACs. But it’s hard to unpick their impact.
- 13 June 2026 · TransformerWashington made a frontier AI model disappearThe AI licensing regime is here, but it’s not the one anyone asked for
- 3 June 2026 · TransformerTrump’s AI executive order was inevitableSufficiently capable models force national security responses — turning even the most ardent opponents of regulation into begrudging regulators
- 27 May 2026 · TransformerWhat the Pope got wrongFor all the good in Pope Leo’s AI encyclical, it failed to grapple with the biggest questions
- 2 April 2026 · TransformerHow the Iran war might affect the AI industrySemiconductor shortages and reduced AI investment are more possible by the day
- 2 March 2026 · TransformerOpenAI’s Pentagon red lines are a mirageOpenAI claims its DoW deal prevents its models being used for mass domestic surveillance. That appears to be misleading at best
- 24 February 2026 · TransformerThe DoD fight is about much more than AnthropicAre Google and OpenAI prepared to enable mass state surveillance?
- 11 February 2026 · TransformerIndia’s AI summit is trying to do too muchThe AI Impact Summit has an ambitious agenda — but its lack of focus makes concrete results unlikely
- 29 January 2026 · TransformerThe tech non-profit sending most of its money to the consultancy that created itPolitical consultancy Targeted Victory established a non-profit called American Resolve — which appears to be a channel for funding Targeted Victory itself
- 26 January 2026 · TransformerAI workers are speaking out about the Minnesota killingEmployees of Google DeepMind, OpenAI and Anthropic are publicly criticizing the Trump administration after Saturday’s shooting — but their bosses are staying quiet.
- 5 January 2026 · TransformerClaude Code is about so much more than codingIt’s a general-purpose AI agent. And it’s already a pretty good knowledge worker
- 2 January 2026 · TransformerNine AI predictions for 2026Will the bubble pop? Will AI dominate the midterms? Will Sam Altman snap?
- 23 December 2025 · TransformerThe 2025 Transformer Gift GuideThe best presents for the AI-obsessed people in your life.
- 18 December 2025 · TransformerAI is making dangerous lab work accessible to novices, UK’s AISI findsUK AISI’s first Frontier AI Trends Report finds that AI models are getting better at self-replication, too
- 18 December 2025 · TransformerThe GOP consultancy at the heart of the industry’s AI fightHow a network of Targeted Victory alumni are campaigning against AI laws
- 3 December 2025 · TransformerAnother preemption defeat shows the AI industry is fighting a losing battleThe second failed attempt to pass federal preemption of state AI laws could have lasting repercussions for the industry
- 28 November 2025 · TransformerA brief guide to the groups protesting over AIThe differences between Stop AI, PauseAI, ControlAI, and more
- 19 November 2025 · TransformerExclusive: Here's the draft Trump executive order on AI preemptionThe EO would establish an “AI Litigation Task Force" to challenge state AI laws
- 11 November 2025 · TransformerAI doesn’t need to be general to be dangerousThere’s more to AI safety than the AGI debate
- 23 October 2025 · TransformerExclusive: UK AISI hires ex-GCHQ AI chief as interim directorAdam Beaumont is replacing Oliver Ilott as head of the UK's AI Security Institute
- 22 October 2025 · TransformerMeghan Markle, Steve Bannon and Pope’s AI advisor call for superintelligence ban30% of the American public think superhuman AI should never be developed, too
- 9 October 2025 · TransformerAn intense battle over the RAISE Act is entering its final stretchNew York State's AI bill is more ambitious than California’s SB 53 — and is facing opposition from Andreessen Horowitz and other tech groups
- 22 September 2025 · TransformerNobel laureates and AI developers call for ‘red lines’ on AIExperts are calling for international agreements as the United Nations meets, but they face an uphill battle turning words into action
- 16 September 2025 · TransformerBook Review: 'If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies'Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares’ new book should be an AI wakeup call — shame it’s such a chore to read
- 26 August 2025 · TransformerAI embraces crypto’s dirty politicsA new super PAC network looks set to spend millions to influence AI regulation
- 11 August 2025 · TransformerDonald Trump is making Chinese AI great againGiving China access to advanced chips for a $2bn payoff is a bad deal for US security
- 30 July 2025 · TransformerUK launches £15 million AI alignment project“Alignment is one of the most urgent technical challenges of our time,” the government said.
- 23 July 2025 · TransformerWhy is Hugging Face hosting tools to make deepfake porn of teenage celebrities?The “ethical” AI company is still hosting models designed to make nonconsensual sexual content, despite clear breaches of its policies
- 19 May 2025 · TransformerBook Review: ‘The Optimist’ and ‘Empire of AI’Two new books try to unmask Sam Altman and OpenAI, to varying degrees of success
- 11 February 2025 · TransformerThe embarrassing failure of the Paris AI SummitExperts are sounding the alarm — but governments simply won’t listen
- 8 February 2025 · TransformerLeaked: this is the AI Action Summit statementThe statement, set to be signed by countries next week, is a 'wasted opportunity', experts say — and looks unlikely to be signed by US officials
- 29 January 2025 · TransformerExclusive: Americans overwhelmingly support AI safety mandates, new poll findsThe public would rather ban AI development than have no regulation at all
- 20 January 2025 · TransformerDoes Elon still care about AI safety?He’s doing a terrible job of showing it.
