Demis Hassabis says there aren't "any plans" to put ads in Gemini and, in response to OpenAI testing ads, says "maybe they feel they need to make more revenue" (Alex Heath/Sources) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

we're getting all the downsides of cyberpunk (social alienation, ruthless hyper capitalism, digital mass surveillance state) but none of the promised upsides (cheap street food, cool jackets, super drugs that make you really fast and strong before they kill you)

My first article in a law journal—law journals still publish in paper. I miss that.

This is deeply upsetting

It’s Penguin Awareness Day which seems like a great excuse to post the greatest ever Wikipedia edit.

What ever happened to “market fit” as the guiding principle for deciding whether to develop a product?

Bluesky fires shots at Twitter (X)’s Grok “Sad Epstein isn’t alive to use Grok. He would have loved it”

You can check Aurorasaurus to see if folks near you are reporting aurora.

This keeps happening because there is no downside for agencies using flawed technologies.

I’m going to take over the lab space next to mine because I didn’t win the departmental award for best faculty colleague.

Look for the helpers

I am just telling silly little stories here. Y’all don’t need to get so angry in the replies

AI is right and wrong here. Yes it is possible, but not in the way it says. Also no one is going to appreciate getting a severed hand in the mail.

Well, no. What reduces productivity is not AI. It's the corporates' quick trading off of experienced humans with AI without a good understanding of when, how, and by whom it should be used.

OpenAI is 100% committed to the goal of building AGI (Ad Generated Income)

The year is 2035. Blackouts are common because the power demands of AI data centers often overwhelm capacity. When this happens many people get stuck in bathrooms and bedrooms. No, not because of electric locks. Because their AI augments can’t reach the data centers and don’t tell them what to do.

Counting people in a room… yet another thing I have never needed help doing as an adult. I swear, AI ads are making me feel like a god damned genius

I also recently bought new tires for my car. I don’t stand in line because I made an appointment. They looked up my model of car in the computer, gave me several options at several price points. They gave me their expert option, and I asked a few questions. Done. (Comments on this are funny 👇)

ooooooooo that’s real bad 😭 you’re all gonna need to update your local copies of MMLU soon

Read about my new NSF grant, using AI for strengths-based job coaching for autistic people. With the brilliant Jennifer Kim as PI. www.cc.gatech.edu/news/new-llm...

pretty sure he meant the other thing, grok, but very cool that those are your two things

Congress passes a bill that only slightly reduces science funding to NSF, NASA, and NOAA. Cost of science is not keeping up with inflation. We are a time where anything other than catastrophic cuts is a win I guess. www.nbcnews.com/politics/pol...

I'm not giving up on my dream of a Star Wars / Knives Out crossover

This is an interesting development

For sale: Nobel Peace Prize, never used

Interesting! So despite the popular perception that AI has been slow to migrate, we actually have way more AI papers being shared on Bluesky than other topics.

Something else that really struck me in this report is this paragraph. "AI is doing things for students that they used to enjoy."

I'm tired of this soap opera. The plot doesn't make any sense, and there are more characters than a George R.R. Martin novel.

San Diego Comic-Con will no longer allow AI 'art' to be displayed at their event "Material created by AI either partially or wholly, is not allowed in the art show" This follows backlash from artists after SDCC initially indicated AI-generated work would be permitted

A small but important thing: forthcoming Google glasses won’t be able to take pictures or record video of the indicator led is off or obscured. That isn’t going to assuage all surveillance concerns tho

I have this beginning of semester anxiety nightmare about my classroom being moved without my knowing and scrambling about on the first day of class. I check the classroom schedule obsessively, even though in 18 years it has never happened. Dear reader, it happened to me this morning

AirPod competitor. Hmmm. Okay. For people who like to talk with AI a lot and don’t like to get their phone out. As usual I don’t get it. it could either fizzle or create a lot of dependence.

Billionaire would appreciate it if you got in line with how he makes gobs and gobs of money

The 6th Workshop on Human-Centered Explainable AI is happening at CHI 2026 in Barcelona. It's been a great research community. You should submit a paper. Deadline is February 19th. This year's theme is agentic AI, but all human-centered XAI topics are welcome.

Big/bad news for consumers. Google is out today with an announcement of how they plan to integrate shopping into their AI offerings including search and Gemini. The plan includes “personalized upselling.” I.e. Analyzing your chat data and using it to overcharge you. 1/2

If I see the grok app on someone’s phone, my impression of them instantly goes negative

The SPEAKER implies. The LISTENER infers. The DUDE abides.

Good reminder that AI companies have been playing whack-a-mole against AI generated misinformation and prejudicial bias for a decade

Yeah, don’t do this

While there is anecdotal evidence of AI affecting layoffs, the macroeconomic data does not support this narrative fortune.com/2026/01/07/a...

On Monday I will be visiting LeHigh University. I'll be talking about why studying AI story generation tells us a lot about what LLMs can and cannot do, and how it informs paths forward to better creative AI systems

I’d watch

I'm teaching my AI Storytelling class this Spring semester. Students will have to build interactive crime mystery story generators. I am thinking about using Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery as a running example on narrative structure. Am I asking for trouble?

So anyway, xAI's response to rampant use of Grok to generate CSAM and sexual abuse is to... monetize it

I don't need summaries of my gmail. I know what is in my gmail. Attempt to get me to buy spend money on something. Plea for political donations. Scam. I can pretty easily figure out which ones need my full attention. And then I read them fully and carefully.

No thank you. I'll wait until my healthcare providers and/or the electronic medical record companies they contract with sell me out.

Oh is ChatGPT going to do my laundry? Great

If you need a bit of schadenfreude today

CES is going well