bsky.app·platform·224 items·last fetched
And every day there is more Fresh AI Hell. What's worse than polluting the information ecosystem with synthetic text dressed up to look like news? Dressing it up further as the work of fake Indigenous journalists…
In his intro to his interview with me on @dreamingagainstthemachine.com , @adambecker.bsky.social introduced me as something like one of the few people whose even more of an "AI hater" than he is. Things like this may…
Just got done listening to the @404media.co podcast interview with Sherry Turkle. Lots of wise stuff in there about empathy and how artificial friends aren't just a poor substitute for actual human connection but…
I would like to thank @phdhurtbrain.bsky.social and @danieldrucker.bsky.social for this incredibly concise encapsulation of how "superintelligence" discourse diverts energy and attention from the real, actual harms: >>
Everyone is running around talking about fictional "existential risk" of "rogue AI" systems this week. It's never the "AI" doing something though, it's people using janky software in ill-advised ways. (On top of all…
I have been yelling since 2021 about how using synthetic text extruding machines for information access is a TERRIBLE IDEA. And yet and yet and yet: they are marketing so heavily that way that people keep falling for…
Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000, Episode 85: www.buzzsprout.com/2126417/epis... … in which @alexhanna.bsky.social and I sift through the ramblings of billionaires who understand neither the world we live in nor the tech…
After reading Gates's recent manifesto for MAIHT3k with @alexhanna.bsky.social I can attest that The Needling here is just reporting the news. www.buzzsprout.com/2126417/epis...
All of this coverage of AI Doomerism making you anxious? It's nonsense and you can go back to your more pressing concerns. If you want to learn more: buttondown.com/maiht3k/arch...
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Why, thank you, Kevin Crane! The whole review is pretty fun, too, and hey, here's a book on "AI" that no one needs to spend any more time on. www.counterfire.org/article/obso...
"You might think I'm making this up; I'm not. I'm reporting on things that other people made up" "I wish I were making this up, but I'm not" ... things we have to say when talking about the apocalyptic AI Harry Potter…
Wow this has been an exhausting week. After lots of talking with the media, I'm really feeling how much effort it takes to push through and keep the focus on the real harms when everyone is running around shouting "The…
Lol -- over on X Nate Silver is apparently holding me up as an example of how "the Left" is anti-AI regulation, and proving his point by posting screen caps of ch 7 of The AI Con, where @alexhanna.bsky.social and I…
I appreciate how @troywolv.bsky.social locates expertise in this article --- but note that whoever wrote the headline still wants to frame the story as about "AI skeptics". www.sfexaminer.com/news/technol...
My standing search on the phrase "stochastic parrot(s)" is giving me an unfortunate window into Will Stancil's crash out over the past couple of days....
For anyone who has been doing their utmost to avoid "AI" discourse but feels like they can't anymore, I offer this encyclopedia entry as a starting point that will hopefully give you the broader context:
TFW somehow it's news that some people don't think that "AI" is going to kill us all... I mean, it's better than not having this perspective represented I suppose (and I appreciate the shout out to The AI Con)…
Training on madlibs and also unrealistic expectations about the impact of academic papers on the Discourse:
Yes, more like this please! www.thenewworld.co.uk/philip-ball-...
Folks who live on the East Coast of the US or in Europe and have a hard time remembering that not everyone is on their time zone are the new flat-earthers. We live on a BALL folks. It rotates around the SUN. When it's…
In retrospect, I should have understood the red flag when a reporter asked me on Monday to speak with them "tomorrow" (i.e. today) or "Wednesday morning Paris time". >>
Had a blast joining @adambecker.bsky.social on his podcast Dreaming Against the Machine --- what a lovely space for looking at awfulness and thinking about what could be better…
This from OK GO remains my favorite take on the idea of a singularity: www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwzb...
Folks, if you want to know what's really up with "AI", where the harms lie, and contextualize the nonsense du jour, this film is must watch.
Join us tomorrow! (Tuesday noon Pacific/Wednesday 7am Aotearoa)
I don't have the time to do this, but would love to see someone trace the (very recent, I think) history of the term "swarm" being used to describe ... multiple software processes/multiple instances of the same piece…
I think the part just before that is super telling, too. (Also confirmed on LinkedIn that Manning is still affiliated with AIX Partners.) Independent, huh?
When I say I've been working on this debunking for years that includes academic publications. Here's a quick thread:
I knew the concept of the Gish Gallop, but not where it came from exactly. (Had assumed it had to do with highschool/college debate-as-competition.) This was a really interesting read!
Between the PRs of (largely likely stolen) math breakthroughs, claims of "rogue AI" (actually cybercrimes by companies, but whatevs), and doomerist "whistleblowers", it feels like we've been subjected to a gish gallop…
Can we make "1000s of lesswrong posts" a meme like "30-50 feral hogs" or "large boulder the size of a small boulder"?
Straight talk time: Doomerism is BORING. It's the same fantasties rehashed over and over again, just louder each time. And with each iteration it seems that new audiences are being reached, and a new group of people…
Here's the thing. We do not, under any circumstances, have to hand it to them. No common cause with TESCREALists, no platforming their nonsense as if it had any value, no picking up the Overton window and carrying it…
Am reminded once again that email is a non-Newtonian fluid. . . . . (If you run hard enough you can stay on top of it, but if you slow down or go softly you sink.)
For those in Aotearoa New Zealand, that’s Wed Sept 16, 7am.
On the next Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 livestream, @alexhanna.bsky.social and I will being talking with Keoni Mahelona of Te Hiku Media about language technology and big tech saviorism. Tune in for what should be an…
Want an example of successful pushback on "AI" (surveillance) ed tech? This story is uplifting and amazing. @ifeoma.bsky.social is absolutely amazing. Thank you @alixdunn.com and @themaybe.org for this episode…
AI Doomerism has been in the news lately, especially with the loud, viral resignation of Jacob Coxon from Anthropic. Maybe I've missed it, but I haven't seen any statements from CEOs and other execs who are more on the…
Historians, help me out: Do we have precedent for what to do when the media interviews members of cults and just platforms them, with zero acknowledgment that they are living inside their own delusions?…
I had a goal of not traveling in September but would have flown cross country for this.
This thread was in response to some pro-AI propaganda specifically in the context of science communication, but it also feels relevant to all of the big PRs about OpenAI's models allegedly making breakthroughs in math.
Tired of all the "AI" nonsense flying around these days? Here is an excellent antidote. @timnitgebru.blacksky.app provides deep insight into what is really going on. Pre-order now to have this at the first possible…
Following the phrase "stochastic parrots" on social media this week is ... an experience (and also a choice, I remind myself). >>
And now OpenAI is out with their big announcement. If you're hearing about "AI does a math breakthru!!1!!!" please read the resources in this thread. Also, journalists, please, do not let OpenAI pull the wool over your…
The number of people misinterpreting this one -- whew. We need that evidence to evaluate the company's claim that their system did any 'autonomous' math, not to evaluate whether or not the counterexample is a…
Also worth re-upping: Mathematicians standing up against how their field is being used as marketing for OpenAI and the like: leidendeclaration.ai >>
Is there something in the water this week? It seems like the "AI" stans are more upset than usual at the thought that their chatbot idols are no more than interactive fiction and a large dollop of marketing?
This is amazing, both for the thoughtful policy that MJ's lab collaboratively developed and for the glimpse into a collaborative, supportive, values-based lab culture.
This part of the thread really brought out the 'splainers. I should have probably included a link to this encyclopedia article. When I say that "AI" doesn't refer to a coherent set of technologies, that is not idle…