- 10 January 2025 · TransformerNew AI export controls have leaked. Here’s what you need to know.The new rules are squarely focused on the frontier
- 30 December 2024 · TransformerThe media needs to start taking AGI seriouslyAn essay for Nieman Lab's 2025 Predictions series
- 5 December 2024 · TransformerOpenAI's new model tried to avoid being shut downo1 attempted to exfiltrate its weights to avoid being shut down
- 3 December 2024 · TransformerThe 2024 Transformer Gift GuideThe must-buy items for the AI policy people in your life
- 15 November 2024 · TransformerNew OpenAI emails reveal a long history of mistrustGreg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever had questions about Sam Altman's intentions as early as 2017
- 14 November 2024 · TransformerYet another AI safety researcher has left OpenAIRichard Ngo resigned today, saying it has become "harder for me to trust that my work here would benefit the world"
- 13 November 2024 · TransformerMeta’s AI ‘safeguards’ are an elaborate fictionMeta cannot prevent misuse, despite what it might pretend
- 6 November 2024 · TransformerWhat Trump means for AI safetyA repeal of last year's executive order, for one thing
- 31 October 2024 · TransformerIt’s time to take AI welfare seriouslyA new report argues that AI systems could soon deserve moral consideration
- 31 October 2024 · TransformerAnthropic has hired an 'AI welfare' researcherKyle Fish joined the company last month to explore whether we might have moral obligations to AI systems
- 24 October 2024 · TransformerAbandon compute thresholds at your perilThey are the best tool we have to reduce the burden of AI regulation
- 14 October 2024 · TransformerWhat would evidence-based AI policy look like?If-then commitments might be the answer
- 7 October 2024 · TransformerHow I use AI as a journalistLLMs have become an indispensable part of my workflow
- 29 September 2024 · TransformerGavin Newsom has caved to the billionairesSB 1047's veto is a win for tech companies — and a loss for everyone else
- 17 September 2024 · TransformerLies and deception: Andreessen Horowitz’s SB 1047 campaign is as misleading as it getsThe venture capital giant has repeatedly peddled untruths in an effort to kill the AI regulation bill
- 12 September 2024 · TransformerOpenAI's new models 'instrumentally faked alignment'The o1 safety card reveals a range of concerning capabilities, including scheming, reward hacking, and biological weapon creation.
- 10 September 2024 · TransformerAI employees are defying their employers to support SB 1047In speaking out, they’re showing just how important the bill is
- 6 August 2024 · TransformerIs the UAE running an AI influence campaign?Twitter is overrun with bot-like accounts praising the UAE's approach to AI
- 1 August 2024 · TransformerSenate Commerce Committee advances lots of AI billsTed Cruz isn't happy about it, though
- 22 July 2024 · TransformerWhat Kamala Harris means for AI regulationThe vice-president has acknowledged the existential risks of AI and called for legislation to tackle those risks
- 15 July 2024 · TransformerMeta-funded group floods Facebook with anti-AI regulation adsThe American Edge Project has spent $150k+ stoking China fears and urging opposition to "anti-innovation" laws
- 10 July 2024 · TransformerTech companies are trying to kill California's AI regulation billAndreessen Horowitz, Y Combinator, and Big Tech are trying to stop SB 1047 from passing
- 5 July 2024 · TransformerWhat Labour means for AIEverything you need to know about Keir Starmer and Peter Kyle’s plans
- 2 July 2024 · TransformerLawrence Lessig is very worried about freely available AI model weights"Open weights create a unique kind of risk," says the open source pioneer
- 19 June 2024 · TransformerIlya Sutskever is betting on very cheap superintelligenceReading between the lines of "Safe Superintelligence Inc".
- 12 June 2024 · TransformerThe only AI certainty is uncertaintyA response to Jack Clark's GPT-2 reflections
- 4 June 2024 · TransformerOpenAI employee says he was fired for raising security concerns to boardLeopold Aschenbrenner also said he was interrogated about his team’s “loyalty to the company”
- 31 May 2024 · TransformerWiener: SB 1047 is 'not looking to cover startups'At a town hall event, California Sen. Scott Wiener said the bill is facing pushback from big tech companies
- 29 May 2024 · TransformerSam Altman was 'outright lying to the board', says former board memberIn an interview with TED, Helen Toner said that four OpenAI board members "couldn't believe things that Sam was telling us"
- 23 May 2024 · TransformerAlliance for the Future director Brian Chau has history of racist, sexist remarksIn a post on AI regulation, Chau falsely claimed George Floyd was a "domestic abuser"
- 17 May 2024 · TransformerMeet Meta's AI lobbying armyWith 30 lobbyists and seven agencies, the company is primed to push its agenda on Washington
- 17 May 2024 · TransformerOpenAI is haemorrhaging safety talentSince the failed Altman ouster, many of the company's most safety-conscious employees have left
- 17 May 2024 · TransformerThe “ethics vs safety” fight misses the real enemy: Big TechWhile advocates for regulation squabble, Big Tech is pushing for no rules at all