So interesting!

The AI-generated podcast paper is out! I generaetd podcasts from four different source documents and an PDF using NotebookLM and found that in every case it translated cultural contexts to a standard, white, American language and context. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Here’s a video from the same podcast as linked in my previous post where you can hear the audio too. I love this because it really lays bare how LLMs fool us - but really they’re just slotting words into linguistic patterns that we’re familiar with. Genres like a podcast or LinkedIn post.

Do you know a journalist who might be interested in a story about a plucky little grassroots bootstrapped festival trying to do something positive for the planet? Do you know an influencer who might do a feature in return for a ferry ticket here?

Wes Streeting wants new laws to force your GP to share your medical records. The bill was not in Labour's Manifesto and Palantir has explicitly said, under a new Government, it would be happy to use medical data for other purposes. Be afraid.

Here's where Louis Mosley, the black-shirt wearing grandson of the black-shirt wearing fascist Oswald Mosley, who runs Palantir in the UK, says how and when they might use your medical data for "immigration enforcement" and, by logical extension, whatever other purposes became convenient.

Thread:

First flight since 2019, BA to Cairo. Haven’t been to Egypt for 36 years: In 1990 I travelled there and back by train and ferry via Paris, Munich, Athens. Sadly there are now no ferries to Egypt!

If your friends on Substack don't want to read any of the long essays and articles about The Substack Problem, send them this @anildash.com explainer video. (From his @pastduepodcast.com interview.) It's not just Nazis, it really isn't. www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWdS...

And as I’ve said before, if you disagree with the project of the state of Israel then surely you must be very positive about Jewish people who are making our lives outside Israel. Netanyahu is deliberately stress-testing that hypothesis and proving it false. Antisemitism does his work for him.

right now the astronauts are calling houston because the computer on the spaceship is running two instances of microsoft outlook and they can't figure out why. nasa is about to remote into the computer

@rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social @naomialderman.bsky.social

Check out the work of - Katy Gero, U of Sydney, also a contributor to First Encounters with AI! - Kyle Booten, UConn, coming to Berkeley soon, - Karin Kukkonen, U of Oslo, with a new book from Oxford UP & - Roger Beaty, Penn State, reigning at the intersection of creativity and cog. neuroscience

Inspired!

Online playtest of TTRPG "Killer Crips 3000" A game of Disabled Rage using the "Eat The Reich" system. Set in a fantasy world where disabled people fought & won a war against an ableist regime but something ripped open the seams of reality leaking horrors. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/workshop-t...

As social media algorithms amplify misinformation, Wikipedia's model is now more important than ever. A "Nature" writer calls it an antidote to a poisoned information ecosystem. 🧵⬇️ (1/2)

Recommended re AI safety or lack thereof:

This case study in hiring a book publicity firm is both laugh-out-loud funny and highly informative. Few people share these poor experiences due to shame and embarrassment. If you're thinking of hiring *anyone* to help you with book publicity, this is a must-read.

LOOK! Very good. @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social @naomialderman.bsky.social

‘A friend in London talks about the mystifying phrase she keeps hearing these days: “This is not America, this is not who we are.” But this is America, this is life, and this is how human beings behave. American exceptionalism will not save us.’ Yiyun Li on the blog. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/fe...

This is the stranger’s case, And this your mountainish inhumanity

The government’s suggestion that rolling out 20 minute courses on writing “AI“ prompts, sponsored by Google, Microsoft and Amazon, is somehow comparable to the founding of the Open University (the Wilson government‘s, & Jennie Lee’s, proudest achievement), is an insult to our human intelligence.

Brilliant piece just out on “Inappropriate AI” by Colin Milburn & @ritaraley.bsky.social. A critique of higher ed’s legitimation quest for policies of “appropriate” AI use despite fact that LLMs are by nature inappropriate. They "appropriate" all edu and other materials. uchri.org/foundry/inap...

We've spent ten years being proved right about all the things the loudest, biggest voices in the UK media insisted, often obnoxiously, we were wrong about. The real kicker is that there's no consolation whatsoever in being correct. Brexit, Putin, Johnson, Truss, Trump, Twitter, Netanyahu etc etc...

Adelaide and the crisis of free speech iandunt.substack.com/p/adelaide-a...

what is a "classic"? A classic is any work where the free sample of the ebook is taken up entirely by an introduction and you don't get to read any of the actual book before deciding if you want to buy it

Me in 2025: Don't use AI note takers in meetings because they can lead to unchecked errors and unfair and discriminatory outcomes Me in 2026: Don't use Grok in military planning unless you want to accidentally start a war Not a fan of this rate of change

The first half of this film is as close to perfection as you’ll ever find (and the second half is a lot of fun too.) It also contains one of the sexiest scenes ever filmed. It involves a shoe. If you haven’t seen it, do not miss.

FINALLY

This is an excellent if daunting overview:

Rob Reiner: I'm going to make a coming of age drama, a fantasy adventure story, a romantic comedy, a psychological horror and then a courtroom drama. Us: Across your entire career? Reiner: In a 6 year period. Us: That sounds- Reiner: -Each one will be arguably the best movie in that genre.

Can’t believe this news. Porter, you will be missed by so many people.

Very proud of my friend @naomialderman.bsky.social who has followed the release of a brilliant and timely book with this brilliant and culturally very significant move observer.co.uk/the-critics/...

Such a great Start the Week! Do have a listen via the link below:

Anyway, one alternative is to build better ways of doing things, and to really empower folks working in tech to feel confident about making alternatives. I hope the Society for Hopeful Technologists can be a part of that. Still a handful of places last at our 3rd open house event luma.com/isqs8n9x

if Elon's proved anything it's that a critical mass of journalists, podcasters, and Republican officials and staffers will not ever, ever quit that fucking app no matter what he does to it. it could electrocute you and send your banking info directly to the dark web and they'd still be scrolling

I don't think enough people talk about how great BBC Bitesize is. Secondary school textbooks are now vanishingly rare and Bitesize content is (a) not in a terrible app, (b) engaging and interesting and easy to understand, and importantly (c) FREE. A properly great digital public good.

“The UK stands at a crossroads. Are we going to be a nation that respects its human rights obligations, or are we going to abandon them whenever the rightwing press demands it? First immigrants, then trans people – who next, Sir Keir?” – Jo Maugham (@goodlawproject.org) https://goodlaw.social/icp3

I am thrilled to announce the opening of the Call for Submissions for Electronic Literature Volume 5. eliterature.github.io/elc5-info/ I am serving along with @zachwhalen.bsky.social, @elikaortega.bsky.social, and Dani Spinosa. This call launches with translations in 12+ languages!

I seem to be receiving AI generated fan mail. This is very disconcerting and will of course result in me never trusting anyone who says anything nice about my work ever again.

In other news Charlie Redmayne, the long serving CEO of HC in the UK, resigned yesterday.

pretty sure if you're spelling you're losing

In honor of National Poetry Day, the greatest parody rewrite of all time:

Yes please

Rayner is absolute class. She's been a bit silly in organising her taxes, but that's not why they hate her. They hate her because she did not know her place.

What idiot called it a bikini wax and not Bush Administration

Interesting bit in the Telegraph on Kyle vs Milliband re: the Teesside AI growth zone and net zero archive.ph/o8LgB

Obviously the govt is hopeless at messaging and obviously large parts of the print media drive an agenda in bad faith, but perhaps some of us can notice that some things are working out ok? 2/2

So far just this morning we have had official figures showing decent growth in the first half of the year, indicating non-doms are behaving as predicted by govt models when tax was raised on them last year and an independent report supporting the changes to IHT on farms. 1/2

Astonishing: