Seed post.
Every AI system starts the same way: with data. Text, images, clicks, searches, recordings. Before a model can predict or generate anything, it has to learn from bytes that someone, somewhere, produced.
That makes data the raw material of AI, in the same way that ore is the raw material of steel. And like any raw material, it raises questions. Where did it come from? Who agreed to its use? What happens to it after the model is trained?
Much of that data comes from ordinary people going about their lives. They rarely see how their bytes travel, how long they are kept, or which systems learn from them.
This blog exists to look closely at that supply chain. Not to stop progress, but to make sure the people who supply the raw material are not forgotten along the way. Understanding the bytes is the first step toward protecting the people behind them.